As May comes to a close, another television season has come and gone. And while there’s still plenty to watch on cable, many shows are on summer hiatus now, meaning I can work my way through the first 4 seasons of The Good Wife (and maybe finally, finally get around to Breaking Bad this summer? Maybe? Possibly?) and binge on various other shows.
While I’ve written extensively about the various networks’ successes and failures and how they can mitigate losses or further build momentum in terms of their ratings in my many, many posts previewing the Upfronts, let’s take a look at how they did qualitatively.
*asterisks signifies I watched the whole season (or just about)
CBS & CW
Both are networks I generally don’t care for, with the former being filled with crime/police procedurals and the latter with soapy teen girl melodramas. Buut there’s usually 1-2 new shows per season I’ll give a try on the CW and CBS had a handful of stalwarts (60 Minutes, The Good Wife) or new shows (The Crazy Ones, Hostages) I tried (or kept watching in the case of 60 Minutes).
*The Good Wife: This right now is probably my favorite drama thusfar of the year (2014, not the television year). I had been reading rave reviews for its 5th season, and one night, luckily enough, they aired an episode of The Good Wife an hour early right after 60 Minutes when I watched 60 Minutes on TV and not my laptop for the first time in a long, long time. The stars aligned. And it was apparently one of the best episodes in the entire series. I was awestruck. I’d been missing out on one of the best things on TV. It was one of the most tightly-constructed, well-written, can’t-stop-watching, interesting, utterly watchable episodes of television I’d seen in some time. Watching the two episodes following it felt like a comedown, so I tried the first episodes of the series before starting at the beginning of season 5. The Good Wife has been chugging along for 5 seasons, falling under the radar of flashier, more headline-grabbing shows like Breaking Bad, House of Cards, and True Detective, but damn if this is not one of the smartest, sharply-written shows on television right now. It may not break ground or be as flashy or be as innovative (arguably) as the aforementioned, but what it does it does damn well; from the music to the writing, especially the pacing, it’s just impeccably well-made and excels at some old-school, good ol’ fashioned storytelling with a bevy of well-constructed characters. Thank God CBS renewed it for another season. The episode I watched, by the way, was ‘Hitting the Fan,’ which you would do well to seek out.
And another thing. While I had missed out on 4 seasons of interactions and history between 2 characters, I could feel that history in the scenes the characters shared. One felt very betrayed by the other and I got the sense that there was a lot of history between the two of them that caused the other character’s betrayal to feel that much more weighty.
It’s not some domestic drama about a woman learning to love her cheating husband again or what have you. Its genre is technically a legal drama, but it builds and is so much more than just a legal procedural. A+
*60 Minutes: I’m a news junkie and 60 Minutes still satisfies my news need. Well-reported, long-form stories gets trampled and abandoned on the argumentative, partisan cable news networks but 60 Minutes is an oasis for it, the botched Benghazi story notwithstanding.
*Hostages: On paper this seemed like a nice break from the police procedural-spinoff heavy CBS schedule: a serialized 13-episode show starring Toni Collette (The United States of Tara, The Sixth Sense), Dylan McDermott (The Practice), and Tate Donovan (Damages) about a doctor’s family held hostage unless she follows the captors’ orders that she kill the president when later she performs surgery on him. Too bad the most interesting thing about this show was the description, the execution was botched so badly it became laughably bad (I still watched every episode though halfway through I just started playing it as background noise) D+ For ambition. And Dylan 
McDermott’s ability to go from 0 to pissed off in 1.2 seconds.
