TV Rocks

[gunswordfist]

Continuing catching up on Burn Notice.

[Avaitor]

This is pretty cool. Takes screenshots from Breaking Bad, Mad Men and OITNB, among other shows, and adds relevant literary quotes to them.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Finally watched the latest Breaking Bad. One of the most emotionally draining pieces of TV I've seen. Shame this is ending next week.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, that was... holy shit, was that intense.

While i'm waiting for tonight's ep, I'm watching the Emmys with my mom. I didn't know that Nurse Jackie was still on, let alone was liked enough to win big awards.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Since they switched Boy Meets World with That 70s Show, I sometimes watch ABC Family in the afternoon and got into watching a bit of The Middle.

It's not bad, but the characters are a bit flat to me. All in all, not too bad.

[Avaitor]

That's one of those shows the AV Club has been plugging a little as the years go by. Not nearly as much as the obvious ones or New Girl (why?), but they really seem to want people to watch it.

My mom likes it too, and wheneverI check it out, I can kinda see where she comes from. It's a cute alternative to Modern Family.

[Avaitor]

Now that Breaking Bad's over, I'm going to make a list of my top 10 shows currently on TV. Since there's only one cartoon on there anyway, I'll keep it in.

1- How I Met Your Mother
2- Archer
3- Game of Thrones
4- Mad Men
5- Parks and Recreation
6- Orange is the New Black
7- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
8- Louie
9- Orphan Black
10- Hannibal

[Avaitor]

Fuck yes.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but Marlowe>Holmes

[Avaitor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kZivVxB3vU

No excuses. Watch this.

[Avaitor]

I've been working on a list of what I thought were the best shows which aired this year, but I've been enjoying Girls enough to where I'm putting this on hold so I can see if and where I'd rank it here.

Anyone else have their own lists?

[Avaitor]

Alright, let's get cracking! I just wanted to say that since Archer was probably going to be my only cartoon on here anyway, and I had a good list until I thought about it, I left it out, but here.

10-


It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

I was trying to think about which of my comedies to put on here. Community is definitely out, since, well, just see what the hell happened without Dan Harmon. Parks and Rec has had some truly inspired stuff this past year, but it's been very hit or miss starting with the fifth season. I'm really growing to like The Crazy Ones, especially with Brad Garrett's extra dynamic to the show, but it's still not fully remarkable yet. Veep has some of the smartest insults ever constructed on TV, but it doesn't feel whole for me (maybe I really need to get to The Thick of It already). And  if I was to make a list of the best episodes of the year, Girls would definitely have at least one slot here, but as a collective season, this year's was not great. HIMYM will make it here soon enough (cause, c'mon, it's me), and Louie took the year off.

But you know what show I was really into this year? Sunny. The past couple of seasons have had more of a hit or miss ratio, but this one was good all around to my tastes, aside from the finale, which was a little too throwback-heavy, a problem the show has had for a while now. The selection of episodes were high on classic territory, with Dee's stand-up career rising in the premiere, the introduction of City Mac, a collection of vignettes exposing the gang's varied psyche, and a winner written by the Game of Thrones showrunners in which Charlie becomes "smart". This is how you do a season filled with event episodes, something Community did this year and failed at, badly. It helps that the Sunny gang are less grounded than the Community family, and are able to make most of their wackier adventures just work because, hey, it could definitely happen to them. It's also not like they have anything better to do, while the Greendale study group didn't seem to study much this year, did they?

8-

Mad Men

On the whole, this season of Mad Men isn't anyone's favorite, probably because of how convoluted, and at certain points, empty, it felt. With this being my first season of the show that I watched as it aired, I was somewhat disappointed, but on the whole, there is enough to analyze here that makes it stand up.

Plenty did happen, and a good amount made sense. After Peggy left SCDP for another firm, her new place combines with her old, in hopes to earn the various ad agents in both firms more prestige and win Chevy. This is all happening while Don, the iconic bastardmind of the show, loses his shit, resulting in the firm losing out and Don losing his job. If you haven't caught up with the show, I don't want to say too much about this year, but it's fascinating to see how the characters fans have grown to love, or in some cases, hate, have changed. Surprisingly, a lot of the change that happens this year was for the better, like Trudy Campbell, who finally leaves Pete's ass, and Betty, who got her best plots since season 3. Even Sally loses her admiration for her dad in some of her strongest solo material this year. And then you have that ending shot. Damn.

But let's wrap this up with Ken Cosgrove dancing.



8-

Hannibal

Man, this show is pretty. The AV Club tackled that aspect better than I ever could.

Hmm, but besides a brilliant use of visuals, what else do I like about this show? Well, as a disturbing cat and mouse game, the show succeeded with some fantastic atmosphere and one hell of a cast. It's a great adaptation of Red Dragon, which will probably leave you wanting more, even if you're familiar with the story. I'm not really sure how to do this one justice, so I'll probably just leave it here for now.

7-

American Horror Story: Coven

Alright, I'm just going to focus on Coven here, since even though Asylum did air new episodes this year, I still haven't seen it (although I probably will soon now that it's on Netflix).

But I have to say, I was surprised that AHS made it so high on my list since, let's be real, this is not a smart show at all. The show relishes on camp, for better or for worse, relying on horror cliches both old and new. On top of that, it is a Ryan Murphy show, which is easy to realize when you watch enough of it.

