Best of 2009: TV

2009 was a great year for TV, with some long running shows having their best season yet, and a lot of great shows staying strong. It’s a wealth of riches on the list here, let’s check it out…

10. True Blood
Best Episode: ‘Timebomb’

The show improved on its first season by refining its campy appeal and upping the stakes. The season peaked early, at the end of the Fellowship of the Sun arc, and kind of petered out at the end, but the peak was great. I think there’s still room for some more real emotion in the show, but they know that it’s supposed to be fun and the show is able to poke enough fun at itself to make it work. I wish Alan Ball was doing something better than this, but if it’s a show like this or another ponderous film like “Towelhead,” let’s stick with this.

9. Bored to Death
Best Episode: ‘The Case of the Beautiful Blackmailer’

This show was ostensibly a comedy and was never particularly funny, nor was it dramatic, but it was charming throughout. I loved the New York locations, and the three leads were all a lot of fun to watch. The show struck a tricky balance, and as it went on, it just got better and better. I love the quirky world they’ve built, and hopefully it’ll continue to grow in interesting directions in season two.

8. Parks and Recreation
Best Episode: ‘Greg Pikitis’

I’m one of the few people who actually really liked the show in its first season, so I was even more excited when it took a major quality leap in year two. The show has one of the deepest comedy casts of any series, and the characters are developed in ways that make sense, and over the course of the series so far, they’ve developed the kind of depth and emotional engagement that make for a long running sitcom. There’s been some very sweet moments, like the relationship between Dave and Leslie, or April’s fliration with Andy, but throughout it all, they keep things funny and snappy. It’s the best comedy on TV right now, and a few more seasons at this level could make it one of the best sitcoms all time.

7. Big Love
Best Episode: ‘On Trial’

I liked the first two season of Big Love, but the show made a quantum leap in quality in the third season. The big emotional hook for me was Nikki’s work at the D.A’s office, and the way that her flirtation with her boss opened up a window to a new world for her. But pretty much every element of the season worked, and it had a hyped up, every episode’s a season finale level of intensity that made the whole season riveting to watch. It’s always nice to see a show realize its full potential, and that’s what Big Love did this year.

6. Battlestar Galactica
Best Episode: ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’

The controversial final season of Battlestar worked for me on most levels, but had some key missteps that stopped it from hitting the series’ highest heights. The much beloved military coup arc did nothing for me, and the resolution to the final five storyline was extremely convoluted and didn’t really hold together in terms of making sense. But, I love a lot of the ideas throughout, and thought the final episode was haunting and epic. Visually, the show was on its game, and certain moments, like the appearance of the final five on the flight deck, were haunting and burned in my memory. Like the show as a whole, it had moments of brilliance mixed with ideas that didn’t quite come together. Still, to see such an ambitious and mostly successful work reach a satisfying conclusion was merit enough.

5. Doctor Who
Best Episode: ‘The End of Time: Part II’

I was holding off on writing the list until the last of Tennant era Who had aired. Technically, End of Time II aired in 2010, but I’m grouping it with ’09 for list making purposes. This year’s Who started off with a dud, but the last three episodes were all fantastic. The intense ‘Water of Mars’ ominously set the stage for an epic finale that didn’t quite come together on a plot level, but was so satisfying emotionally, I’ve got to include it here. I felt emotionally fulfilled at the end, but like the Doctor said, I didn’t want him to go. I wasn’t sure what the specials could add to the epic finale of ‘The Stolen Earth,’ what they gave us was a Doctor coming to terms with his own mortality, an extended meditation on the inevitability of death, and a call to do the most we can with the time we have.

4. Torchwood
Best Episode: ‘Children of Earth, Day Five’

More than any other show this year, Torchwood made a massive jump in quality. The first two series were very hit and miss, but this intense, character focused miniseries was intense brilliance from start to finish. The characters were all the same, the scenarios were the same, but the focus was so much tighter, and over the course of the series’ five episodes, it crescendoed to higher and higher intensity, culminating in a final episode that featured devastating scenes of the UK giving in to alien demands and Jack sacrificing his ties to humanity to save them. It’s a series that forced the characters to make tough choices and never backed down from putting the audience through the ringer. Not since Buffy season one to Buffy season two have I seen a series make such a giant quality leap between seasons.

3. Friday Night Lights
Best Episode: ‘Tomorrow Blues’

Speaking of shows that made a giant leap, after the disastrous second season, Friday Night Lights bounced back with a fantastic third season and is now working on an even stronger fourth year. It’s very rare that a show can as successfully reinvent themselves as FNL has, but the East Dillon setting has reinvigorated the series and changed its narrative. I’m always frustrated by shows like Alias and Battlestar Galactica that hinted at big change then retreated from it. By shifting its basic status quo, FNL has become a much more exciting show, and this most recent year may top even its brilliant first season. Seamlessly introduced new characters and consistent brilliance from Chandler and Britton keep this one of the best hours on TV, and that’s not even bringing it the series’ unparalleled cinematography.

2. Mad Men
Best Episode: ‘Seven Twenty Three’

In its third season, Mad Men continued to be the most challenging and artistically ambitious series currently on the air, and perhaps ever. The complexity of the stories increased, and the end of the season opened up some amazing new directions for future plotlines. I don’t think this year quite matched the second season, but the consistency of its ambition only adds to its reputation. The fact that nine year old Sally Draper is more complex and well developed than the vast majority of adult lead characters is a testmanet to the show’s greatness.

1. Lost
Best Episode: The Incident

Lost’s great problem since the start has been its inconsistency, so it was surprising and exciting to see it finally produce a season that was just outright great from start to finish. The series attempted an ambitious time travel storyline and nailed it throughout, giving us great timeloop moments, like Locke coming across himself in the past, but the primary joy was seeing our lead characters in the 70s, and getting an insight into what the Dharma Initiative was like back then. Those episodes were just so much fun and built such a great world, I would have loved to stay there for much longer. And, one scene in the season finale totally changed the game looking forward, opening up a myriad of interesting new storytelling possibilities. It was all anchored by great character work on Locke, Ben, and in particular the series’ heart, Sawyer and Juliet. If the last season is as good as this one, it’ll go down as one of the all time great series.

New York Comicon 2009: Day 2 and 3

Besides seeing the Joss Whedon panel yesterday, I saw a bunch of other stuff at the comicon. On Saturday, I went to the Torchwood panel. Eve Myles and director Euros Lyn were there. They screened a trailer/EPK type promo piece for the season. To be honest, it looks okay, but not that impressive.

I’m not that big a fan of Torchwood in general. It feels stuck in that Angel season one mode of heavy, way too serious and self consciously dark standalone episodes that never really add together. The second season had some good episodes, but the finale was botched by condensing what should have been a two or three episode arc into one episode. Angel found its voice by going more operatic and over the top, which huge, sweeping arcs and sustained character development. This season is one big story, which could work. But, the trailer looks like more of the same.

Still, it was nice see Eve Myles there, and she was pretty funny throughout. There wasn’t any huge news out of the panel. PC Andy will be in the season, and Rhys will have a bigger role. No Mickey or Martha though, disappointing after the tease in the Who finale. I’ll definitely be watching, but Torchwood just isn’t as good as I’d like it to be.

On Saturday, I also had the chance to speak to Chris Claremont for a little bit. He was promoting his new series, X-Men Forever. He said that the series would explore the question of why no mutants ever get old. The promo material looked pretty nice, I’ve got a signed poster on my wall now, and it’s got the best X-costumes since Quitely’s. These outfits find a nice balance between the superhero style of the past and the civilian style Morrison had. They look like regular clothes versions of the characters’ old style spandex outfits. So, Gambit’s got a black coat, a suit and a pink shirt instead of the pink body armor thing. Rogue wears a green vest over a black shirt, that sort of thing. I wish the poster was online, but I can’t find it anywhere.

He also had pages from an upcoming series called X-Women with Milo Manara. It’s supposed to be out in the summer, and the preview art looked gorgeous. I read Manara’s story in Sandman: Endless Nights, and this story has the same really detailed line work as he had there. Claremont’s worked with a lot of journeyman artists, but he’s also had some great collaborations with people like Art Adams or Paul Smith. It’s nice to see him get to work with a real topline talent on this one.

I also spoke briefly with Louise Simonson and heard a few stories about working on X-Men back in the day. Since I was there ostensibly to work with Sequart and promote my Invisibles book, I didn’t go for any sketches or anything like that. Trying to keep it professional now, y’know?

