Image via Reddit

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

Band of misfits. Image via Business Insider

Okay, so being negative about awards is fun. But I got that out of my system yesterday. So today, it is time to be nice.

Luckily, there is a lot to be nice about, because Emmy voters did a pretty good job this year. They didn’t do the best that they could have. On that note, can somebody please photoshop a picture of Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer holding Emmys?

Anyway, if you look close enough at the nominations, you will see that this year’s lineup does as good a job as possible at reflecting the incredibly diverse array of programming that makes up the current golden age of television that we are living in.

For this, I have decided not to include shows like Game of Thrones, Louie, or Breaking Bad. While their inclusion makes me happy, their nominations were foregone conclusions. So instead, let’s focus on some of the people and shows that might not have expected to heard their names called yesterday morning:

Adam Driver (Girls)

In a sometimes inconsistent season of Girls, Adam Driver was the most consistently good part about it. While his character is incredibly unpredictable, you know that (most of the time) he does things because he actually believes in them. Even if you hate Lena Dunham, he makes the show worth sticking around for. With Inside Llewyn Davis last year and Star Wars down the road, Adam Driver is about to explode. We don’t even know what we are in for.

Fargo

I haven’t finished Fargo yet (I have just one episode left), but that has been enough to tell me that this is one of the most unique new shows on television. Given that this is a miniseries, we will have to see if we get anymore of it (or, for that matter, if any one of these characters will make it out alive). Fargo is a pitch perfect black comedy that manages to be the best imitation of the Coen Brothers I have ever seen. Among the many great things about it, there is a tracking shot in it that rivals the much more well known one from True Detective, as well as incredible performances from the likes of Billy Bob Thornton and Allison Tolman.

Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live)

Kate McKinnon is not the first SNL performer to be nominated for acting. However, this occurrence is few and far between, and you have to be really good to bring what are supposed to be two dimensional characters to life. McKinnon can do everything from flawless impressions (some of the best include Justin Bieber and Jemima Kirke) to original characters (Olya the Russian Villager). She is the show’s current answer to Kristen Wiig. And like Wiig, McKinnon will find success in her career long after she leaves Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center.

Key & Peele

There’s a lot of weird, yet awesome, sketch comedy happening on TV right now (see: Kroll Show, Comedy Bang! Bang!). Key & Peele does the typical sketch comedy formula well while maintaining its own unique voice. They can execute simple ideas like The East/West Bowl as well as odd ones like Mr. T PSAs. While it didn’t get the nomination for Best Variety Show, a nod for writing is nothing to complain about, even if it doesn’t quite acknowledge the visual genius and directing choices of the show.

Silicon Valley

Sometimes, it is hard for a freshman show to get much attention, but Silicon Valley knew exactly what it wanted to be from the beginning. Silicon Valley is the satire of the modern tech world that I didn’t know we needed at this moment. It has a perfect ensemble that helped bring perhaps the greatest dick joke in the history of television to life. While its cast members were unfortunately overlooked by voters (especially Thomas Middleditch and the late Christopher Evan Welch), it always makes me happy to see Mike Judge get rewarded, given that many of his past projects were overlooked upon initial release.

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.

Image via Comedy Central

“Life. It’s literally all we have. But is it any good?”

The Comedy Central Renaissance is as strong as ever. Kroll Show, Broad City, and Inside Amy Schumer got a new sibling this season.

Review has a simple enough premise that it doesn’t seem to have any legs: instead of reviewing movies or books, a man gets a show and reviews life experiences. This is enough for a self-contained cartoon. Luckily, Review goes way beyond the initial promise of its premise. We could use more of that in this world, because very few TV shows and films ever do.

Review stars Andy Daly as life reviewer Forrest MacNeil. As his name suggests, Forrest is the dweeby stereotype of a critic. He’s has glasses, hair parted to the side, and the plainest looking suit you can imagine. He looks about as straight edge as any person could be. That makes it all the funnier to see him put into situations where he’s fighting either the law or his own insanity. Review is more than just a concept: it’s a character study.

Much has already been said about the third episode of Review, in which Forrest must review divorce and therefore has to divorce his wife. Usually, a show won’t pull a gut punch like this until much later in its run, when viewers are comfortable with the world and are ready for something to change. It might help that it was based off an Australian show with the exact same concept, but Review had the confidence to get serious so quickly. Then, it had the chutzpah to sandwich that divorce between two different pancake eating contests. Only Forrest MacNeil could turn a challenge to eat 30 pancakes into some cosmic event that connects to the human experience as a whole.

If Review had been made by anybody else, each episode might have existed in a bubble. In some shows, characters can cause damage and blow giant amounts of money. In the next episode, it is as if none of those things actually happened. That is not the case in Review, though. When Forrest spends $70,000 on a date with Ashley Tisdale at a charity auction, he is still in debt the next episode. When his car gets stolen after a fit of road rage, it is never to be seen again. To watch Review is to watch a man’s life completely unravel before his eyes, and it is all his fault.

