Sunday, December 29, 2019

Favorite Television in 2019

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (seasons 2 and 3) - I don't like to binge--I prefer my TV in weekly installments--but holy cow it is difficult not to binge this utterly delightful show. Watched season two earlier this year and season three this month. All the actors are perfectly cast, the music is stellar, the set pieces are things you want to watch over and over (S3: E8's opening is one), and the writing/directing by Amy Sherman-Palladino is fantastic. I love, love, love the witty banter, especially when there are about four characters on screen having two or more conversations. Cannot get enough of this show.

The Mandalorian - Speaking of shows coming out on a weekly basis, this first live-action Star Wars TV show was exactly what I was hoping it would be: a brand-new story, not part of the main nine films, using Star Wars as the canvas and the palette. We all know the meme that has sprung from this show, but it is the pacing--slower than you'd expect but that's perfectly fine--and the "western in space" vibe that makes me love it. Throw in great writing and interesting directing--you actually get a heist movie that morphs into "Alien" in one episode--and you've got one of the best TV things of 2019.

Unforgotten* (all seasons, but particularly 2) - Stumbled upon this early this year via PBS showing season three. Enjoyed it so much we watched seasons one and two on demand. Loved the "normalness" of the show and characters. No typical detectives here (i.e., raging alcoholics with ghosts of the past), just normal people doing a dirty job looking into cold cases. Season Two was particularly great.

[By the way, the asterisks you see in this post indicate shows my wife discovered first. Boy, does she know how to pick'em.]

Stranger Things (season 3) - A nice change from season two, Season Three of this nostalgia-filled show  showed our characters progressing since the last season, not an easy thing to do considering the younger actors are aging up. Great character moments and truly scary moments shows this franchise getting better.

Blood and Treasure - Speaking of perfect summer TV shows, Blood and Treasure is it. This show had me at the promos. Two fun, attractive actors in a breezy, action/adventure show that involves a quest per episode is exactly what I wanted this summer. The nods to past movies via music and visuals makes you look for the Easter eggs while watching these two leading characters form undeniably great chemistry. Cannot wait until Season Two in 2020.

Stumptown - Staying with network TV, this show also had me from the promos. Cobie Smulders stars as a veteran with PTSD who stumbles into a job as a private investigator. It's clear to me that she is a descendant of any number of TV PIs, most notably Jim Rockford. The shows dynamic between her, her brother, and her friends is what propels the show forward, but I really dig her gumption and determination. Most of all, I love her heart for doing what's right no matter the cost.

New Amsterdam - Ever since This is Us premiered (which I don't watch), it's been known for pulling tears out of the eyes of viewers. This medical drama is my version of that. I love the idealistic nature of Max Goodwin (played wonderfully by Ryan Eggold) as he leads his team of doctors at the New Amsterdam hospital in New York. Each episode wrestles with real-world issues, coming to various conclusions. The actors and their characters are spot on, and I look forward to Tuesdays at 9pm eagerly (that's right: this, along with Stumptown, are Appointment Television).

Evil* - The last network television show on this list is one for which I saw the promos all during the summer while watching Blood and Treasure: CBS's Evil. With a title like that, and most of the shots from the pilot, I wasn't that interested. I recognized Mike Colter as the same actor who played Luke Cage, and  Michael Emerson I knew from Lost, but that wasn't enough. Turns out my wife had started watching it and I ended up staying in the room as she watched episode four. That was all it took. I was hooked. This show wasn't exactly how my preconceived notions thought it would be. It's actually so much more. This might be the nicest surprise of 2019 on TV.

Goliath* - Speaking of things my wife started watching, Amazon's Goliath is another. I knew about the Billy Bob Thornton show when I'd go to Amazon Video's menu (to watch Mrs. Maisel) but never got off the fence. Cut to another day when I was about to go into the next room to read when my wife started watching episode three of season three of Goliath. I sat and watched. Hooked. Sure, Thornton was fantastic, but it was the guest stars that really took it higher. Beau Bridges was good, Dennis Quaid was great, but Amy Brenneman went somewhere I'd never seen her go: she was a fantastic baddie. I loved everything about this season--including Thorton's partner played hilariously by Nina Arianda Matijcio--but Brenneman was by far my favorite. I'll happily go back and watch seasons one and two.

The Kominsky Method - Season two dropped in December, and my wife and I blasted through all the episodes in two nights. Might've been three. As a middle-aged man, I can easily get the comedy of this show, but it's the heart and emotion between the characters that really sticks with you. Not only that, it's the real-life situations these characters find themselves in that, like New Amsterdam, shed a light on various parts of modern society. An open request to creator Chuck Lorre: If the seasons are only to be eight episodes, can we have at least an hour per episode? Or maybe sixteen half-hour episodes? This show is very, very good.

The Kettering Incident* - On the surface, this is a show in which a woman (played by Elizabeth Debicki) returns to her small town in Tasmania and causes ripples. Back in the day, she and another girl were biking when the other girl disappeared. Everyone blamed Debicki's character. Now that she's returned, another girl goes missing. Debicki's character, barely hanging on in life, decides to start digging and see if she can uncover what happened to both girls. That sounds like a typical BBC-type show (although this was filmed entirely in Tasmania) but the turns it takes are wonderfully odd. To even write comparisons would probably give away how the story turns, but this was one of the best discoveries of the year. The Tasmanian setting and characters were fantastic, and served as a glimpse of what life is like on that island nation. That there wasn't a second season is a shame.

Elementary - When season six ended in 2018, I thought it was a fitting end to this version of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. Well, we got a season seven and it, too, ended perfectly. While I can appreciate other versions of the characters--Jeremy Brett nailed the traditional version; Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Downey, Jr. did fine work; Jude Law and Martin Freeman both played Watson as a man of action--my favorite has got to be Jonny Lee Miller. Why? Because he allowed Holmes to evolve. Let's be honest: Holmes can be a bit of a dick to Watson and others. Miller's Holmes was, too, at the beginning, but not by the end of the series. Lucy Liu's Watson also was allowed to evolve from a sober companion at the start to a co-equal partner with Holmes as a detective. Absolutely loved this show and will dreadfully miss these versions of the characters. As I wrote on Twitter the night of the finale:

"Perfect casting from day one. Perfect ending. Incredible writing for a complex pair of characters and actors who love each other deeply. So well done. That is how you create a fulfilling finale."

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