Firewall & Iceberg Podcast, episode 52: Best TV of 2010
Alan and Dan count down their favorite shows of the year, with a fair amount of overlap
I know we promised that this Firewall & Iceberg Podcast would be posted late last week, but various developments led us to push it back to its regularly-scheduled day, even though we were actually able to record it on Thursday. (Long, boring story.) For our last podcast of the year - and, appropriately, our 52nd, even though we didn't record podcasts every week this year (we doubled up enough times to catch up) - Dan and I discussed our picks for the 10 best shows of the year. You've already read my list and likely seen Dan's as well, but have you ever heard us discuss them before? No. Nor have you heard me absolutely, positively screw up an attempt to reference the TV line of the year.
Enjoy, and thanks for listening in 2010. We promise to work on figuring out whatever the hell it is we're doing in 2011.
As always, you can subscribe to The Firewall & Iceberg Podcast over at the iTunes Store, where you can also rate us and comment on us. Or you can always follow our RSS Feed, download the MP3 file or stream it on Dan's blog.
And as always, feel free to e-mail us at sepinwall@hitfix.com and/or dan@hitfix.com if you have questions you want answered on the show. Please put the word "podcast" in your subject line to make it easy to track them down amid the hundreds of random press releases we get every day.
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December 27, 2010 at 7:26PM EST Reply to CommentI know this is off topic, sorry, but: Alan, 2 little things about your list under "TV recaps" on the right:
- if shows were ordered alphabetically it'd make things easier for one to find a specific show
- I'm late to the party, but I just started watching Party Down (awesome show, loving it) and, of course, I'm reading your reviews on your old blog. But I believe you reviewed the second season over here, right?
If so, adding it to the list would be good, because (the show deserves more recognition, and also because) search results don't make it easy to find all your reviews (and only that) of a given show.
thedemonhog
December 27, 2010 at 7:46PM EST Reply to CommentI had been hoping and hoping and I was so happy when I heard the return of Dan's 'Terriers' "theme", even if it was a bit scratchier this time.
Not going through with the "that's what the money is for" in the initial setup was pretty terrible, but laughably so.
Fergmaster
December 27, 2010 at 9:25PM EST Reply to CommentWas so worried I was gonna run in to Breaking Bad spoilers there, I've yet to see Season 3. Such an amazing show, I kinda love the fact that there making it up as they go.
James
December 28, 2010 at 1:07AM EST Reply to CommentKurt Sutter doesn't like not being on the top 10.
http://sutterink.blogspot.com/2010/12/bested-of-2010.html
As I review the BEST OF 2010 lists, I cringe at the some of the names the blogosphere is giving season three of Sons of Anarchy. "Uneven" "Problematic" "Counter-intuitive". It's fvcking hard to watch your child being bullied and yet I've realized that one must live and die by buzz.
The truth is a lot of bloggers and critics are too fvcking lazy to actually watch the show and form an original opinion, so they'll let a few other critics determine what the show is. In season two, a few critics tagged Sons as one of the best shows on television. That buzz was picked up and so season two was labeled "brilliant". This season, a few critics struggled with the Ireland/Baby narrative and labeled those middle episodes as confusing and off-point. That buzz was also picked up and so season three is being labeled "not-so-brilliant". The reality is that neither assessment is true. It's just that one is easier to accept that the other.
I, of course, did not see a problem with season three. Obviously. In my mind, it was the most complex and in-depth storytelling we've ever done on the show. Perhaps that's the problem. I do know that anything I say in defense of the show will land as sour grapes and desperate, so I'll let a critic describe my feelings.[/b[ Tim Goodman, former critic for the SF Chronicle, now head TV critic for the Hollywood Reporter listed SOA as one of the top 18 shows of the year (#13). This was his follow up assessment --
Sons of Anarchy
"Of all the excellent dramas here, fan reaction to SOA in Season 3 is the most interesting, and baffling. This outlaw biker-club series from Kurt Sutter embraces its heightened gangster mentality, its Hamlet-on-a-Harley agenda. You’ll find few series whose fans are as rabid and outspoken. The story line that took the club from the fictional Northern California town of Charming to Northern Ireland had a lot of viewers and critics claiming it meandered and that the skillfully riveting first and last episodes held together a soft middle. It’s too tough on Sutter; [b]any creator/writer/showrunner ought to take chances — that’s essential to greatness. Had he kept SOA in Charming for a third year, playing the same tune, the backlash would rightly have been more fierce. Fans ultimately might look back at this ambitious season as instrumental in the series achieving brilliance.
Besides, who wants a show that resists change and shies from a creative leap? If you want that, turn on broadcast TV. Now that these shows are gone, you’ll get plenty of settling."
tag8833 SOA still made my top 10 for giving us the single best hour of tv this year in "NS"
December 28, 2010 at 10:01AM ESTwahh wahh wahh Kurt Sutter sounds like a little bitch there.
December 28, 2010 at 12:59PM EST