Honorable Mentions: “Fight” from Masters of Sex, “The Symbolic Exemplar” from Transparent, “Possession” from Penny Dreadful, “Streets of Fire” from Arrow, “7” from The Affair, “5 p.m.-6 p.m.” from 24: Live Another Day, “The Truth About Unicorns” from Banshee, “Get the Rope” from The Knick, “Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency” from Silicon Valley, “Alicia” from Veep, “A Whole Other Hole” from Orange Is the New Black, “The Mountain and the Viper” from Game of Thrones
Welcome to the first installment of my 2014 Year End series. Over the next week, you’ll see the following: The Top Television Performances of 2014 (down below), The Top Television Episodes of 2014, and The Top Television Shows of 2014. My year end movie lists will be out in a month or so, as I still have quite a few movies to see. For now, enjoy this list! I only have one performance from each show in the top 15, but I added some shout-outs in certain places.
Honorable mentions: Amy Acker and Sarah Shahi for “Person of Interest”, Manu Bennett for “Arrow”, Julia Louis-Dreyfus for “Veep”, Andre Braugher for “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, Julianna Margulies for “The Good Wife”, Samira Wiley for “Orange Is the New Black”, Louis CK for “Louie”, Pedro Pascal for “Game of Thrones”, All four “The Affair” folks (for the record, either Maura Tierney or Ruth Wilson would be #16 on this list)
“I’m my own person. I make my own decisions. I chose him.”
The concept of choice seems to be a prevalent one as we come to the end of the first season of The Affair. After all, choices made by Noah Solloway and Alison Lockhart at the beginning of the series were exactly what set into motion the downward spiral of events that brought us here. Those choices led to an affair, to disintegration of families, and to attempts to move on to new lives, and the image of Cole pointing a gun at Noah is a culmination of those myriad choices. The show asks us: What is it that causes someone to make a choice like Noah and Alison did? What happens as a result of those choices?
“Let’s face it: not every choice we make is blessed with moral clarity.”
After three months of wonderful buildup, Homeland closes its season with a meandering finale that focuses on the worst aspect of the show: Carrie’s problems at home. Now, don’t get me wrong; that was fairly well handled early on in the show, but recently, it has become extremely derivative and grating. To close out such an exciting and compelling season like this is disappointing, to say the least.
A VERY SOMBER CHRISTMAS WITH SAM SMITH/DR. EVIL: First of all, Taran Killam’s Sam Smith impression is pitch perfect. Second of all, we get a huge surprise here with Mike Meyers’s Dr. Evil, and although the jabs at North Korea and Sony are pretty generic, it’s enjoyable watching the character yet again. GRADE: B-
MONOLOGUE: Okay, so as some of you may know, I love Amy Adams and will watch her in any movie…yes, even Man of Steel; she and Jessica Chastain are neck and neck for my favorite working actress today, with Marion Cotillard close behind. As for the monologue, she’s perfectly charming and all, but man, we seriously do not need Kristen Wiig back on the show. In addition, musical monologues are rarely good. GRADE: C+
“You came to a show that — let’s be honest — was a bit of a fixer-upper and it kind of stayed that way. Maybe ‘art’ is a very grand word. What I was trying to do here is to make something that wasn’t here before.”
Yes, this show is art. I haven’t been watching for very long, but what I’ve seen on TV and online is something special, something entertaining, something incredibly strange yet endearing. For 10 years, Craig Ferguson has been arguably the best late night host on television, and sadly, not many people–including those at his own network–have had the chance to experience the wonder of his intimate studio. He bowed out yesterday with a funny, poignant, and excellent hour of TV, and I’m sad to see him go.
“That was FUN!”
For nine years and 1447 episodes, Stephen Colbert crafted one of the greatest television characters in TV history. However, when he looks at the camera at the end of the series finale and exclaims “That was FUN!”, there is no difference between Colbert the character and Colbert the person; he truly means it, and as an audience, I’m sure we can all agree that that statement is 100% accurate. It has been a blast to watch this extremely brilliant political satirist do his thing four nights a week, and his closing half hour is a bittersweet, beautiful, and simply perfect end to the show.
“Human beings need structure, or they wind up destroying themselves.”
The very first idea explored in this season was the idea of purpose, the idea that in order to survive, humans need to have something to work toward; the show looked at that idea through Team Machine and the disguises its members had to take on, and now, we’re being posed the questions: Does purpose translate to structure? How much structure do we need in our lives? Does free will get sacrificed in the name of security, in the name of control? Similar types of questions are oftentimes tackled in the national security vs. civil liberties debate, and Person of Interest is deftly utilizing the conflict between the Machine and Samaritan to go into depth with these ideas.
“Your pride cost him his life. It should have been you.”
For several weeks, we’ve seen Alison attempt to move on from Gabriel’s death, and we’ve seen her appeal not only to her own husband, but also to Noah, about simply starting over and building new lives for themselves. When she made this appeal to Noah while standing on his doorstep, she was rejected, the door shut in her face as he told her that he couldn’t keep the affair going. When she made this appeal to Cole, the tension immediately bubbled to the surface, and the quiet rage burst through as he stated that there was no moving on. In episode 9, Alison is once again forced to confront the past, forced to confront the day on which her beloved son left the world forever.
“Good evening.”
“What Kind Of Day Has It Been” isn’t a particularly interesting finale, but it’s effective at accomplishing what it intends to accomplish: showing us how this news team came about, why it came about, why it’s still going strong, and who its members are. The episode is far from perfect, but it’s a fairly satisfying ending to a show that has spawned controversy and derision from all sides, to a show that has had peaks and nadirs higher and lower, respectively, than most other shows on television.
Polar Bears Watch TV 