2014 Calvin Awards: Best TV Show
By David Mumpower
February 10, 2014
BoxOfficeProphets.com
In 2012, a new contender arose as the staff finally sold one another on a growing obsession. We selected Breaking Bad as our favorite program of the year. Oddly, some of our voters had been on the bandwagon a year earlier, as the Vince Gilligan masterwork had received more first place votes than any other title in our top 10 in 2011. Unfortunately, not enough of our staff was familiar with the product so it only finished in sixth place that year in spite of its tremendous top of ballot support. The confusion created by that set of circumstances caused the rest of us to catch up on Breaking Bad. The end result was a narrow victory in our 2012 voting.
By 2013, our entire staff proclaimed themselves Breaking Bad zealots. Even though no series had ever managed to repeat as champion in the category of Best Picture, Breaking Bad did so with ease. After winning by only a handful of votes the previous year, the saga of Walter White obliterated the competition in 2013. The margin of victory was roughly 70%, easily the largest ever in the category.
The only question heading into the 2014 awards is whether a handful of eight episodes would possess the requisite gravity to enable Breaking Bad to end as the three-time defending champion as Best Television Series. And the picture at the top of the column is a dead giveaway that it did just that. Yes, Breaking Bad is once again our staff’s choice as the Best Television Series of the year.
The primary difference between now and when we first placed it our top 10 three years ago is that people know what it is. That was not always the case as demonstrated by its ratings. Only three years ago, fewer than two million people watched the average episode of Breaking Bad. An astounding 10 million caught up with the program in time to watch the series finale the night it aired.
Breaking Bad delivered one of the most captivating arguments of all time that the television medium is a meritocracy. Ignored for many years, it suddenly became a cultural linchpin just as it prepared to air its final episodes. It is a triumph of storytelling that may never be matched again, and the staff at BOP is proud that we were (relatively speaking) ahead of the curve in celebrating its quality. It is truly the Best Television Series of the year and one of the greatest of all time.
The de facto favorite for Best Television Show next season is this year’s runner-up, Game of Thrones. It is a perfect successor to Breaking Bad in that its popularity is ascending in an eerily similar fashion. A popular HBO program its first two years, the adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy novels reached a crescendo last year. People unfamiliar with the source material were cordially invited to a Red Wedding during the third season’s ninth episode, The Rains of Castamere. The Internet exploded. Even in a year that revealed the fate of Walter White, the Red Wedding was THE seminal moment in television.
There have been three seasons of Game of Thrones thus far. We have voted the show in the top five in the category all three years. The latest vote marks the second time that the uber-violent series has finished in our top three. As our staff anxiously awaits the April return of Game of Thrones, we strongly suggest that you take the first available opportunity to catch up on the 30 episodes that have aired to date. Any show that spawns a term like sexposition is worth your time.
Speaking of consistent nominees, Justified finishes in third place in the category this year. All four seasons to date have been deemed worthy of entry on our list of Best Television Show. Judging by its placement on the list, the most recent season of Justified is our second favorite. Only season two, the Mags Bennett era, finished in a higher location, second place. After debuting in eighth place in 2011, Justified has finished in the top four of our voting three straight times. If you have not given it a shot right now, you must not trust us as a people.
Rounding out the top five are a perennial favorite and a first time nominee. The world has caught up with us on the genius of Archer. Our selection for the fourth Best TV Show of the year is among the most popular cable programs in the coveted 18-29 demographic. And if you doubt that for even a moment, simply say something vaguely euphemistic in a large crowd. Complete strangers will yell “Phrasing!” Archer has also somehow revised 1980s history such that Danger Zone was the song of the decade. It has that type of power.
Person of Interest, our fifth selection, elevated during its second season from a series of intriguing one-off episodes into a robust program with a mythology that rivals anything currently airing on network television. Person of Interest heightened the presence of Amy Acker’s amoral hacker, Root, while introducing Sarah Shahi’s badass soldier, Samantha Shaw. By adding some much needed estrogen to balance an existing overrun of testosterone, Person of Interest became one of the most inventive procedurals on television.
Person of Interest also delivers dramatic action sequences worthy of the Nolan name, which is crucial because Jonathan Nolan is the executive producer of the show. In fact, an argument can and has been made at BOP that Nolan has embraced his brother’s depiction of Batman to the point that Person of Interest is a reconstruction of that character in three forms. There is the brilliant billionaire, the war machine and the master detective. Coincidentally or not (and our vote is squarely in the not category), those three people happen to be the three lead characters on Person of Interest.
When our staff originally voted for The Calvins in 2006, eight network programs comprised the body of our list, joined by a single HBO offering and a Comedy Central program called The Daily Show. Only eight years later, the nature of television has fundamentally changed. To wit, only two network programs are nominated this year. Netflix, a streaming service that did not exist until 2007, matches that total on its own. The first of their selections is Orange Is the New Black, our sixth favorite program of the year. It features a women-in-prison premise that is less Caged Heat exploitation than dramatic depiction of how a non-violent inmate survives behind bars. But let’s be honest here. There is some Caged Heat stuff in it, and we like that part too.
A fading former category winner and another Netflix release comprise our seventh and eighth place selections. As mentioned above, Mad Men was our favorite program of 2010. Ignoring the year where no new episodes aired, 2014 marks the fifth consecutive time that we have lauded the Matthew Weiner series. Alas, we at least somewhat agree with the critics who felt that there was something missing last season. As such, Mad Men fell from second place last year to seventh place this year. Kevin Spacey’s House of Cards, the latest television adaptation of the Michael Dobbs 1989 novel, is our eighth favorite program. This Netflix exclusive is an exercise in meticulously paced drama, and Spacey is using the lead role to define himself as one of the finest living actors.
The yin and yang of television complete our top ten nominations. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is equal parts send-up and celebration of 1970s cop shows. Using Andre Braugher’s emotionless behavior as a base, it features the usual quirky cast of co-workers who drive each other crazy in a familial sort of way. Brooklyn Nine-Nine features a rarefied level of wit and verve plus the coolest theme song on television today.
As a new show debuts on our list, a treasured favorite retires. Futurama’s writers spent the body of 2013 joking that they had crafted the fourth different series finale for the sublime science fiction comedy. That statement speaks volumes about how frequently its fate has been in doubt. Whether this canceled program finally stays canceled remains to be seen. All we can say with confidence is that it ended with a bang, not a whimper. After all, how many series could create a plot point out of killing off a main character dozens of times? Futurama has always been ahead of the curve on cleverness, which is why we hope, pray and expect it to return again one day. Until then, we simply hope that the people involved with the show know how much we love and adore Fry, Leela, Bender, Zoidberg and (especially) Scruffy.
Just missing nomination this year were Parks and Recreation (for the first time ever), Arrested Development, New Girl, The Good Wife, Modern Family (also for the first time ever), The Walking Dead, Almost Human, The Big Bang Theory, Veep, Elementary, Orphan Black and Masters of Sex. Streaming video is ubiquitous now. You have no excuse not to watch them all.
2014 Calvin Awards
Calvins Intro
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Album
Best Cast
Best Character
Best Director
Best Overlooked Film
Best Picture
Best Scene
Best Screenplay
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best TV Show
Best Use of Music
Best Videogame
Breakthrough Performance
Worst Performance
Worst Picture