Grid Effect

Television tends too be slow in the waning weeks of the calendar year, I thought I would count down the top television series’ of 2006. The basis for the rankings is how well a series accomplished whatever it set out too accomplish, not which series is more culturally relevant, humorous, etc. Because under those pretenses there is no basis for comparison between series’ like The Wire and Curb Your Enthusiasm. With that in mind, the top ten:

10) Entourage
No Mandy Moore, no emphasis on girlfriends and no comments like, “What if this is it? For both of us”. Just plenty of good natured ribbing, hijinx (Dom, Saigon), settings (Vegas, The Valley) and a multi-layered focus on the film industry (Bob Ryan, Warners, Miller Gold). Even the acting was noticeably improved from Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Connolly (Not good, but better). The third season wasn’t without its shortcomings, namely the disinteresting “three-way” sub-plot; but for the most part it was back to basics and a welcomed change to the melodramatic lovelorn tale of Vincent Chase and a moderately attractive starlet.

9) South Park
Fourteen episodes into the tenth season of this now classic animated series, where the good (”Manbearpig”, The Return of Chef), sometimes great (”Cartoon Wars Part II” “Smug Alert”) episodes far outweighted the letdowns (”A Million Little Fibers, “Mystery of The Urinal Deuce”). The series did seem to teeter on the brink of tiredness over the course of this season, I am reminded of a quote from the “Cancelled” episode a couple of seasons back, in which the Alien network executive explains too our four protagonists, “Once a show goes over 100 episodes it starts to rely on ridiculous plot lines and settings”. While we are not even close to the territory where they should consider cancelling this heralded series, it did seem to have the vibe that they were running out of ideas. Never the less, I am placing it at #9.

Rescue Me
The first two seasons were definitely in my top five in 2004 and 2005. But the series slipped a bit this year, bordering on a soap opera from episodes 3-7. Tommy Gavin, the anti-hero of anti-heroes, was sympathetic too start, scorned, redeemed, despised, redeemed again and then scorned once more. There was entirely too much controversy around one scene in which advocates and detractors debated at great length whether or not Tommy had raped his ex-wife, which spawned an even broader debate about the series’ overall illustrations of women. I still think the show has more than enough redeemable qualities (the acting, firehouse banter, subtle Kennedy family references), but the level of tragedy Tommy Gavin endured in season three made it hard too suspend disbelief. For a series that prides itself on realism, that is a major setback from its two predecessors, luckily those first two seasons were arguably flawless, so Dennis Leary and Peter Tolan’s firehouse drama gets settled in at #8.

7) Friday Night Lights
Unequivocally the best new series of the year. We are at the mid-season point for both the series and the team that inhabits it. The acting, writing and production are all exemplorary, more so than any other drama on any of the four major networks. While most series have a target demographic, Peter Berg’s high school football drama, adapted from the film (which he directed) and novel, offers something for every age, male and female alike (Which makes the deplorable ratings all that more surprising). It territory eclipses the limited confines of the football field and portrays small town America without a condescending or morally superior perspective. Hopefully the move to Wednesday nights will improve its standing in the mainstream.

6) Curb Your Enthusiasm
The playfully classical soundtrack floods my memory banks in just writing out the title. This was yet another series that has seen better days but i’ll take a mediocre Larry David over just about anything else on television. The fifth season of Seinfeld on pay cable provided us with hijinx on pedophiles, religion, adoption, sandwiches, illness, and left nothing and no one unscathed. If you are a staunch supporter of something other than the environment, then this series will probably offend you; that’s why I place it at #6.

Back with the top five series in 2006 sometime this week.

The Golden Globe nominations were announced today. I feel compelled to bitch about the film nominations (certain films were overly or under appreciated), but since this blog is dedicated to television I will try to stay on topic.

