Highlights
Beware the Batman - When I first saw a trailer for this 3D animated series, I was excited. I hoped that it would do to the Batman stories what Star Wars: The Clone Wars eventually did for the Star Wars universe. Something that was edgier, and subtly darker without actually tipping over into adult thematic territory. And that's exactly what it is. It gives us a Batman that uses his intelligence to take down criminals, as well as his brute strength. You know all that deception and misdirection stuff that was touched on in Nolan's Batman trilogy? it's in full force here. The point of this Batman is truly to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, rather than just to beat them up. More importantly, Batman/Bruce Wayne feels every punch that's landed on him. He is visibly bruised from his opening encounter, and when he takes a real beating he passes out from the exertion. The 3D animation also allows the series to stay a little more true to the comics, and go a little more "out there" without losing the suspension of disbelief.
Fringe - This show had become one of my favourite TV shows well before 2014 rolled around, but 2014 saw it come to an end forever (in Australia) after exactly 100 episodes. It always branched out and tried new things, going on unexpected directions, and the final episodes that aired were no different. Most importantly, it had heart and a well rounded journey that the characters had gone on. Unlike many other shows, that try to explain everything and cram in as many callbacks and cameos as they can, Fringe only did it if it made sense to the story or emotional arc. Above all else, the final episode was an enjoyable and satisfying conclusion to the story of these characters.
Ten's Coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics - Questionable politics behind the games aside, Ten's coverage of the actual sport was fantastic. I admittedly didn't watch all that much of it, but what I did see impressed me. There was independent, live coverage on both channel 10 and on OneHD, and during the day OneHD aired an encore presentation of the previous days events. The coverage was never erratic. With two channels airing live sport, each one could pick an event and stick with it for a considerable amount of time. The interviews with athletes were sensible, and not dumping an unrealistic expectation on them that it was Gold or bust. If they performed well, regardless of where they placed, that's what the interview focused on. Given what Olympic coverage has been like in the past, this felt genuinely refreshing.
Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell - Every episode, without fail, there was one joke or gag in this show that had me laughing so hard for so long that I was gasping for air. It was truly one of the highlights of the year. It's a pity there wasn't more of it than what we got, but any show that leaves you wanting much more is a good show regardless.
Have You Been Paying Attention? - I found this low-key quiz show highly entertaining. With funny answers encouraged just as much as the correct ones (albeit only correct ones scoring points), each question was a delight and the potential set-up for a great gag. Sometimes the questions themselves were a gag in itself. It took a while for Channel 10 to fins a timeslot that worked for it, and the initial jumping around in the schedule was annoying (as I will discuss in a Lowlight below), but once everything settled down it was a great way to spend a Monday night (or other weekend night if I happened to time shift the episodes for whatever reason).
Margaret and David's Retirement - I'm not saying that I'm happy to see them gone - I'm not. Like everyone else in Australia, I wish they'd kept going. What I did like was the fact that they left on their own terms, when they both felt that the time was right for them to go. They gave us plenty of notice, and then carried on as if it was business as usual until their final show. Their final show was a wonderful tribute to 28 years of the pair working together, and poetically ended with both critics giving five stars to the final film reviewed for the show. There's going to be a big gap in the way we all find out about what's going on in the world of cinema now that they're gone. You didn't say you watched At the Movies every week, you say you watched Margaret and David. You can never replace that, but I'm glad they went out on top.
Lowlights
Nine's Scheduling of Sherlock - This was a truly horrendous display of programming by a network that should really know better. After holding off fast tracking the third series of the show so it would land in the ratings season, they then went and had the send two episodes air on a completely different day of the week and time than the first. You'd be forgiven for thinking that they didn't want anyone to watch the damn show, if it weren't for the heavy promotion that the show got. It almost seemed desperate.
