Benjamonster's TV

The 73rd Annual Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced today and, as usual, there were plenty of expected nominations, some satisfying surprises and some mystifying snubs. Here are some of my thoughts from the nominations! Comedy and Drama Front-Runners Cement Themselves Going in, we knew that Ted Lasso and The Crown were the likely frontrunners and that was proven true on nominations morning with both leading the pack in their respective categories. Ted Lasso picked up 20 nominations, the most ever for a freshman comedy while The Crown had 24 nominations, tied with The Mandalorian for the most for any series. They also picked up just about every acting nomination they could so it's full steam ahead to the Emmys. The biggest threat to Lasso is likely Hacks which did better than expected and has the frontrunner for Comedy Actress in Jean Smart. The biggest threat to The Crown might be The Handmaid's Tale which way overperformed in the acting categories a year after seve...

When I started this blog in Fall 2010, I was recently graduated from college. I wasn't watching as many current shows as I do now but made a plan to watch more and start reviewing them on this blog. One reason I was excited about doing that was because several shows I liked had premiered in 2009-10, chief among them Modern Family . When Modern Family premiered in September 2009, ABC's comedy department was in shambles. Sure, they had successful dramas like Lost and Grey's Anatomy  but they had nothing to speak of in the comedy department. The past couple years had seen tired sitcoms like According to Jim , niche ones like Better Off Ted and The Knights of Prosperity  and dumb ones like Cavemen and Carpoolers . ABC knew things needed to be different and they bravely launched a lineup of all new comedies on Wednesday night. The other shows were star vehicles for Kelsey Grammar, Patricia Heaton and Courteney Cox as they returned to TV with Hank, The Middle and Cougar Town ...

The Middle ends tonight after nine seasons and 215 episodes. This unassuming comedy premiered just one week after the heralded debut of Modern Family and as part of ABC's heavily hyped entirely new comedy block that also included Cougar Town and the quickly cancelled Kelsey Grammar comedy Hank . All eyes were on Modern Family at first and for many years with its five straight Emmy wins (at least two of those were very deserving) and huge popularity. But I firmly believe it is The Middle that had the better run. While Family 's best days are years ago and it is a shell of what it was once, The Middle has continued in quality with remarkable consistency since day one and its ratings reflect that. It never reached the highs of a show like Modern Family  but also didn't suffer a huge erosion of audience over the years comparatively. What is the reason for that? First of all, the show managed what very few family sitcoms in history have been able to do. The ki...

Scandal ends tonight on ABC after seven seasons and 124 episodes and I have been all over the map with this show. I don't remember being super excited about Scandal when it was first announced at the 2011 Upfronts. Despite being a political drama, which I am generally interested in, I wasn't too excited about the idea of a "fixer" (remember, this was well before the Trump presidency when that was an everyday term). When it premiered in April 2012, I gave lots of praise to Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope in my  pilot review , but I didn't think it was a runaway blockbuster and viewers agreed as it premiered to decent but still modest numbers. Then came Season 2 and Scandal morphed from a fairly tame show that mostly followed a case of the week to a twist-filled, "OMG" moment drama that became must see TV every Thursday night. The show started a meteoric rise in the ratings and became one of the most talked about shows on TV. There was a ...

I don't typically write about late night TV but I'm a regular watcher of it so I wanted to say a few things that have been on my mind with the retirement of David Letterman this week. I've been a casual Letterman viewer for years. I'm too young to remember his beloved and groundbreaking NBC show or his highly publicized move to CBS. But I've seen enough youtube clips and read enough articles to know he was a true innovator. His departure this week felt nostalgic for many, especially those late Baby Boomers and the Gen Xers, and he was TV's last link to the legendary Johnny Carson. I read somewhere about someone saying that even though he didn't watch Letterman regularly anymore, it was comforting knowing he was still there. It's weird to me that I can't just flip his show on at any given weeknight. Following the departure of the mainstream Jay Leno and the truly unique Craig Ferguson last year and with the impending exit of the voice of the era, Jo...

Parks and Recreation ends tonight after seven seasons and 125 episodes. The friendly folks of Pawnee, Indiana never found a mass audience but had a very loyal audience of people who adored the show - myself included. Parks and Recreation premiered in spring 2009 and was immediately dismissed by many (including me) as a less funny version of The Office . Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope seemed like an obvious ripoff of Michael Scott and the show couldn't really find its footing. After a short first season, it came back with a vengeance in season two and had a much better vision of the show it wanted to be. And it just got better from there. So what made Parks and Rec so great? Well, first and foremost was the sunny optimism of the show led by a truly great lead character in Leslie Knope. In today's sitcom world, most sitcoms are cynical, sarcastic, or even dark at times. Many of my favorite sitcoms including The Office and Modern Family fit into at least one of...

The Office , a little sitcom that could, is closing up shop tonight after nine seasons and 201 episodes. The mockumentary about a midsize paper company in Scranton, PA was based on the short-lived British series of the same name starring Ricky Gervais. It premiered to little fanfare as a midseason NBC replacement in the spring of 2005 with Steve Carell in the lead role, best known at the time from The Daily Show and Anchorman . Eight seasons later, it helped make Carell a household name, led to the single-cam comedy explosion in recent years, won an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy Award, made "that's what she said" popular again, created a great TV romance, and gained legions of die-hard fans. Even though the show faltered towards the end and especially after Carell left the show in 2011, it leaves behind a great legacy as a truly excellent comedy series of this generation. When The Office premiered, Friends had just left NBC the previous season. There were very few ...

In place of the Weekend Rewind this Sunday, I would like to offer a commentary and a plea to ABC to renew my favorite new show of the 2010-2011 season, Detroit 1-8-7 , which will air its season finale tonight at 10pm. I am well aware that the ratings for Detroit do not merit a renewal. It had a ho-hum debut ratings-wise and has really slipped badly this winter without a Dancing with the Stars lead-in. But it's not like ABC has more dramas than they know what do with (which is CBS's current problem). ABC has not launched a successful drama in a couple years and many are thinking they will renew one of their struggling freshman. While many are predicting that will be Off the Map or still-to-come drama Body of Proof , I would love for them to consider Detroit 1-8-7 . Detroit 1-8-7 was originally conceived as a "mockumentary" drama with a ride-along camera crew going around with the cops. This was changed after Detroit laws changed following a controversial shooting. ...