There may have been an abundance of psychological crime TV in recent years, many of them out of the UK, but almost none ever lived up to the heights of ‘The Fall’s dark, suspenseful and smart first season. Unfortunately, however, not even ‘The Fall’ itself has been able to achieve that feet.
After a second season that was too much cat and mouse and not nearly enough mindful analysis, ‘The Fall’s third season is too paddling and excruciatingly slow, refusing to pull any significant developments throughout the entire first half of its final season. The last three hours do have a couple of good moments that manage to regain some of this serial killer story’s original psychologic savor (in particular an unusually outstanding fourth episode about social and institutional/systematic misogyny and its effects on lead cop Stella, carried heavily on Gillian who’s more than up for the task). Overall it’s all too little too late - a story told too clumsily during a point at which almost all excitement had already left anyway.
I hope it’s the series’ final season, but knowing how television works, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not.
With the invention, or at least the modernization and popularization, of the anthology season series Ryan Murphy is undoubtedly one of the most influential creative minds of TV this decade. Even his vocal advocating for diversity and forgotten talent has inspired many others to do the same.
In pursuit of behind-the-scenes improvement, however, Murphy has let the quality of his shows slip and seemingly forgotten why his own sharp eye for new and fresh concepts ever works in first place.
Granted, it’s no secret that Murphy has always struggled with a thorough and clear execution of his great ideas, particularly towards the end but in 2016 it’s a pattern that Murphyland has at least tried to crush.
‘Roanoke’, ‘American Horror Story’s best season since arguably the second (or third), only really got interesting halfway through its season. This year has a lot of series whose seasons highly fluctuate between brilliant and clunky, and the habitually messy ‘American Horror Story’ of course had to follow suit to that trend.
The first few episode’s double-narrative structure was, in theory, a nice idea but robbed the drama of any subtext or depth as characters were always elaborating on the what, why and how of their feelings during their traumatic scenarios. It takes away any ambiguity or subtlety and replaces it with underlined overstatements. At the very least, however, its reality television migration introduced a theme that would string itself throughout the entire season and end up giving ‘Roanoke’ the kind of satirical real-life relation it’s been trying to push towards for years.
So once ‘Roanoke’ reached its halfway point and was entirely set in the present it came to reveal its true purpose: Putting the ‘American’ into ‘American Horror Story’.
Turning into a nuanced political and social depiction of America as fame-obsessed, corrupt and racist ‘Roanoke’ used its formal shift to a found-footage reality horror show as a vehicle to explore the pompous vanity of American media on a macro-level and the country's citizens’ fanatical pursuit of a better material life through and because of the entertainment industry. At that, the show even achieves to draw the systematic racism and poverty in the US as the two main causes for said desires to begin with.
Further using technical elements to capitalize on its anarchic mood, 'Roanoke' really came together as one of the minor surprises of the year, achieving an almost special poignancy the show had always seemed bound to end up at one point or another but never guaranteed to actually reach.
Thus, ‘Roanoke’ turned out to be a surprisingly clever commentary on what drives America and even if half of it never worked, and the other half wasn’t perfect, it’s a sentiment and upswing in quality that should be appreciated, especially being released during the most fitting years of all.
Best Episodes: "Chapter 6"; "Chapter 7"
Best Moment: Sarah Paulson playing a Brit - “I’m not an American. I’m not used to all this carnage.”
Yeah, this site will be moving to a new url, so atrl.net will be the new board + this will be read only.
So save what you can!
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Don't watch UNreal or The Fall so idk.
Finally finished Bloodline and I mean it's an ok show definitely not what I initially thought it was but yeah. Kyle Chandler tho >
Okay, at least I can still read it, that's all I need ff I have my previous Best Ofs saved on my computer so I can just copy+paste this one once the site moves if I can still read it nn.
Both great first seasons to check out but not sure if I'd recommend considering their follow-ups aren't. Gillian Anderson is always great, though, if you're a fan of her.
Agreed, Kyle Chandler is the show's anchor and does everything right. Also like Linda Cardellini but damn fff Ben Mendelsohn's usage this season was so unnecessary and cringeworthy tbh lol.
So far, web-series are still a mostly untapped corner of TV, usually either overlooked and written off or simply used as a jump board for its creators to eventually make it onto a bigger platform (‘High Maintenance’ and ‘Insecure’ are some of the most recent examples coming to mind). Of course, this is a welcome opportunity for creative and talented people to express themselves to a wider audience and get the resources they need for it. A web-series, though, is still an interesting channel of artistic expression and Go90s ‘Cold’ is a primary example for just why.
