Best of 2014: Julian's Top TV Pics

So as 2014 comes to a close it’s up to me to give what was the hottest, flyest, Trillest of Television of this past year. I’m going to give you the realness unlike the Emmys or Globes. I’ll keep it completely one hundred and tell you all I’m a snob. I like only the upper echelon of TV ( #nohyperbole). So enough with the preamble and let’s get to the list in no particular order:

Hannibal: Season 2

Much like last year there really isn’t anything on TV like Hannibal and what’s still amazing is that it’s on Network and NBC for that matter. Everything from Fuller’s suspense drama about the Hannibal Lecter before the events of Red Dragon. This season saw everything ramp up with a switch in the Hugh Dancy’s character Will Graham in relation to Mads Mikkelsen’s Hannibal Lecter. Laurence Fishburne’s Jack Crawford also got a great deal more to do this season in plot and development. The season also starts with a beautifully shot future event with Jack Crawford that we don’t get back to until the end. In all the things I watch on TV nothing is as excellently shot or paced for its genre. The tightness of the 13 episodes which is a rarity in network TV is allows it tell a great story even with its feel of times of a killer of the week scenario that lacks any concept of filler. If there is one TV that is criminally underappreciated it’s this one.

Game of Thrones: Season 4

Game of Thrones is my get right. I get hyped up when watching GoT like folks do when it’s Bowl Week for college football. I loved this season when Rocky and John were talking about the books and this Red Viper dude I was imaging what he was like, but man Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell just blew up the expectations. While everyone was calling him the Spanish dude from The Princess Bride I call him Puss N Boots because I be damn if wasn’t like a medieval Zorro (like if they make a new Zorro, he needs to be Antonio Banderas’s son as new Zorro). I loved this dude. He straight up stayed dissing Lannisters and I couldn’t get enough. This season also had Jon Snow on some LotR battles with giants and stuff, Tyrion going hard in the paint at court, Arya with the Hound on some Leon the Professional lifestyle, and cliffhanger after cliffhanger that had me throwing stuff and flipping tables like a mad man. Also some many bodies in this show, so many. Like you folks need to cop some HBO just for this at least.

True Detective: Season 1

See, I was easy to please on this one. I knew it was going to be hot once I saw that teaser ad last year during True Blood. I was like “Yo them my boys from EdTV! This is going to be GOLDEN!” and I wasn’t wrong. This insanely short season of a tight 8 episodes, all written by Nic Pizzolatto and all directed by Cary Fukunaga in an amazing manner, took over my circle of people by storm. McConaughey in full McConaissance mode with Harrelson in full Scottie Pippen mode on this performance of two Louisiana detectives trying to solve a series of murders that may or may not have a connection to the occult was some captivating TV. It seriously put Hollywood on smash. To me the whole show was robbed of many awards by Breaking Bad’s final half of its final season. From Cohle’s long speeches on his thoughts on the nature of the universe, Hart’s infidelity with younger women, mentions of a Yellow King to making flowers on people, True Detective was a welcome addition to a transitioning HBO line up that needed it and reasserted itself at the top of the TV show food chain challenged by AMC and Netflix.

Mad Men: Season 7 part 1

There is no show on TV right now that I love more than Mad Men. The journey of Don Draper has been a long one. This season started so beautifully with Don on the airplane going to LA and leaving the airport in that amazing slow mo shot as he walks to Megan getting out of the little blue convertible - that might be one of the best sequences on film of all of 2014. The path of the prodigal Don to reclaim his place at Sterling Cooper and Partners was a captivating one, along with the trials of the Peggy Olson; they were really some of the stand-out threads to watch. I really connected with Don and Peggy fixing their beautiful platonic friendship. I don’t know, I’m just biased; Don Draper is my spirit animal. But I really think those that haven’t seen it should really seek it out before the last 7 episodes start next year.