*The Crazy Ones: I’ve never been a huge Robin Williams fan but they made great use of his energy in this show. Throw in a great supporting cast with fantastic chemistry and Sarah Michelle Gellar ends up actually probably being the weakest part of this show (not that she was bad, just dwarfed by a stellar cast). At the beginning of the television season, The Crazy Ones and Brooklyn Nine-Nine were neck-and-neck as my favorite new comedy, unfortunately it became a bit inconsistent as the season wore on. Still had plenty of fun, great episodes, but mixed in were a handful of episodes that lost its fresh, kinetic energy and felt rather like a staid, old show. Because of that I don’t mourn its cancellation too much, but it was still a breath of fresh air amongst CBS’s comedy line-up. B/B+
The Millers: Starring Will Arnett, Margo Martindale, and Jayma Mays and created and written by the creator of My Name is Earl and Raising Hope?! Again, sounds great on paper. And it might’ve been good/decent if it had been a single-camera show, unfortunately it was a multi-camera, laugh-track show, sucking away any chance this show had of being good. C
Mom: I gave this a try for Anna Farris and Allison Janney. Nope. However, the one good thing about The Millers and Mom is that Showtime is owned by CBS, so that probably had something to do with Janney and Beau Bridges (The Millers) showing up and doing great work on Showtime’s Masters of Sex. So there’s that. C-
We Are Men: Cancelled after 2 episodes, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the reviews indicated. Not very good either though. B-
Friends with Better Lives: I watched either 1 or 2 episodes of this, laugh track. No…just no. STOP WITH THE LAUGH TRACKS ALREADY.
The Tomorrow People: I watched half a season of this, and there’s some good stuff in this show, but there’s plenty of stupid-as-shit CW-y shit that ultimately dragged it down too much. B-/C+
The 100: Same as above, but even more thoroughly CW’d.
ABC
Resurrection: Utter bollocks. Skip it, watch the far, far, far, vastly superior, similarly-themed French show Les Revenants, which was easily one of my favorite shows of last year. C-/D
Agents of SHIELD: I did not anticipate this nearly as much as giddy comic fanboys, I was still disappointed. I stuck with it for half a season with plans to keep watching but relegating it to a background noise show, but when the time came I couldn’t be bothered. As much as people love Agent Coulson, Agent May was the stand-out for me, and I didn’t mind the Brit duo though I could see how people could be annoyed by them. Heck, even Agent Ward wasn’t terrible, the writing just never serviced any of these characters (or plots) very well. But fuck Skye. She’s so awful. A blackhole cesspool quicksand void sucking any trace of interest or likeability into it. The fight scenes were good though. B-/B/C+
As you can tell, I’m terribly indecisive when it comes to assigning these shows a firm grade.
*The Goldbergs: It took more than a handful of episodes, but it eventually starts to find its groove, and while not one of my Top 14 comedy shows of 2014 thusfar, it’s still a reliably entertaining 20 minutes (especially towards the end of the season). Wendi McLendon-Covey is a stand-out for me as “the original smother” Mrs. Goldberg, and Hayley Orrantia makes a character as stereotypical as the teenage girl pretty fun. B/B+
*Trophy Wife: It had the best comedy pilot, tied with Brookyln Nine-Nine. Too bad it never matched the heights and promise of that first episode. Like Agents of SHIELD, had it gotten rid of one character (the over-the-top and horribly irritable Jackie) it would’ve made 5-6 minutes of every episode a lot better. The writing is usually pretty good (if a bit inconsistent in quality), but it’s the actors who shine the brightest in Trophy Wife. Marcia Gay Harden, an actress best known for dramatic movie roles, segues into a comedic role (though not much of a stretch in a role playing the decidedly unhumorous, professional, type-A character) with aplomb, and Bailee Madison and Ryan Lee play the over-achieving daughter and goofy son really well. They have bright futures. The precocious Albert Tsai was a hoot and a half in the first episode but it quickly became just too much and over-the-top for me. Also, not enough Natalie Morales. B
Super Fun Night: What a colossal waste of Rebel Wilson’s talents and the post-Modern Family time slot. ABC has yet to find a suitable match for their #1 show. Times a tickin’ ABC, Modern Family’s days of providing a reliably large lead-in is counting down. D/D-
*Mixology: Almost good, almost. Clever at times, nowhere near as bad as the premise sounded but far from a home run B/B-
*Modern Family: In its 5th season and after 4 consecutive Emmys for Best Comedy series, this show is showing some of its age. You could get rid of a large number of the cast and I’d be okay. Cam & Mitch’s storylines increasingly rely on them sniping at each other and their insecurities or hiding something from each other (their adopted daughter Lily is always fantastic all the times forever always though). Sofia Vergara does not get enough credit, often written off as just a walking Latina trophy wife caricature. I could take or leave Jay, Manny has flatlined as a character since season 1. I love the entire Dunphy clan though. They could just make it about them and I’d be happy. Hell, they could jettison the entire cast save for Phil Dunphy and I’d be happy. Its quality has varied more than ever, with some downright mediocre episodes (never an out-and-out bad one though, even the mediocre ones have some funny lines/plots), but it can still rise to the occasion with sublime episodes like Las Vegas. While Modern Family haters probably begrudge it winning so many awards, I do think it shouldn’t nab a 5th consecutive Best Comedy Emmy (that should go to Parks and Rec, but Big Bang Theory probably has a good shot at it after its biggest season yet 
) A-
*The Taste: Top Chef shouldn’t have to worry about its place as the best cooking competition show, but dammit I still watched every episode of this and most likely will for its 3rd season.
