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

In this episode of the podcast, I explore Hollywood’s new love of artificial intelligence. Plus, what The Comeback tells us about the year 2005, and what Rosewater tells us about the state of political satire.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the series finale of The Sopranos. That is, if it hasn’t already been spoiled for you in the past 48 hours.

Yesterday, Martha P. Nochimson wrote a fantastic piece for Vox about Sopranos showrunner David Chase. If there is an award for articles on the Internet, I believe this article should receive it. It has a few brilliant interactive moments (mainly with its own cut to black), but most importantly, it cuts to the core of this great artist. It digs deep into his thoughts on art, and grazes his own mortality.

Unfortunately, you might not have known that from the headline “Did Tony die at the end of The Sopranos?” as well as the ensuing media coverage which focuses solely on Chase’s one sentence response. After countless think pieces, angry tweets, and a response from Chase’s publicist, it is safe to say that what should have been a harmless article caused a firestorm. It caused a dormant volcano to erupt. The Sopranos ended in 2006, and nobody has gotten over it since.

Just to briefly recap, The Sopranos ends as the Soprano clan sits to eat dinner at Holsten’s. For the first time in a long time, it seems like Tony is relatively safe. Yet, everybody in this diner seems like a suspicious figure. Suddenly, Meadow bursts through the door, the music stops, and the show abruptly cuts to black. Then the credits roll, and TV history is made.

Ever since, people have gone back and forth arguing about whether Tony survived to eat another onion ring. According to this article, Tony is not dead. This is what Chase is so upset about, as he believes the writer misconstrued his remarks. However, if you keep reading, you will see that the article is actually in defense of ambiguous endings.

Ambiguous endings are always controversial. Art, in its simplest form, is escape. Life offers no easy answers and thus, art should answer everything for us. Every once in a while, somebody like David Chase comes along and defies this logic. I watched The Sopranos series finale when it first aired (I had very little context then), and I could see why everybody felt like they got ripped off. That is also how I felt the first time I saw No Country for Old Men. It is how everybody felt just a few months ago when a beloved Game of Thrones character was unexpectedly killed off. It is natural to feel angry upon first viewing of an ambiguous ending.

And here is the great thing about ambiguous endings: you can have many reactions to them, because you will want to keep watching them over and over again. You will watch them again, think about them, and talk about them endlessly. There is a reason that we are still talking about The Sopranos nearly a decade later. Even after David Chase gave his answer, we are still going to talk about it, because being alive could mean so many things. It could mean that Tony went on to have a good life, or that he just continued to be the “miserable fat f**k” that he always has been. By ending with a comma, Tony Soprano lived on forever, and life or death will never impact that.

It is just too bad that the rest of this article had to be obscured by this one little thing. Unfortunately, a lot of interesting talking points about The Sopranos have been overshadowed by that cut to black. Even in the finale alone, there is a lot nobody talks about. Nobody ever asks David Chase about whether or not that mysterious cat was supposed to represent Christopher. Nobody ever asks him about the scene where AJ accidentally blows up his car. Hell, nobody ever asks him about the genius bit of black comedy that is Phil Leotardo’s death. Then again, this whole controversy works in Chase’s favor. After all, the article briefly mentions that he is going into pre-production on a new film called Little Black Dress. Hey, sometimes bad PR pays off.

Anybody who is an aspiring storyteller in any way, shape, or form should follow David Chase’s example. Now, I don’t think all movies and TV shows should end unresolved. However, I do think that art can find ways to be more true to life, such as acknowledging the idea of loose ends. Life is full of unsolved mysteries. Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to end in the middle of

Pictured: Dr. Tim Whatley and Elaine Benes

Well, the Emmy Awards happened again tonight.

My thoughts are about as predictable as most of the winners. In a year of excellent new shows, the common theme was to tread the same ground. However, that is not saying that some of those winners were not deserved.

Overall, with a great host and some memorable moments, the Emmys reminded me why TV is so great right now, and why film needs to catch up. However, many of the winners last night did not reflect the greatness of television right now. Hold the phone, you’re telling me that an award show is out of touch with what is popular and innovative right now? I don’t believe it.

Without further adieu, here are the highlights and lowlights of last night’s ceremony:

Seth Meyers As expected, Seth Meyers gave a fantastic monologue that makes me miss his presence on Weekend Update and also makes me wish I put in some effort to watch him on Late Night. NBC must be pretty chill, because he mostly just made fun of their poor ratings (30 Rock is over, so somebody has got to do it). Meyers also spent most of his monologue reminding everyone that network television still exists. Speaking of which…

Network vs. Cable vs. Streaming The big theme of the night was that network and cable are now just pawns in a game that will one day be dominated by streaming. Voters decided to teach Netflix a lesson, as they walked home empty handed. Yeah, how dare they take risks and try and elevate the format!

