At last, we get to the end of our countdown. I saved the top three for last in part because I had much more to say about these shows, by and large, than many others on the list. I also saved them in part because I thought these three shows were head and shoulders above everything else I saw this year. (When I talk about how the writers’ strike thinned the pool of TV shows, this is what I mean– usually, there are six or seven shows in this top tier.)
And even having said that: Among these three, the #1 show ran away with the title this year. In past years some shows have gotten the #1 almost by default, without truly standing out over the next few shows. (It’s like the NFL Draft: Some years there’s a clear #1 prospect; some years there are four or five guys who are fairly close to each other, and it comes down to individual evaluations and personal preferences.) That’s not the case this year.
Without further ado, let’s look at the top three.
3. English Teacher
Season 1
FX
TikTok star and creator of The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo Brian Jordan Alvarez gets his first TV sitcom here, starring as Evan Marquez, the mid-30s gay English teacher of an Austin high school, who’s trying to balance not only his work life and his love life, but his ideals and attempts to inspire students with the practical realities of teaching.
The continued degradation of public education in America is part of the theme here, as the kids barely try, film everything, invent new reasons to claim victim status, and according to Evan and Gwen’s conversation in the first episode, aren’t “woke” anymore. (“They’re saying the R-word again.”) But that’s not what the show’s really about, so much as it is these main four characters (and, increasingly down the stretch, guidance counselor Rick) just trying to navigate their vocations and their lives. Sometimes this means getting through a big event at school without controversy (or getting through the controversy). Sometimes it means dealing with meddling parents (sometimes overbearing, like in “Linda”; sometimes just insane, like in “Field Trip”), interpersonal relationships, student dynamics, personal lives, or field trips and conventions. And sometimes, the teachers seem less mature than the students, unsurprisingly. What it is throughout, though, is really funny in the character comedy, the one-liners and exchanges, and the absurd moments and setpieces.
The 80s soundtrack helps here, as Evan seems like the kind of person who wants his life to be a movie, and a big, cheesy, crowd-pleasing pop-rock score seems perfect for that kind of guy. He really wants that soundtrack to be scoring his inspirational moments as a teacher or his love life. Of course, as a teacher, he usually drops the ball when he has a chance to inspire a student; and as a completely crazy human being, his love life is a mess. Marquez plays Evan well as a guy who, among other things, still wants the world to be one way, when it’s the other way.
But the supporting cast is also great. Alvarez regular Stephanie Koenig plays Gwen, his best friend and fellow teacher, who is generally supportive but gets a couple of great supporting plots of her own (I particularly liked the “Hot List”). Enrico Colantoni plays Grant, the principal, whose primary trait seems to be a Peter Gibbons-esque “My only real motivation is not to get hassled.” But my favorite is Sean Patton as Markie, the gym teacher and athletic director. He’s as crude and blunt as you might expect (watching A.P. Bio again recently, I was reminded that gym teachers are an easy source of comedy gold), but he has real principles and he’s far more open-minded than you’d expect.
[minor spoilers, mostly for the first episode, follow. Well, mostly spoilers for comedic moments.]
We see examples of the latter in, for example, his willingness to turn Powderpuff practice into self-defense class, or his reaction to running into his old high school teammate, the quarterback, and finding out he’s gay. (It is hilarious just how long it takes him to realize why he’s run into him at a gay bar.) Befitting Markie’s nature as non-judgmental and someone for whom football is life, his first thought is how fun it would’ve been to rub in their high school rivals’ faces that they lost to a gay QB. “Huh, so we beat Westlake with a gay quarterback. I wish you’d come out right there on the field.” (Westlake is a wealthy suburb of Austin with a powerhouse football program, the alma mater of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Drew Brees and Nick Foles.)
My favorite example, though, is in the first episode. A parent is threatening Evan’s job because her son (now in college, so not even at the school anymore) saw him kissing his boyfriend at school– and she’s a powerful booster for the school, so she’s taken quite seriously by Grant. Also, her son is gay, something she may be trying to blame on Evan, and at the very least is something she wants to keep from her rich conservative friends (Austin has some very wealthy, very conservative suburbs, weird as you may have heard it supposedly is).
