Bests of TV 2014-2015

Last year I wrapped up the TV season by naming 10 best drama episodes, which was not surprisingly led by The Good Wife's masterful Hitting the Fan. This year, I decided to name favorites in  more categories, party because I've not written here for quite a long time and mostly because I've watched a lot drama series [38 Emmy eligible shows]. Traditionally, I've divided "awards" in drama and comedy category.

I applied minor changes to Emmy rules. First, I consider Shameless as drama and especially current season, which has two major dramatic story lines - Ian's illness and Fiona's marriage/personal issues. Second, I included some guest performers in Supporting actor/actress nominations, because I find it extremely hard to follow or remember most guest performers. For that reason, I did not make top choices in respective categories.

[Huge disclaimer: I have not watched House of Cards S3 yet]

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Amazon Pilot: The Man in the High Castle

Last year, Amazon premiered its very first pilots of original series, making some observations whether to renew the shows or cancel it. I instantly reviewed three most compelling ones: Mozart in the Jungle, Bosch and The After. This year, Amazon cancelled The After and ordered new seasons for the rest. Meanwhile, they are continuing the experiment by premiering over 6 new shows for our consideration, for free. 

The Man in the High Castle is an adaptation of the alternative history novel by Philip K. Dick of the same name, telling a story of the world from the perspective that Nazis won the WWII. It mostly concentrates on the US, where German and Japanese Axes try to gain control over the historical America.

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Modern Family 6x02: Don't Push

You will read spoilers here

In Don't Push the Dunphys go to Caltech university for Alex's future admission, while Gloria and Jay are trying to get perfect presents for their anniversary and Pritchett-Tucker family is taking a family photo. And they all have some trouble.

Alex is determined to go to MIT, because Caltech is too close to home and she's willing to be as far as possible for more independence, finally. Regardless, she attends open house day with her family, which tries to be supportive in the biggest decision she's going to make. Phil, Haley and Luke decide to participate in an experiment, promising to reward participants with fifty dollars. They are left in a room with red button saying Do Not Push (pictured above). As they think this is part of the experiment, they seek for solution and the process of doing so brings number of family problems to the surface.

Meanwhile, Alex meets some nerdy guy and changes her mind about MIT, understanding that it's not that bad to be around family.

Jay sculptures a bunny for Gloria as a reminder of their first date. But she thinks that her favorite bracelet is hidden inside so breaks the present right  in front of husband.

Lily is troubling her parents while taking a family photo. She gives that awkward, forced smile and of course, Cameron and Mitchell are panicking. After number of photo sessions, they finally get that their daughter is quite determined about her smile.

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TV Series: Under the Dome S2E01 & The Leftovers S1E01

While my top shows are giving me a hard time to wait for next fall/spring seasons, I have some favorite summer TV Series, that are actually good to watch. Last year, Under the Dome was adapted from Stephen King's novel of the same name, which is one of my favorite works of him and after pretty impressive first season, it lands second more valuable one. As a huuuge fan of King, I could not wait for its premiere.

These days twitter was blown by new HBO mystery The Leftovers and since it's HBO, not porn, I decided to check it out. 

So, here are my thoughts on two recent premieres [heavy spoilers ahead]

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Top 10 TV Drama Episodes of 2013-2014

This TV season has ended. In fact, only Emmys are left to conclude 2013-2014 season of television to celebrate bests of this year. 

It's been an amazing year for my favorite series and we had some newcomers, like True Detective. I watched Shameless for the first time, finished long awaited Game of Thrones and House of Cards. Had some disappointment with The Following and Dexter and I did not expect that Hostages would only last for one season.

Finally, all comes down to these 10 TV Drama episodes as the most outstanding achievements this year, that I will remember quite long and quite well: [spoilers ahead]

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Random Thoughts on Emmys, Oscars and Game of Thrones Finale

Game of Thrones is over and before we [the fans] miss it, we have many other things to worry about. For instance, upcoming Emmy season and whatever indifference we show, we all want that out favorite show wins. I've been rooting during all three previous seasons for GoT, even though I knew that Mad Men and Breaking Bad [at Golden Globes] were voters favorite. 

Before I move on awards, here are some words about Game of Thrones. It's been an amazing season, my favorite one after last year, The Red Wedding still remains as my most favorite scene on TV lately. To my opinion, the best episode of GoT this year was The Laws of Gods and Men, first of all because of Tyrion's speech and secondly, because of amazingly crafted story. I think that this episode can bring Peter Dinklage second win, unless voters don't stick to Aaron Paul again. 

Also, The Watchers on the Wall is best directed episode this year. I actually think that it is one of the best episodes of GoT in four years. Epic battle scenes always work for directors, these huge shots, massive attacks and lots of blood. 

I think it's time for Sophie Turner to be recognized for her amazing job in this show. Really people? She's been through everything person can be. I believe she's got best chances this year, because we all saw her transformation from victim to fighter and someone who can stand for her future. I think female voters will like it. I've always believed that Sansa is a good character, somehow interesting and she can be very important one, in fact [I don't know about book, but I feel so]. 

Now, let's talk about EMMYS:

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TV Series: Amazon Originals Pilot Series - Part I

After quite unsuccessful attempt to make something good and original by premiering Onion News Empire, Amazon decided to launch 9 pilot comedy & drama series. But those are only pilots and if you take a little survey, you will contribute the decision making process of turning those series into full TV Shows. Obviously, not all of them are going to be one. All pilots are available for free on Amazon.

I the Part I I will review three of them The After, Mozart in the Jungle & Bosch.

The After - pilot rating 10/10.

these are not aliens

In case Chris Carter does not say anything to you, I'll say that he created The X-Files, probably one of the best sci-fi tv series of all time and now he comes back with very creepy alien show The After. 

The show opens with introduction of Gigi, an eccentric actress with sexy French accent, who unsuccessfully auditions for her dream role. Going back to hotel, before flight back home to her husband and little daughter, she is stuck in elevator with 4 strangers: a cop, a clown, an old lady and a bad guy. It looks like a "must people for any horror movie" and so it is. Many things I saw in the first episode reminded other shows or movies of same genre: exploding helicopters, mass panic scene in the streets and escaped prisoners.

But, then this well-known mess evolves quite quickly and in a very interesting direction. As the small group of survivors (the ones from elevator and plus some other) flee to old lady's fabulous house, they face even more danger from something that even I can not explain.

Perfect rating to pilot goes jut because it bring a good material for further development and its creepy and definitely worth checking for. It can easily become a lot more interesting. It is important that pilot made you want to watch further episodes and this one just did it.
 

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TV Series: The Following [2013]

The Following is a saga of psychological terror, mind games, serial killers and everything frightening you can see in your life.

"FBI estimates that there are over 50 serial killers in the United States. What if somebody leads and unites them?!"

My obsession with serial killers and thrillers makes me proudly say that I've seen all TV-Series evolving around these two issues and quite a big number of films. But this show tells an exceptional story of mass murderer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) - a former charismatic literature teacher, who was convicted for killing 14 girls, his students. He was caught by Agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) during committing another crime and that girl was the only victim who survived.

Joe, as a widely spread cliche says, has his own pattern to kill. He finds it beautiful. Being a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe and influenced by his works, especially by unfinished one The Light-House, he decides to create his own form of art - the art of death.  Carrol, just like Poe, believed in "insanity of art" and that it needed to be physically and emotionally "felt". He is a very interesting character, terrifically talented and smart, unemotional but sometimes "funny", determined and cold-blooded. He's gathered every possible mass murderer in 50 states and brought to do something big and step by step destroy Ryan, who put him death penalty and slept with his wife.

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Showtime New Series "Penny Dreadful" Teaser

Showtime released a teaser trailer of its new horror series "Penny Dreadful", created by three times Oscar nominee John Logan. Logan, who picked respective writing nominations for Hugo, The Aviator and Gladiator, brought literature's most terrifying characters including Dr. Frankestein, Dorian Gray and characters from Dracula. 

TV-Series has some impressive cast members like Timothy Dalton, Eva Green, Josh Hartnett and Rory Kinnear. Showtime does not specifically say story-line of Penny Dreadful but teaser still looks dreadful enough to be intrigued. Series is planned to air in 2014.

Check the teaser out here:

Musings on `American Horror Story: Coven` Premiere

Witches of Coven

Finally, very much anticipated third season of American Horror Story has arrived with a story of witches who are trying to survive in a modern world, after being persecuted in past centuries. I shall not start proving how phenomenal this series is, actually the only show which totally terrifies and astonishes me with superb story, masterful acting and brilliant directing.

From now on, the horrors happen in a Coven aka Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies - a mysterious school in New Orleans for witches. Episode Bitchcraft opens with flashback to quite distant past and introduces Madame Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) - a slave owner, who inhumanly tortures them to keep herself forever young. She's later killed by a Voodoo - a girlfriend to one of her victims. 

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Who Would You Cast in HBO's `American Gods`?

