January 26, 2022
jmunney
Best of 2021, Best of TV 2021, Television
A Black Lady Sketch Show, A.P. Bio, American Crime Story, American Dad!, American Housewife, Animaniacs, Atypical, Best of 2021, Big Mouth, Big Shot, Bob's Burgers, Chad, Chucky, College Bowl, Conan, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Dickinson, Earth to Ned, Evil, Fantasy Island, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Ghosts, History of Swear Words, Holey Moley, Home Economics, How to with John Wilson, I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson, Impeachment: American Crime Story, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Jeopardy!, Joe Pera Talks with You, Last Week Tonight, MacGruber, March Madness, Miracle Workers, Never Have I Ever, Only Murders in the Building, PEN15, Physical, Pose, reservation dogs, Resident Alien, Rick and Morty, RIverdale, Rugrats, RuPaul's Drag Race, Saturday Morning All Star Hits!, Saved by the Bell, Search Party, Sex Education, Solar Opposites, Succession, Superman & Lois, The Baby-Sitters Club, The Beatles: Get Back, The Chase, The Conners, The Good Fight, The Handmaid's Tale, The Kids Tonight Show, The Masked Singer, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, The Other Two, The Problem with Jon Stewart, The Sex Lives of College Girls, The Shrink Next Door, The Wonder Years, To Tell the Truth, Tuca & Bertie, Ultra City Smiths, WandaVision, Wellington Paranormal, What We Do in the Shadows, Whose Line is it Anyway?, Y: The Last Man, Young Sheldon, Ziwe, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
CREDIT (Clockwise from Top Left): Screenshot, Netflix, Screenshot, Screenshot
For the Year of Our Screens 2021, my list includes all the shows that I would recommend to my fellow viewers as “worth watching.” So that’s 77 shows! There’s a lot of TV nowadays, and a lot of it’s also pretty good.
I utilized a self-imposed rule in which I had to watch at least 50% of a show’s 2021 output for it to be eligible. However, there were some noteworthy shows that I watched less than 50% of, so I’ve spotlighted those in an honorable mention section:
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August 27, 2021
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Sports, Television
A.P. Bio, Bruce Campbell, Candyman, Chvrches, Dug, Dug Days, He's All That, Little League World Series, Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building, PEN15, Screen Violence, Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, US Open, What We Do in the Shadows
A.P. Bio (CREDIT: Peacock/Screenshot)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–Candyman (Theaters)
–He’s All That (August 27 on Netflix) – I’ve actually never seen She’s All That! (Do I have to have my 90s Kid Citizenship revoked?)
TV
–PEN15 Animated Special (August 27 on Hulu)
–Only Murders in the Building (August 31 on Hulu) – Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez together at last!
–Dug Days (September 1 on Disney+) – Shorts with Dug the Dog.
–A.P. Bio Season 4 (September 2 on Peacock) – With Bruce Campbell as Jack’s dad!
–What We Do in the Shadows Season 3 Premiere (September 2 on FX)
Music
-Chvrches, Screen Violence
Sports
-Little League World Series Championship (August 29 on ABC)
-2021 US Open (August 30-September 12 on ESPN and ESPN2) – Tennis in New York, baby!
July 6, 2021
jmunney
Awards Shows, Emmys, Television
2021 Emmys, A.P. Bio, American Dad!, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, B Positive, Big Mouth, black-ish, Chad, Dickinson, Emmys, mixed-ish, Mr. Mayor, PEN15, Resident Alien, Rutherford Falls, Saved by the Bell, Search Party, Solar Opposites, Staged, Ted Lasso, That Damn Michael Che, The Conners, The Eric Andre Show, The Unicorn, Young Sheldon
CREDIT: YouTube Screenshot
It’s that time again! The 2021 Emmy nominations will be announced on July 13, which means I’ve got a Wish List for the nommy noms I’d most like to see! In case you’re wondering, I haven’t held myself to any minimum or maximum number of entrants per category, nor do I strictly adhere to official Emmy rules. (I’ve included explanations for my deviations.) And of course, I must mention that I haven’t seen everything, so there are probably some worthy considerations I may have missed. First up: Comedy and Animation.