Markie gets her to back off by threatening to out her son. (He rationalizes it with “They’re all gonna find out eventually. I just offered to expedite the process.”) Evan grumbles that he wanted to win this fight on principle. Markie lays out the reality, albeit with some football metaphors that are probably very confusing for Evan:
Wake up, Evan! No one gives a shit about your highfalutin’ ideals, bro. Okay? We were down, fourth and one, I called the play … I saved your job, man, because you’re a friend. That’s what friends do, we help each other out. And if that’s not part of your fucking code, then I don’t know what else to say to you, dude.
Even though Markie’s crude, he’s principled and pragmatic about it– he gets results in places where Evan keeps insisting the world ought to work the way he wants it to. (Another great example is how he’s able to handle the episode’s overarching problem with his instinctive grasp of social dynamics in “Kayla Syndrome.”) The writing and Sean Patton’s portrayal elevate the character beyond a one-dimensional stereotype, and he might be my choice for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy if I had an Emmy vote.
Anyway, I’ve been wanting to write that for a while, and it took up a lot of space. I’ll just say that English Teacher is really sharp, well-observed in its characters’ strange foibles as they navigate their professional and personal lives, and not only really funny, but really consistently funny. I have some favorite episodes, but there’s not a dull one in the bunch. It has a heart underneath, too– maybe not as obviously on its sleeve as, say, Abbott Elementary, but it gets the balance of comedy and the sweetness and supportiveness of the faculty’s relationships with one another– which particularly come through in the last two episodes– just right.
[Note from the author: In the last month, a Vulture story detailing allegations of unwanted sexual advances and possible sexual assault against Brian Jordan Alvarez by a former actor from his usual repertoire was published. While it was disturbing and very believable, and may have affected my decision to watch the show had I known beforehand, I did watch the show, and my policy, as always, is to give you my honest opinion on it, regardless of anything happening behind the scenes.]
2. Hacks
Season 3
HBO
“I would. Wouldn’t you?”
Four words of ownage so powerful they would fit on The Shield close out the third season of Hacks. (Reflective of every time Shane told Vic something whose underlying message was Recognize me. Recognize that you shaped me into who I am now. Recognize how we are the same.) No show in 2024 (except the next one to come) created a moment of ownage this powerful and earned.
Of course, out of context, they sound like nothing, but that’s where the season comes in. Having gone their separate ways at the end of season 2, Ava is working on and doing well for a Last Week Tonight-type show; Deborah is continuing to tour and take advantage of the revitalization of her career. Then she learns that the host of The Late Show is retiring, and Deborah wants the spot that she still feels was rightfully hers all those decades ago. The main thrust of the season is the two coming back together to work on Deborah’s late-night material and on pitching her to the network. With, of course, Jimmy’s relentless work as her agent and Kayla’s, uh, enthusiastic work as his assistant. (Jimmy left his old firm last season to represent Deborah, and Kayla, whose father founded the firm, followed him.)
And, of course, continuing to work through their own relationship, where they clearly need each other and are far more alike than either one would want to admit, and that obstinance and Deborah’s calloused emotional skin after decades doing comedy make it difficult for them to admit what they need from each other or be available for each other. (And in Deborah’s case, she’s trying more and more, but as we see with her attempts to reconnect with her sister, who the years have shaped her into may make that impossible for her to do.)
Ava and Deborah’s relentless hustle includes not only working on the material for a test pilot, but activities like pitching her to the network affiliates at a golf tournament, or a tour where some college students ask Deborah to answer for some of the more *cough* problematic jokes in her past. The two have inevitably continued to rub off on each other; whether that’s with Ava becoming more of a goal-oriented professional in her own career, or Deborah becoming more open-minded to the idea that the world, and the new generation, isn’t the one she grew up in, and maybe that’s not a bad thing. (The episode where she finally gets to be part of a certain club with a few other older male comedians is a great example of this.)
Jimmy and Kayla’s work, meanwhile, consists of doing things like playing tennis with the head of the network (Helen Hunt!) to get face time to pitch Deborah to her, or convincing the favorite for the hosting job to pursue his dream of dramatic film roles. (This involves a great guest spot from Christopher Lloyd, as a descendant of Fatty Arbuckle who really wants to get his screenplay for a biopic made– which means Jimmy and Kayla have to pay him a visit on Christmas Day.) And as underdogs with a small client base (essentially Deborah), they make some mistakes along the way, but they’re also relentless and get some plot turns both triumphant and funny (including at the end of the season).
