2015 in Review: My Ten (Okay, Eleven) Favorite TV Shows

Diversity of many varieties was on the brain for many spheres of television this year. Network executives, showrunners, critics and audiences alike engaged in thoughtful discourse about what it means to make diverse television in 2015. There are more places than ever to watch TV, and more places than ever to distribute it. It makes logical sense that TV offerings this year would touch on a wider range of issues, feature a wider range of character types and demographics and explore a wider range of stories and universes than ever before.

But with great power comes great responsibility. My favorite shows in 2015 were the ones that used the expanding boundaries of what’s possible on television to their fullest advantage, crafting rich and surprising worlds, telling stories that dovetail with the themes, ideas and controversies guiding our daily lives. In relatively arbitrary order of preference (who’s to say whether a dark comedy about an animated horse is superior to one of the most beloved drama series of all time?), here are my ten favorite shows of 2015.

Emmy Predictions 2015: Don’t Hold Your Breath

This post took ten minutes to write. I went down this list of Emmy nominations, thought for a moment and then picked the nominee I could most easily imagine winning the award on tonight’s Andy Samberg-hosted telecast, which airs at 8pm on Fox. I didn’t double back and reconsider my choices, and I don’t apologize for any outlandish or unlikely picks. If I had to do it all over again, I might make different predictions. But I don’t, so I won’t.

See you back here tomorrow when we find out how well I did.

The M&M Report, Episode 61: “Spy” and “Mad Men” Finale

The M&M Report is back! Devin Mitchell and I are continuing our pop culture podcast after a brief hiatus. Last time you heard us, we were broadcasting from The Eagle. Since then, I’ve graduated from American University, which means I’m no longer a staff member at the school’s student newspaper. Sad as that is, Devin and I are excited to bring the podcast into a new era.

This week, Devin and I talked about the excellent new Paul Feig comedy Spy (2:00-18:19) and offered some further reflections on the series finale of Mad Men (18:20-43:20), following our written reaction the day after the episode aired.

For more M&M Report action, click the category page on the left side of the blog or listen to previous episodes on The Eagle. (A more easily navigable M&M Report home page is forthcoming, so stay tuned.)

“Mad Men”: All-“Time” Great

Michael Yarish/AMC

 

Relatively few Americans are watching the final season of Mad Men as it airs live. Unlike with Breaking Bad, AMC’s other prestige drama that ended on a bifurcated episode order, the availability of Mad Men on streaming hasn’t brought the show any closer to the phenomenon status of Game of Thrones or the megablockbuster spoils of The Walking Dead. It seems the slow pace, narrative digressions, literary allusions and absence of obvious narrative momentum aren’t driving people to furiously binge-watch and catch up as they did, urgently, for the end of Breaking Bad.

The show has few, if any, loose plot threads to tie up, and its characters hardly appear close to the happy endings some viewers might be expecting. But with the instant-classic episode “Time & Life” (which aired on April 27; yes, I’m behind), creator Matthew Weiner proved once again that he is singular among television writers for creating drama out of circumstances that seem to have passed their expiration date.