'Breaking Bad' tops HitFix's First Annual Television Critics' Poll
What did a blue ribbon panel of the nation's top TV critics pick as their 10 favorite shows of 2012?
On Friday, I picked my top 10 shows of 2012. Later in the week, Dan's video will be running, and I'll also have a post listing the 10 shows that just as easily could have made the cut as many of the shows on my list.
Today, though, it's time to bring in a wider array of voice, as we introduce HitFix's First Annual Television Critics' Poll, in which we assembled several dozen of the nation's top TV critics and reporters and asked them to rank their 10 favorite shows of the year. Simple weighted vote — the #1 show on anyone's list was worth 10 points, the #10 worth 1 point, etc. — and a way to get a broader critical consensus of the year in television, in the same way that there are always year-end polls of movie and music critics.
As the headline says, "Breaking Bad" was the convincing winner of the poll. It's an interesting collection of shows, some of which are in my top 10, most of which will be in my top 20, but showing a diverse array of the kinds of great comedy and drama (and, once you get past the top 10, movies, miniseries, reality, etc.) to be found on TV today.
So go look at the poll, which includes not only the top 10, but all the shows that got votes (and you can click on each show to see who voted for it, and at what spot), as well as complete ballots from all the participating writers. And, as always, we welcome your input. What does everybody else think of the final results?
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Next 52 CommentsDorian Brown
December 17, 2012 at 4:08PM EST Reply to CommentAwake didn't get a single vote? I thought critics loved that show.
sajid anwar
December 17, 2012 at 4:10PM EST Reply to CommentAlan, Dish Earth got one point. I sincerely hope a critic did it just to be funny. Do you know who it was?
sepinwall You can click on each show to find out who voted for it.
December 17, 2012 at 4:13PM ESTsajid anwar Yeah, sorry. Saw that after I posted this message. It was Hank Steuver from Washington Post. To each his own, I guess. But, man.......
December 17, 2012 at 4:17PM ESTaforkosh
December 17, 2012 at 4:11PM EST Reply to CommentIf I counted there were 44 critics so that the maximum available score was 440 points. 335 for BB at the top.
ahorwitt
December 17, 2012 at 4:16PM EST Reply to CommentOnly 5 critics mention Treme, and two are from Hitfix! Good for you and Dan, sad for the show, but at least we're getting our ending. Boardwalk Empire got remarkably few votes too. Guess Game of Thrones and Girls are HBO's marquee shows now...
Stuff_of_Legend
December 17, 2012 at 4:19PM EST Reply to CommentBoardwalk Empire at number THIRTY? Ouch...
sepinwall Just speaking from my own perspective, Boardwalk Empire was a near-miss from my top 10. I would rank it as maybe my 11 or 12 show of the year, but in the system of this poll, that gets it 0 points. If it was a lot of people's 11th or 12th place show, it would do worse than something that a few people liked as, say, their 7th or 8th place.
December 17, 2012 at 6:31PM ESTMichael
December 17, 2012 at 5:06PM EST Reply to CommentSurprised there was not a single vote for Vampire Diaries. Even Nikita got a vote.
Paul Outlaw That is so messed up.
December 18, 2012 at 2:01PM ESTDirtyKash
December 17, 2012 at 5:30PM EST Reply to CommentNot a single vote for Wilfred or The League. Sad...
John
December 17, 2012 at 5:49PM EST Reply to CommentWell to sound like a total snob, after seeing the full results, there will be some critics whose opinion I will not value after seeing the full list...
Top 10 make sense, after that, um, weird.
the minister Is Ausiello even a critic?
December 21, 2012 at 12:28AM EST(Answer: no. He's a purveyor of "scoop.")
voxsusanna
December 17, 2012 at 6:28PM EST Reply to CommentThe shows after the top 10 make so little sense because of how the poll was run. That is, each of the shows was among someone's top 10. But if you'd asked all the critics to vote their top 25+, good shows like Southland and Treme, for example, wouldn't be languishing so far far down among the other chaff.
madmeme But it elucidates, in such an easy-to-read table format, why the vast majority of television programs are terrible.
December 18, 2012 at 12:41AM ESTGuy Smith
December 17, 2012 at 7:36PM EST Reply to CommentOk. I'll bite, how exactly does one determine "the nation's top TV critics and reporters"?
joel I am a little surprised to see AV Club getting only one representative and Matt Zoller Seitz not being included, but I imagine there are practical reasons for each.
December 17, 2012 at 8:00PM ESTTo suggest an answer to Guy's question, usually you kick these things off by contacting everyone you know who would qualify and seeking their submissions. Then you work with what you get. More than likely a lot of critics simply didn't have time or weren't interested, so there's your list of entries.
NGB
December 17, 2012 at 8:01PM EST Reply to CommentI get that Boardwalk Empire might be just off a lot of people's top 10--so it may be getting underrepresented a little bit--but I am still amazed that almost universally Game of Thrones is seen as the better HBO show by critics... Of even the 4 who had BE in the top 10, 3 had GoT higher and it was #5 overall?!
Season 2 of GoT was so problematic-- almost no meaningful resolution to any of the major plots, just more setting up the chess pieces. Season 1 had a much better balance of providing closure to some arcs while still setting up others for the long run of the show, but season 2 couldn't do the same. Some arcs were just painful (Danny) others had great individual scenes but not a lot of story action or conclusions by season's end. (Arya, Robb)
BE frustrated me as well at points this season, but in a terrific final 2 episodes, they paid everything off, wound the season together, and provided great closure. I was rewatching S3 a little and even the early episodes I was so-so on the first time are much better when you have an idea of what they are setting up. Sepinwall always says of BE it's a show with great individual pieces but has yet to transcend the sum of its parts, and I totally get that, but I think it's shown it can do so at this point. But, that's exactly how I feel about GoT.
ahorwitt Walking Dead was well above BE on the list too. I would venture a guess that a lot of critics stopped watching Boardwalk Empire -- I did. It's tougher to quit watching Walking Dead and GOT because so many people are talking about them, but BE has vanished from the conversation for the most part, at least in my experience.
December 17, 2012 at 8:39PM ESTThe other thing about GOT is that if you've read the books you may not be as bothered by the unresolved arcs. We book readers know where all the plot elements in S2 fall into the "master plan" (well, as far as Martin has written anyway). But yeah, everyone hated that Dany storyline.
As I said, I didn't watch BE this year but I would definitely put GOT S2 above the ludicrous Homeland. Even the show with the magical shadowbaby assassin has developed its world and has the characters make decisions that make sense according to that world's rules. Whereas in Homeland, anything goes to service the dippy Carrie/Brody love story.
John Obviously, your opinion runs contrary to the critics polled. Just because you didn't like Season 2 of Game of Thrones, that doesn't mean it was "problematic." It just means that you didn't like it. I agree with Ahorwitt that it certainly helps to read the books, but I know several non-readers (or at least they were at the time Season 2 aired) who had zero problems whatsoever with the season. To each his own. I also think Boardwalk Empire is vastly underrated by this poll (though it keeps getting nominated for Emmys, so it's hard to say it's underrated overall), and Game of Thrones wasn't *that* much better (I had Game of Thrones second and Boardwalk Empire third on my list, with Breaking Bad in the top spot). But Game of Thrones is a great show (not entirely without problems--I agree that the Daenerys storyline was a big step down from the first season, but that's just as true in the books), and it had a great season, highlighted by probably the best single episode of any show all year in "Blackwater" (I'm anxiously awaiting The Futon Critic's annual list of the top 50 episodes of the year to see where they slot it). You're free to dislike it, obviously. Just recognize that your opinion is in the minority. It happens.
December 18, 2012 at 5:15AM ESTjosh
December 17, 2012 at 10:42PM EST Reply to CommentGuess I shouldn't be surprised that only three critics put LUCK on their list, but it still stings. It's definitely at (or near) the top of my list.
duncan
December 17, 2012 at 11:58PM EST Reply to CommentThe Neighbors got a top 10 vote. Needless to say I will not be reading that person's reviews any time soon. That person thought the Neighbors was better than Homeland (not on the ballot).
madmeme
December 18, 2012 at 12:32AM EST Reply to CommentAs soon as I saw Nashville was higher ranked than Treme, Boardwalk Empire, or Luck I realized that it was actually an ironic joke.
Paul Outlaw ::thud::
December 18, 2012 at 2:02PM ESTmgrabois
December 18, 2012 at 12:58AM EST Reply to CommentJust being pedantic, but I really dislike lists where people are listed alphabetically by FIRST name instead of LAST.
rwmcgee
December 18, 2012 at 4:09AM EST Reply to CommentAfter reading this list, I really think you guys should stop making fun of the Golden Globes. I thought the so called 'general public' that tunes into reality shows and formulaic cop dramas was bad, clearly the critics aren't much better. Strangely I'm starting to really respect the much vilified Hollywood producer.
Paul Outlaw Touché.
December 18, 2012 at 2:03PM ESTCKCK
December 18, 2012 at 6:07AM EST Reply to CommentHuh. I knew lots of critics don't like Boardwalk Empire but still an eye opener to see it so low and something like Walking Dead (which i like) held in considerably higher regard. Also, i tend to naturally just assume that Mad Men is tv critics favourite show.
isaiah
December 18, 2012 at 8:06AM EST Reply to CommentHmmm, let's see who voted for Downton so I can remember never to read anything they write ever again.
