Best episode of the week – Go On, “Gooooaaaallll Doll!”
Okay, so Go On was maybe not the total best (as usual, it’s hard to compete with 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation), but this week’s Go On was, even in my Tuesday overload of sitcoms, a surprise delight. Once again, this show gets therapy and the healing process so, so right. Gimmicks like this week’s goal dolls may inspire short-term change that feels like progress, but real progress is a slow, grinding process. The Sonia and Yolanda subplot was not only hilarious (“Three sugar cubes. Like the number of men I’ve been with… Today.”) but effortlessly illustrative of that. Putting on a brave face and changing everything in your life by a certain deadline isn’t how healing works. It’s a labor of love.

Show I’m Over – The Mindy Project
I wanted to like The Mindy Project so badly, you guys. I tried and I tried and I tried. I made excuses for why I didn’t like it — it was just one bad episode! It suffered because it was the last in a two hour block of comedies and I was worn out! But I can’t make excuses any longer. The fact of the matter is The Mindy Project just isn’t very good. There’s no focus, the characters are ill-defined and it’s simply not that funny. There are a few standout moments that make you think maybe, just maybe the show is worth watching (Mindy’s brother last week was a particularly good addition), but the slog of stress-vomit jokes to get through to them is excruciating.

Cutest Couple – Tessa and Ryan, Suburgatory
Tessa is right — on paper, her budding relationship with dumb jock next door Ryan shouldn’t work. He’s, well, simple, and the complete opposite of the type of person you would think that urban, sophisticated Tessa would end up with. And yet, against all odds, I’m loving the development of their relationship. The scene where Ryan brings Tessa her homework (and how hilarious was it that Lisa thought bringing Tessa her homework was the ultimate romantic gesture?) was beyond sweet. And it made me admit to myself that yeah, I really do want those two crazy kids together.

I think what works about Tessa and Ryan is that Tessa’s relationship with Ryan is ultimately like her relationship with Chatswin. Maybe she shouldn’t like it or feel at home there. It’s not her beloved New York and it’s certainly got its downsides. But like Ryan, Chatswin is a place where people have the courage to care, even if it’s about something as dumb as Junior Secretary’s Day. People in Chatswin may be dumb, but they’re kind and warm and that, in the end, is what matters.

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New Favorite Friendship: Ryan and Anne, Go On
If at this time this year you had told me that there would be a middle-aged lesbian on my television, let alone on a show with as much diversity as Go On, and that she’d be handled well, I’d have asked what crazy optimism drugs you were on and where I could get me some. But Go On has really steadily delighted me this year, way more than I thought it would. Not only does Ryan feel very different from Chandler (something I needed from Matthew Perry but wasn’t sure I’d ever get), but his friendship with Anne is exactly what this show needs. Because healing through therapy two sides, really. (And oh, as someone who’s been in therapy over 75% of my life, I could write odes to how well psychological conflict is handled in this show.) There’s the blind, almost childlike belief needed to make a leap of faith that the rest of the group represents, but there’s also always that cynicism and grounded practicality that most of us have trouble letting go of. And watching Ryan and Anne not just fall headfirst into accepting every bit of feel-good advice Lauren dispenses is what makes this show work so well and keeps grounded instead of veering to the saccharine.

The “This Has Gone On Too Long” Award: Barney and Robin, How I Met Your Mother
Normally when it comes to TV relationships I am all about the slow burn. Bring it! Make me suffer!  Pining is great! But Barney and Robin have been jerking us around for seasons, and on top of that, we’re aware Barney and Robin are on a ticking clock of needing to be headed towards marriage or engaged by spring. How’s that going to work? Or are we just going to not see them date until May? And if that’s the case what will the storyline of the final season (next season, presumably) be? Can they just get together now already? Because while I appreciate the parallel of Robin sexily putting herself out there at Barney’s door and when she came to his door way back in Season 4 during “Shelter Island”, crying and vulnerable, and he turned her down then as well (because Barney seems to self-sabotage anything that’s not Robin genuinely wanting him and not just when she’s feeling needy, which is pretty cute), that really hit it home that this needs to be over already. Robin and Barney need to settle down, Ted needs to solve finding the mother, and this series needs to wind it down.

And Patrice? Seriously? He was on a date with Patrice? NO ONE ASKED YOU, PATRICE.

Most improved: Suburgatory
Remember how terrible I said last week’s Suburgatory was? Well, change that to “delightful” and that’s how great this week’s was. It was like a jumbled, chaotic mess of delight. Ryan finds out he’s adopted, hides with a still-heartbroken Malik and decides to change his name to Eugene Goldfarb! He prints business cards! The wonderful parallel of him losing himself just as Tessa finds herself by realizing maybe having a mom isn’t everything she thought it would be! And so sue me, I’m rooting for those two crazy kids to work together.

My one complaint was that this episode seemed way, way too short. Dalia’s side story about wanting her maid/housekeeper/nanny/stand-in mother Carmen back was sweet, and the viral video she made was frankly delightful, but it almost felt like it deserved its own episode to get a moment to really shine. But seriously, if my only complaint about an episode is that too many awesome things happened? That’s a damn good episode.

