My own self

Hello!


Being an immense fan of lists, and a much-too-dedicated watcher of televised scripted entertainment, I thought I would list the new shows I have checked out in and from 2011. Except for where it is otherwise noted, I have seen all of these in their entirety, and am up to date until at least December 31st 2011.

First, an overview of which new shows I have seen this year, in roughly chronological order of their premiere dates:
* Young Justice (Cartoon Network) - still airing
* The Cape (NBC) - cancelled
* Shameless [the US remake] (Showtime) - still airing
* Lights Out (FX) - cancelled
* Harry's Law (NBC) - still airing
* The Chicago Code (Fox) - cancelled
* Mr. Sunshine (ABC) - cancelled
* Camelot (Starz) - cancelled
* Breakout Kings (A&E) - still airing
* The Borgias (Showtime) - still airing
* Mortal Kombat: Legacy (online series) - completed
* Game of Thrones (HBO) - still airing
* Falling Skies (TNT) - still airing [I DID NOT FINISH THIS ONE]
* Suits (USA) - still airing
* Marvel Anime: Wolverine (G4) - completed
* Marvel Anime: Iron Man (G4) - completed
* Alphas (Syfy) - still airing
* Husbands (online series) - completed
* New Girl (Fox) - still airing
* Revenge (ABC) - still airing
* Ringer (CW) - still airing
* Terra Nova (Fox) - cancelled
* Suburgatory (ABC) - still airing
* Homeland (Showtime) - still airing
* Boss (Starz) - still airing
* Once Upon A Time (ABC) - still airing
* Grimm (NBC) - still airing

And, yes, I am aware that some of these were technically not cancelled but rather "not renewed". For all intents and purposes, though, if they don't have a series finale clearly intended to be such, the difference is negligible from a creative standpoint, which is the one I care about, so, not bothering to do the research of finding out which is technically which.


Wow. 27 shows. This is going to be a long, long post. To keep it shorter, I won't explain what each show is about - if you've not heard of one, or my comments make no sense with what you have heard, please ask in the comments, and I shall do the plot-summary so you know what the show is about. Here, however, I will keep it limisted to my reactions and thoughts.

Also note that I've checked out every show I heard of and thought I could maybe be interested in this year save one - Person of Interest (CBS). It seems on the surface too procedural for my tastes, but the premise and Emerson's involvement both do tempt me, so if it gets better reviews as it goes, maybe one day. Also honourable mention before we start to Starz' Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which while not technically a new show, was leagues and miles and lightyears better than the season it is a prequel to, and highly recommended as a starting point for anyone who likes speculative amouns of intrigue, sex and violence and awesomely stilted dialogue all wrapped up in Ancient Roman garbs. Just be aware that after finishing the prequel, most of the actual first season is rather crappy (it gets good by the end, though).

So, ranking, least to best:

27 * Husbands (online series) - completed
A bit disappointed by this, to be honest. It has a good word on it, it is Jane Espenson's mindchild, all three actors are quite good at bringing both the funny and the sweet, and it even cameos in Nathan Fillion at one point. Is it watchable? Yes, the über-short episode format makes it easily digestible enough to ignore the flaws. But honestly, the jokes could (should) be way, way funnier.

26 * Marvel Anime: Iron Man (G4) - completed
Checked this out on a whim, but mostly on the strength of the names involved on the creative side. Can't say I'm too impressed. Pasdar does a fine job as Tony Stark - in fact, the voice acting is decent throughout - and the plot is at least original. But parts of it just never seemed convincing (the plotline with Yinsen, his mentor, seems intriguing at first, but quickly dissolves by being explained away with over-the-top non-credible insane-logic, for instance), and the anime dressing never really clicks with me. "Oh no I said something which might have been mildly inappropriate in 1812, let me stand here and stutter for a while in embarrassment" gets so old so fast.

25 * Falling Skies (TNT) - still airing [I DID NOT FINISH THIS ONE]
Albeit cursed with the dual distinction of bottom billing and being the only show on the list that I started but could not find it in even my obsessive soul to finish (yet...), there were some positive features on this show. The protagonist, while for plot purposes your typical bland hero dude, had some unusual features (schoolteacher!) and was rather well acted. In fact, the whole cast, while not stellar or anything, made a big, big impression considering how stereotyped their characters were. The annoying teenagers are not so annoying, the grouchy old pseudo-antagonistic army officer is likable in spite of himself, and the amoral wildcard turned unwilling sidekick was downright interesting. To top this off, there are some nice post-apocalyptic mysteries going on. Sadly, the show didn't manage to become anything more than stunt-of-the-week in the five episodes I gave it, and the plots just did not warrant my time. A shame. But on the strength of the premise and the cast, I can easily see this suddenly finding its footing and getting good reviews in season 2 or 3, so I am not completely giving up hope on it. For now though, this is as skippable as it gets unless you really, really, really love post-apocalypse alien invasion TV.

24 * Mortal Kombat: Legacy (online series) - completed
Having next to no history, experience or knowledge of or with the Mortal Kombat franchise, checking this out was a whim of proportions. It was... interesting, though. The anthology premise makes it tough to rank it - parts were good, parts less so - but I definitely would recommend this to anyone with a slight interest in small scale epic sci-fi/fantasy action.

23 * Marvel Anime: Wolverine (G4) - completed
Companion piece to Iron Man - they even cross over - and voiced by Pasdar's Heroes-brother Ventimiglia. Ventimiglia does not have anywhere near the same presence Pasdar does, but he does a decent job here, I'll give him that, even if he occasionally comes off as trying too hard to sound callous and grouchy. Then again, maybe that's just good acting, as that sounds like something Wolverine would try to do, too. A much, much, much simpler plotline than Iron Man's is explored here, and it (unfortunately) works better with the formula. The big action scene at the end of each episode feels more organic because it is not intruding as much on a main narrative, and the simple emotional underpinning of Wolverine looking for his girlfriend drives you forward. That said, it also makes the season feel overlong and at times rather dreary. Watchable, but not much more.

22 * The Borgias (Showtime) - still airing
Disappointment of the year. I cannot BELIEVE I am ranking Jeremy Irons as one of the most compelling figures in political history on Showtime beneath something with dinosaurs which airs on... Fox. The world, clearly, has gone insane.
But there we are. I'm still watching this - how can I not, it is Irons and manipulative cardinals and assassins - but the sheer fact that I am not ranking it in my top five is a failure for a show with a cast and premise like this one. The pacing is frequently awful, the plots hardly ever pack the punch they logically should, and when the small time assassin is the most compelling character in a show about warring kings and popes, something is wrong. All that said, the show did get increasingly better as it went, and was downright good in the final two-three episodes. I have tentative hopes for season 2, but seriously, Showtime, burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice...

21 * Breakout Kings (A&E) - still airing
It is a decent show, but very predictably procedural. While there is nothing wrong with the other cast members or characters, Jimmi Simpson is the reason this show is worth my time (if only barely). His brilliantly talented behavioural psychologist with a gambling addiction seeking redemption for the girl who overdosed on medication he proscribed her is not only consistently interesting, he's also consistently charming and consistently funny. I've never seen Simpson be anything less than compelling, but this part was certainly a stellar match for him. And the show as a whole is fair enough, if much too easily digested for my tastes. Only beats Borgias on account of Simpson, though.

20 * Mr. Sunshine (ABC) - cancelled
I was initially underwhelmed, but the show seemed to eventually find its footing and then got funnier as it went on. Unfortunately, it also got cancelled and it went off. Jeanty was especially hilarious here - her oblivious racism in particular was a hoot - but every character grew on me, and of course, Perry would be funny even if locked in a cage. Hey, that could be his new show!

19 * Terra Nova (Fox) - cancelled
Steven Spielberg's second executive producing billing of the year - the first one being Falling Skies - this too is post-apocalyptic. Or to be specific, it is pre-postapocalyptic, as a group of people escape a grim future and goes back to the day of the dinosaur. The pilot was great, just great. Then the show did what I feared, and went procedural in the extreme. Episode 2-7 is garbage, and you can probably skip 8-9 too, though the show was getting better. 10-13 was quite, quite solid. Nothing special by any means, but solid, and living at least almost up to what the pilot promised. I'm actually rather optimistic for season 2 on this one now. They seem to have figured out what the show is, and while the cast (one or two characters aside) is much more bland than that of Falling Skies, the premise and mysteries are, in return, much more compelling. The second they stopped doing obvious plot-of-the-week stories we've seen on a thousand TV shows before, it got quite watchable, as the underpinnings they then lean on have a lot of potential. [Edit on March 27th: Cancelled for good. Sigh. Just as it was getting somewhere.]

18 * New Girl (Fox) - still airing
Oh, how I fought to decide on whether or not to keep going with this one. Deschanel's protagonist starts out as utterly unfunny. The pseudo-portmanteau "adorkable" is thrown around about this show a lot, and it is fitting to the extent that if you find that word remotely charming, you'll probably like the main character, too. I hate the word, and I'm really, really not a fan of the character. BUT. Such a fun secondary cast. Now obviously Greenfield's Schmidt utterly steals the show comedy wise - and I would have given up after episode 2 if not for him - but the other three regulars are also quite decent. And in Deschanel's defense, her performance is fine. It is just the character which is utterly unfunny. Luckily, she gets toned down a lot in episodes five and six, and so I've kept going, and it seems to have stuck, luckily. Mostly I kept going for Schmidt, who makes me laugh at least twice per episode, but really for the supporting cast in general, who make the stories seem human and grounded when the title character is running around being boring. Her male counterpart introduced in episode 6 oddly seems to help that, though. When they are two, they're not just being awkward and stupid, they're suddenly rather being cute and different. Hope he stays around for a while.

17 * Alphas (Syfy) - still airing
A show surprisingly torn between interestingly brave and predictably safe moves. It's a procedural about a misfit crew of super-powered special agents solving sci-fi crimes (predictably safe). The misfits are not all that cool (going for realistic personalities rather than having everyone be a witty machiavellian or a likable grunt), and the super-powers are borderline realistic and usually very underpowered (compared to on shows like, say, Heroes or The 4400) - interestingly brave. The over-arching plot is a sinister fanatic terror organisation pulling at strings (predictably safe), but several of the protagonists, including the moral compass-leader character, explicitly express sympathetic feelings towards the organisation's views (interestingly brave). The villains are one-offs who carry a single stand-alone episode plot only hinting at a greater conspiracy (predictably safe), but they are never one-note evil, always morally grey, and frequently sympathetic (interestingly brave). And a surprising amount of them are left alive, so hopefully, season 2 will see a lot of the recurring. While the secondary guest characters being a bigger draw then the main cast is an unfortunate thing, it is still a draw, and when you combine that with a clear tendency towards ever more decent episodes and a refreshingly low-key take on super powers, I'm actually rather intrigued by this. I just wish to the gods it was less procedural.
In a lot of ways, Alphas is very similar to Breakout Kings - you could set up the casts, for instance, and give mostly one-to-one relationships of their group and plot dynamics - but it has less humour (BK's main strength), and more story. and it has a solid season finale hinting at a potentially much more interesting second season. (Whereas Breakout Kings show little interest in ever messing with their formula).

16 * The Cape (NBC) - cancelled
Better cast than Terra Nova, but otherwise pretty much the same story - though this one ends in cancellation. Great movie-esque pilot, a half-limping run of standalones mixed in with the main arc, and just as it seems to figure itself out it ends. James Frain as the half Luthor-half Joker villain was a treat, though.

15 * Grimm (NBC) - still airing
Severe standaloneitus, and a protagonist so bland he makes the dude from Terra Nova seem like Winston Churchill, and yet... Silas Weir Mitchell is FANTASTIC as the not-so-big formerly-bad wolf sidekick, and sells the show from the get go. Also intriguing, but for now not yet given anything of import to do, is Sasha Roiz's Captain Renard. The creatures really should be re-used rather than inventing new ones every week (WHY could the mouse-creatures not just have been the rat creatures from an earlier episode? They were even described with pretty much the same characteristics!), and the police work angle is so prominent it should at least be taken more seriously ("preliminary DNA results are back and we know she is a woman" - what the what?), but all in all, I am both entertained and intrigued. The main plots seem like they could be heaps of fun, if only they are ever allowed front seat.

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This is a break-off point in quality. While I am certainly a much bigger fan of Grimm than Falling Skies, I would still drop Grimm if my schedule did not allow for it anymore, or if it takes a turn for the worse. After this, we're entering "good enough that I'll probably never drop it barring only extreme circumstances." Note that I am ridiculously anal and have an awfully hard time letting go of things, and as such my bar for this level is likely a lot lower than that of most.
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14 * Young Justice (Cartoon Network) - still airing
Wow, great animation! Looks good, has glimmers of actually witty humour, and manages to be about the DCU sidekicks without feeling childish or boring. Some things are of course a bit too on the nose - Miss Martian's "Hello Megan" was painfully old the first time she said it - but really, this is polished stuff which really takes advantage of the DCU it has at its disposal and seamlessly combine the standalone plots to longer and interesting plotlines. Surprisingly dark at times, and just all around enjoyable - if you like superheroes, you should give it a gander, but if you don't, you're probably not in the target demographic.

13 * The Chicago Code (Fox) - cancelled
Another one where my expectations were too high. Shawn Ryan? Tim Minear? How could this not be great? Well... it's not. Solid cast, though. The antagonist in particular was wonderful. But he was often not seen for episodes at a time, that's how little this show cared about its arc. If you watch episode 1-2 and then the series finale, you really won't have missed much of importance, and that is just sad. This could have been something quite special, and it ended up being just another cop show with some bittersweet moments of awesome here and there to highlight what it could have been.

12 * Camelot (Starz) - cancelled
And so we start the top 12! Camelot was a fun show, with a couple of fun actors, and some very interesting ideas on what they could do with the Arhturian legends. Some episodes were too standalone for their own good, but what really brought the show down was the pretty boy Arthur. Not the actor's fault, his actual acting was fine. But whoever cast him in that part... It's KING ARTHUR! Someone with some scene presence would be too much to ask? Ah, well. It is the Merlin and Morgan show anyway, and at least this way they never tried to hide it. Should have gotten a second season, but should also have been able to do more with the episodes they did have. Dragging their feet a tad too much, unfortunately, saving too many cool plotlines for a future which will now never come. Oh well. At least we got the fantastically gruesome visuals of Merlin's fetching Excalibur to remember it by.

11 * Harry's Law (NBC) - still airing
David E. Kelley might write the same episodes over and over on shows with different characters, but hey, at least they're good episodes and fun characters. With Harry's Law, he's added another lawyer show to his stable. Not as dark as The Practice, not as soapy as Ally McBeal, not as political as Boston Legal - but somewhere nicely between the three, carving out a new mix of familiar Kelley elements. And it works. Better lately than in the beginning. The show premiered in winter 2011, and found time to air half its second season the very same autumn. So far, the second half of season 1 beats season 2, but season 2 beats the first half of season 1 with a much bigger margin, so the quality is still fine. Nothing special to see here, but fine entertainment, and if you liked Kelley's earlier legal dramas, you will certainly like this one too.

10 * Ringer (CW) - still airing
Surprise, it's good! Started out as overwrought, inelegant and at worst just plain unengaging, but Ringer has improved weekly since the pilot, and my ranking of it reflects just how much so. Perhaps the most cable-esque network show I have seen since Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, I would not have batted an eyelid if this was on FX or Showtime - though my expectations, of course, would have been much higher. The cast is good, the plotting manages to be surprising, but sadly the show's main problem is one baked into the premise: The main character is always reacting. She doesn't have a plan of her own, but is caught in the web of other people's plans (most of which we as the viewer can only guess at the details of). This makes the thriller-aspect work quite well, but it makes the equally important drama aspects a bit weak. There is no scheme to root for, no plan we wish will work out, because the main character is stuck in damage control. All that said, this is good TV, and deserves its spot on the top 10 new shows of the year.

9 * Suburgatory (ABC) - still airing
The main character's surprisingly Juno/Veronica Mars-esque charisma helps sell this, but really, the cast is very solid from end to end. Suburgatory is (at least currently) not an inspired piece of sitcom history like Arrested Development, Community or Parks & Recreation, but could easily grow into being another Modern Family - hilarious, reliable, likable. So very likable.

8 * Once Upon A Time (ABC) - still airing
The on-and-off wooden or cheesy acting (some actors seem more comfortable in their real-world-personas, others in their fairytale versions) that plagued the early episodes have mostly worn off by now, and the show has really come into fruition as a light-version of Lost. Lots of people trapped in a strange location? Check. Weekly character-centric flashbacks revealing a mysteriously combined back history? Check. Lots of little clues that something is wrong? Check. But much, much more accessible than Lost ever was. Clear protagonist/antagonist set-up from the get-go rather than an ensemble of moral greys, an equally clear audience awareness of the broad strokes of what the Big Mystery is all about. It also completely and whole-heartedly embraces its fantasy genre rather than tip-toeing for half a decade between realism, sci-fi and fantasy like Lost did. But these differences obviously have their downsides too. The cast is clearly inferior to Lost's, but that's not a slight to Once Upon A Time, merely a tip of the hat to Lost (I'm not a big fan, but I must admit credit where credit is due). More importantly, though, the clear knowledge of what the main plot is makes the mystery far less compelling. I still think it is intriguing enough, but it cannot at all compete with those of Lost's early episodes. So in short, again, it is a lightweight snack-sized version of Lost, with fairy tale characters. I personally tire of the main Snow White/Prince Charming plot and oddly prefer the more fringe-relevant episodes, but the flashbacks do always find some way of twisting the original tale so you feel engaged and interested, even when you're inclined not to be. Not a great show, but a very fun one, especially for a fantasy geek like me. And Robert Carlyle's Rumpelstiltskin is of course a pure joy.

7 * Boss (Starz) - still airing
If quality TV is about storytelling, Boss gets great marks on story and a barely pass on telling. It doesn't deliver the emotional punches of the story with nearly the force I feel it could and should (because they're GOOD punches!), and that is not in the acting, and mostly not in the writing, that is in the cutting, the filming, the scene-ordering, and so on and so forth. That said, I am quite into this show. I love a good Big Man-story (see my oft-mentioned love for Deadwood, Kings, Rome, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, or my above-referenced adoration of the antagonist on the Chicago Code), and that is of course exactly what this promises to be. While hardly a plot-element seems new (so much of the premise seems straight out of Kings, for instance), the combination of them all are often inspired and Grammar's performance is just so great. I am - and the steady quality creep as the show went on (after a very disappointing episode 2) seems to verify this - crediting this show's many executive flaws to Starz' inexperience with original programming, and banking that season 2 is going to be a force to be reckoned with. I know I'm still reeling from the main twist of the season 1 finale.

6 * Lights Out (FX) - cancelled
I have less than zero interest in boxing. In fact, the show being about boxing quite put me off it. But I still really enjoyed this. Good actors (Eamonn Walker in particular should be in everything ever), a clean, emotional plotline that never overreached, this is one cancellation that felt almost organic. The story could easily end where it did, and the writers should be credited for ending it so smoothly. If you want a solid comeback-story drama miniseries, you could do a lot worse than Lights Out.

5 * Suits (USA) - still airing
On paper, this should be an unimpressive, run-of-the-mill idea for a TV show, but somehow, the sleek, elegant execution sells it, and sells it hard. Six months after the season ended, I'm still humming the opening theme. Funny, exciting, and most of all plain cool, this is as good as a lightweight fluff-over-substance drama can reasonably be expected to be. So excited about season 2!

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Ok, the final heat. While some of the ones so far are really, really good in my personal opinion, they do tend to depend a bit on your tastes and genre affinities and so on to be more than merely okay. The final four on the list are so much fun for me, however, that I cannot honestly imagine someone not at least thinking they're good. More likely very good. So no matter who you are, unless moving pictures make you nauseous and you miss the days of radio (in which case, go check out www.thrillingadventurehour.com, by the way), the following 2011 TV premieres receive my most heartfelt recommendations:
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4 * Revenge (ABC) - still airing
Really hooked by this. The best new non-cable show among the bunch, and tailored for me. Loosely based on the fabulous The Count of Monte Cristo, it adds 10% Batman (it might take you a few episodes to get that one) and 40% classic soap opera a la Dallas (this you'll catch on to quickly) to the thriller drama mix. The acting came off as a bit stiff and underwhelming in the pilot, but I quickly stopped noticing, and that was really my only complaint. The main character's manipulations are wonderful, the theme of the steep price of vengeance is never forgotten but never preachy, and the entire cast of secondary characters are so slippery and nasty in their own rights (but all in different ways) I am just so completely on board. Imagine if Game of Thrones was set in the Hamptons and nigh on every major character was a Littlefinger, a Varys or a Tyrion. That's basically this show.
Interesting sidenote is that Revenge, especially in the early episodes, reminded me a lot of the sadly cancelled show Profit (a sort of corporate world precursor to Dexter). The main character is coldly eliminating people in his/her way to achieve the ultimate goal of bringing down the massively powerful Greyson family (yes, the families even have the same name in both shows!). The wrappings and themes are very different from Profit, to be sure, but the structures and plotlines reminded me of it a lot. As I really, really like Profit, that's not at all a bad thing.

3 * Homeland (Showtime) - still airing
Mandy Patinkin - also known as Inigo Montoya, the best thing about Dead Like Me, and (I'm told) some dude on some stupid big-time cop procedural - is in this. If that's not selling you, your head is clearly not correctly attached (I'm trying to find a time to watch said stupid big-time cop procedural as I type), but don't worry, I have pitches that can break its signal through even the most unattached of spinal cords:
The star from Stardust and the face of Band of Brothers are heading this thing. Still not sold? Ok, it's helmed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, writing partners since at least on Beauty and the Beast in the late eighties, and with CVs which combined involve working on shows like 24, Entourage, Angel, The X-files and The Inside.
Yeah, okay, I get it, I have tosay it: Homeland is awesome. It's just so good. It manages to be intense even when there is hardly anything going on - even though usually, there IS stuff going on - and it is mind-blowingly unafraid. By which I mean that this show burns bridges faster than other shows finish their opening credits. Nearly every episode permanently resolves some plotline or other that I expected to go on for a half-season at the very least. I've no idea how the writers are not terrified of running out of ideas by episode 3 in season 2 at this rate, but clearly, they know what they're doing, so I'm just going to lean back and be dazzled.
(Quick side-note, though - what on Earth was the deal with 2011 and secret-illness-plots? Protagonists on Homeland, Boss, Lights Out, a side-character on Revenge, and, if you count the drug addiction, the protagonist on Ringer, too!)

2 * Game of Thrones (HBO) - still airing
My favourite books in my favourite genre by my favourite author's adapted to a TV show by my favourite cable network and stars one of my favourite actors? Yeah, somehow, that did not end in abysmal disappointment at all! Game of Thrones is rock solid. Should it have had 13 episodes and felt less rushed? Yes. But when your only complaint basically amounts to "there should have been more", it is time to shut up.

1 * Shameless [the US remake] (Showtime) - still airing
So, when my favourite books in my favourite genre by my favourite author is adapted into a TV show by my favourite cable network, starring one of my favourite actors, and it is beaten to the top of this list by a comedy drama about a pack of money-troubled misfit siblings and an alcoholic useless git of a father, pitching or commenting beyond that very fact itself seems somehow redundant. But Shameless manages to be heart-warming, funny, sad, compelling, engaging, interesting without being about anything more than some less-than-well-off folks and their everyday lives, and it manages it all so effortlessly. I'm probably hyping this too much up now, but screw that, Shameless is fantastic, and watching it makes me happy. You go see it too.