TV of 2014

(Yeah, I'm still catching up on stuff)

The general tone of last year was a little sedentary - we got Virgin Media in late January, and I spent a fair amount of time with it on in the background while at the computer. I think I'll do less of that this year, but I don't regret it at all.

Adventure Time: The list's alphabetical, but this is still the best - 10 minutes of candy and surrealism and occasional feels. They're shown in what appears to be 2-3 random episode chunks on Cartoon Channel, so my TiVo still picks up about 20 of them per week, and I'll always end up watching some of them over and over (I Remember You in particular, where there is generally something in my eye). This is the funniest and most inventive thing I've seen all year.


Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: This is solid background TV, a covert team trying to make sense of a world where superpowers exist, and are being weaponised by various nefarious organisations, who may or may not have infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. There are twists, there are counter-twists, there are feelings and explosions.


A Touch Of Cloth: I begrudgingly took this on, I've not been an enormous fan of Charlie Brooker's output - but it's great! If any of you remember Police Squad, the TV series that became The Naked Gun, this is that, but for Shouty UK Police Miniserieses. It is the sort of script where Julian Rhind-Tutt's none-more-posh Max Boss gets a lot of joy out of interrupting John Hannah's Jack Cloth for re-emphasis: "By now she could be half way to Monterey" "Aye sir, but.." "Monterey, Jack!". It's one 'failing' is that it's not great background TV, because, like its antecedent, it's full of visual gags as well.


Babylon 5: This turned up on Watch - naturally in the middle, so I had to wait until the end, and then they started again. It is still completely great - the acting isn't always great, but to me just makes me appreciate the towering achievement of one person manhandling into existence this 5-year 110-epsiode epic with the materials to hand, an enormous sci-fi story of the galaxy's future, set still among the echoes of wars long since past. Here's a question though - there is a lot spoken about it as the precedent for today's Long Term TV, but even with things like The Wire, it seems a lot like they make a great series, look at where everything's ended up, and see what they can do from there next series. Babylon 5's main adversary turns up in episode 5, and it isn't until about a season later that they really come to light. And so much of the long-term character advancement is plotted in long term - is there actually any other series that actually does do that with so much chutzpah, making a years-long bet?


Lost Girl: I need to get back to this, I've only really seen to the end of the second series (in fact being a bit too spoiler-happy, I didn't really realise until just now that I stopped just before the end), but it remains solidly entertaining - a lady who learns that the reason her sex partners keep dying is that she's a succubus, at the same time as learning that there is a whole 'fae' world, and that it's split along Light and Dark lines that she has no time for. PI hijinks and a great sidekick ensue.


Parks and Recreation - not much more to report than last time.


Resurrection - I don't know if I talked about this? It came up during an adbreak on one of the other shows, and I thought "Oh that looks interesting", and interest paid off. The show opens with Omar Epps as a US Immigration agent, returning a lost kid back to their home town. The kid's parents have no idea that he's coming though, as he drowned 20 years ago. It's very short by US standards, and so is probably the least episodic thing on this post - it moves quickly, and when it escalates it does so dramatically. Also bonus point for not a final scene but a final shot that may well cause you to flip your wig.


Sherlock - I went and properly watched a few of these this year - The Hounds of Baskerville / The Signs of Three / His Last Vow - as well as seeing half of A Scandal of Belgravia in G's. I don't know that I have much to add to common wisdom: they're well-plotted, well cast (Lars Mikkelsen, brother of Mads, is particularly great as the Napoleon of Blackmail, and I should really get around to House of Cards if he's playing the Russian premier), well acted (Freeman and Cumberbatch's comic timing in particular is well-suited to the gags), and oh lord I hope Amanda Abbington and Lara Pulvey end up in big roles not written by Stephen Moffat.


Sleepy Hollow - as per previous, fish out of historic water + very silly supernatural goings-on + Relationship Peril. It veers a little towards "Were you aware that 200 years after we sat down at the continental congress, society still has problems?", but as long as the kids aren't getting their history entirely from it, it remains good fun - and impressively diverse (though the subtext appears to be Never Trust a German).