TV Surveillance

With the television season nearly two months old and the major sweeps period just beginning, now seems as good a time as any to step back and evaluate what’s happened. And as far as I am concerned, there is never a bad time to give out fake awards, so let’s combine the two.

New show-centric awards

Best new show, comedy: Modern Family

Community might be filled with more pop culture references and serious LOL moments, but this show’s realistic portrayal of, well, modern families puts it over the top. Family features wonderful performances from top to bottom, especially from Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as gay couple Cam and Mitchell. The ABC laughter has been the season’s most consistent comedy, period.

Best new show, drama: White Collar

No offense to the infectious Glee, surprisingly solid Vampire Diaries or sharply written The Good Wife, but USA has done it again with its newest dramedy White Collar. Matt Bomer has taken the charm he showed in guest spots on Chuck and added some much-needed depth to his performance here as a white-collar criminal with a heart of gold. Like all USA programs, Collar balances the comedy with the drama and the serial with the procedural very well, creating an enjoyable hour that’s almost worth staying home on Friday for.

Most disappointing new show: FlashForward

I’ll be the first to admit that I let the pre-release hype get to me, but even with taking that into consideration, FlashForward can be labeled nothing but a substantial disappointment. The program’s writers understand that a mythos-heavy show like this needs character balance but have yet to write a character-heavy scene that pops. Throw in a lack of gravitas in relation to the post-blackout world, stiff-as-a-board acting from most of the main cast and an over-reliance on cliffhangers to draw the viewers in and we might have the newest Heroes on our hands.

Returning show-centric awards

Most improved sophomore show: Parks and Recreation

As a number of us discussed on the latest episode of the WEEKEND Watchers podcast (shameless plug, I know), if November 2009 me would have hopped in a DeLorean and told May 2009 me that Parks and Rec would be the funniest comedy on NBC Thursdays and perhaps all of television, I would have punched him square in the mouth. But just as The Office made a huge jump between its freshman and sophomore seasons primarily because of the changes made to the Michael Scott character, the writers of Parks have figured out how to write for Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope. If for nothing else, Nick Offerman’s minimalist performance as Ron Swanson makes this one a must-watch every week.

Best single episode: Mad Men – “The Gypsy and the Hobo”

As compelling as the Fringe or House premieres were, they don’t quite touch the can’t-even-breathe-it’s-so-tense effect that Oct. 25’s Mad Men had. The scenes between Don and Betty Draper in which he finally reveals his box-load of secrets to her were absolutely amazing and probably helped both Jon Hamm and the program itself wrap up Emmy awards for 2010. No writing staff knows how to slowly build up the tension like Matt Weiner and his team, and the fact that two more episodes remained after this one (meaning more dramatic explosions to come) made “Gypsy” even more effective.

Most disappointing returning show: 30 Rock

The Season 4 premiere might have been pretty solid, but subsequent episodes saw the once-best comedy on television fall right back into the creative slums it found itself in last season: excessive guest stars, a complete lack of character development and the biggest one – the inability to be legitimately funny. Some might chalk up the 30 Rock backlash to the cultural elite getting bored, and that is probably partially the case. But go back and watch the first half of Season 2 and tell me the show is just as good now.

Momentum can change in an instant, but the way things are going right now, expect many of these winners to be exactly the same once May 2010 rolls around.