HBO continues to amaze its viewers with more brilliant sci-fis. After smashing success of Game of Thrones, it plans 6 seasons of Neil Gaiman's award winning fantasy book American Gods. The book, which I've never read, promises a lot with very interesting and original idea of combining all mythological gods and new ones. Here you can see Odin, Anubis, Loki and modern deities of internet, celebrities, television, etc. You think that the last ones have no chance with olds? Brace yourself, gods in this book (and show) gain power according to how strongly people believe in them, so God of Google can be more tough then Jesus, Odin, Zeus altogether. 

The good thing about American Gods is that every supernatural creature is real in it, just like dragons in Game of Thrones and personally, I think that it's going to be better then any series, including Supernatural. Unfortunately, HBO is not sure about airing date (it was announced as 2013, however), since Gaiman is still processing the pilot script. Accordingly, producers have not announced the cast, which gives me a time to wonder who I'd love to see as gods.

Lets start (list of gods are taken from book, which means they might not be in show):

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TV Series: Pilot Episode Reviews Part II

In the part I, I reviewed three pilots: The Blacklist, Sleepy Hollow & Masters of Sex. As promised, this one includes pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

So, here we go:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | premiered on Sept. 24

This is a very first TV Show of Marvel which has already proved to be the best in superhero movies. Series with lots of superheros sounds great, imagine The Avengers lasting for years. It can be awesome and interesting, if writers manage to write interesting script, but if they fail, it can become a nightmare.

Pilot episode was good one. It introduces special government unit S.H.I.E.L.D., who hunt for super powered people and the same time we meet one of superheros, who is unaware how to use powers. The good thing is that, we don't actually know whether agents of government are good ones, or bad ones. They just hunt, however they can be people saving lives of others. It means that there is tones of job for writers to do in succeeding episodes. Whole 45 minutes are quite tense, sometimes funny and entertaining. But it mostly lacks descent characters, since most of them are in a shape of well known cliches. It seems writers took an example of average agent in movies and copied them, however superheros seem to be even worse. Accordingly there is no much character developments or twists in pilot, which I consider to be essential in the first episode.

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TV Series: Pilot Episode Reviews Part I

After series finale of Dexter I started to search for some new shows, that could entertain me a little and make me forget that my all time favorite series has ended. So, here are some interesting shows I found. I've not seen most of them, since their premieres are ahead yet, but trailers and plot look quite promising, so you might wanna check them out.

The Blacklist | premiered on Sept 23

NBC brings a new original series The Blacklist. FBI most wanted criminal Raymond 'Red' Reddington (James Spader) surprisingly decides to surrender and visits its field office by himself. He has been in top list for years, but no one could ever find him. Being immediately imprisoned, he asks for the only person he's willing to talk to - agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). And then Red suggests cooperation to catch the most important terrorists and criminals, they even have no idea they exist.

No one was going to compromise, but they had to since US General's daughter was under danger. Surprisingly, they catch criminal by exactly following Reddington's orders. However this was not the only name on Raymond's list - The Blacklist contains dozens of other threats. Which means, Red becomes new best friend of FBI.

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TV Series: Will & Grace [1998-2006]

Will & Grace is one of the series I've already recommended to watch. But I think I want to dedicate a full post to this very entertaining and hereafter one of my favorite TV-Show. 27 Golden Globe nominee, multiple Primetime Emmy winner show tells a story of Will Truman - a gay New York lawyer - and Grace Adler - straight interior designer, who's been best friends for ages and even at their early thirties they live together. This actually means that they mostly are single, with maximum relationship duration couple of months. First episodes of show escalate after Grace dumping her "longtime" boyfriend just before wedding and moving to Will's house. And here starts the story.

Will and Grace are two different persons with shared characters, lives and interests. They are totally supportive to each other, never date men if without approval and don't even think to get married. They enjoy being together. And yes, they are perfect in playing Taboo against any opponent.

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10 Best Title Sequences of All Time

Making a good show is hard job, but it is not (probably) easy to make a proper opening Title Sequence. According to IMDB list I have watched 82 TV Shows during my whole life. Some are good, some - bad, some are my favorites, the rest not. But I've never seen most of their opening credits from the beginning to the end. However, there are few of them, I enjoy not less then the show itself.

I present my top 10 favorite and best Title Sequences of all time. I pick each because of three reasons: good music, good production and relevance to show. Here we go:

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TV Series: Under the Dome, Suits, Orphan Black, Will&Grace

If you are done with TV-Series for Emmy consideration, there are some fresh ones, that might seem interesting. I chose two most extraordinary to talk about

Under the Dome

Adaptation of Stephen King's classic sci-fi, horror novel of the same name tells a story of the residents of the small town of Chester's Mill, who find themselves cut off from the rest world by mysterious, impenetrable barrier surrounding the whole town.

