Inside TV+Movies with Daniel Fienberg

Top 10 TV Shows of 2012 from The Fien Print

Sports docs, meth cooks, ad men and more top Dan Fienberg's list

By Daniel Fienberg Friday, Dec 21, 2012 2:10 AM

Assuming you're even a semi-regular reader/listener, my Top 10 TV Shows of 2012 list probably isn't a mystery to you at this point.

My Top 10 list was part of HitFix's First Annual Critics' Poll and then Sepinwall & I went over both of our Top 10 lists in our Best of 2012 Podcast on Wednesday.

So you know my Top 10 and you've heard me discuss it, but you've never heard me do voiceover for my Top 10 list over the terrifically edited clips courtesy of our ace HitFix video team!

As I said on the podcast, No. 1-8 was pretty solid. I knew the eight shows that were guaranteed placement in my Top 10. The last two slots? Well, that's a bit more slippery. I'm absolutely happy with No. 9 and No. 10, because they're two of my favorite shows, but if No. 11-15 from my Second 10 had taken those slots? That would have been fine, too. In fact, the shows in my Second 10 are pretty near-great themselves and I'll post that list next week, probably. Hell, the shows in my "Honorable Mention" field that'll accompany my Second 10 are very good as well.

I say this every year and it's always true: If anybody tries saying, "There's nothing good on TV" or "TV is crap" or "All there is on TV is bad reality," they're morons. I don't know if the top tier of scripted television is as good as the "Golden Age" folks like to talk about, but in terms of sheer volume of reasonable quality? I'm not sure things have ever been better.

A case-in-point would be my No. 3 show. Not only did it not make a single other Top 10 in the HitFix Critics' Poll, but I'd wager that 85 percent of my colleagues never watched a second of it and at least 40 percent of them didn't know it existed. And it's GREAT.

So give my Top 10 video a watch. I'm not listing the shows here in text form, but I'll do that when I post my Second 10, plus it's available on the site elsewhere. This post is for the video.

Daniel Fienberg
Executive Editor

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

Related Searches: Top 10, Top 10 of 2012, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Louie, Game of Thrones, On Freddie Roach, The Hour, Treme

Stan

Haven't heard the podcast (I'm saving it for my flight home tomorrow) but happy to see your results. This is much more in line with my thoughts than what I've been seeing elsewhere (for whatever that's worth.)

And I'm not going to complain that "there's nothing good on TV anymore" but I did think Mad Men had a down season by its own standards. Yet, when I was trying to think of who beat them out for the top spot I realized most of my favorite shows had "down" years from their previous highs. I felt like Breaking Bad, Parks and Rec, Community, Justified, Mad Men, maybe even Boardwalk Empire (and let's not even talk about Homeland) all were great but just not as good as the previous season. Seems odd that so many great shows seemed to peak or dip at the same time. At least in my opinion.
December 21, 2012 at 11:25AM EST Reply to Comment
- Stan They might have split the season up to increase the awards they could potentially win.
  
  As for Mad Men, I guess it's a matter of opinion, but a lot of people thought this season was the weakest to date. I'm not saying it was bad, I and others just think it was below the quality of the other seasons. To each his own.
  December 21, 2012 at 2:50PM EST
- micguar Best season of Mad Men yet, in this man's humble opinion. Seems to have been a divisive season. There were a lot of people, as Stan said, who thought it was weaker -- but I know for a fact that many others, critics and laymen viewers, found it the best yet, for instance Dan and I believe Todd van der Werff. Seems to have been more than a little polarizing. Which is sometimes good for a work of art.
  December 21, 2012 at 3:16PM EST
- Stan But sometimes the decision to give more or less episodes is made by the network and has nothing to do with the creative process. Although I did think I heard that Vince Gilligan is getting to tell the story the way he wanted.
  
  As for Mad Men, they definitely did some creative things this season, and I give them credit for that. They also had a lot of great individual episodes. Story-wise, I know a lot of people were upset with the Megan plot taking up so much space (it was hardly my favorite plot development, but I didn't hate it as much as some.) I think the "problem" with Mad Men is that everyone knows there is a finite amount of story left to tell, and so people are upset when favorite characters or plots don't get as much attention as they would like.
  
  As I said, I still think Mad Men was the best show this year. But I would rate Season 5 an A-, whereas the past seasons were either A or A+.
  December 22, 2012 at 12:36PM EST
Mia Monroe

Good job Dan! Very nice editing synchronizing the narration with the images, when you talk about the actors. It shows that you put a lot of effort into it.

I'm disappointed Vampire Diaries didn't make it. I always thought that you putting it on the Top 10 gave the show legitimacy. I think it's impressive that after 3 seasons and a half, the pacing hasn't slowed down, and it's still as engaging as ever. By this point in their series, Buffy, Supernatural and Smallville had decreased in quality. It's also a show with high production values, with all the huge houses and lots of location shoots, pretty good special effects. I think it's one of the prettiest shows to watch in terms of cinematography too. I love the use of light and shadow.

Will Shameless make the top 20? It's another one of my faves. If i'm not mistaken, it made it last year.
December 21, 2012 at 3:29PM EST Reply to Comment
- dan Mia - All credit to our video guys on editing/synchronization. James and Michiel have done a super job with all of these HitFix Top 10s.
  
  "Vampire Diaries" will make my Second 10. I can't tell you about "Shameless," because there have to be surprises!
  
  -Daniel
  December 21, 2012 at 3:42PM EST
- Mia Monroe "how elena and Damon cant be together even tho thats what everyone in the audience wants to see."
  
  I disagree, Tim. I think Elena/Damon makes no sense, and it makes me lose respect for Elena as a strong female protagonist. Damos has killer her brother, killed a lot of people in Elena's life, treated Bonnie and Caroline terribly, but when Caroline and Bonnie bring those concerns to Elena, her response is "Damon makes me happy and I wanted my friends to be happy for me", which, ew, Elena. I much prefer Elena with Stefan, which also has issues, but smaller issues, and I like their relationship better.
  December 22, 2012 at 10:38AM EST
Stormshadow4life

Game of Thrones is my #1. Then Parks. Then BB
Just started watching Mad Men's latest season, so I suppose that could change things.
December 21, 2012 at 4:18PM EST Reply to Comment
jamesjhun

Dan You're an angel. Anyone tell you how handsome you are?
December 21, 2012 at 5:59PM EST Reply to Comment
Blake

Is this list anywhere in text? I don't like the podcasts. Thanks.
December 22, 2012 at 7:51PM EST Reply to Comment
- dan Blake - Like it says in the intro...
  
  -Daniel
  December 22, 2012 at 7:59PM EST