So why is it here? I still need to see Asylum, but I think Coven is the best season yet because of its goals- this is a feminist critique needed in a landscape that is always want for strong female characters. Coven is a powerful mother-daughter story. Coven is an honest story about girls bonding. Coven is an attack against racism. Coven has its tight-as-hell cast to great effect all over. And I just can't help but wonder who the Supreme is, which means the show is doing its job. So I give AHS the benefit of the doubt here.

6-

How I Met Your Mother

Bias time! But honestly, what can I say, I'm just enamored by the way the HIMYM is set, combining flashbacks and flash-forwards, comedy and drama, multi and single camera techniques, and smart and dumb humor all in one show in a more concise way than many other shows. The series has definitely peaked a while ago, but when it's good, I can't think of many better shows out there.

And I have 2 halves of a whole season to compare it to, with mixed results all around. Season 8 had a bad start last year, but just around the time Barney proposed to Robin, the crew found a better groove and pulled out some killer episodes before the season ended, including the last Robin Sparkles episode and a great misdirection in Barney's bachelor party as total highlights. Granted, the latter half of season 8 wasn't perfect, like with Ted's psycho girlfriend, but I think there's enough good to balance out the bad.

Season 9, meanwhile, has been especially hit or miss as of now, with no real consensus as to its overall quality or not. A lot of skeptics of the show's ending run have been defending the pacing, while others just want Ted to meet the mother already and call it a day. Myself, I have to admit that I don't think the problem with this season is the pacing. There's been some good layouts with the gang just hanging at the Farmhampton, but it has been more fun when we get various flashbacks, probably because we get to see more of Marshall then, since he only just came to the hotel last night. But even in the weakest episodes, there have been some truly inspired gags and moments, which make me feel better about the season as a whole, even if this isn't the final victory lap it needed.

As for the mother? She's fantastic. All I need to say.

And here's a good place to put the breaks on my list for now. My top 5 will be posted up soon, but please stop making me multi-post and reply.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I haven't really watched much TV this year, I've been heavy into reading more than anything. But yes, I know How I Met Your Mother will always top your lists. I'm actually surprised it isn't higher.

[Avaitor]

5-

30 Rock

Man, I was NOT expecting this. The funny thing is, I put this a little lower than I was going to since so few episodes aired this year.

But you see, this is how you do a final season, by wrapping up everything that needed to and end, while still adding in plenty of laughs. The previous couple of seasons were becoming too farcical, even for the show's sake, but it seems that out of nowhere, Tina Fey realized what was wrong with the show and decided to fix things up. Tracy and Jenna grew up a little, Jack makes the best possible decision he could for his career, Liz settles down in a logical sense, and best of all, Kenneth got what was coming to him. But don't take my word for it, check out the last season for yourself.

4-

Orphan Black

I have to admit, when I first saw previews for this one during Doctor Who's return, I wasn't so sure about it. But it didn't take long for me to become more excited for Orphan Black over DW. And there's one clear reason as to why. Tatiana Maslany got robbed for bringing life to each of her characters, and even having the skills to mix and match them when needed. On top of sharp writing, Orphan Black was one of the best out there.

3-

Breaking Bad

Only third? Well,  you'll see in the next two slots.

But I was wrong with 30 Rock. THIS is how you do a final season. While some of the best characters in the show's run didn't get to make it to the finale, nothing was forgotten by the time Walter White's fate was determined. As for the acting, direction, writing, etc on the show, man, I can't even begin to describe how excellent it all is. But Breaking Bad really knocked it out of the park.

2-

Game of Thrones

The reason I went with GOT over Breaking Bad is part personal bias, part that we've hit the peak of the series as of now, unless Martin gets the last two books out perfectly.

But what a year this was! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go into my #1 choice.

1-

Orange is the New Black

I don't think a first season of any show excited me nearly as much as this one's, because there just isn't anything like it out there. A show with this strong of a cast that's almost entirely female, of multiple ethnicities and creed, with their own lively, tragic stories. The plotting for the show is also brilliant, with each episode setting up for another piece of the puzzle that Chapman's too vein to realize- she's just as, if not more, crazy than everyone else in the prison. Not to discredit anyone else, aside from maybe Pennastucky. Socially, OITNB is too thematically rich for me to decipher now, but this will likely make it up there with The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

Yeah again, I got lazy by the end. I probably shouldn't have tried to make a written list, but there you go.

[Avaitor]

And while I'm still list crazy, here's my top 5 moments on TV this year.

5- Do I go with the Red Wedding or Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt's less-red wedding? Highy-priced heartbreak vs low key sentimentality, with both shows handling their retrospective fields better than most. Ah, let's just make this a top 6.
4- So Girls has plenty of problems, but when it calls out the hypocrisy of the titular girls, it exceeds wonderfully. "One Man's Trash" probably does it better than the rest of the show thus far.
3- After a year of hurting his daughter so much and many more years of lying to all of his children, Don Draper takes them to the bordello he was raised in. All it takes is once glance to hint at Sally's understanding.
2- The reveal of the mother would easily be my #1 in most other instances, but let's go down a slot...
1- ... and say it with me now- "My name is ASAC Schrader, and you can go fuck yourself."

[Avaitor]

So this is the year that we're getting Batman and The Wonder Years on DVD. Kick ass.