Modern Family Just a few short minutes after Bryan Cranston encouraged everybody to take more risks, Modern Family won the Emmy for Best Comedy for the fifth time. Modern Family was once a great show that is now past its prime. The fact that it wins every year makes me dig deep into the conspiracy theory handbook. As Matt Zoller Seitz said, “Modern Family has dirty pictures of everyone in the Academy.” Sure, you could debate whether or not Orange is the New Black is a comedy, but like it or not, it was far and away the best show nominated for Best Comedy this year. I am starting to realize that the Emmys might not know anything about comedy.

Billy Eichner It wasn’t all bad news for comedy. The amazing Billy Eichner got to showcase his talent with a special edition of Billy on the Street. It is so great to see how far he has come. He deserves all the success he gets.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus & Bryan Cranston They are the king and queen of television.

Fargo It is a shame that Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, and Billy Bob Thornton went home empty handed. However, I am thrilled that Fargo won Best Miniseries. It is my favorite show of 2014 so far. Fargo did exactly what the film version did: showed me that the world is a horrible place, yet it still managed to warm my heart. For the first time ever, I actually gave a crap about this category. The Coen Brothers might not pay attention to the Emmys, but I hope they know that Noah Hawley did them proud.

Best Joke You Didn’t Hear While engaging in awkward yet endearing banter on stage, Woody Harrelson told True Detective co-star Matthew McConaughey that “[he's] grateful that [McConaughey] got all the plagiarized lines.” This is in reference to the recent controversy surrounding the authenticity of True Detective. The line didn’t get too big of a laugh, but it was a great little bit of self-deprecating humor.

Best Gaffe: Gwen Stefani referred to The Colbert Report as “The Colbort Report” (with “report” pronounced properly). On a scale of 1 to Adele Dazeem, I give it a 7.

Cary Fukunga: Bro of the Century Fukunga’s win for Best Director for True Detective was well deserved. The guy became a sort of star in a very short period of time. It doesn’t seem like Hollywood has gotten to him yet because holy crap, what a bro. He seems like a way less competitive version of Otto Rocket. After the show, Fukunga reportedly called some friends and asked if they wanted to catch some waves at Pismo Beach.

Film: A lot of jabs were made at the expense of movies tonight. Fair enough. However, TV should be nice. Without film, there would be no TV. There would be no Louie, True Detective, or Fargo. So maybe the popcorn is overpriced, but hey, it’s a great excuse to leave the house. Now, give us Matthew McConaughey back.

Broad City You’re still the winner in my heart.

Well, better late than never.

It took me well over a year, but I was finally able to finish The Sopranos, a show in which I am only seven years late to. The Sopranos is truly a marvel of a show which lives up to all of the hype. What I never expected was how funny and philosophical a show about the New Jersey mafia could be.

While I wish I watched The Sopranos when it was actually on the air, seeing it years later is fascinating. First, I binge watched a show that was made before binge watching was even invented. Second, The Sopranos perfectly encapsulates the 2000s, and it is interesting to see how much the show shifted after 9/11. Third, my Sopranos experience felt akin to Boyhood: we get to grow up with these characters, and watch them change and mature on screen.

Here is a scattered collection of thoughts on The Sopranos (Note: Do not read this unless you have seen every f***ing Sopranos episode ever):

Best Episode: It’s the textbook example, but I am going to have to go with “College,” the episode in which Tony takes Meadow to look at schools in Maine. While there, he must decide whether or not to whack somebody. From there, the entire tone of the show was established. Without “College,” there would be no Sopranos.

Meadow’s Worst Boyfriend: They were all pretty terrible. Noah was annoying (Note: I definitely dislike him for different reasons than Tony did). Jackie was a degenerate. I would have to say that Finn was the worst of them. I don’t know how to describe it. There was just something about his face.

Most Horrible Moment: The first time Adriana went to meet with the Feds, it seemed like nothing but trouble. After about two seasons of buildup, the jig was finally up. Poor Adriana meets her fate desperately crawling through the woods. But as the old saying goes, “never try and outrun a member of the E Street Band.” If Twitter had existed then, the top trending topic that night would have been #RIPAdriana.

