Best Shows of 2016

Of the ten shows on my list last year, eight had their final season or just took 2016 off. Eight! That left me scrambling to come up with a list, especially since I didn't jump on many new shows to compensate. So there's a few shows here I feel strongly about, and several more than I like and haven't written about before.

Best of 2016

10. Daredevil (Netflix)


Daredevil is a messy show. It's more violent than it needs to be, and the supporting cast can often feel wasted, and the plotting is fairly inconsistent. But as Luke Cage (sorry) showed us, there are definitely worse alternatives. Daredevil has been Marvel's most consistently good comic over the last fifteen years, and the show doesn't reach that standard, but it's a fun adaptation of the darker depictions the character has had, and it has some of the best action scenes of any regular TV series I've seen. The second season added the Punisher and Elektra as foils to Matt Murdock, and while both stories had their ups and downs, their coexistence kept the show's energy high and its tone varied. Not every show needs to be great to be worth watching.

9. Todd Margaret (IFC)


Todd Margaret is sort of a hybrid of American and British comedic sensibilities that works really well. After the apocalyptic ending of the second season I wasn't expecting a third, but it shakes up the formula in a really clever way and gets a lot of comedy out of its half-rebooted premise. David Cross says this was definitely the last season, but I think he's there's another series coming with a similar concept (Cross + England = comedy gold), so I'm looking forward to that.

8. Agent Carter (ABC)


I watch and enjoy Agents of SHIELD, but I don't think it really benefits from having 22 episode seasons. Even the 13 episode Netflix seasons might be a bit long based on the amount of story they come up. Agent Carter is in the sweet spot with 8-10 episodes. Or it was, because it got canceled. I can understand why the show never built a big audience, but the fact that it was an enjoyable, charming, 1940s sci-fi spy action series starring a woman (who was great) was incredible, and I wish there were more series that idiosyncratic.

7. Broad City (Comedy Central)


I've seen Broad City described as something like the female equivalent of Workaholics, but the fact is it's actually better. Abbi and Ilana are a great classic odd couple, with their clashing personalities making their friendship richer and the show's solid emotional core. They're also hilarious, and I would watch them try to work their way through any awkward situation they care to imagine. The third season wasn't the show's best, but it was still very good.

6. Bob's Burgers (FOX)


For my money, Bob's Burgers is easily television's best current traditional family sitcom. The three kids are generally the standout characters, but the parents are great too, avoiding the cliches of moron husband and shrewish wife. The voice cast is wonderful, including the great names they get for guest voices, even for roles that might easily be forgotten without the right character quirks and performance behind them. The show seems like it should be getting long in the tooth at this point, but I still enjoy it every week it's on.

5. Decker Unclassified (Adult Swim)


Decker Unclassified is televised continuation of Decker, a webseries which was a spin-off of On Cinema at the Cinema, another webseries which was itself based on On Cinema, a podcast satirizing bad movie podcasts. So there's a weird lineage here, a lineage that helps explain what Decker Unclassified is. It's a spy show starring fictionalized versions of Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington playing special agents Decker and Kington, with intentionally-unintentionally terrible writing, acting, and production value. It's great and terrible and great because it's terrible. If that sounds interesting, check it out.

4. Stranger Things (Netflix)


I think Stranger Things has some problems. It's eight episodes long but doesn't have much more story than the average two hour 80s movie it's paying homage to, so things feel stretched. Characters often willfully withhold information for no real reason, or fail to change much over time and feel like they're stuck in place. But the core of what it does is so fun that I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The kids are generally great. The horror and sci-fi elements are well done without being too alienating. The period style isn't totally accurate, but works as a pastiche for what's obviously an homage coming from a good place. And the theme music is great. It's got flaws that I hope they improve in season two, but I kind of love it anyway.

3. Game of Thrones (HBO)


So they finally did it. The sixth season of Game of Thrones surpassed the books it's based on in the story, and it makes no apologies about that. Characters die, stories continue, battles are fought, events transpire that readers did not already have knowledge of. It was a new experience, and an interesting one. Part of me wishes I had gotten to read some of these things first, that I had more detail in my mind for what was happening on screen. But part of me also enjoyed being surprised by the show consistently. The show has the same strengths and weaknesses it always had - it's great at big moments, and not quite there on connecting those moments with quieter scenes and meaningful character work. There are two seasons left, and I'm eager to see what happens next.

