2011 Calvin Awards: Best TV Show
February 14, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
This is presumably why almost two thirds of our selections during the previous five years of this category have been the recipients of at least one additional inclusion. We like what we like, even as the staff at BOP has grown and some earlier contributors have wandered off to enjoy new shiny things. Our taste in television has remained remarkably stable. Until this year. As I had stated in the announcement of the 2009 awards, a lot of our perennial favorites were reaching the end of their runs, which would open the door for some new blood. 2011 marks a changing of the guard as 60% of our selections in the Best Television Show category are new.
One aspect of the Best Television Show category has not changed, though. For the sixth time in six years, we name a different program our favorite. Modern Family is our choice as the best show on television. We have championed this sitcom since the pilot, so its ascension has always felt like something of a foregone conclusion. Anchored by the best cast working today (sorry, Mad Men), Modern Family has reinvigorated the sitcom genre through its fresh insights into the confusing definition of the, well, modern family. Ostensibly led by underrated comedic actor Ed O’Neill, Modern Family is a rare ensemble piece wherein all of the featured players have been allowed to quickly define and expand their characters.
O’Neill’s character, Jay Pritchett, is a wealthy business owner currently enjoying the company of trophy wife Gloria, a Latina beauty who is a bit scary due to her violent upbringing. She also brings the complexity of her pre-pubescent son, Manny, who is every bit the lover that his mother is the fighter. Frustrated homemaker Claire misses being fun while her husband, Phil, fundamentally lacks the ability to be anything else. Their attempts to give their children the proper upbringing aptly demonstrate why husbands are rarely respected as the disciplinarian of the family but rather seen as another playmate.
The breakout stars of the show, however, are Jay’s gay son Mitchell and his boyfriend, Cameron, who are constantly fighting due to the former being uptight and the latter being hefty and dramatic. BOP always takes Cameron’s side, because Eric Stonestreet is always so adorable, a teddy bear of a human being with a natural warmth that is rarely witnessed on scripted television. Of course, picking our favorite on the show is something that varies each episode due to the engaging nature of all involved. The fact that we felt so immediately and intensely connected to the Pritchett patriarch and all the members of his clan is the reason why we select Modern Family as the Best Television Show of the year, and I would not be surprised if it becomes the first repeat winner in this category. We love the cast that much.
Community is our selection as the second best show on television. This is the debut appearance of the NBC sitcom most analysts have been comparing to 30 Rock. Several members of BOP’s staff are of the opinion that the better analog is Newsradio, another NBC Thursday night program that featured multiple professional comedians working in tight quarters who developed a dysfunctional family unit together. Those of you who are long time readers of the site recognize how lavish we are with our praise toward Newsradio, so any show that pleasantly reminds us of it walks on hallowed ground. Why do we hold Community in such esteem?
Describing the show probably lessens its impact. On the surface level, this is a sitcom with the premise that several older people have been forced by various extenuating circumstances to return to school at a local community college. There is a mother going through a divorce, an attorney who has lost his license to practice, an attractive 30-year-old crusader fresh out of crusades and an older jerk (played without any need for acting by Chevy Chase) killing the free time he has in his retirement. They are joined by a trio of age appropriate college students in a makeshift study circle that evolves into more. Again, I realize this sounds a bit generic on paper. If you read the descriptions and ignored the show based on them, here is what I would ask of you. Watch these four episodes: Modern Warfare, Epidemiology, Cooperative Calligraphy and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. By the end of the fourth one, you’ll probably be just as hooked as our staff is.
Last year, Modern Family debuted in second place before claiming the title in the latest vote. Community has a chance to repeat this feat next season as it narrowly missed first place in its debut appearance. As it continues to gain awareness as the logical successor to NBC’s storied history of Thursday night sitcom icons, more and more staff members should fall in love with it.
