The Carmichael Show and The Ranch: Throwbacks to the Sitcoms of Yesteryear

Two of the best new sitcoms to be released within the past 12 months are The Ranch, which had its entire first season drop on Netflix on April 1, 2016, and The Carmichael Show, which premiered on NBC on August 26, 2015. Tonally and spiritually, these two shows have nothing in common; however, both shows represent The Ghost of Sitcom Past. The landscape for sitcoms is remarkably different from what is what when Friends and Seinfeld left the airwaves. Nowadays, sitcoms have to be fully formed right out of the gate like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or be able to be traditional with a different perspective like Black-ish or Fresh Off The Boat. There is seemingly no room to be good and “working on it” as seen with the recent cancellations of The Grinder and Grandfathered. Yet two sitcoms have recently emerged that have helped buck this trend, and they have been able to do so in large part by going back to the original drawing board.

Unfunny Kimmy Schmidt: My Review of Season 2

There was always something off about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. After all, the show is set in an off-kilter, goofy version of New York City about a kidnap victim finally living on her own after being trapped in an underground bunker for 15 years. But for some reason, that extremely dark concept worked in Season 1 of the Netflix comedy created by 30 Rock alums Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Yet, there is something off about Season 2 that just is not clicking the same way Season 1 did.

The entirety of Season 2 dropped recently and I have seen the first 7 episodes. While the episodes have gotten better as the show has gone along, the first half of the season has been underwhelming.

Season 2 of Kimmy Schmidt essentially takes place right where Season 1 left off (I say essentially because the very first scene of episode one is a flash forward). Kimmy (played perfectly by Office and Bridesmaids alum Ellie Kemper) is still living with Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess), hanging out with her landlord Lillian (Carol King) and helping out her former boss, now going by Ms. White (played by 30 Rock alum Jane Krakowski) whose maiden surname was given to her Native American family back in the day as a joke by a sarcastic census taker.

The Death of Network Sitcoms

Seinfeld is not only the greatest sitcom ever made in the history of television, but it might be the greatest show of all time. The show ran for nine seasons, and still holds up remarkably well 15+ years after it went off of the air. Despite the fact that multiple stations (and now Hulu) run Seinfeld multiple times a day and we've all seen every episode at least 50 times, the show is still hysterical. And yet Seinfeld almost didn't happen. The pilot episode of the former NBC show (at the time it was called The Seinfeld Chronicles) was so bad (and it is bad) that it almost never made it to air. Luckily, there were executives at NBC who believed in the show and kept it around, and Seinfeld went on to become a mega-smash hit.

Unfortunately, we might never see another Seinfeld again. We live in an Era of Too Much Good TV. There are many benefits to Peak TV, but one of the major downsides is that you need to be good immediately. There are just too many other good shows to exist, that if your show if just mediocre, people will bail and watch something else. That creates a problem for sitcoms, as they're rarely great (or even good) right away. Seinfeld deserved its bad ratings and negative test focus reviews, but it also deserved to stay on the air and get the benefit of the doubt from NBC. Comedies almost always get better, and just because you're bad now doesn't mean you can't be great later.

Marvel's Small World Creative Success with Daredevil and Jessica Jones

In 2015, Netflix released two Marvel produced television shows- Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Both shows are excellent and will earn a spot in my end-of-year Top 20 list. There are many reasons why both of these shows are so good, but the main reason they work is because their stories are simple and their world is very small. Both of these stories take place in a small section of New York City (Hell's Kitchen) and tell a straightforward hero vs. villain story. Despite the fact that Daredevil and Jessica Jones will eventually team up and form The Defenders (along with Luke Cage and Iron Fist who will eventually get their own stand alone shows), their stories are self-contained.

Daredevil is an origin story telling defense attorney Matt Murdock's (Charlie Cox) rise becoming the superhero vigilante Daredevil in Hell's Kitchen. Early on, Daredevil discovers a crime syndicate run by Wilson Fisk (a.k.a Kingpin) played by Vincent D'Onfrio. Kingpin runs his gang mainly within Hell's Kitchen, and Daredevil spends 13 episodes finding and fighting Kingpin. Daredevil spends the first act discovering a sex traffic ring, the second act figuring out that Kingpin is the head of that ring (among many other criminal activities), and the third act bringing him down. It follows traditional superhero tropes (albeit the execution is darker and more effective that most), but its story follows one hero and his journey.

How Orange Is The New Black Became The Best Show On Television

Last year I posted an article about the four contenders to replace Breaking Bad as the unequivocal best show on television. There were four main contenders: Parks and Recreation, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and Orange Is The New Black. Since Vince Gilligan’s epic went off the air in the fall of 2013, three of those shows have made strong cases to be the champ. Mad Men ended up being the weakest out of the four, but it has helped define the standard for prestige television and is part of the reason any great non-super hero story isn't shown in movie theaters but rather on the small screen. Game of Thrones is the most watched show out of these four (most likely, since Netflix doesn’t release its viewing numbers) and has transcended the fantasy genre into something incredible, but it’s uneven-ness in storytelling and reliance on its source material ultimately forces the show to play second fiddle. Parks and Recreation is brilliant in every way, but the fact that it’s a sitcom first and foremost lowered its ceiling.

On the other hand, Orange Is The New Black managed to take the best parts of these shows and rise above them to become the best show out there. Orange has the storytelling skills of Mad Men, the grandeur of scope a la Game of Thrones, and the heart of Parks and Recreation while still telling its own stories. There are most certainly faults with the Netflix dramedy, and truthfully it probably has more faults than any of its competitors, but the fact that it’s still so damn good proves why it deserves to be the champion.

