The SeedSing 2016 Year in Pop Culture: Best, and Worst, in Television

This week marks the week of my "Best Of"' lists. I will do TV, movies, music, podcasts and sports moments.

Right off the bat though, 2016 has been a pain in the ass. This is one of the worst years possibly in the history of the world. We have lost so many great people, George Michael even passed last night, I mean, Jesus Christ, we have lost some legends. There is also the terrible, horrible, dreadful election that we have spoken so much of on the site and podcast. The weather, at least here in Saint Louis, has been a nightmare. To make a long story short, 2016 has stunk. This is my generations "great depression", or World War or any other bad thing you want to say. It has been a horrific year.

But, some good, maybe, possibly, even great things have come out this year, and that is what I'm going to be talking about the next 5 days. So, even though I have laid out how shitty 2016 has been, I do have some "Best Of" stuff to get to. I will also throw in one thing on each list I thought was terrible as well, but today comes my top 5 TV shows of the year. I will count down from 5-1 on each list.

So, here we go.

At number 5, I have "Horace and Pete". This show came from nowhere. Louis C.K. had been working on it for some time, and put out every episode on his site on a random Saturday in the middle of the summer. It was an odd time to put out a show, but would you expect anything different from a genius like C.K.? But, getting to what made this show so great, it was so very different from anything C.K. has been doing. It was dark and very depressing. Sure, there were some funny moments, but there was way, way more dark and deep moments. C.K. shined on the show, but so did Steven Buscemi, Alan Alda, Edie Falco and every patron at the bar, especially Steven Wright. The show was shot like a play, which I enjoyed very much. It was unique, it was ground breaking, in its own way and it had Louis C.K.'s imprint all over it. I'm sure it will be on Netflix or some other streaming device, but I recommend buying it on his site. It is only 20 or 30 bucks for the whole series, and you will never forget the greatness that you will see when watching "Horace and Pete". I still can't shake the ending, and to me, that is the sign of a great show.

At number 4, I get a little lighter with, "People of Earth". I had heard very little about this show leading to its build up, but I knew Wyatt Cenac was the star, and I'm a big fan of his. So, I recorded the premiere, which was on Halloween, and waited until 3 or 4 episodes had recorded. I watched all 3 or 4 in one sitting and was immediately hooked. The show has a very easy plot to understand. A group of people calling themselves "Experiencers" get together every week to talk about the time that they were abducted by aliens. In each episode you get to see the people getting abducted, and what they each went through during their experiences. But, there is so much more to this show than just some UFO, alien stuff. The show is very funny. I laughed out loud at parts. There were episodes that were moving and heartfelt. Cenac is a star in this role. Ana Gasteyer is equally as good. The rest of the cast does great in their roles to. The best part though is the aliens. The interactions and things that go on on the ship are great. The creators do not treat the aliens like monsters. Sure, they look like aliens, but they have squabbles and get into petty fights just like anyone else at their respective job does. Like I said, the show did not get the coverage it deserved on the lead up, but the show is great, and it is coming back in 2017 for a second season, which makes me very happy.

At number 3, I have "Luke Cage". This show kicks ass people. I watched it not because it is a superhero show, but because Ali Shaheed Muhammed, from ATCQ, did all the original music for it. But, in watching it for the music, I fell in love with the show. When my wife asked me why I was enjoying it so much, I told her it is like "The Wire", which may be the greatest television show ever, but with superheroes, and it is easier to follow the story. When "The Wire" would go deep into cop talk, sometimes they would lose me, that never happens in "Luke Cage". It was easy for me to follow everything, and I loved that about this show. Mike Colter is excellent as Luke Cage, but everyone else on the show, be it Theo Rossi, Alfre Woodard, Rosario Dawson, Masherala Ali, or anyone else in the cast, they are all stars. The show is dark and violent, but it is also incredible. I love Luke Cage's powers, I love his "origin" story, I loved watching the fight scenes, I loved everything about this show. They even had big time musical guest stars, people like Charles Bradley, Rapheal Saadiq and Sharon Jones, RIP, show up in some episodes. "Luke Cage" is the second best Netflix Original that I have seen. People need to watch it, even if you are not a "superhero" person.

The reason "Luke Cage" is the second best Netflix show leads me to my number 2 show of 2016, "Stranger Things". Honestly, has there been a recent show that has been more talked about on social media than "Stranger Things". The crazy thing about it, none of the talk was negative. I cannot find one person that does not think this show is awesome. I was skeptical at first when I heard it was a cross between "E.T." and the "X-Files", but as I watched, I found it to be a bit more like "Goonies" and "The X-Files", both of which I love. The kids on this show are wonderful. They are the true stars that are the heart and soul of what makes "Stranger Things" so good. But, the adults, mainly Winona Ryder, are just as good. They have to live in this crazy world that the Duffer Brothers created as well, and they do a phenomenal job on the show. This show kind of had it all. There were love stories, comedy, action, family drama, regular drama, monsters, aliens, weird old scientist guys, but above all else, the best Sci Fi since "Blade Runner". I do not want to give anything away in case there are one or two people that have not seen "Stranger Things", but damn is this show great. The best part is the kids, and that goes double for Millie Bobby Brown, who plays 11. Seriously, if you haven't seen "Stranger Things" yet, first, what the hell is wrong with you, but second, go watch it right now, and thank me later. This show is a true gem.