'Cold' is a darkly brooding series, so well-crafted and beautifully shot by Canadian newcomer Emily Diana Ruth, that it’s a masterclass in atmosphere exercise despite its short runtime of barely two hours, Ruth uses breath-taking wide shots of her freezing Canadian landscapes to invoke a permant feeling of eerie dread, icy fear and vast lostness. Working together with a menacing and chilling score, ‘Cold’ summons the vibes of ‘Fortitude’ last year which also very effectively used its snowy setting to capitalize on its suspense and mystery.
Of course, with a runtime of barely two hours ‘Cold’ isn’t able to achieve the same heights of pretty much any crime drama series like it. Yet, it still manages to create a compelling enough story that interweaves the immensely overlooked Canadian native genocides and cultural commentaries with an intimate story of one girls’ search for the truth about her past.
Annalise Basso (‘Captain Fantastic’; ‘Oculus’) makes for a magnetic lead who knows how to use this web-series as a personal and powerful vehicle to show off her impressively subtle range.
‘Cold’, while surely not as brilliant but just as ambitious as its siblings with bigger productions, is a successful example that filmmaking can and should continue to be taken elsewhere. As a brooding and tight watch there are many worse ways to spend two hours.
And make no mistake, if ‘Cold’ was able to sustain the same remarkable quality throughout eight or ten hours, and polish some of its rough edges a little more, it would most certainly be counted as one of the most compelling and adventurous experiments on TV all year.
TV’s recent ambitious and creatively encouraging tendencies have freed showrunners from the confines of time and censorship and in the process gifted us with much more daring, risk-taking and innovative television series.
Last summer, one of the freshest and most welcoming ones for TV in ages, was a showcase for the benefits of an unrestrained approach to television film-making as both ‘UnREAL’ and ‘Mr. Robot’ quickly established themselves as debut season power forces. Where ‘Unreal’ convinced with its juicy, subversive yet respectful writing, ‘Mr. Robot’s strengths mostly lay in some of the most hypnotic and magnetic direction on TV and a Fincher-esque plot that wasn’t afraid to ask viewers to go beyond a surface-level of investment.
Both shows, unfortunately, share another connection: They've also been part of what’s turned out to be one of the least exciting summer seasons for scripted TV in ages, each suffering an unfortunate sophomore slump.
Their debut seasons have proven that auteur TV can be fresh, exciting and thrilling.
Yet, this year, ‘Mr. Robot’ being directed, written and run entirely by Sam Esmail alone, without anyone else’s voice in the discussion, has led to a couple extremely tedious decisions: Episodes that stretched out for far too long (more than half of this season’s episodes run over an hour when all of them could have probably been cut in half) running over material and themes the show has chewn over way too many times before already.
Furthermore, a constant need to include Elliott in every installment disrupted otherwise narratively and thematically focused episodes and even the once thrilling direction felt more stale and calculated than inspired and novel.
Still, it wasn’t a completely horrible season, nor one that I believe really drove the show into an unavoidable wreck it can’t come out of again. Some storylines, namely the ones revolving around the show’s women, were thought-provoking, progressive and strangely enigmatic, proving that ‘Mr. Robot’ is actually a better show not whenever it’s trying to meddle with the audience but whenever it’s simply trying to figure out just what exactly is driving its characters to these strange places to begin with. Even some of the filmmaking was actually brilliant and seductive a couple of times and while the season never got back into its initial groove, the second half proved to be far more stable and motivated than its first, albeit still stalling.
Even if full creative control should be encouraged if someone wants to be able to express his own, true artistic vision – meaning with all the faults that inevitably come with that kind of freedom –, in ‘Mr. Robot’s case the show would probably be more focused if it did get a few constraints and if more people were allowed to chime in as well. Its second season feels more like a failed test run of the new-found liberties, like a season-long trailer of the things hinted towards for way too long in way too monotonous, unfocused and disordered fashion. I truly hope that this lengthy teaser will end up having been worth it.
Best Episodes: "h4ndshake.sme"; "h1dden-pr0cess.axx"
(the full scene isn't online but this was the most thrilling, creative scene of the season)
Agatha Christie’s famous classic novel ‘And Then There Were None’ is one of the most frequently told stories, its premise being so embedded into culture that it has ever since also felt like one of the oldest (and quite possibly least fresh) stories that can be told.
Surprisingly, this year’s British TV adaptation is an excellent lesson on how to spin an old tale into something that can be fresh and exciting and add new layers to an old tale. Naturally, most of the show’s appeal still stems from its ‘whodunnit’-premise but thanks to an excellent cast that ranges from British veterans Charles Dance and Miranda Richardson to the talented Sam Neill over to the young and charming Aidan Turner and Maeve Dermody, the performances make their characters feel actually worth investing in over such an immensely small period of time.
