The TV Set: 2012 In Review Part One

ROFLVISION

An aptitude for grimacing and chortling at the same time was required for Enlightened (Showcase), the year's best new show.  It led the way for a refreshing trickle of mould-breaking US comedy in 2012. And not 'mould-breaking' as in shoehorning shrill gay and Latino stereotypes into the sit-com formula. Enlightened deconstructed the tropes of the genre and put them back together as grimy-tinted comedic post-magical realism (for reals).

Enlightened was created by its star Laura Dern and former Amazing Race competitor Mike White (he had written School Of Rock and Freaks & Geeks prior to competing for the million dollars). The show didn't just wear its emotions on its sleeves, it wore them on frayed, stained sleeves. The ten-episode series both lampoons well-meaning spiritual redemption as well as recreating the minutiae of the daily grind. Luke Wilson gets to play out what some may suggest reflects a past real-life scenario, as a coke-addled slacker and we finally got to see Timm Sharp return to the subtle comedy form that he showed so much promise for back in Undeclared. But it is Dern's offscreen mum Diane Ladd as Dern's onscreen mum who anchors this show with her detached Lynchian take on the retired suburban mom – a simple conversation with an old friend in a market can convey more regret, guilt and yearning in one scene than a trilogy of hobbit epics could ever aspire too.

Louis CK continued to mine similar territory in his laugh-out-loud/fall back teary-eyed third season of Louie (The Comedy Channel) – but he went beyond Lynchian, David Lynch actually cameo'd. Lena Dunham created mumble-com with Girls, and despite a massive backlash (too insular for more worldly types?), she just got on with the job and at the same time proved Chris O'Dowd could stretch beyond mugging punchlines. 

In Don't Trust The Bitch In Apartment 23 (Arena), James Van Der Beek played it all meta as a heightened version of himself . The Beek is a former teen soap idol desperate to cling onto what fame is left, egged on by Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad) as his best friend and TV's most self-absorbed character ever. He's more Larry Sanders in Curb than Matt Le Blanc in Episodes and she's  the anti-New Girl. If the first season left you thinking 'nice idea but what else', then by season two's Halloween ep, which fucks over the rom-com formula, Bitch got it going on.

The Mindy Project (Fox US) also knows its rom-com devices and isn't afraid to use them. Also influenced by TV comedy past (Mary Tyler Moore, Tina Fey), this was created by Mindy Kaling (The Office) seemingly to stomp all over the rom-com ingénue – Kaling cast herself as a doctor not an art gallery curator or free-spirited trust funder (she works hard for her money/laughs). Another career woman appeared in the form of Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep (Showtime), the series was basically Armando Iannucci's US take on his UK comedy work – the American cast sometimes struggled with the lack of punchlines but the show served well as a distraction  until Australia is rewarded with his new The Thick Of It series.

Portlandia (ABC2) put the hipster into sketch comedy – they also put a bird on it.

Frustratingly, some returning Stateside comedies were shuffled around, hidden or not even shown here. Parks & Recreation (7mate) has become TV's best ensemble comedy while Community (Go!) managed to out-meta all other self-referencing comers but began to show signs that it might not survive its behind-the-scene dramas.  But who knows if we'll ever see up-to-date It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia (what network even has first-run rights here?) again here (or did I miss it?). The Office (Eleven) and 30 Rock (Seven) both called it quits before risking going off the rails (there were some near crashes in both though) while Bored To Death (Showcase) bowed out gracefully, leaving us with fond memories of what, at times, seemed like a modern version of The Three Stooges (The Three Stoners?).

Teen-coms Awkward (MTV) and Suburgatory (Go!) were almost-but-not-quite when it came to snappy suburban dialogue while Bunheads (Fox8) swanned in as the ballet version of Gilmore Girls (expect a pony club Gilmores next). All just schedule filler for now – time will tell if they become time-shifted viewing staples like Weeds (Gem) and Nurse Jackie (Eleven) – the wicked women of the latter still the preferred viewing of drug-com fans who figured out where to find the shows.

