AFT Awards: Best Directing in a Comedy Series

This is the fifteenth 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 Directing in a Comedy Series

Last year’s nominees: Pilot (Casual), Pilot (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Japan (Girls), The Panic in Central Park (Girls), Nashville (Master of None)

Emmy nominees: Atlanta (B.A.N.), Silicon Valley (Intellectual Property), Silicon Valley (Server Error), Veep (Blurb), Veep (Groundbreaking), Veep (Justice)

Semi-finalists: All I Ever Wanted (Girls), Bang Bang (Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll), Buona Notte (Master of None), Chapter 10: A Hostile Jury (Trial and Error), Chapter 12: The Defense Rests (Trial and Error), Chapter 13: The Verdict (Trial and Error), Chapter 9: Opening Statements (Trial and Error), Episode 6 (Fleabag), First Date (Master of None), Fix Everything (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency), Georgia (Veep), Groundbreaking (Veep), Hooli-Con (Silicon Valley), Insecure as F*ck (Insecure), Justice (Veep), Kimmy and the Trolley Problem (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Kimmy Bites an Onion! (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2 (iZombie), Michael's Gambit (The Good Place), Pilot (Brockmire), Pilot (People of Earth), Remember, Ruby, Remember (You, Me, Her), Server Error (Silicon Valley), The Cleaner (The Catch), The Foundation of Learning (Vice Principals), The House of Uncanny Truths (Search Party), The Job (The Detour), The Seventh Layer (You're the Worst), The Shot Heard Round the World (Making History)

Finalists: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Girl No One Knew (Search Party), Terms of Service (Silicon Valley), Kimmy is a Feminist! (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), No Longer Just Us (You're the Worst), Episode 1 (Fleabag)

The nominees:

Weaponized Soul (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency)
Last Day on Earth (People of Earth)
Toast Can't Never Be Bread Again (Orange is the New Black)
The Principal (Vice Principals)

These four episodes couldn’t have been more different. An informative, action-packed hour brought together all of the mystery from a truly puzzling season on BBC America, an enlightening episode showed the best of what TBS’ alien comedy, an intense and powerful season finale of Netflix’s drama masquerading as a comedy, and the opening installment of a fantastically depraved new HBO show were all superbly steered by their directors.

The winner:

Amarsi Un Po (Master of None) was a wondrous, impossibly romantic portrayal of dreamlike love that truly captured the spirit of what could be on Netflix’s above-average comedy.

Next up: Best Writing in a Comedy Series