My Year in TV contains basically a hell of a lot of reality TV, a Judge, a game show I thought I'd fallen out of love with and everyone's favourite fictional detective. Oh, and zombies. And throw in a funny family too.
My TV year was basically ruined right at the beginning. We were spoiled with Sherlock. Only 3 episodes long, but these mini movies put to shame almost anything else on TV this year. Well written, brilliantly acted and what a cliff hanger. The only problem with it was I wanted more. We are probably looking at the end of the year till we see Sherlock surface, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are pretty busy in Hollywood at the moment, but when Sherlock and Dr Watson do return we are in for one hell of a show. If Benedict isn't a complete out and out total movie star by the end of the year I'll eat my deerstalker.
While Sherlock may have had it's dark moments it was overall pretty fun. That can't be said about my next TV choice The Walking Dead. A show that just gets better and better. You can see the characters actually evolving and it makes the show oh so much better for it. In the best story line of the comics (in my opinion) we have Rick and the group meeting the Governor. And how great is David Morrissery? Who'd have thought? My favourite member of the group is Daryl though. Would anyone have guessed he would have turned into someone so important and awesome at the same time. A little mid season break for season 3 just makes me even more excited for the return.
Let's look at comedy for a moment and for me the only show that is nearly perfect is Modern Family. 30 Rock is past it's best and while How I Met Your Mother, New Girl and The Big Bang Theory are still pretty solid Modern Family is just smile-some. It's one of those shows that won a bag load of awards but took me a while to get round to it. Best DVD I bought this year was the first series. Phil is without doubt my favourite character on the show. A loving husband and great dad, and most importantly funny too. Nobody is dead weight in this series though, go check it out if you haven't yet.
Something which I wasted much of my year on and that I can happily sit and watch for hours is Judge Judy. Even though these episodes are from 10 years ago. This women literally takes no shit off of anybody. And who doesn’t love Byrd, her loyal bailiff. It’s great when he stands in between the plaintiff and the defendant as if these people might actually come to blows, this isn’t Jerry Springer! Not yet anyway. Seriously, you can't lie to her, she knows everything. "THAT'S BALONEY!" "Sounds like a lot of 'Who shot John?'" "You know how I can tell you're lying to me? YOUR LIPS MOVE!!" "'Umm' is not an answer!!" She's a grandmother don't you know. And totally terrifying.
And on to a show I thought I was over. There's just something about those big red balls and people getting smacked in the mouth with a wall that I love. Ladies and gentlemen I am, of course, talking about the majestic and mighty Total Wipeout USA. Another show where I love the hosts; the 2 Johns John Anderson and John Henson, are a great team. I'm not sure but think Anderson might be a proper sports pundit. Or maybe that's what he wanted to be. I know I shouldn't laugh but I do and frequently. There's just something very funny about people getting whacked in the face or seeing what the Johns like to call the scorpion move. That's basically when a contestant has their legs bend so far back they reach their head. Wipeout indeed.
I can't go without mentioning some reality TV. It's been an average year for the X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. The Voice started off well but went down hill from there. Only I'm A Celebrity was constantly entertaining, mostly for Ant and Dec, and even The Apprentice suffered from some fatigue. TOWIE nearly finished it's self off with the truly horrendous Live show (Never. Again.) but got back to it's strange self with the Essexmas episode. Just about.
Looking forward to this year we've got the return of Arrested Development, more Sherlock, Celebrity Big Brother and hopefully some great reality TV. Splash! sounds like something straight out of ITV2. I look forward to it.
