Favourite TV Shows 2011 - Top 11 Shows, #11 - 2

So here we are, to take a look back at what exactly my favourite TV shows of 2011 actually were. Whilst the vast majority of the new series were absolutely terrible (here's looking at you Whitney) but there were major bright spots thanks to the debuts of both Game of Thrones and Homeland. But as always, it's the returning shows where the best stuff was coming from, even in a year that didn't have a new season of Mad Men. So first are the honourable mentions followed by the full list down bellow.

Honourable Mentions

Archer

Bob's Burgers

Black Mirror

Cougar Town

Shameless US

Sons of Anarchy*

Wilfred

*for the vast majority of its fourth season, 'Sons of Anarchy' was actually enjoying a place within the Top 10. But then that finale aired, and it was pretty terrible, so sadly it gets relegated to an honourable mention thanks to a mostly good season.

11. United States of Tara

I came to United States of Tara late. However, because of people talking about the leap in quality the show had made in it's third and ultimately final season, I decided to give it a go. The first two seasons of United States of Tara were fairly lighthearted with occasionally forays into darkness out of necessity it's very hard to avoid the fact the main chracter is suffering from dissociative identity disorder (DID). But the shows third season dives into the deep end of this darkness and begins tackling what actually caused her DID. What follows is a 12 part psychological thriller built around the family drama, where even though no one actually dies there's a very real, palpable sense of tension and dread. This is only made possible because of the fantastic performance that Toni Collette gives, jumping with ease between each of the different personalities, as well as the other fantastic cast members, including a brilliant guest role from Eddie Izzard. Whilst it is sad that Tara ended when it did, the final episodes hopeful note, even after the terror of the previous episodes, was the perfect end to what had become a great series.

10. Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire made it onto this list for one reason, and one reason only, that finale. The second season of HBO's gangster series was gripping, gorgeous and filled with many fantastic performances, including the brilliant Jack Huston and Michael Kenneth Williams, however it lacked cohesion from episode to episode. It felt like episodes alternated between being fantastic and slightly underwhelming, Jimmy's attempts at overthrowing Nucky felt like they played out in the background much of the time, and the lack of some of the stronger members of the supporting cast in some episodes was sorely felt. Then the finale pulled all of these seemingly disparate strands to make the season worth it, culminating in one of the most visually striking scenes of the season as Jimmy and Nucky have their final stand-off in the rain by the war memorial. It was a gutsy move to end their second season on, that I hope pays off in a big way in season three.

9. Doctor Who

If you've read this blog in the past, I've been quite critical of Doctor Who in years past. I thought Season four ended on a dreadful note, some of specials that aired in 2009 had some fantastic moments but that 'The End of Time' didn't truly come to life until David Tennant was saying goodbye and then Steven Moffat's first season as show runner was marked by the fact that almost no one, apart from Moffat himself, could write a compelling episode. Season six they fixed that. Yes the less said about the clone two-parter the better, but that led to the fantastic ending moment where the Amy we've been with most of the season is revealed to be a fake. All five of Moffat's episode were superb, but unlike every other season of Doctor Who they weren't the best; Neil Gaiman's 'The Doctor's Wife' which celebrated the Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS and was terrific, but perhaps the best episode was Tom MacRae's 'The Girl Who Waited', the episode that proved beyond a shadow a doubt that Amy Pond is easily the best of all the modern companions.

8. Adventure Time

The production schedule for Adventure Time makes it very difficult to tell what seasons actually aired in 2011, and it's even difficult to say if there has been a marked improvement from season to season. All I know is that in terms of what each episode actually achieves  there's no show that is as creative as Adventure Time. From 'The Real You' to  'Death in Bloom' to 'Mortal Folly & Mortal Recoil' the episodes of Adventure Time season two that aired in 2011 would have earned it a place on this list, but then season three had 'Still', 'Memory of a Memory', 'Too Young', 'Fionna and Cake', 'What Was Missing', 'Thank You' AND 'Holly Jolly Secrets'. It's a stellar run of episodes for what is sure to become a children's TV classic in the years to come.

7. Homeland

There weren't many great new shows in 2012, there were some very good ones, which I have mentioned above in my honourable mentions, but in terms of great new shows? There were only two, Game of Thrones (which makes an appearance later) and Homeland. Homeland was a show that could have gone wrong at any second, the fact that it came from the creative team behind 24, a show known to go off the rails on occasion, meant that it was always a worry that Homeland could as well. Luckily Homeland didn't, in fact it just got better, particularly when it came to the episode 'The Weekend' wherein Carrie and Brody, both played masterfully by Claire Danes and Damien Lewis laid out almost every single secret that the two of them had in one of the best episodes of TV from the entirety of 2011. Whilst occasionally the flaws in the shows logic would show, particularly in the bunker scenes in an otherwise fantastic season finale, the performances by Danes, Lewis and Mandy Patinkin and the fact that the viewers expectations were frequently subverted, made Homeland's debut season one of the best in recent memory.

6. Justified

Like the second season of Sons of Anarchy, Justified took a leap in its second season and ascended to greatness. Of course Sons of Anarchy wasn't able to maintain that level of quality into it's third of fourth season, but for one glorious moment it was as good as any other drama on TV. I'm not saying that Justified's third season is going to follow the same trajectory, but it's going to be tough to find a villain who will be able to compete with Mags Bennett, played to perfection by Margo Martindale a character actress who finally got to prove just how good she could be given the right role. Justified's flaws are still it's flaws, the green screen in driving scenes is still awful and the other Marshals, Tim and Rachel are woefully under utilised  but everything else about season two made up for that. The supporting cast featuring fantastic performances by Jeremy Davies and Kaitlyn Dever as well as Walton Goggins' Boyd Crowder getting to be a little bit more villainous than he was in season one and then there's Timothy Olyphant as Raylan, who might not be as flashy as the other actors on the show, but is the necessary anchor to it all. But at the end of the day, Season two of Justified gets this high for Margo Martindale alone because that's just how fantastic she was.

5. Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation season three was an all time great season of television, and I'm going to be saying that for a lot of the shows that will be appearing on the rest of this list. If Parks and Recreation had only aired it's 16 episode third season in 2011, then it would have probably placed a little higher on this list. Not that the episodes from season four were bad, but they lacked the cohesion and sheer brilliance that season three had. The whole cast wass utilised as well as any ensemble that I can think of on television, particularly thanks to amazing work from Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza and Adam Scott and classic episodes such as 'Flu Season', 'April and Andy's Fancy Party' and 'Li'l Sebastian'. Season three was a triumph in terms of pretty much everything, that I can't help but look at season four in a less light, even with fantastic moments such as April and Andy visiting the Grand Canyon in 'End of the World'. However, even if Parks and Recreation maintained it's season four level of quality for the rest of it's run, then I can almost guarantee it a top 5 placement next year, I just don't see them topping season three.

4. Louie

Louie season two took the foundation of what Louis C.K. did with the first season and just ran with it to all kinds of weird and wonderful places. The unpredictability of what exactly could happen on any given episode of Louie was ratcheted up a hundred fold. The premiere of season two was a 20 minute fart gag, 'Country Drive' had Louie singing the entirety of The Who's 'Who Are You', there was meditations on suicide, and a double length episode set in the Middle East. Maybe not everything in this second season hit its mark (I was not a fan of the episode 'Joan') but when Louie was working, which it was 95% of the time, it was one of the most hypnotically fascinating shows on television. Sometimes hysterical, other times deeply poignant, it's hard to say if a balance was hit between these emotions, only that each moment felt right and they felt earned. Louis C.K. proved himself to be something special with this season of Louie and I can honestly say that I have no clue what season three is going to hold, but that's perhaps the most exciting thing about it.

3. Game of Thrones

Many people would argue that Homeland had the stronger debut season in 2011, however in my opinion, almost no show on television this year was able to compete with how much excitement I had to watch a new episode of Game of Thrones each week. Yes, it took at least two viewings of the first episode and then about two further episodes until I was able to remember names and characters, but that didn't stop The Wire from being engrossing, and it also helped the George R. R. Martin's Westeros feels like a real place with a rich history. Of course, the vast majority of the praise for what makes Game of Thrones work should go to David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for their fantastic work adapting the novel to the small screen, but also knowing what to add and to take away. The fact that their additional scenes fit seamlessly into the narrative shows just how well they understand this series. Everything about Game of Thrones seemed to click, from great performances by Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke et al, to the stellar direction, particular by Alan Taylor for the penultimate episode of the season, 'Baelor'. That episode was the perfect culmination of the season and also the strongest example of what Weiss and Benioff had an almost uncanny ability to do, chose end of episode cliffhangers, because if you weren't going to come back after that ending, then there's something seriously wrong with you.