Anyway, part of that is the next book that I’m working on. Expanding significantly on my blog posts from a while back, I’m going to be doing an analytical look at the Chris Claremont X-Men from Giant Size to X-Men #3, with side looks at relevant sections of X-Factor and New Mutants, and the various minis. It’s a huge project, but I think it’s a hugely important piece of comics history that hasn’t been thoroughly covered, so I’m taking on the task. I’m planning on interviewing Claremont and Simonson, and hopefully other relevant people, as part of the process, and possibly doing a companion documentary as well. We’ll see what develops, but I’m hoping to have that book completed and available for purchase at the next New York Comicon in 2010.

As for The Invisibles book, the title is now going to be Our Sentence is Up: Seeing The Invisibles, it’ll be in the August previews, and available in stores in October. So, look for that.

So, this weekend, I picked up a ton of X-Factor and New Mutants issues to fill in the gaps, and I’m pretty close to having all the books I need to cover for this era. I also got two volumes of Frank Miller Daredevil, which I’ve never read, and am excited to check out.

The con was certainly missing something without Morrison, but it was fun nonetheless, and just zipped by. I was really tired at the end of it, but it was a great three days.

Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures

Over the past few weeks, I watched the entirety of Torchwood and all but the last two parter of The Sarah Jane Adventures. I don’t think either show is as strong as its parent show, but they each represent interesting extrapolations of the original premise. Unexpectedly, I wound up liking Sarah Jane a lot more, I think it’s truer to what makes Doctor Who great, and is generally better written than the hit and miss Torchwood. I don’t know that Sarah Jane could ever be as good a show as Torchwood could potentially be, but comparing the first season of each show, Sarah Jane was more consistently engaging and narratively coherent than Torchwood.

The biggest issue I had with Torchwood is that they decided to build a spinoff around one of Who’s most charismatic and exciting characters, then proceeded to take away everything that made the character work. It makes absolutely no sense to me why they make a big deal of Jack’s mysterious past when the viewer already knows what happened to him. Now, I suppose the viewer who’d only seen Who season one wouldn’t know exactly how Jack wound up at Torchwood in our present, but you’d still know all the basics of his story. It’s weird that they’d build up this whole mystery with Jack, and then resolve it over on Doctor Who.

This is the fundamental flaw of the series so far, and it makes the character who should be the exciting center of the series doesn’t contribute much. The other characters are all interesting in some ways, but are a bit too similar. Everyone is a morally ambiguous workaholic prone to making bad personal decisions when it comes time for them to take center stage in the plot.

I think this characterization works for Owen and Gwen. Owen is the most far gone, and by starting a relationship with him, Gwen is literally throwing away her personal life for Torchwood. The best episode of the season was the heartbreaking time displacement story which featured three excellent storylines. That was a wonderful example of a story only sci-fi can do that comments on something powerful and human. The second half of the show was much more consistent than the early episodes, but I was pretty let down by the finale, which featured some really awful CGI work. Compared to the three brilliant Doctor Who finales, it was a real disappointment.

The show really feels like the Angel to Doctor Who’s Buffy. After three seasons, Who was riding high, and it’s hard to go back to a shakier first season feel. And, like the first season of Angel, Torchwood has a lot of identity issues, switching between a variety of different storytelling modes. It even features its own alien/demon Fight Club knockoff episode. I’m hoping that the show will come into its own in the next season, like Angel did. For now, I like the show, but it frequently frustrated me.

Going into The Sarah Jane Adventures, I wasn’t really expecting much. I tended not to like the goofier episodes of Who from the early years, so a series targeted exclusively to kids didn’t seem like it’d be my thing. But, Sarah Jane, right from the beginning, was well written and smart. Yes, the stories were on the goofier side at times, but it’s always fun and feels a lot more like Doctor Who than Torchwood. Much of what makes Doctor Who special is the simple joy at the unknown, for Torchwood what’s out there in the night is a menace, for Who and Sarah Jane it’s probably something amazing. I like the latter worldview a lot more, and I think it makes for a better show, that struggle to still believe in the wonder of the universe in the face of enemies from other worlds.

The first few two parters are pretty good, not anything too special. Things pick up with “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane,” a trip to an alternate universe where Sarah Jane died and Maria’s the only one who remembers. I always like these everything is wrong kind of stories, and the trips to the past and limbo are evocative. That demon who saves Andrea’s life is a pretty menacing villain, and I didn’t even mind the bizarre dwarf guy who runs around screwing up things in time.