Almost every single one of my Comedy Series preferences from last year is not eligible this year, whether because of series finales or longer-than-average breaks in between successive seasons. Luckily we have a plethora of streaming services to fill the gaps, and plenty of them are represented here. We’ve got Hulu! We’ve got Peacock! We’ve got Apple TV+! We’ve even got that dang HBO Max. There’s also some room for basic cable in the form of Syfy’s Resident Alien. And it looks like for the first time since I’ve been making Emmy Wish Lists, there is no broadcast network series making my cut (although one of my choices began as an NBC show and another is a reboot of an NBC show).
In the acting categories, it’s an absolute embarrassment of riches in the Lead Actress category, with every one of the ladies I’ve selected giving the performances they were born to play. That’s also true of Alan Tudyk, who’s my easy winner in the Lead Actor field. (He’s an alien … pretending to be a human! Can you imagine?!) Over in Supporting, it’s a mix of newbies and usual suspects, with plenty of sitcoms really making full use of their deep ensembles these days.
KEY:
Bold=My winner
*=I have placed this nominee in a different category than the Emmy ballot.
Comedy Series
A.P. Bio
Dickinson
Pen15
Resident Alien
Saved by the Bell
Search Party
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January 11, 2021
jmunney
Best of 2020, Podcasts
A.P. Bio, A.P. Bio: The Podcast, Advanced Community Studies, Apartment 303, Best of 2020, Blank Check with Griffin & David, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Communication Studies, Community, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Cool Abed Films Chat, Cult Movie Cult, Dead Eyes, Dead Times, Dom and Andre in the Morning, Drag Her, Fighting in the War Room, Fluffy Town, Good Morning Greendale, Good One, How Did This Get Made?, Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast, Judge John Hodgman, MetaMeta, Newcomers, Oh Hello the P'dcast, Podcasts, Pop Culture Happy Hour, Pop Mom, Save Greendale Committee, Shipping Room Podcast, Six Seasons & a Podcast, That's Auntertainment, The Anonymous Advice Podcast, The AP Bio Rewatch Podcast, The Community Rewatch Podcast, The Darkest Timeline, The Greendale Seven Podcast, The Record, The Ron Burgundy Podcast, U Talkin' Talking Heads 2 My Talking Head?, Unspooled, Welcome to Greendale, You Can't Disappoint a Podcast
Any ranking of the best entertainment of the year is necessarily incomplete and represents the personal proclivities of the ranker, and that’s especially true in the case of podcasts. I listen to more podcasts than anyone I know personally (by a wide margin), but that’s still less than approximately 0.0001% of all the podcasts out there. So for my Best Podcasts of 2020 feature, I decided to make it particularly personal by listing ALL the podcasts that I listened to in the past year, because they’re all special, and all worth shouting out. I’ve organized them into a few categories: 2020 Debuts, Veterans, a few specialty categories that you’ll discover when you get to them, and Podcasts That I Host.