‘And Then There Were None’ is easily finished over the course of three hours and knows how to deliver all out on its fun-time-ratio. It’s not the best British TV adaptation of a classic novel on this list, neither is this miniseries able to capitalize on some of the exciting British imports of previous years, but it does indeed go to lengths to deliver something sinisterly atmospheric and strangely escapist with its gloomy and isolated island sea setting. A story covered in affecting emotion and sharply built-up tension which all join to turn ‘And Then There Were None’ into a series that’s most importantly an enormously entertaining watch – even if at three hours it can’t truly or even wants to achieve something of weighty heights (which is arguably just why it’s so much fun in first place).
I enjoyed Mr Robot despite the criticism... i agree about that Angela scene, her and Darlene were the highlight of this season. "And Then They Were None" was amazing, the slight deviation from the story didn't bother me much. Roanoke was okay...
Unsurprisingly, in its 8th year on air ‘Modern Family’ isn’t just completely outplayed and old but doesn’t even realize anymore what its greatest asset and strongest suit used to be.
As the title suggests, the show’s spin on several archetypes within modern family dynamics aimed, and often succeeded, at breaking down particular notions and clichés associated with them in faithful and sincere ways. Most importantly, whenever the show was able to weave all of its (usual) three storylines into one by the end of the episode – either through an endgame to its episodic plot or a unifying theme – it produced many of its peak half-hours.
The show still tries to do that every now and then and should get points for its effort on that regard. However, more often than not, ‘Modern Family’ now to willingly gives into its clichés and stereotypes rather than even remotely show any signs of undermining them and thus, any emotional impact in the end feels either forced or too much of a re-hash of an earlier, more powerful and resonant moment.
Of course there aren’t many shows that can stay fresh and exciting, let alone have anything new to say, after eight years. ‘Modern Family’ isn’t breaking any new ground anymore either and has long past its best years. At least even in this definitely permanent drought of laughs or creativity, the comedy can still be applauded for carrying a few extraterrestrial topics into the minds of the public and handling them with enough heart and kindness so as to portray a positive message to its audience (such as including the very first transgender child on TV ever, for example).
At this point, if you’re still watching it’s probably mostly out of boredom or growing familiar with this particular family but hopefully ‘Modern Family’ will end soon enough to avoid being pleased of the mediocrity it’s already been too comfortable with for too long.
Best Episodes: "Thanksgiving Jamboree"; "The Alliance"
2015: -
#25 - The Big Bang Theory
‘The Big Bang Theory’ remains one of the most frustratingly repetitive series on air that, despite being a ratings juggernaut, always fails to deliver the kind of cohesively forward-moving storylines or witty jokes its huge success would imply.
Of course, this isn’t the first, last or only time that there’ll be a huge disparity between what’s big and popular and what is actually good. Yet, as I mentioned in my review last year, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ started to hint at long impending changes and fortunately, this season followed up on the promise of those internal revelations and discoveries.
Yes, there are still too many filler episodes and way too many installments that completely ignore and undo all the previously built up character developments but more so than in probably half a decade ‘The Big Bang Theory’ finally isn’t afraid of change anymore. Amidst all the generic storylines a first child for Bernadette & Howard, a marriage for Penny & Leonard or revelations about childhood traumas are able to keep a welcoming balance and carve out a deeper layer into this otherwise superifcial comedy.
Meanwhile, Amy and Sheldon still remain the most surreal, tragic and magnetic figures and when the show not only delves into what has made them become these people in first place but also forces both, Sheldon especially, to confront themselves and realize how their relationship is really a vehicle for their self-discoveries, 'Bang' is actually somewhat complex – compared only to its own standards, that is.
Thus, ‘TBBT’ still hasn’t completely made a case for its long-lasting success but, just like its characters and protagonist Sheldon Cooper, it’s slowly moving there, if at its own slow-treading speed.
Best Episodes: “The Conjugal Conjecture”; “The Cohabitation Experimentation”; “The Hot Tub Contamination”; “The Birthday Synchronicity”
‘Inside Amy Schumer’ only truly broke out last year despite having been on the run for a couple of years already and if you were tuning in on any of its episodes it wasn’t hard to figure out why the sketch show and its now controversially famous it-girl Amy Schumer had received the spotlight in such a fascinating and instant manner.
Unfortunately, this season couldn’t really live up to the hype that surrounded the show and its star. Amy Schumer wasn’t quite sure how to deal with and meet the expectations set by its stellar third season and as a result her show not only felt creatively drained but more often than not also found herself stuck in a repetitive circle of the same jokes – you’d either get a rehashed sketch about her sudden fame or another one about feminism and while the thought is worthwhile enough the same punchline can only land once or twice until it feels old; even more so when its strong third season did the same kind of industry- and inequality ridicule so much better.
It’s very clear that this is most likely only a direct consequence of Schumer herself just not being able to devote as much time to ‘Inside Amy Schumer’ as she’d have liked to or her show would have deserved and that’s why I more than welcome her decision to put this project on ice for a while until only she herself finds it fit to return to it creatively speaking.
As a sketch show, ‘Inside Amy Schumer’ will always be able to bounce back and it’s not like it didn’t hit gold a few times this season, as well. It just wasn’t the same kind of constantly punching feminist comedy-satire juggernaut its milestone third season was.
Although Comedy Central is still on an upward-swing, having re-innovated itself with a string of unique and very different types of comedies and young fresh voices, ‘Another Period’s second season has already heavily overstayed its welcome and feels like it might start to display a major flaw in Comedy Central’s new programming strategy - that being that this comedy, and possibly others on the same channel, are trying to replicate the success stories of their young prodigies but failing to grasp the innovation that makes them good to begin with.
‘Another Period’s premise is exciting and novel but the material of its time period still revolving around the same characters didn’t leave much room for development anymore and so any kind of social criticism or clever satire the first season more or less excelled at got lost in between the show’s many confusing sub-plots. There were some more poignant moments, such as the season’s trial episode which had a few things to say about women’s right and equality and how we even now might not be as evolved as we’d like to pretend.
Yet, even those installments that abandoned some of the questionable sub-plots were still overstuffed and as a result this season wasn’t able to reach the same kind of satirical background or any genuinely hilarious poignancy. However, at least the cast was able to carry the show somewhat by their own natural talents, even if that ultimately wasn’t sufficient to save this season.
If ‘Another Period’ ever wants to get back on track the only possible way seems to be that it has to shift its setting into a different period. Realizing that this could be the first anthology comedy of its kind could not only potentially infuse it with new energy but the trademark distinctive ridiculousness that made its first season such an enjoyable hoot.
Best Episodes: "Trial of the Century"; "Servants' Disease"; "The Duel"
In 2015 HBO could count yet another one of its dramedies amongst the short-runners that were cancelled after only two years. ‘Togetherness’, like most other HBO shows like it, however, did actually hide much more behind the curtain of its dull premise. There are an abundance of shows about white people’s all too familiar midlife existential crises, but if you were going to watch any of them ‘Togetherness’ was one of the best choices you could have made this year.
Its second season didn’t quite always land on both feet and there were some questionable episodes and subplots throughout this season’s run. However, thanks to the talented cast’s charm and the Duplass Brother’s gift in being able to not only express but also gorgeously visualize adults’ deep yearning to return to the days of childish innocence the show altogether managed to be relevant and striking enough of a watch anyway.
I’ll still be somewhat sad to see this one go because, despite some seasonal inconsistencies, ‘Togetherness’ always accomplished to create something that felt genuine and earnest, even if in the end the show really had nothing new to say at all. But that’s almost where its purpose lay in first place – to remind us that even the surest amongst grown-ups usually only make it up as they go along and that all of us just want to be able to let the child inside of us take over again.
Best Episodes: “Advanced Pretend”; “The Sand Situation”; “For the Kids”
Sarah Jessica Parker’s return to HBO might not have been as potent, or at least as glossy, as her acclaimed classic ‘Sex & the City but it was a strong enough outlet for SJP to proof that she’s still a relevant actress and that it may actually be worth investing in.
Throughout ‘Divorce’s 10-episode run it increasingly found its footing and developed an understanding of the invisible, inescapable magnetic force that drives a married couple throughout their break-up.
Frances and Robert have not only shared a life together but also children and the show tries to make a case that despite all the chaotic, maddening events and the resulting feelings that have driven them to this place they still share a deep-running understanding and irritating fondness for each other that seems to make their divorcing process easier, but in actuality only makes it all the harder.
Unfortunately, ‘Divorce’ is a also a deeply split show – like its central couple – that can never truly make up its own mind about how it wants to represent the situation and whether or not to take a side – which, of course, isn’t necessary if the show wouldn’t at least often tend to sympathize with one or the other. Some, or pretty much all of ‘Divorce’s best moments come to flourish whenever it’s ready to examine the dark side of its self-destructing ex-couple and discover just how far either will go when excruciating circumstances and reality-revealing insights drive them there.
As a darkly comedic story about two divorcees crossing into soft anti-hero material, ‘Divorce’ sometimes makes a case for being more than just another superfluous star vehicle.
Unfortunately, in its first season, the show also still too often runs itself into basic and foreseeable ground standing in conflict with the far juicier and more complex elements and approaches of its characters and as a show.
Okay, am not gonna be able to finish my write-ups for this on time, like no way
SOOOO... I'll post my entire ranking tonight or tomorrow and MAYBE I will add some write-ups over the next two days and post an update if anyone cares enough to actually read them, LOL. I mean there's enough and a lot I want to say about some of these shows and how they tie into the TV landscape too, possibly, but I can't force myself to rush the writings and this is supposed to be fun & no pressure, so stay tuned.