THE 2010 TOOBITS AWARDS PART ONE

2010 TOOBITS

It's that time of year again, when we all make lists and think back over the past year, in whatever field of interest concerns us, and chronicle the high points and the lows. For the past few years I've been presenting this compilation as an awards show, the Toobits, which of course celebrates my two bits about Toobworld.

As it is with any such list you'll find in TV columns across the country these last few weeks, these are my opinions. You're welcome to your own and I hope you'll share them, but I'm sticking to my weapons of choice. (It could be you won't see something that was a favorite of yours because I just never got around to seeing it. There's only so much time in the world - even for a do-nothing-else-anyway sort like me! - and I've only got the two eyes, even if they do operate independently of each other at times.)

Unlike the Emmy Awards which will just keep handing out trophies to some shows forever, only shows, characters and what-not that debuted in 2010 can be considered. (And by "debuted", I mean that which I first came in contact with in 2010. It could be a few years old, but if it's my first time seeing it, it's new.)

This one-time-only rule includes characters who have been recast (although there are two Recastaway awards); those are still the same characters who already exist in Toobworld. (But there were a few notable appearances that deserved honorable mention, and they get it.)

So without further ado, let's have at it:

BEST NEW TV SERIES
COMEDY:
'The Ricky Gervais Show'
DRAMA:
'Rubicon'

BEST TV MOVIE
'Sherlock' - "The Great Game"

It is technically part of a series, but as each episode runs 90 minutes, I consider each one to be a TV movie.

BEST MINI-SERIES
'The Pacific'

BEST IMPORT
Comedy:
'The In-Betweeners'
Drama:
'Sherlock' & 'Luther'

BEST EPISODE, ANY GENRE
"Eleventh Hour" - 'Doctor Who'

An exciting introduction to not only the new Doctor, but also to Amy and Rory, new aliens, and a new TARDIS interior.....

BEST TWO-PART EPISODE
"Death of the Doctor" - 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'
(with the Doctor and Jo Grant)

This will prove to be very important to the overall mythos of the Doctor - at least in Television - not only for the return of the Doctor and a re-introduction to Jo Grant, but also for the revelation about the Doctor's ability to regenerate.

BEST SERIES RETURN
'Futurama'

BEST SEASON FINALE
'Doctor Who'

It had everything - humor, pathos, adventure, romance, death, rebirth, sacrifice, and fezzes. It was silly and sad, a roller coaster of a fairy tale!

BEST SERIES FINALE
'Lost' & 'Ashes To Ashes'

Best of all is that they shared a common theme about Limbo, which can unite them - along with the A2A prequel, the original 'Life On Mars' and the old Richard Widmark series based on his movie, 'Madigan'.......

BEST CLIFF-HANGER
'White Collar'
I'll just say that it happens right after this shot. It's just a shame that the promos for the new season give it all away......

WORST SERIES CONCLUSION
'Happy Town' & 'Persons Unknown'

As the audience numbers failed to support these shows, they had to limp to their finales online. And neither one gave a decent send-off, as if they both thought they had any chance of renewal. ('Rubicon' was guilty of the same thing, but there was some hope of renewal at first.)

BEST SPIN-OFF
'Law & Order: Los Angeles'

I didn't personally care very much for the Left Coast continuation, but it does help expand Toobworld....

BEST SEQUEL
"New Man In Charge" - 'Lost'

It's the way of the future - DVDs will play a significant role in expanding the TV Universe.

BEST REMAKE
'Sherlock'

It was brilliant of Moffat and Gatiss to modernize the canon and yet everything about the basic dynamic - characters, methods of detection, storylines - felt true to the original. Yes, it's a massive Zonk, but we'll deal with that before the awards presentations are over......

BEST PILOT
'Human Target'

BEST REVIVED SERIES
'Dollhouse'

Unfortunately, like 'Enterprise' before it, this was a case of too little, too late......

BEST CROSSOVER
'Warehouse 13' - 'Eureka' Even if they weren't on the same network, this would have been a natural. And that's due more to the characters than the story, which is why we also have this category:

BEST CROSSOVER PLOTLINE
'Life Unexpected' - 'One Tree Hill'

Even though the shows were across the country from each other, there was a logical reason for 1TH characters to show up on 'Life Unexpected' - to play at a concert sponsored by the radio station where an LU character worked.

BEST TRIVIAL CROSSOVER
A tech manual used by Abed in 'Community' had "SUNNYDALE" written on its spine.

WORST TRIVIAL CROSSOVER
Characters on 'Cougar Town' get their coffee fix from Coffee Bucks - just like the characters from 'Scrubs'. One problem: in the episode "Stop Dragging My Heart Around", the characters were watching 'Scrubs' as well.....

BEST INTER-DIMENSIONAL CROSSOVER
'Family Guy' - 'Real Time with Bill Maher'

FIRST CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
'Doctor Who' - "The End Of Time (Part Two)" with 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' and 'Torchwood'

FIRST THEORETICAL CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
'Better Off Ted' with 'Doctor Who'
There was a dead Dalek in the background in the Veridian Dynamics basement. It's probably the same one that would be later sold to Henry Van Statton, seen in the 'Doctor Who' episode "Dalek"......

BEST THEORETICAL CROSSOVER OF THE YEAR
'The Walking Dead' with 'Dead Set'

Welcome to the Zombie TV dimension!

BEST CHRISTMAS-THEMED EPISODE OF THE YEAR
DRAMA:
'Doctor Who' - "A Christmas Carol" COMEDY
'Community' - "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"
(My only complaint on that one was the episode title. To keep it close to the general theme of school-related titles, I would have called it "Christmas Break". That would also tie in to Abed's break from reality.....)

WORST CHRISTMAS-THEMED EPISODE OF THE YEAR
'Psych' - "The Polarizing Express"


Blerg.