'Revenge,' 'Happy Endings' are two of 2011's TV highlights

'Revenge' and 'Happy Endings' were two of the best things about TV in 2011

|
Adam Taylor/HONS/American Broadcasting Companies/AP
'Happy Endings' has gotten decent ratings thanks to its strong fan base.

Favorite TV Trend: Suffice it to say, nothing puts a smile on our face like the proliferation of adorable television babies (See: RAISING HOPE’s Hope and DEXTER’s Harry)

Least Favorite TV Trend: The proliferation of the “T.B.D.” As in air dates for COUGAR TOWN, COMMUNITY, and AWAKE remain to be determined.

Trend That Has to Stop Now: Shows that deliver a series finale under the not-always-correct assumption that they’ll have life on another platform. (See: ENTOURAGE and ALL MY CHILDREN)

Best Excuse to Spend 3 Hours on a Couch: From THE MIDDLE to REVENGE and everything in between, there is nothing that makes us happier than Wednesday night’s on ABC.

Favorite New Bromance: What PERSON OF INTEREST’s Reese (Jim Caviezel) and Finch (Michael Emerson) lack in verbiage, they more than make up for in steely glances that say more than most pairings do in an entire episode’s worth of dialogue.

Show in Desperate Need of an EXTREME MAKEOVER: SUPPORTING CAST Edition: The only thing funnier than 2 BROKE GIRLS leading ladies Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs are the writing team who thought that surrounding them with a collection of highly offensive and astoundingly unfunny stereotypes would be a good idea.

Biggest Casting Blunder: THE OFFICE’s Andy Bernard is no Michael Scott.

Most Pleasant Surprise: The unexpected ratings success of REVENGE, HART OF DIXIE and HAPPY ENDINGS, three TV Addict favorites that in any other year would normally have been classified as “on the bubble” due to the very fact we love them so.

Most Pleasant Surprise (Runner-Up!): Thanks to a string of phenomenally talented hosts including Alec Baldwin, Melissa McCarthy, Emma Stone, Jason Segel, and Jimmy Fallon, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE actually became appointment viewing again.

Favorite Finale: We challenge you to find anything more flawless than FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS final montage. Go ahead, we’re waiting.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to 'Revenge,' 'Happy Endings' are two of 2011's TV highlights
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2012/0104/Revenge-Happy-Endings-are-two-of-2011-s-TV-highlights
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe