With the end of 2012 upon us, it is time to look back at what I saw as the best and worst of the year. I'm also trying something a bit different this year. In amongst the highlights and lowlights were other shows that don't really fit into either category, but I think are still worth briefly discussing.
Highlights
Fringe - This series never failed to disappoint. It was on my list of highlights last year, and the fact it made it again this year should be everything you need to know about it. It was full of well rounded story lines, interesting character developments, huge surprises, and the return of Leonard Nemoy from retirement for one last hurrah.
The Strange Calls - This will probably be a bit of a controversial inclusion in my highlights, as it wasn't all that well critically received when it aired recently. However, I actually liked it. It wasn't so much about the weird, X-File style cases the poor policeman on the night-watch had to deal with, but rather the developing relationship between him and all the other people in the town of Coolum. This is where the humour in the show was, and I found it extremely funny.
QI - The show started in 2003, but weirdly it has only really kicked off here in Australia over the past 12 months or so. Suddenly, it's now one of the hottest things on TV, and the ABC is treating it like Channel Nine treats Top Gear. It's hard to find a night when the ABC isn't airing an episode of the show. However, it's just so damn funny, entertaining, and yes, quite interesting, that I don't mind.
Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell - This was just about as close as you can get to being Australia's version of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report. It was almost constantly funny, although sometimes the pre-filmed sketches fell a bit flat. I was disappointed it was only commissioned for ten episodes. I was left wanting more - the true mark of any good television show.
The Dark Knight Rises - Christopher Nolan's final journey into the world of Batman was hugely anticipated. The unreasonably high expectations put on this film may have soured some people's perceptions of it, but I found it the perfect way to end the Dark Knight trilogy. Catwoman was finally given an interpretation onscreen that did her justice (although her interpretation in the Batman: Arkham City video game might also count - I've not played it but liked what I saw), and Batman himself was given a fitting send-off.
Batman: Puppet Master - This fan made short film set in Nolan's universe might as well have been made and produced by Nolan himself. While it does feature Batman, he's not really the focus of this story. Rather, two of his other foes not seen in Nolan's films are - a certain detective Edwards Nigma (better known as The Riddler) trying to meet Scarface. ANother, lesser known Batman adversary, Victor Zsasz, also has a small role to play. It's well acted, got a great script (with some wonderful humour), a score that's very reminiscent of the films, and high production values. In short, it's brilliant. Watch it for yourself here.
Lowlights
The Gruen Franchise - Apologies to Wil Anderson fans and Gruen fans, but this year the franchise tried to re-invigorate it's dying, predictable format by branching out even more and tackling the Olympic Games. The result was that it became duller than ever. There's really not that much more left to discuss in the world of spin and advertising. We know how they work now, guys. Move on.
Boardwalk Empire - Yes, I know this is supposed to be one of those brilliant TV shows that everyone raves about, but I just couldn't get into it. I actually found I had the same problem with this that I had with Deadwood. It's a well produced show and on the surface it looks very snazzy, but underneath there's no engaging drama. Everything moves along at a painfully slow pace, and there are way too many characters to keep track of.
Most of What Was Released in Cinemas - Overall, it was a pretty miserable year for film. There was very little worth seeing. We had a reboot of the Spiderman franchise that seemed to make a huge splash and then fade away into obscurity, we had the polarising Prometheus, there was a pointless remake of Total Recall that was every bit as well received as it deserved to be (i.e. not very), and there was a single film that destroyed any sense of credibility that Hollywood still had: Battleship.
Digital Multichannel Programming - If someone can explain to me how it was at all possible to keep track of what was being aired and when on the digital multichannels, I'd like to hear from you. Sometimes they'd be used as a catch-up service of sorts, only to suddenly start airing older episodes, and then just as suddenly switch for something else. Times would change weekly for regular programs that are meant to be watched in a regular timeslot (Go, I'm looking at you and how you treated Fringe). It wasn't so much frantic changes to keep up in the ratings game as it was just a complete and utter mess.
The Stuff In Between
Planet America - A weekly, 45 minute discussion on the proceedings of the presidential race in the U.S. was a gutsy task for the ABC to take on. For the most part, they did pretty well, and placing the show on ABC News 24 was a smart move because that seems like it's natural home. However, after a while it became not so much essential viewing as it became a great show to have on in the background.
The Hamster Wheel - I'm a huge Chaser fan, but this show failed to capture me the same way that some of their other projects have. It wasn't so much the material they presented wasn't funny, because much of it was. The problem was it tried to be too energetic, and ended up being a bit too "in your face". The fake Twitter feed was just intrusive, and that shouty stuff that Chas and Andrew did was sometimes quite grating.
Sanctuary - This show did some interesting things in its first couple of seasons. I very much enjoyed it while others criticised it for being a bit too cheesy or whatever. (How can you not like the fact that Nikolai Tesla is a vampire?) The problem with the final season, which aired earlier this year, was that by necessity it had to take a bit of a different path in order to stay fresh. Instead of monster of the week plots, we had a continuous, ongoing storyline, but I found it a bit at odds with the atmosphere and mindset that the show established in its earlier days.
Doctor Who - There was just something a bit off-kilter with the latest episodes of this show. That's not to say it was bad - if it was it'd be sitting firmly in my lowlights section. It just didn't have the same feeling of ongoing energy that previous seasons have had. The split season hasn't helped, I don't think, nor did the concept of constantly dropping Amy and Rory off back home after every adventure. It was still enjoyable enough stuff, and some of the episodes on their own were great stories filled with the quirkiness and humour that has made the past couple of seasons under Moffat some of the best.
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