Best of 2011: TV
Best Show, Drama
American Horror Story. Twisted, perverse, constantly surprising, mysterious, frustrating, icky, unique, daring. There are many ways to describe this show. I figured I was going to enjoy this show when I first found out about it. What I didn’t expect was just how deep I was going to be drawn into it. Every episode made me want to know more. The way that secrets unfold and characters crash into each other made for constantly spellbinding tv, even when people are eating brains and teenagers are shooting up high schools and dead babies are being sewn back together.
As much as the story was about Ben & Vivien Harmon, the show was brought to life by it’s supporting cast. Taissa Farmiga grew on me BIG TIME as their doomed daughter. Frances Conroy was heartbreaking as the elder maid trapped in Murder House for past indiscretions. Evan Peters as Tate was the single most compelling character on tv this year, alternating between misunderstood young man to horrible, awful, terrible monster. It’s Jessica Lange as Constance, however, who deserves the most praise on this show. Her “batty neighbour with secrets a-plenty” didn’t just command a scene when she was in it. She tore it off the screen, packed up in her purse, and stole it. She wins at TV this year.
Without spoiling anything, I will say that I am both sad and excited for season 2, and I can’t wait to see what they do with the…changes planned.
Honourable Mentions: The Good Wife, The Vampire Diaries
Best Show, Comedy
Happy Endings. Oh how I thought this show was going to be terrible. When it premiered last season I decided to watch it just to see how terrible it would be. Six attractive 20/30 somethings in a big city, being impossibly clever and zany together. Didn’t I watch this when it was called Friends?
Very quickly I realized how wrong I was. The comparisons are inevitable, but the truth is that Happy Endings really is it’s own funny beast. The first season hinged a lot on the awkward relationship between Elisha Cuthbert and Zachary Knighton’s characters, since she left him at the altar and yet they still hang out in a group, and while it was funny, season 2 is where the show exploded into greatness. Now that the writers have moved past the ‘failed relationship’ dynamic of season 1, season 2 has been about 6 funny people being hysterical. The show finds a perfect balance between funny and sweet, pg and pg-13, whether it’s Max talking about his fave gay porn “hot British guys, covered in blood!” or Dave (Zachary)cashing in all his Christmas favour coupons from Alex (Elisha), Penny becoming irrationally paranoid that the ghosts of lonely, single, spinsters past are haunting her in her new condo, or married couple Jane and Brad trying to out-do each other with their work-husband/wife. Every episode has me convulsing with laughter and not even hating myself for it!
Honourable Mentions: Community (barely missed being #1 because too many of the first eps this season played the ‘antagonistic dynamics’ between the cast. It has since become, naturally, brilliant and hysterical.), Modern Family (I would watch a show built simply around Sofia Vergara saying things in her accent).
