Welcome to the Mid-Term Report. All this week the Herald's entertainment team will be highlighting the very best that 2017 has had to offer so far.
The Handmaid's Tale (Lightbox)
Rachel Bache: The Handmaid's Tale is a masterpiece. The TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel struck all the right chords with me, just like the book did when I read it more than a decade ago. I love how the show expanded our view of the horrifying Republic of Gilead and went deeper into its characters. Elisabeth Moss, Samira Wiley, Alexis Bledel and Yvonne Strahovski were all amazing in this scarily relevant series about women being enslaved and, along with a number of other atrocities, forced to bare children. The show is not only visually stunning and horrifying, but the story it tells is an important one - and they did it so well.
Karl Puschmann: In its third season Better Call Saul finally stepped on the gas. There was action, drama, scheming, double crossing, laughter, tears, funny costumes, drug wars, bickering pensioners and one hell of a dark conclusion. There were two of Breaking Bad's most fearsome, violent, drug lords engaging in a turf war. There was Mike Ehrmantraut carrying one of the series' best, most intense episodes, that started with a bullet-ridden, sun-faded shoe dangling from a telephone wire in the desert and ended by showing us how it got there. And there was also only bloody Saul Goodman himself (at last!), making his first mulleted, mustachioed appearance on the show that carried his name for two whole seasons before he showed up. All of that and it still elevated each episode to art, with inventive filmography, visual metaphors and densely packed sly references (my fave being a mariachi version of the Tetris music playing over a montage of Jimmy McGill setting up all the pieces for his elder law scam). There was a lot going on, it was all happening at a fast pace and it was bloody brilliant.
Girls (SoHo)
Siena Yates: Girls is so easy to hate. But it's easier to love because of that. None of the characters are likeable, they all make mistakes and do things to make you dislike them, but you root for them anyway because that's life and these are the people you know in real life. The final season brought things to a fitting, if mildly depressing, end. Ray and Shosh may have sorted their lives out but overall, there was no big solution, no over-arching happy ending (though Elijah did get one), no glitz, glamour or gory cliff hanger - it was just life in all its underwhelming glory. And that has always been the biggest appeal of Girls.
George Fenwick: Despite its obvious presence in day-to-day life, one of the most criminally underrepresented dynamics in mainstream film and television is female friendship. That, to me, is what made Big Little Lies so fantastic. What seemed to be on the surface a drama following the gossip and intrigue of the wealthy women living in an idyllic Californian community slowly turned into something far more impactful; Big Little Lies held together themes of domestic abuse, sexual violence, infidelity and societal expectations of women with unfaltering stability, ultimately delivering a thrilling testament to the power of female friendship. The impeccable cast (Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley) gave sensational performances, making this a mini-series that is unlikely to be forgotten soon.
The Keepers (Netflix)
Siobhan Keogh-Dwyer: New Netflix series The Keepers appears at first glance to be another true crime documentary to sit alongside the brilliant Making a Murderer. The longer you watch the show, however, the more you'll begin to realise that The Keepers is not just a documentary but an examination of a group of women's lives. The show centres around Baltimore's Archbishop Keough High School, a Catholic school where a woman named Sister Cathy Cesnik taught before she was murdered. The series begins by unravelling why Cesnik might have been killed, but branches out into an investigation of the women who were allegedly abused while attending the school, and a group of women who are determined to solve Cesnik's murder. It's a very grim, difficult series to watch, but it's worth it.
Bates Motel (Lightbox)
Dominic Corry: Although it faced a few creative wobbles early on, this quietly wonderful series went out on a high this year with its fifth and final season proving its best yet. A contemporary-set prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's iconic 1960 film Psycho, the show caught up to the events of the film this year and proceeded to subvert them with creative flair, with pop star (and vocal Bates Motel fan) Rihanna featuring in an elegant riff on the Marion Crane plot that drove the movie. Functioning both as a lurid thriller and a genuine tragedy, Bates Motel very much finished on its own terms, and deserves to sit alongside Hannibal in the small canon of surprisingly awesome TV shows inspired by horror movie classics.
American Gods (Amazon Prime Video)
Francis Cook: Although I'm yet to see the finale, American Gods is a lesson in screen adaptation. Like The Handmaid's Tale, American Gods is a book brought to life in a near-perfect form. Ian McShane does a great job as Mr. Wednesday, in part seeming to recall the belligerent and foul-mouthed bartender he played in Deadwood. Set design, colors and cinematography combine to great a comic book feel to the action with certain scenes feeling like they jumped from the page. The penultimate episode, A Prayer for Mad Sweeney, was the unexpected highlight so far, adding a tragic depth to an formerly pestering character.
Beats, gats and... vapor? Tune in tomorrow as the mid-term report team looks at the best albums of 2017 so far.