The Fantastic Been There Done That Feeling of Better Call Saul and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Not only is Breaking Bad my personal favorite television show of all time, but it's the greatest thing that any television network across the entire planet as ever shown. It's really freaking good, and I don't know a single person alive who doesn't love the show. Unfortunately, the show went off of the air in 2013. We'll still have its incredible legacy, but we won't get any more new episodes of the show again.

Luckily for us though, we have Better Call Saul in our lives. AMC's newest show is a Breaking Bad spin-off about Albuquerque's best criminal defense attorney (If you want a criminal lawyer, you want a *criminal* lawyer) trying to start his own practice and about Jimmy McGill becoming the sleezeball Saul Goodman you saw on Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad stepped into a higher gear once the show introduced Saul Goodman, because the much needed levity Bob Odenkirk's character brought to the show cut the tension and drama the show had created for itself.

Because Odenkirk and his character were so good, Breaking Bad's creator Vince Gilligan always joked that he'd have to create a Saul Goodman spin-off show once Breaking Bad ended. Well, 16 months after Breaking Bad went off the air, we have the Breaking Bad spin-off the writers always joked about.

The Wonderful Dominance of Netflix Over Television

The very first television program produced and originally distributed by Netflix was a David Fincher produced series starring two-time Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey called House of Cards. The show first aired in 2013, and when I wrote about the show then, the title of my article was "Series Review of House of Cards and The Start of a New Era of Television." I absolutely loved the first season of the TV show which is why I couldn't stop fawning over it. Now, after three season my personal feelings on the show itself have waffled, but as I reflect upon it more, the more I realize that House of Cards is the most important show of this generation. Whether you enjoy the show or not, there is no denying the importance it has had on our culture thanks to this new and improved ability to consume television programs.

I refuse to believe that the era of traditional television is over. I believe it is dying, but the TV industry is constantly finding medication for itself. The early part of 2015 saw massive hits like FOX's Empire and minor hits like CW's Jane The Virgin and ABC's Fresh Off The Boat. These shows have proven that network and traditional television is very much alive and well. Furthermore, as someone who has became a cord-cutter for a brief period of time, I cannot imagine living out the rest of my days without the ability to flip through channels I don't like in the hopes of landing on something I do.

But maybe I'm too old, naive, and insulated to be making these sorts of claims. Hitfix's Donna Dickens wrote an excellent article examining how her young children watch TV nowadays and the potential negative effect it will have for cable companies. She wrote about how her kids can't even watch commercials without being impatient and bored. One of them even said, "Live TV is awful" and they would just wait for the show to come to Netflix. They couldn't comprehend the concept that if they didn't watch live TV then there would not be a show for Netflix to even air.

The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of House of Cards

When I first wrote about the First Season of House of Cards, my waxing of poetic might have gone a little bit overboard. I mean, I did call it the official beginning of a new revolution of television. But that being said, if the time between The Sopranos to Breaking Bad constitutes The Golden Era of Television, then we are most certainly in The Silver Era now. We are in a era of television marked by a vast quantity of shows, many of them great, with no real consensus of which one is the best. Netflix and House of Cards is a major reason for the current proliferation of great TV dramas as we don't even have to watch traditional TV channels to find great television programs. And House of Cards is currently back in the fold to be considered great.

I absolutely love the first season of House of Cards. I literally lost sleep just so I could binge watch another episode of the show. In the end, I placed it as my 4th favorite show of 2013 behind Justified, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men and right above Netflix's other major television program Orange Is The New Black. Not a bad company to be joined by.

House of Cards' first season was as good as it was because it had interesting characters (obviously most notably The Underwoods) that you couldn't wait to see what they were up to next. The actions of these characters might not have been wholly believable- mainly the idea that Frank Underwood could get any bill he wanted to passed with a little bit of elbow grease and blackmail- but you didn't have to suspend your disbelief terribly to envision that this version of Washington D.C. actually exists. House of Cards was first and foremost a political thriller where the web of lies and deceit was a chess game for Frank.

The Top 25 Best TV Shows Currently Streaming on Netflix*

THE TOP 10 BEST T.V. DRAMAS CURRENTLY STREAMING ON NETFLIX*

10) Lost (2004-2010) (ABC)

Created By: J.J. Abrams 

Showrunners: Damon Lindelof & Jeffrey Leiber

GRADE: B-
Seasons Available to Stream: 6

Brief Description: The first 2 seasons of the show are great, and frankly, if you stropped there, you'd be fine. The show kind of goes off the rails after Season 3, but overall, a great show to finally catch up on if you missed it when it originally aired.

9) Heroes (2006-2010) (NBC)

Created By: Tim Kring

GRADE: B-
Seasons Available to Stream: 4

Brief Description: With the Heroes Reborn mini-series coming out in 2015, you should catch up on the original show today. The first season is by far the best season, and even though creator Tim Kring does have a problem with finales, and if you completely throw out the second season which was marred by the writer's strike, then you get a solid show. 

Series Review of Netflix's House Of Cards and The Start of The New Era Of Television

The Golden Age of Television is dead. Shows like The Sopranos and Oz and Deadwood and The Wire are long over. The two shows at the tail end of the Revolution- Mad Men and Breaking Bad- are on its last legs. Breaking Bad will finish its last season in a few months from now and Mad Men is sure to follow soon. For me, once Breaking Bad ends, the Golden Age of Television is over.

We are now in a new age of television. Previously, we had internet message boards and TV box sets to help with our television watching. Now we have blogs, On Demand, and Netflix. If we hear a show is great we can power through an entire season with the click of a finger and catch up instantly. I saw every single episode of Breaking Bad in 2012 thanks to Netflix and the internet (and AMC for airing an original season). Netflix is fully aware of how people watch television nowadays and decided to release every single episode of House Of Cards all at once. Instead of waiting for a new episode every week, viewers can watch new episodes like how they watched old ones- at their own leisure.