2. Breaking Bad

I am going to say something completely hyperbolic right now. I think that season four of Breaking Bad is about as good as a season of serialised dramatic TV can get. I would put it on the level as The Wire season three/four, which is about as good as television can get in my opinion. And yet, it only just misses out on the top spot of this list, but for lack of trying. Season four built on all of the foundations that Breaking Bad laid out for itself it's also seminal third season. Giancarlo Esposito completely dominates the entire season as Gustavo Fring, creating one of the greatest villains to ever grace the small screen and possibly one of the greatest villains ever. Of course Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn and Dean Norris are all fantastic and should really go without saying, particularly with Cranston's being a three time Emmy winner for this show. Where season four really exceeded though was in the building of tension, from the superb use of silence in the season premiere 'Box Cutter', the meeting with the Cartel in 'Salud', Walt's laugh at the end of 'Crawl Space' or the eponymous moment from the finale 'Face-Off', Breaking Bad  season four was a master class in making your audience sit on the edge of their seat. Now with three straight seasons of near perfection, it's hard not to wonder what the final 16 episodes are going to hold for Walt and Jesse, all I do know is they probably won't disappoint.

1. ???
And my number 1 show of 2011, will be revealed in a post dedicated entirely to it, and why it was the best TV show to air in this calendar year

Favourite TV Shows 2010 - Favourite Episodes 10-1

So here we are, my list of my 10(11) favourite episodes of television from 2010. Ranging from 10 minutes to 2 hours, these were, in my opinion the finest episodes that the medium of television produced between 1/1/2010 and 31/12/2010.

10. Sons of Anarchy - 'NS'

Despite the unevenness of the third season of Sons of Anarchy the finale was an absolutely superb way to end the season. 'NS' was a culmination of three seasons worth of story-lines, most notably all the drama involving Stahl and Jimmy O'Phelan. Yes the central drama to the show surrounding Clay and Jax still remains but the outside forces which had plagued the show for three years were wiped out in one tremendously suspenseful episode. When the club finds out that Jax has turned snitch you being to legitimately wonder how on earth SAMCRO is going to get out of it and then the double bluff is revealed. Maybe it was a little too neat an end, with SAMCRO ultimately taking very little fallout (beyond the 14 months in prison) but this episode makes the list purely for the scene where Opie shoots a weeping Stahl in the back of the head to avenge his dead wife Donna. Beautiful scene and a perfect way to end a season which was plagued by disappointments.

9. Adventure Time - 'What is Life?'
'What is Life?' was the first episode of Adventure Time that I ever watched and from that a magical friendship was born. Think Spongebob Squarepants but instead of being underwater it's set in a post apocalyptic world where quite literally ANYTHING can happen. The world of Adventure Time is wonderfully surreal and despite what could just be a funny concept the characters are legitimately well written and relate-able. 'What is Life?' focuses on Finn the Human trying to out prank his friend Jake the Dog by building a Never Ending Pie Throwing Robot (NEPTR for short) and here things go off the walls. What kind of kids show would have a robot where only one of his wheels works causing him to go round in circles and then ask his master 'Why do you forsake me?'. Or the pies which contain boysenberry....and poison. Or the balloons who fulfill their BLOOD OATH, cheer and then happily float up to the mesosphere in order TO DIE. Yes Adventure Time has enough jokes for adults to appreciate it but it's also wonderfully colourful so that kids don't get bored. Whilst there are many other episodes of Adventure Time I'd recommend to people ('The Eyes' is fantastic, as is 'Tree Trunks') 'What is Life?' is a fantastic place to start.

8. Parks & Recreation - 'Sweetums'
There were many episodes that I could have chosen from the second half of Parks & Recreation's second season such as 'Telethon', 'Freddy Spaghetti' and 'Park Safety' but I went with 'Sweetums' for two reasons. One being the fact that we got an amazing public forum, where once more we get to spend time with the amazingly insanely stupid residents of Pawnee (hell and Ron's face when he looks under his chair expecting to find a prize is golden as well) but the second reason is of course DJ ROOMBA. This ingenious idea takes an already great episode and raises it to amazing levels. It might not be a very Ron heavy episode, but it's an episode that uses all of the ensemble well, which lead to some of the very best episodes of Parks & Recreation. It's also helpful that we get to see the entire Parks department suffering from a sugar rush, because sometimes people being stupid is just funny dammit!

7. Terriers - 'Change Partners'
Whilst the pilot episode of Terriers was fantastic, it took until 'Change Partners' for me to realise was going to be something special. The episode starts quite low key with Hank looking for a bank loan to pay for his new house which then spins off into him being offered a job into looking into the bank manager's wife and whether or not she is cheating on him. And this is where the episode kind of gets fucked up. Particular needs to be made of Olivia Williams' fantastic guest role as the wife and playing her exasperation at the weird fetish her husband has of making her live out this faux-lifestyle of infidelity. By the end of the episode we realise that Olivia Williams' character Miriam has never actually been unfaithful but is driven to actually sleep with Hank by the end of the episode. This sets off the chain of events causing the bank manager to commit suicide and Hank to, instead of helping, forging his signature so that he can pay for his house. It's a fantastically dark moment and one that could have made the lead character seem unlikable but Donal Logue's performance just makes him so damn likable as Hank. Then as a cap to an already fantastic episode, we end with a shadowy figure crawling into Hank's attic whilst he's not looking. Utterly gripping stuff.

6. Doctor Who - 'The Time of Angels'/'Flesh and Stone'
Steven Moffat might just be my favourite TV writer currently still making TV shows. Whilst I quite often find the standalone episodes of Doctor Who to be somewhat lacking, a Steven Moffat script is almost always guaranteed to be fantastic. and the same can be said of this two-parter. Whilst maybe not scaling the same heights as 2007's fantastic episode 'Blink', 'The Time of Angels' and 'Flesh and Stone' serve as a fantastic reminder that the Weeping Angels are probably the best creature that Doctor Who has introduced since it came back in 2005. Along with the Weeping Angels, Moffat also brings back another of his fantastic creations with River Song from his own 2008 two-parter. Over the course 90 minutes Moffat slowly ratchets up the tension and questions and whilst some were disappointment I thought it was fantastic. With story beats that wouldn't pay-off until 'The Big Bang', Moffat showed all the writers of Doctor Who how to conceive a two part story and that he is quite definitely a genius that everyone should pay attention to.

5. Party Down - 'Steve Guttenberg's Birthday'
Party Down ran for two terrific seasons and this episode might just be it's crowing achievement. Maybe it's just because I've always been fascinated by the work that goes into screen writing but Martin Starr and Christopher Mintz-Plasse working together on an horrific screenplay was a fantastic idea. The two completely different read througha were hysterical in their own ways. From the over the top scientific vocabulary that littered the first draft to Henry's amazing overacting during the second, there was almost always something to love about this episode. And that's discounting how weirdly lovable Steve Guttenberg's house is. Filled with crazy memorabilia, thousands of DVDs, a home cinema, a fountain filled entirely with water from a iceburg and of course the picture of a guy fucking a porcupine. Party Down shall be missed, but I'm glad that it lasted long enough to give us the comic genius of this episode.

4. Lost - 'The End'
I've written far too much about Lost over the years so I'm going to make this a short one. Have all the issues with the final season you want. Have all the issues with the final 20 minutes as you wish. But those first two hours of the Lost finale were pretty incredible. Everything that came to represent Lost over it's six years came crashing together in one hell of a satisfying way to way to send of the Island in style. From the sentimentally moments of bringing back nearly every single significant character that appeared over those six years, to Jack Bender's fantastic direction or Michael Giacchino's award worthy score. 'The End' was a microcosm of pretty much everything that made Lost so great. Maybe the trip into theology at the end rubbed people the wrong way, but it was an apt ending to a show which was so much about the characters and their relationships. It might not be the best finale for a TV show ever, but it's a damn good one.

3. Community - 'Modern Warfare'
During it's first season was a very funny show about about the lives of a group of people who went to a Community college. Occasionally it would dip into meta references of the larger plot at hand (mostly given to the audience by Abed) but I don't think anyone expected something as amazing as this. In it's first season on the air Community brought to the table a pantheon level episode of television. Something that will through the ages as one of the greatest episodes of television ever. 'Modern Warfare' was a quite literally a perfect pastiche of so many fantastic action movies. With overt references to films such as 'Die Hard', '28 Days Later', 'The Matrix', 'Hard Boiled', 'Scarface' and 'The Warriors' this episode was a smorgus board of geeky references. It managed to nail the cheesy lines of dialogue ("Check mate bitches" whilst shooting a member of the chess club in the back) and overall feel of action movies with aplomb (thanks to the sterling work of director Justin Lin). 'Modern Warfare' is an episode for the ages, and the fact that it's only number 3 on my list shows just how strong the remaining episodes truly were.

