From Newsweek:
#9 ‘How I Met Your Mother’
Come for the punch lines, stay for the clues. That’s the draw of How I Met Your Mother, the most untraditional traditional sitcom there is. In a decade full of ambitious television, HIMYM ranks among the most inventive comedies, a Wiki-friendly puzzle show dressed up as a surprisingly competent Friends knockoff. As a group of friends hijink their way through their wild ‘n’ crazy NYC 20s, the viewer gets to piece together the identity of Ted’s (Josh Radnor) future wife. It’s both a whodunit and an efficient catchphrase generator. And in a decade that saw the rise of single-camera comedy, it’s also the last of the great multicamera sitcoms (your move, Chuck Lorre loyalists).
#4 ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
#3 ‘The Office’
I think Steve Carell’s Michael Scott is superior to Ricky Gervais’s David Brent. Where David was just a moronic jerk, Michael is a virtuosic boob who also manages, at times, to be improbably competent. Those fleeting and few flirtations with managerial brilliance are thrilling and well-earned, as are so many moments for The Office U.S. characters, most notably the sweet and bumpy romance between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer).
#2 ‘Arrested Development’
Arrested Development, by contrast, feels like every episode was written by one person, one person who’s obsessed with reminding you that he knows everything about the dysfunctional (if not downright freakish) Bluth family and never forgets anything. That’s why AD fans are so passionate, the show constantly rewards loyal viewing with micro-jokes that only the initiated will understand.
#1 ‘30 Rock’
When all four burners are hot, nothing on the air is funnier or more rewarding. And at the core of all the wackiness is television’s sweetest platonic relationship, that of Liz (Fey) and Jack (Alec Baldwin), whose relationship fluidly shifts from boss-employee to mentor-mentee to brother-sister to therapist-patient, often in the span of a scene.
I agree with these, but HIMYM could easily slide down a bit (past Desperate Housewives and The Comeback).
Come for the punch lines, stay for the clues. That’s the draw of How I Met Your Mother, the most untraditional traditional sitcom there is. In a decade full of ambitious television, HIMYM ranks among the most inventive comedies, a Wiki-friendly puzzle show dressed up as a surprisingly competent Friends knockoff. As a group of friends hijink their way through their wild ‘n’ crazy NYC 20s, the viewer gets to piece together the identity of Ted’s (Josh Radnor) future wife. It’s both a whodunit and an efficient catchphrase generator. And in a decade that saw the rise of single-camera comedy, it’s also the last of the great multicamera sitcoms (your move, Chuck Lorre loyalists).#4 ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ #3 ‘The Office’
I think Steve Carell’s Michael Scott is superior to Ricky Gervais’s David Brent. Where David was just a moronic jerk, Michael is a virtuosic boob who also manages, at times, to be improbably competent. Those fleeting and few flirtations with managerial brilliance are thrilling and well-earned, as are so many moments for The Office U.S. characters, most notably the sweet and bumpy romance between Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer).#2 ‘Arrested Development’
Arrested Development, by contrast, feels like every episode was written by one person, one person who’s obsessed with reminding you that he knows everything about the dysfunctional (if not downright freakish) Bluth family and never forgets anything. That’s why AD fans are so passionate, the show constantly rewards loyal viewing with micro-jokes that only the initiated will understand.#1 ‘30 Rock’
When all four burners are hot, nothing on the air is funnier or more rewarding. And at the core of all the wackiness is television’s sweetest platonic relationship, that of Liz (Fey) and Jack (Alec Baldwin), whose relationship fluidly shifts from boss-employee to mentor-mentee to brother-sister to therapist-patient, often in the span of a scene.
Funniest TV Shows of the Decade
∞ December 7th, 2009
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