The Best, Worst, and Somehow-Best-AND-Worst TV of 2011

The end of the year naturally brings reminiscences – fond memories, shared moments with loved ones, arcs of personal and professional growth. Of course, my brain is way too addled by thousands of hours of television to remember any of that other crap. My reminiscences extend (for the purposes of this barely breathing blog) to the best and worst things I watched in 2011.

The usual caveats of course apply – rankings are arbitrary, how can you compare a manic comedy to a deliberately paced drama, yada yada, harrumph harrumph – and I doubt I’m going to surprise anyone by compiling a “best of” list that mainly comprises the very shows I’ve taken the time to write about throughout the season. But of course, I am bound by Internet Directive #543 to nevertheless present a year-end Top 10 list of some fashion. So here we go after the jump:

Best TV I watched in 2011:

1. Parks and Recreation

2. Breaking Bad

3. Community

4. Justified

5. Friday Night Lights

6. Happy Endings

7. Game of Thrones

8. The Good Wife

9. The Vampire Diaries

10. Archer

Honorable Mention: Cougar Town, Downton Abbey, The Hour, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Boardwalk Empire, Bored To Death, Revenge, Sons of Anarchy, Raising Hope, The Chicago Code, Bob’s Burgers.

Worst TV I watched in 2011:

1. H8R (Full disclosure: I did not watch one second of this, but come the fuck on, it’s got to be #1 by a country mile.)

2. I Hate My Teenage Daughter

3. Man Up!

4. American Horror Story (based solely on the pilot; I’ve heard it got better – relatively speaking – but that was one unpleasant hour and I didn’t have the time or inclination to go back for more. Maybe someday).

5. Terra Nova (HOW did they fuck up a show about people from the future shooting dinosaurs with lasers??)

6. Outsourced

7. The Killing

8. Whitney

9. The Playboy Club

10. Ringer

Special award for simultaneously being among the best AND the worst TV of 2011: THE CAPE.

For more discussion of the year’s superlatives, check out my friend Cory Barker‘s TV Surveillance podcasts, in which I join Cory and our other buddyLes Chappell to discuss the Worst of the Year and the Best of the Year. Warning: They’re pretty long, and we kinda go off the rails at many, many points. But hey, maybe you’re entertained by that sort of thing!

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