2. Breaking Bad - 'One Minute'
Another series which could have had so many different episodes on this list, from 'Fly', 'Half Measures' and 'Full Measures', Breaking Bad Season 3 was one of the best seasons of television that I have ever seen. But if everything I saw on television over the last 12 months stuck me it was the titular One Minute of this episode. I have never been so tense whilst watching a television series than when I was watching Hank fight for his life against the cousins. Not only did it come as a surprise that such a big moment was coming so early in the season but also the fact that there is legitimately no way to know who is going to make it out of the shoot out alive. Of course one scene does not a great episode make, but the ever brilliant Aaron Paul gave one of his best monologues on the show to date (a feat in itself) and Dean Norris proved that he was more than ready to take on the increased role that was being demanded of him. Topped off by fantastic direction by Michelle MacLaren and beautiful cinematography by Michael Slovis and you have yet another pantheon episode of television.

1. Mad Men - 'The Suitcase'
Despite Breaking Bad having the (marginally) better season, it wasn't going to go down without a fight. 'The Suitcase' is the kind of episode that only a serialised show can do. Working off of three and a half years worth storylines and plot threads, 'The Suitcase' ties everything together seamlessly within one night of the lives of Don Draper and Peggy Olson. Anger is vented, truths are revealed and tears are shed. With quite possibly the performance of both Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss' lives, 'The Suitcase' is a absolutely stunning episode. After the death of Don Draper's closest friend, the only person in the world who the knows the whole truth behind Dick Whitman, he has no one left to turn apart from Peggy, the girl who all those years ago thought that she would have to sleep with her boss as a natural part of her job. The only man who knows the whole truth about her own hidden pregnancy, the man who gave her such a high placing job in Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. Almost four years worth of angst came rushing out over the course of one 40 minute episode and it's amazing in the level of catharsis it is able to give. Maybe Mad Men reached its peak in this episode, but it's not a peak that much else on television will ever be able to reach.

Favourite TV Shows 2010 - Honourable Mentions

2010 was yet another fantastic year for TV shows, it might not be the golden age that was occurring a few years ago with The Wire, Sopranos, Deadwood etc. but it was still a year that gave us fantastic seasons of shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Parks & Recreation. But those aren't the shows that I'm here to talk about, instead I want to focus upon the shows that haven't made it into my top 10. Instead this blog post will be almost an other top 10 (or 12) with shows which whilst more often than not fantastic for various reasons didn't quite make it into my overall top 10 of the year.

So enough with the introductions, here were the great shows of 2010 which didn't make my top 10 (bearing in mind that I have yet to watch some shows like Treme and Boardwalk Empire) in alphabetical order:

30 Rock
30 Rock didn't have a fantastic 2009, there was still a lot to laugh at still but it wasn't as consistent as it was during it's 2nd Season. Then there was the fact that it was having to compete with the new 2009 comedies of Community and Parks & Recreation. But then 2010 gave the show a massive comeback. There were some fantastic guest stars with Elizabeth Banks, Matt Damon, Jon Hamm, Michael Sheen, James Franco and Paul Giamatti and outright hilarious gags. James Franco and his Japanese sex pillow, Tracy remembering his past and having a mental breakdown, Jack making the video to his future 'son' about how to live, Buzz Aldrin shouting at the moon, Tracy making the advert but continually flubbing his lines and of course every moment that Michael Sheen was on screen as Wesley Snipes. 30 Rock might not be my favourite or the most consistent comedy on TV, but when it's on form it rivals the very best the medium has to offer.

Adventure Time
Adventure Time is a show that you wouldn't expect to be on any other critical TV list for 2010, but personally I think that this show is fantastic. Adventure Time is a Cartoon Network (yes THAT Cartoon Network) animated series about Finn the Human and Jake the Dog and the adventures that they have. That description doesn't highlight just how insanely surreal this show is though. It's the kind of thing that just appeals to university students in the same that Spongebob Squarepants is so appealing. But Adventure Time is something special, every episode is only 10 minutes long but you'll get vignettes dealing with a zombie invasion, pie throwing robots, how Finn deals with being turned into a foot and the art of imagination during a knife storm. It's hard to describe what makes this show so wonderful but it is, quite definitely one of the best new shows of 2010, if only for Lumpy Space Princess.

Better Off Ted
Better Off Ted is the first show on this list that was cancelled in 2010 (and sadly not the last). Better Off Ted was a comedy show set inside the fictional multi-national corporation Veridian Dynamics and dealt with the work force who helped create the inventions that they use to shape the world, which also gave birth to some absolutely fantastic fake adverts for the company ("Friendship. It's the same as stealing"). Better Off Ted was a fantastic satire of large corporations and how they deal with people. The ideas ranged from sending out a corporate memo encouraging the employees to swear (the fantastic outtakes can be seen here) and turning an employee who died on the job into a Jesus figure. All of this is topped off with a great ensemble which also gave fresh work to the Arrested Development alum Portia De Rossi as well as Jay Harrington as the titual Ted andJohnathan Slavin and Malcom Barrett as the wonderful Phil and Lem.

Chuck
After the fantastic Season 2, I think that most fans were just thankful that Chuck managed to survive being cancelled, twice I might add. Chuck is still a great show, maybe not quite as good as it was in Season 2 (although it quite often gives episodes of that level) but still one of purest blasts of fun to be found on TV these days. In season 3 the show maybe got a little too dark for what it was but that's forgetting what was great about Season 3 and the first half of Season 4. We got more Jeffster, Brandon Routh (Superman) put in a great performance as the villain of Season 3, Chuck and Sarah finally consummating their relationship and Morgan and Ellie both finally found out that Chuck was a spy (as well as a great plot featuring Awesome being brought into the spying life). Then there was the continued fantastic guest casting the show does with the crown jewels at the moment being Timothy Dalton as Volkoff and Linda Hamilton as Chuck and Ellie's mother. Timothy Dalton, especially, has been fantastic as the possibly insane but increasingly scary Volkoff and I can't wait to see where this goes in the second half of Season 4.

Doctor Who
2010 and the fifth season of Doctor Who was possibly the most important year for the show since its rebirth in 2005. Not only David Tennant leaving the show after four years of inhabiting the role of The Doctor but so was Russell T Davies the man who had sheperherded the show into coming back. Luckily Steven Moffat and Matt Smith stuck the landing in what was one the better seasons of the show since it's return. There was the normal wavering quality between certain episodes but the charismatic Matt Smith and Karen Gillan were great throughout and finally the audience was getting more than one or two Moffat scripts a year. A lot of what made 2010 great for Doctor Who must be laid at Moffat's feet (not counting David Tennant's goodbye which January 1st 2010) with the terrific two parters of 'The Time of Angels'/'Flesh and Stone' and 'The Pandorica Opens'/'The Big Bang' as well as a superb Christmas special with 'A Christmas Carol' which closed out the year and left anticipating Season 6 even more.

Justified
Justified could have just turned out as just a show which let Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood) take out bad guys in a cowboy hat, but instead it became so much more than that. Whilst the pilot was based off of a Elmore Leonard story, the rest of the show expanded to the point where it existed on it's own away from that story. Whilst not every episode was great, Justified was a show that put out some fantastic stand-alone episodes such as the fantastic 'Long in the Tooth'. Eventually the show achieved that hard sought balance of procedural and serialised story telling putting a great compelling overarching narrative which was frequently backed-up by a series of very well done one and done plots. Justified might feature as strong an ensemble as other shows but Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens and Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder put in two of the best performances of any actors this year something which just makes the show that much more compelling. The final 'Bulletville' might not have been the best way to end the season, but the first season was more often than not great and I can't wait for Season 2 in February.

Louie
Louie is the reason why I haven't this blog post up sooner, because I wanted to watch the complete season to make sure I was right about putting it on here. Luckily it is and if I'm perfectly honest, probably completely worthy of making the top 10. Louie is the brainchild of the hilarious comedian Louis CK (Parks & Recreation) and is one of the most difficult shows to pigeon-hole. On face value it would appear to be a sitcom, but really it's more a collection of vignettes with a loose continuity between them all bookended by some stand-up from Louie himself. The fantastic thing about Louie is that in any given episodes it's almost impossible to guess what might happen. Some episodes have downright hilarious moments, such as Louie's trip down to the South or the heckler during one of his shows, others will poignant such as the poker episode which turned into a discussion of homosexuality or just intentionally unfunny such as the fantastic episodes 'God' and 'Bully'. Not every bit or episode will work but it never tries one thing for two long and it's nearly always refreshing to watch.

Modern Family
Modern Family also made the honourable mentions last year, and that isn't to say it isn't any worse than it was last year, it just isn't up to the level of the shows I selected for my top 10. The main problem with Modern Family is one that pervades many shows with ensembles, that some plot lines just might not work in some episodes, and the episodes that do work have a meeting of all the plot-lines. Luckily the cast for Modern Family is one of the most likeable on TV with great performances from Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet and Ed O'Neill. Modern Family is definitely not the most experimental or ambitious comedy on TV, it's just an incredibly reliable, often hilarious family sitcom which is more often than not just what you want.

