This Season in Television - 2010-2011

Today is the second anniversary of the blog, so thanks to everyone who stopped by (i.e. no one) over the last two years.

To celebrate, here's a special season-ending post recounting some of the highlights of the TV shows I watched this year.

Best New Show: I didn't stick with any of the new shows I watched this season, but then all of them are now canceled so I couldn't anyway. Running Wilde was the best of the bunch because the others can all be considered lame, and while I don't consider Wilde awesome (nowhere near as brilliant as Arrested Development), it had some funny moments.

Worst New Show: My Generation, canceled after two episodes I believe, which tells you a lot. I only watched one, which tells you even more. The concept was kind of interesting on paper, but they blew it.

Best Comeback: After a slightly sub-par season last year, 30 Rock came back with a lot of hilarious episodes, to everyone's relief.

Worst Comeback: The series finale of V had some good moments, but it was one of those shows where too many characters are acting like morons every episode. Glee is also frequently flawed, but at least that show has Sue Sylvester, and I would rather watch her than Tyler Evans any day.

Most Creative: No contest, the answer is Community. It's one of the most creative shows on television right now, and this season we got a WIDE assortment of experimentation in genre and style. It's like nothing else on TV right now, and I am totally ready for another season of parodies, pop culture references, and ridiculous fun.

Least Creative: No Ordinary Family, a show so bland that it did literally nothing new whatsoever and tried to disguise that fact with cool superpower effects. However, the cool superpowers are what kept me watching for a few episodes (ditto for The Cape's nerd factor), and why My Generation got "Worst New Show" instead.

Best Finale Cliffhanger: Cliffhangers are usually better suited to dramas, but I have more comedies on my schedule, and Fringe was more "WTF" than cliffhanger, so this one goes to Parks and Recreation, which actually kind of pulled out multiple cliffhangers for each of its characters.

Hero of the season: Michael Scott from The Office, who won the hero award more times than anyone else this season (4, to be exact). I've always enjoyed his antics, but as he finally made his exit this year, we saw Michael grow into someone who is wiser, more mature, and more likable than he ever was in the old days, and he made us miss him. Runners up: Pam from The Office and Andy from Parks and Recreation, who each scored 2 hero awards this season and had some touching moments of their own.

Douchebag of the season: Yes, folks, it's Tyler Evans from V. Most of the characters on that show are often stupid and/or bland, but Tyler outshines them all and, if I'm not mistaken, was considered the worst character on television by everyone who ever watched. He was a whiny, angsty, ignorant tool who was only ever motivated by daddy issues and wanting to jump Lisa's bones (okay, can't blame him for that one), and I was complaining about him almost every week even though he only made douchebag twice. Runners up: No one is as horrible as Tyler Evans.

BONUS SNEAK PREVIEW! After watching some trailers for upcoming shows, I have decided which ones I may be interested in next season. Here they are, in order of how excited I am to see them (most to least):

New Girl
An obvious choice for me, seeing as how it stars Zooey Deschanel. But it actually does look really funny thanks to Zooey's comedic talents (and adorableness), and it's refreshing to see the girl play the funny one while all the guys are the straight man. My only concern is that it's on FOX, which pretty much means that it will be canceled unless its ratings are in the top ten.

Awake
The trailer for this show was really cool and effective in making an impression on the viewer. Someone in the Youtube comments said it had been haunting them for days after watching it, and I think that sums up its intrigue. Awake is about a man struggling with two alternate realities after a car accident with his family: one where his wife died, and one where his son died. From the footage shown, it looks like it starts to affect his sanity due to not knowing which reality is real, if any of them. Looks well done, too. Definitely on board.

Once Upon a Time
This may or may not be one of those things that suffers from too many special effects and not enough substance, but I might check it out for the fantasy element. It's basically just about a fairy tale town full of fairy tale characters and dark mysteries. It's too early to tell, but it could be cool or it could do to fantasy what No Ordinary Family did to super powers, by which I mean ruin it with mediocrity.

The Playboy Club
Everyone is saying this show is a rip-off of Mad Men, and it could be I suppose, though I think the only thing they really have in common is the time period and womanizing men in suits (which can be attributed back to the time period). For me, the trailer got interesting when one of the bunnies (Amber Heard) accidentally killed a dude. I kind of like those murder cover-up stories for some reason.

Smash
Not entirely sure about this one, but I think I'm only interested because it is a musical that has the potential to be a lot better than Glee. This one is a drama, it's not set in high school, and will apparently have some original songs (though Glee did start dabbling in that one this season). On a side note, I find it funny that NBC is attempting to pull in viewers by ripping off FOX's most successful shows - first The Voice, after American Idol, now Smash, after Glee. But I like NBC better than FOX, so I'm all for it. Not going to watch The Voice, though.

Suburgatory
This one is at the bottom of the list because the trailer wasn't really that funny, but it had that energy that makes me think maybe it could be funny but they just didn't include the best parts in the trailer. Probably not, but I might take a look anyway.