Let me just preface this by saying I am not really into award shows. They are completely subjective and have no baring on anything. Art isn’t like, say, athletics. Where competition is the driving force behind the vernacular. There is no clear cut winner. Because when shows get shortchanged like some were this year, it loses quite a bit of credibility.

First off, no nominations for The Wire yet again, this is the best season of television since the fifth season of The Sopranos and it gets snubbed time after time for three reasons:

1) No A-list celebrities in the cast. The Wire features a bevy of talented no-names that are unrecognizeable. Actually, Method Man probably had like twenty minutes of screen time if you want to nit-pick. But, I mean, does this warrant snubbing Michael K. Williams (Omar Little), Jim True-Frost (Prezbo), Wendell Pierce (Bunk), Seth Gillam (Carver) or JD Williams (Bodie). At least throw them a bone and give them an ensemble cast nomination.

2) HBO does not promote the series like they do with The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Entourage. Why is this? I have no idea. It is hard to fault them because they have kept it around for four seasons and have agreed to a fifth. But it just doesn’t get the same mainstream attention as its HBO brethren.

3) Exceptionally large cast. If I count it out in my head, the fourth season of The Wire hovers around fifty integral characters, making available screentime scarce for someone trying to make a statement for the Emmys/Golden Globes. I still do not think this warrants snubbing for supporting roles, but it definitely slims any opportunity for the series’ actors to get noticed.

Essentially, its voters lacking familiarity to award it with a nomination. It is deservant of not only acting noms, but screenplay, direction, cinematography and every other available award. Simon and Burns do not care about these things, because ultimately they are innocuous, but a little recognition goes a long way and maybe more networks would start to aim for series with a little substance. Its hard to blame the foreign press because they probably haven’t even seen the show, but I doubt The Emmy’s will be a much different story.

The Best Drama category also missed the boat with Friday Night Lights. And I am not surprised, its hard to get the foreign press interested in a series that on the surface appears to revolve around a high school football team in West Texas. Of the five nominated, I would like to see Big Love get it. At least its something original. And between that And Heroes (the other original TV premise this season), Big Love is penned much better. Regardless, Heroes is probably a lock.

In the Lead Acting categories for drama, Edie Falco was nominated for best actress. Which is surprising because I assumed the statute on limitations was up for the last season of The Sopranos. In addition, this was the only nomination it received, no Michael Imperioli, no James Gandolfini and no best drama. How can I take this seriously?
Anyhow, for the two categories, I am pulling for Falco and Bill Paxton for his turn in Big Love, though I have no idea who will win.

The one redeeming quality from these nominations are those for comedy series’. The two I wanted too see nominated (Entourage and The Office) were both honored with Best Musical or Comedy Series alongside Desperate Housewives, Weeds and Ugly Betty. With the exception of Desperate Housewives, I wouldn’t mind seeing any of these win. Although The Office is a runaway favorite because there are four European countries have different versions of it (The series was exported from England to The US, France and Germany).

As far as the acting nominations are concerned, again I am unaware of time constraints on these things, but assuming Curb Your Enthusiasm was past due, Steve Carrell and Jeremy Piven were the only two I cared to see nominated. And they will both probably win their respective categories.

One final note, this award show, more so than The Emmys even, is reflective of ratings success. Friday Night Lights was not nominated for a single award despite having some of the better acting on television. Scott Porter (Jason Street), Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor) Connie Britton (Tami Taylor) and Zach Gilford (Matt Saceran) seem too live these roles. The realism on the series is unlike anything else on network TV.

It is really detrimental to the longevity of the series if Friday Night Lights does not receive any critical recognition, because if a series with ratings this low cannot at least pickup any hardware, then its chances of surviving are even slimmer. Again, I am not surprised that this series didn’t get any nominations at The Golden Globes, but if The Emmy’s decides to nominate the quirky Asian dude or the spunky cheerleader from Heroes over some of the raw dramatic acting on FNL and The Wire, then it will be mildly disappointing, if inconsequential.