No one from Hitfix, Vulture, or A.V. Club? Welp, nothing changes
isaiah
December 18, 2012 at 8:13AM EST Reply to CommentAlso: someone needs to help Joe Adalian, I'm pretty sure he suffered a massive stroke while voting.
Nick
December 18, 2012 at 9:01AM EST Reply to CommentDo you get your TV critic's credentials taken away if you say that you liked The Newsroom ??? I find it hard to believe that no critic out of 44 would look past the show's flaws and concentrate on its (many, in my opinion) qualities.
Sareeta
December 18, 2012 at 9:06AM EST Reply to CommentThe fact that Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead are on this list shows that this list not only reflects the most entertaining shows on TV, but also the most creative. I agree with this list more than Alan's. I think GOT (and to an extent TWD) are in the tough position of being difficult to analyze on a weekly basis because the source material has been out there for so long that if a non-reader critic were to ask what something means, they run the risk of getting an answer (i.e., a spoiler). That said, I enjoyed them both tremendously and were the 2 shows I was dying to see more of week to week. Did they challenge me? Not really. But they were so much fun to watch.
Also, glad to see Spartacus, Nikita, and Justified got votes.
qwerty
December 18, 2012 at 1:39PM EST Reply to CommentNEWSROOM does not even appear on the extended list? Yikes. I had been curious about the show despite the critical drubbing because it tackles a subject dear to my heart. But its absence from this list is such a searing indictment, I shan't be bothering.
the black widow
December 18, 2012 at 5:29PM EST Reply to CommentHey Hitfix, how come you're not covering the coolest entertainment story of the week? Christopher Chaney, the weirdo who hacked Scarlett Johansson's cellphone (and many others), got sentenced to ten years in prison. That's not a slap on the wrist! That's real jail time! That creepy asshole is going to do five years in a jail cell.
Ms. Johansson showed you don't have to climb into a leather jumpsuit to bring criminals to justice. Maybe she will inspire other victims of perverted internet criminals to come forward! Scarlett Johansson is a real American hero!!
"I find Christopher Chaney's actions to be perverted and reprehensible." - Scarlett Johansson
Ricardo
December 18, 2012 at 5:54PM EST Reply to CommentNashville?
Ricardo
December 18, 2012 at 5:58PM EST Reply to CommentI laughed so much at this critics list...
http://www.hitfix.com/news/tvcriticspoll/critic/jacqueline-cutler
And there's a guy with X-Factor and Smash in the top positions... XD
mrbilliam
December 18, 2012 at 8:21PM EST Reply to CommentI realized after looking at the Top 10 that I think Walking Dead and Sherlock are I think the only shows that are either currently in or just finished their best season so far. Louie, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and (I hear at least) Homeland and Downton Abbey are all shows that had better seasons a year ago. Actually, I guess Parks and Recreation comes off better when you look at the calendar year rather than the TV year, and Game of Thrones is more complicated (season 1 took a while to really get going but season 2 had some problems toward the end).
And Girls is of course a new show.
kevin M
December 19, 2012 at 4:00AM EST Reply to CommentShameless got ONE vote while a walking turd like Ben & Kate got three? I'm going to assume the critics forgot how awesome season 2 of Shameless was because it ended on April Fool's Day.
Two things that surprised me was "Boss" getting more votes than Boardwalk Empire and Happy Endings getting more votes than New Girl. I liked Boss a lot, but wasn't expecting it to get any support. I think this season of NG has been better than HE, but I love both shows anyway.
kronicfatigue
December 19, 2012 at 4:46PM EST Reply to CommentMike and Molly = 8 points.
Archer + Wilfred + The League = 8 points.
kronicfatigue
December 19, 2012 at 5:09PM EST Reply to CommentArcher + Wilfred + The League = 8 points.
Mike and Molly = 8 points.
kronicfatigue bah, double post. my apologies.
December 19, 2012 at 5:10PM ESTthe minister Triple post to the heavens, KF.
December 21, 2012 at 12:38AM ESTArcher is my favorite comedy. Even over PnR, Community, Happy Endings & The Nick Miller is Awesome Show.
Note: I watch all 5 of those before most anything else on the DVR.
the minister OTOH, I can't count for shit, so what do it know?
December 21, 2012 at 12:39AM ESTthe minister Or spel chek.
December 21, 2012 at 12:40AM ESTkronicfatigue
December 19, 2012 at 5:16PM EST Reply to CommentKristi Turnquist from the Oregonian thinks Grimm is a better show than: Walking Dead, Parks and Recs, Sherlock, Justified, Treme, Boardwalk Empire, Parenthood...oh forget it, this will take too long.
She also is a homer that gave portlandia a sweet 6 spot.
the minister Portlandia at #1 is infinitely more defensible than Grimm at #100.
December 21, 2012 at 12:36AM EST- 1
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