Eclectica

Mostly cogent, most of the time.

Telly wot I watched in 2009

In no particular order, and again, bound to be some I’ve missed.

Battlestar Galactica – Season Four
Look, I don’t want to talk about it, okay? It was a messy breakup, some things got said. It’s best forgotten.

Whitechapel
blogged

24 – Season Seven
After the fiasco of season six, in which LA got nuked and NOBODY NOTICED, this was a blistering return to form.

Dollhouse – Season One
After a lacklustre start this found its feet in episode six and went on to become compelling, complex, morally dificult, challenging, thrilling, sexy and odd. Maybe not the best thing Joss has done, but certainly the most adult and problematic – in a good way.

Veronica Mars – Seasons One and Two
Blogged. God, I love this show so much, I’d marry it if I could. My fave new thing of the year.

Lost – Seasons Four and Five
I caught up in one big 29 episode marathon and had the top of my head blown off by the show’s swaggeringly confident lurch into full on sci-fi. Season five especially demonstrated the kind of narrative chutzpah that should win awards.

Heroes – Season Two
Yawn. What the holy hell happened there?

Gavin and Stacey – Seasons One and Two
The thing that makes this show so wonderful is that it’s laugh out loud funny but the humour is victimless – no-one’s cruel to anyone else, it’s just a bunch of people who love each other trying to get on with their lives. And Nessa is destined to go down in history as one of the truly great comic characters.

Prison Break – Season Four
Better than Season Three but essentially it was a dead show walking, and not a patch on the first two, glorious years. But at least they gave it a proper ending.

The Shield – Season Seven
Finding a fitting ending to your show that feels thematically right and satisfying is so damn hard. Almost no show really pulls it off. But the final episodes of this mammoth tale of Shakespearean hubris, greed and Macbeth-ian power plays was the most powerful thing I saw on telly all year. Pretty much flawless.

Dexter – Seasons Two and Three
So wrong. Morally unjustifiable on any level. I feel mucky just recommending it. But hot damn, if it isn’t addictive.

Torchwood – Children of Earth
Partly written by my esteemed colleague Mr Moran, this was landmark telly – the biggest and best adult Sci-fi since Quatermass.

The Sarah Jane Adventures – Season Three
The Mona-lisa ep was a low point, but the rest ranged from good to inspired, with the undoubted highpoint being The Wedding of Sarah Jane. More please.

The Unit – Season Four
The year the show went off the rails. Supervillians, confusing arcs that were very badly handled, characters acting totally out of character. For a show that’s USP was ‘this is how it really is’ this ill-advised but probably inevitable lurch into low-budget 24 territory signalled the inescapable end. But the first two seasons stand as fine work.

How I Met Your Mother – Seasons Two and Three
The best written sitcom since Coupling, it even manages, in its clever use of flashbacks and sneaky narrative tricks, to out-Moffat Moffat on occasion. Really, if you’re not watching this you should be. The only show that literally makes me cry laughing at least once a week. And yes, I have a man-crush on NPH.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – Season one
A bit slow at times, but perfectly acceptable for a first season.

Lewis – Season Three
Oh dear, the writing really has gone downhill, hasn’t it. Great cast, great production values, but it’s becoming a parody of what people think Morse used to be. Morse was edgier, cleverer and more diverse than this increasingly insipid and OTT imitation.

Bleak House
Just fab.

Gave up on: Apparitions (dull and muddled), Stargate Atlantis – Season Five (it felt… inessential)

Currently enjoying: Merlin – Season Two (so old skool it could have been made in 1955), Paradox (not as bad as Bonekickers), Stargate Universe (far better than anyone had any right to expect)

Would have watched if I’d had the time: True Blood, Mad Men, Damages, Chuck, Spiral

Looking forward to in 2010: Veronica Mars – Season Three (I don’t want it to be over!), Survivors – Season Two, Slings and Arrows – Season Three (finally!), Doctor Who – Season Thirty one/Five/One