Tomorrow is the day to give thanks and count our blessings. And on this Thanksgiving Eve, we’re taking a look at the small screen to consider all of the things we’re feeling grateful for. Whether it’s Saturday Night Live’s new “Weekend Update” anchor, The Good Wife and Scandal’s ongoing drama, the adaptation of Preacher that’s in the works, or any of the other items on our lists, we’re feeling the love and gratitude for the wonderful bounty TV’s offered us.
We broke our list down by the four contributing writers, so we’ll kick this off with Mack’s list:
Cecily Strong is already finding her groove on SNL’s “Weekend Update.”
We tend to remember the good Weekend Update anchors at their absolute best. We remember Chevy Chase and Norm Macdonald and all of the rest at the absolute peak of their Saturday Night Live greatness, churning out jokes and picking up laughs with a ruthless efficiency. The truth, however, is it often takes anchors months or even a year or so to carve out a persona that really connects with the audience and is able to stand on its own two feet.
Luckily for SNL fans, new co-Update anchor Cecily Strong has already started finding her groove. She’s got a great sense of timing in relation to when the audience will stop laughing long enough for her to speak, and the faces she makes after jokes add the right amount of emphasis without being obnoxious. In short, she’s already good, which means there’s a very real chance she will someday be great. I’ll drink to that.
Mack’s also thankful that…
- We’re just months away from getting pressure-packed Olympic curling on NBC.
- James Spader has somehow discovered arguably his greatest character ever. Also thankful for his firm and commanding voice.
- The contestants on Top Chef are arguably the best ever this season.
- The Amazing Race has U-Turns.
- Rosa’s unstoppable anger on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
- Shark Tank has Mr. Wonderful’s frank advice.
- The Game Of Thrones/ It’s Always Sunny writer crossover.
- Bill Engvall had an extended run on Dancing with the Stars. He was so much fun to watch.
Scandal hasn’t jumped the shark yet.
Let’s face it, it may only be a matter of time before Scandal launches itself over a predatory fish at some point in its existence. Take into consideration the dramatic premise, which often takes a leap or two to keep us on the edge our seats, then factor in Grey’s Anatomy — another successful Shonda Rhimes drama — and I don’t think it’s unfair to say that Scandal could very well end up jumping the proverbial shark. At the very least, its frequent efforts to top itself with melodramatic moments, nail biting cliffhangers and will-they-wont-they Liv/Fitz romance arcs, its shark-jumping odds are high. But on the bright side, that hasn’t happened yet. We haven’t seen Scandal: The Musical, nor has Olivia Pope spent an episode wandering around in limbo following a near-death experience. In fact, the series is at the top of its game and as must-watch as ever, securing a spot on the short list of TV shows on the air that I need to watch live. So it may just be pessimism that’s keeping my guard up, and I’m grateful for its current state of addictiveness and all of the drama packed into each scandalous episode.
Kelly’s also thankful that…
- Continuum’s on Netflix so I can get caught up.
- ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas line-up is starting soon!
- Saturday Night Live seems funnier this season.
- Shameless and Episodes are returning soon.
- Community’s returning and it has an abundance of amazing guest stars lined up (Vince Gilligan, Jonathan Banks, Mitchell Hurwitz, David Cross etc).
- The Goldbergs runs those funny home video tags at the end of each episode. They’re a great reminder that some of the best humor stems from reality.
- American Horror Story: Coven is as must-watch as the first season.
- Walton Goggins returned as Venus on Sons of Anarchy this season.
- The satisfying Breaking Bad ending.
- Sherlock and Downton Abbey will be united on PBS Masterpiece on Sunday nights this January.
- Every episode of Almost Human has been great so far.
- I’m getting into Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. more and more with each new episode.
- Daryl. That’s it. The Walking Dead’s Daryl. (Also Norman Reedus.)
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are bringing Preacher to the small screen.
It's been a long, long time coming but Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher is finally getting the adaptation it deserves. The epic Vertigo comic book series has been in different stages of feature film development over the last decade with several different A-list directors (including Sam Mendes, Joe Carnahan, Darren Aronofsky and, uh, D.J. Caruso) wanting a shot at the action. And yet a Preacher movie never came to fruition, probably because there'e simply too much source material to cover in one film and, with the the delicate tonal line that said material walks, deciding what to keep and cut clearly wasn't working.
Now Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, along with Breaking Bad writer Sam Caitlin, have pitched a Preacher series to AMC and provided the answer to what I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. Not only is the comic better suited for the sprawling and unrestricted realm of cable TV but after seeing the demon-sex filled This is the End, it's clear that the passionate Rogen and Goldberg are perfect for the Preacher adapt. Why? Because Ennis and Dillon's story about a rogue, super-powered Southern Preacher who enlists his hired gun former sweetheart as well as an Irish vampire to track down God and hold him accountable for his absentee landlordism isn't just demented and (not so) borderline blasphemous but also absolutely hilarious. I mean, there's a character called Arseface.
Jesse’s also thankful that…
- Marvel and Netflix have formed a super-group (Drew Goddard!).
- Arrow Season 2 is as good, if not better than, the first season, which bodes well for Flash (andHourman).
- Almost Human seems like an acceptable Fringe substitute.
- Mulaney is coming to Fox next year.
- Frank Darabont is back with Mob City.
- Pete Holmes has a different take on Late Night.
- True Detective will give us some McConaughey magic on the small screen.
- Foreign police dramas continue to deliver: The Fall, Broachburch, Top of the Lake…
- Bryan Fuller is back with Hannibal.
- TV has given us Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Game of Thrones weddings and Tatiana Maslany.
- Boardwalk Empire Season 4.
The Good Wife is having its best season ever.
Thanksgiving is a time for good will and good cheer, unless you are part of the cast of The Good Wife, in which case this time of year is a great time for backstabbing, poor form behavior, and stealing clients. It sounds more catty than your average hour of Project Runway, but The Good Wife’s fifth season has instead been a fascinating look at what happens when key members of a firm split off to try to follow a new path with a brand new firm.
The Good Wife was cultivated around an extremely dynamic premise—what happens when the wife of a prominent politician finds out her husband is a cheat and a philanderer?—and since then we’ve seen plenty of drama. Inter-office relationships, political campaigns and wild and wacky court cases have all made their appearances, but nothing has been as chilling or as compelling as the early 2013 episodes which have seen the fragments of Alicia and Will’s relationship ripped asunder. We’ve felt disappointment when Alicia’s husband, Peter, dropped Christine from the Supreme Court race after Alicia’s forced removal from the firm. There are a lot of deep-seated feelings that have been bursting forth in recent weeks, and the drama shows no signs of slowing down into 2014.
Jessica’s also thankful that…
- The Millers is no longer the only example of Greg Garcia’s comedic sensibility on the air because Raising Hope is back.
- NBC’s going to air The Sound of Music Live! next week.
- We can finally move on and see Patrick Jane’s life after Red John on The Mentalist.
- Justified’s latest season is out on Blu-ray soon, meaning Boyd and Raylan’s antagonistic relationship is about to come to a head.
- Elementary was smart enough to cast Rhys Ifans as Mycroft Holmes and bring him in for several eps this year.
- Bones has stopped sucking.
- The Originals is the best example of a spinoff that works in recent memory.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine is getting the post-Super Bowl slot.
- Parenthood’s not been all about Sarah’s relationships this season.