2. The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)


Six seasons in and the show is as good as ever. After the Gargantua-2 special wrapped up a lot of long-term storylines, the season proper is a bit of a refresh, as the family moves to a new headquarters in New York and quickly begins piling up new problems and distractions for them to tackle. The series has always been a hodge-podge of genre influences, but super heroes take more prominence here, as the Ventures have trouble with the neighborhood Avengers/Justice League hybrid, and The Monarch starts dressing as a Green Hornet knock-off to go after his enemies in the Guild. It's the same mix of zany plotting and humor it's always been, and I'll continue waiting however long it takes for the creators to return to the wonderful world they've been creating for the last decade-plus.

1. Better Call Saul (AMC)


In its second season, the Breaking Bad spin-off continued to wring more great material out of the backstories of two supporting characters than I thought anyone would be capable of. Jimmy realizes being part of a large law firm might not be his thing while his relationship with his brother gets more complicated and heartbreaking, while Mike finds himself slowly getting pulled further and further into New Mexico's criminal underworld. Obviously Bryan Cranston's work as Walter White was fantastic, but this show proves that it was just part of the entire team's ability to put together a show that is consistently original, beautiful, and enjoyable.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2016 but I didn't watch until then.

Friday Night Lights (NBC)

I don't usually go in for shows about sports or family and relationship drama, but there were enough voices saying Friday Night Lights rises above that I gave it a shot. It has its ups and downs, with the latter being exemplified by a pretty weak second season that ignores the show's core charms in favor of easier sensation. On balance though, it's a great drama about being true to yourself and giving everything you have to what you're passionate about. The cast is wonderful, especially Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as the central married couple, and Taylor Kitsch as the burnout running back you can't help but love. I finally understand why he's been given so many chances in major movies. It has as much heart as any show I've ever seen.

Best Shows of 2014

Now that I only use this blog to post these lists instead of writing on it all the time, I find that the TV list comes more down to "shows I want to write about" than "shows I objectively think are the best". At least, this is what sticks out to me when I look back on the year of television. It's what I really remember watching.

Best of 2014

9. Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories (Adult Swim)


Tim and Eric have always been halfway between bizarre sketch comedy and some sort of horrible David Lynchian nightmare, so it was fun to watch them embrace that second aspect of their work. Some episodes of Bedtime Stories don't even have jokes at all, focusing instead on dark (but still oddball enough to obliquely be considered comedy) story concepts in a Twilight Zone sort of way. Other episodes are just straight comedy, and it's best to think of it as them applying their style to slightly longer-form television and really seeing where their minds will take them. It's often not a very nice place.

8. Doctor Who (BBC)


I was looking forward to seeing the first "old" Doctor of the new series, and I was not disappointed. It's Doctor Who, so of course there's some weak episodes, and I was a bit put off by the Doctor's new habit of insulting his companion Clara's appearance. But that character became a real strength for the show this year as her relationship to the Doctor changed significantly as a result of his regeneration, and her courtship with new character Danny Pink was also a huge asset. After they got on a roll, the show had a string of episodes as strong as anything I've seen the series do, and I liked the renewed focus on good individual stories over convoluted season-long plots that never end up anywhere good. I'm looking forward to more adventures through space and time.

7. Community (NBC)


I don't know if Community truly belongs up here, but just the fact that they took a show that was basically dead, brought back the original creator, lost two main cast members, and ended up with something that didn't suck, that was actually quite good, is pretty amazing. It's not up to the heights of the first three seasons at their best, but damn it, it was Community again. We'll see how the new season on Yahoo works out, but I'll always remember what they pulled off in their last year on NBC.

6. The Legend of Korra (Nick)


Despite weird manipulations and bumbling by Nickelodeon, the crew of one of the best animated action series in years managed to put out not one, but two seasons of their follow-up to Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2014. They were the better two seasons of the show, up there with the best in the whole franchise, and a great way to say goodbye to this setting, if that's what we end up doing. Korra's central characters are older than Avatar's, and that comes through in the story, which is ultimately a more mature tale about growing up and learning you have to face your own troubles before you are able to help others, and that kicking someone's ass isn't always the answer. Not that kicking ass doesn't work once in a while, as the action scenes in these two seasons are up there with anything you'll ever see on TV. It's also great to see a prominent same-sex romantic relationship come to pass in something kids might see.

5. Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (FOX)


I'm afraid Neil deGrasse Tyson will become too big for his own good. He's a great ambassador for the value and wonder of science, but he doesn't know everything, and sometimes it seems like he thinks he does. His talents are perfect for Cosmos though, his homage and successor to his mentor Carl Sagan's old series about all the wonders of molecules, galaxies, and everything in between. A lot of what you'll learn in Cosmos is stuff all adults should probably know already, but the fact that Tyson and his crew are still bringing people that information in a smart and accessible way is great, and I love how they directly confront some of the bigger human obstacles in the way of progress. At its best, Cosmos captures the awe and wonder I feel at the real size and possibility of the universe and humanity's future in it, and I think it should be required viewing for anyone with the smallest curiosity about life as we know it.

4. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)


The sense of history in Empire's final season is inescapable, as it closes in on some people, opens up possibilities for others, and brings ultimate closure to far too many. They only got eight episodes and had to skip past several years of juicy gangster dealings, but I feel like we ultimately got everything we needed. Empire isn't quite the epic of crime, family, and politics it wanted to be, but it did an admirable job of working with what it had and providing some great characters and unforgettable moments. A great deal of those moments involve people getting shot in the face, but a lot of times that's how these things went.

3. Game of Thrones (HBO)


A Storm of Swords is my favorite book in the series, and the fourth season of the show mostly adapted its second half, so of course I liked it a lot. However, they also showed a greater ability to change and shift characters and stories around where needed, which is great, because they're going to need it as they go forward into the more recent books. Not every change totally worked, especially one unfortunate sort-of-rape scene that came off worse than the original material, but on a more general level, they're doing a great job of turning a humongous epic into a manageable episodic story, without really making it feel any smaller. One of the most purely enjoyable shows to just watch from week to week.

2. True Detective (HBO)


Coming right in the middle of the McConaughey renaissance (the McConaissance), True Detective used his and Woody Harrelson's skills to their full extent to craft a great, haunting Gothic-noir-mystery-detective THING that defied easy definition and got at the heart of the struggle between good and evil. It covers years of an investigation into a series of strange killings in Louisiana that end up getting connected with a chain of Christian schools, references to an obscure forgotten city (which got me and many others to read The King in Yellow), and a whole lot of problems for the two leads. It will be hard for the unrelated second season to recapture the magic of the first, but we'll always have the lead performances, Cary Fukunaga's great direction, and the flat circle of time to think about.

1. Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)


Rick and Morty is a show about a brilliant old man with a drinking problem who brings his simple-minded but good-hearted grandson with him on trips to other dimensions for various ends which usually end up only serving him. That right there is enough for a good Adult Swim show, but Rick and Morty is definitely something more, already on the same level in my estimation as The Venture Bros. and possibly higher. There's a ton of imagination in every single episode. It will surprise you with story resolutions that are more disturbing than what they could easily get away with, and then follow that up by turning it into something that really profoundly affects the characters. It's sometimes a story about a failing marriage, and mines that for real emotion rather than simple laughs. It's also extremely funny every single week. I laughed out loud multiple times in every episode. That just doesn't happen, you know?

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2014 but I didn't watch until then.

Prime Suspect (BBC)

The gritty British detective drama that I assume is the basis for the DNA of every British detective drama that followed. Over the course of over a decade, Helen Mirren played Detective Jane Tennison, one of the best realized characters in television. She's a brilliant detective, but also a flawed one; a good person, but also a flawed one. We see the arc of her career in a way you usually don't in a TV show, and along the way she investigates some truly unsettling and cleverly twisty crimes. The double length format is a bit of a slog at times, but if you watch Prime Suspect you watch the maturation of television as a medium. There aren't usually easy answers.

Television Update 7: Holiday Specials

There seemed to be an unusual amount of special episodes of shows I watch around the Holiday season this year, so I thought I'd go over them. To get here, the episode didn't have to be Christmas themed, but it did have to be separate from the standard season airing schedule for the show.

