TV Season 2010-2011: Top Ten Pt 1

The first half.  Some I had lots to write about, others I didn't.  Doesn't mean anything other than: some I had lots to write about, and some I didn't.

Archer.  This is a show I was consistently entertained by, even though I can’t always pin-down what happened.  I just know I always laughed. I hate knowing who the voice actors are on most shows and movies, but it’s really hard not to acknowledge the great work by H Jon Benjamin and Aisha Tyler.  I, seriously, can’t picture anyone else doing those voices.  And that’s not to say Chris Parnell, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, and Jessica Walter don’t deserve props, but I can’t even imagine not hearing the cocky, sarcastic, yet borderline whiny Benjamin—and NO ONE can say one word (“Yep”) that says as much as Tyler can.  

Unlike last year, when the supporting characters “made” this show for me, this year, it was Sterling Archer himself.  He’s still a complete dick, but the people around him let all their quirks out, so Archer was actually the stable one of the show.  If you watched the first season, your eyebrows should have raised with that comment…

Community.  Definitely a show that’s too quirky for everyone, but that quirkiness is also the largest part of its charm.  This show can tell any type of story on any subject and completely break down the walls of what is expected.  A zombie story for Halloween that was outrageous (but held together by a loose plot that “could be” real), Abed’s whacked-out Claymation Christmas dream, a episode revolving around a game of Dungeons and Dragons that had more character development than most shows do in a season, and an anti-drug skit that was increasingly outrageous—and hilarious.  As well as an episode that was heading toward one parody/homage and completely flipped into another.  This show can do just about anything, and that’s one of the joys of tuning in every week.

Another fun part is how the show is becoming more and more meta.  Little things from past episodes pop up in the background of new episodes.  It’s becoming quite a bit like Arrested Development in the shout-outs to past things (on-screen and off-screen; another fine development is that these characters have lives we don’t always see on the show).  But the show does not feel as insular as AD, and the plots are very new-viewer friendly.

Doctor Who.  I feel I’ve written most of this before, but I couldn’t find that I wrote it in last year’s TV “wrap-up”, so who knows? 

The Eleventh Doctor (played wonderfully by Matt Smith) blows onto the scene and turns away an alien invasion with only the mention that he is The Doctor in his very first episode.  This guy is different than the last two Doctors I’ve been exposed to.  A little bit goofy, not as “hard” as the Ninth Doctor, and not as mentally adept as the Tenth Doctor—but he now flaunts his rep and sometimes that’s all he needs to solve his problem. 

Smith stepped into an impossible situation by replacing the beloved David Tennant as The Doctor. Showrunner/head writer Steven Moffat stepped into an impossible situation by replacing Russell T. Davies, who reinvented the series for the current times and made the show a monster success across the pond.  But they both pulled it off.  Smith, by not aping Tennant’s style, and Moffatt by not aping the tone that Davies did so well.  They both did their own thing—but very much as what one can expect from both Doctor Who, the character, and Doctor Who, the series.

But even though they both did their things, it was still refreshing to see them hold to what came before.  I loved that they went in new directions, yet still brought back some old characters and enemies.  And I really appreciate that one episode that season hit me in the gut just like at least one episode did in each of the previous four seasons.  Knowing you can introduce a character and make us love him/her so much in a single hour is a monster achievement.  (I’m thinking specifically about episode 10: “Vince and The Doctor”).

And of course I‘d be remiss to not mention that Karen Gillian’s role as Amy Pond also continues the winning streak the show has had when it comes to The Doctor’s companions.  Pond is an integral character to the show, and can be whatever is needed: scared, heroic, strong, funny… Everything a companion needs to be.  But she also brings a few new things that other companions didn’t necessarily have: a secret (she’s engaged), a longing for The Doctor (who she met as a young girl and couldn’t forget), and a little sexy (not that the others weren’t; but Amy is slightly more intended to be—as least as sexy as one can be on what is, at heart, a children’s show).

Episodes.  The very British-humor type series took a while to get going, but when it did, it was really good.  First-off, it featured two of my favorite British actors (from my favorite British show: Green Wing) as writers brought to America to adapt their highly-acclaimed comedy to an American audience.  Sounds great.  But you know how so many adaptations of successful shows/movies or books get somehow screwed-up beyond recognition?  This series shows you how it happens. 

The writers meet a producer who LOVES their award-winning show and wants it to be adapted for America.  The writers move to L.A. to begin production and then it’s revealed the producer has never watched an episode of the original.  Then the older actor who runs the school the show is based on is replaced for the “better” Matt LeBlanc (neither a gentleman—as portrayed in this series—or an old man).  More “wouldn’t it be better if…”s like “how about the main character be a hockey coach instead of the head of the school?” and “How about the hot lesbian (and thus unattainable as a romantic partner for LeBlanc’s character) librarian not be a lesbian” (and attainable as a romantic partner for LeBlanc’s character)? are added to the adaptation, and eventually it looks nothing like the original.  And not a single change makes the show better.  But we get to see how it happens.  I found it completely realistic because I’ve read many stories where the best of intentions to make a really great project amounted in a result that was a mess at best and a travesty at worst.  I mean, how do great actors get roped into shitty movies that aren’t about the paycheck?  Because the movies don’t end up being what they signed-on for.

I find the whole creative process fascinating.  How does a germ of an idea get to be a movie? How does a TV show get made?  What “pains” does a band go through to create an album?  How does an injury screw up a team/company’s plans for the rest of the year?  Hollywood is full of bullshit, and it was fun to watch it go on around these characters.

I also have to give a lot of credit to Matt LeBlanc, who was not really the main character of this series but was expected to carry it.  He played a version of himself (a little dumber, a little cockier, a little more egocentric than he really is—but he is also “blessed” with a huge schwing-schwang on the show, so the exaggerations were not all bad) and while you’d think that’d be easy, it probably wasn’t because the “Matt LeBlanc” of this series is pretty unlikeable.  It’s one thing for Larry David to be an ass on his own show, but LeBlanc was an actor and not a creator on this one, so he stuck his neck out on it to tweak the fan expectations of what “Matt LeBlanc” is really like (after assuming he’s quite a bit like Joey from Friends).  But it worked.

How I Met Your Mother.  Not the funniest or most clever season this show has had, but I loved how they are changing the characters subtly.  The ongoing arc of one character dealing with a death was very poignant while another dealt with a father s/he didn’t know.  These characters are growing up, and it’s nice to see them not repeat the same patterns as in previous seasons.  After six years, you should expect people of that age to experience growth—and loss.  This show is no longer constantly “on the bubble”, so they’re able to unfold storylines that they know they can spread out a bit, instead of just teasing us about getting close to answering the titular question.