Showing posts with label The Simpsons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Simpsons. Show all posts

Friday, December 13, 2013

2013's Worst Television Series and Episodes

The Worst 

I rarely put the shows that are obviously bad on this list, I would rather put the shows who have fallen from grace, jumped the shark or shows in their first year who tried too hard to be "great" rather than just finding quality writing.  In fact every major network got a lump of coal in their stocking, including one pay cable show.  I honestly hate doing a "worst" list, but some shows, are just begging for it!

1-Dexter (Showtime)


This list has the opposite of the best list.  The best show of the year (Breaking Bad) had one of the best closing seasons of all time, while Dexter had one of the worst, and an atrocious series finale that did not redeem things from the season.  The plot with the beginnings of the code was cool enough, but divide between Dexter and Deb was oddly handled.  While some shows can have a season that has a ho-hum business as usual season this show always was best when it pushed the envelope, like with Trinity.  This was one of the most uneven shows I have ever watched, even last season had rebounded, but this season fell flat, and (SPOILER) Dexter throwing his sister in the sea with all his other victims proved the writers just went along with the motions and the constant changing creative minds can ruin a show. End rant.

2-Family Guy and The Simpsons (tie-FOX)


Brian Griffin died, and he's apparently coming back to life.  Well the creative team behind this show needed people to start talking about this show again in some capacity, and it got the twitter buzz it wanted, but people moved on, something FOX should do, let go.  This show just is not funny any more.

Speaking of shows that need to be put out of their misery, The Simpson's is another animated series, which needs to be put out of its misery.  I watched this years Halloween episode, the intro directed by Guillermo del Torro was awesome, but the rest of the episode felt like it was made 20 years ago without the laughs.  Terrible, time to end! 

4-The Millers (CBS)


A show with so much talent, Will Arnett, Margo Martindale, Beau Bridges, and Jayma Mays wasted.  This material for this show is terrible, CBS's number one comedy is number one because of its placement on Thursday nights, why change the channel, oh that's right because this show like their other crap Thursday show Two and a Half Men is dumb.  This is honestly the best I can do to describe this show, this write up is as simplistic as this show.

5-1600 Penn (NBC) 


Putting Bill Pullman back in the White House seems like a slam dunk, right?  I mean he helped stopped those aliens in the film Independence Day so he should be able to help save an NBC comedy.  Wrong!  This was NBC's worst new comedy last year, but the talent was there.  Josh Gad was directed poorly, and while Jenna Elfman had her funny moments she could not help save this show.  Comedy and politics has worked a lot recently, but this show was a big fat 00.

The Worst Episodes

1-Dads-"Pilot"

Beyond the racism, of the Asian assistant this pilot set in motion a show that almost made the worst list, it would be number 6 above.  The episode itself tries too hard, and guess what characters in real life can't be made like able the way they are set up in Family Guy.  This was just the biggest piece of garbage.

2-Dexter -"Remember the Monsters?"

One of the worst series finales of all time, and that includes my anger towards the fade to black in The Sopranos.  A massive hurricane is coming and Dexter kills someone, goes back and forth driving, toward this storm and ends up a mountain man alone without his son, leaving him with a crazy murderer he really doesn't know?  That's the plan you had from the beginning?  Awful.

3-Glee-"Shooting Star"

When this show gets heavy handed, it gets heavy handed, and this school shooting episode was just out of place.  I get why they wanted to try this, and help people cope, but this was a clunker, and just proves this show needs to be put out of its misery.  (World be number 7 on the list above).

4-Community-"History 101"

The build up from the stars of this show, talking about Community with Dan Harmon was their undoing.  This was an overstuffed episode that tried too hard, and did not get Community.  I hope Dan Harmon makes season four a dream.

5-Mad Men- "The Crash"

I know some people will yell at me for this (my friend Keith), but I hated this episode.  Don and the office on amphetamines? This reminded me of when The Sopranos attempted their trippy stuff, this worked better because of the era, but this episode felt odd, and out of place.  The exposition on Don's past was all that was need, not a trip gone wrong, to make the episode feel just off.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Breaking Bad, and Orange is the New Black lead Writer's Guild Award Nominations (Television)

It should come as no surprise that Breaking Bad score 4 nominations at the Writers Guild Awards (WGA) more than any show this year.  Freshmen Netflix series Orange is the New Black, also received 4 nominations. which received 3 nominations.  Returning series Modern Family and The Simpson both received the next highest total with 3 nominations each.  This is a great slate of nominees, they picked the episodes and series with the best writing this past year.
DRAMA SERIES
Breaking Bad
The Good Wife
Homeland
House of Cards
Mad Men
COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock
Modern Family
Parks and Recreation
Orange Is the New Black
Veep
NEW SERIES
The Americans
House of Cards
Masters of Sex
Orange Is the New Black
Ray Donovan
EPISODIC DRAMA
“Buried” (Breaking Bad), Written by Thomas Schnauz
“Confessions” (Breaking Bad), Written by Gennifer Hutchison
“Episode 101” (House of Cards), Teleplay by Beau Willimon
“Granite State” (Breaking Bad), Written by Peter Gould
“Hitting the Fan” (The Good Wife), Written by Robert King & Michelle King
“Pilot” (Masters of Sex), Written by Michelle Ashford
EPISODIC COMEDY
“Career Day” (Modern Family), Written by Paul Corrigan & Brad Walsh
“Farm Strong” (Modern Family), Written by Elaine Ko
“Hogcock!” (30 Rock), Written by Jack Burditt & Robert Carlock
“Lesbian Request Denied” (Orange Is the New Black), Written by Sian Heder
“Leslie and Ben” (Parks and Recreation), Written by Michael Schur & Alan Yang
“Pilot” (Orange Is the New Black), Teleplay by Liz Friedman and Jenji Kohan
ANIMATION
“A Test Before Trying” (The Simpsons), Written by Joel H. Cohen
“Game of Tones” (Futurama), Written by Michael Rowe
“Hardly Kirk-ing” (The Simpsons), Written by Tom Gammill & Max Pross
“Murder on the Planet Express” (Futurama), Written by Lew Morton
“Saturday Morning Fun Pit” (Futurama), Written by Patric M. Verrone
“Yolo” (The Simpsons), Written by Michael Nobori