Falling out of first place this season is Mad Men, which drops a couple of spots to third. We continue to be transfixed by the inner workings of Sterling Cooper. Along the way, Don Draper has become arguably the best television character of the 2000s. And the show’s in your face depiction of the sexism and racism that permeated throughout the 1960s offers marvelous insights into the supposed Camelot of that era. Season four offered innumerable shocks as the employees of Sterling Cooper were reduced dramatically by a financial crisis. Who stays and goes is still up in the air as we anxiously await the moment when the climactic events of the season four finale are resolved. Of course, we may not include Mad Men in next year’s voting, because there exists the terrifying possibility that no new episodes air in 2011. Dear AMC: please do not let this happen.
The rest of our top five is comprised of the last gasp of an old favorite and the debut of a staff favorite. In the eyes of many, Lost ended with a whimper rather than a bang as the show’s producers stubbornly refused to answer any of several hundred (literally) unresolved plotlines. Still, BOP was engrossed by a worthy series finale that answered the show’s true dilemma: how to give happy endings to constantly tormented characters. Lost was chosen as one of the best programs on television in five out of its six seasons with only season two, the back of the plane season, failing to grip us as a collective body. Warts and all, it was event television and will be missed.
Our new entry is Parks and Recreation, which finishes in fifth place as it continues to build the legacy of breakout character Ron Swanson. Long time readers of the site are probably aware that the most popular Parks and Recreation fan site on the web, KnopeKnows.com, is run by BOP staff member/overachiever extraordinaire/rock star at life Eric Hughes. I can assure you that the popularity of the show extends far beyond the reach of one of BOP’s favorite sons, though. It was selected on roughly 40% of the ballots and was listed in the top three on over half of those. People who watch Parks and Recreation tend to love it to the point of hero worship.
Another pair of new selections garner sixth and seventh place. Sixth place goes to Breaking Bad, which actually had the largest total of first place votes of any television show this year. It suffered the fate of not being noticed by enough people, though. Anyone who did not select Breaking Bad as one of the best two shows on television did not vote for it at all, truly a feast or famine voting behavior. With an average of only 1.5 million viewers a week, I suppose this is not a surprising phenomenon, but some folks at BOP feel strongly about the fact that you should have Breaking Bad in your Netflix queue.
Meanwhile, our seventh place selection, Cougar Town, combines with Modern Family to form by far the funniest hour of television. Cougar Town is the rare show that rebooted in midstream, deviating from the planned MILF Cougar on the Prowl theme into one that celebrates family, community and wine. Lots and lots of wine. Cougar Town is like a television party thrown every week at 9:30 and while it is currently off the schedule, you have the perfect opportunity to catch up on episodes from season one. I particularly recommend Don't Come Around Here No More, Here Comes My Girl and Finding Out. By the time you understand the terms “Full Shawshank” and “Devil Face”, I expect you to be just as hooked as BOP is. In fact, a weekly staff argument ensues about which new episode is better between Modern Family and Cougar Town.
Rounding out the top ten are one phenomenal debut and a pair of old favorites near the end of the line. The new show is Justified, which is a show that many people are discovering with its second season premiere. BOP has been hooked since the pilot and in fact has planned an entire web site around an idea the season finale gave us. Justified is equal parts western, procedural, and 1970s cop show. The amalgam may sound strange but with legitimate movie lead actor Timothy Olyphant anchoring the proceedings, this is dynamic television. Ninth and tenth place go to Friday Night Lights, which recently finished its five season run, and 30 Rock, which is starting to wear out its welcome. Both of these programs are former winners in the category with Friday Night Lights going five for five in terms of being one of our ten annual selections while 30 Rock has managed the feat four times. They are both beloved by our staff to a degree that only Lost and Battlestar Galactica have also reached during our six years of voting.
Best Television Show is always a hotly contested category with passionate support for several programs. As such, I’m going to break with tradition here and list all of the shows that finished in the top 30 in our voting. We had 65 shows receive at least one vote this year if you were wondering. The rest of the top 30 is (in order of highest voting tally) The Walking Dead, How I Met Your Mother, Psych, Dexter, Top Chef, South Park, Boardwalk Empire, The Daily Show, Survivor, Futurama, Burn Notice, The Simpsons, The Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Louie, Archer, Chuck, Treme, Human Target, Glee and The Amazing Race. Each of these shows has ardent support from the staff at BOP and is highly recommended. (David Mumpower/BOP)
The Calvins Introduction
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture