In terms of the Best Television Show ballot, we have started to grow apart in our symbiotic relationship. In the 2009 awards, you agreed with BOP on 80% of the selections. In 2010, that number has been reduced to 60% and there were some genuinely hurtful results on the ballot. To wit, that vampire show on The CW featuring a 31-year-old high school student who was on Oceanic 815 garnered more viewer support than Better Off Ted. No, it did not win, make the top ten or anything along those lines but the point stands. Votes, like words, can hurt.

Even your winning selection in the category is a headscratcher to me. As I mentioned in the Calvins write-up for our nominations, the prior season of Lost was a complete bust in my estimation. It's slowly evolved into a social experiment wherein the producers of the show have deduced that they have to put little to no thought into the explanation of their quirky behavior. They realize by now that the zealots who view the show will do the heavy lifting on that for them. David Lynch must be kicking himself over the fact that he didn't save Twin Peaks until the advent of the social media era. It was basically the same dose of insanity but with pie and coffee thrown in as a courtesy to the viewer. The Lost people don't even provide breakfast. That show is the long con of network television.





The rest of your top five mirrors ours save for the presence of Glee, a show that some of our staff passionately adore while others find a bit...mystifying. Fake pregnancy storylines belong on Mexican soap operas ("Push her down the stairs! Push her down the stairs!"), not network television. Also, a lot of the early episodes felt like trial runs of ideas rather than fully formed ones. See: Acafellas. Even so, the Don't Stop Believing segment alone exemplifies the best of what this show can offer when done well. We hope that it eventually settles into the appropriate pattern for consistency and becomes what it has already shown the promise of being.

Your nominations for the final five spots are the ones where you lose us. First of all, True Blood falls into the vampire category above. Right now, my fondest wish is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows up and exterminates the entire gothic entertainment format. Getting your neck bitten is a methaphor for sex, which is scary and sometimes painful (especially if your partner is Tiger Woods). We get it. Let's all agree as a society to move on. Please. Also, The Office is the Marc Bulger of network television. It had a good run there for a while but the desiccated corpse of it probably needs to retire. We also disagree on House, but at least it's still a good show. Finally, I do give you all credit for quickly appreciating the innate quality of Modern Family. Fizbo and I are very proud of you. It almost makes up for some of the other stuff here. Almost.

2009 Calvin Awards: TV Show
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