A Year in Review. Almost.

Every year I think about doing a little bloggy type run down of the top 5/10 good/shit things that have happened in tv/film/pantomime over the previous months. Of course, I am a right lazy fucker so never end up doing any such thing. I'd rather be eating leftover Christmas biscuits, frankly. Plus, this desire usually centres around the thoughts I have floating around my head about certain shows...so I'll manage about 2 categories before I run out of ideas or remember that I don't actually watch every show going.

This year, I started thinking about it again. Because I don't learn. So I thought I might give it a go. In a lazy, half arsed kind of way. I mean, we don't need another few pages of top 10's. They are everywhere. Who can be bothered to sit down and pen another run down of 2010? So here goes _drumroll_ the 2010 top 1's!!

Most Disappointing Show
1. The Walking Dead.

Big hopes. Big. Reality: stupid, stupid, stupid. It could have been so good, and the overall premise is so good that I will even allow it another chance when season 2 airs next year. But this does not mean that all is forgiven. This season had huge plot holes that stretched far beyond the acceptable boundaries of suspension of disbelief. The lack of decent female characters was appalling, rivalled only by the whitest Atlanta ever seen on television. The idiocy of the survivor group - driving around in a five vehicle convoy whilst talking about your lack of fuel. The fake gang moron-athon that wasted an entire episode. The foreshadowing was terrible - when you find yourself in a boat with your older sister, when you've never had any real screen time to think of before.....well, here's a hint: you're going to get eaten. And die really. very. slowly. I don't think I've ever wanted a collection of cast members to get killed off so badly. I'm hoping that season 2 begins with Rick, Glenn and Daryl leaving the rest of the group (I would discuss them, but most of them are so dull I cannot remember their names) and finding some more intelligent life forms to hang around with.

And their ends my round up of the year. I would say that disappointment is the overall feeling of the 2010 television year. This years Big Love was the worst ever and has almost ruined the show for me. I placed my hopes in three new September pilots, all of which turned out to be utter dross. Not just bad, in a Private Practice way, just unwatchable. Boardwalk Empire had all the moves, it looked right, it sounded right. It had all the right pieces in all the right places, but it just fell flat. It was boring. Not bad, just rather uninspiring. Maybe it was all the money. Glee did not live up to the promise of season 1. True Blood was lacklustre, despite the joy of Russell Edgington. I suspect that more naked Eric might solve that issue.

Of course, it wasn't all bad - Fringe was truly excellent this year. I wanted to see it every week and there wasn't a part of it that was not enjoyable. There were some great British shows - Whites, Rev, Mongrels and Sherlock showing excellent first series. Peep Show returned for an impressive seventh outing. I discovered old shows that I had never seen. I finally got around to watching all Felicity episodes. I found Breaking Bad.

Well, this list making has been exhausting! No wonder I never bother to do it.

P.S.

Merry Christmas.


And all that.

The British are Coming. Or Going. Or Something.

Whilst assessing the new crop of shows airing in January, it becomes apparent that there is a rather large British element to the proceedings. Three straight re-makes and a slew of actors trying their hand over the pond make for an invasion, it seems.


Shameless and Skins begin in January and seem destined to fail. Skins...well, anyone who has watched the original can see how the US version cannot possibly compare. Even the original couldn't keep up with itself, such was the greatness of series 1. The sex, the nudity, the debauchery. Won't it all be rather....well, clean? Which brings us neatly to Shameless. The thing about Shameless is that it's dirty. And not in a Skins way. In an unwashed, actually really dirty way. And the promo shots I have seen for the US version, starting on the 9th January appear to be devoid of all dirt. Of course, William H. Macy is fantastic. But it just doesn't look right. They must be going for a different feeling altogether, because Shameless is about the underclass, council estates and the photos look like Brothers and Sisters with (god forbid) more alcohol.


It's an oft touted phrase that Americans cannot handle the grit and drama that British drama has to offer. I don't think this is true, over recent years the American output has become increasingly dark (and brilliant). It just seems like such a shame to take so many UK shows and re-make them into diluted versions, removing all the appealing ingredients that made you want to re-make it in the first place.

I am quite excited about Episodes, a BBC2 comedy, airing both Here and There in the new year. Maybe we can shake off the re-make fail by making a show about re-making British Shows for the US viewers. Except this time we get to see the marvellous Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan. It will be interesting to see where this goes. I'm longing for a new comedy. Whites has kept me entertained for a few weeks and of course, us UK viewers are currently enjoying the colossal funny of Peep Show (not re-makeable, btw) but this is soon to end - alas our shows are very short. Fingers crossed for a fantastic January on the tellybox.

