The illustrious Tn2sies have been gracing awards season ever since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. An accolade higher than the Provost’s Award, the Tn2 TV team are delighted to announce this year’s recipients.
Best Irish TV Show
(2) Ireland’s Fittest Family
(3) RTÉ News
(4) Asking for it: Reality Bites with Louise O’Neill
The winner is:
RTÉ NEWS
Especially Eileen Dunne – for holding it together every night at 9pm while the rest of the world falls apart.
Best International TV Show
(1) The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
(2) Atlanta
(3) Stranger Things
(4) Great British Bake Off
(5) Bojack Horseman
The winner is:
STRANGER THINGS
Nostalgia has never felt so fresh.
Best TV Show Revival
Speaking of nostalgia, 2016 has shown us that the current trend of TV shows being revived from the dead and shows based upon old films won’t be ending any time soon.
(1) Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life
(2) Fuller House
(3) The Exorcist (2016 –)
(4) Lethal Weapon (2016 –)
The winner is:
GILMORE GIRLS: A YEAR IN THE LIFE
Read why here in Robyn Page-Cowman’s first-look review!
Best New TV Show
We didn’t include Stranger Things in this list as it is just. that. good.
It would be just be unfair on all the other amazing new shows to include our overall winner. I guess 2016 wasn’t all that bad. For TV anyway…
(1) Westworld
(2) The OA
(3) The Crown
(4) Atlanta
(5) Insecure
The winner is:
ATLANTA; THE CROWN
Cooky and crazy versus royal and reserved – we couldn’t unanimously decide whether Atlanta or The Crown was the best new show of 2016. (It was clearly Stranger Things but we’re trying to give others a chance guys) Both amazing in their own way, our TV team chose to award the title equally to both. Now where’s Donald Glover to accept his prize?
The Barry’s Tea Award for Best Irish TV Moment
(1) Blindboy Boatclub talking Irish society and mental health on The Late Late Show.
(2) UTV Ireland becoming Be3: a “female focused” TV3.
(3) When Kari Foss represented Germany in the Rose of Tralee and took the country by surprise with her rendition of ‘A Milli’ by Lil Wayne.
(4) On Inside Trinity we learned about how the Launchbox programme is currently funding two engineering students, during their off books-year spent as beekeepers.
(5) When the O’Donovan brothers were interviewed after winning a silver medal in the Olympics and they said all they had to do was “pull like a dog”.
The winner is:
Rubberbandits’ Blindboy Boatclub on The Late Late Show
Whether you like him or hate him, the leader of the Rubberbandits made much needed waves in Irish society by gracing The Late Late Show in 2016.
Best International TV Moments 2016
(1) SNL – ‘Hallelujah’ episode
(2) Elton John & James Corden ‘The Circle of Life’ Carpool Karaoke
(3) Beyonce’s Lemonade HBO Special
(4) The changing of the Eurovision voting system
(5) Planet Earth’s Snake vs Iguana scene
The winner is:
SNL – ‘HALLELUJAH’
Thanks to Kate McKinnon and her Hilary impression, Saturday Night Live was a blessing in post-election America.
The Underrated Award: The One You Missed
The series we love that you may not have seen:
(1) Please Like Me
(2) Fleabag
(3) Lovesick
(4) Skam (Shame)
The winner is:
PLEASE LIKE ME
Recommended by Callum MacIver, season four of Please Like Me proved to be an honest and raw experience. An underappreciated Australian masterpiece.
Conall’s winner:
Conall The Magical Accountant
The TV script I’ve written but no studio will pick up because they do not understand true genius when it arrives in “suspicious packaging”
The Munnelly “Get Over it Dude, More Fish in the Sea” Award
– chosen by TV Staff Writer and general genius Gary Munnelly.
The award for suitable substitutes. A well meaning plaster for those shows you only watched because your true love was on a season break… or over.
(1) The Last Kingdom / Game of Thrones
(2) The Venture Bros. / Rick and Morty
(3) The Expanse / Firefly (still not over it)
Conall’s Winner:
Luther /// Luther
because why watch anything else?
Kids Choice Awards
Sorcha Ní Cheallaigh’s nieces and nephews argue over their picks of the year:
(1) Éabha (age 8): My mammy’s friend knows Andrew from Bake Off. My mammy’s got a picture of him on her phone.
(2) Aoibheann (age 5 and 11 months): I LOVE Strictly Come Dancing. My maimeo bought me TWO Strictly Come Dancing dresses. Ed [Balls] is a bad dancer.
(3) Iarlaith (age 8): I said a bad word when [The Late Late] Toy Show was on.
Conall (age 22): You still can’t beat The Wire
The Absolute Worst (Sponsored by WhyOhWhy.com) TV Moment
(1) X Factor’s Honey G
(2) The Late Late Toy Show and latent sexism in Irish society
(3) Brexit: Live
(4) US Presidential Debates and the subsequent TV election special
The winner is:
We can’t decide!
A winner has not been chosen as all these things were just so awful
Conall’s Winner:
Donald Trump Will No Longer Host The Apprentice
A tragedy of global proportions.
In Memoriam: we’ll always remember you…
To our darling’s who have been cancelled this year:
(1) Marco Polo (Netflix)
(2) Salem (WGN)
(3) Masters of Sex (Showtime)
(4) Alan Carr Chatty Man (Channel 4)
Conall’s Winner:
The fifth disc of my Friends Complete Collection box-set, wherever you are.
The Coussins Award for Worst TV Concept
TN Sports Guru and TV Staff Writer Joel Coussins gives us the lowdown on which TV programmes were doomed before they even hit the screen.
(1) The Entire Universe, BBC 2
Concept: hour long special of Brian Cox running through a brief history of everything, without stopping at any point to explain anything. The twist? It’s also a musical made to look like it’s being improvised on the spot. So poorly executed that it might as well have been.
(2) The Lost Sitcoms, BBC 4
Concept: take 3 ‘classic’ situation comedies and reboot them, except choose terrible originals instead of good ones. Hancock’s Half Hour (nope us neither – looked it up and it was a Radio 4 comedy from the 1950s); Til Death Do Us Part (a series literally about a bigoted East-Ender who cares not how offensive he is) and Steptoe and Son (this one was actually quite good originally) were chosen.
(3) Pacific Heat, Netflix
Concept: We like to imagine that at Netflix HQ in July 2016, corporates meet. The following discussion ensues:
“We need a new cartoon comedy, Bojack was such a hit and we should be capitalising on that!”
“Hmmm, Archer just got renewed for two more seasons, why don’t we just do that but change the country from America to Australia?”
“Brilliant! It simply can’t fail! Early lunch?”
The winner is:
THE LOST SITCOMS
At least The Entire Universe was only a one-off, and Pacific Heat was technically ‘original’. The laziness of simply digging up old shows to reel in the nostalgia market is overly safe and made at the expense of producing new, original comedy. That is the real sin with The Lost Sitcoms. Sigh.
The Future of 2017 Award
It’s not all doom and gloom; let’s see what 2017 can bring:
(1) Ninja Warrior UK (ITV) & Ninja Warrior USA
(2) Game2: Winter
(3) Lemony Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ (Netflix)
(4) Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)| Long Awaited Revival
(5) Girls (HBO) | Final Series
(6) I Love Dick (Amazon Prime)
(7) Twin Peaks (Showtime) | Long Awaited Revival
The winner is:
I Love Dick
Based on the radical cult classic novel of the same name, I Love Dick was chosen for it’s defiant source material and the pool of talent attached. A pilot was ordered in 2016, and now in 2017 we are to be graced with the full force of Jill Soloway’s (Transparent) interpretation for online television. We don’t talk about Soloway enough in Ireland and Britain yet. As part of the online revolution, Soloway has used their influence to challenge sexist and heteronormative representation and hiring in modern TV. With Kathryn Hahn and Kevin Bacon in tow, we can only be excited to see what a full season pick up can mean for this Amazon Prime original.
Many thanks to the judging panel Ellen Orchard, Conall Monaghan, Gary Munnelly, Joel Coussins, Millie Walters, Callum MacIver and Jack Maguire for their tireless work. A special thanks to Sorcha’s nephew and nieces.
This has been the Tn2sies 2016 and you’ve been amazing. You stay classy, San Diego.