Oh yeah, I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but inevitably some will appear, so proceed with caution.
I don't often talk about comedies on here, but this year saw some particularly fine ones. DERRY GIRLS was the freshest, managing to convey both a universal coming-of-age theme and the very specific feeling of growing up in the shadow of The Troubles in the early 90s. For the most part, sectarian unrest was played as mere hindrance, or even a source of humour. That's probably why when it was played straight at the close of the last episode, it was so particularly devastating. This was certainly the best teen-centric comedy since early Inbetweeners, so you've gotta hope they don't fuck it up by turning it into a film. Making the opposite journey was THE YOUNG OFFENDERS, a movie turned into a BBC3 series with real charm, despite the fact that its central characters were two utter reprobates. From Cork to The Cotswolds, the rightly-garlanded THIS COUNTRY uncannily captured the fate of twenty-somethings trapped in a left-behind rural setting. MUM and TWO DOORS DOWN opted instead for the suburbs, both centring on middle-aged women stoically dealing with an assortment of dimbulbs and freeloaders. Mum was the more accomplished of the two, with a lovely performance from Lesley Manville at its heart. Also good to see Peter Mullan being given the chance to do something which didn't involve him going psycho. Meanwhile, Jo Brand's dark social worker sitcom DAMNED was midway between office-based comedy and a prolonged scream at a failing system, beset by hostility from all sides.
There were a clutch of new dramas to keep me and my fucked up ankle entertained at the start of the year, but the more hyped ones couldn't compete with the fourth series of SHETLAND. A programme which has come on leaps and bounds since switching from two-part whodunnits to series-long story arcs, it's closer, both geographically and spiritually, to Nordic Noir than yer usual UK detective shows, not least because this series included a subplot about actual Scando neo-Nazis. Douglas Henshall's DI Jimmy Perez remains a character with real authority despite, or because, he rarely uses his fists or fires a gun. Special mention this time to Stephen Walters, giving an incredibly jittery, madness-skirting performance as Thomas Malone.
As far as hype goes, nothing was getting pushed harder than McMAFIA. It showed real promise at first, but there was an emptiness at its heart that couldn't be hidden by all the globetrotting. We get it, there are global crime networks which intersect with the borderless world of finance! If you wanted to enjoy series which flitted about the world, there were plenty of better ones to enjoy. Despite the obvious risks to your health, who wouldn't rather be travelling with Villanelle? Everything about KILLING EVE was decadently enjoyable, with a career-making performance from Jodie Comer and the deliciously amoral hand of Phoebe Waller-Bridge evident throughout.
Rivalling Killing Eve in terms of body count was BLACK EARTH RISING, and not just because the Rwandan genocide formed its historical backdrop. This was startling, grown-up drama, led by the magnificent Michaela Cole. It was also visually excellent, the preponderance of arresting images and occasional animated sequences making it a tour de force visually as well as dramatically. A cameo from creator Hugo Blick as reptilian lawyer Blake Gaines revealed that he's a creepy-looking fucker, while the amount of times people puke or piss blood showed that he has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with bodily discharge.
Yer actual mafia made an appearance in the dizzyingly excellent TRUST. With stand-out performances from both established stars like Donald Sutherland and Hilary Swank, and outrageously charismatic newcomers like Harris Dickinson and Luca Marinelli, this retelling of the kidnap of John Paul Getty III benefited from its ten-episode running time, exploring the various players in a way that its counterpart movie, All The Money In The World, couldn't hope to match. We could have a whole, largely subtitled episode set in an Italian village without missing Sutherland or Swank, while a slowly-developing relationship between Getty Sr's butler and head groundsman provided a moving subplot. Perhaps best of all was Brendan Fraser's spirited, fourth-wall breaking turn as Getty's fixer Fletcher Chase, who stole every scene he was in and even advised the audience to "Google it" in what was essentially a period drama.
As was A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL, based on the incredible story of former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe's plot to kill his ex-lover Norman Scott. As has been suggested, this features Hugh Grant's best ever acting, even if his performance feels like Rob Brydon doing an impersonation of a politician you've never heard of. Ben Whishaw is also on predictably fine form as Scott, making him sympathetic even as he proves irritating and unreliable. His constant whining about a missing National Insurance card provided one of the running jokes in a drama which could be uproariously funny; the plot to kill Scott was largely played for laughs with a terrific comedy turn from Inbetweener Blake Harrison. But this was also a horror story, reminding us of a terrifyingly recent past where Westminster was even more patrician and run by old boys networks than it is today, and where being outed as gay was such a career-ending prospect for a politician that he might consider murder as a solution.