Lest I forget to touch on that latter point amidst my talk about the storytelling, this show is still quite funny as well, and perhaps no better example of the comedic and dramatic coming together is “The Roast of Deborah Vance.” Deborah’s daughter DJ (Kaitlin Olson, for the second time this week, and neither of them being It’s Always Sunny) is nervous about her set, practicing with Ava and even trying out a new catchphrase. But when she has to finally perform, she not only kills it, but gains an insight from the experience into Deborah– one that was probably devastating, even if DJ didn’t intend it that way.
The performances have been well-praised, especially Jean Smart’s with all the awards hardware to prove it, but I want to highlight Hannah Einbinder’s work as Ava this season. Not only is Ava maturing out of someone who so often feels the need to say whatever best demonstrates her Good Person Bona Fides in the moment, but Einbinder herself has really grown into the role as well. She was always good in the role, but as the story has progressed and gone deeper into Ava and Deborah’s relationship, more and more has been asked of her, and she always rises to the occasion. Einbinder was good when Hacks started; she’s excellent now.
And like Einbinder herself, Hacksโ writing and storytelling has outdone itself each season from the previous. The final moments of the season reached a height of dramatic storytelling not seen anywhere else on the list below this entry. (Sorry, but #1 really is just that good.) For anything I’ve said about the effect of the writers’ strike on the year of TV: Make no mistake, Hacks has gotten better every year and is fully deserving of recognition as one of the best shows of 2024.
1. Shลgun
Season 1
FX / Hulu
Some time in 2024, just looking for an old favorite to watch, I put on Mad Men‘s “Shut the Door. Have a Seat,” my favorite episode of the show. I love cunning plans and crazy capers, at least a lot more than, as Roger says in “The Suitcase,” “where they start with the funny stories and they end up crying.” He was talking about AA members who spend most of their time telling drinking stories like they’re old war stories, but it works well enough for what I like and don’t like about prestige TV.
What struck me more than anything, though, 15 years after it first aired, is that every scene is compelling, not just something you can be entertained by in the background. Even the conversations and the little moments (Don’s delight and realization: “So we’re negotiating”) are so good you don’t want to miss anything, even the smallest line or expression.
Anyway, this is a longwinded way of saying that, in our era of “second-screen viewing,” Shลgun reaches the original-prestige-TV heights of being so goddamn compelling you don’t want to look away, in a way that almost no TV show does anymore.
The second TV adaptation of James Clavell’s novel is a remarkable achievement for being so compelling while being almost entirely in Japanese; an absolutely killer cast and production contributing to making every moment compelling and no moment feel wasted. Cosmo Jarvis handles the transformation from boorish Englishman to someone who respects and appreciates the customs of Japan very well, but even more so, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, and Tadanobu Asano deserve any and all awards they are/were up for consideration for. (I assume Asano lost out on Best Supporting Actor at the Emmys because he split votes with Takehiro Hira, and not because there really are people out there who think The Morning Show could ever produce a better performance than what Asano or Hira brought.)
If you’re not familiar with the plot, our story is loosely based on the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate. (You can read the Wikipedia page for more detail and the historical analogues; if I include them here, these next couple of paragraphs will become needlessly confusing.) With the death of the Taikล, everyone expected Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Sanada), descendant of the powerful Minowara clan, to be named regent until the emperor’s heir comes of age, but he knows how that will simply make him a target of the others, instead becoming one of five equals on the Council of Regents. His primary rival is Ishido Kazunari (Hira), a lower-born regent who has schemed his way to the top, and who immediately begins planning for Toranaga’s ouster. In Toranaga’s corner are Toda Mariko (Sawai), last living member of a formerly powerful family, and also a Catholic convert per the Portuguese missionaries who have arrived and begun trading and evangelizing; his oldest friend and most trusted lieutenant Toda Hiromatsu (Tokuma Nishioka), and Kashigi Yabushige (Asano), lord of Izu and loyal to Toranaga, although not as much as he is to keeping his own head on his shoulders.
