Better late than never! In this episode, Jon Carnegie (@jon_carnegie on Twitter) joins me on the podcast to discuss all the great television in 2014. Man, people really liked this one show called True Detective.

Reminder: All episodes are available on iTunes.

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I swear if somebody tells me that it’s the Golden Age of Television one more time…

Look, I’m not saying that this isn’t an amazing time for TV. All I am saying is that labeling one year as a golden age sets you up for future failure and disappointment. For instance, people who label the 1930s and 40s as the golden age of film completely disregard the amazing work done in later years. Plus, Gone with the Wind is sort of racist and Citizen Kane is kind of boring.

Earlier this year, some critics said the golden age of television was over. Really? Then how do you account for the fact that over half my list is freshman shows? As everything migrates towards cable and the web, TV is changing and currently on a curve of exponential growth. This is my first TV top ten list, because this is the first year that I feel like I watched enough shows that I could list ten and have a few honorary mentions.

It is amazing how diverse this year’s TV selections are. My list contains fantasy lands, New York during multiple different time periods, and a lot of talking animals. I don’t want to say that television is currently better than film, but I understand what the whack jobs who say that are talking about. Without further adieu, here is my list of the ten best shows of 2014:

10. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver In an incredible hot streak that lasted from May through November, Last Week Tonight provided the sharpest political satire on television. John Oliver took on everything from dictators to FIFA and managed to shed light on a lot of stories that actual journalists were doing a terrible job reporting. Oliver’s greatest gift is that he can take complex issues (net neutrality, civil forfeiture) and make them both funny and digestible. Oh, and every once in a while space geckos and supreme court justice dogs appear.

Best Episode: Episode #1.6

9. The Knick While you were busy covering your eyes during every insanely grizzly surgery scene, The Knick was busy closing the divide between film and television. It is an unflinching look at America at the turn of the twentieth century. It’s a history lesson that never feels like one because it doesn’t gloss over the squalor and the prejudice. Every episode is directed by Steven Soderbergh; slums, brothels, and ruptured body parts have never looked this pretty.

Best Episode: Method and Madness

8. Review The premise of Review is simple: a man hosts a show and instead of reviewing art or food, he reviews life experiences. At first, this show is about how far this premise can go before going horribly wrong. But then, around episode three, it becomes something else. Andy Daly turns the character of Forrest MacNeil into a sociopath disguised as a nerd. There is something always so wonderfully playful about Review, even as it dives deep into the darkest depths of the human soul.

Best Episode: Pancakes, Divorce, Pancakes

7. Game of Thrones Game of Thrones has reached that level of popularity that makes you want to punch every person who tells you that you have to watch it. Right now, every person in America (including myself), is that person. Epic in scope and scale, Game of Thrones has earned every bit of its popularity. And while splitting adaptations in half never seems to work (see Mockingjay), season four was only half of a book and yet it felt complete. This season felt the need to kill off as many characters as possible. Hey, anything George R.R. Martin can do to give us constant anxiety attacks.

Best Episode: The Mountain and the Viper

6. True Detective I still have no idea what True Detective is about, and that is precisely the point of it. After months of hype and scrutiny, now is the perfect time to look back and appreciate the sheer beauty and ballsiness of True Detective. It is very easy to get lost in the story, but that is part of the point. While figuring out who the Yellow King is can be fun and all, being just as confused as the main characters are is truly the best way to watch it. True Detective is already an instant classic, with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey doing the best work of their careers. McConaughey might have won the Oscar earlier this year for Dallas Buyers Club, but his performance as Rust Cohle in True Detective is what he will be remembered for for the rest of his life.

Best Episode: Who Goes There 5. Orange is the New Black Season two of the show that changed Netflix was a vast improvement on a first season that was already very strong. By taking a lot of the focus off of Piper, season two gave us backstories for a lot more prisoners who were just in the background in earlier episodes. We also got to mingle with wardens and security guards much more this season, and we got a larger sense of the history of the prison. It is always nice when a TV show takes time to actually explore the world it inhabits.

Best Episode: We Have Manners. We’re Polite.

