Wrapping Up 2011

It's that time again to look back at the year and figure out what worked and did not work.  Back in August, I provided the status of a number of shows that were cancelled or continued in 2011.  However, TV.com has done an excellent job summarizes the end of approximately 95 television shows this year.  I cannot say I will miss many of them.  Only Friday Night Lights was the true gem among the pile, though I enjoyed the quirky United States of Tara and the frat fun of Greek and Glory Daze.  It is also unfortunate that Camelot could not find it's way.  And the list is incomplete since it does not include a number of British shows on American television, such as BBC America's Outcast, which I thought had some promise.

I can only say good riddance to the U.S. version of Skins as well as the dumb $#*! My Dad Says.  And some shows need to know when to leave.  Both Brothers & Sisters and Entourage should have left the air years ago.  Of course, the list contains a lot of additional dreck. 

Overall, 2011 had a lot of great shows that I covered earlier.  While I am not saying my list is complete, here are 10 shows from 2011 that I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend to others.  And I did not limit myself to U.S. programs.  I listed them alphabetically so as not to give too much weight to one over another (though I think Game of Thrones was the top show of the year).

1. Awkward (MTV)
2. Borgen (LinkTV)
3. Boss (Starz)
4. Downton Abbey (PBS)
5. Falling Skies (TNT)
6. Game of Thrones (HBO)
7. Happy Endings (ABC)
8. The Killing (AMC)
9. Portlandia (IFC)
10. Shameless (Showtime)
11. Wilfred (FX)

Okay, that is 11 shows, but I only had 9 last year, so it all balances out.  I would have included even more given the space, but I had to prioritize.  I hope 2012 has such a healthy crop of programs.  And I believe every shows has been given a second season, so I expect a very full DVR this year.

Happy New Year!

The Year of Netflix

This should have been the Year of Netflix, and I guess it was, but not in the way I expected.  The company seemed to be growing beyond expectations until a sloppy price increase earlier this year damaged the company's image and eventually its stock (a 75 percent drop). The decision in July to divide the DVD and online streaming business, each with their own cost structure and websites, made a very simple and inexpensive online option both complex and costly.  By October, Netflix was bleeding members and the company responded in an email to customers: 

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

Now Nexflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, will lose $1.5 million from his compensation in 2012 after his stock options were cut in half.  Considering he caused the company to lose 800,000 subscribers, he is lucky to have a job.  A company that seemed to be doing everything right in terms of customer service slammed into a wall that it created.  The cable companies, Apple, and others expanding in the online TV/movie business now have a second wind and they will use it to grab even more market share. As with the missteps of Facebook on member security, the new economy is still being run by humans and their accompanying pride.  Customers want choices and are willing to walk when they are taken for granted.  

Watching Programs on Facebook

Recently I tried out a new series only available to viewers on Facebook.  First broadcast in October, the new program, Aim High, is so far only six short episodes that together would create a one hour episode.  It is the story of a high school student who also operates as a government agent/assassin.  Starring Jackson Rathbonet from the Twilight movies and Aimee Teegarden from Friday Night Lights, it is a good adventure that utilizes information from your Facebook page within the show.  As a result, you may see your name on a poster or in the form of graffiti.  While it is not as much fun as Awkward, nor does it pack the punch of Teen Wolf, it may find a more permanent place one of these days on network television. And I hope it does, since watching six to seven minutes clips becomes a lot of work.  In fact, I would rather have the option to buy a season pass on iTunes.  I cannot find any news about a "season two, but I will post what I learn here on the site.

A Number of Good Shows, But Many Do Not Stick

I have enjoyed watching the premieres of a number of new shows, but I have to say that most of them do not capture my attention for more than a few episodes.  Some of the exceptions, which I have already covered, includes Boss, Borgen, and Hell on Wheels.  However, others such as Pan Am, A Gifted Man, and Grimm, were not quite as interesting or unusual as they pretended to be.  For instance, Pan Am started as a long clip from the movie Catch Me if You Can and went down from there (though I loved the movie itself).  London's The Guardian was not impressed, noting:

 It's Mad Men set in the glamorous world of 60s air travel instead of Manhattan advertising men! Or so we are told. But alas, Pan Am is to Mad Men as an Airfix model assembled by a blindfolded man with 10 fractured fingers and a severe bout of hiccups is to Concorde. Which is to say, Not Very.

And the other two programs were less than gifted or simply grim. 

I think Once Upon a Time comes across as a little more genuine, which may keep me coming back for awhile.  The interplay of past fairy tales and the dreary reality of rural Maine (sorry Maine) makes for an interesting contrast and interesting characters.  It comes across as adults performing a dance in the head of a young boy hoping to find something more than his everyday world, and he just happens to drag us along with him.  It works for me, and I don't live in Maine (sorry again, Maine). 

Hell of a Western on AMC

If you have not had a chance to view AMC's new show Hell on Wheels then you are missing a real treat. Not since HBO's Deadwood have we experienced a good program on the American West, and this program covers much more territory (no pun intended). The focus on the railroad crossing the states allows the show to bring together a large array of characters, from Civil War veterans and roaming Irish to freed slaves and native Americans. Hell on Wheels reminds me more of TNT's drama Into the West in terms of it being a broader based series, though unlike the TNT series it is still focused on one period (post-Civil War) and not multi-generational.

