2013 Calvins: Best TV Show
By David Mumpower
February 18, 2013
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Yes, Breaking Bad is once again our selection as Best TV Show. Last year, I acknowledged the issue in lauding this particular program. It had been largely unheralded in entertainment media. This is a textbook example of the difference a year makes. Breaking Bad has become as zealously supported as any series in recent memory. And I am not only referring to media attention.
Twelve months ago, only one episode of Breaking Bad could claim a modest two million viewers. Every episode that aired in 2012 registered at least that many viewers with one effectively reaching three million. No, Breaking Bad will not be confused with the highest rated shows on television, but few people would complain about 50% growth year over year. More and more people are recognizing what we claimed a year ago: Breaking Bad is head and shoulders above anything else in television today.
What caused our staff to vote for Breaking Bad once again? The answer is quality, not quantity. As most of you know by now, the final season of the Vince Gilligan masterpiece was split into a pair of eight episode story arcs. The 2012 batch included one of the greatest episodes in television history, Dead Freight. It is this show’s equivalent to the fake pilot for Firefly, The Train Job.
A heist is planned, only this time the bad guys are morally bankrupt. The episode begins by showing a boy exploring nature in the desert then alters course to reveal the latest diabolical plot by Walter White. Right after the plan is executed flawlessly, the boy’s purpose is revealed. Our collective jaw dropped. No other series on television right now would be so daring, so shocking.
By the end of the season, Gilligan set the table for the second set of eight episodes with another twist every bit as stunning as the one in Dead Freight. We now know the focus of what we presume to be the last days of Walter White. Knowing Vince Gilligan, however, we also must allow for the possibility that the anti-hero of Breaking Bad winds up living on his island fortress, happily enjoying retirement from the drugs and murder game. No matter how Breaking Bad ends, we have complete faith that the final eight episodes will be just as glorious as the most recent eight were. Breaking Bad is the best thing on the air right now and the clear choice as the Best TV Show of 2013, just like 2012.
A former category champion finishes in second place this year. Mad Men won three years ago, then finished in third place in 2011. It was not nominated in 2012 for an aggravating reason: there were no new episodes in calendar 2011. The blessed return of the team at Sterling Cooper Draper Price represented a moment of celebration for our staff. While Mad Men fell far short of Breaking Bad in terms of voting percentage (only 59%) and first place votes (five to two), the Jon Hamm showcase still accomplished an impressive feat. This is the first time a previous winner has managed a second place finish in a later season. I think it is fair to say that Breaking Bad and Mad Men have been our favorite shows on television for the past three years.
Parks and Recreation, our third favorite TV Show, is the tortoise racing the hares above it. Two years ago, we selected the program as the fifth best series. Last year, it inched up to fourth place. If Parks and Recreation can stay on the air for another two years, the current pace would carry it to the title of Best Television Show in 2015. Parks and Recreation’s candidacy will be aided by the fact that Mad Men and Breaking Bad should be finished by that point. Until then, we will enjoy such Ron Swanson quotes as “Any dog under 50 pounds is a cat, and cats are useless.” I’m a cat person yet that line of dialogue cracks me up. Nick Offerman is in the conversation for funniest person on television today.
A modest step backward and a modest step forward signify our fourth and fifth favorite series. Justified narrowly missed winning Best TV Show last year, falling a single ballot short of victory. It is only marginally less popular this year, as Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder continue to engross us. The seedy side of Kentucky is fabulous television. Game of Thrones is a show I believe will eventually emerge victorious in this category as more of our staff members become as obsessed with it as my wife is. In this year’s voting, it earned its second placement in the top five, repeating as the fifth best series. What we learned in season two of Game of Thrones is simple. Never touch the Khaleesi’s dragons.
Familiar contenders finish in sixth and seventh place. In fact, the same two series from last year’s voting hold down these positions. The only difference is that they flip-flop positions. Archer is the funniest show on television that I would never watch with my parents; it moves up to sixth in the 2013 voting. Season three featured the introduction of Spacebot, the return of Katya as a cyborg and a space showdown with a crazed astronaut who sounds a lot like Bryan Cranston.
Meanwhile, Community sustains popularity with a seventh place ranking. It has lost a lot of momentum since peaking in second place two years ago, though. Given the change in show-runners and all the Chevy Chase nonsense, this could be the last time we laud Community. Prove us wrong, dude who is not Dan Harmon.
The stability in the middle of our voting is sustained as Louie finished in eighth place for the second straight year. The impossible-to-describe comedy continues Louie C.K.’s quest to humiliate himself in public more than any comedian in the history of television. The news is less sunny for Modern Family. For the fourth straight year, we selected it as one of the ten best programs, but its ninth place finish represents the first time it did not finish in the top three. Rounding out the top ten is another HBO program, Girls. It has recently won enough Emmys and Golden Globes that you should have already gotten the hint that you need to watch it.
As always, the Best TV Show category is one of the most brutal in terms of receiving a top 10 nomination. The BOP staff also warmly recommends Happy Endings, Bunheads, The Daily Show, Person of Interest, Homeland, The Neighbors, American Horror Story: Asylum, The Newsroom, Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23, Downton Abbey and (as always) The Simpsons/Futurama.
View other awards
Calvins Intro
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