Staying in the '70s, THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL was a twisty-turny delight, with a career-making appearance from Florence Pugh in what was essentially the lead role. There was plenty of more traditional period drama on offer, of course. VERSAILLES wrapped up its compellingly camp shenanigans. Spooky Wilkie Collins adaptation THE WOMAN IN WHITE was worth watching largely for the always-impressive Jessie Buckley. We got two Sarah Phelps Christie adaptations, thanks to ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE needing reshoots to excise Ed Westwick following allegations of sexual assault. Its pall of gloom was ample preparation for THE ABC MURDERS, a take on Poirot which was incredibly bleak and unavoidably Malkovichian. Meanwhile, VANITY FAIR and THE LONG SONG were curiously parallel tales of tenacious young women attempting to survive in difficult worlds. The former shone thanks to Olivia Cooke's turn as Becky Sharp, with some great comic performances from Martin Clunes and Frances De La Tour. The stakes were rather higher, and the consequences grimmer, in the latter, set on a Jamaican plantation in the dying days of slavery. But there was room for the comic here too, with Hayley Atwell successfully navigating between the monstrous and the mockable, while in the lead role of Miss July, Tamara Lawrence showed herself to be one of the year's rising stars.
That's a statement ably backed by her appearance in the third series of peerless Manc cop show NO OFFENCE. Other excellent guest stars included Neil Maskell and Lisa McGrillis, in a very different role to her ditzy Kelly in Mum. And as always, the regular cast, led by Joanna Scanlan's heroic DI Viv Grenning, proved the best ensemble in British TV. A massive shock midway through the first episode gave way to yet another engrossing series.
Conspiracies and detective dramas were all over the telly this year. Not all of them were successful. COLLATERAL had a great cast but ultimately felt too stagey. HARD SUN started promisingly with its premise of the secret of the world's imminent demise being covered up, but devolved into listless case of the week nonsense. Agyness Deyn wrung out a great performance, undermined by her opposite number Jim Sturgess doing a tiresome geezer act, while Nikki Amuka-Bird and Richard Coyle at least provided two great baddies.
Working on a smaller scale but rather more enjoyable was STRIKE: CAREER OF EVIL, the best of the three Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling adaptations. News of a new novel in the series is welcome, largely as it will hopefully mean the brilliant chemistry of Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger will return to our screens sometime soon.
If Black Earth Rising was noteworthy for its largely black cast, diversity was also represented by NEXT OF KIN and INFORMER. If it's somewhat predictable that shows led by Asian actors have to revolve around terrorism, at least these were both nuanced and genuinely thrilling. The latter was a particular success, with Nabhaan Rizwan and Roger Jean Nsengiyumva utterly compelling alongside a winningly glum turn from Bel Powley, and Paddy Considine in the most Paddy Considine role ever, as a hard nut policeman who'd previously got rather too involved while undercover in a far right organization.
The biggest thriller of the year was, of course, BODYGUARD. If its ultimate denouement felt a little underwhelming, this series was bookended by two long scenes providing a masterclass in almost unbearable tension. The number of female characters in positions of power prompted one massive idiot to complain on Twitter that Bodyguard had no male characters. Er, you know the title character? Played by Richard Madden? If this guy is also into his sci-fi, his head was no doubt still spinning by the news that DOCTOR WHO now had a lady in the TARDIS. These numbrains probably thought this was part of some intergalactic conspiracy to erase men from existence, while being secretly worried that they might find The Doctor attractive and end up thinking of Sylvester McCoy while knocking one out. Having effectively flushed out the incel elements of the Whovian fansphere, it would be understandable if new showrunner Chris Chibnall (a man?! OR IS HE???!!) decided to spend his first series in charge essentially trolling the bigots. And, well, it certainly felt like that's what he was doing. With a multi-racial cast joining Jodie Whittaker, and even the token old white guy in a relationship with a person of colour, this series was quick to make progressive and liberal points. Not one, but two episodes featured women as skilled space pilots, while Arachnids In The UK featured a lady scientist nd a budget Trump in the villain role. The bad guy in Rosa wanted to derail the progress of civil rights. Some right-wing papers were even incensed by the appearance of a pregnant man in The Tsuranga Conundrum, and he was just a poorly-conceived comedy subplot!
Thing is, though... this series was a bit of a disappointment. In both good and bad ways, it felt like an entirely different show, the first full-scale reinvention of the brand since its 2005 relaunch. Its opening scenes, showing a young lad struggling to ride a bike on the moors above Sheffield, showed a welcome willingness to start things quietly; similarly, the end of the first episode allowed time to show grief in a thoughtful way. The past was little discussed, a few references creeping in towards the latter part of the series, but there were no familiar threats: no Daleks, no Cybermen, no Sontarans, no Weeping Angels (who jumped the shark with that Statue Of Liberty bullshit), no Master/Missy... Which was fine. Let some of these rest. But the series suffered from a lack of decent alternatives. Most of the supposed monsters were misunderstood or acting according to nature rather than evil intent. The make-up for some of these aliens was horrible, dated and unconvincing. Whittaker was unquestionably great, but I wonder whether making her a more fallible, less sure-of-herself Doctor unwittingly fell into gender cliche. Having her fall out of the TARDIS as soon as she'd regenerated certainly felt like it was a gift to those who'd like to make jokes about women drivers...