Black Box: I watched one episode of this and damn if it wasn’t one of the longest 45 minutes of my life.
NBC
Believe: I can only imagine how good this would’ve been had Alfonso Cuarón (director of Gravity, Children of Men, one of the Harry Potter movies) stayed on with this show instead of only directing and co-writing the pilot.
Crisis: I watched/suffered through only 1 episode and it already felt way too fucking long after 10 minutes F
The Blacklist: It’s gotten strong reviews. James Spader stands a real chance at nabbing an Emmy nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Drama. It consistently draws high viewership and has played a key role in making NBC the #1 network in the important 18-49 demographic. meh Cookie-cutter procedural. Very little made me want to stay around after its 4-episode trial period, and I didn’t. B-/C+
About a Boy: I really wanted to like this show. I heard good things about it. I’ve found David Walton to be a likeable actor who gets stuck in a bunch of lame, quickly-cancelled romantic comedies. Minnie Driver and Al Madrigal were both selling points for me for their work on The Riches and The Daily Show respectively. Unfortunately, after 4 episodes, I’ve found it to be a fairly bland show. If anything, it makes me want to watch the 2002 film. C+
*Parks and Recreation: My #1 comedy for 2014 so far. I still think season 2-4 were the best of the show, but comparing seasons 2-4 to 5 and 6 is like saying 10 strips of bacon is better than 9 strips of bacon, you’re still getting a lot of goodness either way. [SPOILER ALERT]Getting rid of the 2 weakest characters midway through the season was an excellent choice, [/END SPOILER ALERT] though I’m unsure about the addition of Billy Eichner’s Craig. He looks to be a permanent addition to the cast for the final season (of only 13 episodes! 😦 ). While I hugely disliked him at first, thinking any of the other Eagletonian Parks employees would’ve been a better addition, his outbursts occasionally will elicit a laugh out of me. While there were occasionally plots that didn’t quite do it for me, the growth of the characters (Tom’s transition from public-sector employee to private-sector entrepreneur in particular) have been great and the season finale was one of the best episodes of the show, up there with the election episode (probably the best of the series) and wedding. A
*Community: A return to form for the show, though I didn’t quite love it as much as the hardcore Community fans. Still plenty to love, seemingly combining the unique, offbeat humor of seasons 1-3 with the more introspective, character-focused tone of season 4 (imo). While it’s sad it seems like it won’t get #sixseasonsandamovie, I’m okay with that. It’s had 2 season finales essentially serving as a series finale, I don’t think I’d like another season where they write the season finale as a potential final episode just in case they get cancelled. A-/A
The Michael J. Fox Show: I tried a handful of episodes. No…just…no. Much like Nathan Lane’s Modern Family character (Pepper), J. Fox is better used in The Good Wife (ESPECIALLY so in the case of Lane). D/D-
*Rosemary’s Baby: This certainly wasn’t a very good movie/miniseries, it wasn’t bad, it was just blah. Utterly forgettable, boring, unspectacular to the nth degree. Zoe Saldana does her best with the extremely bland material she’s given, but this 4-hour 2-night snoozefest makes watching paint dry seem like a heroin trip. D
Dracula: Seems like it partially tried to mimic the slower, broody tone of Hannibal with far less success. Still, not out and out terrible. C