This all sounds really dark because Review is really dark. Yet, it is the darkness that makes the show so funny. In the episode where Forrest must go to space, a tragedy that occurs while amongst the stars is funnier than it has any right to be. And the joke keeps going on and on. The further it goes, the funnier and more uncomfortable it ultimately gets. Review very rarely relies on simple one-liners. It is the kind of show that gets funnier on repeat viewings. In a very short time, it has also built up a huge cast of unique characters. It is always such a joy to watch Forrest go from uptight to unwound in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, the supporting cast is solid, too. Just watch the way Megan Stevenson (who plays Forrest’s co-host A.J. Gibbs) reacts every time Forrest comes back from one of his field assignments. Their awkward chemistry is one of the most underrated parts of the show.

Review explores consequences in a way that few comedies ever do. If you want to live the fullest life possible, then you’re probably going to lose all of your money and develop a coke addiction. Review took a concept that could have gone stale quickly and made it endlessly entertaining. The show ended this season on an odd note. It is the kind of plot point that seems tough to get out of. There has only been one season of Review but at this point, I trust Andy Daly and crew with just about anything.

I can’t stop laughing at this. Image via Hulu

I have a theory about people who say they hate certain funny TV shows*: they’ve never actually watched a full episode of that show.

Maybe they have seen five minutes of the actual show, but mostly  they have just watched the commercials for it. “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a cliche, but it applies especially well to comedy. Even I have fallen victim to the commercial trap before (a dumber version of me once said “that show “Arrested Development” looks stupid”), and it seems to really be taking a hold on “Kroll Show.” This is a shame, as “Kroll Show” also happens to be one of the funniest shows on television right now.

“Kroll Show” definitely doesn’t give off the best first impression. One guy dresses up as a woman, a bouncer, a gay man, and an old Jew, amongst many other characters. At first, this just sounds like a whiter version of an Eddie Murphy movie. But plug in some irony, and suddenly you’ve got something brilliant.

Here is the basic gist of the show: it’s a sketch show where Nick Kroll (you might know him as Ruxin on “The League”) plays a variety of different characters. Unlike “Saturday Night Live,” there is no audience or musical guests. Just pure madness.

“Kroll Show” is now a few episodes into its second season. Season two is usually when comedies tend to find their voice, but “Kroll Show” was already pretty confident throughout all of season one. However, that didn’t stop Kroll and his creative team from taking the show into some new territory. Probably a smart idea to change up the format before critics and bloggers (pffft those jerks) can complain that the show is getting stale.

But the show didn’t change too much. In season one, skits were broken apart by a brief monologue from Kroll, who told a story that somehow tied the theme of the episode together. This is common in shows helmed by stand-ups (see: “Seinfeld,” “Louie,” “Inside Amy Schumer”). Instead, he now brings out cast and crew members for mini interviews, which basically amount to a bunch of friends screwing around with each other. One-on-one interviews are common in comedy shows today; they serve as a replacement for the live audience as the surrogate between character and viewer. This show seems to have a small, loyal enough fan base that it no longer needs to tell us what it is.

“Kroll Show” doesn’t quite feel like a show that gets made anymore. It is a part of Comedy Central’s renaissance, in which they have actually started to put good comedians on TV. At times, “Kroll Show” doesn’t even feel like a sketch show. It shares a lot with the great “Mr. Show” in that it seems more determined to create a world as opposed to just a bunch of standalone sketches.

During each episode, characters and story lines tend to intertwine. One character will get a new reality show that allows them to become part of the life of another character. It’s a product of an age where it seems like just about anybody who is desperate enough can get their own show. In general, “Kroll Show” is like a comedic chameleon, as it can perfectly take on the form of a Bravo dating show, an action movie, and a Canadian teen drama all in the span of one episode.

But overall, “Kroll Show” is just hilarious. Sure, it can be hit-or-miss a lot of the time, but that’s what sketch comedy is most of the time anyway. Go back and watch episodes of “SNL” from any of its Golden Ages. For every Matt Foley there is a stinker that nobody remembers. What counts is when there is more gold. “Kroll Show” is definitely a sketch show made for the DVR age, with plenty of moments that get funnier on repeat viewings.

In terms of ambition and commitment to performance, Nick Kroll is pretty close to being a modern Sid Caesar. “Kroll Show” also proves that smart comedy about dumb people is the best kind of comedy out there. You probably won’t be able to get either of those out of just one commercial.

*This theory does not apply to “The Big Bang Theory.” I have watched a full episode and still rule that it is not funny.

Some of my favorite skits/moments (Some of these are just pieces of longer sketches):