With the TV season (to the extent there is still a "season") coming to its "official" close this past week, it's time for me to justify that time on the couch by presenting...
Doug's Second-Annual Useless TV Report Card!
(Really. I did this last year for the 2011-12 season.)
Bear in mind that the shows are not graded on a curve (some brief details can be read below); even though the list this year is arranged by grade first (with the highest at the top), the secondary sort is merely alphabetical by title, so the order is not suggesting a superiority of one show as compared to another.
And with that, I direct you to the comments pane below to allow you to tell me how wrong I am.
~
For the overly curious, the grades were arrived at thusly:
As before, these are the shows where I watched the entire season** (or else how could I have a basis for issuing these grades?).
I took my recollections of how I felt after viewing the shows on a week to week basis (or sometimes in a bulk lump if they accumulated on the DVR for a while), combined with what I remember of how that contributed to my level of anticipation each the next new episodes aired, and vaguely ruminated upon for a bit to determine an overall status for the period from the premiere to the finale. It reflects that cumulative opinion of how well the given show provided me the entertainment I would hope to get from it.
[For the purposes of this, any show that had a season since last May is included, even though that falls outside the traditional timeframe.]
* These seasons are still technically in progress.
** The two shows with "incomplete" grades are included because we recorded the entire season but have not yet watched them all, but we will this summer. (Why are they included then? As the intention was to watch them all and the entire seasons were recorded, they seemed worth putting them on nonetheless.) The two nightly Comedy Central shows, lacking a season per se, were placed at the bottom for what I consider worthy inclusion but to distinguish them from shows that have distinct premieres and finales.
Doug's Second-Annual Useless TV Report Card!
(Really. I did this last year for the 2011-12 season.)
Bear in mind that the shows are not graded on a curve (some brief details can be read below); even though the list this year is arranged by grade first (with the highest at the top), the secondary sort is merely alphabetical by title, so the order is not suggesting a superiority of one show as compared to another.
|
A
|
Bob's Burgers
|
Sep. – May
|
Fox
|
|
A *
|
Breaking Bad
|
July – Sep.
|
AMC
|
|
A
|
Key and Peele
|
Sep. – Nov.
|
Comedy
|
|
A
|
Louie
|
June – Sep.
|
FX
|
|
A
|
New Girl
|
Sep. – May
|
Fox
|
|
A
|
Scandal
|
Sep. – May
|
ABC
|
|
A
|
The Good Wife
|
Sep. – Apr.
|
CBS
|
|
A-
|
30 Rock
|
Oct. – Jan.
|
NBC
|
|
A-
|
Parks and Recreation
|
Sep. – May
|
NBC
|
|
A-
|
Portlandia
|
Dec. – Mar.
|
IFC
|
|
A-/B+
|
Happy Endings
|
Oct. – May
|
ABC
|
|
A-/B+
|
Raising Hope
|
Oct. – Mar.
|
Fox
|
|
B+
|
Fringe
|
Sep. – Jan.
|
Fox
|
|
B+
|
The Big Bang Theory
|
Sep. – May
|
CBS
|
|
B+
|
The Mindy Project
|
Sep. – May
|
Fox
|
|
B+
|
The Simpsons
|
Sep. – May
|
Fox
|
|
B
|
Girls
|
Jan. – Mar.
|
HBO
|
|
B *
|
Mad Men
|
Apr. –
|
AMC
|
|
B
|
Modern Family
|
Sep. – May
|
ABC
|
|
B
|
Suburgatory
|
Oct. – Apr.
|
ABC
|
|
B
|
Suits
|
June – Feb.
|
USA
|
|
B-
|
Covert Affairs
|
July – Nov.
|
USA
|
|
B-
|
Once Upon a Time
|
Sep. – May
|
ABC
|
|
B- *
|
Psych
|
Feb. –
|
USA
|
|
B-
|
Saturday Night Live
|
Sep. – May
|
NBC
|
|
B-
|
The League
|
Oct. – Dec.
|
FX
|
|
B-
|
White Collar
|
July – Mar.
|
USA
|
|
B-/C+ *
|
Maron
|
May –
|
FX
|
|
C+
|
Community
|
Feb. – May
|
NBC
|
|
C+
|
Go On
|
Aug. – Apr.
|
NBC
|
|
C+
|
The Office
|
Sep. – May
|
NBC
|
|
C
|
Ben and Kate
|
Sep. – Mar.
|
Fox
|
|
C
|
Burn Notice
|
June – Dec.
|
USA
|
|
C-
|
How I Met Your Mother
|
Sep. – May
|
CBS
|
|
D
|
Up All Night
|
Sep. – Dec.
|
NBC
|
|
incomplete
|
Archer
|
Jan. – Apr.
|
FX
|
|
incomplete
|
Nikita
|
Oct. – May
|
CW
|
|
incomplete
|
Totally Biased
|
Aug. –
|
FX
|
|
A
|
The Colbert Report
|
n/a
|
Comedy
|
|
A
|
The Daily Show
|
n/a
|
Comedy
|
And with that, I direct you to the comments pane below to allow you to tell me how wrong I am.
~
For the overly curious, the grades were arrived at thusly:
As before, these are the shows where I watched the entire season** (or else how could I have a basis for issuing these grades?).
I took my recollections of how I felt after viewing the shows on a week to week basis (or sometimes in a bulk lump if they accumulated on the DVR for a while), combined with what I remember of how that contributed to my level of anticipation each the next new episodes aired, and vaguely ruminated upon for a bit to determine an overall status for the period from the premiere to the finale. It reflects that cumulative opinion of how well the given show provided me the entertainment I would hope to get from it.
[For the purposes of this, any show that had a season since last May is included, even though that falls outside the traditional timeframe.]
* These seasons are still technically in progress.
** The two shows with "incomplete" grades are included because we recorded the entire season but have not yet watched them all, but we will this summer. (Why are they included then? As the intention was to watch them all and the entire seasons were recorded, they seemed worth putting them on nonetheless.) The two nightly Comedy Central shows, lacking a season per se, were placed at the bottom for what I consider worthy inclusion but to distinguish them from shows that have distinct premieres and finales.
I do remember that you did this last year. Happy anniversary.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered who watches the shows that we don't. Now I know. We watch none of those at all, now. We gave up "Big Bang," "Fringe," "White Collar," and "Archer" this year. The first three had clearly lost their way. (Every show runs out of juice eventually.) "Archer" proved just too base, even for me. I thought it was very funny, but darling wife strongly disapproved. I tried liking "Suburgatory," but something about it just didn't sync. Perhaps the plastic-surgery neighbor and her daughter. They really bothered me. I didn't really mind the father and the daughter. And it was nice to see Alan Tudyk again.