*Hannibal: Holy fucking shit. I gave up on this show after a few episodes in its first season. Buuut for whatever reason I watched just 1 episode. And I saw something in that episode that made me watch just 1 more episode after that. And there was something in that episode that lead me to watching 1 more episode and so on and so forth until I ended up watching the whole first season. I still wasn’t that impressed, but the way the season ended I had to at least watch the premiere episode of season 2. And what a turnaround this show has experienced. While I found the show much, much too slow, I did admire its spectacular visuals, well-drawn characters, good acting, and just overall stylish fun, if only it had momentum plot-wise. Season 2 got rid of essentially all the boring and charged ahead, making this show appointment viewing. For the season’s last 3 episodes, it fell back into its molasses-speed slowness, with abstract sequences such as a teardrop becoming a sea with swirls of blood in it taking up minutes of time. Visually good, yes, but too many of them and it’s awfully boring. Still, I spent the last 10 minutes of the season 2 finale with my jaw dropped. So glad it’s getting a season 3 which could go in so. many. different. directions. It was neck-and-neck tied with The Good Wife as my #1 Top Drama of 2014 for much of its run, but when all is said and done with their respective seasons over, The Good Wife edges out Hannibal having only 1 meh episode to Hannibal’s 1 boring episode + 2 halves of 2 episodes being boring. As consolation prize, I’ll reward Hannibal the #1½ spot on my Top Drama Shows of 2014 list instead of outright ranking it #2. A/A-
*Saturday Night Live:
FOX
(For those interested, I believe the NOVA episodes was actually a 3-parter (not 2-parter) called The Elegant Universe, broken down into 3 episodes titled Einstein’s Dream, String’s the Thing, and Welcome to the 11th Dimension)
*Sleepy Hollow: One of the stand-outs of the crop of freshman shows for the 2013-14 season. I remember reading the premise (Ichabod Crane does battle with the headless horseman, goes into a coma, wakes up in present day and assists a local cop solving supernatural crimes. Oh, and did I mention the headless horseman is one of the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse trying to bring the end of times?) and thinking it sounded utterly convoluted and was a textbook case of a show trying far too hard to do far too much.
How wrong I was. Get over the goofy premise and this show is simply a wonderfully fun show. Other shows try to scale great dramatic heights but this show is just a well-paced show with a fun adventure plot supported by an able cast. I’m tempted to give it an A, but I don’t know if it’s on the same level as The Good Wife or Hannibal, but on the other hand, I really can’t think of any bad things, plots, or characters from the show. If it receives a minus, it’s not due to any demerits on the show’s part, but the minus is simply earned relative to the other A-level dramas. A/A-
Almost Human: Almost good. It needs to go through a couple more drafts, better characters, more intrigue, better, attention-grabbing plots. Still, not terrible, just not memorable. Watch Sweden’s similarly-themed Real Humans for a better, more fleshed-out show about a future where robots have become as integrated into society as smartphones have today. C+
*24: Live Another Day Closer to the lousier latter seasons of the show than the heights of the show’s better seasons. It hasn’t reached the depths of the worst of season 8 (yet), but it’s definitely no season 5. Still, the quality seems to be evening out now. Best parts of the show: Mary Lynn Rajskub’s Chloe O’Brian will never get enough screentime in my opinion (hell, if they cast off Bauer and made her the show’s protagonist I’d totally be okay with that) and Lady Catheryn Stark shows her devious side. In the hands of a lesser actress, her character would’ve been a ham-handed, unoriginal villain, but she manages to breath deviousness into even her limpest dialogue.
