TV Round Up - 2009 / 2010 Summary

With the current 2009/2010 season of U.S. television coming to an end, I'd thought I'd look back to see where the state of the industry currently stands. With classics like 24 and Lost finishing their highly successful runs (neither included here) and with critics hailing modern TV as being in a golden era thanks to the likes of The Sopranos, West Wing, The Wire and ER..the big question is...are we still in a golden age.

So in reverse order:-

14/ FlashForward - An interesting premise but which didn't have enough disparate elements to it's mystery (like Lost had) to keep an audience glued in the long run. Plus, the dullest ensemble assembled for a major network drama. Only Dominic Monaghan had the capability to turn his character into something memorable.
Even the season finale was as predictable as tap water.

13/ Star Wars - The Clone Wars. A disappointing second season from Mr Lucas. The epic three-part war stories are still magnificent, but there's been too much fannying around with lesser characters like bounty hunters, droids, politicians and second tier Jedi doing lots of dull scheming to excel like the show did last year. But it's still the best looking kids animated TV show ever produced.

12/ V. This remake of the classic 80's mini series is substandard in virtually every way...the effects included. Like FlashForward, the cast are spectacularly dull...especially compared with the likes of Marc Singer and Michael Ironside. And the changes they've made to the story structure to accommodate a long running network show only serve to make the story less compelling. Only the stunning, but ruthlessly cold Morena Bacarrin deserves credit here. If this doesn't improve, it will be going to the recycle bin for bad tele.

11/ American Dad. The least successfully (and by that I mean least consistently funny) of Seth MaFarlane's network animation comedies. But with assholes character like Stan and Roger still going strong, it's still required viewing.

10/ Dollhouse. Joss Whedon's science fiction show took it's time to establish both a consistent tone and format, but eventually did so with style. Perhaps the most intelligent of Whedon's work to date, it was occasionally a little too dense and talky for it's own good, lacking the trademark wit for a more serious thriller show.
But original and daring were part of it's make up which was remarkable for a FOX network show.

9/ Real Time With Bill Maher. If you want to see what's going on politically in the USA, and want to see a frank, open discussion about it, look no further than Real Time. Maher's a bit set in his opinions, and his stand up delivery's a little smug, but the debates with politicians, journalists and celebs are fascinating. The Daily Show gently mocks the establishment. Maher rips it down and stomps on it's head.

8/ The Cleveland Show. The new spin off from Family Guy might have been an off-shoot too far, but it's an improvement over American Dad. The new characters are great, particularly wise ass toddler Rollo and next door neighbour/grizzly bear Tim, and Cleveland's character itself has been allowed to expand.

7/ Caprica. Still only half way through its first season, with the remain nine episodes to be shown in the autumn, the Battlestar Galactica spin-off practical taunts the hosting SyFy channel to take it off the air. Why? It's ultra intelligent, hard school science fiction, deadly serious in tone, with stupidly high production standards and a cast with gravitas and a half.

6/ Stargate Universe. I've watched this in the hope that series lead Robert Carlyle could add some class to the ultra-brainless Stargate franchise. He has. Take Star Trek: Voyager, mix in some of the Stargate mythos (while cleverly leaving the bulk of the confusing back story out of the picture)...all presented in the style of Battlestar. The cast are better than average, the plots very rarely involve aliens...instead coming from the drama of being trapped far from home. And unlike Trek...the characters seldom trust each other making unpredictability the norm. Surprisingly good.

5/ Family Guy. The original and still the best. Sharper, more cutting and braver than it's sister shows, Family Guy rules. Peter Griffin is still perhaps one of the greatest sitcom characters of all time backed up by gags that have been absorbed into the culture..."Roadhouse!"

4/ 30 Rock. I've only discovered this sitcom this year (now in it's forth season, but it's the best live action half hour comedy I've seen since Friends finished. The stupid off-beat humour is straight out of Family Guy, the references are topical and geeky and the performances at once both very silly and realistically grounded. And star Tina Fey is a nerdy, loser genius.

3/ Spartacus: Blood & Sand. There's never been anything like this on TV ever, not only in terms of it's weekly gladiator training drama, but in it's outrageously over the top production style, violence, nudity, swearing and sex. By Jupiter's Cock, the most original show of the season.

2/ Castle. Not as deep or as dramatic as many of the shows on the list, Castle is definitely the most fun. Never mind the weekly whodunit plots, it's the character interactions of The Fillion (who should be in everything, trade mark) with the composed but sophisticated Stana Katic and his off-beat (but adorable) family. Funny too.

1/ Fringe. Season 2 has developed not only the greater series over-arcing plot (of a war with a parallel dimension Earth) but the central trio of Olivia, Peter and Walter and their relationships. The weekly, X-Files style story lines are still fresh, it's delivered with considerable style and they're not frightened to take the odd risk (eighties themed and musical tinged episodes this year). Ending with a great cliffhanger, Fringe is the one great hope we have left in the absence of Lost and 24.

A solid line up then, but not a golden age collection of TV. There's nothing in the Fall line up that suggests there's any more 'classic' stuff on the way, with the exception maybe off the JJ Abrams Undercovers. Outside of that, it's a game of wait and see.