As Matt Zoller Seitz put it on the Vulture TV Podcast, this was the best year of television since he has been alive. TV evolved in form and content in 2016, pushing the boundaries of both what is considered an episode of television and whose stories are seen as worth telling. On this week’s episode, Matt and Jen Chaney explain how, with so much good TV in 2016, they were able to decide what made it on our top-ten lists. Plus, Matt talks to Rectify creator Ray McKinnon about the show’s final season.
Read Matt’s and Jen’s top-ten lists here and here. Plus, check out Jen’s list of the best new shows of the year.
McKinnon on how TV writers sometimes write according to what the actor is capable of:
A lot of my writing is not necessarily analytical — it feels more visceral and intuitive. But certainly one becomes informed over time of what actors can handle, what material, and for some actors, [the role of Daniel on Rectify] would have been too much for them. Aden’s an extraordinary actor, both in his ability to tap into emotion and his technique and his work ethic. There was never a time that I gave him more than his talent and craft could handle. That’s a very fortunate thing to have when you’re working in a long form like this. And many of the other actors, almost all of them were in that realm as well. But I’ve worked as an actor on a couple of television shows, and the writers do write to the actor’s abilities sometimes.
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