Our story begins when the Dutch trading ship Erasmus, piloted by Englishman John Blackthorne (Jarvis), attempting to find a route to Japan and break the Portuguese stranglehold on trade, gets more or less lost at sea and eventually washes up on Izu. Yabushige takes them prisoner, rejecting the Jesuit priest’s recommendation to have them all executed, hoping to use Blackthorne, his men, and his supplies for his own gain. Toranaga finds out, however, and claims them for himself (or, in the parlance of Japanese customs of honor and loyalty, receives them as a gift from Yabushige, just as Yabushige was planning to do all along).
Toranaga, a brilliant schemer with a vision miles ahead of anyone around him, senses perhaps a kindred spirit in this unkempt, rude Englishman, or at least, someone who could prove very useful to him in the power plays to come, both for his skills and for how his mere presence can allow Toranaga to manipulate the other members of the Council. He has Mariko translate for him, and learning not only that Portugal and Spain have divided the world among themselves and plan to usurp any non-Catholic governments in the world, must guard not only against that, but against the power plays Ishido is making to have him executed for flimsy charges of treason, all while still holding to the customs, rituals, and culture of honor of Japan circa 1600. Meanwhile, Blackthorne must learn to accept his situation and adapt to survive, to prove himself useful enough to Toranaga to be worth keeping around.
Everything about this show is immaculate. The setting and cinematography are captivating, the performances are impeccable, and the drama of the story, with all Toranaga’s long-term planning and the wheels within wheels he spins, is top-notch. (It’s also a great example of how in drama, when we mean “action,” we don’t necessarily mean blood and guts spilled– that does happen, of course– but in the way simple words, letters, and other gestures can set plans into motion, can raise the stakes or change the game entirely.)
Much like with my music list, my #1 show here is going to be a popular pick in a lot of places. And similarly to “Not Like Us,” that’s because the power of Shลgun is simply undeniable. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen a TV drama this compelling (that I wasn’t personally involved with in some way). It’s the rare 2020s prestige TV show that actually feels like it could stand proudly alongside something like Mad Men or Breaking Bad, or even of the original generation– The Sopranos, The Shield, The Wire, Deadwood— rather than feeling like a Xeroxed clone of those shows without the soul. (And, obviously, without being a half-hour ostensible sitcom that might as well be called Flashbacks to Trauma.) It was so compelling I watched most of the episodes twice over just to make sure I didn’t miss any detail– I don’t know the last time I could say that about a TV drama.
And in a particularly astounding fashion, it does all this– and captured widespread critical praise and popular attention, not just from me– with dialogue almost entirely in Japanese. (I use subtitles a lot anyway, between my age and amount of lifetime spent up close at concerts in small venues, but my own TV-watching experience doesn’t take away from what a feat that is.)
Shลgun was originally intended as a miniseries, but with the phenomenal critical and audience reception to it– including 18 Emmys, a record for a single season of television, among them Outstanding Drama Series– FX has decided to extend the show’s run further. I’m not sure what stories they plan to tell in future seasons or what their source material will be, but if season 2 is half as good as season 1, it’ll still be worth watching. If it’s 80% as good, it might still be the best show on television. I can’t think of higher praise than that.
A couple of final notes:
I was considering a “TV Moments of 2024” article, and while I suppose such a thing is still possible, I pretty much included all of my favorite moments in the writeups for their individual shows already– Hacks, English Teacher, and Royal Crackers most obviously. (I suppose Shลgun is the exception, and… well, how to choose there?)
I tried to pick header images each day from shows that were in the day’s article, but while not making it too obvious which shows they were if you hadn’t seen them. I hope I succeeded.
Thanks for sticking with me throughout the week. Hopefully you’ve discovered some new shows to check out. And if somehow you haven’t, because you’ve seen all of these, then, well, you can attest to the accuracy of my evaluations and writeups. It’s the eighth year I’ve done this series for our community, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to share my favorite stories on the small screen with the rest of you.
What did we watch?
M*A*S*H, Season One, Episode Six, “Yankee Doodle Doctor”
This is the one where a documentary crew comes to the M*A*S*H – not the later, more celebrated one, but one in which a goofy propagandist annoys them, so they run him out and re-shoot and edit the film to their liking. Itโs another example of them taking nothing but the work of doctorinโ seriously; Hawkeyeโs film is largely him channelling Groucho Marx (for the first time but far from the last); Hawkeye gets exasperated when the documentary crew interferes with the surgery. This is the myth of being hypercompetent.
