2009: The best in TV
By Casey Gillis on Dec. 29, 2009
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True Blood
While millions of teenage girls swoon over the “Twilight” series, HBO went for the jugular with its naughty series, where the blood, sex and violence run rampant.
Last year, “True Blood” topped my worst-of list. But the second season won me over, as it broadened the show’s scope and introduced us to vampires that reside outside of little old Bon Temps. The vampire culture in Dallas, for instance, was awfully lavish: a place where vamps could stay in high-end hotels that cater specifically to their lifestyle (with a room service menu full of people, of course).
The show’s newest vampires were intriguing: Evan Rachel Wood as queen Sophie-Anne and, my favorite, Allan Hyde as Godric, the 2,000-year-old vamp who sired Eric and whose kidnapping sent Sookie, Bill and Eric to Dallas in the first place.
What a great character. Godric was a vampire who showed more humanity than some of the show’s actual humans. His sadness and disappointment about his kind’s often brutal behavior eventually led Godric to take his own life in a touching rooftop scene (“Two thousand years is enough,” he told a devastated Eric. “We don’t belong here. … It’s not right. We’re not right.”).
I was crying right along with Sookie when the sun came up and he said his final goodbye.
Much more entertaining was Jason’s storyline once he returned to Bon Temps, which she-devil Maryann had turned into, quite literally, hell. You can always count on Jason Stackhouse to make a complete fool of himself, and some of the season’s funniest scenes followed his and Andy’s attempts to stop Maryann. In the end, she was finally defeated and all seemed to go back to normal — until Bill was kidnapped in the final moments.
As always, “True Blood” left me wanting more.
Glee
This show never fails to put a smile on my face.
I love the musical numbers (think “Don’t Stop Believin,’” “Proud Mary,” Queen’s “Somebody to Love,” and Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You,” to name just a few), the subversive comedy and pretty much anything the hilarious Jane Lynch does as mean, endlessly quotable cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (a favorite: “While they were in there, I told them to go ahead and yank out those tear ducts. Wasn’t using them.”).
The young cast and their pipes are amazing, especially Lea Michele, who makes diva-in-training Rachel likeable when she really shouldn’t be. Her rendition of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” during the fall finale was a showstopper if there ever was one.
Modern Family
The best new comedy to come along in a while, “Modern Family” is funny without being (too) mean-spirited.
It’s sweet without being sickening, and the characters are multidimensional, even if those dimensions come with some pretty wacky behavior.
I can’t even pick a favorite character because it changes with each episode. This family makes up what is arguably one of television’s best ensembles, with honorable mentions going to fellow ABC series “The Middle” and “Cougar Town;” all three make for one great Wednesday night comedy block.
Drop Dead Diva
Lifetime’s charming series overcame a ridiculous-sounding plot — a skinny, superficial actress dies and wakes up inside the body of a heavyset lawyer — to become the highlight of my summer.
Supernatural
We’ve watched brothers Sam and Dean fight different demons-of-the-week for almost five years, but now they’re battling the biggest bad guy of them all: Satan, gleefully played by Mark Pellegrino, who you might also recognize as “Lost” mystery man Jacob (the guy’s got good taste). The stakes have never been higher and — lucky us — “Supernatural” has never been better.
Lost
It’s a good thing we’re nearing its final season because I’m not sure my brain can take much more. During the past five seasons, we’ve gone from character flashbacks to flash forwards to, most recently, time travel, as the island experienced some freaky energy that sent some of our Losties back to the 1970s. From there, the show toggled back and forth between the present and the past.
Ben schemed. Jack sulked. Sawyer grew up and turned into the hero we always knew, or at least hoped, he could become. The castaways who got off the island returned, just to the wrong time. And we finally met the mysterious Jacob, who I quite liked, as well as a new villain who had taken on the form of John Locke.
Fringe
“Fringe” would’ve made this list based on its stellar first season finale alone. During that mind-bending hour, we learned what the series is essentially all about: a coming war between our reality and an alternate one. And it appears Olivia, Peter and Walter are the only ones who can stop it. The first half of the second season has built on that my-thology and, much like “Lost,” I can’t even imagine where it will go next.
Harper’s Island
Despite a pretty lame ending and the occasional plot hole, this show — about a serial killer stalking a group of island wedding guests — was a scary good time that kept me entertained for most of its 13 episodes. Characters died in increasingly more creative ways each week, and the show really picked up once the wedding guests realized what was going on and started running for their lives. It was a new formula for television, and it’s a shame more viewers didn’t tune in to watch it work.
Chuck
Another show, another charming, perfectly cast ensemble.
As Chuck, Zachary Levi is television’s most loveable dork (sorry, “Big Bang Theory” cast members). His fellow spies/bodyguards Sarah and Agent Casey are just as much fun to watch when they’re kicking butt as when they’re working their cover identities, and I love the relationships they’ve formed with our titular hero. Sarah is head-over-heels for him, and Casey cares, too, even though he really doesn’t want to.
Then there are Chuck’s Buy More coworkers. And you can’t talk Buy More without mentioning Jeffster, the awesome cover band fronted by Jeff and Lester. Note to writers: more Jeffster. Please.
Flash Forward
The season’s best new drama is confusing and complicated, but so worth watching. The premise — the whole world blacks out and gets a glimpse into their immediate future — provides endless possibilities. We’ve seen most of our main characters’ flash forwards, for better or worse, but there’s a whole world out there, full of people and their stories. We don’t need another blackout to prove that this show has a bright and fascinating future.
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