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From folk-comedy to sex comedy, here's what TimeOut writers liked on the small screen this year.
KEY POINTS:
1 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
Peter Jackson who? If there were two Kiwis who put New Zealand on the entertainment map this year it was Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The musical duo became overnight legends when HBO turned their musical comedy act into a surreal sitcom _ and they didn't even have to change accents. The best part is they came with a legion of so-bad-they're-good characters, including fellow Kiwi Rhys Darby as their hopeless band manager Murray, fan/stalker Mel and egotistical mate Dave. Their gigs might have been embarrassing _ "Who likes to rock the party? We like to rock the party" _ but their musical interludes made for some of the year's most quotable lyrics. (Rby)
2 HEROES
Just as the glorious age of the outlandish cliffhanger TV serial _ as manifested by the groundbreaking Lost and 24 _ seemed to be drawing to an end, along came Heroes. This wasn't just a rollercoaster ride but a whole new amusement park. It offered up a vast cast of characters, ordinary folks discovering they had extraordinary powers and wondering what to do about it _ and finding that their abilities weren't necessarily secret.
But while the show's concept and international feel owed much to the early success of Lost, and it made allusions to superheroes of the comic world, it quickly became its own thing, a drama that thought bigger than just being a genre show.
The first series which screened here at the beginning of the year leaned heavily on 9/11 themes as its storyline became the mantra: "Save the Cheerleader, Save the world."
The current second series, which arrived on our screens not long after the first, is facing another apocalyptic scenario with a mystery virus. Meanwhile, its heroes old and new grapple with their mad skills while some are discovering they may not have been the first generation to make the evolutionary leap. The plotlines remain an intricate arrangement of shifting loyalties and time-travel. But so far, the show seems to have avoided the Lost pitfall of leaving us more bewildered than thrilled by every weekly instalment. (RB)
3 LIFE ON MARS
Sam Tyler, cop, had an accident and woke up back in 1973. "Am I mad, in a coma or back in time?" he kept asking himself. Who cares? Never mind the metaphysical conundrum, merely the starting point for what proved to be a gritty British good cop-bad cop series starring bad mos, good music, corduroy trousers and a Cortina. Flash for its time, but a Cortina?
Those were the days. No pussyfooting around the crooks. A bout in the storeroom/interview room with DCI Hunt (Philip Glenister, what a gem) usually did the business. Or the exchange of a few quid here and there. Forensics? Never 'eard of it.
The man who'd gone back in time, DI Sam Tyler (John Sim), had issues with his telly which kept switching on in the middle of the night, Hunt's professional standards, or lack thereof, the discovery of his mum _ and then the revelation that his dad (younger than Sim c.1973) was a smalltime criminal! That was a head-twister. Will Tyler ever return to, er, today? The BBC made a second series, and a spinoff featuring Hunt set in the 80s, called Ashes to Ashes. We have yet to see either. By then Hunt may have graduated to a Sierra. (LH)
4 UGLY BETTY
A young writer with buck teeth, bad hair and naive joie de vivre goes to work at a snooty fashion magazine and, despite her lack of style _ a poncho with Guadelajara written on it is her idea of haute couture _ wins (almost) everyone over with her sweet personality. Aww. Ugly Betty could have been a drippy, sentimental mess but thanks to a heartfelt, Emmy-winning performance from America Ferrera and some OTT fashion bitches who poked fun at the real industry, it was the most camp, bitchy and colourful hit of the year. It had its soppy moments, and the premise of inner beauty had virtually worn thin by the end of the series; viewers became incensed when TVNZ interrupted it halfway through. But who doesn't love a good underdog story? (RBy)
5 THE SOPRANOS
The end had to happen, but how was creator David C. Chase going to do it? By slowly, inevitably, destroying everything Tony Soprano held dear. Tony's vindictive streak led to so many errors _ forcing Bobby to do a bungled hit; suffocating Christopher after he crashed the car, high as a kite; insulting Johnny Sack and his henchman Phil Leotardo; alienating AJ, who tried to kill himself in one of the most shocking scenes of the entire Sopranos' history.