Doctor Who - "A Christmas Carol"

Hey, an episode of Doctor Who actually aired in America on the same day as in England! It's a Christmas miracle! While Russell T. Davies' Who Christmas specials tended to at least acknowledge the existence of the Holiday, they also tended to be about everything except it. Now that Steven Moffat's in charge of the show, he's put the Christmas back in Christmas Special with one of his better episodes, and definitely the most holiday-themed Who I've seen. The episode is obviously a take on a story that's been retold countless times, but Moffat and the cast make it work surprisingly well. Michael Gambon plays a man in control of a planet's dangerous cloud layer who takes family members for collateral on loans, and is very much a future version of Scrooge. Needing his help to save a ship full of people including Amy and Roy, the Doctor takes the role of the various Christmas ghosts and creatively uses the TARDIS to try to change his mind. The time travel twists on the classic story freshen it up quite a bit, and there's a lot here to justify Moffat's conception of the show as fairy tale more than science fiction. A very fun, very British hour of television.

Futurama - "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular"


This special is a lot like the Anthology of Interest episodes from the past, showing three silly short films within the Futurama framework, although this time there's nothing to frame the different stories and everyone dies at the end of all three, making them decidedly out of continuity. They're all based on a different holiday and also have sneaky environmental themes attached, providing a Christmas story about seed contamination, a Robanukah story about the depleting Petroleum reserves, and a Kwanzaa story about honey bees disappearing. It's far from one of the best episodes the show has done, with many of the jokes falling flat and yet another Al Gore appearance feeling a bit redundant at this point, but I'll give it a pass because each segment made me laugh out loud at least once. A bit scattershot, but they were probably constrained by the short running time for each bit, needing to hit multiple themes in each one, and finding a way to kill off the cast at the end each time, so the end result is respectable if not outstanding. A decent hold over until the next season starts.

Robot Chicken - "Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III"


There was actually a proper Christmas episode that aired before this, but it appears to be part of the regular fifth season which is starting up soon, while this is definitely a special. While the Family Guy Star Wars tributes have a clear purpose to go on for three episodes, retelling the story of the original trilogy, the Robot Chicken Star Wars episodes have been all over the place with all six movies, making a third seem less necessary. And at an hour long it could have easily dragged. Luckily the writers saved it with a real concept this time, going forward chronologically through the whole series, following Emperor Palpatine's ascent to the throne. It's still just an excuse for a lot of random gags and jokes, but the general progression makes it more interesting than it could have been. Their take on Palpatine is still pretty funny, and a lot of the sketches are among the best and most elaborate they've ever done. It's still definitely just more Robot Chicken in places, but I liked the episode more than I expected.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - "Chrimbus Special"


The Awesome Show's apparent ending earlier this year was a surprise heartbreak, though they've changed that sentiment in the last couple months with a new tour (that I missed getting to go to), a new hour long episode, and an announcement of a coming movie as well as the possibility of more seasons if they feel like it. That's all great news, and the holiday "Chrimbus" episode was hilarious as expected. Chrimbus is a warped version of Christmas much more focused on the receiving aspect of the holiday than the giving side, and it's an opportunity for more awkward audience reactions, mildly disturbing song and dance numbers, and one off sketches. The episode works as an excuse to bring back all of the old favorite guests, from known celebrities like Zach Galifianakis to fan favorite oddities like Ben Hur. There's a couple more ridiculous Cinco products to throw on the gigantic pile, and a multi-part arc with Carol and Mr. Henderson that wasn't exactly necessary but still pretty outstanding. More fun for Tim and Eric fans, and if it had ended up as the last thing they did, it would have been a nice send off.

Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule

I somehow missed that the fifth season of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was its last, as the creators seem to be moving on and expanding their reach beyond Adult Swim. They've done music videos, commercials, and appeared on multiple other shows. I'm fine with this, because anything they do seems to be gold. They haven't abandoned Cartoon Network though, producing and writing this spin-off along with John C. Reilly. I don't know if a legitimate actor like Reilly intends to do more after this solid, six episode run, but I sure wouldn't mind if he did.

