Vulture recently took a look at drinking on television, which is an awesome thing to take a look at. As the article points out, a few years back you never saw characters on sitcoms or dramas boozing, today it’s all over the place.

The post focuses on reality television (where producers often lubricate their on-screen victims to ratchet up the drama), cartoons, shows with diagnosed alcoholics (Shameless, Californication ), and shows that feature light drinking—most of which are those network sitcoms about 20-somethings living in inexplicably giant New York City apartments.

One interesting conclusion: Cartoon characters drink more like normal people than reality TV stars do. (Side note: Am I the only one that actually worries about Snooki?)

And of the alkies in Shameless and Californication, Vulture concludes: "They’re broad and over-the-top, but so are a lot of real drinkers." Well put, though I would point out that while William H. Macy’s character on Shameless is absolutely a larger-than-life version of the kind of break-your-heart alcoholic that most of us have banging around somewhere in our family, Californication’s Hank Moody (played by David Duchovny) is just a plastic version of the stereotypical drunk and libidinous novelist. Only a bunch of coke-addled Hollywood narcissists could come up with that guy. I hate him, I hate the show, and I hate myself for watching it religiously. But Shameless is good.

Anyway, cool article! Read it here.