It’s that time of year where I tell you which television shows were my favs and which were flops. A lot of the shows aren’t science fiction but they are close enough to be on this list. Genres you may see are science fiction, fantasy, horror, sitcoms, action and drama.
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Favs of 2010
20. Vampire Diaries
19. Warehouse 13
18. Sanctuary
17. Caprica
16. Castle
15. Hawaii Five-0
14. No Ordinary Family
13. Myth Busters
12. Chuck
11. Sherlock
10. Supernatural
9. Community
8. Big Bang Theory
7. Smallville
6. Lost
5. Fringe
4. Dexter
3. Eureka
2. True Blood
1. The Walking Dead
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Flops of 2010
Honorable mention. We have to say goodbye to all of the shows that went to TV heaven: Numb3rs, 24, The Undercovers, Medium, Ghost Whisperer, The Gates and Happy Town.
10. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan– I disliked this immensely. The ending made me want to punch someone, anyone, in the face.
9. Haven– Some people love it, other people are like me; don’t care. The location is beautiful though.
8. Persons Unknown– Looked like modern take on The Prisoner then ended with lack of focus and just stupidly.
7. FlashForward– Started off well and ended awfully. Seems it was dumped to push the ripoff show The Event.
6. Heroes– Thank God it’s over.
5. Legend of the Seeker– My favorite fantasy show next to Merlin. Of course, it was canceled.
4. Stargate: Universe– Not my favorite Stargate but it was growing on me. It doesn’t matter because it was canceled.
3. Caprica– This has to be the most mistreated show since Farscape. Not only did it get screwed on scheduling, they canceled it and will show the left over episodes in one dump.
2. The Event– The biggest insult to television; especially after… see #7.
1. Lost– The ending was awful. After much blog-reading and hand-holding, I’ve come to accept the ending but I will never forget my initial shock and horror. Even with feeling that way about the ending, I still love the show!
Tell me how you really feel. Wouldn’t have put Lost finale in there. I wouldn’t have put Mythbusters or Community in there. I am surprised Doctor Who isn’t anywhere on list.
I guess Doctor Who would be between Supernatural and Sherlock.
Is it just me, or was TV a little disappointing overall this year? Too many shows getting cancelled and too many shows feeling flat.
Persons Unknown was a weird anomaly. It looked promising, then I lost interest, then I regained enough curiosity to give it a 2nd try just in time to see the series finale that didn’t feel like a series finale at all.
Lost. What mixed emotions. It’s one of my top nine all-time favorite shows and ranks as my #3 favorite among genre shows. Overall, I love the show, especially seasons 1 and 5. I even like the flash-sideways portion of season 6, but what a massive disappointment to find out in those final moments what the flash-sideways really was. I know some people love the ending, and some love it so much that they probably think those that didn’t like don’t understand it. I *understood* it (well, okay, not at first; it took a few minutes for it to sink in). I just didn’t like it. That revelation and some of the weird island-based stuff from season 6 taint the series a little as a whole for me. Like the disappointments I felt with the final two seasons of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls (yes, Gilmore Girls), it may take me a while to come back to good terms with Lost. They say time heals wounds.
Half of Haven is still sitting on my DVR, I may start letting Sanctuary sit there next half season too, Caprica was starting to decline for me, and I can’t decide whether to hang on to The Event and No Ordinary Family or wait until news of their renewal or cancellation (hmm, actually that strategy sounds pretty good).
On the positive side, Chuck became my favorite show currently on the air, Parenthood is still fun, I finally started watching Eureka and regret not watching it sooner, Fringe finally earned a season pass on my DVR, SGU and Warehouse 13 improved greatly over last season, and Hawaii Five-0 was a pleasant surprise.
Oh, and one thing’s been bugging me lately… If Syfy is owned by *NBC* Universal, why are/were Chuck, The Event, Persons Unknown, Heroes, and maybe even Kings from 2009 on NBC instead of Syfy? Yeah, I know why, so that’s a rhetorical question, but in a perfect world, the NBC family could bolster their alleged sci-fi arm by shifting genre content over there from the main network instead of splitting it up.
Oh, yeah, like Fringe, I gave Doctor Who another try this year too and like it *just* enough to stick around for season 6.
Mythbusters — always a faithfully good show. :)
@Todd I love how you always bring up Kings. I never gave that show a chance… sadly never will.
I loved Lost right up until the last minutes which means that I loved it overall. I guess it should go in the favs section but being that it was the last season I’m not going to bother.
Yes, TV was meh this year but Walking Dead managed to save it. I’m still really excited about the show.
Also, my new years resolution is to not watch any new shows on Syfy. I don’t want to get attached just to get my heart broken all over again. :D
I’m very tempted to share your new years resolution. The tidal wave of mediocrity and cancellations has taken a toll on my patience with TV in general, not just sci-fi shows or the Syfy network. I want to just stop watching anything new altogether until it’s proven & stable. It makes want to start watching movies & older TV shows on DVD more often, perhaps finally invest in Blu-Ray. Or, even more drastic — I could start reading… books. (?!?!?)
And, yet… I’m hearing good things about Alphas, which will be on, hehhhh, Syfy. :( It’ll star David Stathairn. I liked him in Sneakers and Bourne Ultimatum. The pilot will be directed by Jack Bender who directed a lot of Lost episodes (including four season premieres and all six season finales!!!). Most importantly, the part that’s most tempting is that the showrunner will be Ira Steven Behr, executive producer of The 4400 and showrunner of seasons 3 through 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9!!!). Maybe the preview for this show will suck, or maybe they’ll cast some actors I don’t like, and I’ll be able to resist. But, Ira Steven Behr as showrunner?!? I foresee me being Syfy’s sucker one more time. :(
Stupid Syfy.