The Steve Brule character has always been a highlight of Awesome Show when he's shown up, and giving him his own investigative series is a brilliant idea. They really take the lo-fi channel 5 community television thing to the max, with the whole series filmed and edited on VHS with constant errors and glitches, like we're watching someone's taped copy of the series which airs at 4:30 AM before "Mass for Shut-Ins". The show features a range of topics and some good guest stars, as Steve talks about things that interest him, such as his own fear of puppets and the importance of family. The character is almost too cripplingly stupid at this point to believably have a presence on even local television, but it's funny enough, and often depressing enough when he explores his own inadequacies, that it's still a good watch. There's not a ton of content here, but what there is is pretty enjoyable.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 5

This season took a long time coming, and it took a little while to get into full gear. But once it did, it was totally worth it. I annoyed one friend by repeatedly referring to the first few episodes as "by the numbers", and I stand by that assessment, as they feel as typical as this truly strange show can. Things started looking up when Casey's brother tried to resurrect him, and were fully corrected by the time the duo got their eyes pecked out by crows. They don't look back and it's pretty fantastic through the final scene of the extra long finale, an homage to The Godfather involving all of the show's beloved regulars and some rotten man milk.

I guess I'll run down some of the great guests this season - John C. Reilly's great as always, and Dr. Steve Brule is finally getting his own show in a couple weeks. Weird Al and Bob Odenkirk are back, Wendell Pierce from The Wire gives his all in a thankless role, and Will Ferrell portrays the patriarch of the Mahanahan family. Zach Galifianakis' Tairy Greene gets an episode devoted to his work, featuring some great guests like David Cross and the ghost of LeVar Burton, and the finale features Paul Rudd and Ben Stiller playing themselves. Even the slightly weaker episodes are bound to have at least one killer bit, and by the end of the run it's vintage greatness every time. I know these guys aren't going to do the show forever, but I'm definitely going to cherish each one of these episodes and any others they do for a long time.

Tom Goes to the Mayor

I've seen a bunch of episodes of this show before, but never sat down and watched the whole series until now. It's not as brilliant as Tim and Eric's current live action show, Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job!, but it's still pretty funny and occasionally subversively clever. The premise is fairly mundane, Tom Peters is new to the town of Jefferton, and brings some of his ideas on how to improve his new home to the mayor. Some of the ideas are moronic, and some are actually pretty decent, but it makes no difference because by the end they're always doing something different and insane based on the mayor's suggestions. It makes you wonder if he's actually totally aware of what he's doing and always screwing with Tom or simply an idiot, but in the end it doesn't matter.

The show isn't always firing on all cylinders, but when it is it's pretty terrific. It's fairly interesting how many bits and ideas in Awesome Show originated here, and so much fun is in the little details, like how the mayor always needs Tom to reintroduce himself before he remembers who he is. As with Awesome Show, there are lots of celebrity cameos, from Jeff Goldblum and Zach Galifianakis to Robert Loggia and John C. Reilly. Brian Posehn probably shows up the most often as Gibbons, Tom's small and generally crappy friend, who manages to be hilarious and maddening at the same time. I know some people completely hate this show, but they're honestly fools. Let it grow on you. You'll like it.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 4

Tim and Eric are just shoving out these quick ten episode seasons, at a rate of almost two a year, and I couldn't be happier. They continue to bring their amazing blend of wacky humor, insane tangents, disturbing digressions and unheralded celebrity guest appearances that a lot of people seem to hate but smart people can't help but love. The thing about the show is you have to appreciate guys like Richard Dunn and David Liebe Hart. Most people can find enjoyment in some of the normal sketches but are turned off by the off-putting strangeness that frequently occurs, usually involving those bit actors that keep popping up. But if you can appreciate them because of their oddness, the show's full potential unlocks.

There's maybe a bit less of the shift towards longer stories and continuity this time, but still plenty of great bits that go on for a bit longer than they could. The episode finally revealing the brothers behind the infamous Cinco company wasn't the show's best, but it was an admirable attempt at actually having a single plot through a whole episode, and it had its moments. There are some really good guest appearances too, such as Jonah Hill in one of the only sketches that made me like James Quall, Tommy Wiseau in a tribute to one of the most unintentionally funny movies ever, and a great season finale where Fred Armisen and The Lonely Island look on as Tim and Eric have a brutal tennis match for a million dollars, with the two replaced by Bret and Jemaine of Flight of the Conchords in a few quick shots. When you use people more famous than you this flippantly, it's hard not to appreciate. Tim and Eric could practically film a brick wall for eleven minutes at this point and I'd still think it was brilliant.

