TV Turnabout

A few years back I stopped watching television. I thought it was a crappy medium that existed only to make us desensitized, placid and willing to buy and consume products.

I owned a few TV series on DVD at the time, such as Twin Peaks and Curb Your Enthusiasm but I never regularly followed any shows. And then one day I found myself renting TV shows from the video store as I had exhausted the other sections. I realised that TV had changed and that if you take away obnoxious advertisements, television can be really great. So here's a few shows I really regret not knowing about earlier due to my snobbery.

The greatest television show ever? Perhaps, it's pretty much on the top of my list, but it's so stupid to label something as the best, the hottest or greatest thing ever. Especially when the show's creator keeps making (and has made) other shows that rival The Wire - check out The Corner, Homicide: Life on the Street, Generation Kill, and Treme ).

Concerning itself primarily with the drug trade in Baltimore, The Wire spans 5 seasons, each season focusing on an aspect of society: drugs, education, labour, politics and the media. It’s a harsh commentary on institutions and brings attention to a world and lifestyle that many of us will never experience. It’s hard-hitting, realistic and remarkably poignant. Another “Russian novel” of a show that is layered and totally rewarding on many levels.

I'd also like to recommend Simon's book Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets which The Wire is loosely based on. The Corner: a Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighbourhood and Evan Wright's Generation Kill are also must reads if you dig the TV adaptations.

I wonder how many people heard that this show was like Survivor mixed with the film Castaway. Lost was in its fourth season by the time I stumbled upon it and a big fuck you to everyone who describes Lost in that way. It's like a gumbo of science, religion and spirituality that is so thematic and complex it's hard to believe its a television show.

Lost is a rich tapestry, a Russian novel, something that could have so easily been an intellectual elitist fest but wasn't (I bet the Google ratings for the philosophers, religions, concepts and authors featured would have skyrocketed). It has always kept the heart of the show embedded in the characters and the ending reflects this. There's a soap-opera cliché to all the characters and their stories but with such strong writing and a sprinkling of great comedic timing, Lost -while at times- may have story elements that are as equally as bizarre as the ones in Days of Our Lives (people come back to life, time travel, get possessed by Satan etc) - but it owns its corniness.

Layered, mysterious and always elusive, it's a show that demands commitment, casual viewers always complain "I'm Lost over Lost ".

The cop show genre, it's perhaps my favourite genre of television. I used to hate it but man I've been discovering so many great shows of late. The Shield is another show I saw adverts and TV guide articles on and I though "meh, macho crap". And what an idiot I was.

The Shield is a show about corrupt police officers, who do the wrong things for the right reasons (well sometimes anyway). Much like The Wire, The Shield offers a commentary on department corruption, politics, drug abuse, prevention, violence and poverty. It’s a little more beer and pizza than The Wire and will probably appeal to a greater audience.

Great characters, stories and a total full on in-your-face violence fest, The Sheild is simply kick ass.

I remember a lot of hype around films like I heart Huckabees and The Royal Tenebaums and for some reason I always lumped Arrested Development in with these films. I didn't think it would be good purely because I don't dig celebrity quirkiness or wackiness, and I am not a fan of Ben Stiller or Owen and Luke Wilson etc. Yeah I'm a snob and look what it cost me. I missed out on this comedy gem and am 7 years late.

You think your family is bad? Well meet the Bluth’s, a bunch of rich, spoiled and consistently dysfunctional brats with no direction, ambition or it would seem…brains. It’s over the top, offensive, awkward and totally loveable. The characters are horrible, horrible people but you’ll love them all anyway. Apparently a movie is set to be made, or is in the process of being made, I can’t wait!

In a way I still think the idea of a guy tattooing blueprints on himself is a corny idea, but this is just one bitch of a show. I love it, and I hate it. It traps you, and you can’t stop watching it. The most horrible thing about it is that there’s 50 cliff-hangers within each episode and you will loose a few days of your life because of this. I watched all four seasons in a week. I lived and breathed Prison Break and I even dreamed it, I kid you not, I had a dream I had to break out of prison…lame.

Michael Scofield is a structural engineer / whiz kid and his hulk of a brother (Lincoln Burrows) is framed for murder. Scofield ends up in prison with a plan to break his brother out as Lincoln is on death row and is set to be electrocuted in a month’s time.

That premise doesn’t sound too appealing? Well a bunch of cons find out about his plan, and end up joining the brothers in breaking free. There’s also this evil company who is behind the set up, the company has no qualms about killing and setting people up and from the first series which is primarily about the breakout, to the fourth season, and movie, there’s just a whole lot of action, tension, mystery and patience testing drama in between.

I have no excuses for this one, I didn’t know anything of it, but due to being such a critical person my first thought was “eww Malcom in the Middle dad”.

Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is a high school chemistry teacher who discovers that he has terminal lung cancer. Making hardly any money at this job, he decides to cook crystal meth so he can leave his family with a bit of money. He becomes consumed with making sure he has enough money for them and the situations he finds himself in become more and more dangerous.

It’s highly entertaining watching a straight and narrow guy turn into a meth cook and provide fiends with the purest meth they’ve ever seen, but it’s also pretty tragic. Here’s a guy just wanting to get treatment and look after his family and it costs him dearly.

It's kind of what Fargo would be if it was a television series. The comedy is black, the violence is excessive and the show's style is innovative and a little flamboyant at times, but works well.