Thursday, December 25, 2014

Editors' Picks: The TV.com Staff's Top 10 Shows of 2014

Television was awfully good to us in 2014. How good? If you take a look at the TV.com writers' individual picks for the 10 best shows of the year, you'll find that each person's list is vastly different from the rest. And all the shows mentioned are shows that fully deserve the honor; it's not like, "Oh my uncle was the sound mixer on The Mysteries of Laura, so I put it on my list." I could've easily named 27 shows all by myself, but alas, we are a 10-based society, and so the difficult task of limiting ourselves was painfully endured by us all. But the result is an incredibly diverse array of worthy honorees, and we'd be content to spend our holiday break marathoning each and every one of them.
Also! Before y'all swap out your calendars and exchange your holiday gifts, we'd like to thank everyone for visiting TV.com this year. You all are the best and make this site what it is, and we'd be nothing without your loyalty. Thank you so much.
Your pal,
Tim

Cory Barker
Writer / Charter Member, Guilty Remnant

Spotlight: You're the Worst
Television's conventional approach to the romantic comedy is to drag out the "Will they or won't they?" arc as long as possible, dealing primarily in mindless obstacles and cloying "breakthroughs" that are walked back faster than a character can say "I love you." Stephen Falk'sYou're The Worst broke protocol by having its romantic leads Gretchen (Aya Cash) and Jimmy (Chris Geere) sex each other up as quickly as possible, but also by allowing them to admit their emotional hang-ups and neuroses just as early. The resulting accidental courtship involved a lot of banter without the needless tension, and the fun of discovery without concern for stability. This isn't just a story about terrible people falling in love and becoming less terrible; it's a story about two terrible people finding someone who's equally miserable and loving them for—and despite—it. What's more, while giving us the best TV couple of 2014 in Gretchen and Jimmy,You're the Worst also delivered consistently funny episodic plots involving wonderful supporting characters, and managed to tell compelling, sometimes truly moving stories about Edgar's (Desmin Borges) PTSD and Lindsay's (Kether Donahue) buyer's remorse over settling down in the suburbs. For a show that's essentially about assholes getting it on, You're the Worst sure has a lot to say. —Cory

Nick Campbell
Writer / The Yellow King's Interior Decorator

In 2014, there were two different people competing to be the one who most made you feel like an insignificant speck of dust in a cold, unyielding universe: True Detective's Rust "Time Is a Flat Circle" Cohle and the natural heir of Carl Sagan's "humans are nothing" legacy, Neil deGrasse Tyson. As the host of Fox's Cosmos, Tyson certainly won out. Because while True Detectivecould distract you from existential torpor with Alexandria Daddario's GIFable scenes, Tyson & Co. never pulled punches about our position in the universe, particularly with regard to how inconsequential we are in both time and space. There was also a lot of science to learn, not to mention some amazing visuals—education can be very pretty. And best of all, Cosmos was just plain exciting to watch, a nice break from more formulaic television. If only Seth MacFarlane would produce something like Cosmos for every piece of crap he puts his name on. Like a pop-culture philanthropic mission. —Nick

Andy Daglas
Writer / Synopsisbender

Spotlight: Enlisted
Enlisted was a warm, thoughtful, and hilarious piece of TV comedy, and I had to put it at the top of my list since I’ll never get another chance to put it on any list (thanks, Fox). Centering on three brothers stationed at a Florida Army base (Geoff Stults, Chris Lowell, and exposed comic nerve Parker Young), along with Keith David as their gruff and wily commanding officer/father figure, Enlisted wore its heart on its sleeve even as Young frequently wore little else. The show drew its central relationships with remarkable depth and clarity for a freshman sitcom, while also establishing a sharp and distinctive ensemble. That you could see how rapidly it was maturing over the course of its single season makes its cancellation all the more painful. But the 13 episodes we did get from co-creators Kevin Biegel and Mike Royce were some of the funniest to air in 2014. —Andy

Noel KirkpatrickWriter / Darkness at Noon Superfan

Spotlight: The Honorable Woman
There are so many layers to this BBC Two/SundanceTV miniseries. There's the drive to establish peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through access to technology. There are the business and political dealings that undercut that drive at every turn. There are the personal intrigues as the characters come to grips with their imagined, actual, and abdicated responsibilities to each other, those around them, and people they had no idea they had wronged. There's the old spymaster looking to save his career and his personal life in one fell swoop. It's gripping and twisty-turny stuff written and directed by Hugo Blick, and it deftly alternates between the big picture of the intractable nature of the conflict and the personal tolls said conflict takes on those who want to "fix" it. Led by Maggie Gyllenhaal in a nuanced and unsettling performance as the season's most compelling and interesting antihero, The Honorable Woman shows there are no winners in this struggle, let alone honorable people; there are only those who lose more and those who lose less. —Noel

Price PetersonWriter / Noted Catamaran Thief & Trusted Purveyor of Catamarans

Spotlight: Teen Wolf
While everyone's off debating the merits of quantity vs. quality, here's a question: Why not BOTH? In 2014 Teen Wolf brought us TWO seasons of greatness. From the madness and darkness-drenched Season 3B—which saw our heroes battling the Nogitsune and watching their own ranks heartbreakingly diminish—to Season 4's ambitious rebuilding effort full of mouthless assassins and feral coyote girls, Teen Wolf was as generous and inventive as any show on television. Even though some plotlines didn't quiiite cohere or pay off as we expected, the show still boasts a sort of heartfelt insanity that feels somehow punk rock in an age of prestigious yet boring cable series. And just in case there was any remaining doubt that Teen Wolf has finally moved past its initial comparisons to Twilight, this year the show had the audacity to kill off its female romantic lead in one of its most shocking and wrenching moments to date. There was a time when Teen Wolf's excellence felt like a secret, a sort of "us kids know" situation, but after 24 episodes of weird, funny, and touching nightmare fuel, 2014 was the year that made everyone accept that Teen Wolf is a monster that won't be denied. —Price

MaryAnn Sleasman
Writer / Went to Prom in a Stolen Car That One Time

Spotlight: The Flash
Oh man, where to start? Is it the fact that Barry Allen is a human puppy dog? Or that Dr. Wells is so deliciously evil that I actually cackle with nefarious glee every time he appears on my TV screen? Or maybe it's the mere presence of Jesse L. Martin, whose Law & Order credentials seem to give the hapless Central City PD an air of legitimacy (not to mention he's just awesome). Actually, it's all of the above plus the fact that The CW's take on The Flash avoids being cheesy (except for when it wants to be), and the seamless way that this newbie series slides right into the continuity established by Arrow. And the special effects are surprisingly good, too! Everybody wins! —MaryAnn

Tim Surette
Senior Editor / Dome Survivor / Abel Teller's P.O.

Spotlight: Game of Thrones
Ummmmmm, hello? Where is Game of Thrones on everyone's list this year? Looking around the internet at other critics' best-of-2014 picks, it's almost as if what happened in Westeros in Season 4 was but a dream. Did people forget that a giant shot a massive arrow the size of your Christmas tree into a guy and sent him flying hundreds of feet into the air? Did the Purple Wedding and its dwarf-led recap of Seasons 1 through 3 escape the grip of people's memories? Was the bloody and horrific fight between the Mountain and the Red Viper (and Ellaria's subsequent scream) just a figment of my imagination? Did someone slip me some PCP, causing my brain to fabricate Tyrion's amazing, spittle-spewing courtroom speech? Did I conjure up that impressive finale with rugrats throwing fireballs at reanimated corpses? And hello, am I the only one who saw DAARIO'S BUTT!?!? Sure, there was no Red Wedding to spur a million reaction videos, and now that Game of Thrones is in its fourth season, it's no longer the series du jour, but 2014 brought us the show's grandest and most impressive stretch of episodes to date. Plus Shae died, which makes me 100 kinds of happy. All y'all who don't think Game of Thrones was one of the year's best shows are crazy. This is why we have HDTVs!!! —Tim

Kaitlin ThomasAssociate Editor / Lead TV Facial Hair Expert

Spotlight: Looking
Looking is not a loud show. It’s not going to make you pee your pants with laughter, and it’s never going to break Twitter or inspire intense watercooler debates. But that’s exactly why it’s important. Looking is just a quiet series about normal people. Set within the gay community of San Francisco, it uses its three leads—portrayed by Jonathan Groff, Frankie J. Alvarez, and Murray Bartlett—to tell incredibly rich and relatable stories about our perception of the world and where we fit into it. All three men are at different stages of their lives, but they're all searching for the same things, just like the rest of us: happiness, success, and a sense of purpose. The show has humor and it’s got heart (Team Kevin!), but mostly it just serves to remind us that everyone’s the same in the end. Looking only has one female series regular (Lauren Weedman, whose character Doris rocks), and I'm not daft enough to believe that it will ever be accepted by the masses, but it tells fascinating stories within a specific context that ultimately have the power to resonate with everyone—gay or straight. Also, Russell Tovey and the City by the Bay have never looked better. —Kaitlin

Jen TrolioManaging Editor / Lifelong Member of the Midnight Society

Spotlight: The Americans
Nearly every time I tell someone I work for TV.com and they ask me to recommend a show, I almost always suggest The Americans. And by "suggest The Americans," I mean "lavish The Americans with praise and implore people to watch." I'm just so impressed by how well the show juggles so many different elements—the '80s setting (and soundtrack!), the family drama, the spy thrills, the multiple overlapping storylines. And I'm even more impressed by how good the show remained in Season 2. The Americans returned for its sophomore effort with a big episode that set the tone for an intense run of episodes and never stopped raising the stakes, ending with a wonderful, surprising finale that's left me incredibly excited for Season 3. —Jen
at
Labels: