The dust has settled on 2011, and personally it was an interesting one. I went on one of the trips of my life, hitting Vegas, New York, Chicago and LA with my closest friends. I got a new job, and a new place to live. It did not stop me from indulging in my favourite games, films, TV shows and podcast.s, a few of which I am now going to write about below.
Please note, this is not a best of list. This is a “Things I liked” list, so the order doesn’t matter, and if you think I am wrong or an idiot, write your own list.
Breaking Bad
This is a no brainer, and one that can’t really be argued with. Breaking Bad’s fourth season started out with an intense episode punctuated at the end by a shocking act of graphic violence. It then sat for a while, coasting along. While some may have found it slow going it eventually morphed into everything that people praise about the show, great performances, great direction, and the tensest forty minutes of Television a week. It culminated with it’s final episode “Face Off”, in which the feud between Walter White and Gustavo Fring is finally settled in explosive fashion, before revealing at what great cost Walter’s plan come at. Riveting stuff
Pick of the lot: “Face Off” brought everything together wonderfully. Failing that, “Salud” in which Gus, Jesse and Mike head to Mexico is Breaking Bad at its best
Community
The decision to pull Community from the air was met with a great outcry from its small yet obsessive fan base. While it is a tragedy, fans can console themselves with the consistently excellent season 2, which took everything from season 1 and made it bigger. Multiple concept episodes combined with small character building episodes made this the most complete comedy of 2011 for me. Season 3 may have gotten off to a shaky start, but seems to have pulled itself together, which makes its ultimate fate even more sad
Pick of the lot: “Paradigms of Human Memory”, a flashback episode with flashbacks to adventures we have never seen before. Reminded me of the great Clerks Animated series’ second episode, but with a little more heart
Homeland
One of two great cable shows debuting this year, Homeland took a premise that could have easily led to a confusing twist of the week action show, and instead turned it into a great character study of its two leads. Oh yeah, it also managed to have twists galore, without seeming out of nowhere and stuck the landing with its season finale, which many thought it wouldn’t be able to do.
Pick of the lot: “Marine One”, in which Damian Lewis and Clare Danes both give Emmy worthy performances, plot threads are tied up, but there are still plenty of places to take the narrative next year.
Archer
Community may have mixed heart and humour very effectively, but Archer is easily the funniest show on TV right now. Anchored by H Jon Benjamin’s excellent voice performance, Archer’s second season kept up its frantic pace all season long. It may also have some of the best cultural and most obscure cultural references on TV since the early Simpsons episodes
Pick of the lot: “El Secuestro”, all the characters get something great to do, from Archers glee at having never seen an ocelot before, to Pam’s “Lord Byron” tattoo on her back, this is the episode I would show someone who has never watched the show before
Game of Thrones
I’m not usually one for fantasy epics. I couldn’t get past Tom Bombadil in Lord of the Rings, and the final movie in the series was beautiful but had all those fucking endings. Game of Thrones has me compulsively watching multiple episodes in one sitting, especially as it got to the latter half of its first season. If you are on the fence, it may take a while to get going, but this show has blood and guts, sex (with family members!... if that’s your thing) and balls. Don’t believe me. Perhaps you should watch the:
Pick of the Lot: “Baelor”, in which those huge balls this show has really reveal themselves. I can’t talk about it, just watch it. It’s ok you can come and read the rest of my shitty list later
Happy Endings
What began as a guilty pleasure to watch when I’d ran out of Community and Parks and Rec very subtly became a very funny ensemble comedy. Its original saving graces were Max, a gay guy who acts just like a straight dude and Penny, another take on the oh so unlucky in love girl that Casey Wilson made interesting. It now finds funny stories for all of its characters, even Alex and Dave. With this many UCB veterans performing, it was only a matter of time before it came good.
Pick of the lot: “Spooky Endings”, where Alex wins a transvestite competition and Max and Penny compete for different guys while attached in the same costume
Honourable Mentions include
Sons of Anarchy – A reverse season 3, with a strong season all the way until the finale, where they completely undid everything and copped out on killing the people it had been threatening to all season long
Justified – A huge leap in quality between seasons 1 and 2, mainly due to the introduction of the Bennett clan. While it started a bit slow, the final episodes were brutal
Parks and Recreation – Seamlessly integrated Adam Scott and Rob Lowe, and got even better than the great seasons that preceded it.
Children’s Hospital – This one is impossible to describe, but it’s hilarious and only 11 minutes each episode. Just watch an episode
Louie – Would be on the list, but I still haven’t watched season 2. I know, this is one where you can tell me I’m wrong
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Contains “Chardee MacDennis”, one of the best episodes the show has done and a number of strong episodes. Also had some weird/bad experimental episodes that led to an uneven season
Castle/White Collar – My favourite breezy shows, no need to concentrate too hard just enjoy. In White Collar’s case, it’s the chemistry between Matthew Bomer and Tim DeKay. In Castle’s case it’s Nathan Fillion. Enough Said
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