AFT Awards: Best Directing for a Comedy Series

This is the fifteenth category of the 8th Annual AFT Television Awards, my personal choices for the best in television during the 2013-2014 seasons. Finalists and semi-finalists are included to recognize more of the impressive work done on television today. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them.

Best Directing for a Comedy Series

Last year’s nominees: The Ghost is Seen (Enlightened), Revenge Play (Enlightened), Episode 7 (Episodes), Survival of the Fittest (Shameless), D.C. (Veep)

Emmy nominees: Episode 309 (Episodes), 100 (Glee), Elevator, Part 6 (Louie), Vegas (Modern Family), Lesbian Request Denied (Orange is the New Black), Minimum Viable Product (Silicon Valley)

Semi-finalists: None

Finalists: Episode 309 (Episodes), Crate (Veep), I Wasn't Ready (Orange is the New Black), Fucksgiving (Orange is the New Black), Doppelganger (Parks and Recreation)

The nominees:

Pilot (Transparent)
Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency (Silicon Valley)
The Pawnee-Eagleton Tip-Off Classic (Parks and Recreation)
Chapter 29 (Eastbound and Down)

Amazon’s best new comedy debut was full of drama thanks in no small part to the way in which it was presented. The season finale of HBO’s newest show and the series finale of one of most peculiar and sporadic were both appropriate majestic, and the third episode of TV’s best comedy was a blast thanks to its deft handling of a very delicate merger.

The winner:

Moving Up (Parks and Recreation) sent its show to hiatus with on a major high note thanks to an enormously enjoyable and transformative hour.

Next up: Best Writing for a Comedy Series