Looking at some of the 2013 shows that didnt measure up

I just posted my Top 10 List along with an Honorable Mention. On top of that, I include a list of shows that I watched so someone reading my Top 10 List will know what it was up against because no critic watches everything. In that respect, I'd like to also review 2013 by discussing some of the shows that fell short of being considered by myself for the year's best TV:

The Crazy Ones-It's a somewhat dependable sitcom and the Robin Williams/Sarah Michelle Gellar is a great pairing. I'll never understand the school of thought that Robin Williams is kind of annoying instead of a supremely talented guy who is among the most gifted comedians out there. Though I'd place myself in the top 10% of the population in terms of how much they like Robin Williams, even I found him a little redundant here. The show also loses points for having one of my last favorite stock characters: The lothario who is effortlessly irresistible to the opposite sex. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that it's supposed to be his comic trait and there's nothing that inherently funny about a guy who uses women like he does. Amanda Setton is clearly a talented actress but she isn't used particularly well here (ironically, I think she fit in better on "The Mindy Project") and she's given her character a weird tic of making every line of dialogue sound like a nervous question (perhaps she's trying to get on the cast of "Whose Line is It Anyway?").

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: This was a great addition to my weekly schedule for several weeks but the show had some irritating traits that eventually cancelled out the show's strengths. Andy Samberg does not make a believable cop (or a likable character for that matter) which begs the question: If the show's sole function is as a vehicle for Andy Samberg, why place him into TV's most overused genre when he doesn't fit into it? While some of the side characters (this show could win a diversity award for best Latino cast on TV) and relationships are excellent, the show lacks any sort of grounding upon which to build comedy. The comic tone is geared so much towards one-liners and quick gags, it feels more like vaudeville than a multi-layered source of laughs.

Modern Family-The show is high enough in quality to have merited honorable mention every year thus far, but by this point, the show has used up nearly every bag of tricks at its disposal. At this point, how many more hidden talents can Cam reveral? How many more revelations can there be that Jay's really a softie? How many more times can Alex surprise Haley by climbing her way up the social ladder? Hasn't she had her first boyfriend three times by now? This is not a fault of the show as it's doing what it is designed to do: Produce consistent and interchangeable episodes so that it can make a killing in syndication. I would happily watch this show five years from now when it turns up on the TV on a random afternoon and I still watch it now. It's just no longer event viewing.

The Sing-Off-It was probably right around #11 the last time it came on in 2011. Since the Sing-Off came back from the brink of cancellation, it acquired a new corporate producer in the form of Sony Television which made a few small changes that ended up making the show worse. I thought seven episodes was the optimal number but I didn't feel like I got the chance to know most of these groups. More backstory was needed and the swan songs, Ben's blog and the post-performance camera chats might have helped that.

The Awesomes (Hulu)-Seth Meyer's newest venture, the show got off to a great start and seemed to find something unique to say in the now overcrowded genre of superhero spoofs. I still watched it all the way through but the plots lost a little firepower after a while as certain plot motifs started repeating themselves (i.e. no one catching onto Malocchio's plan, Prock having a crush on Hotwire, Muscleman dealing with his inferior intellect in comparison to Prock) in ways that didn't build. Of the eight superheroes, I found only about half to really hold my attention as interesting characters. Coincidentally, that's the same hit-miss ratio as SNL sketches so, hey, at least Seth is consistent.
 
Alpha House (Amazon)-Based on an article from the New York Times, the show about four Senators sharing a house in Washington is a premise winning enough to get a good bidding war and the necessary amount of hype to kick off Amazon's original content platform. The show is pleasant and breezy through the first three episodes. At the same time, it's somewhat underwhelming due to the fact that it seems episodic in tone with little serialization. It almost seems like the remnants of a multi-camera sitcom. It's also worth noting that John Goodman seems to be recycling some of his old roles for the lead character (I see some traces of Evan Almighty, Flight, the Babe and some of his  Coen brothers films). He is a bit grumpy, a little lazy, and that's about it. This is is even more disappointing considering that most standout shows in the Golden Age of TV have incredibly strong protagonists. The upside is that the show has a lot of potential for good plots as there's a lot of amusing situations I can imagine placing four senators in. In the third episode, for example, they go to Afghanistan on a fact-finding trip for self-serving reasons. Although I was disappointed that they were in Afghanistan only in the episode's third act, it had potential.


My disappointments with Lilyhammer, Scandal, American Horror Story, and 1600 Penn are covered elsewhere on this blog.
  
   

A super-belated top 10 tv shows of 2011

Doing top ten lists in December is overrated. I half-worked on this in December, shelved it while working on a top 25 characters of the year. The lag in time has allowed me to make a better and more accurate list as I have a better idea which shows resonated with me in retrospect. This is true even if the show took a nose dive after the New Year as is the case with Parks and Recreation. Like any blogger who aspires to be a TV critic and doesn't possess superpowers to slow down time so he or she can watch everything, compromises had to be made in terms of what to watch and what not to watch. The pool of shows I selected this from is listed down below.

1. The Onion News Network, IFC, Seasons 1 and 2-Even though this is my #1 slot, I don’t have a whole lot to write here except that this is the program I was most blown away by week in and week out. I know it doesn’t score too many points for originality or risk as it is was basically an extension of their youtube channel, but that doesn’t mean the show’s not on the edge creatively. Both the first and second seasons came out this year and the show added a new level of complexity in the latter as the show became experimental and semi-serialized in the form of Brooke Alvarez’s rivalry with do-gooder news reporter Brady O’Shaw. Examples of episodic arcs included the broadcasting of the apocalypse, the computer becoming a sentient being and falling in love with Brooke, and the revealing that the icy Brooke was once a famous Russian cosmonaut as a baby. I imagine that in the same way hard core fans of The Daily Show and Colbert Report cling to those shows as a bastion of cutting edge satire, I see this as program as both the most funny and twistedly honest program on television. On second thought, maybe I do have a lot to write about it.     
2. Parks and Recreation, NBC, All of seasons 3, 1^st half of Season 4-No longer in the shadow of Office, Parks and Recreation has an incredibly strong cast that didn’t lose a beat with the arrival of Adam Scott as geeky outsider Ben Wyatt and Rob Lowe as hyperactive city manager Chris Traeger. The show hasn’t just created a strong sense of place and time, but it’s created an inviting one. Leslie Knope was originally an irritating opportunity for Amy Poehler to try out a leftover SNL impression. Now, she and her gang of government bureaucrats have become the best definition of a great ensemble: you see them less as actors and more as a group of friends we want to hang out with.

