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Mark's Best of 2014

It was the year of fire...fly still not being uncancelled,the year of destruction…of what little remained of many fan's faith in the writers of How I Met your Mother, the year we took back what was ours...before U2  could put another one of their crappy albums on it. It was the year of rebirth (The Comeback came back, Community lives online, and another visit is planned to Twin Peaks), the year of great sadness (Sara Lance!), the year of pain (Allison Argent!) and the year of joy (Joffrey!). It was a new age... where Homeland is good again. It was the end of history... and True Blood, How I Met Your Mother, Boardwalk Empire, Sons of Anarchy, White Collar, The Newsroom, Revolution, The Colbert Report, Suburgatory, Witches of East End, The Bridge, Californication, Warehouse 13, Psych and The Legend of Korra (boy, a lot of shows ended this year). It was the year everything changed...with online services dominating, anthology series becoming the norm and pretty much every late night talk show gets a new host (and all of them were, groan, white guys). The year was 2014. The place: Babylon 5 Doux Reviews.

Best After Party - The Purple Wedding (Game of Thrones)


Finally, a Westeros wedding with a happy ending (sorry, Morgan)

Best One Woman Army - Carol Peletier (The Walking Dead)


The not-so friendly folks at Terminus took her friends prisoner and tried to eat them. Big mistake. Also, how did Melissa McBride not score an Emmy nomination for 'The Grove'?

Best Sitty Thing - 'The Sign of Three' (Sherlock)


What's the one thing we've never really seen in any adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective? How about Holmes getting utterly shit-faced during Watson's stag party and then going "clueing for looks" at a crime scene afterwards? 24 carat comedy gold.

Best Moment to Make a Serial Killing Cannibal Do a Double-Take - "Is your social worker in that horse?" (Hannibal)


When your actions are making Dr. Hannibal Lecter go "dude, that is some seriously fucked up shit?" you know you've gone too far.

Best Cliffhanger Involving an Actual Cliff - 'The Climb' (Arrow)


After being forced into an impossible situation by Malcolm Merlyn, Oliver Queen said goodbye to his friends, told Felicity what we've all known since he first walked into her office all those years ago and set out to confront the Demon's Head himself, Ra’s al Ghul. It was all, quite literally, downhill from there.

Best Broadway Hopeful - Alison Hendrix (Orphan Black)


Everyone's favourite soccer mom's first stab at musical superstardom ended with her taking a drunken tumble off the stage which led to a stint in rehab. But now that she's sober and reconciled with her husband, perhaps Alison can finally pursue her Broadway dream. That is, assuming she and Donnie don't accidentally kill someone. Again.

Simplest Scare - 'Listen' (Doctor Who)


Steven Moffat and director Douglas Mackinnon clearly both understand that when it comes to horror, less is always more. That's why someone/thing sitting on a bed with a blanket over its head not even doing anything became the scariest thing I saw on TV this year.

Good Cop - Julien Baptiste (The Missing)


If the BBC have any sense, they'll bring Tchéky Karyo's stoic detective back for season 2. With any luck, by then I will at least know how to say "Tchéky Karyo" correctly.

Bad Cop - Lindsay Denton (Line of Duty)


Be careful how loud you play your music.

Great Cop - Stella Gibson (The Fall)


The queen empress continues to rule supreme.

Best Who Whating How With Huh? Moment - Mr. Berenstein (Person of Interest)


This is a very serious episode of a very serious show. So how does it start? With Harold walking into the Batcave to find Root dressed in a bear costume while the girl she likes Shaw is handcuffed to a chair.

Most Fascinating Surrogate Father-Daughter Relationship - Vanessa Ives and Sir Malcolm Murray (Penny Dreadful)


In a show filled with some of the most famous characters in horror literature, it is the original creations, both brilliantly brought to life by Eva Green and Timothy Dalton, that grab your attention and never let go.

Best Game Changer - 'Turn, Turn, Turn' (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)


Hail HYDRA.

Best Clean Up Men - Mr Wrench and Mr Numbers (Fargo)


There is so much to love about FX's surprisingly brilliant take on the Coen Brothers' classic - Lorne Malvo's hair, the rise and fall of Lester Nygaard, Molly Solverson in general - but for my money the best thing about the show were Adam Goldberg and Russell Harvard's mismatched, yet perfect for each other, hitmen.

Coolest Theme Tune - Peaky Blinders


"Cool" is not a word you often associate with Birmingham. Nor flat caps, for that matter. But stick one on Cillian Murphy and have him strut around the grim streets post-World War I Birmingham to the sound of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and suddenly England's second largest city is the coolest place on Earth.

Couple Who Need to Hurry Up and Start Making Super Cute, Super Smart, Super Powered Babies - Barry and Caitlin (The Flash)


What's that? Barry and Iris are meant to be the central couple of this show? If that's true, then why are Barry and Caitlin so perfect for each other?

Best Creative Comeback - Homeland


After finally doing at the end of season three what it should've done at the end of season one (R.I.P. Brody), Homeland was able to recapture its dramatic mojo this year. Better still, Dana Brody was nowhere to be seen.

8 comments:

  1. The Brody family was an albatross that nearly sank the show. Sorry, Moreena Baccarin.
    Sara-my pain made me quit the show. Sorry, Arrow. Not even Oliver's pecs could bring me back..well, maybe.
    Laurel is still annoying.
    Ah Vanessa and Malcolm-lovely almost incestous pair. Still have a crush on Dalton, and Green-rowr.

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  2. Mark -- this is an hilarious read. Thank you.

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  3. Great post, Mark. Agree with you completely on Peaky Blinders theme song. Amazing!

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  4. Gotta love a Babylon 5 tribute. :) I still haven't seen some of these shows (and managed to read some of your article with my hands over my eyes) but wow, a lot of them went under this year, didn't they?

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  5. Definitely love the B5 tribute. A great start to the morning. And I may just be chuckling about your Hannibal reference all day. Can't. Stop. Laughing. And I don't say that often about Hannibal, so thanks, Mark!

    And, yay for the Fargo love! I probably would have given the edge to Molly over Mr. Numbers and Mr. Wrench, but they were indeed a delightful pair of hitman.

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  6. Loved the Article Mark. As much as I love that particular opening to B5, my favorite was Ivanova's season 3 opening; "The Babylon Project was our last best hope for peace... it failed."

    Maze; I hope you will consider giving Arrow another shot. That death pissed me off too, but this season has been good so far. Although, if you do decide to restart you might want to wait until the show picks back up in January. The cliffhanger was massive.

    That Hannibal thing made me wanna try the show again, and I definitely wanna try Fargo now.

    Anyway, here's to a great new year of TV watching.

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  7. I remain optimistic, some would say foolishly so, that Sara Lance will rise again.

    J.D., you should definitely give Hannibal another try. I know it can be difficult to get into, but it is worth the effort.

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  8. Great article! Thank you for such a valuable article on such a interesting topic.
    I really loved the Article Mark.

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