Thereโs a gag where Henry tells a joke, then we cut to the audience showing it fell completely flat. My favourite part is Larry Linvilleโs gormless expression. This show has such needlessly good acting.
Also, the documentary director is played by Ed Flanders.
I never appreciated Linville and Stevenson as much as I have on my own rewatch.
I’ve come around to thinking that while I technically love a handful of other characters more (but it’s MASH, you’re spoiled for choice on favorite characters in one of the best ensembles ever), Frank and Henry were the show’s two best and most original comedic characters, and a huge part of that is because of how excellent Linville and Stevenson’s performances are. There are so many moments of them making exactly the right, and funniest, choice in any given scene.
Linville was given a very difficult task of playing the show’s most stagnant and unlikable character, only slightly watered down from the utterly offensive guy in the movie. And he never phoned it in, even when he had one foot out the door.
Ed must be Ned’s brother; that’s why he named his sons Rod and Todd. Family tradition.
Much like my brother, Christian Nankervis.
Kojak, “A Very Deadly Game” – The NYPD and the FBI team to bring in a drug dealer, only things go wrong and a cop is killed. And then one of the Feds stopped cooperating because he’s more interesting in breaking up a bigger drug deal than in bringing the killer to immediate justice. This being a 70s show, everyone ends up getting what they want in the end, but the tension between Feds and cops makes for a solid hour. Also, the widow of the dead cop, who is a Black man often sent undercover, calls out Kojak for giving her husband all the crap jobs. This won’t change anything, of course, but it’s interesting to see at least some self awareness from the writers about matters of race in both the real and fictional worlds. Plus Kojak holds a puppy. Your argument is invalid.
Fraiser, “Here’s Looking at You” – Frasier gets his dad a telescope to help pass the time, and through that telescope Martin meets someone. Only he refuses to ask her out. We get the usual quotient of laughs, but underlying it is a more serious story about Martin starting to date again six years after his wife’s death and about his insecurities. It’s really kind of sweet, and sets the tone for several similar episodes to come in between the pseudo-French farces and Crane Brothers misadventures.
Gaucho Gaucho – (five minutes in) Wait a minute, I recognize this styleโฆ (furiously Letterboxs) Aha! Itโs the Truffle Hunters guys, again taking interesting subjects in a vanishing culture and framing them in fussy, sterile compositions. Somebody must get something out of their distinct approach because they keep getting attention for it, but to me it prioritizes the uncut frames over anything else โ the subjects, the audience, the potential of editing and other cinematic tools. There are souvenir shot glasses with more personality. Very rude to put fascinating people in a boring project.
Meow!
I sure took those independent documentary filmmakers down a peg! But seriously, they’re taking spots in Sundance and Oscar shortlists and stuff, fair game. And them going on as if they never even read my Letterboxd review of their other movie!
More like Oucho Oucho! But hell yes on sticking it to bad docs.
Death on the Nile: The Peter Ustinov version. I need to do a full article on this someday, as it’s one of my favorite Christie adaptations. It’s a tad too overstuffed–I watched this with my family, and my dad complained that we don’t really need to see all the alternate, Clue-like “what could have happened” blips of each character possibly committing the murder, and you know what, he’s right–but it has an incredible ensemble cast (all doing a fantastic job making their characters distinctive and memorable, even in brief windows), a stunning setting, and one of Mia Farrow’s most electric performances. Whatever longer-form piece I eventually write on this will have a lot about Farrow and her work as Jackie–who, over repeat viewings, has honestly become one of my favorite characters in any movie.
I remember this one having a scene with a snake where I briefly started to wonder if it was the best movie ever made.
It’s an A+ snake performance. I think Ustinov and the cobra would have nothing but praise for each other as scene partners.
The “what could have happened” stuff felt like padding to give all the actors a chance to be hams. But overall this is a solid adaptation with the right level of glitz, and I like Ustinov in the role a lot. The Suchet version is a better adaptation, but outside of Emily Blunt before stardom, it’s a cast of relative unknowns and can’t rely on star power even a little.
Iโll add David Soul for the Suchetโpast his heyday, obviously, but a nice presence. But yeah, the Ustinov obviously wins on star power, even if the Suchet includes some characters (Cornelia, in particular) I really liked in the book. I recall thinking there were some oddly mean-spirited bits in the Suchet, too, which hurts it a bit for me too.