3.      Archer, FX, Season 2, 1^st 3 episodes of Season 3-The show isn't just another spy parody but a first-rate spy parody and a wacky office comedy to boot. The key to the show is that the characters are uniquely idiosyncratic creations rather than the means to and end for traditional parody.

More of my review can be found here

4. Hell on Wheels, AMC, Most of Season 1-The show is beautifully shot but doesn’t do the glamor of the West any favors. The railroad camps and the life of backbreaking labor is so hellish that only marked men would go there. The show interestingly contrasts that with two Irish brothers who think they can get a slice of the American dream with their picture show, a preacher who wants to open up a church, a whore with scars from her time as an Indian princess and a newly widowed fair-haired maiden who was told by another character that, not being a whore or Indian, she doesn’t beloing out there. It’s the traditional Western told through a lot of unique and diverse perspectives.  Note: In retrospect, I've learned that not a lot of other people liked this show because its inferior to Deadwood. I never saw Deadwood and proudly stand by it.

5.      Jimmy Kimmel Show-ABC-With his brilliant ambush of Jay Leno last year during the Late Night wars or his faux romance with Matt Damon among other things, Kimmel’s antics have made for viral sensations on quite a few occasions. Too bad only a few people know him as a consistent entity night in and night out. It’s ironic that he was previously known as the co-host of the unforgivably crude The Man Show, because I could argue that he's the classiest and most genuine host out there. Like Conan, he relies on a stable of cast and crew members as go-to sources of humor, but the difference is there’s a clear sense of affection that drives their interaction. This was most apparent in Kimmel’s teary-eyed TV eulogy to his Uncle Frank which marked a high-water mark of his series, if not Late Night Television. On top of that, he’s a pro at interviewing and a gifted comic. In short, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant format.

6. Wilfred-FX-Season 1-It took me a couple episodes to get into this, but I loved it once I started seeing it as a drama rather than a gimmicky comedy. It has one of the most depressed characters on television, it doesn't treat his illness with kid gloves and it's a feel good story with no false moments which is a lot to say for a show with a talking dog in it. Read my review here.

7.      The Office-NBC-Back half of Season 7, front half of Season 8-In the post-Michael-Scott Era, The Office has provided easy fodder for Critics to show off their sophistication with analysis of just how and where the show fell from grace. I’ll happily take the opposite position and declare announcements of the show's demise to be premature. True, the show’s suffered at the top with Will Ferrell’s lacking in any identifiable characteristic and James Spader offering little to the mix other than creepy blankness, but come on, this is still The Office and the work of a writing staff that knows what it’s doing. As the Michael Scott storyline came to an end, the staff did an admirable job of steering the show through uncharted territory and twisted the storyline to revolve around Andy rather than Jim. Andy’s no force of nature like Michael Scott, but he’s a fully realized character and the writers haven’t betrayed his arc. The staff has also kept the momentum going with storylines and grown Daryl, Gabe, and Erin.

 8. Portlandia-IFC-Season 1-This sketch show’s backstory is almost as endearing as the show itself. It evolved around a platonic friendship between SNL star Fred Armisen and alt-rocker Carrie Bowenstein wanting to spend more time together and work on a project. Not only does the pair expertly skewer hipster culture, they help us articulate and define what it entails better than we would have ourselves had we never watched the show. A tangible chemistry between the two stars and a sketch show with a unique perspective are two good reasons for this show’s existence, which is two more than nearly every other sketch comedy on TV.

9. Once Upon a Time-ABC-First half of Season 1-Last year, I'm embarrassed to say, I somehow winded up with No Ordinary Family on my year-end list. I was a little bit too stubborn to get off that train and admit the horse I backed in the proverbial Fall Season derby was a dud. This year, I'm going to go with ABC's most ambitious production and again, I have a small fear that the show's reliance on a 10-year old to dictate the rules of its universe might wear a little thin. But at the end of the day, even if the show crashes and burns, it had a great opening run that set up the possibility of a great series. As hour-long entertainment, it's been solid and the show has gradually built up its world enough to arouse curiosity over what its future may bring. A full review can be found here.

10. American Dad-Fox-Front half of Season 7, Back half of Season 8-An under discussed animated entity, American Dad deserves mention for being consistently funny and inventive. Roger, that lovable extraterrestrial duex-es-machina, continues to lead the show in interesting directions signifying just how well the writer’s room has resisted the temptations to overextend his limitless personality. Unlike sister show, Family Guy, American Dad has distinctive characters which exist as more than just an excuse to get from point A to point B in the plot.

Honorable Mentions:

-It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia-FX-A couple duds, but one of the most consistently hillarious shows on television over the last few years, deserves praise

-Mr. Sunshine, ABC-I thought Matt Perry had a fairly impressive hit on his hands and some of the side characters (particularly Nate Torrence, Allison Janney, and whomever played Heather the psycho seceretary) added a lot of color. Deserves more praise than it got. I think the score and some of its other tonal elements gave it a bad taste and I think Matt Perry's downer character wasn't necessarily appealing. I'm a fan of his type of comedy and would not have watched Friends for as long as it did.

-Terra Nova, FOX-I-Unlike Rowan Kaiser over at AV Club or James Ponziewichii P. (however you spell that guy's last name) at Time, I never thought this show took that big of a drop after its initial run. I can't deny it was exciting to see a universe with such wide open rules and I didn't see the cast.

-Sing-Off, NBC-A reality show with three great judges, a lot of great groups and an overall take-home message of synergy and harmony. Who know that you didn't need a British asshole and a dog-eat-dog environment to make a successful reality show? It might have made the top ten is I feel the show strained its format by running a couple episodes too long and I also felt the judging up to the final four was erratic.