Finally, my number one show of 2016, "Atlanta". Did you really think I'd pick something else? I've been talking up this show since I saw the first trailer for it, and not only did it deliver on my expectations, but it exceeded them by a thousand miles. There hasn't been a show this original and unique on TV in quite some time. The time and effort that went into "Atlanta" paid off so much. The show was moving, funny, heartfelt, treated every character as if they were the main character, gave us some great newish actors and actresses to love and proved that Donald Glover is one of the best, and most innovative, people working in show business right now. This show had everything. All the episodes were all home runs. The show paid off and, as I have already stated, exceeded everyone's wildest dreams. Every episode with Paper Boi was excellent. Zazie Beets, who played Earn's baby's mother, was tremendous in her solo episode. When Earn and her go to her mother's party, another fantastic 30 minutes of television. But, the best episode of the season was when they had the "BET" type talk show that even included some commercials that Glover and staff made up themselves. This was the most original thing that has been on TV in over a decade. "Atlanta" was head and shoulders above any other TV show on this year, and we did have some decent TV this year. "Atlanta" was the best though, and it wasn't even close.

As far as my one bad TV show of the year goes, it cannot be anything other than "The Walking Dead". I hammeredlast season's finale, and true to my word, I did not watch one single episode of this season, but my wife did, and she said it was excruciatingly boring. They even killed off some "main" characters, but when she told me who they were, my response was something along the lines of "Who?", or "I don't even know who you are talking about". I do not care about Negan, I think the show did all it could in about 2 seasons, but now, they are scraping the barrel. People crushed "The Office" for going on too long, including me, so why doesn't everyone do the same for "The Walking Dead"? I don't get it, but from what I gathered, it was probably the worst show of the year.

That is it for today, come back tomorrow for my top 5 movies of 2016.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He picked no network tv shows because he is under the age of 60 and does not wathc network television. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Ty Watches: People of Earth

I recently started watching the show "People of Earth" based on a recommendation. Man am I glad that I took that advice and caught up on this show. "People of Earth" is one of these rare, unique shows that comes along once in a lifetime.

The show's premise is simple. We have a journalist that is sent to a small town in New York to write about a support group for people who claim to have been abducted by aliens, they call themselves "experiencers". Wyatt Cenac, who I adore, plays the lead character, Ozzie, who is sent on this assignment. In the pilot episode he keeps having flashes of a deer, which he hit in an accident, driving to this small town. He finally arrives to this group and finds out way, way more about himself than he ever knew.

When he gets to this town, we get to meet all the weird and wacky people that entail this group. The ensemble cast is wonderful. Luka Jones pays a wannabe alien abductee, AKA, an experiencer, but he is the ultimate alien expert in this small town. Brian Huskey plays an experiencer that claims all the world is run by aliens, which he calls "reptilians". Ana Gasteyer plays the leader of the group, and she is great as the main support, but has a troubled past. Alice Wetterlund and Tracee Chimo are an excellent Yin and Yang of people that claim to have been abducted by the same alien. Nancy Lenahan is great as the lonely widowed lady that had her alien experience. Da'Vine Joy Randolph is great as the local mail person that had a run in with aliens. Daniel Stewart Sherman is very good as the hillbilly esque guy that had your typical run in with aliens. H Jon Benjamin shows up as a cop in the town, and he is great.

The people that play the aliens, Drew Nelson, Ken Hall, Bjorn Gustafsson and Michael Cassidy are the absolute best. They each represent a different style of alien. We have your run of the mill, big head, little body alien. We have the reptilians and we get a very tall, very long haired human looking alien. These actors do these roles so well. I love how normal and regular the alien characters act. Sure, they are abducting people and doing random tests on them but they aren't probing anyone, or eating anyone, or even being mean to the people. They just want to study humans, at least that is what I have gathered from the first four episodes. The aliens bicker with each other. They have conversations like you and I have at our regular everyday jobs. They are as normal as aliens have ever been portrayed on TV or in the movies. I love all the back and forth between the aliens.

But, the star of the show, as it should be, is Cenac. He is absolutely wonderful as Ozzie. The interactions that he has with the deer are wonderfully weird and hilarious. He keeps seeing them, and thinks that it is because of his accident, but we come to realize, spoiler alert, that he was abducted by all three styles of aliens, and they made him think that he hit a deer. When he recalls this to the support group, they are all shocked that he had an experience with the three different aliens, and they want him to stay to tell his whole story and stay in the group. Everyone likes him.

Ozzie decides, after revealing everything to the group, that he wants to stay, so he quits his job and moves to the small town to work for their paper. We do come to realize that his boss at the big newspaper is a reptilian, sent to study Ozzie. This sends us into a whole different world of who is real, and who is a reptilian in this planet that this show has created. The friendships and interactions between the people in the group and Ozzie are funny and heartfelt at the same time.

This show is a great opportunity, and the perfect one for that matter, for Cenac's unique sense of humor. He is a very funny, yet quiet person. He was great on "The Daily Show". He has done some excellent stand up specials. He has had bit parts in movies and TV shows here and there, but "People of Earth" is just perfect for him.

I do not want to give too much away because I think people should watch this show. It is really good, and I feel like it will be around for awhile. Watch "People of Earth" so we can get multiple seasons. The show is different from anything you will see, but it is one of the funnier shows to come out on TV in a long, long time. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has suspected that the head editor is an alien, one of those Midwestern balding ones. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.