Black-ish: Season 1

You know it’s kind of crazy that right now this show is the only black sitcom on TV and is the first one in many years on network TV. Since I grew up in the 80s and '90s, black sitcoms were a staple of each network. From the Cosby Show and Different World to Family Matters and Fresh Prince to Martin and Living Single, it was basically taken for granted, and then all of the sudden they were all gone. It seemed as the amount of the sitcoms over all decreased, that black-centered ones fell by the wayside first and seemed to not even get a chance to make. Now we have Black-ish, coming out now in this weird state of Obama presidency where we see we are not in a postracial world; we have a show dealing with the blackness in a world where Gen Xers are raising children where what is black is changing in terms of ourselves and how others view us and we view them. The show has dealt with corporal punishment, being the only black person in the office, the nature of being a black geek, and even Black Santa Claus. The writing and the cast really sells the whole thing with Anthony Anderson and Tracey Ellis-Ross having great chemistry and timing for each joke. The children are great also, but the real scene stealing is done by Laurence Fishburne as Pops, the Granddad with the old school quips constantly checking Anderson’s Dre in his parenting ideas for his kids. He drops more gems than Columns people.

House of Cards: Season 2

Frank Underwood is the trillest, dopest, most charismatic bad guy on modern TV (sorry, Walter White). Frank is doing some of the most deplorable things you can do but you sit there binge watching this guy going so hard in the paint to achieve his goals of gaining power that you can’t help but root for this dude. All this on President’s Day weekend no less. Let’s not underplay the factor of Claire Underwood, the second best Claire in TV history in my opinion. She’s so ride or die yet running her own game in her own power play while the whole time they still Team Underwood. This season had everything including Major Dad as a bad guy. MAJOR DAD PEOPLE! I need to go get ready for the next season and get me a mean plate of ribs to go with it.

Boardwalk Empire: Season 5

Here is a show that I completely stopped watching because of a storytelling choice at the end of season 2. I still haven’t seen season 3 besides the finale and none of season 4 besides the commercials for episodes. With all that said MAN OH MAN is the last season really good. They did a smart thing with time jumping to the '31 during the Great Depression; that choice really added life to show in my opinion. At a point early on I was more interested in the stories of Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Al Capone. This season really expanded that world with adding little things like Al Capone’s fall and Elliot Ness on his trail, and Joe Kennedy building his fortune through stocks which has great effects on the rise of his family in politics later on. Everything was wrapped up so nicely and I feel handled perfectly with the flashbacks to Nucky as a child and Nucky as a young man, where he made a deal with the devil for power. Out of all the shows that ended on HBO this year, this was the one that did with flying colors and fireworks at the end.

The Legend of Korra: Seasons 3 & 4

My final entry in this list is the animated show on Nickelodeon that by far broke the most rules, took all the risks you can take with a show on a network, and did some really surprising things even for an animated show. Korra had a really rough time since at a certain point it seem Nick didn’t support the show anymore. For them it seems an animated show about this teenage girl dealing with more mature battles than what Ang had to got to be a bit much for them. Season 3 of the show dealt with Korra facing a set of foes that were basically against the current structure of the world. They were against the governmental structure of the nations and planned to get rid of monarchies in charge and the United Republic of Nations, and wants in way to set up a free world that is more like anarchy. Their goal is to kill the Avatar forever. Korra had to deal with some serious ideas to deal with, stuff you couldn’t just punch in the face and defeat. The events of that season led directly into the final season, with Korra trying to come back after nearly dying and being utterly defeated, along with facing essentially the rise of a totalitarian government. I’m betting right now there is a ton of Tumblr think pieces on this show that you can read but you can just take away this: it’s good. Plain and simple it’s one of the best things that came on TV - it had humor, action, drama, romance and kung fu. IT HAS KUNG FU. This is a show that will be missed because I don’t think there will be nothing like this on TV.

That’s it folks. That’s my long list. I went over a bit, and for what it’s worth I didn’t see everything. This here can hold you down if you didn’t watch any of these, though. Get your binge watch on and also imagine me hating on the Golden Globe and the Emmys when my shows get hated on.

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Julian’s Best TV Shows of 2013, from Live-Action to Animation

Hey trill believers, I’m here to sit back and give you my top television shows of 2013. Now see, I’m not going to give you guys an ordered list—just my 10 shows I think were the best in two categories: live action and animation. Now you might be asking why and you’ll get no answer, at least not this early—just enjoy the ride here.

I catch a lot of television (including writing the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recaps for Punch Drunk Critics), not as much as I used to and I don’t see every single show, but I do watch more than the average person and probably more than the average smart person. So I’m going to start with live action, here we go (like my man Super Mario says):

LIVE-ACTION

Game of Thrones

This show, y’all, this show. No series has ever caught me be surprise as much as this show. This was the season after seeing FREAKING SNOW ZOMBIE DUDES ON SNOW ZOMBIE HORSES!! This season had everything, an odd couple with Brianne/Jaime on the road, Davos learning how to read, seeing Tywin Lannister (a.k.a. the bad guy from The Golden Child) play the best game of real-life chess ever, Jon Snow do a Donnie Brasco, poor Theon, and that one moment to rule them all—that damn Red Wedding. Each performance was great and the pacing of the season for me was stellar. No episodes felt like filler or a waste of my time, nor did any feel crammed with too many plots. It must be something that a show that is an adaptation is fun to watch for people like me who have never read any of the books, and for someone like my colleague Rocky Hadadi, who has read all of it. It’s a complete shame that it didn’t get enough love in the awards recognition. In the end, it’s all good—right now this show is still rising and far from falling off.

Treme

David Simon, for me, might be the best 21st-century TV show creator alive right now. Do his shows get a 

lot of hype like some other shows (that are even on this list)? Nope. Do his shows really ever get nominated for anything? Nope. Do his shows allow you a way to escape your boring regular life into some type of crazy world or power fantasy? Nope. This guy and his collaborators create shows about OUR lives in OUR world in the now. You can’t sum up his shows in a simple cool phrase. When people ask me what Treme is about, they start to glaze over about three words in, but what they don’t know is that’s it’s one of the best shows I’ve ever watched, let me know I need to visit New Orleans, and it by far has the best music of any drama ever period in TVdom. It’s a double-edged sword that HBO brought it back for a short 5-episode season to end it, since it’s great it’s getting an ending but it sucks because it’s ending. The only thing that makes me less mad about how overlooked this show is, is that one day way later on people will probably catch it and watch it all in one big chunk and then celebrate how awesome it was all over the Internet and during get-togethers in the near future—much like Simon’s previous masterpiece, The Wire.

House of Cards

Man, House of Cards was the jam. This is show that excels at writing and performances about portraying some pretty not good people. And what’s the kicker is that it’s about Congress at a perfect time when Congress really really sucks at their job, which just heightens all we see about what Kevin Spacey’s character Frank Underwood does to hold onto power. House of Cards has a killer pilot directed by David Fincher that grabs you instantly, and thanks to it being on Netflix, you just get sucked into the vortex of watching either the whole thing or half of it in one time. I think one of the main reasons I love this show is that it actually really looks like Washington, D.C. Not some other random city in Canada with one shot of like K Street, but the actual city and region. House of Cards for me made me believe that Netflix can be a player in original content, and seriously put AMC and HBO on watch for the crown.

Mad Men

You know a lot of people feel this past season of Mad Men wasn’t as good, and you know, they may be right in that assertion. It’s kind of hard to follow up on what is your best season of a series and it’s also very hard to watch a person hit bottom. That’s what this season is about, even more than the changing times, is watching Don Draper finally hit bottom and in a way a culture hitting a bottom in a certain way in 1968. Watching Don fall so hard into the bottle and into his infatuation with Sylvia Rosen, set against seeing essentially the origin of his issue with women in the flashbacks, for me made for a great season, a calm of sorts before the last season. Another trend that I loved about the season is seeing the arcs of Peggy as she becomes her own version of Don and Sally as she finally loses her innocence. With those things and many others, no other show had me giving each episode as much thought and analysis as Mad Men has.

Breaking Bad

So the show to rule all shows this year. It’s been a long time since a show ending has totally caught the pop culture wave that Breaking Bad had in those last eight episodes. Walt’s final fall into becoming white suburban Scarface was complete, and with each cliffhanger ratcheting up hardly anything else could get into your brain other than “Oh my gawd what’s going to happen to Jesse or Hank or Walt?” So much tension was packed into each episode that it still leaves an impression on me, even though it’s been months since I saw them. Now I’m not one of the people that are calling it the GOAT (that’s The Wire, fools, get familiar.) But it is in that top list of greatest shows on television. Cheers to that whole group of folks who made this a great piece of work.

ANIMATION

See, animation is my heart. I watch more cartoons than live action TV since a lot more goes into making 30 minutes of animation than people think. Not only do they have to do all the same stuff showrunners have to do for live action, they have to design everything from the characters to the backgrounds to the props. I wanted to do this so that these cartoons can be spotlighted to people that might not know about it and are missing some quality TV. So here are my favorite 5 of the year.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

This one is a pure nostalgia pick here. I love Ninja Turtles. Ninja Turtles is the reason I draw, which led to most of my decisions in life. I’ve seen almost every Ninja Turtle show (damn you, anime Turtles, for evading my gaze!). This new show which popped up on the 25th anniversary of the 1987 show really hit a nicely perfect blend of having good characters, a nice season arc, and a way to merge all the versions of the Turtles into one great show that people of all ages can watch.

Adventure Time

See this show, with it’s out-there character design and magical/fantastical world, is kind of off-putting at first, but once you have someone—i.e. me (I’ve done this plenty of times)—show you the just how smartly funny and deep this show is, you’ll be glad you got lost in one of the many many marathons Cartoon Network runs of this show. This past year decided to show a lot of more dark and actually creepy parts to the show (episode “All the Little People” might just be one of the most messed up things I’ve watched in a cartoon all year) to generally sad (the episode “Simon & Marcy” is the saddest damn piece of animation this year, even more than Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises). None of the other Punch Drunks gets down with this, but trust I won’t let you down on this cartoon game.

Regular Show

To me, for what it’s worth, Regular Show is the best-written comedy on television. Yeah, I said it. Does it make sense that a bluejay and a raccoon work for a gumball machine in park owned by a lollipop man? No, it doesn’t, but it’s the heart and the situations of two early 20something slackers that hold true. Also, it might have some of the best daggone ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture references that don’t feel forced (take note, Seth McFarlane) and actually help the plot and sell the punch line.

Legend of Korra

So if you haven’t watched Avatar the Last Airbender, you need to fix that (it’s on Amazon Prime instant watch), and then you need to sit down and watch The Legend of Korra, which even though it’s in the same world has a completely different feeling. The season was titled “Spirits” and focused on the source of the Avatar’s power along with more on the Water tribe. It’s pretty rare having a female action protagonist in the animation world, so it’s nice to see that along with a great and complex story that is able to pull together politics, Hong Kong crime cinema, romance, family issues, Asian folklore myth, and a Howard Hughes riff, all along with some of the best damn martial arts fight scenes I’ve seen all year. If you haven’t really watched a “cartoon” before you should really give this one a look, you might be surprised by how into you get.

Young Justice: Invasion

See, this wasn’t the whole season, only the last 11 episodes, but this is by far probably one of the best versions of superhero storytelling on TV ever done, right up there with the old DCAU (DC Animated Universe Batman TAS – Justice League Unlimited). To be honest, as I watched each episode I truly though how in the world the showrunners thought this would be interesting for young children. This show was full of intrigue, betrayal, secrets, and conspiracy along with relationship drama. It’s a damn shame what Cartoon Network did to it, first by hampering it and then canceling it. In the end the show became a celebration of a DC Universe and characters that no long exist in their new catchup to the Marvel movies phase, but what a great sendoff it was.

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