-New Girl, Fox-Zooey Deschanel is ridiculous and implausibly weird. Even more surprisingly, I've slowly come to love her. She's so over the top and hammy, it's more of a send-up than a performance to be taken at face value. Schmidt started getting good storylines after the New Year which might have affected my rankings because it's now more of an ensemble comedy. 

-The Looney Tunes Show-Cartoon Network-Every time, I watch Looney Tunes reruns on TV, I've not only seen the skit before but I almost know the lines. In other words, I've been hungry for new Looney Tunes material for a while, so it's really good to see Bugs and Daffy back on the screen again. Then again, I wasn't expecting to see Bugs and Daffy cohabitating together in a household tackling mundane tasks like double dates, holding down a job, earning membership into a country club, being the star of a bowling league. Even worse, Yosemite Sam doesn't see Bugs and Daffy as hunting trophies, but roommates to mooch off of. Still, Kristen Wiig kills it as Lola and it does kind of make me happy to see Bugs and Daffy openly admit to being friends
-Revenge, ABC-A good twist on the high society soap opera: Having an infiltrator out to secretly destory everyone
-Web Therapy, Internet/Showtime-I did not expect to like this show because I'm not a Lisa Kudrow fan at all. This show was highly inventive in premise and execution and I was taken by surprise as its characters grew into an intertangled web with each other. Guest stars like Alan Cumming, Rashida Jones, Michael McDonald, Selma Blair and Molly Shannon all deserve great praise.


Just to let you all know what I saw this year:
2 Broke Girls, CBS, 2 and a Half Men, CBS, 30 Rock, NBC, Big Bang Theory, CBS, Bob's Burgers, Fox. Bored to Death, HBO, Burn Notice, USA, Community, NBC, Conan, TBS, Cougartown, ABC, Daily Show & Colbert Report, Comedy Central, Eastbound & Down, HBO (just one ep. but I hated it), Family Guy, FOX, Free Agents, NBC, Funny or Die Show, HBO, Futurama, NBC, Glee, Fox, Grimm, NBC, H8R, CW, Happy Endings, ABC, Ice Road Truckers, History Channel, In Plain Sight, USA, Last Man Standing, ABC, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, NBC, Life and Times of Tim, HBO (or that might be 2010, not sure), Mad, Cartoon Network, Misfits, Hulu (Although the 3 episodes I saw were originally produced in 2009), Modern Family, ABC, Off the Map, ABC, Onion Sports Dome, Comedy Central, Outsourced, NBC, Pan Am, ABC, Playboy Club, NBC, Raising Hope, Fox, Retired at 35, TV Land, Ricky Gervais Show, HBO, Royal Pains, USA, Running Wilde, Fox, Saturday Night Live, NBC, S*$# my Dad Says, CBS, Sports Show with Norm McDonald, Comedy Central, Suburgatory, ABC; United States of Tara, Showtime, Waking Dead, AMC, Wipeout, ABC

Sing-Off wrap up: Fixing the season length

As we hit the Christmas special tonight of the Sing-Off and look back on it once more, I'd have to say that the season for me with its 16-group format didn't work as well as I might have expected.

I obviously love watching the show and I can't conclusively say that more of a good thing is bad, but there were drastically diminished returns in the last few weeks.

We basically knew what the groups could do after a certain point so there was little element of surprise in the last few episodes. Most of the breakthroughs and surprises (the big dramatic moments which non-scripted and scripted shows alike rely on) came in the first few weeks: Would some of the groups that clearly seemed like they were thrown together by producers right before the show (AKA The Collective) gel? (Hellz yes) Would the Yellowjackets stop switching soloists every eight measures? (No) Would North Shore ever switch it up? (No, but wasn't the judges' coddling of Jerry Lawson's Talk of the Town a double-standard?)

The judges tried to frame Urban Method, Delilah, and Afro-Blue as having narrative arcs of falling and coming back, but I felt like those were exaggerated. To my imperfect ear, Katey Turley of Urban Method sounded just fine in Love the Way You Lie and the Rhianna medley which was the very first song. Was it that humongous of a difference?

To me, it wasn't so much groups were having big comebacks and finally figuring it out. It was more of a matter of the groups being out of their element in certain genres or just rubbing the judges the wrong way.

With the more articulate Sara Bareilles filling in for Nicole Scherzinger, the judges had more credibility on the whole and when they're saying all those intelligent-sounding words, you are really sold on that. Ironically, this is all flying in the face of what look like baffling decisions. I think the general consensus on the blogosphere is that Afro-Blue's dismissal was a big goof on the part of the judges. I'd even go so far as to say it hurt the credibility of the show. Those conspiracy theories I've heard that the judges being influenced by the producers seem possible now with Afro-Blue's departure. They loaded them with impossible instructions.

More than that, I think it's more of a matter of the fact that if you have 5 or 6 groups who all have what it takes and it's apples and oranges and the judges are trying to make convincing cases for Afro-Blue or BYU or Delilah being sent home when they all sound great, the judges are going to look iffy no matter what.

My suggestion: Expand the final round to five groups. Keep it as one episode with viewers voting. The dangers of America getting it wrong might be a problem if there were more than one week of audience voting because they might believe they're favorite group is safe. In this case, they're still voting for a winner. This will cut the season by a couple weeks and eliminate viewer fatigue. It will also allow groups that are capable of delivering by the judges' standards have an equal chance to compete for America's vote.

Most importantly, it will give those poor performers a break. They looked thoroughly exhausted.

Oh and also, every group that the Dartmouth Aires beat was robbed. Good night.

And we have a winner (and a foul!) on the sing-off

The Sing-Off season 3 left me with a feeling of disappointment.

As I previously stated, the advancement of the Dartmouth Aires over other groups never sat well with me. As far as I was concerned, the Dartmouth Aires were the weak link of a very strong final eight. It wasn't a matter of one bad decision along with seven very good decisions. It was a matter of the judges making the wrong choice in virtually every episode (Delilah did fall on their own sword, so I'll give the judges a pass that week) by simply not eliminating the Aires. I am aware that it's just my personal opinion that the Aires weren't that good and it's not some objective truth.

The elimination of Afro-Blue, however, went from my disagreeing with the judges over the quality of the groups, to just feeling cheated. For one, Ben admitted that Afro-Blue was his favorite group. Additionally, Sara Bareilles said she decided to vote with the group that she had a great emotional connection and ignored that the Afro-Blues moved her to tears twice. Lastly, Afro-Blue never sounded bad or technically defficient (and Dartmouth Aires continually got comments toward that effect). Their instructions from the judges to dumb down their sound and simultaneously still keep delivering their signature sound put the group in a hole they couldn't climb out of.

Ben Folds addressed the twitter haters about Afro-Blue's dismissal on his blog here:
http://www.nbc.com/sing-off/on-key-with-ben-folds/

It's with some shame that I admit that I was one of those haters. I tried to articulate this with some self-awareness that I was clearly getting too invested in a TV program, but at the same time I now realize that I was adding a lot of negativity to the blogosphere and twittersphere.

The Dartmouth Aires didn't end up derailing the season for me, because at the end of the day, the best group won. The Pentatonix were a cut above the other groups, but this season was sufficiently more dramatic in that they didn't emerge as a clear winner until a few weeks in.

Congrats to the Pentatonix, as well as the other groups with strong finishes. I even tip my hat to the Aires for persevering and improving

How I've come to hate the Dartmouth Aires and other Sing-Off Thoughts

My apologies for not writing about the Sing-Off as I did last year in such winning fashion (also here: http://bit.ly/if3nxR.

This season, I've been finding myself experiencing a feeling I normally don't have towards TV characters and that is borderline hatred. Normally, I don't hate a TV character because it's pointless to hate a fictional character.

In this case, my anger is directed towards real life people and that's also ironic, because they're a group of 16 guys who I've never met and I probably wouldn't mind so much if I did ever meet them. The first week, I didn't particularly like their song choice, but I didn't think they deserved to be axed. That was way back when they were in the same bracket as a group of Liberian refugees who were there for the sob story factor and sounded like the choir in the opening few measures of the Lion King's Circle of Life (I don't mean that as a compliment).

But the thing is that the caliber of talent on the show this season is amazing. If need be, I could make a good case for about seven of these groups to win the entire show because they are legitimately the best at what they do without those cases being mutually exclusive.

In no particular order: 1. BYU Vocal Point (finished 5th)-Vocal Point deserves to win because they were arguably the best group at clearing the hurdles created by the wide range of genres. They also have the sharpest, most finely tuned arrangements out of any group and no one can touch them in terms of choreography. The reasoning from Shaun Stockman for their dismissal this past week was that they didn't have a star personality. I call BS on that. Aside from the edgy rock-tailored voices of McKay Crockett and Ross Welch, I thought Jake Hunsaker had the best voice on the show. And keep in mind, I'm defending them to the death without being sure if I even like them as people. It's not the Mormon thing, but they seem either whipped by their girlfriends and wives or strangely overeager to ensure us of their heterosexuality. In the worst incident of this, their introductory video has one guy stating out of nowhere (I am not making this up) "Yeah, we really like girls, kissing girls also." Then he demonstrates his girl-kissing prowess by leaning down to a girl on the quad and kissing her (I hope that was his girlfriend and it's not a standing mandate at BYU that all girls must be on the ready in case Ben wants to kiss them).

2. North Shore (finished tied for 9th): Aside from being true masters at what they do from the standpoint of time spent on their craft, they are vitally important because they represent what is a lost art and despite the opinion of the judges who felt they looked dated on the "Power of Love," they succesfully take their old-school sensibility on pop songs. Not to mention, "Talk of the Town" coasted to the finals last year without putting an ounce of effort into modifying their style to accommodate different genres. "North Shore" was full of personality, humility, and appeared to be much more hard-working.

3. Delilah (finished 6th): A case can be made that Delilah is the best all-female a capella group ever assembled. Aside from the fact that this legitimate blogger thinks so, it makes sense considering you had judges scour the country for the best a capella groups in the country and this all-star super group is comprised of the best females from those groups. So if that's not good enough, than the judges might as well ban women from singing together and institute Sharia law. I mean, honestly, what more did these girls have to do? Yes, a couple of their performances had some pitch problems, but if I'm arguing whether they had the potential to win the entire show and not shame the Sing-Off brand, then yes. You can also make a case for them to win based on the sheer number of tear-inducing performances. They had two or three performances that floored the judges.

4. Afro-Blue (still in the final 4): In terms of musicianship, they are a step above the rest. Their music is indisputably solid, enjoyable and produced those "musical orgasms" (Nicole's term not mine) that Committed evoked out of Shawn last year. They have a deep bench, amazing vocalists (Christine Dashielle and Danielle Withers among them) and an ability to sound out the 7ths and 9ths in songs to tinge the chords with jazz medleys.

5. Urban Method (still in the final 4): Despite being pigeonholed as "the group with the rapper," Urban Method is strong enough as a group, that the judges deservedly have been hailing them all competition. They have a deep bench of great soloists, an excellent amount of cohesiveness for a group that just got together, and and a riduculously well-produced sound. They also might be able to sell more records among non a-capella fans better than anyone else considering introducing rap into the genre could catch people's attention.

6. Pentatonix (still in the final 4): They will likely win it all, so I shouldn't need too big of an argument here. They are highly innovative with their arrangements, they are fresh, and they produce an incredible amount of sound for just five people. The lead soloist Scott Hoying is like a male Whitney Houston but the group has an intuitive ability to change off solos when one of the other singers is better suited.

7. Sonos (finished tied for 11th with Kinfolk 9): Urban Method blogged that they listen to their record all the time and Scott Hoying of front-runner Pentatonix says "they're who we want to be." So if the point of this competition is making a record and building a following, what does it say about your group that one of the groups is already buying your CD and the winning group wants to emulate you? Hell, I even bought music from the Sonos on itunes. The Sonos are otherworldly and are right up there with Pentatonix and Afro-Blue in terms of creativity when it comes to approaching songs. They only had five people but so do the Pentatonix and I'm sure they're talented enough to have worked out those harmony quirks if given the chance. The judges acted as if succeeding as a five-person a capella group was impossible.

The Dartmouth Aires, on the other hand, are entirely unremarkable to me (although I will concede their Queen performance was phenomenal). I've come to accept, however, that I'm in a small minority from my experience scouring the blogosphere and conversing with others on message boards indicates that people seem to very much like this group for legitimate reasons.

Now, I acknowledge that I have a more limited ability to analyze choral music and express that analysis than 90% of the people I discuss the show with, I could still argue that the Dartmouth Aires don't have what it takes to win it. To me, they're indistinguishable from the hundreds of 15-memberish all-male collegiate a capella groups from the country that rarely have any geographical reach beyond their campus and the schools where they tour. If I went to Boston University or Harvard or Brown, why would I consider buying a Dartmouth CD when I could get a similar sounding a capella CD from a group on my campus?

In order to make the case that they're champions, you'd have to make a convincing case that they're so much better than the ungodly number of a capella groups, that they could significantly sell records. Anyone have any idea how much Aires sell right now?

In the meantime, the Dartmouth Aires are eliminating groups who legitimately could win the competition and that I personally like. So while I didn't originally have anything personal against the Aires, it's gotten to become so. Case in point: One of the Aires has a very interesting wavy hair style (I believe his name is Clark). I used to think "hmmm, that's an interesting hair style." Now whenever I see Clark's hair, I think "that's a very stupid hairstyle." His hair style hasn't changed at all, but that's the inexplicable effect the Aires are having on me. It's partially because I watch the show week after week and seeing this injustice committed over and over builds up that resentment.

It's also partially because I feel like everyone I talk to about the show is ignoring the mediocrity of the Aires when they have debates over whether Delilah or Afro-Blue or Urban Method should have been eliminated in a certain week. For me, everyone else in the top 7 or 8 are so amazing that if the Aires were out of the competition, it would be nothing but a win-win-win-win-win-win situation.

To the show's credit, my anger at Clark's haircut and everything else behind these 15 groups is because the show is doing a good job of building emotional attachment between me and the different groups.

For example, the similarly-structured Yellow Jackets of the University of Rochester might also have some of the same weaknesses as the Aires. However, they had an eagerness and likability that won me over. So it would only be natural that if every group had an emotional connection to me that grew week after week.

I'd feel strongly in the opposite direction towards the one group that I originally was apathetic to. So, my apologies to the Dartmouth Aires and Clark's wavy haircut (which I still want to believe is a good haircut) for the inexplicable hatred I've come to feel. I'm not a hater of any of you and think you're perfectly pleasant people. It's just that reality TV has made me that way.

*As I wrote about the Whiffenpoofs a year ago, sometimes those intro videos can rub me the wrong way. I had a similar problem with the Del Tones of the University of Delaware. They were self-admittedly the fourth best a capella group at the University of Delaware and felt that they should be among the top 16 groups in the nation? Also, members suffering from home sickness when they first get to college and being concerned about making friends (yeah, that's pretty much everybody in the first two weeks of college) is really not much of an emotional hook If you enjoyed this write-up, check out my internet column.

Top Ten Shows of the Year

As if there aren't already 8 million of these floating around, here's my TOP 10 OF THE YEAR!!

1. Boardwalk Empire, HBO-The creation of the mob during prohibition is one of the most formative chapters of American history and if edgy film and television is going to practically be synonymous with gangster stories, someone might as well get to the heart of the matter. With Martin Scorsese and Mark Wahlberg among the producers, the show is in good hands. In addition, Steve Buscemi steps into a rare leading man role and deserves an Emmy for it.

2. The Choir, BBC, Office/Jamie Oliver's Food Food Revolution, ABC-Both those shows were insightful, educational, relevant and, ultimately, inspirational. One show involved a British chef's quest to fight America's obesity epidemic with Huntington, West Virginia as a starting point. Oliver, best-known as the Naked Chef (famous enough to be a punchline on Saturday Night Live), was supplied with his own ready-made villain in the form a radio DJ who believed Oliver was just out for fame and the town didn't care about lettuce. In winning the evil DJ and the town over, Jamie Oliver gave us some great tear-inducing drama and got us on board his cause and character. Consider me Team Jamie Oliver.

On the other side of the pond in England, choir master Garreth Malone attempted to tackle arts education in a coed school, a boy's academy and a community choir. Like Food, Food Revolution, it seems like an easy formula to mine some drama but then the tears start flowing and you're genuinely moved. Both shows were a reminder that reality TV doesn't have to be about artificial competitions when real life can be quite compelling.

3. Breaking Bad AMC-This is Breaking Bad's third year on my top 10 list but the first year in which it is considered the preeminent show on television which merits a bit more exploration:

Crime dramas are only effective to the extent that they can relate their universe to an audience comprised largely of people uninvolved in the criminal underworld who see meth rings, Mexican drug cartels and the like as largely abstract occurrences. Hence, films that deconstruct the gangster genre like Goodfellas, American Gangster and Scarface largely win the audience over if they can create enough of an arc where that violent gangster was once an ordinary Joe Schmoe.

Breaking Bad used two entire seasons to carefully lay the groundwork out for that ordinary Joe Schmoe to become a truly unsympathetic character (or would you argue he still retains his sympathy?? it's certainly a balancing act) which makes his moral demise all the more richer. What's more, he's paired with somewhat of a lowlife in Jesse Pinkman and as Aaron Paul's win at the Emmys demonstrated that character has morphed quite unexpectedly into a moral barometer of sorts.

The show's momentum can't be denied because it's the most ambitious on television. It sets characters on a collision course with each other and its as if the writers are on a dare to see how long they can keep the characters from colliding.

What I wrote about Breaking Bad 2 years ago on my 2008 list: http://bit.ly/eXUdIF

4. Futurama, Comedy Central-Whether I was Futurama's biggest fan or just a casual one before the show came back (I'd put myself somewhere in the middle), I fell in love with the show all over again during its run this summer. To be resurrected from the dead like Futurama is somewhat of a miracle in the world of TV, but the downside can be greater expectations. For me, the show met and exceeded the bar. The writing was sharp, the visuals were imaginative and the plots were consistently ambitious. If the episodes failed, you can at least say that they fell hard because they aimed high. The show also earns points for experimenting with new dynamics (i.e. Bender and Amy, Hermes and Bender, Amy and Nibbler, Fry and the Professor) between characters.

5. Modern Family, ABC-I enjoyed Arrested Development immensely but I also interpreted its success at the time to conclude that the traditional family sitcom couldn't exist unless it was being mocked and/or subverted. That changed when I saw Modern Family.

Modern Family went into new territory by bringing humor without a hint of irony. The show mines comedy out of the quirks of Dumphy, Prichett and Prichett-Delgado clans and mines drama of the forces that threaten to tear those family bonds apart. Is is significant that the comedy doesn't suggest that the family is worthless and the negative vibes in the family are always overcome (or at least ameliorated) by episode's end.

6. Party Down, Starz-I honestly have never heard of the Starz Network which is why it took me so long to discover this gem. Starring Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, and Lizzy Caplan (best known for this Jason Mraz video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oieBnV_HFB0), this show centers around a ragtag band of dreamers in Los Angeles working on a catering team together to pay the bills but hoping for bigger things. Their characters' varying degrees of disconnect from reality is contrasted with the very close proximity these people are to the people who nonchalantly live their lives. The show also manages to be edgy in bringing characters to the screen who aren't in love with their lives without being unnecessarily crude or depressing (a sin I find Weeds and Entourage guilty of).


7. Terriers, FX-There are so many procedural shows out there that it's hard for any one show to distinguish itself. So how does Terriers make the list? Likable protagonists that you can latch onto are a start. The pair of amateur detectives are mellow and easy-going (kind of functional versions of the Dude in Big Lebowski. The Dude did solve a crime over the course of the film but that was by pure coincidence. I do want to be specific in my comparison here, because Terriers isn't a stoner comedy) which is refreshing considering so many characters in cop procedurals take themselves so seriously. Like the characters, the plots also meander but in a good way: plots don't necessarily resolve themselves from episode to episode and the viewer can't really be sure where the show is going next.

The show also has noirish overtones and reminds me very much of Chinatown in the sense that a land deal becomes so much more than it seems on the surface.

8. Glee, FOX-Some critics felt that the show had a sophomore slump but I don't think that's the case with this show at all. Hot hits with the teenage demographic usually are the big fad one season and disappear pretty fast (i.e. The O.C., Gossip Girl, Everwood). At least for now, however, the show is strong enough to overcome the fact that it no longer has novelty working in its favor.

The episodes occasionally miss but I admire the show for trying to approach serious topics like anti-bullying, the limits of teenage aspirations, and prejudice, with a sense of gravity.

The additions in the second season have only made the show better. Dr. Carl (John Stamos) has been a much better rival for Emma Pillsbury's affections than Coach Tanaka and the additions of Sam combined with the expansion of Brittany, Mike Chang and Santana have been very effective at balancing out the melodrama stemming from the Finn-Puck-Rachel and Rachel-Quinn-Finn love triangles.

Further Reading on the Backlash and Continued Popularity of Glee

9. Parks and Recreation, NBC-This show has better characters and a better ensemble than most shows on TV. Amy Poehler, an SNL alum who gradually transformed into the show's MVP by her 8th season, is more than talented enough to lead a sitcom as bureaucrat. The supporting cast of players in the Pawnee parks department isn't just notable for being good: The writers and actors deserve credit for having the characters evolve as the show hit its stride. Despite being a polar opposite to Leslie Knope, Anne (Rashida Jones) has become the yin to Leslie's yang. Similarly, Andy (Chris Pratt) has gone from "the other guy" to a lovable hanger-on and Aubrey Plaza's unrivalled ability to deadpan has stopped overshadowing April's development.

The show is a welcome compliment to The Office and a great example of how to follow up something great without changing directions entirely.

10. No Ordinary Family, ABC-Think Heroes if the show were to compress all of the disparate storylines from Heroes into one family. There are also two sidekicks who make the show better with every minute of screen time they get. Romany Malco plays an impassioned district attorney and good friend of the dad (Michael Chilkis) and the other (Autumn Reeser) is an adorably nervous (and easy on the eyes) lab assistant of the mom (Julie Benz) and brings with her an overeagerness to live out her comic book fantasies through her. The show can get a little corny, but it has impressive special effects and an arc that's just now starting to considerably deepen.

Article of Best new fall shows of 2010 including Modern Family

Best show I discovered a year too late to put on my Top 10 List for last year and which I haven't seen this year because I couldn't find any bit torrent for it and HBO won't even allow itunes downloads for:
In Treatment, HBO-The raw drama, the power of the performances, the insight into the human psyche is, to quote Shawn Stockman on NBC' The Sing-Off (and if you saw his critique of Committed on that show you'd know what I was talking about), "What it's all about, man." The root of what makes drama good is right here. There's nothing but a room, a couch and a chair with a patient who we slowly learn about as the weeks go on and a psychiatrist who's pretty damn good at his job. More specifically, we're watching that guy pretty damn good at his job in four out of every five episodes. On that 5th episode, we learn how much of a basket case he is when he visits a psychiatrist of his own (Editorial note: I have restrained myself from watching the "Paul goes to therapy" episodes because I find it ruins the illusion).

[Ed. note: I since put it into my top 10 for 2009]

Runners-Up:
Sing-Off, NBC, Burn Notice, USA, The Office, NBC, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FX (my #1 last year), Archer, FX, Outsourced, NBC (Still a fan and avid defender!)