4. Kroll Show Season two showed a much more focused Kroll Show. This is not so much sketch comedy as it is a series of overlapping vignettes. From the Oh, Hello guys to Publizity, Nick Kroll has created a genius comedic world in which reality stars and bouncers are the heroes. Recently, Kroll announced that season three of Kroll Show would be its last. This is a show that has had a vision since day one, and the fact that it has already picked out an expiration date shows how committed it is to the promises it once made. Imagine if The Office or The Simpsons did that. The world would be a better place and there would be no Ebola and stuff.

Best Episode: Sponsored by Stamps

3. Broad City Finally, a TV show about broke New Yorkers who don’t live in unrealistically huge apartments. Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer’s popular web series was adapted into a half hour show by Comedy Central in what is arguably the greatest achievement in the network’s recent renaissance. Broad City is often described as a female Workaholics. A more accurate comparison is to Louie. While a lot of the humor is broad (that’s a compliment), Broad City typically borders on surreal. On any given day, you can get your dreams crushed and still do something amazing. Broad City is hilarious, heartfelt, and relatable on so many levels (running to catch a train at Grand Central; trying to get people to come to your art exhibition).

Best Episode: Destination Wedding

2. Fargo A televised adaptation of a Coen Brothers classic sounds like a bad idea waiting to happen. Hollywood is a town that is filled with bad ideas, but it is good execution that makes all the difference. Less a remake and more a continuation, Fargo flawlessly imitates the voice of the Coen Brothers. It is an acting tour de force for everybody involved (especially Allison Tolman and Colin Hanks). While it is an hour long drama, I am going to go ahead and classify it as a dark comedy. Fargo creates fanboys where you didn’t know they existed. You know how comic book fans get so psyched whenever a Captain America movie references Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or something else in the Marvel universe? That is exactly how I felt whenever Fargo made a reference to A Serious Man or No Country for Old Men. This is brilliant fan fiction for cinephiles.

Best Episode: Who Shaves the Barber?

1. Bojack Horseman I have spent the better part of the past few months trying to convince people to watch Bojack Horseman. A normal reaction I get is, “I couldn’t get past episode one.” To that I say, “seriously, just be patient.” Bojack is both everything I have ever wanted from a TV show and everything I thought a TV show like this could never give me. If you haven’t watched Bojack, it’s about a washed up 90s sitcom star (Will Arnett), who just so happens to be a talking horse, and his attempt to make a comeback. Think of him as a much more despicable version of Valerie Cherish.

In the world of Bojack Horseman, talking animals co-exist with humans, and nobody questions this. While the animals wear clothes, drive cars, and get married, the tortoise is still slow and the dog still loves to chase the mailman. For years, I have fantasized of an animated show like this. So, watching this show was partially like seeing my dreams come true. The biggest miracle that Bojack pulls off is matching silliness with sincerity. Bojack is a serious study of depression, and the best portrayal of loneliness I have ever seen.

Among the many great portrayals of Hollywood that I can think of, few of them do this good a job of showing a town where perhaps everybody is working real hard to hide a deep pit of sadness in their life. In just one season, this show has established a singularly unique and dark point of view. Oh yeah, and there’s also a running gag where three kids are standing on each other in a trench suit, and nobody catches on. Bojack Horseman expresses all of the feelings, and tells all of the jokes, that you always wished you did.

Best Episode: The Telescope

Honorable Mention: The Mindy Project- This is the show I most look forward to watching every week. This smart and hilarious workplace comedy is the closest thing network television has to 30 Rock right now. Plus, Chris Messina’s glasses are the funniest prop on all of television.

Other Contenders: The Comeback, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rick and Morty, Mad Men, Louie, Veep, Silicon Valley, Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation, Inside Amy Schumer

Still Haven’t Seen: Transparent, Hannibal, You’re the Worst

“Well actually, the best TV show of the year is Serial” -The idiot you’re never going to invite to any of your dinner parties ever again

Well, you all demanded it (at least in my head you all did), so I delivered.

I decided that my smash hit piece on the most memorable dogs in film could not stand alone. Given that TV is going through some sort of Golden Age right now, I figure that the dogs of the small screen deserve just as much attention as the dogs on the silver screen.