But, but, but...there were some great episodes here, particularly Demons of the Punjab and It Takes You Away, which may have riffed a little too closely on the concept of Coraline but still provided a welcome blast of surrealism. And there was enough to make me glad that rumours of both Whittaker and Chibnall departing have turned out to be rubbish. Let's see what the New Year's Day episode can bring - judging from the trailer, could it be Daleks?
On a returning sci-fi tip, THE 100 threw in new villains and allegiances as its post-apocalyptic power struggles continued. Its conclusion means that things will necessarily be rather different next time out, while in a first for this gory show, two much-loved characters were allowed to die of... old age. HUMANS felt like it should have ended with the revelations at the end of its last series, but this year's third installment managed to crackle with tension. The fractured reality of China Mieville adaptation THE CITY & THE CITY just about counts as science fiction, with a central performance from David Morrissey at his most David Morrissey-ish ensuring it was at least watchable.
Purists might balk, but with immortal beings, alternate timelines and interdimensional travel, THE GOOD PLACE could almost be seen as sci-fi. Either way, it was the most whipsmart show America gave us this year, its goofiness tempered by heavy philosophy, its primary colours masking something way more complex and involving than you'd initially expect. The six-strong core cast are all amazing, with Ted Danson, who turned 71 the day before I typed these words, at his very best.
Similarly unconcerned with genre, as always, was the fourth series of INSIDE NO.9. The seemingly endless imaginations of Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton continued to spew out wonders. Live Halloween episode Dead Line got the headlines, but my favourites were Once Removed, a nasty little story told in reverse, and Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room, this year's attempt to reduce me to a sobbing wreck. Interestingly, The Dead Room, the attempt by Shearsmith and Pemberton's League Of Gentlemen homeboy Mark Gatiss to reinstate the tradition of ghost stories for Christmas Eve, had certain elements in common with Dead Line, with Simon Callow on cracking form.
No strangers to folk horror, I wonder what The League made of REQUIEM, the BBC's Welsh-set chiller. Keeping the audience guessing, it was unclear how much the events were driven by the supernatural, and how much by more earthbound influences. The conclusion tipped rather more one way than the other, its rather opaque final scenes leaving space for an as-yet-unconfirmed second outing. It was great to see Lydia Wilson (Ripper Street) step up into a lead role, and also to see Joel Fry (Plebs) tackle drama, and the music played by their characters (a cellist and pianist respectively) fed directly into the unsettling spookiness that hung over everything like a miasma.
Music also played a part in the second series of FLOWERS, with Amy Flowers' avant-garde ensemble the Pink Cuttlefish Orchestra soundtracking a mammoth freakout of a second series. Honestly, I'd have been happy if things had been left with the bittersweet ending of Series One, but if I initially struggled to reconnect with this second helping, its phantasmagorical visions ultimately pulled me back in. As before, mental health was dealt with sensitively, but without stinting on its possibility for bold but pitch black humour. And then there was the curious decision to set the last episode before the events of Series 1. Was this just a flashback, or evidence that the whole thing had happened only in the mind of one of the characters? And what, then, did the end of the previous episode mean?
Clearly, horror in rural environments isn't restricted to the UK, as we saw in a trippy reimagining of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK. One of its young stars, Madeleine Madden, also showed up in outback-set missing persons drama MYSTERY ROAD, another series which explored the potential for darkness in Australia's more remote regions. Also highly recommended on an international tip were Canada's CARDINAL, French whodunnit KILLER BY THE LAKE and, trading McMafia for the real thing, 70s-set Italian drama MALTESE: THE MAFIA DETECTIVE.
Best of all, clearly, was the apparently final series of THE BRIDGE. Taken as a whole, I'd say the 38 episodes of this show probably make up the best run of anything this decade, and this fourth series didn't disappoint, except for the hoped reappearance of Martin Rohde not happening, what with actor Kim Bodnia being a bit busy with Killing Eve and that. A typically complex case, with various seemingly unconnected subplots, and the unflinchingly great Sofia Helin back in her longcoat and vintage car - all the usual elements were in place, but this time there was closure for both Saga and Henrik. I'll sure miss that theme tune.
So, we started with some reasonably bleak visions of working class life in This Country and The Young Offenders. Well, the middle classes could be a pretty difficult place to be too, especially if you're Steven Mackintosh. In excellent ensemble piece KIRI, he was the foster father of a young girl who goes missing while on her first unsupervised visit to her paternal grandparents. Later, in WANDERLUST, which also starred the fantastic Zawe Ashton, he attempted to shore up a crumbling marriage to Toni Collette by agreeing to an open relationship. Needless to say, neither of these things worked out well, though Wanderlust packed in genuine humour to offset its sad ache, and Collette at least made a more realistic Brit than Michael C. Hall in Netflix show SAFE, where a gated community proved no barrier to either dastardly doings or massively unlikely plot developments.
Well, there you have it. I was going to end with a Top 10, but it proved impossible; how do you compare The Good Place to Black Earth Rising, or Derry Girls to The Bridge? Will I watch as much telly in 2019? Well, maybe I'll have some more time on my hands so let's wait and see. To be continued...
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