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January 6, 2021
jmunney
Best of 2020, Best of TV 2020, Television
A.P. Bio, American Dad!, Animaniacs, Beef House, Best of 2020, Better Call Saul, Big Mouth, Dispatches From Elsewhere, How to with John Wilson, Joe Pera Talks with You, Killing Eve, Middleditch & Schwartz, Never Have I Ever, PEN15, Rick and Morty, Search Party, The Baby-Sitters Club, The Mandalorian, What We Do in the Shadows, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
(CREDIT: FX/YouTube Screenshot)
When making Best Episode lists, some TV critics limit themselves to one entry per show, but I never operate by that self-imposition, as certain shows are just masterful when crafting a single hour or half-hour (or whatever runtime they feel like using), and that ought to be reflected in the ledger. So you’ll find that several shows have wound up more than once in this list, and those tended to be the ones that also fared the best on my Best Shows of 2020 list. You’ll also find at least one program that didn’t make my Best Shows list, as it’s possible to have one excellent outing within an otherwise disappointing season. So forthwith, if someone who missed all TV in 2020 asked me for a refresher, here is where I would direct them:
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January 4, 2021
jmunney
Best of 2020, Best of TV 2020, Television
A.P. Bio, American Dad!, American Housewife, Animaniacs, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, B Positive, Beef House, Best of 2020, Better Call Saul, Better Things, Big Mouth, black-ish, Bob's Burgers, Bojack Horseman, Devs, Dicktown, Dispatches From Elsewhere, Earth to Ned, Fargo, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, grown-ish, His Dark Materials, Holey Moley, How to with John Wilson, Jeopardy!, Joe Pera Talks with You, Last Week Tonight, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Match Game, McMillion$, Mike Tyson Mysteries, mixed-ish, Mrs. America, Muppets Now, Nancy Drew, Never Have I Ever, Normal People, PEN15, Rick and Morty, RIverdale, RuPaul's Drag Race, Saved by the Bell, Search Party, Sex Education, Solar Opposites, Stargirl, Superstore, The Conners, The Eric Andre Show, The Goldbergs, The Good Fight, The Good Lord Bird, The Last Dance, The Last O.G., The Mandalorian, The Masked Singer, The New Pope, The Plot Against America, The Twilight Zone, The Unicorn, Three Busy Debras, Unorthodox, What We Do in the Shadows, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Whose Line is it Anyway?, Wilmore, Young Sheldon, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
Clockwise from Top Left: What We Do in the Shadows, Never Have I Ever, Better Call Saul, How To with John Wilson (CREDIT: YouTube Screenshots)
Last year, I decided to rank as many TV shows as I felt like recognizing in my year-end list, and that worked out so well that I decided to do it again for 2020. So welcome to my ranking of the 67 Best TV Shows of 2020! Not every show is accompanied by a blurb, just the ones that I felt like I really needed to say something about.
I worked with a self-imposed rule that I had to have watched at least 50% of a show’s 2020 output for it to be eligible, but there were some shows that I’ve only just begun to watch that I wanted to recognize as well, so they’ve got their own Honorable Mention section. And there were also some shows that aired relatively few episodes in 2020 to the point that I didn’t think they should be eligible either, so they’ve also got an Honorable Mention section. And then there’s one more show that’s managed to establish its very own Honorable Mention section, and that’s where we start.
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August 28, 2020
jmunney
Cinema, Entertainment To-Do List, Music, Television
A.P. Bio, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Club Future Nostalgia, Disclosure, Dua Lipa, Energy, Katy Perry, Smile, The New Mutants, Video Music Awards, VMAs
A.P BIO — “Disgraced” Episode 302 — Pictured: (l-r) Glenn Howerton as Jack Griffin, Allisyn Snyder as Heather — (CREDIT: Chris Haston/Peacock)
Every week, I list all the upcoming (or recently released) movies, TV shows, albums, podcasts, etc. that I believe are worth checking out.
Movies
–The New Mutants (Theaters) – I’m still not convinced this long-delayed movie is actually coming out! (Or that it’s safe to go to the theater yet.)
–Bill & Ted Face the Music (Theaters and On Demand)
TV
–A.P. Bio Season 3 (September 3 on Peacock) – One of the funniest sitcoms out there right now!
