Best/Worst of 2008 in Television
Drama
Worst of 2008:
- The Cleaner “ Benjamin Bratt is really a stand-out in this show, unfortunately it is too preachy and the directing overly melodramatic. The premise wears thin after 2-3 episodes.
- 24: Redemption “ Well, that was a pointless 2 hours I can never get back. I’d go into detail, but someone reading this might not want a spoiler.
- Big Shots “ An American attempt at remaking Manchild from the U.K. Instead of keeping the same half an hour format, they made it a full hour-long drama. It had a decent cast, but they lost all the fun of the original.
- CSI: New York “ Even Gary Sinise couldn’t prevent the writers from turning this show into CSI: Miami, Jr. I watched up to last season’s finale but couldn’t bring myself to watch it again this season.
- The Unit “ Wow, this show jumped the shark right at the beginning of the season and kept going. I’m still watching, but mostly out of morbid curiosity.
Best of 2008:
- The Wire “ The best show on television. Ever. Over the life of the Wire, the show-runners have turned the spotlight on drugs, law enforcement, the education system, government at all levels, corruption and more. It is at times raw, depressing, occasionally upliftng, but always moving.
- Sons of Anarchy “ Imagine Hamlet meets the Hell’s Angels. It’s great to see Ron Perlman playing a role without makeup. There are so many great things I can say about this show, but really you need to track it down and watch.
- Mad Men “ Darren Star did an excellent job capturing the era of 1960’s Madison Avenue. A laconically paced show, it has more going on in the silence between dialogue than most films.
- Breaking Bad “ I was blown away with Brian Cranston as the lead in this series. Two of the five top shows in this category are from FX Channel. That should tell you something.
- Generation Kill “ An amazing HBO miniseries about an advanced Marine Recon unit during the invasion of Iraq. Watch it back to back with Band of Brothers.
Honourable Mentions:
- Boston Legal “ David E. Kelly passed on Life On Mars just so that he could get one last 13 episode season for this show. It had some dips the past few seasons, but these last episodes were a tour de force of writing and acting. They all went out on a high and I’ll miss them. Denny Crane!
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation “ I’ve no idea how the rest of the season will go, but the beginning of Fall 2008 has been some of the best shows in the past 2 seasons. They are really focusing on Grissom’s characterization (William Peterson) and how the entire cast relates to him and each other. Some quality television here.
- In Plain Sight “ This USA network program really surprised me. I thought I would hate it, but it’s surprisingly well-written. Mary McCormack plays a believable strong female lead with many, many faults. Her family drama can be tiring, but the stories revolving around her job as a Federal Marshall are good.
- In Treatment “ HBO’s adaptation of the critically acclaimed Israeli show Betipul, created by Hagai Levi. It’s about a psychotherapist, Dr. Paul Weston, and his weekly sessions with his patients, starring Gabriel Byrne. The shows broadcast once a day, five days a week. Each day was a different client and that client’s story would continue the next week at the same time. I found it arresting. I would save up and entire week’s worth of shows and watch them in a marathon.
- Leverage “ This show is too new to put on any best of list, but it is worth keeping an eye one. Timothy Hutton stars as an ex-insurance investigator who leads a crew of crooks and con-men who pull jobs to help out the little guy. Very light, tongue-in-cheek writing with some good action on the side.
- The Mentalist “ A Fall 2008 new procedural starring Simon Baker as an ex-TV mentalist (think Derren Brown) who now works with the police to help solve crimes. I’ll admit, the actual plots may not be the most original, but Simon Baker is so much fun to watch that it has shot to the top of my watch list. Even the supporting cast are great to see when they interact with him.
- The Riches “ Sadly, this show has been put on the chopping block. For anyone who is a fan of Eddie Izzard, this was the perfect opportunity to see him really stretch out in an ongoing series. He’s always been great in movie roles and cameos, but The Riches really let him grow. Smartly written as well. Every time I thought they had plotted themselves into a corner, they managed to pleasantly surprise me with a twist.
Sci Fi/Fantasy
Worst of 2008:
- Knight Rider “ I have never, NEVER, turned off a new program before the halfway mark. I always try and give it the benefit of the doubt; maybe even 3 episodes before I give up on it. This season, I deleted 2 programs from my TIVO after only 10 Minutes; Kath and Kim and Knight Rider. It was bad. Not So bad it’s good bad. Just bad.
- Flash Gordon “ Oh My GOD! This was craaaaaaaaap.
- Moonlight – Yet another ill-fated vampire drama. What if he’s a vampire, but he’s also a Private Investigator? And he’s been around since the 50’s? Gold! No, not really.
- Smallville “ It is so painful to watch this show now. Even the geekgasm I get from seeing live-action versions of my favorite DC characters cannot overcome the tortured dialogue, logic gaps and high school soap opera relationships.
- True Blood “ I tried. I did a full 6 episodes, but I found it boring. Maybe it’s because Vampires are so labored at this point and this seemed another retread of an old idea but trying to make it weird enough to justify being an HBO program.
Best of 2008:
- Battlestar Galactica “ Consistently the best Sci Fi show on television. It has shown itself to have crossover appeal to people who do not normally watch Science Fiction, at least in my crowd. When my friends’ wives, who would normally be watching Grey’s Anatomy, started having BSG watching parties, I knew there was much, much more to this show.
- Doctor Who “ Well, who doesn’t love Who. David Tennant is a joy to watch, even though I cannot stand Donna Noble. At. All.
- Reaper “ Ray Wise as The Devil. Let me say that again, Ray Wise as The Devil. Laura. Palmer’s. Dad. Is. The. Devil. Is there any more to say? Other than that it is a fresh, original idea, has a fun cast and witty writing? Cannot wait for its return this season.
- Fringe “ This show was slow to get started. At first the characterizations were sketchy, the scripts seemed to jump about and the whole endeavour came off like it didn’t know what it wanted to be. Since then, I think they’ve settled into a good groove. They’ve established an arc story, fleshed out the characters and put in some solid writing. It has enough of the weirdness to be a good successor to the X-Files and some thriller/action fromthe influence of Alias. I’m looking forward to the ongoing story.
- Life On Mars “ I’ve heard so much negative blowback from pretty much everyone I know that they were going to do an American remake. I was surprised at how much I like this series, in spite of that. I’m lucky in that I have not seen the original series, so I have no bar against which to measure. I’m glad, actually, as it allows me to enjoy the program without the original influencing my own impressions.
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Wow, massive article
I got to agree with Generation Kill and Breaking Bad. Both where awesome. I hope there is more Breaking Bad coming soon as I want to see where that story leads.
The end of Boston Legal was heart warming.
As much as Qdog likes it, Knight Rider is a piece of shit but I’ll admit it isn’t as bad as Flash Gordon thou.
I am glad to see another fan of how I met your
Mother. Thinking about the running gags in it my favourite is the ” psychic conversations” the characters sometimes have.
Scott, Great read. Good to see someone else also keen on Chuck. It’s one of those shows that I happilly use my download limit on. I was disappointed to see Journeyman finish, but I also look forward to the return of Reaper.
Bruce – Breaking Bad is coming back for a second season. Premieres Sunday March 8, 2009 on AMC channel the U.S. Very much looking forward to it.
Knight Rider (and anyone who is watching it) is destroying as we know it.
Shaded Spriter – My favorite was “The Slap”! They made that one last almost half a season!
Anakin64 – Thank you! Really looking forward to Reaper. You should check out the webisodes for Chuck, they’re also pretty funny. And how nice is it that they try to write in a scene with Yvonne Strahovski (an Aussie!) in next to nothing every episode?!
Woot! I cannot wait.
me particularly i cant stand the new episodes of family guy sence about three seasons ago
very happy with the number one spot for how I met your mother, great show but where is Dexter???????? I love that show!
Excellent point Romain. Dexter is also the bomb and amazes me that each season that movie it to somewhere new and interesting.
Dexter this season didn’t interest me as much as previous years, I stopped at about episode 4 or 5, I have 4-9/5-10 DVRed and I couldn’t be bothered to actually watch them.
I’ve heard Dexter is an excellent show.
Unfortunately, I never made it absolutely clear that this list is made up from the TV shows that I have watched (that’s why the complete list is at the end of the article). Sadly, I have never seen an episode of Dexter.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.
I don’t have Showtime (the channel it plays on here), haven’t bought the box sets (too many other things on my list I want first), don’t have Netflix (still working through current TV and DVDs to want to pay monthly for that) and because I choose not to download content by other means, for personal reasons, I haven’t seen Dexter yet.
… Yet.
Shaded Spriter
When you say you are disappointed with Dexter this season you must be talking about seson 3.
Season 3 hasn’t come out in France yet and we’re currently getting season 2.
I”m going to have to dissagree with you on Big Bang Theory. Season 2 of that show was fantastic (I think it may still be in it’s seconds season).
King of the Hill started to turn bad in about it’s 8th season. The early episodes were genius and funnier than the Simpons and Family Guy in my opinion. But it went from being really funny to being what felt like a drama with a little humor thrown in for good measure. But it’s been canceled now.