The Pacific
Say what you will about The Pacific being "just another war show/movie" and you're probably right, but that doesn't stop it from being any less fantastic. At 10 hours long, The Pacific offered one of the most psychologically draining shows on all of TV last year. In it Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks offered yet another superb war drama on par with Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, and it was an entirely different beast. Instead of being based on the western front, The Pacific, as the name suggests, focus on the far less reported by far more gruesome Pacific front. What was a delivered was a 10 hour tour de force that looked into the psychological nature of being a soldier in the war and what exactly it puts you through without every shying away, which as a result meant that The Pacific had a far darker tone than Band of Brothers. Bolstered by amazing production values and fantastic performances by James Badge Dale, Jon Seda and Joseph Mazello, The Pacific was one of the best shows to air on TV in 2010 and only just missed out on the top 10.

Rubicon
Moving from one show that starred James Badge Dale to another one. Rubicon was an entirely different beast to The Pacific, but was just as great and despite numerous early problems a great addition to the AMC line-up. Sadly though Rubicon was cancelled after it's first season but that still doesn't make enjoyment of that season any less. Rubicon was a show that started out as in the same vein as 70s conspiracy thrillers but eventually found a far more comfortable setting focusing on the moral ambiguity that goes into researching terrorists and appropriate responses. It was fascinating to watch what was essentially four people in a room reading files, but it became compelling viewing. If only episode 12 'Wayward Sons' (Journey reference FTW) had been the finale, Rubicon would have been one of the best shows of the year, sadly the far more conspiracy centric 'You Never Can Win' served as the finale and sadly focused on the weaker elements of the show. Luckily the first 12 episodes of the show were still uniformly fantastic especially with great performances from the likes of Arliss Howard and Michael Cristofer.

Supernatural
It wasn't the best year for Supernatural mostly due to the fact that the show is never as good as when it was as focused as it was in the early parts of 2010 but it's still just a great show. Whilst I might have been happier if 'Swan Song' had indeed been the last episode of the show (I'm a sucker for when shows end when they feel like they should have ended) I'm still getting new episodes of one of my favourite shows. Season 6 at the moment is only half way through and therefore it's almost impossible to make any snap judgements so all I can say is that I have no fucking clue where it's all going, which is interesting if slightly worrying at the same time. Season 6 might be slightly muddled, but has still been made enjoyable by the occasional fantastic episode ('Weekend At Bobby's), the usual great performances from Jensen, Jared, Jim and Misha and the fact that the show week-in, week-out puts out a great and interesting take on the Supernatural.

The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead makes it onto this list almost entirely because of the potential it holds to become fantastic. Season 1 seems far more like a prologue to a far more fantastic second season than anything else. Because of it's incredibly short length (only 6 episodes) there wasn't any real room for the show to breathe, it was in those moments in Season 1 that the show was fantastic. Whilst the show does need to work on certain characterisations, overall it's found a very sturdy foundation, especially when it comes to the divergences that it has made from Robert Kirkman's graphic novel series. The Walking Dead has probably the most promise of all the returning shows this year to improve, and it when it does come back in October I know I'll be waiting with bated breathe to see what Frank Darabont and the rest of the team will deliver.

So those were the honourable mentions, feel free to weigh in with any of your own thoughts and be sure to check back over the next few days for Top 10 favourite shows, my favourite episodes and my biggest disappointments of 2010.

Of Doctor Who - A Christmas Carol

I don't think it would surprise anyone to find out that the Doctor Who Christmas Specials are not the episodes that people hold up as their favourites. Really they are meant to be set apart from the rest of the Doctor Who mythos and just be a little stand alone special. The best of these Christmas specials so far has been 'The Christmas Invasion' and that was mostly because it was David Tennant's first episode and had the added benefit of actually being an integral episode. Last year we had 4 specials, but two of those were pretty much normal episodes and the last 2 were saying goodbye to David Tennant. so this year's 'A Christmas Carol' was the first Doctor Who Christmas Special we've had since 'The Next Doctor'. Which leaves with the question as to whether 'A Christmas Carol' was any good.

Well I'm going to answer that very bluntly and say that yes it was, very good in fact. By far the most Christmassy Christmas Special that Doctor Who has done in a long time and also quite possibly the best one. Now I feel I should get it out of the way and point out that of course I may be slightly biased because of my love of Steven Moffat, but really he's just a talented writer and brought all of his skill to this episode.

'A Christmas Carol' focused upon a very loose retelling of the classic Charles Dickens tale, 'A Christmas Carol'. There are still three ghosts, still a Scrooge like character and of course a poor family whom he must go visit, but this being Doctor Who there must be a twist. For starters, the ghosts were all a product of time travel, with the Doctor literally going into the past to influence events back then or taking someone to the future to show them what they will be like when older. 'A Christmas Carol' is such a Christmas classic, that it's no wonder that this story was chosen as the frame work and with the added benefit of already having time involved, Steven Moffat was able to utilise his patented timey wimey manipulation to genius effect.

This was an episode that heavily relied on guest characters, mostly that of Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon as the elder version) and Abigail Pettigrew (Katherine Jenkins). Katherine Jenkins didn't have to do much other than sing but Michael Gambon was great as the torn old man who had to suffer through life knowing he could only spend one more day with the person he loved. Amy and Rory* were involved in ancillary plot line about a spaceship they were honeymooning on crashing into a planet, it was the set-up for the main plot of the episode but they spent most of their time in a little exploding room.

The main plot of the episode focused on Kazran Sardick who had control over the planets weather and could quite easily save all 4,003 people on board the ship but because he's a Scrooge he doesn't want, so the Doctor is forced to go back in time to when he was a child and make him a better person as he grows older (yay timey wimey). Of course this inevitably leads to flying sharks and Kazran falling in love with a woman frozen in his fathers dungeon (not as kinky as it sounds). Kazran and Abigail spend every Christmas Eve together for several years, until eventually it is found out that every day she is let out leads her closer to death. So to save his love Kazran vows not to unfreeze her again as she will die.

Now I've skirted around what will probably be the most controversial element of the episode. The fact that fish on this planet fly around in the sky. Steven Moffat gives the Doctor a moment of incredulity to this but then he goes along with it in his normal enthusiastic sense. And really that's all I needed to go along with. It's Doctor Who, anything can happen so I was there from the beginning. Apart from the part when they went on Shark-led sleigh ride, but really that wasn't enough to pull me out. The fish float around in ice crystals in the sky which resonate at the frequency of singing which is why Abigail becomes so important.

Of course by the end of the episode, the ship has been saved and Amy and Rory are fine. But then we also had the show not shying away from the fact that Abigail will indeed die after this last Christmas Day. But she got that last perfect Christmas with the man that she loved which gave everything just the right tone to end the episode on.

This only scraping the surface of why the episode worked, Amy and Rory in those costumes (who knew they were into that?), The Doctor speaking to both the past and present version of Kazran over the video camera and the normal cornucopia of funny lines that Moffat is able to pen ("There isn't any lottery!"). All I can really say about this episode was that it was tremendously fun. It wasn't dark and heavy, it did exactly what it should have done and offered a light and enjoyable Christmas episode. Something feel-good to be enjoyed by the family. It didn't have to resort to childish humour or contrived plot developments, and that's what made it work. Overall an absolutely fantastic Christmas special. Now who can't wait for the main series in March?

9/10

*Nice to see Arthur Darvill being bumped up to regular now

Of Doctor Who Season 5

It's been a while since Doctor Who season 5 ended and since this years Christmas special airs tomorrow I thought I should get around to reviewing the season that preceded it before actually reviewing that tomorrow. So how was Matt Smith's first year as the Doctor and in turn, Steven Moffat's first year as the lead writer.

Well if you don't already know that Steven Moffat is one of the best writers in the world then really you should learn this little fact. Dude wrote 'Blink' which is proof enough. Overall the last year of Doctor Who continued to show how great a writer Moffat was, even if the episodes not penned by himself rarely held up to his normal brilliance.

But more importantly, how was Matt Smith? Well for starters he was different to David Tennant which was something the show definitely needed. They couldn't have found a guy to replace David Tennat because he was such a fine actor and played his incarnation of the Doctor with such relish and bravado that anyone hired to just replace him would have been awful. Matt Smith's Doctor has rarely had to play the moments of pure drama that David Tennant had to play. That probably came from the change in the writing though but Matt Smith was definitely not playing a carbon copy of David Tennant and for that I'm very thankful.

Of course you cannot speak about the Doctor Who without mentioning his companions. For Season 5 we had Amy Pond played by Karen Gillan. Of course she fulfilled the role of attractive female on the show by Gillan was also immensely likeable and of course added that human element that the Doctor lacks. Amy had to act as our gateway into the series and she did that tremendously well. Then there was the fact that she was the key to the biggest plotline of the season, which hadn't been done before on the show and was again handled very well by Moffat (but of course he is a master writer). Then there was Rory Williams played by Arthur Darvill who whilst not present as often as Amy Pond, was a nice addition to the team in the episodes that he featured in.

But of course the most important thing about Doctor Who is the episodes themselves and how they come together. Doctor Who shows probably the biggest flaw in the idea of having a team of freelance writers in that the writers will occasionally fluctuate so wildly in quality. Occasionally you will have a writer of Steven Moffat's calibre or Paul Cornell but then someone weaker will write the next episode and it'll be leagues worse than the episode that preceded it. So I'm going to separate the Steven Moffat episodes from the others and then say which episodes I enjoyed and which I didn't

The episode I enjoyed least this season was easily 'Victory of the Daleks', I mean this episode was pure wank. It went absolutely nowhere, it failed to have the Daleks as a remotely interesting villain (which honestly they haven't been since Season 1). Yes I enjoyed the look at World War Era Britain and the shows portrayal of Winston Churchill was fun but then was pure shite like the robot scientist who was a bomb but could switch himself off because the Daleks had given him real memories therefore meaning that he could be human as well. I mean fucking seriously? That's how they defuse the bomb, by making a robot believe he is a human. Not a noble sacrifice, not going dark but in the most convoluted and non-nonsensical ways possible. Easily one of the worst episodes the show has ever done.

Other episodes this season such as 'Vampires in Venice' and the Silurian two parter were both good but neither had anything special going on about them. Neither were really integral to the overall story of the season, neither were particularly memorable if I'm completely honest. What they did have going for them was that they were perfectly serviceable little episodes that didn't really anger anyone but didn't exactly do much to make them memorable. Really just average episodes for no fault of their own. What was memorable about the Silurian episodes though was the death of Rory, which was genuinely quite shocking as well as then having Amy forget that her fiancée had ever existed was a bold move on Moffat's part (even if it was undone by the finale, but it didn't feel like the slap in the face that RTD's death fake-outs used to be)

Now we move onto the really very good episodes of the season. 'Amy's Choice' was a very interesting foray into the dream world where things got really quite dark. The characters didn't know which was the dream world and which world was the real world and which was the dream world. Whilst I wasn't a big fan of the reveal of what the Dream Lord was (mostly due to lack of set-up) I enjoyed the sense of peril that the show put the characters and that the show was willing to put them in this place. 'Vincent and the Doctor' was a script written by Richard Curtis and he fit in wonderfully into the world of Doctor Who. It was a story that could only be told on this show featuring an historical figure and based around historical truths whilst mixing in the science fiction element of time travel. Of course it all got a bit weepy at the end, but Curtis does that so well and the episode had been fantastic that I can forgive that little pit of pathos. The episode was also held aloft by a fantastic performance by Tony Curan as Vincent van Gogh and awesome cameo by Bill Nighy. Then there was 'The Lodger', whilst normally these light-hearted episodes can be very hit and miss, 'The Lodger' worked in a very good way. It definitely wasn't one of the shows best episodes ever but for a light-hearted episode it worked very well and had a great James Corden performance.

But what I really want to talk about is Moffat. Moffat began this season by telling the story of the cracks in time, how silence would fall and this all tied into Amy. Whilst not every plot-line was wrapped up, Moffat actually used this season as well a way to tell to a longer narrative. Rather than a buzzword that was just dropped throughout the season, Moffat actually had a lot of the events play into a larger narrative, particularly in the opening of episode 12 'The Pandorica Opens'. Hell he's even spread out one plot line over two seasons showing he has bigger plan and really thinks ahead about the plots of the show.

But what about the episodes he wrote? Well 'The Eleventh Hour' acted as our introduction to the new Doctor and companion and was one of the best seasons openers that the new Doctor Who has had. Over the course of this first hour I got a really good picture of who this new Doctor was as well as the character of Amy. Plus it was fast paced and very fun. Sadly the second episode of the season, 'The Beast Below' was nowhere near as strong and is quite definitely the worst episode of Doctor Who that Moffat has ever written. Whilst it wasn't bad it just suffered from maybe being a little too ambitious and not coming together in a wholly satisfying way.

Now we get to the good parts however, with Moffat's two two-parters of the season, 'The Time of Angels'/'Flesh and Stone' and 'The Pandorica Opens'/'The Big Bang'. Holy fuck were these episodes amazing. The first of the two parters focused upon the return of the villains from the single best hour that the new Doctor Who has made, 'Blink'. Yup the Weeping Angels were back and they were just as creepy as ever. Just the idea of constantly having to look at something or it will devour is so creepy, like taking a fear of the dark to a whole other level. Not only that but River Song (Alex Kingston) returned to start paying off one of the most intriguing elements of Season 4. The Angels two-parter was so well done and is the only that the first two-parter of a Doctor Who season was in actually fact the better. So that left the finale and what Moffat would deliver there. Well he delivered and he delivered big. There was his trade mark time-wimey manipulation, shocking deaths, the return of pretty much every villain of the series (if only for a second), amazingly dark turns and hugely witty dialogue ("It's a fez, I wear a fez now"). If I'm honest I'm still finding it difficult to process just how good that finale was. If anything it cemented just how much of a genius Steven Moffat is, especially as he had begun seeding elements of the finale way back 'Flesh and Stone' in a small conversation between Amy and the Doctor.

Season 5 of Doctor Who suffered from many of the same things that Doctor Who had previously suffered from in that it is almost impossible to keep a sustained level of quality throughout an entire season because of the change in writers. Luckily the highs (particularly those written by the now ubiquitous Steven Moffat) looks so much better in hindsight. Yes 'Victor of the Daleks' was still utterly wank, and many of the other episodes were just average, but I look back on Steven Moffat's two-parters and am astounded by the level of creativity those episodes hold. If I were able to judge based on those episodes alone this season of Doctor Who would be my favourite yet but sadly I can't so the fifth season of Doctor Who has to settle for an:

8/10

Of Doctor Who - The End of Time

Well I promised it weeks ago so lets get rolling with my review of David Tennant's final episode(s) on Doctor Who. However whilst it was indeed David Tennant's last episode, it also worked out to be Russel T. Davies' as well. Luckily Davies realised it was David's last episode and so instead of managing to fuck up by doing an epic sci-fi story which he is incapable of writing, he went for his strong suit of a character driven story. Whilst I had some complaints with how the story was wrapped, the strong performances and emotional moments definitely made this one of the stronger finale episodes that Doctor Who has aired since it came back in 2005.

It would seem that Doctor Who finale's were getting progressively worse Series 1 and 2 were fantastic (apart from the ease with which the Daleks were defeated in Series 2). Series 3 managed to screw up by focusing on Martha, turning Tennant into Gollum and a very stupid "I believe in fairies" ending, luckily John Simm made up for this. But Series 4 is almost offensive. Whilst the build up episode "The Stolen Earth" is brilliant in it's build-up, dark and emotional moments as well as fan service. Sadly this all comes crashing down when Davies' was unable to create a satisfying moment for his characters, plots and worst of all, showed his incapability to kill of his characters. This might seem a little sore but I still feel if you promise "someone will die" you deliver. Having your brain wiped and unable to remember your life with the Doctor isn't a fate worse than death, you're with the people you love and still have decades left to live. Oh and the stupidity of spinning Daleks

So what sort of ending did Davies go for this time? Well oddly he almost went backwards in terms of how these episodes work. Normally the first half is a lot stronger. Just look at 'The Sound of Drums' and 'The Stolen Earth', both are two of the strongest episodes that Doctor Who has produced, but sadly the payoff doesn't meet the buildup. In 'The End of Time' this almost worked backwards. The first half was very choppy, cohesiveness and the only part that kept it together was the strength of the three main performances. It felt like we were being spread too thin, across too many stories rather than what should have been a very personal story just about the Doctor and his rival, the Master. However we got all sorts of almost tangential and odd stories. It was still decent but that first half definitely felt more about what was going on elsewhere apart from with David Tennant (whilst I thought John Simm was superb, it can be argued he was given a bit too much to do).

Well as by now we all know The Time Lords came back in the second half. However most of the episode was spent by them trying to get to earth. In fact most of the episode is spent creating as much distance between the different characters until the ultimate showdown which occurred about 40 minutes into the episode. The Doctor was on a spaceship, The Master had literally taken over the world and crafted it in his visage and The Time Lords were still in the time lock of the Time War. So we spent most of the episode building up to an epic conclusion, a war between the Time Lords and The End of Time.

Sadly the buildup was dissipated in about 10 minutes. It takes 40 minutes for The Time Lords to reach earth and 5 for them to be defeated. It's like the Daleks. They need to be used sparingly and if you want them to maintain some kind of fear, they need to be able to almost win but ultimately have victory taken away by the quick witted hero. But here The Time Lords show almost no strength. Nothing is damaged by The Time Lords arrival. We're told Earth's orbit will be knocked out place but The Doctor stops that very quickly. The closest we get to being scarred by the villains in this episode is The Master transforming the whole world into him. But even that is reversed within the first few seconds of The Time Lords arrival to show their strength. But The Doctor defeats them so quickly that you wonder how he had any trouble against The Master.

Ultimately the threat is destroyed by The Master doing something good by sacrificing himself (unless a future writer wants to bring him back) to defeat The Time Lords and send them back into the Time War. Following this is where the truly great portion of the episode lies.

Before this point the episode is decent. It isn't brilliant, plotting issues aside it's enjoyable. Again the performances are stellar. But it's about 50 minutes in that the episode turns round and does what Davies is talented at. Intimate character moments. One of my favourite episodes from Series 4 is 'Midnight'. It was written by Davies and almost all the action takes place on one set. There's very little CGI and it relies entirely on psychological horror and acting. It's great because it relies on strong characters and their interaction. There's nothing epic, just personal moments which is what I would have preferred David Tennant's last episode to be.

Luckily a good 20 minutes was this small scale intimate idea. First off the perfection of the reveal of what the 'He will knock four times' prophecy is. It wasn't the Master's heartbeat. First we get the Doctor celebrating victory and not having died but then Wilf knocks on the door of the radiation chamber. Just the look on David Tennant's face shows he realises and how upset he is. We all knew Wilf was there for a reason and ultimately he's the bringer of the Doctor's death. David Tennat and Bernard Cribbins act their socks off in the following scene. It's emotional and even though the Doctor contemplates leaving Wilf to die, you know he won't He needs to save people, even it's just one person. So he saves Wilf and ends up sentencing himself to death. It's a powerful moment and I really can't say enough about how perfectly David Tennat and Bernard Cribbins act it out. It's scenes like this that make me realise how much Matt Smith will have to live up to. Christopher Eccleston was great but David Tennant was transcendent. It's fitting he's the first Doctor to have his death be built up to, he was just that good.*

So what follows is an epilogue. It's much like Series 2 where we spent time afterwards just to say goodbye to Rose and family. But this time we were saying goodbye to everyone. Mickey and Martha, now married and fighting aliens. Sarah Jane still having adventures with her son, Luke. Captain Jack looking around space for what he lost during the last Series of Torchwood but also getting a new beau in the form of Alonso from 'Voyage of the Damned'. We find Donna on her wedding day where we say goodbye to Wilf and he gifts her a (presumably winning) lottery ticket. Then finally Rose Tyler. She might be in the alternate reality with the Other Doctor but we find her about 4 months before she boards the TARDIS for the first time. It was a great little cyclical moment ending RTD run on the series saying goodbye to all the characters he created.

Again David Tennant is just superb but of course we need to say goodbye once and for all, so we get the regeneration. Those last few seconds where he says he doesn't want to go, the exploding TARDIS in space. It's a truly emotional goodbye to someone who has just owned his character for the 4 years he's portrayed him. But that's the nature of Doctor Who. A truly revolving cast and new writers. So now we get to see where Mr. Moffat is going to take us in a couple of months.

So in conclusion whilst I wasn't a fan of Mr. Davies attempt at doing an epic sci-fi story it was still buoyed by great performances by David Tennant, John Simm, Bernard Cribbins and Timothy Dalton (if only he'd been used more). Luckily the last 20 minutes more than make up for all my problems. It was still a satisfying story with some great performances and emotional goodbyes. Really this episode was all about David Tennant saying goodbye and that was done in spades. If the rest of the episode had been as good as his performance this would have been an easy 10. Sadly it wasn't so 'The End of Time' ends up with an

8.5/10

*However next time I wouldn't mind if it was a total surprise. Have Matt Smith die in the middle of a series or something. Make sure it doesn't leak to The Sun or leak so much crap that it comes as a real mind fuck. Don't do it in the next two series though. Just do something to shock the audience and take us back to classic Who stories. I wanted Doctor Who to surprise me now and if any writer can do that it'll be Stephen Moffat.

First Impressions - Doctor Who - The End of Time

This is only a first impressions post because it's the first two parts and in all honestly this will either be the best thing ever or come crashing down on itself next week. So let's get this underway.

What was good? Well first the obvious parts, David Tennant and John Simm proved that they are two of the best British actors currently and practically any scene with one or both of these actors was mesmerizing (particularly those with both). It's going to be a shame when Tennant leaves, whilst I'm sure the writing will be a lot stronger, we'll be losing one the most talented actors in the world. Depending on how next week plays out, John Simm could actually return in the Matt Smith years, but David Tennant would be relegated to the " 'X number' of Doctors" episodes, which they haven't actually done as a whole episode yet, only the short 'Time Crash' (written by Steven Moffat, so who knows).

However yes these two actors just completely dominated this episode. John Simm particularly, playing almost a complete 180 of the Master he portrayed two years ago. However he was still fantastic and next week with him being around a lot more is just even more enticing. Honestly I do hope that someone has the bright idea to create a show with these two as the lead actors. Maybe a showcase idea where they portray different characters and tell a different story every week or if they wanted series. It would be an amazing showcase for writing and these actors. Just an idea, but its something I'd love to see, especially with actors who have such incredible chemistry on screen (much like Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn do on Lost)

We got RTD normal set up here, whilst I wasn't as pumped as I was a year and a half ago at the end of the Stolen Earth, I honestly can't wait till next week. I will say maybe that's a good thing, this ending felt a lot less epic than last years so would apparently take less to wrap up. Yes the Time Lords are back, but this feels a lot more intimate, with only about 5 characters they could focus on next week, it's a lot better than last years massive cast of character each having to have their own beat. Plus the promise we have for next week is that David Tennant is going to die and we ALL know that's going to happen. RTD can't pussy out like with Billie Piper and Catherine Tate so we will see a proper death (as far as any Time Lord death can be 'proper'). However I feel if he were given the choice some crazy plot-hole would mean David Tennant could stick around (hell he could what with the Other Doctor existing in the parallel world).

Alright other good things? Bernard Cribbens was great but sadly didn't get as much to chew on as John Simm despite being the announced Companion for this two-parter. It is odd that John Simm's involvement was quieted for quite a while (at least as quiet as it can get in this age of spoilers) and yet he has such a massive part within these episodes. I'm glad for it, but you'd think they'd have made a bigger deal of it.

Time Lords coming back was the next logical step for RTD so not massively surprising, however turning the whole world into John Simm was. I have no clue how that will get wrapped up but still I'm intrigued. I've seen all the making of footage for this and listened to the commentary and I have to say how much of a bloody good sport John Simm was to go through so many costume changes for his scenes at the end. Plus I'm surprised to say that all the clothes actually suited him, even the women's.

It wasn't the best set up episode RTD has done, but it felt right. He doesn't have as many loose threads as he has in the past so hopefully he can pull it all together. At the moment whether it's going to more like the Series 1 end or the Series 2 end. Whilst both were great goodbyes, Series 2 suffered with the Daleks being wiped out far too easily. So I'm hoping for more of Series 1 ending, even if that was the last time we had a regeneration and I see David Tennant getting one last meaty scene to chew on as he regenerates. But I can't honestly say.

My main complaints are just normal RTDisms. Such as the stupid campy humour, such as the Silver Cloak with obligatory gay member. I'd braced myself for that because they released all those scenes to the public so it wasn't too bad. However I cannot forgive the music playing during the alien scenes. It was completely wrong and I'm upset because it really costed Murray Gold of his normally impeccable scoring. But those are just niggles and the camp bit came with the territory. However I can say John Simm camp humour I can live with, him in dresses h actually pretty cool (his dance in 'Last of the Time Lords' was pushing it though). So I think it mostly just depends on when the camp humour is used (last year taught us to never do it with the Daleks).

However the episode was quite disjointed. It darted all over the place in terms of setup and whilst I enjoyed the performances (for some reason I've found people who disliked John Simm's performance) I can't say the story was the most satisfying. As I said it worked perfectly well as set up but was definitely one of RTD weaker set up storylines. I can't believe I'm actually somewhat defending a man who's probably going to fuck up everything next week, but this episode felt like he had a lot of ideas he wanted to get down on paper in time for the second part and I hope beyond hope it works.

If I were to rate the episode so far I'd say about an 8 out of 1o. But as I said it all rests on next Friday's episode. Let's see how the joint villains of John Simm and Timothy Dalton are able to kill everyones favourite Time Lord. Hell even if it sucks I've got Series 5 to look forward to with Steven Moffat taking over as writer.

Of Doctor Who - The Waters of Mars

I'm incredibly sorry for posting this so late, but honestly I've been really very busy, at least too busy to blog. I promised this weeks ago along with my thoughts on Muse. All I'll say about that is that was a fantastic night out, awesome set list (although a bit too much Resistance) and a superb light show. If you do ever get a chance to go see Muse ever, I would heartily recommend you do so as not only are they one of the best bands in the world, but also one of the best live bands in the world.

