Ranking Every TV Show of 2015, #s 62-51: Netflix Comedies, BBC Boredom, and Louis C.K.’s Failure

Jeremy BeckTV Rankings
Ellie Kemper in Tina Fey's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"

God, I watch a lot of television.

This is both a boast and a confession. In the current era of #PeakTV, it requires a considerable level of dedication to keep up with the overwhelming number of scripted shows that air at all times and across a dozen different platforms. It also requires a pitiful social life, a prohibitive cable bill, and a perpetual lack of sleep. For we deviants who are committed to scouring all corners of the artistic world, watching TV is less a hobby than a calling, a solemn quest to discover the next great prestige drama or quirky comedy.

It is also a losing battle. The forthcoming series of posts will chronicle my thoughts on a healthy (OK, unhealthy) number of TV shows, but what galls me are not the series I disliked but those I haven’t seen. Unless you write about television for a living, it is virtually impossible to consume all of the available programming (at least, not without inventing the 37-hour-day). There is, quite literally, too much damn TV. Read More

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Oscars 2015, Prediction Results: The Revenant Leads the Way

Jeremy BeckOscars
"The Revenant" led the way with 12 Oscar nominations, including one for Leonardo DiCaprio

My modest goal in predicting this year’s Oscar nominations was to exceed my success rate from last year, when I hit on 80% (55 of 69). Well, things really changed this time around, when I connected on… 80%. (Between the variable number of Best Picture nominees and the category ambiguity with Alicia Vikander, there’s some fuzzy math involved, but you’ll just have to take my word for it.) I can’t decide if this means I’m impressively consistent or consistently mediocre.

In any event, there’s plenty to unpack following yesterday’s announcement. Let’s take a quick category-by-category scan through the lineup and see where things stand. Read More

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