Dads: The most offensive thing about this show is not the jokes, but the laugh track. The cast tried their best. D/D+
*Brooklyn Nine-Nine: I could write something very long about how solid the cast is and how the episodes balance them out well and how this show made me go from not seeing why he was so popular amongst my peers to liking Andy Samburg, but, to put it simply, it’s as good as you’d expect from two long-time writer-producers from Parks & Recreation. Whenever this show promotes itself as coming “from the producers and writers of Parks & Recreation,” it actually means and counts for something. A
New Girl: I watched the Super Bowl episode and have yet to understand why people like this show (apparently not very much anymore as its ratings have absolutely crashed since its first season)
*The Mindy Project: Even though its first season was very, very hit-and-miss, I stuck with it because, even if it wasn’t consistently funny, it was likeable. This becomes a bigger problem in season 2, and I’m almost disappointed it got renewed for a third season because I’ll feel obligated to watch it and most likely will. Mindy Kaling can write better and funnier than is evidenced by this show.
Rake: blah
Surviving Jack: Like the Goldbergs, but set in the 90s. I actually enjoy this show and between this and his guest appearances on Veep, Christopher Meloni has shown himself to be an able comedic actor (even if his comedic roles never stray too far into zany and stick more with the straight-man character).
Gang Related: Not terrible, it’s actually a summer show and it’s fairly decent for a summer show on a broadcast network. I’ll keep watching so long as it’s good enough, idk if it’s good enough for me to stick with it through its entire 13-episode run. It’s almost like a very, very watered-down version of the sublime/best cop show Southland.
*Raising Hope: An overlooked, underappreciated show that managed to be reliably and consistently funny throughout its 4-season run. A couple of off episodes here and there, but still filled with clever zingers and funny writing. I’ll miss ya Chance family A-
Enlisted: Didn’t like it nearly as much as its fans and critics did. The 3 leads were good, especially Chris Lowell and Parker Young.
Yeesh, 3600 words already and I haven’t even gotten to the cable stuff yet.
Cable
Alpha House & Betas: Amazon’s first forays into original programming were fruitful, the political Alpha House started off well/decently enough but really found its groove episode 3 onwards. Betas was shit for its first 3 episodes but grew from there on and by the end of the series I actually liked it better than Alpha House. It centers on a group of app developers living, struggling, and trying to grow their business in Silicon Valley. Sound familiar to a certain HBO show on air right now? It’s the standard by which I kept mentally comparing Silicon Valley and while it’s gotten closer and closer with each episode, I still prefer Betas. Too bad it got cancelled for a handful of (what looks to be) unspectacular new shows Amazon greenlit.
Helix (SyFy): Promising premise, nice to look at, but utterly, utterly stupid.
Shameless (Showtime): Flawless
Episodes: Doesn’t live up to its potential, but still always an enjoyable and amusing 20-25 minutes
I was gonna do this on quarterly basis but I fell really behind in my television watching, so I may do an update in summer/end of summer before my end of year list.
Top 14 Comedy Shows of 2014 (so far)………………………Top 14 Drama Shows of 2014 (so far)
1. Parks & Recreation (NBC)………………………………………1. The Good Wife (CBS)
2. Shameless (Showtime)…………………………………………..1½. Hannibal (NBC)
3. The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)…………………………..3. Game of Thrones (HBO)*
4. Veep (HBO)……………………………………………………….3. Bates Motel (A&E)
5. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)………………………………………..5. True Detective (HBO)
6. Community (NBC)…………………………………………………5. House of Cards (Netflix)
6. Modern Family (ABC)…………………………………………….7. Vice (HBO)**
8. Archer (FX)………………………………………………………..etc:
9. The Soup (E!)………………………………………………………-The Americans (FX)
10. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)……………………..-Justified (FX)
11. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
12. Raising Hope (FOX)
13. Pramface (BBC three)
14. Episodes (Showtime)
*While this list is exclusive to those series that have wrapped up its season (or are very close to it), I allowed an exception in Game of Thrones’s case as it’s a few episodes shy of its season finale and its sheer quality. Still, I am docking it for not completing its season. Put away your pitchforks, I imagine it puts up a formidable challenge for the top ranks once it completes is season (still, The Good Wife was very, very good this season. And admittedly, with this being the first season I watched and binged upon, it does have a bit of a new-show smell leg up)
** Vice is a documentary/news show. I do not have a news/documentary category. In its stories, it showcases real human drama however, so under those auspices, I’m including it on this list. Deal with it.
***Made this list before finishing Silicon Valley
AVthatsme 