2009 was a great year for television drama, so here's my annual countdown of the best the small-screen had to offer UK audiences. As always, it's all purely my opinion, with a few rules to take into consideration:
Rule #1: TV shows on this list must have aired at least half their episodes during 2009. Rule #2: Only dramas, miniseries or sitcoms are eligible for this list -- not documentaries, gameshows, reality shows, etc. Rule #3: Only TV shows that aired in the UK will be included.
So, without further ado, here's the bottom-third of my list:
34. Demons, series 1Atrocious ITV attempt to create their own teatime telefantasy to lure the Doctor Who/Merlin audience during their respective "off seasons". The concept was an unoriginal riff on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, with none of the wit or invention of Joss Whedon's '90s show. And quite how you can waste the potential behind "Gene Hunt, vampire slayer" in Philip Glenister's presence beggared belief. [full reviews here]
33. Kröd Mändoon & The Flaming Sword Of FireThanks to the prominence and popularity of fantasy in the '00s, through Harry Potter and The Lord Of The Rings, the notion of a Blackadder-meets-Monty Python style spoof was a good one. Unfortunately, US/UK co-production Kröd Mändoon & The Flaming Sword Of Fire was a messy, unfunny stinker through and through. I quite liked Alex Macqueen's slimy henchman Barnabus, and India de Beaufort was a stunningly attractive Xena-ish addition to the cast, but there was precious few laughs. [full reviews here]
32. Red Dwarf, specialThe once hilarious sci-fi comedy lost its funny bone in the mid-'90s, but nobody ever told co-creator Doug Naylor. This year's three-part "Back To Earth" special was a triumph of production design (the titular crimson ship has never looked so vast and empty), but the script was terribly unfunny. The fact it recycled a revered series 5 episode (duplicating the twist-ending, to boot!) was bad enough, but its extensive Blade Runner pastiche just came across as lazy tosh. The worst thing is probably how it proved so successful for digital channel Dave that they've commissioned more scripts for a whole new series. Please, I know everyone involved has bills to pay, but let the show die already. [part 1 review, part 2 review, part 3 review]
31. Defying GravityI love the idea of doing a near-future sci-fi drama set aboard a spaceship with a crew of astronauts, but Defying Gravity didn't know what demographic it was chasing. Its soppy soap elements alienated most of the boys, and there wasn't much there to interest the girls anyway. Its mystery of secret cargo "Beta" was a decent idea, but they teased it out for seven torturous hours, by which time most people had given up. The last batch of episodes were a definite improvement on things, but that upswing in quality didn't justify the hours it took to get there. [read full reviews here]
30. Survivors, series 1A remake of the classic '70 doomsday drama, with a promising start and a decent finish, but the episodes inbetween were of mixed success. I think the main problem with post-apocalyptic drama on British TV is that the budget isn't there to give us a truly realistic representation of its "what if?" scenario, and its characters were pretty bland. It was also hamstrung by the fact there is clearly no solution to the problem (you can't resurrect the dead), and the so-called "bad guys" were unaffacted scientists hoping to create a cure using the blood of a survivor. Huh? [full reviews here]
29. WhitechapelBetter than expected for a ITV original drama, thanks to inventive direction from SJ Clarkson (who has since gone to the US, working on Heroes and Dexter) and a tryptych of enjoyable performances from Rupert Penry-Jones (as a neat-freak upperclass detective), Phil Davies (as a working class old-timer) and Steve Pemberton (as a rotund Ripperologist). The notion of a modern-day serial-killer copying Jack The Ripper's infamous murder spree isn't anything new, but Whitechapel did a decent job. [part 1 review, part 2 review, part 3 review]
28. Hung, season 1Sex-comedy from HBO that started off strongly with its Alexander Payne-directed pilot, then kind of just coasted through season 1 with an amicable but meandering tone. A show of good little moments and fun performances from Thomas Jane and Jane Adams (as the gigolo and his female pimp), but nowhere near as sexy, funny and dramatic as it needed to be. [first four reviews here]
27. Primeval, series 3A turning point for the time-travel/monster-hunting series, as two new characters joined the cast and the dour lead died. The premise was also given a welcome tweak, allowing for more "supernatural" monsters to come through anomalies from Earth's future. Primeval's still a very silly, dumb TV series in so many ways, but it's fun if you're in the right mood and adjust your expectations accordingly. [full reviews here]
26. Prison Break, season 4It's quite remarkable that Prison Break got this far, but the axe finally fell in the fourth season, which had transformed the premise into something resembling The A-Team. Like most seasons, it started promisingly enough, then went haywire around mid-season as it tried to extend its story beyond its natural end. Still, the big surprise was how well the feature-length finale worked, which only goes to show how a definite end-date can transform a show. I'm glad it went out on a relative high, anyway. [full reviews here]
25. Heroes, season 3After the disastrous second season, things improved in season 3, but Heroes still looked incapable of equalling its thrilling first year. The opening volume "Villains" soon exhausted its potential, although "Fugitives" was a notable improvement for the latter half of the year. But an abundance of scripting problems (issues with the unwieldy concept, poor use of characters) continued to undermine what once felt fresh, purposeful, clever and surprising. [full reviews here]
24. FlashForward, season 1Great idea, pockmarked with problems when you try to make a serialized TV show from it. FlashFoward did itself no favours by hailing itself as "the new Lost" before anyone had even seen it, so while the big-budget premiere was slick and gripping enough to keep you watching for awhile, it became clear that none of the characters were very interesting or likeable. A steady stream of plot twists, surprises and fun cliffhangers were undoubtedly its saving grace, and I'm pleased to see it's at least kept a sense of pace, but I don't think it has a longterm future once season 1's wrapped up. [full reviews here]
23. Damages, season 2I adored the first season, but the follow-up just didn't click for me. I didn't engage with the year's "case" (environmentalism, stock market manipulation), so it quickly became sluggish and tedious. Things perked up towards the end as the dispirate plot-strands came together, and there was enough intrigue and surprises to keep my interest, but this was definitely not up the standard of season 1. One big frustration was how it tried to be a sequel to the first season in too many ways, when I'd have preferred a cleaner break. [full reviews here]
22. Flight Of The Conchords, season 2A mixed bag of a season that reversed the problem of season 1; in that the comedy songs were noticeably worse, but the scripts were far better. I laughed more than I did throughout the whole of season 1, though -- particularly during the episode where Jemaine got an Australian girlfriend and whenever the clueless NZ Prime Minister was around. [full reviews here]
Continue to Part 2 ==>