The list goes on. Dr Melfi cut him out. That hurt Tony bigtime. He developed a gambling problem. AJ became addicted to watching Al Jazeera, then wanted to join the Army. And in the end, the Soprano family had to go into hiding, as the war between Tony's crew and the Sack-Leotardo outfit blew up during the two last unnerving episodes. So many deaths. Tony ended up sleeping with a rifle. And the end, when it came, was ambiguous. Something might have been about to happen in that restaurant, as Tony and his family sat at the table. Who was that man watching them? The Sopranos, over 86 series, was daring, gobsmackingly funny, heavy and real. It leaves a huge void. (LH)
6 DEXTER
Sky1 bravely screened this twisted, award-winning series about a polite young loner who works as a blood splatter expert for the Miami Police Department _ and has a double life as a serial killer, dedicated to sedating, then dismembering, bad guys (and the occasional woman) who'd eluded the law. Flashbacks to his traumatic childhood offered an increasingly disturbing insight into Dexter's motivations, which eventually converged with those of the serial killer the department desperately chased through the 12-episode series: the Ice Truck Killer.
Dexter was bloodsoaked but warped into something much more interesting and humorous than standard police procedurals because of the depth of Michael C. Hall's characterisation. He gave Dexter charm and humanity even as he was slicing into yet another body, or wacking his girlfriend's junkie ex-husband over the head with a frying pan _ and the denouement was an absolute shocker. Series two is screening in the US now; let's hope we see it here next year. (LH)
7 THE BIG PICTURE
Clever old Hamish Keith. He's managed to bring a series about the history of New Zealand art to life in a series (and book) which is entertaining, rich in detail, bold, fresh and opinionated. He sweeps through 365 years _ a blip, in terms of other places _ and presents a cogent case for a culture that is entirely unique, even when the colonisers were still holding on to the Mother Country's apron strings. It is a visually stunning series. Not everyone will agree with Keith but it is a rare chance to see our art on the screen. So what does TV One do with it? Bury it, late on Sunday night. The DVD will be out next year. (LH)
8 THE MIGHTY BOOSH
Mad hair; humans dressed as animals; the worst special effects since early Dr Who; dreadful musical interludes and, God help us, whimsy. It ought to be the worst thing on TV but it is instead a lovely little piece of mad escapism. The characters are either nasty in a cartoonish sort of way, or idiotic beyond belief, and the story lines defy description. But The Mighty Boosh is a loving portrayal of a dysfunctional workplace and the story of an unlikely friendship between two blokes who bicker and compete. All they have in common is that they are both losers who shovel animal poop for a living and who live their lives in that whimsical place called the imagination. (MH)
9 AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL
Please let it stop. Please don't let it end. There is no possible justification for watching this absolute toss. I do not want to be having another conversation like this next year:
"Renee's going to win." "No she won't. She photographs old."
What does that even mean? Why are women having these conversations? I think we all need to be sent to feminist boot camp. Do you think they play re-runs of America's Next Top Model at feminist boot camp? Only as aversion therapy, of course.
There is no excuse for watching something as attractive as an eating disorder, but AN" proved horribly compelling _ for yet another year. (MH)
10 CALIFORNICATION
Golly, what a fuss _ over a dream involving a sexy, dirty talking nun. Oddly, nobody seemed to get their habits in a twist over the sexy, dirty talking nun on Extras, but that's selective outrage for you.
Yes, there is a lot of bonking, and many boobs, but it's all done with such, err, grinding weariness that you'd think it could count as a very good public service broadcast on the perils of bonking.
But aside from being wickedly bad, is it any good? It probably is one of the better things on the box this year. For one thing, it's funny _ in a world-weary way. And David Duchovny's Hank is a character you can believe. He's a man who is shades of grey: nasty, sarcastic, loving, idiotic, hardly grown up at all. (MH)