Other articles of mine:
The Evils of Craigslist:
http://bit.ly/etV1vJ
The Morality of the Characters on it's Always Sunny in Philly
http://bit.ly/g70Aka
Which Filmic Version of Washington Suits you Best:
http://bit.ly/h4i5n1
A Day on the Set with the Extras on How Do You Know?:
http://bit.ly/gUWO0r

Dispatch from the best a cappella blogger on the web: Ranking all 18 Groups of the Sing-Off

Hey folks, I am super-excited for this piece I wrote a year and a half ago and just posted where I hang out with the extras on set of "How Do You Know":
I just got invited by the DC Film Office to attend the premiere of the James L. Brooks movie but missed it because I was snowed out, but still cool to have a good relationship with the local film office. They've brought a lot of film productions to Washington D.C.


As I previously established in my last post on the Sing-Off, I'd like to think of myself as the best a Capella blogger on the internet.
My qualifications for being the greatest a capella blogger are:
1. A year in the choir in high school through a scheduling glitch.
2. Repeated efforts to join my college's a capella groups because I thought it would make me cool
3. Watching a lot of a cappella on youtube
4. Not being entirely sure whether a cappella has two or one "p"s or whether the "C" is capitalized. I view this as adding a dose of suspense for the reader.

Here is a ranking of rank all 18 groups from the first two seasons. I think this year is an improvement over last year which is why the Season 2 groups rank higher.

1. Committed-Church group from Huntsville, Alabama with a hint of gospel in their stylings
The worst you can say about them is that they're not entirely original in their genre because of similarities to Boys II Men sounded the same as they do. At the same time, no one has sounded like Boys II Men in years and Boys II Men is retired. They kill it in so many ways and damn, those bell tones (seriously, what's a bell tone?).

Committed's six members are some of the most endearingly innocent guys in reality TV. They seem noticeably camera shy (kind of like American Idol's David Archuleta). I also love how when they decided to tackle the Backstreet Boys, and got all excited about the concept of "acting sexy" while being  entirely unaware that they probably already inspire screaming girls across the country.

This group prefers to sing church numbers and have stated reluctance to sing secular songs. This is all the more ironic considering their open number was "This Love." Unless the subject of the song is something metaphorical like biblical knowledge, I'm guessing that Adam Levine's desire to get his fingertips along every inch of the subject of this song is the exact opposite of what's appropriate for church.






2 (tie) Streetcorner Symphony-Professionals from Nashville, TN and Nota-Band of friends from Puerto Rico
Each of these two groups has a distinct identity that I've never seen anywhere else. Streetcorner Symphony has the easygoing Southern take while Nota infuses their music with Latin beats. Each does their thing incredibly well. Streetcorner is more versatile and has more guys stepping into the lead, while Nota has more guys who can take over vocal percussion to suit their percussion-heavy style.

This is Streetcorner Symphony doing "Hey Soul Sister":



Nota doing "I'm Yours"




4. Voices of Lee-College choir from a Bible School in Cleveland, Tennessee-This 10-person co-ed group nailed everything they were given.  They sang with a very noticeable passion and had an impeccable blend. Highlights included a Beatles Medley, Alicia Keys and Natasha Bedingfield.




5. Groove for Thought-Group of music teachers from Seattle
I viewed Groove for Thought, Streetcorner Symphony and Committed as three groups with a distinct style and identity that they mastered. As Shaun said, Groove for Thought could sing anything really well. They might not have been able to rock it out, but they could take a rock song and make it  interesting.

Also worth noting: I'm moderately in love with the female soloist. Usually soloing means sing all you got and she seems to know how to put the right amount of effort into each note. She also mimics trumpet and saxophone sounds with her voice. Here she is on David Bowie's Changes. Discussion Question: Does she smile too much when she sings? (seriously: I have no idea what the proper etiquette for smiling while singing is)



6. Back Beats-A 10-member group recruited by a recent graduate (2010) of the USC's Socal Vocals that consists of other SoCal Vocals, members of USC's Trojan Men, UCLA's Awaken, BYU's Noteworthy and a Los Angeles-based recording artist named Jordan Pharoh. (Annoyingly, these guys can't be categorized very easily into one short sentence)

This group has much in common with the SoCals from last year in that the basic pool of members comes from the SoCal Vocals and the old and new guys all sang together in the same group at one point in time. Check out this juicy scandal here where you see Backbeats and SoCals singing together unbeknownst to the audience who thought Kenton Chen legitimately discovered the Sing-Off while watching TV one day:



This group has improved tremendously over the course of the season. They set the bar at a high level with the arrangements and nailed them. It's also interesting that everyone in that group has been kind of a star within their own a capella groups, but Kenton and others are willing to sacrifice solos because they've their game plan is to have a metaphorical Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Joanna and Cat while everyone else play supporting roles.

This is all the more selfless when one considers that Kenton Chen has just released a CD and one good solo in front of a national television audience could boost his record sales significantly. Kenton soloed in the Love Shack, but it was mostly fun because of the visual performance.

As another show of the Backbeat's deep bench, check out this video of two of the Backbeat singers performing "Water and a Flame:"



7. On the Rocks-University of Oregon all-male a cappella group

Really likable group of guys that improved a lot over the course of the performance. I really sensed that these guys had a fighting spirit to improve and eke out every ounce of talent they had from themselves to keep up with the pros around them. They showcased many sides of themselves throughout: Kyrie was a good arrangement, the Elton John medley had creativity written all over it and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance had mesmerizing choreography. On the minus side, the Rhianna/TI came off as a group of college kids out of their element

Here's On the Rocks performing Bad Romance. This is taken from a performance that became one of the most viral hit on YouTube this past year.



8. Pitch-Slapped-Coed group from the prestigious Berklee College of Music

The group had this theatrical groove and might have overemoted, but they were clearly proficient and fun. You gotta go to YouTube to check them out a little more, but even so, that one number they did was one of my favorites of the night. They could have challenged for a spot in the finals if they didn't rub the judges the wrong way in the first episode for whatever reason. Commenters in this YoTube video say the lead girl is incredibly hot (I'm personally in the not hot camp). Whether she is or not, I think the taking off the glasses trick is really pulling the wool over their eyes: Don't ignore her natural talent.



9. The SoCals-Group of 7 very recent alumns and one current member of the SoCal Vocals-
Odds are this group is entirely non-existent at this point since they didn't win and they are all doing other things.

