The Telly Addict Awards 2011-PART 2

 

Hero of the Year

     Hero is often an overused word, especially in the world of television. What makes a true here? Is it having the courage to do what others can’t as in the case of Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead? Is it following your own fate no matter what as in the case of The Misfits Simon Bellamy? Is it just pure heroicness as in the case of The Doctor? It’s possibly a combination of all of these and in choosing my Hero of 2011 I have take all of these things into account. It was close with Dexter falling just before the finishing line. Despite the fact that he only kills bad guys, he is after all a serial killer. So that just leaves me to announce the Hero of the year as………………………………………………………………………………………………….Commander Nathanial Taylor from Terra Nova. He is an old fashioned all American Hero and could have graced any war film. The fact that he’s from 2149 living in the late Cretaceous is neither here nor there. He is prepared to do anything for the colony, even killing his own son. You get the feeling that whenever he’s on screen he’ll do or say something heroic. While the rest of Terra Novas cast are one dimensional card board cut outs, Taylor really stands out and you get the feeling that without him, the colony would be screwed.

 

Heroine of the Year

Being heroic isn’t necessarily a male trait. These days we are treated to our fair share of heroines too. Gwen Cooper has shown that she can be every bit as heroic as the often scene-stealing Captain Jack. New show Once Upon A Time has a heroine as it’s main character in the form of Emma Swan. Even Game of Thrones (in a genre that is typically dominated by male hero's) had a strong female cast of characters that largely overshadowed the men. It was nearly a female character from Game of Thrones that took the Heroine of the Year award in the form of Daenerys Targaryen. Despite having an over bearing brother who forced her into a union with Khal Drogo, a brutish character, she soon proved that she was every bit as strong. Unfortunately though there can only be one Heroine of the Year and this year goes to………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Amy Pond from Doctor Who. It isn’t easy to steal the show from Matt Smiths The Doctor but Karen Gillian did it repeatedly as Amy Pond. The Girl Who Waited was arguably one of the best episodes of any show in 2011 and Amy's relationship not just with the Doctor but also with Rory is often provides the crux for each episode. In 2011, the whole series belonged to Amy Pond and her daughter (a resolution that brought us one of the twists of the year). After a couple of shaky companions (er Catherine Tate) Amy Pond is perhaps the best companion of the modern revival of Doctor Who and her I’m sure that she will be missed when she leaves the series midway though the next series.

 

Next time I’ll be announcing my Soap of the Year and The American Show of the Year.

The Telly Addict Awards 2011–Part 1

So, finally we are coming to the end of 2011 and so it’s time for the Telly Addict Awards to be handed out.

BADDIE OF THE YEAR

     There have been many bad guys strutting their stuff on the small screen this year. This year Dexter really found himself up against a true monster in the form of Travis Marshall while Once Upon A Time boasted not one but two brilliant bad guys in the form of The Evil Queen and Rumplestiltskin. Over here, Appropriate Adult gave us a truly chilling Fred and Rose West while the soaps all boasted their fair share of bad guys. It is a soap that (in my opinion) gave us one of the baddest baddies of 2011. So the winner of Baddie of The Year goes to………………………………………………………………………………………………….MICHAEL MOON from Eastenders. When Michael Moon first came to the square he seemed like a bit of a cheeky chappy. As Alfie Moons cousin, at first he didn’t show any characteristics that often precede evilness. This year though, he really went off the scales. His growing infatuation of Ronnie Mitchell turned sinister as the year went on resulting in him launching a vendetta against her. When it seemed like Kat and Alfie were ready to forgive Ronnie for stealing the baby, Michael stepped in to turn them back against her. He began playing the Moons against the Mitchells for no other reason than his own entertainment. For most bad guys that would be enough for one year but not for Michael. His fathers return into his life gave him a whole new game as he set about bringing him down. This resulted in the sickest of plans as he spent months preparing to make his father pay for his mothers death years before. He got his brother interested in boxing, trained him up, gave him a few fights before setting him up against a psycho with a reputation for killing his opponents in the ring. His brother ended up in hospital and Michael eventually got found out resulting in a swift downfall. Now as 2011 ends he is on the way back up. He has a new enemy in Derek Branning and a new ally in Janine Butcher. Although there have been perhaps greater feats of evil achieved by other characters, Michael wins this award for how he goes about his bad ways. It’s the looks he gives and his patience in playing the long game. You get the feeling that he is capable of anything and for me that is truly terrifying.

BEST STORYLINE OF THE YEAR

We have enjoyed some great storylines this year. The soaps have thrown out some fantastic story's with Eastenders thrilling us with the pick in my opinion. The slow burning Masood/Kahn has been a year long storyline only ending a couple of days ago in truly explosive style. Dexter has kept me hooked with one of it’s best seasons while Doctor Who gave us a truly confusing story with great pay offs. It has also been a great year for new concepts. Outcasts may have been cancelled but the story of human beings settling on a new planet is a fantastic story with loads of potential. Mad Men also gave us a weaving story of four friends caught up in a drugs deal in Majorca. My storyline of the year goes to a show that gave us the best concept I have seen for some time. I think that the writers did everything they could with the story and more and they also gave us a relatively plausible explanation for the events depicted. The Telly Addict Storyline of the Year goes to…………………………………………………………………………………………………

TORCHWOOD:MIRACLE DAY. What would happen were no one to die is a simple concept on it’s own. But throw in that people can still get injured and grow old yet not die and you have a truly terrifying story. The show depicted a terrorist blowing himself apart yet still surviving (the blinking eye in the middle of a pile of burnt goo proved that). A woman was in a car as it went into a crusher lived despite being crushed to death inside a mangled cube of metal. It was a truly terrifying depiction that also meant that the previously immortal Captain Jack Harkness could now die. People who should have died were sent to camps to be burnt to dust in massive furnaces while the pharmaceutical industry took control of the various governments around the world. It was a fantastic storyline that I think warrants this award. Sure there were many other storylines that captured the imagination but Torchwood:Miracle Day really made me think and it’s not often that that happens.

Next post I’ll be handing out the awards for Hero and Heroine of the year.

Terra Nova: Series Review

    

     When I first heard about Terra Nova, I became very excited. The concept is simple but offers so many different possibilities. In the year 2149 the earth is dying. People need masks to survive the polluted planet. A rift in time has been discovered that leads back 85 million years ago and so a colony has been established there so that ‘we’ can learn from our mistakes and build a better future. I’ll be honest, the thing that drew me in was the idea of dinosaurs. I wanted big tyrannosaurs and Spinosaurs. I wanted people getting eaten and big dino face-offs. What we got was slightly different.

GOOD POINTS

+Stephen Lang as Commander Taylor is superb. He’s, in my opinion, the saviour of the show. He get’s a lot of the best lines and is a true American Hero.

+There are a few mysteries in the show that keep you watching but they don’t drag on for too long ala Lost.

+The finale was a prime example of how most of the show should have been. It had action, hope and bad guys becoming dino food. It also set things up nicely should there be a second season.

+The setting of Terra Nova is beautiful and in total contrast to the 2149 scenes. Dodgy CGI aside, the makers of Terra Nova definatly succeeded in the location shots.

BAD POINTS

+The show was a bit too cutesy at times. A series like Terra Nova really doesn’t need to be wrapped in cotton wool.

+The Shannon's are central to the show but I didn’t care about them enough. It seemed as though the writers kept thrusting them on us, trying to make us care about them. A prime example is Jim Shannon's friendship with Taylor with Taylor even leaving Jim in charge of the whole colony one day.

+The family moments are perhaps in keeping with a theme that human love survives all but I found them a little cheesy and annoying.

+There was a pretty big lack of dinosaur IMO with most of the dinos we encountered being ‘made-up’. I wanted to see dinos that I knew and recognised.

+The dodgy CGI lets down the dino moments slightly.

STAR OF THE SHOW

Stephen Lang is undoubtedly the star of Terra Nova. The show could carry on without many of the other characters but I think that it’d struggle without Taylor. He carries things and as the first human through the rift he is perhaps the most knowledgeable. He survived the first 118 days alone before the 2nd person came through the rift and that makes Taylor a hugely complex character. While many of the other colonists are slightly 1 dimensional, Commander Nathanial Taylor is well rounded with a history that you actually care about knowing.

FINAL OPINION

There are many things that let Terra Nova down but there are also many things that made it worth watching. The concept could’ve been presented in many different ways and I think that the makers of Terra Nova got it spot on. It was easy to follow while also complex enough to keep me watching. I also think that the number of episodes (12) was spot on. Sometimes American series’ drag on a bit and suffer by having to tell a story over a 24 episode season. Terra Nova carries on at a good pace with the story moving on each episode. Taylor is the perfect good guy in that in the earlier episodes he could be a bad guy. It is quite fitting that his enemy turns out to be his own son. These scenes between Taylor and Lucas really get Lang (Taylor) stretching his acting muscles and allows us to see behind the All-American facade presented by Taylor. On a slight bad note, I expected better CGI from a show as trumpeted as this one and I didn’t like the cutesy family moments.

7.5/10

Telly Addict Review of the Year 2011: The End!

     The end is something that comes to us all and the same is true with television shows. 2011 saw the end of a number of popular shows. It also saw the end of a few shows that weren’t as popular as the makers would’ve hoped.

     The first show of note to bite the dust was American show Medium. The show managed 7 seasons (quite an achievement by American standards) before it ended on the 21st January.

     Lark Rise to Candleford was the UK’s first big casualty of 2011 when it ended on the 13th February. The decision not to film a 5th series came as a real shock as the show had always maintained strong ratings.

     Outcasts arrived on our screens to a huge fanfare. The story of human colonists on a new planet was an intriguing concept. Unfortunately, despite featuring a strong cast, the show failed to attract a following resulting in the BBC cancelling it after only one series. The last episode aired on the 13th March.

     Another big show came to a close when The Tudors ended after 4 blood and sex filled series'. The future Telly Addict Hall of Famer aired for the final time on the 13th March.

     Surely on the of the biggest losses to the television schedule occurred on the 11th April when The Waking Dead ended. It had been a fixture on BBC 1 for 11 years.

     The 13th May signalled the the end of 2 American shows when SmallVille and The Event both ended. SmallVille had been showing Superman's early years for 10 years while The Event had only 1 series before it was cancelled.

     Long running British Comedy Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps ended after 10 years on the 24th May. The Runcorn based comedy had been a perfect vehicle for Will Mellor, Ralf Little and Sheridan Smith.

     One of the longest running shows ever came to an end on the 25th May when The Oprah Winfrey Show ended. It had had a run of 25 years. To put that into perspective, when it began I was 4!

    Johnny Vegas comedy Ideal aired it’s final ever episode on the 30th June after a 7 series run. The comedy had often enjoyed good ratings and so it’s cancelation came as a shock to many.

     Another popular British comedy ended on the 2nd September when My Family came to a close. Unlike most British sitcoms, My Family had a team of writers like in America. This no doubt helped in it’s success.

     Entourage was on of Americas top shows but it came to a natural end on 11th September. A feature film has now been confirmed.

     Remakes of popular shows is risky business as Charlie's Angels proves. The remake was cancelled after airing only 4 episodes on the 14th October.

     The last big show to end in 2011 was Spooks which finished on the 23rd October. The drama about MI5 spies came to a natural end after 10 years.

     Shows may end but they all started somewhere and 2011 was also a good year for new shows. Part 2 of my telly review of the year will focus on Telly Births.

The Walking Dead Review +++SPOILER ALERT+++

The walking dead is now on a bit of a mid-season break and so the question now is what do I do to get my zombie fix? The first thing I’ll do is look back at the first part of the current season.
     The series pretty much carries on from the 1st season with Rick Grimes and his fellow survivors playing hide and seek with the undead. The main plot points so far have been…
+ the hunt for Sofia (the young daughter of one of the survivors), who went missing in the 1st episode.
+Shane shooting a fellow survivor (Otis) in the leg so he could escape a hoard of Zombies. Otis ended up getting torn apart.
+The discovery of a farm that seems like the perfect sanctuary. That is until they discover that the owner of the farm (a veterinary called Hershel) is keeping Zombies locked in his barn.
The good thing about The Walking dead is that it is pretty good at tying up plots. It rarely leaves a plot hanging and often ends it in a truly shocking way. All of these plot points have been pretty much tied up leaving me excited for the 2nd half of the season wondering what madness is going to happen next.
     Another thing I like about this series is that it doesn’t sugar coat anything. The survivors are living in a world that is far different from ours. It is a world of no hope and no real future and the creators of The Walking Dead have painted the picture accordingly. If you haven’t watched this yet then I’m about to really spoil the show for you but this is a perfect example of the kind of show this is.
     Throughout the 7 episodes so far this season, the hunt for Sofia has pretty much dominated. There has been this faint hope that she would be found with signs of her being found everywhere. One or two of the survivors have even been seriously hurt in the hunt for her. Right at the end of episode 7, Shane takes matters into his own hands regarding the barn. He opens the barn doors and begins slaughtering the Zombies one by one. They think that it’s over until out of the darkness staggers one last Zombie, Sofia! It is left to Rick to shoot her in the head, delivering the audience with a true sucker punch. That is the kind of show that this is and it should come with a public health warning. Saying that, it is so fresh. It’s pretty rare to get a truly honest television show these days . The Walking Dead delivers a pretty honest portrayal of what life would be like were a zombie apocalypse to happen.
     It’s back on our screens in early February next year and I for one can’t wait.