But anyways, on with my review of The Waters of Mars. Waters of Mars was one of the previously announced Doctor Who specials that we would get in place of a real season of Doctor Who this year. I gave Planet of the Dead a very positive review a few months ago (maybe a little bit too positive, but I really enjoyed it even if no one else did) and I'm going to do the same here. This review is going to be very short and sweet and I'm not going to delve into a lot of areas that I might normally do. If you've read any of my previous Doctor Who reviews then you know that David Tennant is absolutely superb and there's no need to reiterate that here. I will be doing say come new years which might devolve into more of David Tennant memorandum consider it will be his last foray as the Doctor*

So instead this review is going to focus on one thing. Russel T. Davies. I have a love/hate relationship for this man. He has shepherded this new Doctor Who since the beginning and has written some amazing episodes. He picked the actors and has done some incredible character moments. However he's also proven an incredible lack of ability at writing science fiction beats, relying quite frequently on dues ex machina type endings, particularly the finale to Season 4. The man has done a lot to help this series but also harmed with an overabundance of campy, kiddie humour and cop out endings. It's making me incredibly excited to think what Stephen Moffat will do when he takes over next spring, but on some level I will be upset to see RTD leave the show.

This episode was pretty much a showcase for RTD best and worst talents. Luckily the good out weighed the bad by a lot but there still existed a lot of quite annoying points about this episode. Firstly we had the robot. This was probably my biggest complaint about the episode. It was stupid and kiddie. Whilst it was arguably necessary for the conclusion, there was no reason for it to be so goddamn annoying or the weird inter-cutting of the guy controlling it being electrocuted. I should have known it would be bad when it was described as a 'cute robot sidekick, because kids love robots!' It was just stupid. It wasn't cute. TV and movies have done little cute sidekicks frequently before but this robot wasn't interesting at all. It didn't have any personality which was probably its biggest flaw and the scene where it is made to go super fast was awful. However that did save us from the awful running sequences. Whilst we got some funny jokes with the Doctor asking for little fold away bicycles, so much of the time was taken up by running sequences that it go a little tedious. For a time period where we had lasers and a space station on Mars (both of which could be possible by 2059 IaSg14) we for some reason don't have a transportation system between different sectors of the base? Seriously, if you want to make a joke RTD at least ground it in reality and not make the audience have to take massive leaps of faith.

Now the good stuff. It was character based and not really sci-fi based. Just like Season 4's 'Midnight' (also written by RTD) we had something alien causing commotion but the reactions were human and grounded. That's what made Battlestar Galactica work so well and it did so here. Whilst Doctor Who will never touch BSG in terms of darkness just due to when and where it airs, it was nice to see something that whilst not believable was grounded in reality. The situation was significantly harrowing with the crew being whittled down until we didn't know who would survive. There were some nice hero and sacrificial moments (guy in rocket ship which annoying at first was a sufficiently awesome death scene) as well as the emotional points where some of the lesser crew members who we haven't actually spent time with get water on them and we know they're done. It made you feel for them because they had personality, if only a little. Although it was weird to see the two least developed characters ultimately surviving.

Then we have Adelaide played by Lindsay Duncan. She was great and was the main focal point of the story. The fact is that her death is a fixed point in time and if she doesn't die then the universe would completely change as it is her death which brings about contact with the outside universe. This is where we get a really interested moral quandary on the behalf of the Doctor. He knows she must die and wants to stay uninvolved from this in order to keep time under wraps (he is a Time Lord after all) however he comes around and decides to save all of the people he can on the station. Ultimately he saves three, including Adelaide but also tells her that she is meant to die or else all the good things brought by her death won't come about. This leads to one of the most powerful scenes Doctor Who has ever done.

Adelaide confronts the Doctor after he saves her and tells him how no man should wield the power to change time (all of this wonderfully grounded by David Tennant seemingly manic power rush from this event**) and eventually concludes with Adelaide deciding to take this into her own hands. So we get the darkest moment that Doctor Who has ever done and even rivals the superb scene in Torchwood from earlier this year. A companion literally kills herself. It was dark and well done and almost seemed like RTD had learned something from writing Torchwood that sometimes going a little dark is a good thing. It was necessary to sort out the timeline and show how power mad the Doctor had gone and whilst I've read complaints about that scene all I can do is applaud RTD for doing it. It was utterly fantastic and rounded off a great episode of Doctor Who.

Overall, this was a great special. Whilst a silly first 10 minutes drag this episode down a little, the rest is dark and dramatic with real tension and characters we can care for even with very little screen time. Overall this has probably been my favourite special that Doctor Who has done, including David Tennant's first Christmas Special and the dark turn towards the end to wrap up the story was the icing on the cake. I can't wait to see what Christmas will bring and am on tender hooks for Stephen Moffat's run. Lets just hope that RTD doesn't cock David Tennat's swan song.

9/10

*just as a note, I want to know if I should review the Christmas/New Year specials as a whole or two separate reviews. Considering they're a two parter I'm slightly torn and wondering whether I'll have a enough to say to pad out two reviews of what is essentially one story.

**goddamn it, I said I wouldn't do that

Of Doctor Who - Planet of the Dead

If that is the continued quality of Doctor Who this year, I am going to be very happy. It wasn't as amazing as the show can be, but really the show only is that good when Steven Moffat is writing, which he won't be until next year. But for a special episode, especially one penned by Russel T. Davies it was damn good.

So what worked? Well for starters there wasn't any crappy humour. Or at least nothing as insulting as the "spinning Daleks" from last year, that was just shit. I hasve to say the funniest moments were definitely Lee Evans', he completely owned it on the humour side, even making references to Quatermass. Lee Evans is definitely a very funny man and whilst this wasn't exactly what his stand-up is like but he's shown himself to be a funny actor in stuff like Fifth Element and was definitely a welcome element to the plot. Espcially with his overreacting to The Doctor, I chuckled quite a bit at all of his scenes.

However the best thing about the episode was the fact that it worked as an single episode but also set up the other specials. There wasn't anything really lining it up to the future episodes apart from a few lines near the end and there wasn't a deus ex machina ending. The episode completely delivered on everything it promised. It didn't rely on anything that wasn't introduced previously or was just lightly touched upon. In fact the main crux of the episode was getting what they needed to escape. It wasn't like the Season 2 finale where something he picks up briefly in the first part goes on to save the day.

I'm going to say it straight off, I enjoyed it immensely. It was probably the best special the show has done since the David Tennant regenerated. I want to say this was partly because Michelle Ryan was extremely enjoyable as Lady Christina. Whilst she wasn't quite the humourous part that was Lee Evans, but still in terms of companions she was a lot of fun. Especially because what was seen in the first scene in quite a big set piece came back in a big way. It was hinted at throughout the episode that was important and it was.

I can't stress it enough, this episode was plotted exceedingly well. There wasn't really a wasted moment. Everything was needed. Whilst there were some moments that were aimed at kids it wasn't that awful campy humour, it was genuinely fun stuff, like the flying bus. Plus there were some worrying moments. These specials normally come with more deaths, this one only had three but the guy who burned up to a skeleton was definitely shocking in that it was barely past seven and would definitely scare the little kiddies.

Overall the episode was great. It's what Doctor Who needs to be this year. We've only got three episodes till the end of David Tennant's run and this set them off in the right direction. I'm going to delve more into David Tennant's performance in the later specials, but suffice to say he was as excellent as he never fails to be. The story for this special was tight and Lee Evans and Michelle Ryan were very enjoyable companions for the episode and I'm genuinely excited to see where the show goes from here. The next episode is called "The Waters of Mars" which seems to be Sunshine but with water and not sunlight so colour me intrigued. But for now Planet of the Dead gets a very high 8/10

BBC is doing some good stuff!!!!

Woo, I've just read that starting March 30th BBC2 is going to start airing ...*drumroll*..... THE WIRE!!!!! Yes you read that right!!!! The Wire is showing again on FX on Monday nights but BBC2 reaches so many more people and it's free which means that honestly you have no excuse to watch it. Plus the fact that its on during the Easter holidays means that people don't need to go to school the next day (plus who revises at night). This absolutely fantastic news and I'm going to be doing my best to force as many people as I can to watch. (NB if you do get convinced don't give up after one episode, give it at least the first six and you'll be hooked).

Secondly BBC4 is going start airing Newswipe on March 25th at 10:30, so now we get Charlie Brooker's sardonic wit to talk to us about the news as well as television, that is just made of WIN!!!! Also Charlie is a fan of the Wire so there's a link between those two. Oh and You've Been Watching a panel show also hosted by Brooker starts on Channel 4 very soon another awesome announcement.

Finally something I'm not 100% sure about. Who remembers last years Doctor Who finale? Yeah it was awful partly because of its bloated nature and Russel T. Davies uncanny ability to piss all over a good thing. Well guess what. He's having another go!!! Yes Martha is back (because Freema just loves doing anything attached to the Doctor Who name) as are Rose (HOW!?!?!) and Donna (AGAIN HOW?!?!?!). This is the regeneration story which will be airing sometime next year or possibly New Years as we have the first special in a few weeks followed by the next one at Christmas. Unless they're going to hold back this final two part special until next Spring, they're going to air it over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Whilst the return of Rose and Donna is going to take a lot of explaining, one thing which many people will be happy to hear is that John Simm's Master will be back in these episodes. Something I'm sure IasG14 will be very happy to hear. I hope that Davies can give us a good explanation as to why Rose can be back in the Doctor's dimension and why Donna's head won't explode but I'm not going to keep my hopes up. In slightly more hopeful news, during Steven Moffat's tenure the TARDIS will be redesigned and Cassie from Skins may become the new companion. Here's to the future of Who.

