I feel deeply apologetic for subjecting everyone to another television-rant themed article, but here goes. (Sidenote: I hope my Christmas carol pun title is duley noted. I went through a couple possible options: Have Yourself a Merry Little Bingewatch, It’s the Most Wonderful Time to Netflix.) 2015 was a spectacular year for TV. Whether you were tuned in or not, if you had a pulse, it was impossible to ignore the sheer mass amounts of content being thrown at you in every direction. I was consuming them all voraciously like they were Caesar salads from Panera Bread (I love Caesar salad.) With so much killer content slammed into my head, there were some moments that stick out as particularly awesome. Here are some of my favourite television moments of the year (with a few spoilers, so be warned):
- The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, “Kimmy Goes to School,” March 6th
This show rocks. Tina Fey created it, so by default, it has to. Despite its overall incredible cast, the stand-out star has to be Titus Andromedon (played by Titus Burgess of Broadway-fame). His best scene was the improvised song “Pinot Noir.” I don’t care to get into the logistics of the song, but you will be singing it constantly. I mean, all of the time. Absolutely brilliant work.
- Mad Men Series Finale: “Person to Person,” May 17th
I freaking adore Mad Men (see one of my previous rambles.) I will honestly fight people about it being one of the best television dramas of our time because I feel that strongly about its wonderfulness (I mean, Jon Hamm. Enough said.) Unfortunately, this year it wrapped its final episode at the end of the seventh season. While I was sad to see it go, I have immense respect for showrunners who realize when the story being told and the characters’ journeys need to come to an end (Something Grey’s Anatomy creators haven’t quite figured out yet.)
The finale was gorgeously shot, poignant as hell, and a perfect punctuation on the entire series. So often, shows end in a muddled mess and audience members are left, frankly, ticked off by the way things end up with their beloved characters. (I put the below gif in for my own fashionable purposes. Trudy’s outfit is my favourite in the entire run of the show and I would commit murder to get the exact same one to wear to class.)
Mad Men thankfully did not end up on the ‘Island of Misfit Series Finales.’ Every character ended in a happy place, except protagonist Donald Draper’s daughter, Sally, who we see scrubbing dishes while her lung-cancer ridden mother puffs away haughtily on a cigarette (which actually remained true to the character). Without going into the semantics of every character, I loved that they gave us a seemingly storybook ending, while still managing to keep it realistic by twisting the emotional knife around just a bit. We were simply visitors for 10 years in the characters’ lives, but time will trudge forward and with it, the lives of the characters.
The final shot of the show was Donald Draper, dressed in white linen, sitting cross-legged atop a verdant hill in California amongst yogis with varying levels of facial hair. As they “omm”, a smile comes across his face and the screen cuts to the famous 1971 “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” commercial. While some speculations occurred, Matthew Weiner later confirmed that Don Draper did end up going back to New York and creating the ad. Fantastic ending to a fantastic show.
- Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale: “Mother’s Mercy,” June 14th
While a bunch of insane stuff happened in this episode, I am still reeling from one particular moment. (Stop reading if you do not want to be spoiled. Or if you hate me and all the things I say. Either one.)
Let me premise this by saying Jon Snow is not my favourite character. I like him better than Khaleesi because (unpopular opinion) she is the absolute worst, but he is just a mopey, less hot version of Robb Stark to me. That being said, I screamed, rolled off my couch and writhed on the floor of my living room when the members of the Night’s Watch started to stab the guy. That last stab by Ollie solidified that little punk on my ‘Characters Who Are The Worst’ list (He is in good company with Rory Gilmore, Vanessa Abrams, and Megan Draper.). I was distraught for about 10 minutes until the trolls on the Internet who are caught up with the books assured me there was no way he was dead. Despite the dupe, this totally shocked me and I love being shocked, which is why I count it as a favourite. Though in this case, I will say it was probably more memorable than a “favourite.”
Over the summer, everyone on the show and its executives tried to tell us he was dead. However, the season 6 poster has been released with an apparent homage to Passion of the Christ, featuring none other than the supposedly dead, John Snow, as a doornail. Nice try, HBO.