THE BRIT CROWD

Grandma's House

Even harder to find on our screens than non-Chuck Lorre US comedy series is British comedy. We were at least allowed a treat in the screening of Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy (ABC2). It was bonkers and we were thankful.

The BBC-owned UKTV also made us thankful for Simon Amstell's uptight Brit-com Grandma's House and Russell Tovey's comic turn in relationship comedy Him & Her.

Other high points: more comedy of embarrassment in Peep Show (The Comedy Channel), another Ricky Gervais vehicle with Life's Too Short (ABC1) – perhaps though it tried too hard to be 'outrageous' – and the short-lived adaptation of Douglas Adams' quantam mechanics-based detective series Dirk Gently (ABC2).

However, the year's best British humour came in the form of the yet-to-be-screened here A Touch Of Cloth (Sky1 UK). The very broadly-humoured cop show spoof owed a lot to the Police Squad series of the '80s and proved that its author Charlie Brooker (Dead Set) can do no wrong (more on that next week).

But while we await a broadcast date for the Jack Cloth series, we can feed on the past-their-best-by date shows Mid Morning Matters (UKTV) – Steve Coogan has made two more specials since, Celebrity Juice - a Keith Lemon movie has appeared since this went into hiatus - and Never Mind The Buzzcocks (UKTV) – we skipped the first 23 series and then only got shown eps from 2010. Sigh.

THE TOBY TRUSLOVE APPRECIATION SOCIETY

Barry Crocker with Toby Truslove in The Strange Calls

As local everyguy comic actor Toby Truslove portrayed TV fanboi Max in Outland (ABC2) did he know he was creating a breed of TV fanboi dedicated to his own oeuvre? From gay geek Max to police nerd Officer Banks in The Strange Calls (ABC2) to Jesus-complex dweeb Zach in Laid (ABC1), Truslove made us believe. He made us believe that a dishevelled , out-of-shape guy who lives downstairs can be a comedy star. In the whacko second series of Laid, Damon Herriman (fresh from a US turn in Justified) almost stole our devotion to Truslove… but there's enough room on Tumblr for fan pages dedicated to both actors. As for his two-hander with Barry Crocker in The Strange Calls, definitely the best mystical comedy set in a trailer since Wonderfalls.

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL VARIETY

The Late Late Show

US imports dominate the variety/talk/chat/magazine TV wasteland. As more channels proliferate, more shows are required to keep the TV guides looking healthy. It's unlikely we'd ever have ever witnessed The Late Late Show (Eleven) otherwise.  We can whinge all we like about its sliding around the schedule, but really we should just be grateul for the few moments we can grab with Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson and his gay skeleton robot sidekick.

The Colbert Report had another politically-influential year alongside fellow news satire series The Daily Show (both on The Comedy Channel). Always at their best during election years, Colbert doubled-down by creating a fund to influence political advertising – successfully highlighting the absurdity of laws regulating them (and raising $US750,000+ for charity along the way).

The E! network continues to develop cheap variety as an alternative to their slowly-dying reality franchises (Kardashians, Jonas's and Playboy bunnies can only go so far).  The Soup remains the best clip show going (sorry, Tosh) while Joan Rivers' Fashion Police panel of lifestyle commentators gets away with murder (and non-stop gay Travolta jokes) while Chelsea Lately is a key showcase for  upcoming US stand-ups, although her celebrity interviews struggle to be as sharp as her panel segments.

Elsewhere we are finally deemed worthy of  'expressed' UK talk shows – Chatty Man's drunken couch manner puts it ahead of the pack now that The Graham Norton Show's settee defers to PR-savvy A-listers over  the rich array of interesting B, C and D-Listers he once revelled in. And lil' ol' Jonathan Ross Show seems to be tiring to the point of making Rove LA relevant in comparison.

Locally, RocKwiz (SBS) is still as good as it gets.

Next week: The best of US cable, Australian drama, British sci fi, animation, reality programming and the year's disappointments. True Blood, Bob's Burgers, Pubery Blues and Project Runway Australia - pleasure or so painful they have to be tweeted about?