At this point in the TV season, the temptation is to talk about the lists of network series that might be cancelled or renewed or are, in TV-racket-speak, "on the bubble."
Extensive research – reading the TV trade magazines – tells me there are 13 shows with bubble status. This matters to a lot of people involved. For the rest of us, it's not riveting stuff. Not these days.
Could CBS be without any CSI shows next season? Is that even thinkable? Phew. Me, I would miss ABC's Nashville and would find it inexplicable if that network declined to give Agent Carter a full season. Some people would miss The Mindy Project on Fox.
But forgive me, I'm not gripped by the possibility of an 11th season of Bones, a really nice show on Fox, or by the piffle that is Castle on ABC. Will there be torch-lit processions if State of Affairs fails to return on NBC? Nope.
Never mind all that. Let's talk quality – the Peabody Awards. And note this: "The single criteria for receiving a Peabody Award is excellence. Toward that end, board members ask themselves: Does this story matter? Is it a story that needs telling? Does it inform us as citizens or help us empathize with one another?"
Well! That's a brazenly plain mandate for a prestigious award. The board, by the way, is a group of 17 academics, critics and broadcast professionals. The Peabodys are the least glamorous of award shows. Previously, the awards ceremony was a lunch event.
Not any more. "The winners of the 74th annual awards will be presented with their statuettes on Sunday, May 31, at the first-ever nighttime, red-carpet Peabody ceremony. Fred Armisen, a Peabody winner for his work on Saturday Night Live and his series Portlandia, is set to host the gala at Cipriani Wall Street in New York." Pivot TV will air a 90-minute condensation of the Peabodys in June. At least it's not on live TV with very annoying people asking "What are you wearing?"
Here's the list of winners with brief comments from the Peabody organization about today's must-see quality TV.
The Americans (FX): "In this ingenious, addictive cliffhanger, Reagan-era Soviet spies – married with children and a seemingly endless supply of wigs – operate out of a lovely 3-bdrm home in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Between their nail-biter missions (and sometimes in the midst of them), the series contemplates duty, honour, parental responsibility, fidelity (both nationalistic and marital) and what it means to be an American."
Black Mirror (Britain's Channel 4): "This cinematically arresting, brilliantly written series from England is an anthology of dark-side tales – dark as a black hole. If its narrative shocks don't wreck your sleep pattern, its moral conundrums will."
Fargo (FX): "Fargo, the series, boasts the same snow-swept backdrop and dark, deadpan ambience as the Oscar-winning movie, but tells a different, more complicated story. Its villain, Billy Bob Thornton's mischievous, murderous, charismatic Lorne Malvo, is a character worthy of Norse mythology."
The Honourable Woman (Sundance TV): "A visually rich, densely plotted thriller set against the backdrop of the Israel-Palestine conflict, it suggests complexities and age-old vendettas that often escape even the best documentaries, to say nothing of the evening news."
Amy Schumer (Comedy Central): "Schumer's wholesome, disarming Brady Bunch looks belie and enhance a comic intelligence that's smart, distinctively female and amiably profane, whether she's applying it to sketch comedy, stand-up, or person-on-the-street interviews."
Jane the Virgin (The CW): "Immaculately conceived, it's a smart, self-aware telenovela that knows when and how to wink at itself. Its Latina lead, Gina Rodriguez, is incandescent."
The Knick (Cinemax): "Graphic, gripping, unapologetically grisly when it has to be, this lavish historical drama masterfully dissects surgical experimentation, doctors' egos, race relations and social mores in the New York City of 100 years ago. It gives new meaning to the term "operating theatre."
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO): "A most worthy addition to the news-as-comedy genre, Last Week Tonight doesn't just satirize the previous week's news, it engages in fresh, feisty investigative reports that 'real' news programs would do well to emulate."
Rectify (Sundance TV): "A powerful, subtle, dramatic series about a death-row inmate freed after nearly two decades thanks to new DNA evidence, it ponders whether what's been lost can ever be repaid, not just to him but to everyone he and his alleged crimes touched."
One quibble. Last Week Tonight is still finding its feet. A good deal of Oliver's meandering rants aren't funny. The Peabody comes too early to it. It's great to see Rectify acknowledged: It has been ignored by the Emmys and Golden Globes. And The Americans (season finale is Wednesday on FX) is just as described – magnificent.