Farrow has never gotten her due as an actress because she spent the best part of her career making films with a single director that doesnโt have four-quadrant appeal. (That director being one of my favorite filmmakers, Iโm somewhat more familiar with her filmography than most, and sheโs really great.)
This handily beats Orient Express for me, both more entertaining and landing harder at the end. And the whole “yeah we’re just fucking around on the actual pyramids” vibe is impossible to get anymore. Plus the snake scene owns.
Alan Partridge unfortunately (or not?) has me where I can only think of Peter Ustinov as “the greatest living philosopher.”
Justified, S3 E8 and 9: “Watching the Detectives”, “Loose Ends” – I’ve been complaining about this season a bit but after a few weaker episodes, these two feel like things are getting back on track. Some well-handled tension as Raylan tries to stay ahead of an attempt to frame him and some interesting character development for Ava who has not been around much this season.
Also I forgot to mention when I watched Better Man that Dewey Crowe from Justified plays the manager of Take That. Not a crossover I expected!
Always fun to discover an unexpected crossover like that. Justified has quite a few; I’m reminded that Kevin Rankin (Devil) also played the weird wiener RA Lucien on Undeclared.
The general Justified rule of thumb is the best seasons are 2, 4, and 6. The worst is 5. Season 1 and 3 aren’t as strong but that’s still pretty high as a bar of quality for me. (I’ve now seen it three times in all.)
It’s still a pretty enjoyable show when it’s not firing on all cylinders but damn I get so impatient with TV when it’s not quite delivering in a way I don’t with movies (probably because of the regular scheduled breaks between episodes where I start to doubt whether I want to keep going).
Looking forward to 4. Think I’ll check out Shogun after I’ve finished this season though, keep things fresh.
I love Justified and season 4 is one of the top two seasons, but I fully support you going to Shลgun, because it fucking owns in a way TV rarely does anymore.
Nosferatu – The flaws are probably going to stand out more next viewing, especially the pacing and the muddiness of the ideas here, even if the last shot puts a lot of Eggers’ obsession with Death and the Maiden, and giving into the shadow as both salvation and horror, into stark relief. (This also has the problem of all Dracula versions save the original, ironically: Harker/Utter in the castle is the visual and storytelling peak.) But if this is a flawed attempt at a masterpiece, what an attempt it is, from how the carriage LITERALLY emerges from the fog like a nightmare to Orlok’s gulping air to reanimate his vocal chords before he speaks, truly a decaying corpse given demonic life. (“I am alive, yet I am dead.”) Ugly and beautiful, I am just really on board with Eggers conjuring up the past until it’s here with us, and rational modernity can hold nothing to overwhelming, ancient evil. (Hmmm, I wonder why this was a hit.) “I am an appetite. Nothing more.”
St. Denis Medical, โ50 ccโs of Kindnessโ
Ahahahah, another winner.
I thought this was pretty funny. We were howling at the intro where Bruce is explaining the “For sale, baby shoes…” story. The main two plots involve two inmates coming in after stabbing each other, and Matt and (eventually) Alex convincing themselves they can help them talk through their problems, which a delighted Ron knows is going to fail and is more than happy to watch on the sidelines with glee. Meanwhile, Bruce is the last person at the hospital not to give blood, and it turns out heโs terrified of needles. The fear of needles is a nice chink in the armor of Bruce’s ego and bluster, and the final sight gag of how he tries to get around that fear is hilarious.
Ron was delightful this episode. Just the glee he took in knowing how this would go and in razzing Matt and Alex. And he’s not really wrong. (I mean, I don’t think it’s impossible for the two inmates to find common ground, but “rookie RN with zero training in social work and zero experience with prisoners, and scant real-world experience in general” certainly isn’t going to be the one to make it happen, and certainly not in one day.)
Asides on the guest casting– Guillermo Diaz is one of the inmates, and I did not recognize him at all. I did see him again recently on my rewatch of The Shield, but in my heart, he’ll always be Scarface from Half Baked. He looks very different now from those roles 20-odd years ago.