I can guarantee that this is a story we've never seen on screen before. I've read the book and Under the Dome has become one of my favorite sci-fi novels of all time. However, if you've read the book you can be a little disappointed since the plot develops very slowly and actually loses most of its temper and charm of unsolved secrets. There is another issue - everything is this show is little different compared to what I imagined when reading a book. Characters, town, events and etc - they are different. (However, I've to admit that the barrier looks the same)

Why should you watch this?! A) Because you love this genre, it's still a great work to spend some time B) You've read the book and want to give a try. Why should not you watch this?! If you want something smart, extremely entertaining Under the Dome is a wrong choice.

Suits

Suits about NY's best lawyer Harvey Specter and his associate, brilliant minded  Mike Ross - a law genius without any degree who pretends to be a Harvard graduate.

First of all, if you are future lawyer, don't hesitate, go ahead and watch it. If you are a  future lawyer, who's going to practice in NYC, do it even faster. You will learn a lot very interesting and useful information how to be the best.

Suits is a beautifully written, smart TV Series. It's not easy to bring a lot fictional cases and describe the reality so well. I'd admit that show has problems with character development, since they don't change from time to time and most of them open in the very first episodes, but it's still great experience to watch.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x04 - Scar Tissue

When the end begun, I was sure that the final season was about more Dexter's emotional and moral choices then his victims on the killing table. And I was wrong and I was right the same time. This season is not only about him, it's about everything we did not know from the beginning.

Dr. Vogel seems to be a person who wants to help Dexter, she's come out of nowhere to assist serial killer in survival. But is that all? Is she an angel saving bad people, or there is something she hides beyond surface? Scar Tissue asks this questions quite clearly but provides no answers. However, she definitely helps Debra to forgive herself and brother what she did to La Guerta. But there is a thought that screwed my mind while watching this episode - if Vogel wants Debra away from Dex, why is she helping her in recovery? Because if she recovers, brother-sister relationship will become the way it was before. Yup, she is weird, and adroit.

The same time, Vogel starts to convince Dexter that he does not need a sister, since he is perfect, he is serial killer and he can't have any feelings toward any person, including her.  Doctor definitely makes his choice harder: with Debra, or without Debra?!

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TV Series: Dexter 08x03 - What's Eating Dexter Morgan?

I know it seems weird to rate all three episodes with 10. But I can't do it in other way, the show is definitely getting better and better. Each series bring us closer to a very logic, not happily ever after ending.

Dex and Dr. Vogel continue chasing the mysterious killer from Vogel's past, who know sends "gifts" to both of them.

But there is something more important happening in What's Eating Dexter Morgan? It continues to explore each character in different ways. Quinn who always looked like lady-lover hunk, seems to be rational and trustful friend to Debra. He actually saves the whole plot. To spoil furthermore, he will be involved in Debra-Dexter-Vogel secret relationship for the whole season and he can be future La Guerta.

Debra is going bad. She is alcohol addicted, suffering from what she has done and decides to confess. It's a great dramatic episode for her because she fights against herself - remembering what she used to be before killing Maria and what she has become. That's why Deb decides to bring everything to the end, despite a great love to her brother.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x02 - Every Silver Lining

First episode, aka beginning of the end, was surprisingly full of twists and new characters, who refreshed the spirit of whole show. It started a complex story of Dexter-Debra relationship, investigation of new murders and Dex's contention with mysterious psychologist. But second episode actually runs in totally unpredictable direction and shows Dexter - a cold blood serial killer -  in another perspective.

We all know how "dark passenger" was born - Dex witnessed murder of mother and at the age of three he was "christened" in her blood. But we never knew how Dexter Morgan was formed, was it all Harry?

Every Silver Lining is great achievement in dramatic writing, for making brilliant plot twist, adding some very interesting and pensive dialogues, which enhance the problem of moral dilemma in this show. I've been always saying that Dexter bring a issue that never been brought before the screen. It really tries to show whether serial killers can be good people or not. But it does not bring an episode that will give a definite YES or NO answer.

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TV Series: Dexter 08x01 - A Beautiful Day

Tonight's the night, night of all nights

Finally, the end has begun. Today first episode of Dexter's final 8th season has premiered. And I should say, I did not expect such an amazing start.

A Beautiful Day takes us 6 months ahead, after LaGuerta's death. Dexter seems to live the same life, he used to. Actually better. He's become better father, spending a lot time with Harrison, playing football with him and taking son to a beach. But Debra is gone. She is no longer part of his, or anybody's life. She's moved to another police department and leads a case on drug sales. However, she desperately runs from her brother, thinking that she shot wrong person that night.

Dexter deals with everyday quite successfully. He investigates a very interesting case of serial killer, which amuses him a lot. But then there comes a destruction, someone who might know his secret?

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