Actually Nine's Scheduling of Everything - Wanted to watch the newest episodes of, say, Top Gear? Good luck finding out when they were on, because Nine sure as hell didn't seem to air them in anything that could be a regular schedule. Program times would jump around, and for the programs that did have a regular schedule it was difficult to tell whether the episode airing on a particular night was a repeat or a new episode. Sometimes they'd air a bunch of new episodes, start repeating from the beginning (or an arbitrary point throughout the season), and then, without warning, air some new episodes. In 2014 the Nine Network really felt like it was treating its viewers with contempt, only caring about the big, rating winning reality shows during primetime on their main channel. Network Seven was not far behind, although I admittedly only watched one or two shows scheduled late at night, so the less-than-reliable scheduling was somewhat expected. Speaking of contempt for viewers...
Networks Airing Promos Over Credits - The is getting worse, and all the major networks seem to be doing it. Admittedly, I'm not one to actually stick around and read the credits, but sometimes there's some nice artwork, which maybe houses a nice little epilogue. Sometimes the soundtrack eases you out of the world you were occupying and gives you a sense elf closure. But if you're going to shrink the credits down to a quarter of the screen, speed them up, and then play a noisy promo for an upcoming show you are desperate to be a ratings hit, you are disrespecting the hard work all those people put into the episode or film, you are ruining the closure that the audience needs, you are ruining the opportunity for people to found out some information about the cast or crew if they want it, but worst of all you are offending me and potentially thousands of others who feel the same way. Let the film run out properly - it might just be part of the director's vision you are impeding on and ruining.
Those Awful, Intrusive, Pop-Up Promos During the Show - These things are terrible. They pop up during the show to cross-promote some other show, take up about 20% of the screen, and are incredibly distracting. I haven't seen them on every commercial channel yet, but they are a trend I think will start to garner some serious complaints from viewers. There is a real chance people will switch off if they become too intrusive and try to get the show by other means with less intrusive ads.
Network Ten's Blatant Desperation - Rebranding "Elementary" as "Sherlock Holmes: Elementary" because they think we're all idiots and will easily be drawn to the Sherlock Holmes trend if the name is slapped on it. Constantly moving shows around like "Have You Been Paying Attention" to different timeslots because it either doesn't work in the one it's in or might do even better in a new one. Saturating all three channels with a simulcast of "Family Feud". These are not things that draw in viewers. These are things that temporarily trick the ratings to give a boost in numbers, with the hope of sustaining those numbers. It's pure desperation, and the problem is that when it's as obvious as it has been this year, people are going to switch off even more.
The Stuff In Between
Roy and H.G.'s Russian Revolution - It was a masterstroke for Channel Ten to sign these two on to give their always unique take on the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. What they gave us was up to their usual, often hilarious standards. Unfortunately, there was no way to know exactly when they would be on air. Ten's episode guide was unhelpful, with hours upon hours just blocked out to represent the Sochi coverage. Some nights they were on at 9 p.m., other nights you would have to wait over half an hour later. The only way to know for sure was to keep an eye out for a countdown at the bottom of the screen telling you how long you had to wait until they were on air. The program also lasted a surprisingly short amount of time, no more than 15 or 20 minutes with a single ad break in the middle. It never felt like enough time to give a rounded, satirical discussion of the day's events. They were doing their thing and then suddenly they were saying goodbye to throw us back into the sport. There was the potential here for something much better than what we were delivered.
Jonathan Creek - The three new episodes that aired in the Autumn of this year were a bit of a mixed bag. It was good to see the character taken to a logical next step in slightly older age, but the mysteries he was called on to solve seemed to lack some of whatever it was that made the older episodes a joy to watch. Hell, in the first episode there was no mystery because we were shown how it was done before he even arrives on the scene to sort it out. They were still entertaining, they just just lacked the same level of charm that episodes of old have.
The Chaser's Media Circus - This was always a bit hit and miss, especially given that there were only what felt like a handful of episodes before the season ended. There were some genuinely hilarious moments, and I did find myself tuning in every week because I did find the show, on the whole, largely entertaining, but not every game was interesting, and some things fell flat. Host Craig Reucassell felt a bit too much like a carnival announcer, always saying things with a raised voice that started to get annoying at times.
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