So it Turns out....

Andrew Lincoln? Not so annoying after all. For the moment.

The Walking Dead is not flawless, by any stretch of the imagination. It's predictable, sometimes obvious and rather full of zombie cliches. Survivors grouping together in a department store. I feel like I've seen it all before and my exposure to zombie material is roughly zero. Not only that, but the stupidity exhibited by some of the characters makes them contenders for Moron of the Month after only 3 episodes.

Character stupidity is a hard one to overcome, particularly when it's only a device to further the plot. Camping in the woods with plentiful zombie ground cover is an exercise is stupidity, as is the concept that we would willingly believe that Merle, handcuffed on a roof with a hacksaw would choose to hack off his entire hand. Rather than his thumb, or even the rather flimsy looking chain between the cuffs. Add these to the fact that the protagonists wife, on hearing that he is dead, supposedly jumps straight into bed with his best friend.

Despite the high moron count and the zombie cliches, I find it thoroughly enjoyable. Is it the zombies? Are they just so interesting (and rarely done in a televisual serial) that all the other concerns are overridden? Is it the cast or the writing? I don't know. But I find it engaging, even when it's annoying me. Still, that can only last so long. And I tell you, if the survivors don't get a move on and start looking for somewhere a bit more sensible to hide (clue: anywhere else), my patience will probably run out.

But for now, with episode 4 to watch this evening, I shall be enjoying my own personal resurrection of Andrew Lincoln.

And When it Was Bad....Well, at Least There's Fringe

Right?

I was so worried before the start of season 3. Season 2 had that iffy start, and JJ shows don't have the best track record when it comes to the third season. I was half expecting Melissa George to show up and instigate Operation: Shittify as usual. 

Fortunately, everyone's least favourite Antipodean has been nowhere to be seen and the season is wonderful. The show has somehow morphed stealthily into something genuinely good, rather than the hit and miss guilty pleasure that it started as.

In fact, I can count the annoyances this season on one hand. Which is impressive, as to be frank....well, I'm easily annoyed. I can overlook a lot of annoyances though, as The Walking Dead proves (more on that next time)....but I still count them.

My only major gripe so far is the seemingly necessary stupidity pills that Peter has been taking. How can he not realise that Olivia is not Olivia? The answer? Because the story line needs him to be ignorant. Which is a major annoyance. Peter is not stupid. Peter is intelligent, has a lot of common sense and is a master of reading people. And yet he has wandered around, in a post-coital haze, seemingly unaware of the imposter in his bed. Are we supposed to believe that suddenly regular sex has dulled the man's brain? Or are they trying to make us believe that Peter has known all along and is playing the game? Well that can't be true. If Peter knew, he would confront her immediately. And the story line would be over. I hate that it is simply the only way that they can run the story - by altering and degrading his character.

I'll let this one slide though (and I'm sure the writers of the show will be breathing a huge sigh of relief there) as the rest of the season has been exemplary. But I'll be watching. But not for another two weeks. There's another annoyance for you.

When it was Good, it was Very, Very Good.....

99.6% of the time, when watching Gossip Girl, my thoughts go along these lines. Why am I watching this tripe/why do I subject myself to such farcical rubbish/why is a grown woman watching a show designed and aimed at girls half her age? Generally, these thoughts occur when certain images are on the screen, ones resembling these:

 

But then, sometimes...there are these moments of glory. When something so ridiculous comes on screen that makes me think..."Yes, this is why I watch this show." Of course, all of these moments generally involve the same person. And this week is no different.

That would be the Chuckmeister, in a teeny robe. Holding a macaroon.

Swoon.

This show is ridonkulous.

Zombies, Cont.

There is a reason I am uneducated in all things undead. <whispers> I'm a big girly wuss. I must be about 15 years behind my contemporaries - the things that scare me now are things that they were minorly bothered by terrified of at 15. They built up a resistance to scary stuff and moved on. I stagnated and just avoid, avoid, avoid.

As such, I am only half way through the first episode of The Walking Dead. Pathetic? Indeed.

It's the tension that scares me. Someone jumping out in the dark, not knowing what is around the corner. And so, this:

scared the pants right off me. It's like a televisual version of Silent Hill. <shudders>


I'll be watching the rest of The Walking Dead today.

In the daylight.