Bovinevision of 2005

I think I should have thought through the whole cow thread for my end of year cultural round up.

For some reason TV is where its at for me, the truly inspiring stuff is happening on the little screen. Movies are just cliché ridden, special effects driven nerd romps that I can barely manage the strength to go see. But the serial nature of TV, the grittiness and innovative corner cutting employed by lower budget TV (when compared to Films) and the extremely well written scripts just get me excited.
However I didn’t bother with some new shows like, House, Grey’s Anatomy or Numbers – all of which I was told are good and they could be but what I watched and enjoyed;

The Wire
The second season started off slowly but then accelerated until the nail biting end. Awesome fully rounded characters and perfect sense of pace its so much better than Sopranos and yes even the Shield.

Deadwood
Even though I didn’t see this on TV but on DVD it still counts. Though I thought the swearing was a bit much, (and what's the deal with music days it all sounds the same, where are my slippers) watching Seth’s slow boil, Al’s scheming and the going ons of the other characters; its all postively engaging - you cunt.

24
Even with the massive plot holes and the smattering of melodrama, the 4th season was the best. Unlike the 3rd season, this didn’t chop and change storylines every 6 episodes, it built one freaking long story and hashed it out properly. I’m hoping next year its just Jack and a silencer for 20 episodes.

Arrested Development
In terms of comedy, for me it doesn’t get better than Fawlty Towers, Young Ones and A couple seasons in the middle of Seinfeld. Arrested Development is up there now. Its clever and stupid all at the same time, which is just perfect. I wish channel 7 would stop fucking around with it.

The Shield
A couple of episodes this year, shock horror, were a tad crap. Once Lem burned the money train cash, those few episodes where a new status quo was being set up just sort of lost focus but once its feet were found it turned gold again. Though i wish channel 10 would stop fucking around with it.

Same thing happened with the OC, the whole lesbian thing was very lame – but it bounced back. And I enjoyed the two episodes of Veronica Mars I’ve seen very much.

The total shit tv goes to the first episode of Headland (emma was supposed to watch it for work – well that’s what she told me) and Shopping for Love.