Better late than never! In this episode, Jon Carnegie (@jon_carnegie on Twitter) joins me on the podcast to discuss all the great television in 2014. Man, people really liked this one show called True Detective.
Reminder: All episodes are available on iTunes.
Image via Reddit
I swear if somebody tells me that it’s the Golden Age of Television one more time…
Look, I’m not saying that this isn’t an amazing time for TV. All I am saying is that labeling one year as a golden age sets you up for future failure and disappointment. For instance, people who label the 1930s and 40s as the golden age of film completely disregard the amazing work done in later years. Plus, Gone with the Wind is sort of racist and Citizen Kane is kind of boring.
Earlier this year, some critics said the golden age of television was over. Really? Then how do you account for the fact that over half my list is freshman shows? As everything migrates towards cable and the web, TV is changing and currently on a curve of exponential growth. This is my first TV top ten list, because this is the first year that I feel like I watched enough shows that I could list ten and have a few honorary mentions.
It is amazing how diverse this year’s TV selections are. My list contains fantasy lands, New York during multiple different time periods, and a lot of talking animals. I don’t want to say that television is currently better than film, but I understand what the whack jobs who say that are talking about. Without further adieu, here is my list of the ten best shows of 2014:
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the series finale of The Sopranos. That is, if it hasn’t already been spoiled for you in the past 48 hours.
Yesterday, Martha P. Nochimson wrote a fantastic piece for Vox about Sopranos showrunner David Chase. If there is an award for articles on the Internet, I believe this article should receive it. It has a few brilliant interactive moments (mainly with its own cut to black), but most importantly, it cuts to the core of this great artist. It digs deep into his thoughts on art, and grazes his own mortality.
Unfortunately, you might not have known that from the headline “Did Tony die at the end of The Sopranos?” as well as the ensuing media coverage which focuses solely on Chase’s one sentence response. After countless think pieces, angry tweets, and a response from Chase’s publicist, it is safe to say that what should have been a harmless article caused a firestorm. It caused a dormant volcano to erupt. The Sopranos ended in 2006, and nobody has gotten over it since.
Episode 3: Ian, Cassie and special guest host Mike Rogers (Professor of Comics, Syracuse University), talk about Captain America: The Winter’s Soldier, the Game of Thrones season 4 premiere, Colbert replacing Letterman on The Late Show, James Franco’s newest scandal and much more…
Episode 2: Ian and Cassie talk about Bad Words, the HIMYM finale, Letterman retiring and much more…