2008: The Year in Television

Written January 2009

Television's in trouble, they say. Network ratings are down; not too many new programs this year have sparked; they were hurt by last year's writer's strike and an actor's strike looms. Me, I now have trouble coming up with a quick answer to “What's your favourite TV show now?”, and I don't think anything on is quite the obsession for that Buffy, Angel, Queer as Folk, and My So-Called Life used to be.

But that doesn't mean there was nothing to watch. Especially with all the new ways of watching. Herewith, my most appreciated trends and programs of this past year in television

Catching up with television on DVD: Battlestar Galactica

I'd been hearing for years how great the new Battlestar Galactica was, but only thanks to the TV writer's strike did we finally start renting (or borrowing) the DVDs and catching up with the series. Which is, indeed, great. Despite being set in space, some time in the future (or perhaps the past; it's not all that clear), much is a meditation on today: the war on terror, Abu Grieb, the danger of charismatic personalities, religious conflicts... Many of the actors are superb as well, particularly Katie Sackoff as Starbuck, James Callis as Gaius Baltar—the bad guy who is really hard to hate, James Edward Olmos as William Adama, and Mary McDonnel as the always surprising President Laura Roslin.

On DVD, we watched the mini-series and seasons 1-3, and there's no doubt that what's stayed with me most are the Pegasus episodes, where the Galactica crew meet up with another ship of human survivors who have taken a very different, and distributing, approach to the war with the Cylons. There was no looking at the sexy and powerful Six in the same way after seeing her beaten down form in these episodes. (And this reminds me to also give props to Tricia Helfer for her uncanny ability to so effectively portray the many different editions of Six.)

My next favourite had to be the first episode we saw from the point of view of the Cylons, in which the former Boomer and Baltar's original six paramour agree to a different approach with the humans.

Season 4, we began PVR-ing while still working through the last of the Season 3 DVDs, then caught up with those in a batch. Very interesting to see (don't read if you're avoiding spoilers) Tigh, the Chief, and Anders working through their newly discovered cylon-ness—which has yet to be fully explained, as these characters have clearly aged. And another uneasy alliance of humans and cylons led to one heck of a cliffhanger.

Couple weeks til the episodes!

Catching up with television on the Internet: Viral videos

Apparently I was far from the only person doing this for the first time this year (I prefer to think that the crowd all followed me), but many of the favorite things I saw from television this year I actually watched on my computer. These included:

Tina Fey's brilliant Saturday Night Live takes on Sarah Pallin. I think the first, joint press conference with “Hillary Clinton” is still my favourite—really quite a trenchant commentary on gender and politics. (“Sexism in politics: An issue I'm very surprised to discover everyone suddenly cares about!” -- faux Hillary.) It also spawned the most quote incorrectly attributed to the actual Sarah Pallin: “I can see Russia from my house!”
The actual Sarah Pallin being interviewed by Katie Couric, in a most extraordinary display of why she wasn't qualified to be Vice-President. YouTube link for that.
David Letterman's rant after John McCain cancelled his appearance on the Letterman show, only to appear across the street with... Katie Couric. YouTube link
Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long blog, matching the brilliant comic writing of Joss Whedon with the brilliant comic timing of Neil Patrick Harris. Now on DVD!
A key moment I had missed due to the Colbert-Stewart Election night special running longer than the hour, and my PVR not keeping up with it: Colbert tearing up after Jon officially announced the election of Barrack Obama. CTV video link
Anti prop-8 musical, featuring Jack Black and exposing religious hypocrisy (below).

Keeping up with late-night television by PVR: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Not a new thing for me, but definitely vital in this US election year (especially now that the BC CTV station has stopped running episodes at what was 7:00 pm my time). Some fave moments this year:

The repeated references to Still President Bush.
His white-hot anger over Republican accusations of not being a real American if you live in New York.
John Oliver's repeated complaints about the lack of "gaffs" during the Vice-Presidential debate. (C'mon... We were all disappointed about that.)
Jon's passionate defense of gay marriage rights in his interview with Mike Huckabee. CTV video link
Samantha Bee insisting that women will vote with their “little hood” for Sarah Pallin, despite her being against everything feminists fought for. Then interviewing Republicans and trying to get them to say the word “choice” in reference to what Pallin's pregnant daughter had.
And yes, him making fun of the madness on Parliament Hill. Favourite line, in response to the news of a possible non-confidence vote ending the Prime Minister's term of office: “You can do that?!? Because we haven't had confidence in our guy for some time now. And he's taking forever to leave!” CTV video link

Canadian political satire: 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer, Air Farce

Which is a nice segueway into CBC's lineup of satirical programs. I rediscovered This Hour Has 22 Minutes at some point last year, and found the new cast has really invigorated it. One of my favorite election bits was the “single female voter's search for a leader to fall in love with”, which said so much about the available options:

Jack Layton of the "washboard abs" looked smug and self-important
Stéphane Dion was, of course, awkward. Sigh.
Gilles Duceppe was suave and charming, spinning Geri Hall out for a dance. (“But I can't vote for you! I know the next morning it will be, 'See ya, Canada!'”)
And Stephen Harper had Geri arrested as a possible threat! I'm not kidding!

(Not easy to link directly, but all these videos are available here: http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/videoplayer2.html).

Of course, I still watch 22 Minutes alumni Rick Mercer rant on his own very popular show. Apart from the rants, my favorite bits remain the little sketches mocking commercials and social trends: For example, if you didn't want to send your boss a link to Mercer's take on cost-cutting via the office Christmas party this year, you're lucky.

The main problem with all these shows is justthat their seasons are so short; a lot of mock-worthy stuff happens when they're not on. Mercer gets around this some via his blog and occasional Globe and Mail articles--for example, this take on the November shenanigans on the Hill. And what's with cancelling Royal Canadian Air Farce when their ratings are up? I didn't always watch this one, but it don't think it had lost its touch.

Canadian dramas you don't have to grade on a curve: Flashpoint and JPod

Actually, there have been good Canadian dramas for some time now (Da Vinci, Slings and Arrows, The Eleventh Hour), but new this year was the US/Canada crossover—that clearly takes place in Canada. Flashpoint was the most successful of these, and it is a good how. It's a procedural about an elite law enforcement team that goes in to crisis situations and tries to defuse them with as few casualties as possible. This involves being able to reach people in distress, and therefore there is considerable focus on the team and their personalities, not just the “case of the week.” And hey, it restarts this week.

Now gone are the two of the four CBC series launched last winter—the two I watched: JPod and MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives. JPod started out really weird. Apparently, off-puttingly weird, for many. But I was able to stick with it, and it definitely grew on me. And if you are a Douglas Coupland fan, you have to like that it ended with, literally, a girlfriend in a coma.

MVP was soapy silly, but certainly had some nice eye candy. And it was a big hit in the US on the Soapnet network, so maybe CBC gave up on this one too soon.

Best low-rated US program that didn't make it: Pushing Daisies

Speaking of being too weird for the masses—ever seen Pushing Daisies?

I've never seen anything quite like it on TV before and, given its ratings, probably won't again. The premise was a piemaker with the unusual ability to revive the dead by touching them, and "re-kill" them by touching them again. If he leaves them alive more than a minute, someone else dies in their place. In the pilot (which I've never seen), he revives his childhood girlfriend, and isn't able to bring himself to "re-kill" her. They fall in love, but are unable to touch.

That only just touches on the level of weirdness inherent in the show, but it was sort of irresistable. This season, I especially liked the deeper probing into the psychology of all the characters, how Olive frequently broke into song (she has a great voice), the wild color schemes of the sets and costumes, and the always witty banter. Given that it ended on a cliffhanger, I think I will have to purchase the comic book rumoured to be getting produced to clean up the loose ends.

Best low-rated US program that did make it: Mad Men

Unlike Pushing Daisies, it took me some time to get into Mad Men. Episodes would just pile up on the PVR, until I finally figured I should plough through some. But at some point—not sure what did it—I became eager to know what would happen next. I'd watch the taped episode the next day. I even, in the end, caught up some missed episodes on the web, and watched the finale on Rogers on Demand (a service I'm always forgetting that I have) because I couldn't wait to see how it would all work out.

Probably the most compelling storyline was that of Peggy, the secretary turned copywriter who became pregnant unawares (yes!) in season 1, then spent much of season 2 mysteriously baby-free. It took all season to find out all that had happened in between, and what the meant for the lovelorn Pete, whose infertile marriage was in trouble.

Yes, it seems to be the women's stories really sticking with me. Betty Draper, who went from not even understanding why her friend would assume she'd know something about how to deal with her husband's infedlity, to kicking him out of the house for that offence, to having a meaningless affair of her own. And the seemingly powerful Joan brought low by losing work she loved to a man, because he was a man and she was a secretary, then, horrifyingly, being raped by her financee in her office. That this might not mean the end of that relationship is terribly sad.

Funniest US program: How I Met Your Mother

Originally, I gave up on this program early in Season one, feeling that the premise—father recounting to his kids the long story of how he met their mother—just wasn't sustainable. I picked it up again somewhere in Season two. I still doubt the sustainability of the premise, but I now realize it doesn't matter that much. Because the show is smart, and it's funny. Some recent highlights:

Naked guy maneouvre. Works 3 out 4 times! Do you think that's true? (If you don't know what I'm talking about, try to catch it in reruns.)
The recurrent mocking of Robin's Canadian-ness, most recently when she infiltrated Marshall's Minnesota bar, but then found her own Canadian bar, and the whole crowd joined in on a karaoke version of “Let's Go to the Mall”! (Full original video version below.)
Drunk Lilly trying to convince Marshall that a great time to make a baby would be in the middle of his work day.
Barney Stinson! Legend—wait for it—

(Also pretty good: William Baldwin on 30 Rock, a show I've just started watching.)

Giving reality a good name: SYTYCD and The Amazing Race

I've already babbled enough about So You Think You Can Dance Canada. So yay that it was a hit and will be back. And I'll watch the US one again too, even if it's not quite as good. :-)

And no longer trendy, but still plugging nicely, is The Amazing Race. This year it featured what could be the most amazingly inept team to ever make the top three, and whose efforts to march on beat also supplied some of the biggest laughs of the year.

And a word about those shows that aren't quite working

Just a bit on the flip side here...

Weeds: This one just lost me this year, with episodes piling up on the PVR until I decided I just didn't want to catch up with them. Though it was always odd that Nancy in the suburbs would choose drug dealing as her profession, once she was out of the suburbs, a major part of the show's interest seemed to ebb as well.

Bones: I still watch Bones. And I pretty much enjoy it. But that doesn't change the fact that turning Zack into a serial killer (of sorts) by the sheer force of logic of thing (from his perspective) was stupid and unbelievable. And that they all still love him now anyway doesn't quite work either, since they're not supposed to know he didn't really, really kill anyone. And more minor but equally incomprehensible: The sudden breakup of Angela and Hodgins. (And does someone have to mistake Booth and Brennan for a couple in every episode?)

No, but really, I still don't mind watching it. Somehow.

Grey's Anatomy: I've ranted about this enough as well. As have others. Sex with a ghost? Seriously? Seriously?

Dirty Sexy Money: Always had some trouble with tone, but by the end of this season, it was just getting more and more bizarre, as they seemed to be throwing every possible plotpoint (a mass shooting, a kidnapped child, cancer striking and being cured within minutes) in a bid for ratings. By the time they gave Jeremy amnesia, I just had to give up, even if it was the last episode ever. This one, it wasn't a mistake to cancel!