This group was an all-star group of singers hampered by the fact that they were small and didn't have a deep bench. The male solos were dominated by just one guy. While the female soloists were all capable singers, the perception that they weren't stars might have centered around them all rotating too much to the point where I never got to know the personality of any one singer.

They had an identity though (Broadwayesque) and as background singers, the blend was top-notch. They also smiled a lot when they sang like singers do at amusement parks. I have no idea why they just ended up being "The Broadway Group" considering the larger SoCal Vocals aren't known for being Broadway but one can see a theatricality to the SoCal Vocals videos.

As I said before, this group is sort of the stepfather of the slightly more successful Backbeats, so go on with the video #6 above to see what these guys are all about.

10. Jerry Lawson and the Talk of the Town-Multi-Grammy-winning recording artist Jerry Lawson backed by a quartet of elderly gentlemen in the doowop style
It did not make much sense to have a famous singer as a comptetitor on the show.
While he is admittedly handicapped by age and can't dance around much, Jerry Lawson already has produced over twenty hit records as the arranger and front man of the Persuasions. This would be like having some top 40 star compete on American Idol. What's the point?

I am not knowledgable about how age affects the vocal chords except for my experiences with my 101-year old grandmother. My grandmother was the bomb when she sang in her high school choir in the 1920s (too bad there was no American Idol or Sing-Off back then). She's labelled within my family as a "singer." We like to hear her sing not because she's bringing down the house with her vocals but rather, because it provides a nostalgic reminder that she was once good. I think that's what Jerry is bringing to the table. He doesn't strike me as great in the moment which makes it unfortunate that he's bumping out other great groups. The "Talk of the Town" part of the equation (the back-up singers) do have a sound that even I can recognize as very tight and fine-tuned.

11. Whiffenpoofs-Collegiate a capella group of senior guys at Yale U.

The Whiffenpoofs massively alienated me in their introductory video by confirming every stereotype of what Yale students are like. For all I know, people in Yale go to school wearing tuxedos and white gloves.

They aren't really groomed for this and on "Haven't Met You Yet" one of the soloists was really operatic and missing the point of the song, but like On the Rocks, they were willing to give it 100% and do what they could with what they had. I also read in an article that they had no experience with  choreography prior to the show so I'll give them credit for their  moves.

If they're truly a group of guys who don't take themselves that seriously and have a sense of perspective, I didn't get that impression from watching. One of the guys really rubbed me the wrong way when he said "he felt so inordinately powerful in a tuxedo."




12. 11th Hour-A Teenage Septet that's Directly Connected to the High School Music's Department-
Really impressed for a group that's just in high school. Their arrangements were great, they had well-defined roles and they had a bubbly enthusiasm.

Like the Backbeats, the group impressed me most with their selflessness. Consider this: Among the three guys, one sings lead, one does bass, one does percussion and the judges knew them all by name and publicly complimented on their performances. The three girls in the group other than Kendall Young, however, are never going to have a solo and no one is going to remember their names. I'm assuming that the musical director would have never given any of those other three girls a solo if they had gotten farther. Being a high school group, they were always on the verge of being eliminated so they had to go for their best singer.

If you look at the looks on the faces of the girl back-up singers, however they are just giving it their all and having the time of their lives up there. Ben Folds said in his blog that the synergy and teamwork in this show would be a major human interest angle that would warm people up to this show and that's completely true.




13. Noteworthy-All female group from BYU
The most memorable thing about this group is that the lead singer had a pretty scary-looking mohawk that seemed to defy geometry. Hopefully, you want the audience paying attention to more than the mohawk.

They were capable of delivering different things and they show mastery of the little things like outfits and choreography. With the exception of the Aretha Franklin cover, they had good song selections as well but they didn't particularly stand out in terms of overall degree of difficulty..

Here's the group singing Viva la Vida. The soloist here later joined the Backbeats.



14. Men of Note-Alumni from an award-winning high school group in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
This group picked a very unoriginal song which was already sung in the style of a capella. Major killer. Their send-off song, Rhianna's "Take a Bow", was surprisingly good.


15. Tufts Beezlebubs-All-male group from Tufts University.
I am probably the biggest source of criticism for the Beezlebubs on the internet considering a) I'm sure they don't get written about a lot and b) everyone else on the planet likes them. Because they are just college kids, I kind of feel awful writing bad things about them.

Honestly, though, I just never had any idea what the big deal about these guys is. Their goofy self-conscious charm is nowhere near as infectious as On the Rocks or Whiffenpoofs. I also hated all their song selections for starters: Magical Mystery Tour is the same phrase repeated over and over again, and I never liked the Who, Sail Away, Flo Rida. Their arranging is a lot of block chords, and I don't think they sounded very innovative. They seem to be the same quality as a million other a capella groups out there. I must be wrong on this because nearly everyone else thinks they're great. Best I can say is that I like their outfits and the lead singer for Sweet Caroline. I did just listen to all of their performances on YouTube to see if they changed with time but they haven't.




16. Maxx Factor-A barbershop quartet of 4 soccer moms
When you talk about Groove for Thought being a one-trick pony, you clearly haven't seen this group that was barbership through and through. It's so much easier to transition from Barbershop to pop than it is to transition from jazz (Groove for Thought) to pop. I never could see Maxx Factor rocking or being edgy in any way.




17. Face-Six guys from Boulder
Really, could we not think of a better name? Although I don't think this was in their personalities, they come across as trying too hard to be manly for some reason. I will admit that it's hard to judge groups that well when they only do one song.




18. Solo-Random hodgepodge of people from Omaha.

Wow, Omaha, Nebraska isn't a bunch of corn fields but a very dangerous ghetto if the introductory video to this group is to be believed.

This group is a major rags-to-riches story as they came from a dangerous neighborhood with lots of violence and poverty to form this group. At least two members were homeless for a while before the group came together.

That being said, the group was soloing over each other as if it was like a dueling banjo of the voice. They also didn't seem to understand the concept of vocal percussion either. The mere fact that they made it on national TV hopefully assures that no one on the show will be sleeping on a park bench anytime soon, so good for them!