It was a pretty good year for TV, but for me, a bad year for TV watching. I spent the second half of 2010 buried in work, which meant I didn't have much time for this blog. But with the year winding down, it's worth remembering the cream of this year's TV crop, whether I wrote about them or not.
1. AMC -- At least one of this network's program's -- Breaking Bad -- was an obvious contender for the top spot before the year was halfway over. Then came Mad Men's fourth -- and best -- season, followed by Rubicon and The Walking Dead, and by the time November arrived, it became clear AMC was TV's new king of quality TV shows.
No network has had a year like this since 2005, when The Wire, The Sopranos and Deadwood (not to mention Rome, Carnivale, Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm) were all part of HBO's line-up.
The Walking Dead proved to be the network's biggest hit so far, a comic book-inspired horror/drama that managed to transcend its roots by the time its six-episode season was over.
Rubicon's low ratings, slow pace and complicated storyline pretty much doomed it early on, but it was still fascinating to watch, and heartening to see AMC take this kind of risk, even for just a season. In the end, the show's conspiracy plotline wound up being less interesting than its characters -- the fascinating, funny villain Truxton Spangler justly inspired a fake Twitter feed -- and it's those people, rather than the answers we did/didn't get, that makes me sorry Rubicon won't be returning.
I'd been a little underwhelmed by Mad Men's second and third season, but its fourth was brilliant, taking us deeper into the mind and soul of protagonist Don Draper while also giving us a compelling look at an ad agency struggling to keep its head above water. But put all that aside, and Mad Men rises above most of its contemporaries on the strength of "The Suitcase" episode alone.
The king of the AMC mountain this year, however, was Breaking Bad. In three seasons, it's gone from "interesting" to "must-watch" to "comparisons to the Coen Brothers are not unwarranted."
In the article I linked to above, TIME's James Poniewozik ties Coen movies like No Country For Old Men and Fargo to some of Breaking Bad's larger themes. It's an apt comparison, but I'll take the connection in a different direction: just as the Coens can jump from No Country to Burn After Reading to True Grit, Breaking Bad can be a different kind of show every episode. One week it's the most tense thriller you've ever seen, another it's a tragic-comedic "bottle show." And it does all of those things well, helped along by a brilliant cast and the most beautiful cinematography on TV. The finest show in production now.
As for the rest...
2. Community -- The claymation Christmas episode warmed my heart, not because of its message, but because I'd never seen a sitcom on a streak like this. Like Breaking Bad, Community changes from week to week -- action movie parody, bittersweet coming-of-age tale, and yes, bottle show --and manages to do right by most of its incarnations. The best, most adventurous network comedy in a long-time, and one that gets better and better as its characters gel into a surrogate family.
3. Fringe -- After struggling for a season and a half, Fringe transformed itself from an uneven procedural anchored by a brilliant supporting performance by John Noble to a flat-out brilliant sci-fi show, one that learned to love its weird, dual-universes mythology. I just hope it can continue its momentum in 2011, when it moves to Friday nights. Cheers, by the way, to FOX, for its tongue-in-cheek ad campaign about the move.
4. Terriers -- Loved by critics, watched by...well, mainly just critics, it seemed. I didn't even see most of its single season until weeks after it ended. (Thank you, iTunes). But FX's most un-FX-like show was also one of its best, a sad, funny and completely charming story about two friends turned-low-rent PIs (played by Donal Logue and Michael Raymond James, both excellent). Sadness hangs over this show like a stormcloud, but watching it with the knowledge that we'd seen the last of Hank and Britt made it 20 times sadder.
5. Lost -- When it comes time to make my final, deathbed, best shows ever list (and won't that annoy my family? My last words will be something about Joss Whedon), Lost will likely be at the top, but mainly on the strength of seasons one through five. Its sixth and final year, however, was sort of problematic, filled with a bunch of episodes that were basically placeholders and a narrative device ("the sideways world") that only occasionally worked. Yet I'd happily watch all those placeholders again if it meant seeing things like Ben Linus' redemption, Richard Alpert's origin story, Jack and the Man in Black's final showdown, and the strangely beautiful ending. 2010 saw a lot of shows, new and old, go off the air, but none that I'll miss more than this one.
6. Parks and Recreation -- Like Fringe, here was another show that found its voice as it went on, turning the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana into something like a live-action Springfield.
7. Boardwalk Empire -- HBO's best drama since The Wire went off the air, creating a lush, highly detailed world, one that's based in reality, yet often seems like a dark dream. It took awhile to get going, but even its early stumbles were cushioned by its wonderful cast, led by Steve Buscemi, Kelly McDonald, and Michael Pitt, stealing the whole thing.
8. Party Down -- Another cancelled treasure, Starz's story of a (mostly) delusional troupe of Hollywood waiters managed to be both caustic and hopeful. The only bright spot about its cancellation was the knowledge that leading man Adam Scott was jumping to Parks and Recreation.
9. Justified -- FX's first attempt at procedural drama -- with a season-long arc tossed in here and there -- led to the second-best Elmore Leonard adaptation ever (sorry Out of Sight and Jackie Brown). Timothy Olyphant's name came first in the credits, but the real star was Walton Goggins, as the possibly-crazy, possibly-lying villain Boyd Crowder.
10. Damages -- Damages had a rough second season, but closed out its run on FX -- it moves to DirecTV for its fourth season -- by tightening its story-telling and putting the focus on the "villains" (for lack of a better word, considering how unheroic everyone on this show is) of the story, the nightmarish Tobin clan. It helped that the Tobins' chief representatives were played by Martin Short and Campbell Scott, who outshone Glenn Close as Patty Hewes, who stood victorious, yet once again alone, at the end of the season.
Also worth remembering: Doctor Who introduced a new Doctor who instantly cured the pain we felt at the loss of David Tennant; the Vincent van Gogh episode was just lovely...The Good Wife was the show The Practice wanted to be when it grew up...Supernatural entered its sixth season with the energy of a show half its age...Sherlock brought Holmes and Watson into the 21st century without ever seeming goofy...while Modern Family was enjoyably goofy and likable, a classic family sitcom with just enough bite to avoid being syrupy...Dollhouse came into its own a little too late, but once it did, it was fascinating.
And worth forgetting: True Blood, a mess this year, aside from the joy that was Denis O'Hare's vampire king...Persons Unknown, a horrible, summer-replacement Lost-clone with an absurd, disappointing conclusion...Treme was beloved by many; to me it felt like an hour long NPR report...The Office turned into a tepid parody of itself...the worst Jerry Orbach wisecrack on the original Law & Order would still be better than the best episode ever of Law & Order: L.A.
(Photos by AMC. Photo illustration by Megan Dorko)
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