TV favorites of past year

As is the case with many dedicated home viewers, my time for watching films is being eroded by high-quality television series, and I’m beginning to take satisfaction in deciding which “must-see” series I really don’t need to see any more of, which clears my calendar for shows I’m truly involved with.  Among the series I abandoned sooner or later were Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, Broadchurch, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, The Americans, Fargo.  What a relief to not have to keep up!

On the other hand, there are many series I feel compelled to follow all the way, no more inclined to skip an episode than I would be to skip a chapter in a novel.  I’ll start with two I loved, which I only caught up with after their runs were over.  (For Metacritic rating, I give high and low marks for seasons, with a link to the first.  Also, my usual link to Netflix availability, and Amazon Prime when relevant.)

Borgen (NFX) is the antidote to House of Cards, offering authentic insight into the motivations and machinations of politicians and media people, plausibly-flawed characters whom it is possible to care about.  The title translates as “The Castle,” the Christiansborg Palace that houses all three branches of Danish government.  The three seasons (with fingers crossed for another, less so for a senseless American remake) follow the progress of Birgitte Nyborg, the center-left party leader who becomes the first woman PM of Denmark (the fiction preceded the reality by one year).  The mechanics of coalition-building among eight parties are continuously fascinating, and enlightening about issues in a way that American political series rarely are.  The acting is fine, funny, and true across the board, but anchored by the central performance – lovely, many-leveled, and mature -- of Sidse Babett Knudson.  Essentially this series is “The West Wing goes to Copenhagen,” and it comes back to us smarter, sexier, and more honest.  I cannot recommend any tv series more urgently than this.

For a more specialized taste, I’m equally enthusiastic about In Treatment (MC-70/85, NFX, AMZ, HBO).  When this show was running, I didn’t find the concept or its Israeli source appealing, and the format – one half-hour for each character each week – cumbersome, even with DVR or DVD.  Once HBO Go made every episode available to watch on any schedule, it was time to sample the series.  I thought maybe I’d try watching one patient through a season, just to see how I liked it.  Well, that’s definitely not the way to approach this series – it needs to be watched from start to finish, even as the roster of patients changes from season to season.  Though it would have been nice to see more of Gabriel Byrne as the troubled therapist Paul, who ties it all together, there is a sense of completion over the three seasons.  And a great line-up of characters, with just the actors to play them, starting with Paul’s therapists in turn, Dianne Wiest and (especially!) Amy Ryan.  Among the patients, Mia Wasikowska stands out, with many others from Irrfan Khan and Debra Winger to Alison Pill and Embeth Davidtz giving compelling performances.  Just two people (occasionally three or four) in a single setting, conversing intently for a half hour, and then coming back to do the same thing over again.  It makes, if you can believe me, for fascinating viewing.

The key to a successful tv series is establishing contact, but moreover a contract, with the viewer.  The best shows sustain that contract to the very end, repay the investment of time.  Next up are two that recently ended their long runs on a very fulfilling note.  I’ve made the case for Justified (MC-80/91, NFX, AMZ) several times already on this blog, but I’m going to flog it one more time as a show that managed to thread the needle of authentic surprise and fan service to the very end of its sixth and final season.  It wound up where we wanted it to, but with wit and invention all along the way.  The combination couldn’t be beat, of showrunner Graham Yost channeling Elmore Leonard in both his crime and Western modes; producer/star Timothy Olyphant handsomely embodying his character Raylan Givens, a modern-day U.S. Marshal in Harlan County, Kentucky; Walton Goggins playing his doppelganger and nemesis (they dug coal together before winding up on opposite sides of the law, but with alarmingly similar approaches); and Joelle Carter as the woman between them, with schemes of her own.  There’s a host of equally engaging characters that recur and rotate.  Admittedly, Justified’s contract with the viewer involves a lot of blood splatter, but somehow it all seems justified by the characters and their language, the humor and intelligence of their portrayal, and the twists of the story.  Start at the beginning, as the show slowly finds it method in the first season, perfects it in the second, and sustains it through the sixth.

I found Mad Men (MC-77/92, NFX) to have many ups and downs from episode to episode, but also to have sustained itself and maintained interest to the satisfying end of its split seventh season.  Again the characters, both in the writing and the acting, became familiar and important while still surprising to the viewer.  It had all the pleasures of a soap opera, at a high level of finish, with a believable sense of period in both style and action.  Unlike my three previous recommendations, I’m pretty sure you’ve already formed your own opinion of this show, but if not and you’re reading this, then you should give it a try.

Back to the lesser known and still in progress, I’m a dedicated follower of Rectify (MC-82/92, NFX, SUND), which just completed a third season that compels me to mount my soapbox.  It’s certainly my favorite among series currently running, of which few viewers are aware.  C’mon, people, get with it!  Part of the problem is how hard the show is to describe.  There’s a rape and murder deep in the backstory, and a crime waiting to be solved, but that’s not what the series is about – it’s about family and faith, community and connection, freedom and bondage, guilt and redemption, the light and the dark, beauty and sorrow.  A melancholy melodrama, slow and mournful in its telling, though marked by wit and poetry, it’s the story of a man, played by Aden Young, who has spent more than half his life on death row, for the murder of his teenage girlfriend, before being cleared by DNA evidence.  Like Rip Van Winkle, he confronts a world he barely recognizes, in small-town Georgia.  There are fine performances by men as well, but three actresses stand out, Abigail Spencer as his dedicated sister, J. Smith-Cameron as his puzzled but sympathetic mother, and Adelaide Clemons as the stepsister-in-law with whom he forms a deep bond.  It’s a moody minimalist masterpiece, and deserves your time and attention.  I’ve bought in, made a long-term investment in Rectify, and been well-rewarded, eager for more.

I’m also counting on more of Wolf Hall (MC-86, NFX, PBS), so author Hilary Mantel and the BBC better get to work.  The story of Henry VIII and his troublesome marital arrangements has been told many times, but this version is unique in viewing the proceedings through the watchful eyes of Thomas Cromwell, usually taken to be one of the villains of the piece, but here embodied with great sympathy by Mark Rylance, marvelously observant and subtle in reaction.  Damian Lewis convinces as the great but flawed king, and Claire Foy’s imperious Anne Boleyn is an eye-opening contrast to her wonderfully meek “Little Dorrit.”  Complicated and slow-paced, this version eschews swordplay and bodice-ripping, for more complicated games of political and erotic power.  Digital cameras that allow shooting by candlelight in actual locations convey the presence, and the radical difference, of the past, in ways that rival Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner. 

The recurrence of many of the same actors highlights both the parallels and the divergences between Wolf Hall and Game of Thrones (MC-80/94, NFX, HBO), one the real deal and the other a guilty pleasure.  This too is a series you’ve probably already made up your mind about.  Not generally a fan of the sword & sorcery genre – in book, game, or cinema -- I was won over by the committed presentation of this series, which does maintain its contract with the viewer, in its range of characters, spectacle, surprise, and wit.  I like to watch, but I don’t take it seriously, all appreciation granted with ironic “quotes” around it.  I do expect to follow the story into further seasons, but it will never rank with my very favorites.

Having lost some of its luster as the ne plus ultra of quality TV, HBO packages their best shows together, scheduling GoT in tandem with Veep (MC-72/90, NFX, HBO) and Silicon Valley (MC-84/86, NFX, HBO), each of which came into its own in the recent season.  Both shows are topical, true, and funny, with excellent ensemble acting.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus is now Prez, not Veep, in the fourth season, and the show stepped up in rank as well.  And tech start-up Pied Piper, led by the deliciously nerdy Thomas Middleditch (I had to look up the actor’s name, he’s so fully at one with his character), has had its ups and downs, breakthroughs and flops, over two seasons, and in the process illuminated many aspects of its eponymous culture.

But for me, the HBO highlight of this year was Olive Kitteredge (MC-89, NFX, HBO).  The title character is played by Frances McDormand, and I hardly need to say more – she is superb.  But with its source in Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer-award novel, and direction by Lisa Chodolenko, a lot of women can take credit for this beautiful rendition of a woman’s story, a flinty character in a well-portrayed Maine community, who emerges as sympathetic and funny, without ever losing her rough edge.  Richard Jenkins is also affecting as her sweet and accommodating pharmacist husband; Zoe Katz as his dim but endearing assistant; and even Bill Murray as a fellow grump with whom Olive makes a late-life connection.  Lots of subsidiary town characters appear, as in Strout’s series of stories, over the four hour-long episodes.  I liked this series so much, I was led to read the book, which proved very good and not at all spoiled by seeing the tv show first, but rather enhanced.  I liked that book so much, I went on to read Strout’s Abide with Me, for her delicate understanding of ordinary people and everyday life. 

[You’ll find a lot more shows reviewed, and some strongly recommended, if you click through.]   

The first season of Better Call Saul (MC-78, NFX) worked for anyone who wanted to revisit the Albuquerque milieu and some beloved characters from Breaking Bad, but Vince Gilligan’s follow-up also stands on its own, forging a different sort of contract with its viewers.  Bob Odenkirk as Saul and Jonathan Banks as Mike return, though in a setting earlier than BrBa.  They will plausibly turn into those later characters, but here they strike different notes, as do the other characters, such as Michael McKean as Saul’s uptown-lawyer big brother.  This first season played around with various moods and stories, till it accumulated an identity all its own.  I’ll definitely tune in for a second season.

I’m not so sure about The Affair (MC-85, NFX), which like so many Showtime series, ran out of interest sooner than expected.  I was initially attracted by the pairing of Dominic West (forever enshrined as “McNutty” of The Wire) and Ruth Wilson (whom I first noticed opposite Idris Elba in Luther), and intrigued by the he-said-she-said retelling of events from opposite perspectives.  Not trusting those elements, nor the well-evoked setting at the tip of Long Island, where locals and rich outlanders mingle uneasily, the showrunners turned toward a murder mystery that left me on the verge of tuning out, and doubtful of tuning back in for a second season.

I’ve just made it through the second season of Masters of Sex (MC-72/89, NFX) on dvd, while the third has been airing on Showtime.  Definitely lured on by the portrayals of Masters and Johnson from Michael Sheen and Lizzie Caplan, and by some other characters who pass through or recur, I do feel the show is overextended, even if some of the fictionalized storylines are not without point.  Its attempt to define a period overlapping with that of Mad Men is not so elegantly or believably done.  I expect to keep watching, but without a long-term commitment.  An assignation, not an affair.

Netflix original Bloodline (MC-75, NFX) may be in the same category.  I was drawn to it by the presence of Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor of Friday Night Lights!), Linda Cardellini (Lindsey of Freaks & Geeks!), and Sissy Spacek (everything from Carrie on!), but was quite taken with the menacing yet somehow sympathetic performance of Ben Mendelsohn (of Aussie film Animal Kingdom) as the prodigal son who returns to his family’s resort hotel, in a well-evoked setting at the tip of Florida, and runs into complicated reactions from each of his parents and siblings.  For me the series was marred by an opening narration with flash-forwards before each episode, which seemed to give the story away too simple-mindedly, but was redeemed by a final episode reveal, which turned the device upside down.  “Coach T” is still engaging, though not so much a stand-up guy, “Lindsey” is now a sexy lawyer, and Sissy is their mother, who may see and understand a lot more than she lets on.  The show is all about family secrets, in the past and in the present.

Now we’ll look at some British imports -- definitely excluding Downton Abbey, which I gave up on some time back -- distinguished mainly by fine actresses.  I rather enjoyed the first two seasons of Last Tango in Halifax (MC-78, NFX), but have not yet watched the third, though I expect to do so with mild amusement at some point.  Veteran thespians Derek Jacobi and Ann Reid are the leads, as a pair of teenage sweethearts who long ago lost connection, and now reignite their relationship sixty years later, after each losing a spouse.  But possibly more engaging are their respective middle-aged daughters, who react in different ways to the parental romance, as played by Nicola Walker and Sarah Lancashire. 

The latter teamed again successfully with show creator Sally Wainwright, on the offbeat Yorkshire police story, Happy Valley (MC-83, NFX).  Not quite offbeat enough, as it turns out, with the creepy rapist/murderer making his obligatory appearance.  Still, it was a good idea to build the series around Sarah Lancashire as the middle-aged lady cop in the picturesque setting, and I liked it better than similar set-ups like Broadchurch.  Enjoyed six episodes, don’t know whether I’d be back for more.

Ever since she played Esther in the outstanding BBC adaptation of Bleak House in 2005, I’ve looked for Anna Maxwell-Martin in various series, not always with happy result (looking at you, Bletchley Circle).  So that’s why I caught up with South Riding (MC-62, NFX) from 2011, which I did find engaging.  The ubiquitous Andrew Davies -- who did the superior adaptations of Little Dorrit, Bleak House, and so many others -- was another draw.  Though infinitely more progressive and up to date than Miss Jean Brodie, Anna’s character is similarly out of step with the school hierarchy, when she becomes headmistress of a Yorkshire school in the Thirties, a time and place of radicalism and reaction.

Unfortunately Anna then led me to Death Comes to Pemberley (MC-66, NFX), an execrable desecration of Jane Austen from the pen of P.D. James.  I suppose there was some fun to be had in ranting at the tube while the sublime characters of Pride and Prejudice were being robbed of their charm.  As a Janeite, I can hardly resist any contemporary exploitation of her work, but I’m going to have to make more of an effort.

Another British series, Babylon (MC-67, NFX, SUND), set me off in pursuit of work by another actress, Brit Marling.  Turns out she’s actually American, and I’ve seen her referred to as the Indie It-Girl of the moment, brainy and powerful, blond and beautiful, and the force behind a number of movies worth seeing, which I will review soon.  In this series, produced by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, Brit plays an American PR consultant who is hired by the London police, to improve their media coverage and public trust (Nicola Walker plays a senior officer she tries to maneuver into police commissioner).  The writers are the guys behind The Peep Show and The Thick of It, so you know it’s marked by wild, profane, rapid-fire wit, and a satirical edge to topics of the moment, involving attempts to justify police shootings of unarmed suspects, and other steps over the line of law and order.  The series is most noticeable for its relentless pace, as it races from storyline to storyline. with propulsive percussion on the soundtrack.

Another British series well worth watching through the initial six episodes was Black Mirror (MC, NFX), created by Charlie Brooker, as the second coming of Rod Serling.  You are definitely re-entering The Twilight Zone when you watch the discrete episodes of this tech-obsessed dystopian series.  You’ll know whether you can handle it right from the first episode, which is premised on a terrorist threatening to kill his Lady Di-like hostage, unless the PM consents to have full intercourse with a real pig on live tv.  Most of the rest is strange and kinky as well.  But powerful and thought-provoking.

Canadian series run longer, and that over-extension might have been the downfall of Orphan Black (MC-73/79, NFX, AMZ), which I really enjoyed in its first season, somewhat less in its second, and lost patience with in its third.  The draw here, of course, is Tatiana Maslany, who assumes many amusingly different identities, as “The Clone Club,” a group of women who gradually bond when they realize they are all the offspring of a genetic experiment.  The multiple personality shtick is enough to carry the show a long way, but they go overboard with characters in season two, and then off the rails by adding a militaristic male set of clones in the third.  One doesn’t really expect such a story to make sense, but this one revels in obscurity and implausibility.  Still, I imagine almost anyone with a tolerance for pulp would get a kick out of the first season.  Now let’s hope the show ends, and gives Maslany the chance to appear in other, more convincing stories.

Turning in conclusion to half-hour comedy series, I have to salute two SNL alumnae:  Amy Poehler for the successful conclusion of her seven-season run on Parks and Recreation (MC-58/83, NFX, AMZ), and Tina Fey for the first season of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (MC-78, NFX), her writing follow-up to 30 Rock, rejected by NBC but finding a good home on Netflix.   

Amy as Leslie Knope evolved over the years from dope to hope.  Never a mope, and given enough rope, she learned how to cope, and became an effective public servant in Pawnee, Indiana -- and beyond.  She was surrounded by characters who also evolved, and revolved, becoming more endearing as the series progressed.  Parks & Rec was -- and is -- a reliable place to go for dumb jokes that don’t insult your intelligence.

Ellie Kemper as Kimmy is also endearing and sharper than she seems at first, as one of four “sister-wives” to a crazed doomsday prophet (played by an unrecognizable Jon Hamm, aka Don Draper).   Released from 18 years in an underground bunker in Indiana, she decides to take up a new life as a single gal on the streets of NYC, like an addled Mary Tyler Moore in Manhattan.  The same Rip Van Winkle adjustments that Daniel Holden makes mournfully in small-town Rectify, Kimmy makes with antic peppiness in the big city, picking up some familiar sidekicks in the process.  As a comedy about survivors of rape and other trauma, this show remains funny in its blending of dark and light.

Amazon has definitely broken though with original programming in the sit-com format.  Transparent (MC-91, AMZ) racked up a number of Emmy nominations.  Though initially put off by the milieu and the characters, I was soon won over to Jill Soloway’s rather bitter comedy of privileged L.A. Jews.  Borrowing more than lead actor Jeffrey Tambor from Arrested Development, it’s the story of a father of three grown children who finally decides to come out as the woman he always felt himself to be, sending tremors through the lives of his similarly inauthentic and unsatisfied progeny.  Still, the show turns the neat trick of making obnoxious people seem sympathetic.

That success -- plus Gael Garcia Bernal -- was enough to lead me to another Amazon original, Mozart in the Jungle (MC-73, AMZ).  I enjoyed his floridly comic performance plus some of the others, and particularly the inside view on the (sexualized but not glamorized) world of professional symphony musicians in NYC -- made it through first ten episodes, but doubt I’ll be back for more.

On the other hand, I’ve already re-watched the first six episodes of Catastrophe (MC-83, AMZ), with equal enthusiasm for the repeat, and I eagerly anticipate more.  Created by and starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, it’s about the adventures in couplehood of an Irish schoolteacher and an American ad man, who meet in London and have a swinging one-week affair, complicated by her subsequent pregnancy, and his desire to “do the right thing.”  Having written the consistently witty repartee, they deliver it with style, and a level of intimacy and authenticity rarely seen in sit-coms.  It’s raunchy as hell, but in a good-spirited way, and both leads are likable people to spend time with, with comic timing that seems a bit different, but just right.  Catch this Catastrophe, if you can, for the funniest thing I’ve seen lately.

With worthy new programming coming from so many directions, I have to cite two web-only series for particular recommendation.  I’ve heard that HBO has picked up all the existing episodes and will finance more of High Maintenance (HM), but you don’t have to wait to sample the buzz of following the “Guy,” as he bikes around Brooklyn delivering weed, and finds his way into the lives of a host of diverse NYC-types.  Co-creator Ben Sinclair plays the Guy, and his casting-director partner Katja Blichfield supplies their chilled-out but oh-wow stories with a terrific series of actors and actresses, in fully-realized segments lasting from six to twenty minutes.  They did four brief series on their own and put them online for free, and then were funded for six more episodes by Vimeo, which were the first thing I ever paid specifically to stream.  They must have had a falling out with the transition to HBO, so those episodes are in limbo.  The highly-reliable Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker first called my attention to this series, and Dana Stevens of Slate goes even further in her recommendation.  Add mine.

Last but not least, I urge you to take a free look at Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on Crackle.  The premise is entirely announced in the title -- in each episode Jerry selects a particularly appropriate car to drive, and goes to pick up a comedian at home, usually a friend in the business, and they go out for coffee, and just shoot the shit about what it takes to make people laugh.  I’ve watched almost all the episodes and certainly liked best those about the comedians I like best:  Jon Stewart (in a 1978 Gremlin that “smells like virginity”), Stephen Colbert (an old British sportscar), David Letterman (1995 Volvo).  Start with your own favorites, then try some of the many others. 

Though where will you find the time to watch everything worth watching on home screens today?

(PS:  let me salute Jon & Stephen on the end of their current runs, which for me concludes more than a decade of watching them with the regularity of a ritual observance.  That will free up some time for other viewing, starting of course with John Oliver.)