Of the Eleventh Doctor

Well here we are, the unveiling of the new Doctor. So the new Doctor is...Matt Smith. He really hasn't done much however he's acted with Billie Piper in Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow of the North. However I've never seen him act....seriously I don't know what to think. He's done drama before as he was a lead character in Party Animals (didn't see) and was also in this years In Bruges.

I'm seriously going to have to check him out.

Good luck to you mate, I had no clue you David Tennant was when he was cast and he turned out brilliantly, so hopefully so will you.

Of Doctor Who - The Next Doctor

Another year, another Doctor Who Christmas Special. Now I've never been a massive fan of the Christmas Specials. Whilst the first one was a great introduction to David Tennant (and I mean that). Catherine Tate at the end of Season 2 almost ruined the finale and Rose's exit (it took Mr. Davies another two years to succeed at that). Both the Voyage of the Damned and Runaway Bride seemed to just lack something that put them at the high end of Doctor Who episodes (and I mean stuff like Blink). They're decent Christmas specials but never pop in the way the best of Who does. So what about this year? Does the lack of a proper companion, Cybermen and an interesting title make for a great episode?

Sadly no. It makes for a good episode with some quite frankly stunning CGI for a British television show, but not a great episode. Something which I've been praying for since that dismal Season 4 finale. I had the same problem with this episode that I do with all the Christmas specials, it just doesn't feel right. I don't know why, but they don't. It's not because they include deus ex machina endings like the finales do (although they do introduce a plot point which towards the end so that something emotional can happen which I've never liked). Last year all of a sudden Kylie drives a forklift truck into the villain and dies to pull at our heart strings as she fades away (I didn't come close to liking her in that special, she was nice but I didn't feel for her). This the son plot point is brought up and wrapped up too quickly. I don't know why it bugs me, but it does. Also the CGI in that scene was appalling, especially when compared to the giant robot scenes (yes I did say giant robot).

Now the story of the Christmas special wasn't bad at all, the story was interesting and it tied up a lose end of what happened to the Cybermen during the events of the Season 4 finale (it also means that *groan* the Daleks can come back through the same plot hole). Plus the story made sense, the only even remotely annoying thing was the introduction of the son and even that was set up to happen (although oddly convenient he was the only child too scared to move despite being in there the longest. All the stuff that was used to take down the Cybermen in the end was set up wonderfully. My one sticking point is apparently being hit by a belt full of infostamps has far less effect than being hit by just one which cause David Morrissey to think he was David Tennant's reincarnation and kill three Cybermen at the same time. Yes I know she blew up but it's only said that that was because "her mind was open and she could see the Cybermen for what they were". Still the giant robot was cool.

I've briefly mentioned David Morrissey and I can safely say that they have wasted him. He was great in this episode (although I did think that he didn't have a lot to do). He was one of the front runners to take over for Tennant and now he can't be unless they make up some bullshit with sciencey talk about how "people who make a large impact on our lives can effect our regeneration" but then why not Billie Piper? or even John Simm? If you ask me they've shot themselves in the foot there, but knowing political correctness at the moment they're probably going to have a black Doctor (in which case it had better be Chiwtel Eijiofor) or a female Doctor (which will take an awful lot of explaining). David Morrissey would have been perfect. Bah.

Alright the Christmas Special was decent but like Wallace and Gromit failed to reach some lofty expectations (less lofty than Wallace and Gromit, especially after the Season 4 finale). Compared to the previous Christmas Specials it was par for the course, but in terms of overall Who, a disappointment. 7/10

Of David Tennant Leaving Doctor Who

Thought this was pretty big news.

David Tennant has announced his decision to quit Doctor Who at the end of 2009.

The actor confirmed the news while collecting the award for 'Outstanding Drama Performance' at the National Television Awards.

"In January I go back to make four new specials which take Doctor Who through to the end of 2009," he said. "But when Doctor Who returns in 2010, it won't be with me. The 2009 shows will be my last playing the Doctor."

Tennant added: "If I don't take a deep breath now and move on, I never will. I think it's best I don't outstay my welcome."

Source

Of Doctor Who Season 4.....and why the Finale Sucked

Welcome to a trilogy of blog posts. They won't be related but it will be three posts in three days. Yay.

I start of this epic trilogy with a rant. Doctor Who season 4 was great. It had some amazing episodes (unsurprisingly Steven Moffat's episodes "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead" spring to mind straight away.) However my favourite episode of season 4 would have to be "The Stolen Earth." Yup Russell T. Davies wrote a cracking episode here. He once again proved that whilst he can write fantastic episodes about characters. Every single pre-finale episode has been superb and near perfect. And this year he outdid himself.
Whilst it was only a set up it was still fantastic setup. RTD shows the strength of all the characters that have been built up over four years of the new Doctor Who as well as two years of Torchwood and one of Sarah Jane Adventures. He also proves that Daleks can be scary. I got serious chills when they blew up that house. Yes it was silly how the Dalek came round the corner and shot the Doctor before he met Rose. I mean really Russell that could have been an awesome scene. Tears, a reunion, Donna getting jealous of these two people who obviously love each other. Ahh yes it would have been awesome. However we did get Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, Martha and surprise appearance from Harriet Jones (one of the best deaths ever btw).

Now I’m gonna preface what I’m about to say about “Journey’s End” by saying it wasn’t my least favourite episode of Season 4 (“Unicorn and the Wasp” I’m looking at you) it was merely a lacklustre finale.

Firstly RTD, please kill of you’re characters. It is three times you’ve backed out of killing a character. Season 1 it was a nice surprise with Jack coming back to life. Season 2 we were expecting Rose to die instead she didn’t but we were treated to heart breaking scene between Billie Piper and David Tennant. Now in season 4 where Donna is supposed to die I want her to die. Not because she’s not a good character, because she was, she was great, it’s just you can’t say “so and so is going to die” and then not deliver. Instead we got a cop out with “her mind has been wiped meaning that the Donna who was no longer exists.” I’m sorry but no. Donna is supposed so why isn’t she dead. We don’t want this bullshit so that she can come back in Season 11 when some writer gets writers block and thinks “lets bring her back through some convenient plot development”.

Secondly RTD can’t write a good conclusion for a sci-fi story. Three years in a row there’s been a Deus Ex Machina ending to end the story. Millions of Daleks killed in seconds. The Master ended by “I believe in Fairies clapping” and now Doctor Donna. In fact Season 4 had at least four possible endings with the Osterhagen Key and Sarah Jane’s necklace. Yes if we actually got some development of these stories they may have felt more influenced. Instead RTD felt more constrained in this feature length episode than normal.

Thirdly RTD YOU FUCKED UP ONE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SCENES OF TELEVSION EVER!!!!! Tennant and Piper were superb in that scene at the end of season 2. Now you decide to revisit and piss away all poignancy in it. Doctor and Rose were brilliant together because it was heartbreaking to know that they could never be together but now you give a human Doctor to give Rose a happy ending. It’s not what was needed. You should have just left fans with the wonderfully constructed scene.

Finally and most significantly camp humour. Get rid of it. Yes it appeals to the kiddies but watching all the companions wheel Daleks, the scariest thing the universe, around a room destroys any future hope of them scaring children again. Also “the TARDIS was built for six”? Just no.

Now the finale wasn’t a complete failure. As always David Tennant was superb as were everyone else. The special effects were good. It’s just RTD can’t write a satisfying science fiction conclusion to save his life. So whilst I’m anticipating his specials next year as long as he focuses on characters and not sci-fi. But I want season 5 even more because Steven Moffat is the true Doctor Who master. Blink is still one of my favourite episodes of television ever and I can’t wait to see what he does with about 4 or 5 episodes a year.

Now this seems to be mostly a critique of the final two episodes but that’s because that is where Season 4 was made and lost. The penultimate five episodes of season 4 were all fantastic with a load of good episodes before (in fact every episode was good apart from the “Unicorn and the Wasp”). “Partners in Crime” blew my mind with that Rose reveal. That is one of the best kept secrets ever. Every other episode was good, with Catherine Tate and David Tennant being superb throughout. It was just the lacklustre finale that let it down.

Overall I would give Doctor Who Season 4 an 7/10. With a better finale it could have easily got a 8 but RTD cocked up

Now other news. Tomorrow an oft delayed post on Lost and the day after tomorrow a post on Screenwipe. Also look forward to my thoughts on many TV premieres for the TV season as well as book, movie and music reviews. And hopefully some ramblings straight from head (including one on why swearing isn’t wrong).