The first part of the season finale continues that really dark, focused approach of “Whatever Happened,” as everything we know is one again wrong and Luke actually has a family. In some pretty intense scenes, Luke is torn away from Sarah Jane and taken by ‘his’ family. The second half is a bit of a let down as this challenging moral conundrum turns out to be yet another Slitheen plot. But, even this straightforward action climax is much better than the weak confrontation with the giant CGI beast in Torchwood.

One of the things I frequently find frustrating about spinoffs is this perverse refusal to acknowledge the parent show. Torchwood occasionally featured Who continuity, but I found it hard to place that show in the same universe as Who. Sarah Jane wholeheartedly embraces its legacy, and the moments where Sarah Jane talks about the Doctor are some of the series’ best, reinforcing the idea that she has kind of become the Doctor, leading her own band of Earth defenders. And, the series’ core philosophy is much closer to Who’s than Torchwood’s gloomy outlook.

But, even though I enjoyed the first season of Sarah Jane more, I do think Torchwood has a lot more potential. If they can stop misusing their main character and make Jack more like he was on Who, the show could pick up. We’ll see what happens in season two. And, either way, I’m really glad I watched both shows in light of the events of ‘The Stolen Earth.’

Torchwood: 1x01 - 1x04

As I was saying before, watching Torchwood made much clearer what it is that makes Doctor Who works. His joy and energy makes even a run of the mill episode enjoyable, and watching his life spirit come in conflict with vast darkness is what ignites the major conflicts in the series. Torchwood doesn’t have this same life spirit, the characters are all a bit darker, and the external world is treated more as a menace than something exciting to be discovered. The show has its moments, but after four episodes, I don’t think it’s quite found its voice.

The basic structure of the first episode is pretty similar to Doctor Who’s ‘Rose,’ however ‘Rose’ worked better for me because I was totally new to the universe, like the character was. Here, I know who Jack is, I’m aware that there’s weird stuff going on, so it feels like we’re one step ahead of the character. Gwen is a solid protagonist, I like the pull between her regular life and the more lonely, workaholic lives of the Torchwood gang, I’m guessing she’ll eventually dump the boyfriend and commit full time to Torchwood.

My central issue with the series so far is the portrayal of Captain Jack. This was a character who was so charismatic he got this spinoff made after only a few episodes on Doctor Who. The central appeal of the character was his reckless sense of adventure, his enthusiasm to go anywhere and do anything. He’s the character we know, and in theory, he should be our point of view character, not Gwen. So, I’m not sure why they chose to change him from a friendly, energetic guy into a brooding mysterious guy. It kills the appeal of the character, and makes the show into much more of a typical broody, dark sci-fi show.

The show has a lot in common with Angel, and like the first season of Angel, it struggles to find its voice. I think all the episodes are watchable, and have their moments, but none of them really click. The strongest is probably ‘Day One,’ which puts Gwen in some tough situations, and contrasts her naivete with the world weariness of the rest of the gang. But, like early Angel, they frequently try to make the series too dark and humorless, as a contrast to its goofier parent show.

Now, I love dark stories, the darker episodes of Who are my favorites, but those dark episodes still feature fun and awe. Look at the Master episodes, it’s his ecstatic dance as the six billion orbs descend that makes it work, there’s no need for brooding. The Doctor goes through dark times, but he keeps high spirits. The fact that he can be happy makes his sadness even worse. Other than Gwen, I don’t have a sense of who these characters are outside of work yet, and that makes it tough to care for them.

That’s where the series’ biggest misfire so far comes from. ‘Cyberwoman’ has a bunch of things going against it, that really goofy outfit on the woman notably, but the real flaw of the episode is that it wants us to care deeply about Ianto, a character we’ve barely seen, and the actor just doesn’t pull it off. It feels melodramatic and over the top when it should be emotional. It’s the kind of episode that sounds good on paper, but just doesn’t work in practice.

But, it’s still early in the series. I’ll stick with it and see how things go. The premise has a lot of potential, and Gwen and Jack have some good chemistry when they let him actually play something other than brooding mysteriousness. It makes no sense to me that his work crew should be unclear whether he’s straight or gay, the guy we saw on Doctor Who would have tried to have them all already, so they should know he’ll go for whatever, as long as it’s beautiful. It’s odd that they’d so completely miss what makes the character work when building a show around him. Jumping from the Jack we saw in the last episodes of season three to the Jack of Torchwood is an odd experience. It really feels like the same actor playing two totally different rules. I don’t blame Barrowman, it’s more the writing that fails him.