Music on TV
-2020 MTV Video Music Awards (August 30 on MTV)
Music
-Disclosure, Energy
-Dua Lipa, Club Future Nostalgia: The Remix Album
-Katy Perry, Smile
July 9, 2019
jmunney
Awards Shows, Emmys, Television
2019 Emmys, A.P. Bio, American Vandal, Barry, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Emmy Wish List, Emmy wishlist, Emmys, GLOW, Happy!, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Jane the Virgin, Murphy Brown, Russian Doll, Speechless, The Big Bang Theory, The Goldbergs, The Good Place, The Last O.G., The Other Two, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, What We Do in the Shadows, Young Sheldon
CREDIT: Scott Patrick Green/Netflix
The 2019 Emmy nominations will be announced on July 16, and as that annual occasion approaches, I typically put together my own list of which shows and performers I would like to see recognized. But I’ve had some mixed feelings about that this year, as I’ve grappled with the fact that in the era of Peak TV, it becomes more and more impossible to capture all my favorites in one place. Ultimately I decided I wouldn’t be too formal or too precious about it. If there are ten shows I really want to see nominated, then I’ll list ten on my wish list. But if there are just two I really like in another category, then I’ll just list two.
I’m kicking things off today with Comedy. Before I get to my selections, I’ve got some thoughts to share, mainly about the new entrants. Among freshman shows, The Other Two mixed affecting family dynamics with the silliness of fame, while What We Do in the Shadows was just so wonderfully goofy. But it’s a couple of sadly cancelled high school-set sophomore shows that have my most love: Netflix’s poopy mockumentary American Vandal and NBC’s sharp and lovable A.P. Bio.
Among the actors, Young Sheldon‘s ensemble has really been a welcome part of my weekly life, and with that in mind, it’s been a while since either the Academy or I have recognized Jim Parsons for The Big Bang Theory, and you know what? I’m going to recognize him for his final year. Among names that you may not recognize (yet), let’s all keep in mind What We Do in the Shadows‘ Kayvan Novak for our future comedy endeavors.
Nominees are listed in alphabetical order. My top choices are in bold.
Outstanding Comedy
American Vandal
A.P. Bio
Barry
GLOW
The Goldbergs
The Good Place
Jane the Virgin
The Last O.G.
The Other Two
Speechless
What We Do in the Shadows
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July 8, 2019
jmunney
A.P. Bio, Community, Television
A.P. Bio, Alison Brie, Allisyn Ashley Arm, AP Bio, Aparna Brielle, Chevy Chase, Community, Danny Pudi, David Neher, Gillian Jacobs, Glenn Howerton, Jacob Houston, Jean Villepique, Jim Rash, Joel McHale, Ken Jeong, Lyric Lewis, Mary Sohn, Nick Peine, Patton Oswalt, Paula Pell, Yvette Nicole Brown
CREDIT: NBC
Over the past few months, the delightful high school-set sitcom A.P. Bio has become one of my favorite shows on the air, but then NBC went a little cuckoo and cancelled it. There’s been some effort on the part of the cast, crew, and fans to find the show a new home, but unless that happens, we will have to be satisfied with two short-but-sweet seasons.
One of the reasons I love A.P. Bio so much is because it shares a lot of DNA with my favorite show of all time, which would be Community, another former NBC sitcom that was constantly on the brink of cancellation (though unlike A.P. Bio, it kept beating the renewal odds). Their premises and central characters are strikingly similar. In Community, Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is a high-powered lawyer who gets disbarred and must enroll at a community college. Meanwhile, A.P. Bio stars Glenn Howerton as Jack Griffin, a disgraced Harvard philosophy professor who is forced to take a lowly part-time teaching job at a high school in Toledo, Ohio.
As I watched and grew to love A.P. Bio, I kept noticing more and more Community similarities, to the point that I could detect analogues for all the major characters. So I’ve assembled below a side-by-side comparison of the Greendale Human Beings and their corresponding Whitlock Rams. Enjoy, and let me know if you need help reacting to riding that ram.
(Thank you to my fellow commenters at the AV Club and Disqus for helping me out with these comparisons!)
Jack (Glenn Howerton) = Jeff (Joel McHale)
CREDIT: YouTube
The protagonists who try to act above it all but eventually embrace the crazy scholastic ecosystems they’ve become an integral part of.
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