So here is my list of the most memorable dogs on TV. And this time, there are no rules. Talking dogs and animated dogs rule! Anarchy! The Purge!

Judith Light, Broad City

Broad City has only been on for one season, but it already gets a dog on this list. Throughout the comedy’s first season, Lincoln (Hannibal Buress) seems to have a special soft spot for dogs, even though he can’t commit to getting one (“I can’t expose this dog to the crazy life of a dentist!”). So Ilana is walking a group of dogs and Lincoln names them all based on their personalities. He names one Dumb Face, and another one Judith Light, because this dog happens to resemble actress Judith Light. This dog is Hollywood royalty. In addition, this scene comes up with the best ever compliment you could give a dog: “I’d do it, I’d pick up your poop.” I hope this show gets renewed for a million seasons.

Porkchop, Doug

Porkchop was like Snoopy for the 1990s, except Porkchop loved hip hop and he didn’t sleep on top of his dog house like an idiot. I like Porkchop because he was basically a human save for the one thing that can make a person really shitty: the ability to talk. Porkchop loved food and TV just a little more than any dog did. Plus, he walked on his hind legs. Perhaps he was a dog-human hybrid, and he represented a scary stepping stone in the evolutionary chain. Just a step below that Rick and Morty episode.

Brian, Family Guy

While I have said many bad things about Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane in the past, leaving Brian off this list would be wrong. Like many other people, I too was once an eighth grader living under the influence of Family Guy. Brian differs from many other of TV’s anthropomorphic dogs in that he seems to prefer the company of humans to dogs. Plus he drinks and chain smokes like crazy. Brian defies the notion that dogs are nothing more than “dumb animals,” as he possesses the neurotic intellectual prowess of a furrier Alvie Singer.

Chauncey, Mad Men

Chauncey only appears in one episode of Mad Men, but this pooch is hard to forget. Duck gets his beloved dog Chauncey back from his ex-wife only to abandon it towards the end of the episode, in maybe one of the saddest moments in Mad Men history, because pandering. The search for Chauncey remains. I am confident one day Chauncey will return to save Sterling Cooper & Partners. Just you wait and see.

 Polly, Mad Men

Don purchased Polly (Note: coincidentally, there is an actress named Polly Draper) in season three, possibly as a way to feel less like a misfit in suburban hell (Note #2: Come on, Don, Ossining isn’t THAT bad). Polly seems to have disappeared after a while (probably with all of the other rejected Bobby Draper actors), but she played an important role in season one. She tried to eat their angry neighbors’ pigeon, which then prompted Betty Draper (January Jones) to do the best thing that she has done on the show to date.

Little Boo, Orange is the New Black

Even a place as brutal and unforgiving as prison has room for our fury four-legged friends. Little Boo is the only inmate in Litchfield (Hey that’s in Connecticut! That’s where I’m from!) that doesn’t join gangs or beat up crazy meth heads. Orange is the New Black is about just because you’re in jail, doesn’t mean you’re not a multidimensional person with a good side. In the evil spectrum of Litchfield, Vee ranks most evil, and Little Boo is least. Because Little Boo is a dog, you see.

Champion, Parks and Recreation

Okay, so a three-legged dog might be trying a little too hard to pull at everyone’s heartstrings. Yet, Champion is a perfect part of the parks department: another creature who was seemingly overlooked and now gets a second shot. But overall I CAN’T STOP CRYING I CAN’T STOP CRYING THE DOG HAS THREE LEGS.

Oodles the Talking Poodle, Rugrats

So Spike was the more recognizable dog on Rugrats, but he is nothing compared to Oodles. Why? Just read his name HE’S A TALKING POODLE. And he wears a cape. Oodles is one of those throwaway jokes that I probably didn’t pay much attention to when I used to watch this show, but it is so much funnier years down the road. I just like to think that in the world of Rugrats, there was some writer who wanted to top Lassie, so he gave a dog a cape and made it talk.

Doug, The Sarah Silverman Program

Sarah Silverman’s beloved dog Doug was played by Sarah Silverman’s real life, beloved dog Duck. The Sarah Silverman Program pushed the limits of taste, and Doug was always a culprit. In one episode, he ends up in doggie jail and in another, he marries Sarah. In real life, Duck was Sarah’s loyal companion and best friend. You can read her touching obituary of Duck after he died last year, if you feel like being an emotional wreck for the next few weeks or so.

Smuckers, Seinfeld

Kramer actually had a dog in the pilot episode (back when Kramer was also called Kessler). This dog disappeared and was never mentioned again. I cannot find any videos or photos of this scene on the internet, so I’m blaming that one on the canine illuminati. Anyway, that isn’t the last time we see Kramer with a dog. In another episode, he finds a dog, named Smuckers, who has the same incurable cough as him. So he takes Smuckers to the vet in order to get medicine. Sure, it is hilarious to see Michael Richards react to dog medication. However, I find Smuckers’ human-like cough even funnier. Also, Smuckers would never go on to shout racist things at a crowd. I don’t think dogs can be racist.

Santa’s Little Helper, The Simpsons

As the dog to one of America’s most dysfunctional families, Santa’s Little Helper sure has gone through a lot. While it is a bummer that SLH can’t talk like Brian or dance like Porkchop, he is notable as one of the more realistic animated dogs next to Ladybird from King of the Hill. Despite sometimes being a victim, The Simpsons were right in acknowledging that he’s way more fun to pet than a cat.

I come to you today, ranting about awards, not because I want to, but because I need to.

You see, as somebody who doesn’t watch sports, I need some place to let out the insane amount of masculine aggression that lies inside me. So while I can’t complain about that ref who needs to get his eyes checked, I can complain about that voter who needs to stop accepting bribes from Chuck Lorre.

This year, the good news is that the amount of snubs probably come from the fact that there are just so many good shows on television, and not enough awards to give out. I accept the fact that most of my choices aren’t necessarily the ones that beg for awards. However, it just seems wrong that the Emmys almost completely ignored the Comedy Central Renaissance. Seriously, put on Comedy Central at some point. You will be surprised to find that they have a lot more than Tosh.0 re-runs now.

Without much further adieu, here is my list of this year’s most egregious Emmy snubs:

Broad City

Because of the random absurdness and poop and dildo jokes, Broad City never seemed like a likely choice for the Emmys. However, it received far better reviews than many of the shows that did get nominated, so I sense just a bit of snobbishness on the part of Emmy voters. Simply put, Broad City is the best new comedy of the year. Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer act as if they have been doing this for decades, yet their show was a radical breath of fresh air. It’s like somebody threw Louie, Workaholics, and Girls into a blender. These two Jewish ladies are television’s most dynamic duo. It is no wonder Amy Poehler put so much faith into this show. Speaking of Ms. Poehler.

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Rec has been on for over half a decade now. Despite critical praise and an audience that seems to grow by the year, Parks still feels greatly underappreciated. Most people think the traditional sitcom is dead, but Parks and Rec is as traditional as they get. It happens to be an incredibly fresh example of something old. Sometimes, I wonder if the creators of Parks and Rec feel like Leslie Knope, who is hardworking and incredibly capable, yet the voters are not too big a fan of her’s.

Nick Kroll (Kroll Show)

Okay, so maybe Kroll Show was too much of a giant inside joke for voters to follow. I mean, it might be the most innovative sketch show of our time, but fine (not really, but I’ll live with it). What might have at least made up for that loss was a nomination for Nick Kroll, who juggles so many roles in a show that bears his name. In a given episode, he can play an old Jewish man, a woman, and a punk kid with a lisp. It’s a performance of Sid Caesar like proportions. And yes, I did just compare Nick Kroll to Sid Caesar.

Dean Norris (Breaking Bad)

This finally looked like the year Dean Norris would get a nomination for his work in Breaking Bad because this was finally the year where he truly got to shine as Agent Hank Schrader. Perhaps one of the most anticipated moments in the series was when Hank and Walt would finally look at each other face to face, with no more secrets to hide. Norris made the moment worth the wait. In five seasons, he went from goofy comic relief to the only source of morality in a dark, dark world.

I want to give a special shout out to Tatiana Maslany. I can’t judge her especially well, because I haven’t seen season two of Orphan Black yet. However her work in season one definitely deserved an Emmy nod. I also hope she hosts SNL one day.