Most Underrated Actor: Nat Faxon, Ben and Kate
Can someone please explain to me why everything Nat Faxon says is the greatest thing I have ever heard? Why do I suddenly want to cast him in everything? I don’t get it. It’s not like the other characters or actors on this show are lightweights when it comes to being endearing, and yet something about the way Faxon plays Ben makes me willingly abandon any and all problems I would normally have with his character (too frivolous! too silly! caricature!) and makes him the greatest part of every episode besides Kate’s wardrobe — which I covet shamelessly. But I think the moment that sealed it for me was that, in spite of a very, very strong episode this week, the most I laughed was at the ending tag where Ben just goes around naming trees and then says “take that, Dad! Who can’t name trees now?” (or something to that effect, I forgot to DVR it and it’s not on Hulu yet, work with me.) It shouldn’t have been the funniest part of the episode! It had no right to be! And yet, it absolutely was.

My disappointment with the Emmys has reached mythic proportions, and while my Nick Offerman for Best Actor in a Comedy quest is the hill I will probably die on, I hope and pray that Nat Faxon and his crazy brand of what can only be witchcraft at least get a well-deserved nod.

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The term “critically acclaimed” must have been invented by a network executive desperate to boost the credentials of a flailing show loved by pundits and panned by audiences. It smacks of a desperation that “fan favorite” or “top rated” simply does not.

Now, I don’t know whether anyone has yet to apply that transparent label to any of this season’s crop, but I’m willing to bet that somewhere in the 2012 freshman class of sitcoms there’s a critical darling or two that will continue to tentatively cling to life as its abysmal ratings crater and critics bemoan the public’s lack of taste.

This season, as always, I took a deep dive into the flood of new sitcoms that the networks aired. Is there a critically acclaimed diamond in the rough out there? Here’s what I found.

The New Normal is a fresh take on an old story: couple wants to have a child and searches for a surrogate to carry the baby for them. Only this time the couple is gay, the surrogate comes in a package deal with an offbeat daughter and a homophobic mother, and someone decided to cast NeNe Leakes in a scripted role. Brilliant?

Some have complained that David and Bryan are written as stereotypical polar opposites who would never be able to sustain a relationship. My issue with the show is more pedestrian: it’s an arguably original conceit wholly lacking in original humor. The little girl draws on the expensive couch! Grandma makes radically offensive comments!

I hope that’s not the new normal.

Guys with Kids is a new take on the moms at home story: dads with their kids. You might be under the impression that if Anthony Anderson’s doing the show after three seasons spent on Law & Order it must be something special … well, you’d be wrong. And as a father, I can’t stress enough how offensive a portrayal the show makes.

From the creators of Will & Grace comes Partners, a brand new take on the gay/straight relationship. While I don’t think that the show wants to be a flag bearer for the social issue it attempts to put at the forefront, I will say this: as long as we highlight the uniqueness of this type of friendship it will never be considered mainstream.

What’s so unusual about the guys’ friendship? Just like on The New Normal, the main characters on Partners are painted in such a way so as to contrast them, but why do we assume that sexual preference defines who we are as people or dictates how we behave? The only thing it definitely informs is who we’re attracted to … why does the entertainment industry not seem to get that?

Ben & Kate lost me within a few minutes of Ben dragging random stuff into Kate’s house, while The Neighbors lost me at concept. A family moves into a street full of aliens who’ve named themselves after sports figures? Is that a real show, or a national punk? The couple of minutes of the series that I’ve caught at the beginning or end of other show tapings hasn’t given me any more positive of a vibe.

And then there’s The Mindy Project. I have not made an attempt at Mindy Kaling’s new series, and for one reason alone: Kelly is my least favorite part of The Office (as well as being half of my least favorite coupling on the show). So I doubt you’ll ever get me to check out a show she’s the epicenter of.

My wife, however, does not have the same commitment to her biases as I do, and she has tried Kaling’s new series. She’s a big enough fan that she’s season passed it … I’m glad that she’s enjoying it, but I just can’t do it.

Meanwhile, Animal Practice is gone — I’m a fan of Justin Kirk’s, Tyler Labine’s, and fancy monkeys, but the show fell flat for me — while a handful of shows have yet to premiere. But at this point I don’t know if I can definitively identify a show that critics will love and fans will loath … unless, do critics love The Neighbors?

Personally, I’ve only been able to get on board with Go On. As much carnage as Matthew Perry has wrought on his new projects — I was a huge fan of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip but Mr. Sunshine lost me — Go On has managed to throw together a solid ensemble cast that so far is succeeding at keeping the show fresh and fun. And while I think the grief group may be a little too big to sustain all the characters — and John Cho’s character just loses me — there’s some solid comedy there.

But I see that as a straight-up hit or miss. There’s nothing brilliant about the show, so either audiences enjoy it or they don’t; I don’t imagine critics lauding it with praise.

But maybe I can possibly imagine that happening with The Mindy Project, even without having ever seen it. Mindy Kaling is already a favorite, and I can see her landing in the same boat as a 30 Rock, a Community, or a Parks and Recreation (even without being on NBC), where those with the power of the pen see her genius and those with the power of the remote don’t in overwhelming numbers.

So will The Mindy Project be the next show that launches a crazy campaign? Will it be the next to land on a cable station after getting bumped from the networks?

Only time will tell … but it probably has a better shot than others to end up on that glorified list.

Me? I’ll try again next season. This one was pretty much a giant goose egg for new laughs.

How about you?

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