Tuesday, August 25, 2009

AFT Awards: Best Writing in a Comedy Series

This is the sixteenth category of the 3rd Annual AFT Television Awards, my personal choices for the best in television this past season. For the directing and writing categories, I’ve included only honorable mentions rather than semi-finalists and finalists. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order.
Best Writing in a Comedy Series


Last year’s nominees: Californication (Pilot), The Office (Dinner Party), The Office (Dunder Mifflin Infinity), Pushing Daisies (The Fun in Funeral), 30 Rock (Seinfeld Vision)

Emmy nominees: Flight of the Conchords (Prime Minister), 30 Rock (Apollo, Apollo), 30 Rock (Mamma Mia), 30 Rock (Kidney Now), 30 Rock (Reunion)

Honorable mentions: Californication (No Way To Treat A Lady), Californication (The Raw and the Cooked), Californication (Slip of the Tongue), Flight of the Conchords (Murray Takes It to the Next Level), Monk (Mr. Monk is Underwater), The Office (Broke), The Office (Business Trip), The Office (Heavy Competition), The Office (Weight Loss), Parks and Recreation (Rock Show), Psych (Disco Didn’t Die, It Was Murdered), Psych (Murder?...Anyone?...Anyone?), Pushing Daisies (Dim Sum Lose Some), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Season 1, Episode 1), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Season 2, Episode 6), 30 Rock (The Funcooker), 30 Rock (Mamma Mia), Weeds (Head Cheese), Weeds (I Am the Table), Weeds (Little Boats), Weeds (Till We Meet Again)

The nominees:
Chuck (Chuck Versus the Ring)
Parks and Recreation (Pilot)
30 Rock (The Bubble)
30 Rock (Gavin Volure)

The season finale of “Chuck” was a great bird’s-eye view into what Chuck’s life would be like without the Intersect, and it had one of the coolest, more surprising endings I’ve ever seen to a season (thankfully, it got renewed). The first episode of “Parks and Recreation” was funny and fresh despite the familiar theme of disgruntled office employees giving mockumentary interviews. The two best episodes of “30 Rock” this year were unbelievably clever, featuring a man whose good looks blinded him to anything bad in life and an imprisoned billionaire trying to use Liz to escape tax fraud charges (and a brilliant usage for the Tracy Jordan sex doll).

The winner:
Chuck (Chuck Versus the Colonel)
The penultimate episode of the second season of “Chuck” sent things spiraling as everyone finally seemed to be on Chuck’s side, and he found himself truly in love with Sarah and for once free of the burden that’s plagued him since the first episode of the show. Chuck wasn’t the only great part of the episode – even Casey become marvelously three-dimensional as he let slip his sadness at not being included in the shenanigans.

Next up: Best Ensemble in a Drama Series

1 comment:

Fabio Nascimento said...

My favorite ("Reunion") is missing, but I do like your nominees a lot. The Chuck episodes are excellent, as well as "The Bubble" (I'm not a big fan of "Gavin Volure"). Parks and Recreation turns out to be a very funny show, but I'm still not very impressed with the writing.