2011 - A Year In General

Best Show (UK): Game Of Thrones. Technically, it is a UK show in some ways and it became one of the most exciting things on television all year.

Worst Show (UK): This Is Jinsy. It tried to be quirky and off beat and pretty much failed.

Best Show (US): True Blood. Season 4 certainly took the series to some interesting new heights.

Worst Show (US): The Cape. No wonder this superhero was put down before he could take flight.

Best Villain: Does Constance from American Horror Story count? She feels particularly villainous to me.

Worst Villain: Travis Marshall in Dexter. Thank God Dexter took him out in the end.

Best TV Death: Viserys getting quite the crowning in Game Of Thrones stuck out for me. Mitchell in Being Human came a close second.

Worst TV Death: Tara's in True Blood, going on the assumption that was her actual demise.

Shocking TV Moment: Deb finally learning about her brother's other job in Dexter.

Least Shocking TV Moment: River being revealed as Amy/Rory's daughter and marrying the Doctor in Doctor Who. It actually makes sense in retrospect.

Sexiest Male On TV: Matthew Rhys in Brothers And Sisters. I'm keeping that one for now.

Sexiest Female On TV: Jessica Brown-Findlay in Downton Abbey. I do love Lady Sybil.

Best Finale: Game Of Thrones first season ender, Fire And Blood hit the right spot.

Yes, Kids Are Annoying: Joffrey in Game Of Thrones. Also add tyrant into the mix as well and it's a fateful combination.

Neither Use, Nor Ornament: Sue in Glee. I believe her character is tethering on the pointless now.

Best Gay Couple: Kevin Walker/Scotty Wandall in Brothers And Sisters.

Worst Gay Couple: Brittany and Santana in Glee. Show more equality, Ryan Murphy.

Best Straight Couple: Amy and Rory in Doctor Who, with George/Nina from Being Human coming a close second.

Worst Straight Couple: Sybil and Branson in Downton Abbey. The writers made a hatchet job out of them. Also Matty/Franky in Skins.

Best Guest Appearance: Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian in Doctor Who. Who said the camp was dead on this show? Mark Sheppard as Canton comes a close second.

Worst Guest Appearance: Cody Kasch pointlessly returning briefly as Zach in Desperate Housewives. Did anyone actually care?

Killed Too Soon: Claudine in True Blood. What was the point of her character?

Difficult Season: Dexter. Season 6 wasn't unwatchable but the dip in quality was hard not to notice or deny though.

Best Male Character: The Doctor in Doctor Who. Contrary to what has been said about Series 6, Smith's performances have continued to impress.

Worst Male Character: Viserys in Game Of Thrones. Let's praise Khal Drogo for ensuring this idiot never became king.

Best Female Character: Daenerys in Game Of Thrones. Talk about a bloody character journey.

Worst Female Character: Holly in Brothers And Sisters, but thankfully she left.

Most Improved Show: Being Human. It might have had a shaky second year but Series 3 was a return to form.

Least Improved Show: Dexter. Again, Season 6 had it's drawbacks.

Best TV Partnership: Eleven/Amy/Rory/River became a much tougher and more formidable in Doctor Who, so them naturally.

Worst TV Partnership: Morgana and Agravaine in Merlin. Neither were particularly on fine form, were they?

Best Use Of Music: Skins. Season 5 provided some good music, except maybe Rich's episode.

HoYay Award: The Knights in Merlin. Let's face it, the poor lads didn't do much else during Series 4.

2012 Hopeful: Sinbad. Here's hoping it's a success for Sky1.

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Misfits - Season 3 Review

Warning: Spoilers alert! You know the drill - you lose a big character, you hopefully can add a new one that will go down a treat. I think after eight weeks it was safe to assume that while Nathan might have left, Rudy more or less filled the void rather nicely.

Vegas Baby: This eight minute little scene pretty much shows us how Nathan actually left the show and it's a nice way of actually writing him out of the mix.

