OK, so I’ve done the music round-up for the year, so let’s take a look at TV. Below is my list of Top 10 new shows for 2011. After that, you’ll find lists of shows that almost made the list, shows that tried and failed, shows I’m bidding farewell to, a few dubious “awards”, a list of notable miniseries, and my best and worst TV moments of 2011. Remember that the Top 10 list is for new shows which debuted this year. Old faves like Mad Men and Breaking Bad aren’t new, so they don’t count.
My Top 10 New Shows of 2011
#10: The Hour (BBC) – Hailed as “Britain’s answer to Mad Men“, The Hour… wasn’t. Not exactly, anyway. Set in a fictitious BBC current events show of the same name in the 1950s, The Hour features Ben Whishaw as Freddy Lyon, a young and hungry reporter who has been stuck in smoky back rooms making newsreels for the BBC. His close friend and mentor Bel Rowley (the yummy Romola Garai) lands a job producing the new TV show, and hires him. To Freddy’s immense disappointment, Bel’s boss names Hector Madden (Dominic West from The Wire) as the show’s handsome and socially-connected (but mentally lightweight) anchor. There’s plenty of real-life intrigue as the Suez Canal Crisis begins just as the failing show needs something to draw in viewers. And there are plenty behind-the-scenes machinations as love affairs start, people plot against one another for promotions, and the BBC butts heads with the government over The Hour’s coverage of the Suez Crisis. But where the show stumbles is in a spy subplot which Freddy uncovers after pasting news clippings all over his wall a la Rubicon. It’s a quality show, but hopefully they’ll lose the “secret spy stuff” next season. After all, if Mad Men can get by using an ad agency as the backdrop, why can’t The Hour do the same on the set of a TV show?
#9: Shameless (Showtime) – I’ve never seen the original British original, mostly because it was already well into its run by the time I discovered it, and I don’t like jumping in to shows in progress. And, as if it weren’t obvious enough in my TV and movie posts, I’m growing really tired of premium cable shows reveling in people behaving badly. I don’t think we should go back to the days of Father Knows Best by any means, but I’m getting sick of Hollywood putting dysfunction on a pedestal. But I just can’t help myself: I like this show. That’s mainly due to the performances of William H. Macy, Joan Cusack and Emmy Rossum. Yes, the weekly storylines can get old after a while – the whole “dysfunctional family pulls together to solve the problem of the week” thing can grate – but still… I think the show has remarkable depth and heart, even given how screwed up everyone is. Oh, and it’s really funny, too!
