Well my little culture consumers, 2013 has drawn to a close and with it, a notable year in television.
First off, let’s take a little time to recognize the best in TV for 2013 and pass out some Small Screen Awards, or Smallys.
The award for Most Underrated show goes to Rectify, a six-episode premiere season about a man recently released off a long stint on death row. It’s dark, moody and captivating, and hopefully Season 2 will be coming our way in 2014.
Small Screen’s Most Intriguing Season Finale award goes to perennial favourite Mad Men. While Season 6 wasn’t the most explosive in the series, it did set up what could be a riveting final season (though in two parts, which really irks me). Don Draper is out of the ad game, at least temporarily, and finally confronting his roots. I’m excited to see where that leads.
And finally, the Smally for Best Show of 2013 goes to (drum roll) Orange is the New Black. Netflix is the future of TV and they proved it this year with House of Cards and this funny, sweet, thrilling and progressive show about a women’s prison. It’s the talk of the town, and for good reason.
Looking ahead to the New Year, there is some potentially great television coming our way right off the bat.
For Lost fans who have been missing Sawyer’s chiselled, troubled face, Josh Holloway is back with new series Intelligence, premiering Jan. 7 on CTV. The high-tech thriller will see Halloway as a secret agent with a bad boy bent and a computer chip in his brain which allows him to access the internet with his mind. Why not?
And for everyone who’s been pretty bummed about Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow closing out that franchise AND Pauly Shore never having the chance to make an In the Army Now sequel, comes Fox’s new comedy Enlisted. While that may sound terrible, the trailer has some laughs and it might be worth a shot.
And finally, the one thing really worth getting your hopes up over is HBO’s new anthology serial killer drama True Detective, starring, believe it or not, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. Not long ago that would have sounded like a bad joke, but now that McConaughey is a Serious Actor this has me excited. It premieres Jan. 12 at 9 p.m. on HBO Canada.
Happy New Year, TV watchers.
TV on DVD
The Following, Season 1 – Jan. 7
House of Lies, Season 2 – Jan. 7