Episode 1: It's the debut of Rudy and he makes quite an impression, especially when we get to see more than one side to him. I'm not sure if the show needed to add a previous history with him and Alisha but it worked rather well and the gang's new powers are interesting enough.

Episode 2: Curtis has gotten some interesting episodes in the past and this was definitely an interesting one, especially when it comes to it's commentary on gender politics. Only this show would handle something like that in such an outlandish way and still do it well.

Episode 3: Okay, I suppose we had to have a comic geek obsessed with superheros at some point and Peter more or less is the epitome of that, right to the point of being a deliberate hindrance to Simon and Alisha as well.

Episode 4: Ooh, it's the Let's Kill Hitler and not succeed one. No, seriously, I know this episode generated mixed reviews but between Kelly and Seth's developing relationship and the former smacking Hitler one, it's actually one of my favourites from the series.

Episode 5: Another Kelly/Seth centred episode, only with the former spending most of the time in a coma. The only thing I learned from this episode more importantly was that it's just not worth the hassle being a probation worker on this show.

Episode 6: Rudy wronged a woman and nearly lost his manhood as a result while Curtis encountered a storyline that really shouldn't happen to a bloke before changing his powers for something else.

Episode 7: Zombie cheerleaders and Seth's not so dead ex-girlfriend. I think we all can guess the inspiration behind this episode but it's certainly amusing, especially for the reasons behind Rudy's aversion to cheerleaders as well.

Episode 8: Remember Rachel, Tony and Sally from the first year? Well, they came back and a series of chaos went down in it's wake. It was a hell of a way of ending this series and it'll be interesting to see where the next one goes as a result.

With impressive ratings and more innovative storytelling, it really does prove that this show can weather virtually any storm and come out the other side. I can't wait to see where the fourth year goes from here.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

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Soap Discussion - December 2011

Okay, not the last blog for 2011 but the last soap related one for this year at the very least.

Coronation Street: Well, this has been a better month than most. Still not loving the whole Peter/Carla affair or the increasingly pained rivalry between Tina and Kirsty but the rest has been good. Trust Tracy of all people to use a miscarriage to drive a further wedge between Steve and Becky and also trust this show to use a wedding between Sophie and Sian to ultimately be the couple's undoing. Well, that and Amber of course.

EastEnders: An excellent month. After becoming well too drawn out, Boxing Day finally done us all a favour and ended Yusef's reign of terror on Albert Square whilst taking the lazy route and revealing Ben to be responsible for Phil being stalked. On the plus side, there's something delightfully gratifying in seeing Denise dropping Phil in it for Kevin's death and Bianca's return was also another well done moment too. All that's left now is Janine's little surprise and the death of a beloved character to kick 2012 off in style.

Emmerdale: I remember there was a time when someone could actually kill someone on this show if they put their mind to it, but alas, Cain had to survive being clobbered and we'll have to wait a while before they reveal the actual culprit. Still, it would take Cain as a character to use a near death experience to drive both Charity and Jai apart, wouldn't it? And that's the best plot we've had because Ashley/Laurel's marital woes due to Marlon paled in comparison as did the latest spat between Debbie and Alicia.

Fair City: Yeah, I've more or less given up on this one and won't be discussing it from next month onwards. The affair plot with Tommy and Jo has taken up too much screentime and I have no interest in Leo and Dean's love lives either, though the Christmas episodes and Denzo's brief comeback were alright.

Hollyoaks: Another strong month for the programme - the Freshers became more integrated into the show, both Warren and Ethan were given reasonably good exits and Mitzeee managed to actually survive betraying the former while Doug got some ghostly advice in order to stay alive. All of which was better than the constant back and forth with Riley and Mercedes and the writers attempts of giving Dodger some depth.

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Long Live The Queen

And here's my last TV jumble blog of 2011. Only three more blogs and we'll be in 2012.

American Horror Story: Yeah, I still have a lot more to go with this series but this mid series episode was interesting enough. It was nice (and a little overdue) to get a backstory for Larry and Tate's hatred for Constance seems pretty understandable. Fascinating as she is, Constance is not an easy person to like at all. I also liked the scheming with Moira to save the house from demolition but how many more episodes do we have to go through with Vivian thinking she's carrying a devil child though?

