The Best of
the year in Media 2016
Televison:
1.
Game of Thrones: Season Six (HBO) –
This season of GoT started out slow, with them teasing out the resurrection of
Jon Snow, but by the time the show gut punched the viewers with the “The Door”
episode we knew we were within this shows creative grasps again. Then they
raised the bar again for a television show with the “Battle of the Bastards”
maybe the greatest warfare scene ever done for television and coming scary
close to Saving Private Ryan level and for the first time in the shows history
left the viewers feeling hopeful with the “ The Winds of Winter” episode that
finally featured Daenerys’ sailing for Westeros. GoT continues to be the best
show on television and as the last two seasons are prepared to air we will have
to see if it finishes strong enough to be considered in the same conversation
as the David Simon masterpiece The Wire.
2.
Fargo: Season Two (FX) – I don’t
think a show could be anymore different from GoT then Fargo is. The crime
anthology show shares its location and tone with the Coen brothers movie of the
same name, but that’s it. The writing team that Noah Hawley put together in the
second season was brilliant, funny, quirky and smart. The show made you think,
laugh and cry and maybe all at once. The multitude of ways that this season
tied into the first season was genius as to pay off that privileged viewer that
had watched and paid attention to the first season, but not confuse a new
viewer if they hadn’t scene the first season. This season also featured a
number of outstanding acting performances; the best was put in by Kirsten
Dunst. I still get chills from her soliloquy from the last episode. I can’t
wait to see what the writers of this show have for the next season.
3.
Mr. Robot: Season Two (USA Network) – I’ll
be honest I was not sure where Sam Esmail could take his series after its
brilliant first season. I thought the story might have worked itself into a
corner and possibly should have ended the story after one season. I could not
have been more wrong. The second season might have been even better then the
first with series twists being way less obvious then in the first season. The
writers behind the series have fully embraced the limitless potential of an
unreliable narrator and this series has turned into a post modernist journey of
self discovery and what that looks like in our technology riddled society. The
episode titled “EPS2.4_M4STER-S1AVE.AES” was the best hour of television I
watched this year and perfectly defined what this show has to offer,
introspective, humorist and asked a lot from the viewer as the show kept
pushing back against them reminding them that they were watching a television
show, just not the 90s family sit-com Alf. If you haven’t seen it, you just
need to watch.
4.
Black Mirror: Season Three (Netflix) - I
was a fan of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror show way before it came to Netflix,
but I was super happy to here its addition to the platform. Therefore more
people could embrace its brilliance. The first six episodes of this new
partnership offered up more of the same complex thought provoking science
fiction that I had known the series for. Booker’s voice as a creator will be an
important one as we navigate our relationship with technology as a society. He
offers up a critical thoughtful lens for us about technology taking the time to
ask the questions that we don’t seem to ask enough about technology and how
it’s changing our world.
5.
Westworld: Season One (HBO) – I’ve
never anticipated a show more then I did Westworld. I had read stories about it
coming watched the preview videos and was in aw of the talent involved: Michael
Crichton, J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan, Ed Brubaker, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris,
and Jeffrey Wright to name a few. I loved the concept of robots searching for
consciousness in a wild west theme park. It would seemingly touch on a popular
science fiction troupe of what is it to be human? The show was highly
successful in weaving a complex narrative structure that aloud for multiple
“reveals” that kept the audience coming back right to seasons end. The next
trick will be trying to do that again for a second season and going forward in
general. Certainly the show seems to be rich with talent in the writers room
and HBO seems willing to spend the money to make this show the next GoT. So
lets just enjoy the ride.
The honorable mentions – 6.
House of Cards: Season Four (Netflix)
7. Daredevil: Season Two (Netflix)
8. The Night of…Mini-series (HBO)
9. Orange is the New Black: Season
Four (Netflix)
10. Vinyl: Season One (HBO).
Upcoming posts will feature the
best in movies, music and comics. Cheers!
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