Depth of flavor

Top 2014 tube picks: old favorites, brash newcomers and a sprinkle of adorable reality

First, the also-rans: a handful of new and returning shows this year managed to be both objectively above-average and disappointing on their own terms. These include the second seasons of Netflix’s “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black,” both of which failed to match the wit and urgency of their first seasons. Showtime’s mobius-strip melodrama “The Affair” has been alternately intriguing and frustrating. HBO’s final run of “The Newsroom” started out promising before descending into a self-aggrandizing Aaron Sorkin circle-jerk (that college-rape episode, eek). 

A few shows barely missed the cut. “Louie” further evolved with its 6-part New York love story and instant classic episode “So Did the Fat Lady.” “Homeland” came back to life in its first post-Brody season, “Girls” found new ways to challenge its critics, “Transparent” introduced us to a particularly quirky dysfunctional family and forced viewers to take Amazon Prime seriously as a provider of original content. “Ray Donovan” and “The Leftovers” were ballsy, imperfect dramas that will hopefully mature in their next seasons.  

As always, there are shows I missed—“How to Get Away With Murder,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “Toddlers and Tiaras,” etc. I only have so much time. These are the ones that were worth it.

Black Mirror (Channel 4/Netflix)

No other series this year came close to evoking the visceral excitement of Black Mirror. The British satire premiered in 2011 on Channel 4, but Netflix only recently made it available to U.S. viewers. I might be cheating by including it in my top ten, but it deserves the promotion. Each episode achieves the remarkable feat of besting its most obvious influences—“The Twilight Zone” and “Outer Limits”—by maintaining a focused thematic through-line as it genre-hops from political thriller to dystopian fantasy to horror romance and on. The basic thesis: technology—particularly social media—is destroying humanity. The point is made over and over again in myriad ways—from “The National Anthem,” in which a British princess is held ransom by a kidnapper who demands the Prime Minister engage in an unsavory act on live television, to the brilliant “The Entire History of You,” a futuristic infidelity melodrama that imagines brave new ways for spouses to hurt each other. 

True Detective (HBO)

Southern tough-guy novelist Nic Pizzolatto (“Galveston”) and wunderkind filmmaker Cary Fukunaga (“Sin Nombre”) further elevated the still-blossoming concept of auteur-driven television by writing and directing the entire riveting first season of “True Detective.” The tonally seamless eight-hour neo-noir features Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in the best roles of their careers as Louisiana detectives chasing a murder-cult conspiracy across two decades. Not since “Lost” has a show inspired such over-analytical obsession in its viewers, or such divisive reactions to its emotional, ambiguous finale that defied plot resolution in favor of sentimental uplift. 

Last Week Tonight (HBO)

John Oliver’s weekly 30-minute faux-news show might appear on first glance to be another Jon Stewart clone (Oliver was previously a correspondent for “The Daily Show” and filled in as host last year when Stewart was filming “Rosewater”), but Oliver has more on his mind than humorous echo chamber commentary. Oliver and his staff are conducting what’s essentially advocacy journalism with jokes. Each week, they tackle a “deep dive” story wherein Oliver explores complicated, under-reported issues such as net neutrality, corruption in FIFA, and America’s archaic methods of nuclear weapons storage. He routinely implores his audience to exercise its political voice through digital disruption—the FCC’s website crashed after Oliver encouraged viewers to email their thoughts about net neutrality.

Mad Men (AMC)

The first half of “Mad Men’s” final season was a slow-burn, short on plot but heavy on malaise and ominous Stanley Kubrick references. Don Draper finally received the spirit-crushing humbling he deserved, and the ghost of Bert Cooper closed the season with a bizarre-but-beautiful song-and-dance number that further raised the bar for the series’ approaching final shot.  

Game of Thrones (HBO)

After season three’s traumatic Red Wedding in which most of the remaining undisputed good guys were killed off, the latest season of this mean-spirited soap opera (with magic and dragons) seemed to offer an early reprieve through the Purple Wedding—an equally bloody marriage party that, thankfully, (spoiler alert) ends with King Joffrey’s overdue demise. However comforting the first four episodes—author George R.R. Martin, along with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss—quickly negate the goodwill: Tyrion is framed for Joffrey’s death and imprisoned, Jaime rapes his sister next to her son’s corpse, a monstrous giant crushes the skull of Tyrion’s would-be rescuer. Yet, the season ends on its most hopeful note. 

Sherlock (BBC)

The feverishly anticipated but delayed third season of Sherlock finally premiered this year. The final episode, “His Last Vow,” has rightfully earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations honoring the sharp, moving script by Steven Moffat and the seemingly effortless performance of Benedict Cumberbatch as the world’s most well-intentioned sociopath. 

Silicon Valley (HBO)

Mike Judge’s prodding send-up of the tech industry, a through-the-looking-glass rejoinder to “The Social Network,” lambastes greedy geek culture while managing to empathize with its cast of misfit wannabes. The result is the sharpest, funniest, most relevant thing Judge has done since “Office Space.” 

Fargo (FX)

My skepticism of this series adaptation of Joel and Ethan Coen’s snow-noir masterpiece discouraged me from viewing it for months. When I finally watched it, I was knocked out by how perfectly it evoked the tone, look and—in a few cases—the specific character foibles of the original film and its characters while still managing to carve out its own identity. Billy Bob Thornton gorges on his juiciest role in years as a Steve Buscemi/Peter Stormare hybrid super-villain while newbie Allison Tolman, as pregnant police detective Molly Solverson (echoing Frances McDormand’s Oscar-winning turn as Marge Gunderson) acquits herself as the moral core of this dark, cynical, hilarious mystery.

Broad City (Comedy Central)

The adorably aimless, neurotic burnouts of the Amy Poehler-produced “Broad City” represent a minor step forward in the evolution of the contemporary slacker comedy, a male-dominated genre that’s often (rightfully) accused of glorifying male oafishness while reducing women to the nagging arbiters of responsibility. Not here. Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer, playing 20-something stoner “Jewesses,” provide competition for the Apatow clan of man-children with their affectionate love letter to friendship that’s equal parts “Bill & Ted,” “Superbad” and “Girls.”

MasterChef Junior (Fox)

Reality programming so often plants the spotlight on unscrupulous exhibitionists scrambling over each other for status and power, but “MasterChef Junior” is a breath of fresh air. It closely follows the formula of “MasterChef”—talented home cooks compete against each other to win over the judgmental palates of Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich, and Graham Elliot. The crucial difference: the competitors here are children, age 8-13. There might be one or two precocious, cabbage-heads acting like brats as they compete, but for the most part these kids show nothing but love, gratitude and humility to the judges and each other as they cook their talented little hearts out. And Ramsay manages to never swear. a

Honorable mention: Showtime’s “The Knick” and Fox’s “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”