I’m sure I’ve seen Robert Baker in other stuff, but the only thing that immediately came to mind for me was his role on Justified as Randall. (Thereโs a C-story where heโs a security worker and Joyce seems to develop a crush on himโฆ and she apparently has a wuss boyfriend weโve never heard about before.) I later remembered him from Pivoting! Did anyone else watch that? Anywhere?
High Potential, โThe RAMsโ
The longtime beloved Dodgers broadcaster Marvin Price (so basically Black Vin Scully if he was, I dunno, 20 years younger) is found murdered deliberately by car. The clues Morgan picks up on, in conjunction with some details about Marvinโs home life and relationships with his neighbors, lead to a fewโฆ uh, leads. What am I gonna do, spoil the episode for you? I can tell you Steve Guttenberg guests in it! And youโll enjoy the story as it goes on– perhaps in particular if the fathers-and-sons story with Marvinโs son Dexter speaks to you.
And we get some more development in the Roman story, as Soto and Morgan track down Gio Conforth, one of the last people to see Roman before he disappeared. (Domenick Lombardozzi!) They donโt get much out of him, but it seems like his story is legit.
Good episode all in all.
American Dad!, “The Legend of Mike Madonia, the Rototiller Man”
Well, this show can somehow get Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick! Anyway, the main plot here is a feud between Francine and Tuttle over the Langley Falls Gardening Club, and you probably know how thatโs going to end in an insane way for this show. (And you might even be able to guess how Kevin Bacon gets involved in the plot!) Of course Roger is the Rototiller Man. Meanwhile, Stan, Steve, Hayley, and Jeff decide to โsay yesโ to everything, which somehow ends up with them living on a Home Depot patio set and Stan and Steve accidentally working there. I got a pretty good hoot out of most of this one.
And in rewatch, A.P. Bio, โGet Hoppy!โ and โSweatpantsโ
Durbinโs taken Jackโs book and turned it into an illustrated childrenโs book starring โBobby Bunny.โ Its surprising popularity gets Jack and Durbin an invite on the local morning show. Maria Thayer is one of the hosts, which was a delightful surprise as Iโd forgotten and she is one of my most long-standing celebrity crushes. I donโt know why I felt the need to disclose that, but โsuper-confident Durbin riding his 15 minutes of fameโ is hilarious, as is Calebโs ska dress.
Then, Jack rebels against the new school uniforms by turning his classroom into a cult. Unfortunately, the cult gets out of hand. And Durbin, who wanted the uniforms to cut down on school bullying, finds that it doesnโt quite workโฆ so Durbin and Helen resort to re-bullying the bullies.
Year of the Month update:
Coming in February, you can sign up to write about anything from 2016 along with these fine folks:
TBD: Bridgett Taylor: Rogue One
Tentative: Sam Scott: The Neon Demon
Feb 7th: Gillian Nelson: Queen of Katwe
Feb. 14th: Gillian Nelson: Milo Murphyโs Law
Feb. 21st: Gillian Nelson: Peteโs Dragon
And thereโs still time to join this team for 1947:
TBD: John Anderson: T-Men
Tentative: John Anderson: Nightmare Alley
Jan 16th: Cori Domschot: The Farmerโs Daughter
Jan. 17th: Gillian Nelson: Sleepytime Donald
Jan. 23rd: Cori Domschot: Down to Earth
Jan. 27th: Cliffy73: Miracle on 34th Street
Jan. 31st: Plutoโs Blue Note
Damn it, I guess I’m going to have to give this “Shogun” thing a try.
Hell yeah, Shogun. Need to finish the last couple episodes but good call on it bearing the promise of those early days of prestige TV, where each episode was a technical marvel to rival the movies and made you eager to start the next chapter in the story while keeping a hand on the overall picture.
Itโs exciting that this made such an impression, at least among awards and the general chatter. Weโve featured more than one article on the FAR about artists who make Netflix content and their mandates to have characters say everything out loud – in English – for people half paying attention, and we should stay vigilant to keep junk at bay. But itโs also important to remember that just because the lowest common denominator can attract the numbers, it doesnโt mean itโs all the audience wants, needs, or is willing to engage. (The Blank Check podcast recently made the observation that every week of Twin Peaks – including the most recent โReturnโ episodes a couple years ago – got its ass kicked in the ratings by Americaโs Funniest Home Videos.)
