List #37: Some of the Best TV I Watched in 2013

Best Overall:

My Mad Fat Diary

(Rec. #283)

I appreciated, admired, and adored a lot of stuff year, but my feelings for My Mad Fat Diary are in a different stratosphere. It tore me up. It made me giddy and livid and soul-achy and triumphant and reverent, and not a single emotional beat felt unearned.

Best Actor:
Tatiana Maslany,

Orphan Black

(QfFC #10)

The first season of Orphan Black did a lot of things right, but the most important thing it did was introduce us to the jaw-droppingly talented Tatiana Maslany.

She is our queen now, you know. Long may she reign.

Best Show Cut Down Before Its Time:
Bunheads 

I haven’t watch Enlightened yet, but otherwise I stand by this one pretty strongly.

Best Show That Should Be Terrible by Now but
Somehow Really Isn’t:
Portlandia

By all rights, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen should have completely run out of ideas about fifteen episodes ago. At the very least, their funny/not funny ratio should be getting worse. It’s not.

Best White Male Showrunner Who Is Not Wholly Oblivious to His Privilege [tie]:
Michael Schur (Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
Bryan Fuller (Hannibal)

Look at the realistic presence of women and non-white dudes in Michael Schur’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine!

Look at the fully realized female characters that Bryan Fuller created for Hannibal! These did not exist in the original story by Thomas Harris. In the novel, for example, Alana Bloom and Freddie Lounds are both men.