The State of Television in 2011: A Top 5

Television has long been catching up to film in quality. It offers a unique format to tell a story, and in recent years authors have finally been taking advantage of it. David Lynch showed that it was possible, if not yet feasible, to run a show with artistic merit with Twin Peaks; but it wasn't until the early 2000's, with The Sopranos, that television really came into its own. Since that illustrious show broke open the floodgates, directors like Martin Scorsese and Michael Mann have been a part of creating wonderfully detailed pilots. I would argue that since the year 2000 television has gotten better every year... until last year. Mad Men, the best still running show right now, had no episodes air in 2011; Modern Family got stuck in a rut that everyone should have seen coming and despite still featuring a stellar cast seems to be telling the same stories over and over; and new shows like New Girl (starting to hit its stride in 2012) and The Killing have been completely underwhelming.

Is this the start of a new downward slide in quality? Or just a blip in the slow march towards cinema's death? While the death of cinema might be premature, I'd say that this is an anomalous year, a momentary blip in the sloooooooow transference of the moving image from the movie theater to our living rooms. Networks, having yet to figure out how to make money off the 20-somethings, have increasingly looked to capitalize on the aging baby boomers. CBS in particular being the poster boy for releasing backwards programing, that is soon to be reviled. NBC, on the other hand, looks more like a cable channel in terms of ratings than the network powerhouse of old which featured behemoths like Cheers, Friends, and Seinfeld. Yet, in this age of re-watching and catching up on cult shows of the past, it's programming seems set to be influential for years. In the midst of this transition and dip in quality there were some good shows to be seen. Naturally, I haven't watched everything, in fact I haven't even watched everything that's supposed to be great, but out of what I have seen this is the best of 2011 in television:

5. Bored to Death
In its final season this show made up of wonderful character actors, took its situations to new heights of absurdity and somehow succeeded. The private detective novel is a favorite of mine so the send-up of Philip Marlowe as a modern day hipster is particularly hilarious. Finally it must be said that Ted Danson has never been funnier than he is on this show.
 

4. Doctor Who
I would say this selection solidifies my standing as a nerd but really my number 3 would certainly do that even if this didn't. Yet, regardless of its reputation for sci-fi weirdness and its history of putting spectacle over story, the modern iteration of the show is full of heart and cleverness. Steven Moffat, who runs the show and writes many of the best episodes in addition to his duties on the equally good Sherlock, is a master of concise storytelling. Unlike many other modern examples of sci-fi where new technology is revealed to save the day or new characters are introduced at the end of an episode, story arcs are earned; rare are the episodes resolved by deus ex machina. A show that rewards rewatching and endless speculation, be careful before watching as it is very easy to become hooked...

3. A Game of Thrones
The rare well written epic fantasy novel has somehow successfully jumped formats and become an extremely successful episodic television show, this still amazes me. Similar to Doctor Who, AGOT doesn't use the fantasy format's deus ex machina cliche to escape the hard work of creating compelling characters or compelling story lines, instead it builds tension and political intrigue consistently. The real difficulty in adapting a notoriously sprawling book was always going to be pacing and a lot of thought has clearly gone into this aspect of the show as the story moves briskly towards its conclusion. The first must watch fantasy television show.

2. Community
Speaking of fantasy, here's a show that plays on modern television conventions, cultural institutions, and more generally modern life to create an experience that is so far from reality that it can't help but mimic it. This show is thoughtful and strange, sweet and innovative, and never less than good television.

1. Parks and Recreation
In an era of economic hardship and extreme political partisanship this show strikes the perfect cord of hopefulness. Its well documented that media takes a turn for the extremes, both sticky sweet and bitterly harsh, during difficult times and this is a perfect example of sticky sweet escapism done right. The show doesn't evade reality but instead twists it as if to say that the world is a good place if we have friends to help us and the self-belief to pick ourselves up (political centrism in those duel ideas). The group of characters on the show have over the course of the show become very consistent and more importantly, very consistently funny. Quite simply, here is a show at the peak of its powers, showing no signs of doing anything but get better.