What I Did This Weekend: Made Another List
AMC
This weekend I served, for the second time, on the American Film Institute's panel to pick the top 10 TV shows of 2008. (The AFI releases its 10 best films list, to greater attention, at the same time.) The list differs from my own top 10 list in that (1) I didn't make it alone, (2) only scripted shows are eligible and (3) it is not ranked, only listed alphabetically. The envelope, please...
BREAKING BAD
IN TREATMENT
JOHN ADAMS
LIFE
LOST
MAD MEN
THE OFFICE
RECOUNT
THE SHIELD
THE WIRE
Clearly the list includes some shows I wouldn't have picked (given that I left them off my own list for TIME) and some shows that I did pick. Overall, I'd say half the shows definitely should have been chosen, a couple probably should have been and a couple are... arguable.
And I'll leave it at that, because the jury deliberations are confidential. But the AFI jury is always a fun, refreshing experience, because it's not just a critics' panel: there are a few critics, and the rest (a baker's dozen altogether this year) are academics or TV-industry professionals. (The confidentiality, I guess, allows them to praise or trash their peers' work with candor.) So it ends up being a dialogue among people with not only different experiences, but different criteria of what makes for great TV. You also end up with a less predictable list.
Above all, it's educational for anyone who declaims about TV (or anything) for a living to spend a day debating and justifying your preferences with a room full of people who know a lot more about a lot of things than you do. Over the course of the cordial discussion—is it breaking confidentiality to say that it was cordial?—shows rocket up the list or plummet down on the basis of jurors' arguments or strategic voting. Some of our choices, I won't say which, made it by acclamation, others by tighter-than-Bush-v.-Gore margins. (Appropriately, since HBO's Recount was one of the shows on the list.)
The other two critics on the jury, by the way, were the Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara, whom I'd read but never met, and TV Guide's Matt Roush, about whom I have a public service announcement: TV Guide's blogs are temporarily down TV Guide magazine's staff temporarily stopped blogging* after the magazine's recent sale, so people have been asking if he still has his job, and he's been unable to blog to tell them that yes, he still does.
* [Update: To clarify a confusing situation—the sale separated TV Guide, the magazine, and tvguide.com, the website (along with the TV channel), among different owners. Tvguide.com is still up and running with its own staff; TV Guide magazine intends to launch its own website, to which its own staffers, like Roush, will again contribute. So tvguide.com still exists, separately from TV Guide, the magazine; and Matt Roush, the TV critic, still writes for TV Guide, the magazine, but is not yet writing for TV Guide the magazine's new website, which does not exist yet. All of it raising the profound philosophical question of which is the "real" TV Guide. Better? I didn't think so.]
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1
That sucks about Matt Roush. I looked forward to reading his Q&A's every Monday and Friday.
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2
@mcmagnus: Just in case I wasn't clear--TV Guide (and I assume Roush) will continue to have a blog presence once it re-launches its site... they're just temporarily down for now. And obviously, he's still in the magazine, if anybody still reads magazines.
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3
Oh. I thought I had read a message on TVGuide.com that said the website and the magazine were now owned by separate corporations, so Roush wouldn't be working on the site anymore. If I was wrong, that's great!
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4
As best I understand it: the magazine and the website are now owned by different corporations. The magazine, therefore, will have to launch a new website (which, just guessing here, the old website now has no incentive to promote), where Roush and others will contribute.
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5
I gotta say, James -- I'm pleasantly surprised that Life made it on the list. A very well made show that gets somewhat overlooked, with some great performances by Damian Lewis and Adam Arkin. I gotta imagine, though, that it was one of the "Bush-v-Gore" award winners....
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Overall, looking at the list, a lot to like. I apparently watched 6 of the top 10 shows on TV in 2008 (John Adams, Life, Lost, The Office, Recount, and The Wire), and will probably eventually add two more via DVDs when the shows finish (The Shield and Mad Men). I'm somewhat saddened, though, that there isn't more critical love out there for the escapist, nerd-fest that is Chuck.....and where is Battlestar Galactic on this list? -
6
Life's a fine show, but 10 best? That surprises me, and not really in the pleasant way.
Thanks for the clarification of Matt Roush's position. I'd read the tvguide.com explanation, which of course didn't point out that he'd likely be back online at a different site. How confusing will it be to have to market TV Guide Classic and New TV Guide? Wonder if we'll see legal battles over the name?
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7
top ten list by committee sure seems like a challenge, would that be my list? no...
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and I do like Roush and appreciate the explanation, but can i just undiplomatically say that i think it's so dumb to have a tvguide.com and what, tvguidemagazine.com, that replicate the same content with different contributors. -
8
Here's my list. Not a great year. If it weren't for HBO and cable, I might have to start reading or spending time with loved ones.
1. Mad Men
2. In Treatment
3. Generation Kill
4. Breaking Bad
5. The Life and Times of Tim
6. 30 Rock
7. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
8. Lost
9. The Wire
10. True BloodHigh hopes for 2009: The Goode Family (ABC), Sit Down, Shut Up (Fox), Kings (NBC), The Pacific (HBO).
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9
With the exception of Season 6 (which I thought was much weaker than this year and prior seasons), I would rate The Shield as one of the top 10 shows of the past decade.
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10
I think House deserves to be on there, but since you put LOST on I'll let it slide.
True Blood though, seriously? I doubt this show would have gone anywhere if iti wasn't for all the Twilight hype.
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11
Hi and thanks to Jim for the shout-out -- and for his clarification of our undeniably confusing situation. As you can imagine, he raised the level of smart and witty discourse in our AFI jury room the minute he showed up. Can't really comment on the TV Guide situation except to say that all of us at the magazine are excited about the impending launch of the new tvguidemagazine.com website, where our columns will run exclusively. And I agree with Jim about the content of the AFI list. Half of the shows on the list were on my original ballot. I was happy to include a few others, less happy to include several. But the give-and-take was, as ever, as intoxicating as it was cordial and professional, and a welcome reminder that despite the writers' strike and plummeting network ratings, it was far from a hopeless TV year.
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12
I am thrilled that NBC's LIFE is included in the AFI's Top 10 TV List. It is the most engaging and entertaining serial drama that has been on TV in years. The shows are intelligent and fascinating, the music and photography are great, and the cast are excellent; especially the brilliant actor Damian Lewis who is absolutely mesmerizing as Detective Charlie Crews. It is great that the AFI has given this fine program the recognition it deserves.
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