I'm a serial TV drama lover. I love to find a good show and sink my teeth in. Sometimes I'm blown away (Sons Of Anarchy), sometimes I bow down before the awesomeness (Deadwood), sometimes I fall in love with the quirkiness (Dexter) and sometimes I walk away thinking its the best television show ever (The Sopranos). Either way, I am restless mentally unless I have at least one show I'm plugged into. This year was fruitful.
I managed to get through most of Madmen this year. I love the writing, love Don Drapers character, but its one of those shows I have to be mentally prepared to invest a few hours in. It's my type of drama, very much grounded in reality. It's also way too smart for network television. It's a beautfiul slow burn, a show that peels back the layers of each character at an almost glacial pace. In the end, its probably the best writing on TV. Still, I recommend it to the thinking man or woman with time to spare. If you're a blood and fire hound, it'll put you to sleep. If you're like me, and you enjoy intellectual analysis, its worth your time.
I started and finished Friday Night Lights in a month. I had avoided the show like a plague. Football, small towns and teenagers sounded like Dawsons Creek drivel to me. SURPRISE....it turned out to be one of the most unpredictable, gratifying and tightly written dramas I've seen. The show isn't really about football. It's about realistic small town characters dealing with love, death, sex and religion. The psychosis of the show is almost jilting. I watched two episodes and got sucked in almost immediately. That NEVER happens to me. But it did with FNL. Kyle Chandler's Coach Taylor is one of those brilliant characters that you wish were real, a guy who never compromises his ideals...ever. Trust me on this one....you'll wind up getting addicted to the narrative direction without much effort.
I managed to get through two episodes of Damages...meh. It was interesting except for the flash forwards to the end of the season. That got old fast. I just said no.
I finished Rescue Me this year. What a show! Denis Leary and Peter Tolan have kept me on Tommy Gavins emotional roller coaster for two years. This final season seemed to end happily and then broke my heart...then made me laugh..then ended. The death of one of the key characters was hard to stomach. It was also brilliant. I'm happy with how it all went down.
I'm trying to finish Justified. Part of me likes it. Part of me thinks its Walker Texas Ranger for smart people. I don't like the episodic mini stories. I like connective tissue on a series. Nevertheless, the writing is good and I keep coming back.
Sons Of Anarchy was excellent this year. The season was one big bloody explosion of drugs, sex and rock n'roll, a visceral, raw, adrenalized pulp soap opera. I can't get enough. Kurt Sutter is in Hemingway mode...if Hemingway were into adrenalized pulp soap operas. Sons is like a graphic novel adaption except there was never a graphic novel. I like that.
I am cautiously beginning Breaking Bad. It has never looked insanely appealing, but that doesn't mean I won't get clued in.
Anyway, I still need to start Boardwalk Empire. Dexters been on fire this season as well.
Peace,
Max
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