May 19, 2013

Best of TV, 2013...


The 2012-2013 TV season is winding down, and while I have not watched some acclaimed hits like Breaking Bad, I have watched my share of good and bad TV, so here are my picks for what entertained me this season:


Best Comedy: Big Bang Theory -- Howard coming back from space, Amy Farrah-Fowler's bigger role, and the usual geeky humour had me laughing out loud.


Best Drama: Sure it's not Shakespeare, but I wouldn't watch Shakespeare every week... and season two of the revamped super-soap Dallas was suspenseful, sexy and sometimes just funny. Beautiful rich people sleeping around and stabbing each other in the back is fun to watch. And the passing of Larry Hagman brought on unexpected stories and an incredible touching farewell to icon JR Ewing.



Call It A Classic Already: The Good Wife is old news by now, but it remains amazingly smart and entertaining. Sure the season started off wonky with the Kalinda's secret husband storyline going nowhere, but once that was over they brought back the core marital political drama and big name guest stars doing unexpected things, from Michael J Fox to Nathan Lane to Mathew Perry. Every episode is worth watching.

Best Reality Show: New judges Usher and Shakira juiced the already addictive The Voice.... amazing singers, big celeb coaches like Sheryl Crow, and touching personal stories. Plus the whole idea of having coaches who help rather than idiot judges who are mean is just appealing to begin with.


Best Daytime Show: While Katie had its moments, it was Anderson Cooper's second season of daytime that was fast and smart and funny. Between Cooper coming out of the closet last summer, and then the show being cancelled early in its second season and still having the season to make new shows, Cooper seemed loose and relaxed and was just entertaining. Pair him with a sassy cohost with Lisa Rinna or Kathy Griffin and the show soars.

Best Late Night: Hands down, Jimmy Fallon.... and that is why he is getting The Tonight Show next year.


Best New Show: The reimagined Sherlock Holmes in Elementary, with Holmes as an antisocial British addict fresh out of rehab in modern New York, and Lucy Liu as Watson, was way better than I expected from CBS... great actors and interesting story lines.

And they can't all be good, so here are some quick ideas on worst of the season: The New Normal which got better as the season went on but too often chose preachy over funny, soapy Nashville which started off strong but lost steam, Revenge which followed up a great first season with a lousy second one, The View which became so dull even Joy Behar is leaving, and the bizarro coming-out speech from Jodie Foster at The Golden Globes.

What were your favourites this year?