Best Antagonist: In any other show, Tony might have been considered the villain. The Sopranos is less about villains and more about antagonists. Phil Leotardo might be an easy pick, but I pity him. When your last name gets changed from Leonardo to Leotardo at Ellis Island, you’re pretty much screwed from the start. That is why I am going to go with Ralphie Cifaretto, a man who once beat a stripper to death with his bare hands. Ralphie was a very secretive sociopath with a very weird sex life. The difference between Ralphie and Tony is that Tony actually has some semblance of a soul. Leave it to The Sopranos though: the one time Ralphie seemed at all sympathetic was just an episode or two before he was strangled to death.

Biggest Flaw: A lot of people didn’t like the therapy stuff, but the funny and sometimes threatening relationship between Tony and Doctor Melfi formed the intellectual backbone of the show. What often bothered me were extended dream sequences. Sure, they could set the show apart. However, an entire episode filled with dreams (such as season five’s “The Test Dream”) would feel more muddled than intoxicating.

Funniest Episode: The Sopranos might have ushered in the era of the gritty cable drama, but it also had an amazing mix of comedy, something that, say, The Leftovers could use. The best example of the show’s black comedy is the episode “Pine Barrens,” in which Christopher and Paulie get lost in the wild of New Jersey. Their chemistry was always toxic, and watching the two of them fight a renegade Russian is endlessly entertaining.

Funniest Moment: In “The Strong, Silent Type,” Christopher sitting on a dog’s head manages to be the second funniest part of the episode.* The funniest is the ensuing intervention, which ends with everybody beating up Christopher instead of helping him. Leave it to David Chase to make rock bottom this funny.

Funniest Death: There were many funny deaths on this show, but nothing beats Phil Leotardo getting his head squashed by a renegade SUV.

James Gandolfini: He deserves every bit of praise he has ever gotten for his performance as Tony Soprano. David Chase created an incredible character, but Gandolfini made him come alive. Tony is a man of many faces: psychopath, sociopath, class clown, and father. Parts of Tony are evil, and parts of him are good. He is the kind of man who could terrify you one minute, and make you laugh the next because he’s wearing sausages around his neck. If you thought of Tony Soprano purely as a monster by the time the finale rolled around, then you were probably watching the wrong show.

New Jersey: The idea of New York being a character in a movie has become so trite that an entire movie was made making fun of this notion. New York’s neighbor has some character as well, and it’s not too ridiculous to point out how important New Jersey is to the story of The Sopranos. In the eyes of Phil Leotardo, The Soprano crew is seen as this sort of second rate crew that is making a mockery of the entire mafia tradition. Now, New Jersey has gotten a bad reputation, and organized crime certainly hasn’t helped. However, The Sopranos has. That stretch of the Jersey Turnpike going through Newark, Elizabeth, and the Meadowlands is usually associated with a foul odor. Now, when I drive through there, I feel like Tony Soprano, smoking a cigar while “Woke Up This Morning” plays. Now, some savior from Connecticut should find a way to make that stretch of I-95 going through Bridgeport seem as cool.

Italian: The Sopranos was often accused of perpetuating Italian-American stereotypes. That statement is either wrong, or just half right. The Sopranos is largely about trying to keep your heritage alive while at the same time, struggling to fit into the modern world. If Italian-American stereotypes include mobsters, thick accents, and gabagool, then The Sopranos is chock full of them. However, The Sopranos needs those stereotypes, as it is ultimately about embracing yourself. This could also apply to anybody of any ethnic background. So yes, next time I go to a deli, I’ll take a Pastrami on Rye (cholesterol be damned).

America: In The Sopranos, New Jersey is a perfect stand-in for America as a whole. It is a diverse and constantly changing organism placed in a very small package. The Sopranos is TV’s first Great American Novel. Like every Great American Novel, The Sopranos is a meditation on the American Dream. People come to America in search of opportunity and sometimes, it doesn’t work out. Other times, you have to sacrifice everything you stand for to gain stability. Other times, you have to sell part of the old neighborhood to Jamba Juice in order to get by.

*I don’t find dog death funny, but this particular one is for how hard Christopher tries to defend himself (“she must have crawled under me for warmth”/”I didn’t kill her, I must’ve sat on her!”).

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.

Episode 16: Ian and Cassie talk about the return on “Community” to Yahoo!, the pilot for HBO’s “The Leftovers” and David Wain’s “They Came Together.”

Episode 13: In this bonus episode, Ian and Cassie discuss everything there is to possibly discuss about the fourth season of Game of Thrones.

Episode 12: In this week’s episode, Cassie and Ian discuss the Tony Awards, share highlights from the brilliant third season of Veep, and review The Fault in Our Stars.