Tim and Eric - Awesome Record, Great Songs! Volume One

Awesome Record, Great Songs! is a fine collection of music from Tim and Eric's hilariously bizarre sketch show on Adult Swim. There's a ton of stuff here, almost any song you can think of from the first couple seasons, and there sure are a lot of them. Everything from the Kid Break songs the David Liebe Hart's duets with his dummies to jingles from the different commercials and shows is featured, with many of them extended beyond what you hear on the episodes. The full version of "Doo Dah Doo Doo" for example is even more disturbing, and truly worth a listen. Towards the end of the album they also get into some really cool things like remixes featuring bits that didn't make the cut and alternate versions of songs by bands like The Shins. Music is a much bigger part of the show than one might even realize at first, and any fan of Tim and Eric's antics should get this compilation. Every track is either funny, legitimately catchy, or both.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 3

Tim and Eric keep pumping out their own brand of bizarre sketch comedy, with the third season in less than two years. It's a bit odd to put it this way, but it's easily their most experimental work yet. They've had hints of faux-seriousness before, and have taken it to the next level. Sketches frequently turn from hilarious to hilariously disturbing on a dime, and it's often the most entertaining part of the show. There's more continuity too, showing what happens after Tim got killed last season and bringing new depth to familiar characters.

It's still mostly absurdist comedy though, and some of these episodes are among their best ever. The tribute to "100 years" of Jackie Chan was one of the most amazing 11 minute segments in my life. There are some concept episodes too, like the Jim and Derrick show which completely nails the kind of television I hate, and a live benefit episode that had some nice moments but seemed a bit phoned in. That's okay though, because they have so many great ideas that a few can miss and you still love wondering what they'll do next. Lots of great guests this season, including both returning favorites and great new ones. If you've given it a few chances and just don't like it, then to each his own, but we need more shows this unique.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 2

The second season of the Awesome Show wasn't quite as classic as the first, with more gags that fell flat, but it was still enjoyable the vast majority of the time. Besides plenty of original, strange ideas, lots of favorites from the first season return, from the Married News Team with Dr. Steve Brule to Carol and Mr. Henderson's forbidden love to Casey and The Uncle Muscles Hour. There are plenty of guest stars, both recognizable comedians like David Cross and Zach Galifianakis and those odd looking people Tim and Eric just seem to find and star in some random musical number.

If anything, this season is more esoteric than it was before. Bizarre stuff will happen a lot, like Rainn Wilson with a squashed face describing his stump of a penis in a dating video. But there's also stuff anyone can enjoy like the Innernette, a spot-on parody of infomercials ("Guilty as charged.") and competing families that seem more like businesses. The first season ended on a cliffhanger, and this one ends in a very interesting way as well with a hilariously violent confrontation between the two stars. As far as Adult Swim goes, Tim and Eric is one of the easiest and most enjoyable to watch over and over, and it always leaves you wishing it was a little longer. Season three should be coming late this summer, and like Eric with Tim's birthday, I can't wait.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - Season 1

I haven't discussed much Adult Swim on this blog besides my first TV post about The Venture Bros. and there's really no good reason for that. I watch it more than any other channel, it's just a little difficult to know when to say anything because season start and ends dates are often hard to identify. It becomes easier when they release a DVD, which they're doing soon with the first run of Tim and Eric's bizarre, hilarious sketch program known as the Awesome Show. Their first show was Tom Goes to the Mayor, which was (unfairly in my opinion) hated by most viewers, and had minimal animation with a lot of live action inserts. After it was canceled, they got an opportunity to drop the cartoon millstone that was around their necks and do a fully live action show. There are lots of celebrity guests and musical numbers, and lots of ideas that don't care how weird they are, as they don't change their sense of humor for anybody.

A lot of people still can't stand the show, because it's too off the wall and not traditionally funny. But they're definitely missing out. If you have any taste at all for oddball humor, you'll probably find something to like in any episode you watch. Maybe some of it won't be to your taste, but if it isn't, you're not wasting that much time. Some of the stuff they do is a little childish, with lots of scatological and vomit jokes, and a fair amount of sketches feature decidedly unpleasant people to look at, but that's the show, and I like it warts and all.