Downton Abbey: I absolutely loved this episode, it might actually be my favourite one so far and while I wish we had seen Sybil, I do love the fact that the whole business with Carlisle/Mary/Matthew and Pamuk debacle is finally out of the way. I'm not a big Mary/Matthew shipper and even I thought the proposal at the end was great. The special managed to justify it's two hour length and used both the Christmas and New Year's backdrop beautifully - plus every character had something worthwhile to do and Violet was on fine form with her barbs. Series 2 might have been shaky at times but this was an excellent return to form. So glad I got into this show after months of resisting it like the plague.

Merlin: As a finale went, this was one of the best ones we've had. Okay, so once again, Morgana lost and got her ass kicked by magic but I did love her confrontations with both Arthur and Gwen at different points in the episode and the last scene where she got a new ally was fantastic. Oh and Agravaine is finally no more - I will not miss that character at all and Gwen as Queen - thank you, show. Series 5 is looking more and more exciting now, isn't it? Even the disappointing handling of Tristan and Isolde didn't deter this episode.

Misfits: Another muchly discussed finale, you can't help but praise this show's ballsy attitude when it comes to the characters. In this finale, we lost two main players but in retrospect, perhaps their exits weren't all that shocking after all, though certainly fantastic to watch. The returns of Sally, Tony and Rachel and even the flashback featuring Nathan however were surprising but effective. It's gonna be interesting to see where this innovative series goes next.

- Rutina Wesley has joined the cast of The Walking Dead. Expect to see her in the second half of Season 2 when the show returns in February.
- While Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon have left Misfits, the show has been renewed for a fourth series.
- Lenora Crichlow has apparently hinted that she'll be leaving Being Human after it's fourth series airs on BBC3 next month.
- Julian Fellows Titanic: Blood And Steel has released a trailer. The mini-series will air on ITV in April.
- Helen Mirren has provided a voiceover for the first episode of Glee to air in January. She's voicing a main character's innermost thoughts.
- American Horror Story will have a new cast for it's second season when it returns in 2012 on FX.
- Desperate Housewives eighth and final season will air on Channel 4, Tuesdays at 10pm from January 10th.
- The opening episode for Showtime's new show, House Of Lies has leaked online for viewers to watch.
- Jennifer Carpenter has mentioned she'd like to guest star in Modern Family. Hire her for an episode, producers.
- Channel 4 have the rights to Showtime drama, Homeland and will air it in early 2012.

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Skins - Season 6 Cast Pictures/First Trailer

And here are some more cast pics of the sixth series of Skins, including one of the new guy.

Alex (Sam Jackson): The latest member of the group and he's an openly gay character. We'll see him making out with a pirate in one episode.

Alo (Will Merrit): Last season his immaturity nearly cost his family everything but this year, it looks like he's beginning to grow up.

Franky (Dakota Blue Richards): The trailer for the new series sees Franky lashing out more and it seems that she's getting several sex scenes this year.

Grace (Jessica Sula): She's still with Rich but knowing this show, maybe something will go wrong.

Liv (Laya Lewis): She's still partying but is she also still pining for Matty? Er, let's hope not and that's in spite of me not being a Franky/Matty fan.

Matty (Sebastian DeSouza): Apparently less mysterious and elusive than the previous year. Perhaps that's a good thing.

Mini (Freya Mavor): She's done a lot of growing up but I think most viewers are hoping that there's more to her and Franky than subtext, despite the writers insistence of otherwise.

Nick (Sean Teale): He's mostly been trading in rugby for partying but will that have to stop soon?
Rich (Alexander Arnold): He looks brooding in his pic. That can't be a good thing, right?

And there's a thirty second trailer now released, primarily focusing on the gang's antics in Morocco as the sixth series opens up with the gang on holiday. The season is also ten episodes long as well.

Series 6 Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZcut9ly5m4

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