8:03 PM

The Casts of AMC - Entertainment Weekly’s Entertainers of the Year 2011 by Sam Jones, December 16th 2011

Jon Bernthal & Sarah Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead), Bryan Cranston & Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), Joel Kinnaman & Mireille Enos (The Killing), Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

Patton Oswalt on The Walking Dead:
My love of zombies goes way, way back, and I was a fan of the Walking Dead comic book from the very beginning. I thought it was pretty grand to embrace the zombie genre like a gigantic Russian novel. What I love about the show is that they adapted it to TV - they take liberties because it is a different medium and they are telling a different story. The first season was terrific, but they had to spend a lot of shoe leather establishing characters. This second season is stellar. They’re just more comfortable in their skin, as actors and writers. I think the show is preparing America and the world for the zombie apocalypse. I hope the Nobel people recognize that.

Damon Lindelof on Breaking Bad:
In 1972, Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky faced each other across a chessboard. In what the world would come to call “The Match of the Century”. Spassky got crushed. Why? because he failed to realize that his opponent was willing to do whatever it took to win. Fischer had already broken bad. If you know the phenomenal show to which I refer, then you understand that the true match of the century was White vs. Fring. The outcome blew our minds and transcended television. And despite always feeling five moves behind, I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Stephen King on The Killing:
Like others, I was dismayed by The Killing’s decline from event television to plain old series television. But even if the destination sucked, the journey was still a pleasure. Ms. Enos was stunningly good as the job-obsessed Linden, and the prickly camaraderie that developed between her and Holder was a joy to watch. Better yet, in The Killing we had a series that showed the true consequences of murder for those left behind. I ended up not caring a whole lot about who killed Rosie Larsen, but I cared a great deal about her grieving family.