Saturday, September 23, 2017

AFT Awards: Best Comedy Series

This is the twenty-first category of the 11th Annual AFT Television Awards, my personal choices for the best in television during the 2016-2017 season. 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 Comedy Series



Last year’s nominees: Casual, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Orange is the New Black, Shameless, You, Me, Her

Emmy nominees: Atlanta, Black-ish, Master of None, Modern Family, Silicon Valley, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Veep

Semi-finalists: Atlanta, Better Things, Brockmire, Casual, Divorce, Girls, Grace and Frankie, Insecure, Jane the Virgin, Making History, Master of None, Powerless, Santa Clarita Diet, Search Party, Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, Silicon Valley, The Detour, The Great Indoors, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Veep, You, Me, Her

Finalists: Orange is the New Black delved even deeper with its characters in preparation for a transformative prison-wide arc. iZombie reinvented itself and reframed its universe in a very involving and always entertaining way. Vice Principals could have been extremely stupid and forgettable, but thanks to witty writing and superb stars, it really worked. You're the Worst started anew with its characters on new adventures that were doomed to failure. Fleabag was a welcome addition to the TV landscape with a wondrous talent both in front of the camera and behind it.

The nominees:

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was a stirringly creative and unique vision, with a style truly all its own. The Good Place turned something simple into an engaging, complex, and funny look at what comes after life. Trial and Error was spectacularly irreverent and really found its own voice in the absurd as it progressed. Shameless never fails to showcase rich, extremely flamed characters as they engage in depravity.

The winner:

People of Earth managed to turn a simple punchline into a winning, workable concept, with endearing experiencers supporting each other on Earth and equally awesome aliens up in space trying to figure out how to invade and control them.

Next up: That’s a wrap! Get ready for fall pilot reviews aplenty!

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