The TV critics to date have nit-picked issues such as the main character Cullen Bohannon freeing his slaves, thereby making him too politically correct, but didn't our first President propose the same thing with is slaves? I enjoy the diversity of characters and unpredictable story lines, most of them involving murder so far. It is also filled with beautiful shots of the western countryside (though this is Canada's west - Alberta to be exact). That said, this is not a program for those looking for a sunny tale of American expansion. It is very gritty.

Popmatters.com makes a good point about the Wild West and it's machines:

If the railroad signifies freedom in Hell on Wheels, it also helps breed and accelerate greed, arrogance, and savagery, aggressions coming so fast and brutally that victims hardly know how to get out of the way. Hell on Wheels raises the inevitable question: at what price progress?

I am hoping AMC can answer this question in the episodes to come, though I am not sure if a truthful answer will leave anyone feeling any better. However, I am hoping it at least produces good acting and story-telling for a full season or two.

PBS Looks for New Audiences

Earlier this month, America's PBS launched a British channel so that its programming can be  broadcast in the European market for the first time.  The PBS program, called PBS UK, will be shared with viewers in the United Kingdom via the subscription-based British Sky Broadcasting Group and Virgin Media.  This venture is jointly owned by Quadra Group and PBS Distribution LLC, and includes top PBS programs such as Nova and Frontline.  Quandra is already considering similar ventures in Europe and Africa should the British adventure be successful.

Of course, the British did this years ago in the United States with BBC America, which includes solid programs such as Being Human, The Inbetweeners, and Torchwood.  So what do the British think of this PBS channel?  One British critic, Benji Wilson writing in The Telegraph, had a few concerns about the first Nova episode, noting

...Smartest Machine on Earth was not perhaps a smart choice for the opening programme of a US channel launch in the UK, because the intricacies of Jeopardy! would have been unfamiliar to many British viewers, including me." 

Mr. Wilson's comments on  Frontline were similarly negative when he noted,

Episode one was called Top Secret America, looking at how 9/11 led to the largest spree of covert action since the Cold War. But the sort of news-literate viewers who PBS want to attract have no doubt been reading about special ops, black sites and extraordinary rendition for aeons. Was Top Secret America still a secret to them?

Moreover, London's The Guardian had this off-putting introduction to the launch of PBS UK:

As home to arguably the most respected public service broadcaster in the world, Britain is perhaps not the most obvious territory for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), America's smaller, less internationally celebrated BBC equivalent, to launch its first channel outside the US.

It is too early to tell if this new PBS channel will work in Europe. However, it is a new way to increase funding for PBS programs so all of us back here in America can continue to see quality programs, even if they are a little low-brow for the British.

Borgen: A New Series from Denmark

If you enjoyed The Killing (either the American or Danish version), then maybe you want to try Borgen ("Government") from the same creators.  I just watched the pilot online and thoroughly enjoyed the first episode about three dueling Danish political parties sparring over immigration and how to restore Denmark to its rightful place among nations (sound familiar?).  The series first ran on Danish TV last year and season two started broadcasting there in September of this year.  LinkTV fortunately make online viewing very easy, with the series running Saturday nights on that channel starting at 9:30 pm EST.  However, you only have about two weeks after each showing to catch it online.  The pilot was broadcast October 29 on Link TV.

Here is a quick summary of the series from Link TV: 

Like its American cousin The West Wing, Borgen uncovers a world of political gamesmanship, the intricate public and private lives of politicians, media spinners, and the reporters who traffic in their triumphs and failures.  The setting is Borgen, the nickname for Denmark's parliamentary building, ("The Castle" in English). Our hero is the smart and sexy populist Birgitte Nyborg. After scoring her party a landslide victory through her idealism and work ethic, she now faces the biggest dilemma of her life: Will she succumb to pressure to compromise her ideals and maintain her political position?

The acting throughout the pilot is superb and the pace is pounding as the underlying motives and foibles of the characters is revealed very early.  It is also educational to see the political squalls in another country.  Of course, the recent battles over debt restructuring in Greece and Italy are in the newspapers daily, so we know that Europe has its problems.  Yet this intimate look is pretty amazing.

I just read that NBC is planning to remake Borgen as an American series.  I think it is perfect just the way it is, and coalition politics in Europe is quite different from our system. That said, NBC is putting the same team that gave us Friday Night Lights onto this project, which is very hopeful given the quality of their previous work.

Given the quality of this latest production, I may go back to the original The Killing (Forbrydelsen) for another take on Danish society.  I think something is lost in translation when we remake another country's story.  Unfortunately, it is hard to get the original Danish version.  Netflix and iTunes show nothing on the series and Amazon is selling it for $100 but it will not run on U.S. DVD players.  Hopefully, the popularity of the series will encourage greater curiosity about its origin and bring the Danish version of the series to American TV sets.