Anyway, great, thorough list, your passion has put more things on my list and given me new appreciation for the things I did catch.
Anybody else see Blueyโs โThe Signโ? Wonder what will happen to those crazy dogs next.
Somehow, in fumbling the accent marks for “protรฉgรฉ” while writing about Hacks, I summoned a Lovecraftian entity who ate my comment. To rephrase–I really need to see Shogun (I know I’ll love it, I just want to set aside the right block of time for watching it), but I can enthusiastically second the placement of English Teacher and Hacks … and particularly the use of that Hacks line. The Shield comparison is spot-on, only Deborah’s a lot better at recognizing how she molded her protรฉgรฉ than Vic ever was … and Ava knew she would be, which is why the move was so effective. There’s a particular kind of ownage I really love that’s based on a jujutsu-like turning of a person’s own insights back on them, so this is an especially awesome example of that.
I’m not sure if English Teacher will–or, given the allegations about Alvarez, potentially even should–get a second season, but like you, I enjoyed the hell out of the first one and have a particular fondness for Markie. It really fires on all cylinders, and there are a ton of moments from it that will stick with me. For sheer comedy, I’ll single out Grant slowly rolling up the car window as Evan explains why he finds it hard to believe lesbians exist; Colantoni’s “I’m way too tired to even begin to deal with this” expression is sublime.
Haha, there are so many great moments. Pretty much everything in “Powderpuff” is hilarious. Everything with Shazam, the boys really getting into it, Markie listening to true crime podcasts on the girls’ recommendation and turning Powderpuff practice into self-defense class; Markie getting “stabbed” repeatedly in the self-defense class… the actual final performances and reactions are both funny and triumphant.
The finale cold open, with Evan’s complete failure to help a student with coming out, always stands out to me, too. “But be careful, don’t talk to one of those nonspecific queer kids who may or may not be doing it for clout. Those people are mostly straight. Don’t tell anybody I said that.”
The conflicting protests in “School Safety.” (I’m kind of on Markie’s side on that one, to be honest– I think it’s another example of where Evan has a basic value, or at least a value he thinks he should have, that he does not think out how it will play out in the world they live in.) Also in that episode, Gwen showing up to the range in a teal dress is a great little button on that story.
The insane parent in “Field Trip,” of course.
I don’t even know what else I’d pick. The whole show is so consistently funny. I wish I had more Grant examples on hand. Pretty much everything that happens with him in the finale is hilarious– someone who is accepting of the world he’s in here, but still keeps running into things he’s not really prepared for.
All of these bits are excellent. I’m also going to also throw in:
– Speaking of the parent in “Field Trip,” Rick’s response to her: “I just made a super-cool decision, which is that I’m not going to talk to you anymore.”
– On breast implants: “Gwendolyn, do not. I am afraid every time I fly.” And steak nuggets and double Sprite! Lots of great stuff in that dinner scene.
– Markie talking about root beer to the guys at the gay bar and enjoying being a much-sought-after bear.
Oh, forgot two of my favorite moments from the finale:
“I miss the gay bar.”
“You might just miss the poppers.”
“I miss the poppers.”
“Apartment or warehouse?”
“Um, Home Depot stockroom.”
Also, I really wanted to find a photo of that final moment to use for Hacks, but I wouldn’t have been able to without creating one myself. Even so, this one really works well in highlighting Einbinder’s sad-puppy qualities.
Good reading of why Shogun is terrific. Thinking of Yabaguishe’s inherent traitorousness and the genuinely shocking, tragic close of Episode Seven in their maximum sense of drama.
Yabushige is so funny. I made some stupid post a while back with a poster for a movie called Death Before Dishonor, and Yabushige looking at it with his puzzled expression. Just someone who can play along with the culture of honor when he has to, but thinks it’s total nonsense. He’s gotta be the most consistently funny character on the show.
When I was thinking about doing a TV moments article, episode eight came to mind. “Osaka must believe my defeat is total.”
Hell, there are so many good ones. Even in the end of that first episode, Yabushige being willing to go out on his own terms if he can’t be rescued, rather than left to the sea, and the shock of realization that creates in Blackthorne, is amazing.
R.I.P. David Lynch
1946-2025
https://youtu.be/vI8c3eSIkQY?si=NzIrfj57U9Sy3Dzy