- Nathan for You Season 3, “Horseback Riding/Man Zone,” October 22
I personally hate it when I don’t discover something great on my own. I pride myself on my culture snobbery and ability to be the one who recommends things. However, I will take no credit for discovering this gem. Last summer, my boyfriend forced me to watch this ridiculous show he had been obsessing over, and despite my protests, I gave in and thank goodness I did.
Premiering in early 2013, Nathan For You chronicles Nathan Fielder, a comedian from Vancouver, BC, who takes it upon himself to improve struggling businesses in the most orginal ways. He sort of does the Stephen Colbert-thing of creating an alter ego of himself, but Nathan’s alter ego is the most awkward and uncomfortable person in the universe. It is an utter joy to watch him interact with people.
This season, Nathan made a horrifying discovery: “For my whole life, or the past 10 years, I wore this windbreaker by a company in Vancouver named Taiga […] They’re only in Vancouver, they make really good jackets, you know, so I liked them. I wore it in my show—it’s in almost every episode of the first two seasons. In between the seasons, I found out—this is true—they had published a tribute to a notorious Holocaust denier in their winter catalog.”
Upon this upsetting news, Nathan decided to create his own jacket brand, Summit Ice Apparel, which would fully support Holocaust awareness education. He ended up setting up a pop-up shop in a Los Angeles sporting goods store, much to the dismay of the store’s owner who really had no clue what was happening. The jacket, along with several accessories, can be purchased online and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center. They have also been worn by countless celebrities, who are clearly supporting Nathan’s cause.
- Billy on the Street, “Billy Eichner’s Shondaland,” November 10
Billy Eichner is me if I was confident enough to run down the streets yelling at people. I adore him. His show, Billy on the Street is a pop-culture game show that features Billy with countless celebrity guests, playing such games as LaTina Fey (where Tina Fey had to name as many famous latinos as she could in one minute), Would You Have Sex with Paul Rudd? (where Billy and Paul ran around New York and gave people a dollar who said yes), and Jason Sudekis Bros Out (where Billy, Jason, and a crew of bros menaced the streets of New York, then proceeded to tailgate outside of “Wicked”).
My personal favourite was Billy Eichner’s Shondaland, which was a Shonda Rhimes-themed obstacle course. He made Amy Sedaris go through Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder-themed challenges and it was life-changing.
- The Wiz Live, December 3
The Wiz was one of the few musical movies I have memory of seeing growing up because my mom hated them. For this reason, I have always had a fondness for the musical (“Ease on Down the Road” is a great song to walk to class to. Trust me.) When NBC announced that they would be doing another live-musical production, I groaned. The Sound of Music was a charming disaster, and Peter Pan was so bad that I am still having nightmares about grown-men in tiny shorts pretending to be 7-year-olds.
After they began releasing the cast and some gorgeous photos of the costumes, I thought maybe this could actually work. And it did. I cannot even begin to describe the joy, exuberance, and talent that graced the TV. Everyone (Mary J. Blige, Ne-Yo, Amber Riley, Elijah Kelley, Queen Latifah, Common, Uzo Aduba just to name a few) killed it. Just watch it and you will understand the slayage of every single person on that stage. I would like to personally give a special shout-out to the green, glittering, Paris Is Burning crew vogueing it up in the Emerald City.
Along with me, 11.5 million people tuned in, and NBC plans on playing an encore of the performance on December 19th at 8 pm. EST.
Honourable Mentions:
This was the year of the streaming provider. Gone are the days of TV dinners on trays and the whole family gathering around to catch the new Seinfeld episode. Streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime have begun investing in production original contents, and spectacularly original contents at that. Here is a list of the amazing new shows I decided to devour this year:
Netflix:
Aziz Ansari: Live at Madison Square Garden, March 6
Chef’s Table, April 26
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, July 31
Demetri Martin: Live (At the Time), August 14
Master of None, November 6
John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid, November 13
Marvel’s Jessica Jones, November 20
A Very Murray Christmas, December 4
Hulu:
Difficult People, August 5
The Mindy Project, September 9
Amazon Prime:
The Man in the High Castle, November 20
I hope you had as much fun watching TV this year as I did. Have a happy, healthy holiday season avoiding your family and binge-watching some of the mentioned programs above!
Sources, videos, links obtained from:
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