American Film Institute Unveils Its Best TV Shows Of 2012

Now the year is almost up, the American Film Institute (or the AFI, as it’s known by far more cultured folk) have divulged their picks for the best movies and TV shows to grace our presence these past 365 days, a list which choses to recognise Django Unchained and Les Miserables, though we haven’t seen them yet, and Girls, because that’s what’s cool now. “AFI Awards celebrates America’s storytellers as collaborators,” said AFI president Bob Gazzales. “We are honored to bring together artists as a community, without competition, to acknowledge the gifts they have given the world in 2012.”

Though you can read about the film list here in more detail, one which includes The Dark Knight Rises – presumably because somebody over there thought they’d be beaten to death if they didn’t make the list “edgy” and “Christopher Nolan” –  but doesn’t make room for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, which seems to have frightened off a lot of awards this year with its “I’m not a Scientology movie, though I am, really” schtick. Spielberg’s Lincoln has also make the cut, because that film has Daniel Day-Lewis, like, acting, and that’s reason enough to lavish it with attention.

The TV list, titled “TV Programs of the Year”, contains all your favorites, such as Breaking Bad, Homeland, Game of Thrones and (thank God) Louie, a show so good that it won’t air for a further two years, because if there’s one thing that showbiz has taught us, it’s to go away for a while and come back when everybody has forgotten about you. The list also factors in American Horror Story, which people seem to like now, and Mad Men, which people have always liked and will presumably continue to do so until the writers run out of ideas and everybody will say, “Oh, God, Mad Men has really lost it, hasn’t it? They should really take that thing off the air.”

Here’s the list in full, because you need to watch all of this to have experienced the cultural year in a satisfactory manner (and you do want that, don’t you?):

AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR

American Horror Story
Breaking Bad
Game Change
Game Of Thrones
Girls
Homeland
Louie
Mad Men
Modern Family
The Walking Dead

Which TV shows should’ve made the list that didn’t? Let us know in the comments section below.

Source: THR