Rather than attempt a set of superlatives, I want to highlight what stood out from my ample television watching in 2009. My DVR was in full effect, thankfully.
Connie Britton is a Marvel
Friday Night Lights is sort of the white Wire. It’s a wonderfully textured ensemble show rooted in characters & circumstances that ring so utterly real. Holding firm court as the single, calming factor is Connie Britton’s Tami Taylor. Britton infuses a healthy balance of sass, humor, reality, normalcy & genuine concern that she routinely upstages the excellent Kyle Chandler (playing her husband) and all of the titular football business. Critically adored for her performance, she’s my most current example of Emmy’s focus on star power over stellar work when it comes to female performances. Britton constantly delivers marvelously.
Jane Lynch Slings the Zings
So, Glee us far from either perfect or close to it’s potential. As I mentioned in my review, Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester steals every scene, makes you truly laugh out loud, and brings so much dynamic deadpan humor that you overtly root for her over the titular glee club. She’s been a Twitter trending topic almost weekly during the fall run, and there are so many quotable lines, it would be criminal to pick only a few here over the others. OK, fine: “Smell your armpit. That’s the smell of failure and I don’t want it stinking up my office.”