The American Film Institute puts the year's best movies and TV shows in peaceful, non-competitive list

By Sean O'Neal | December 10, 2013 | 9:27pm

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AFI Awards is a moment for the most accomplished storytellers of 2013 to pause and be appreciated—not as competitors, but as a community,” reads a statement from American Film Institute president Bob Gazzale, announcing his organization’s annual effort to stop the relentless, fitful struggle of awards season that puts such a strain on movies and TV shows, and instead provide a quiet place for them to be institutionalized. Yes, a peaceful rest in the AFI sanitarium is just what the doctor ordered for these films and TV programs, where they won’t have to worry about fighting and also can’t use scissors. And later they'll have lunch.

So, here are the AFI’s selections for this year’s top American-made movies and TV shows—none of which you should look in the eye. Instead, let their reassuring familiarity lull you into your own state of blissful, cooperative catatonia. There now. Isn’t that nice?