A. V. Club's best 25 TV Shows of 2010: 7. Terriers (FX)

The 25 best television series of 2010

by Joshua Alston, Donna Bowman, Zack Handlen, Steve Heisler, Myles McNutt, Noel Murray, Keith Phipps, Nathan Rabin, David Sims, John Teti, Scott Tobias, Todd VanDerWerff, and Claire Zulkey

"2010 saw the departure of scene-changing institutions like Lost, the maturation of in-progress shows like Mad Men, and the arrival of widely hyped newcomers like Boardwalk Empire. But even without those landmarks, it would still be another remarkable year almost overstuffed with good television. The A.V. Club?s TV Club critics had a hard time narrowing our best series list down to a mere 25, surely a sign that the medium?s renaissance continues to roll on. But through polling and discussion, a consensus emerged. Here are the shows we decided reached for and achieved greatness, week-in and week-out. (Tomorrow, we'll feature the standout episodes of 45 shows that didn?t make the list.)"

25. Doctor Who (BBC America)

"Taking the reins of Russell T. Davies? celebrated and popular run, ace veteran Steven Moffat pared away Davies? more melodramatic tendencies and kept his focus on the Doctor and his new companion, Amy Pond, who explore the universe?s past and future in a season that lacked a truly weak episode. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, in the key roles, had a wonderfully comedic, sexy chemistry, and the season?s arc, in which the universe collapsed around the Doctor?s ears, rewarded a loyal audience. But each standalone story offered different tones to enjoy, from the suspenseful return of the Weeping Angels to a melancholy visit with a suicidal Van Gogh to the Doctor rooming with an unlucky-in-love sad-sack."

Best episodes: ?The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone,? ?Vincent And The Doctor,? ?The Lodger?

 

I'd agree with that summary.

If anything, I'd say the weakest episode, story-wise, was The Eleventh Hour, but it was the introduction episode, so Amy in her "singing telegram Bobby" outfit more than makes up for it. My favorite is The Lodger, with honorable mentions for Vincent and the Doctor and Victory of the Daleks.

 

I never understand why people insist on shortening the show's title to Dr. Who. He is not a medical professional, that's his name. More on topic, the show took a nice leap forward this year. Previous years, while good, were often hit or miss, and usually when it missed, it missed pretty hard. This season still had some low points, but it had a very interesting subplot, I thought, that did more than just cameo throughout the season but was so interwoven into episodes that it lead to much discusses mysteries like the second Doctor in the Weeping Angels episodes that led to much fan discussion and speculation. There was a different level of story telling applied this year, that though dealing with a series of one off adventures that the show is famous for they tied together in a way that Bad Wolf and other brief allusions of past seasons didn't. It was fun to watch and compelled you to watch again.

Add in the first companion that didn't frequently annoy the hell out of me, and a Doctor, who managed to fill some big shoes rather well, and new music and themes that always had me at the edge of my seat when I head them, and you have what might easily be my favorite season of Doctor Who by far.

It used to be that I would recommend episodes here and there to get people interested in the show, but tried to avoid them seeing others until they were absolutely hooked, but this season I felt confident from the get-go I could introduce someone and they wouldn't miss a beat. Its a great time to start being a Doctor Who fan.

 

I never understand why people insist on shortening the show's title to Dr. Who. He is not a medical professional, that's his name.

Actually, I've seen this criticism/question before, and I'm not sure it, in itself, is completely accurate. It's not his name either. The Doctor has a real name, he just chooses to call himself "Doctor Who" or "the Doctor."

Although his real name has not been revealed, it has been told that the Doctor was awarded his Doctorate degree from the Gallifreyan Institute. In fact, in the episode Armageddon Factor, a fellow Time Lord named Drax refers to the Doctor using his old nickname "Thete" which is a shortened form of Theta Sigma. It's not until the Doctor reminds his old friend that he was awarded his doctorate degree, that Drax reluctantly calls him "doctor."

Even going back to the very first episode The Unearthly Child, the Doctor reminds his granddaughter that they have taken fake names to fit in more readily among 1960's earthlings. "Susan" was the name taken by his granddaughter, but neither Susan, nor Grandfather, nor the Doctor are their real Gallifreyan names.

 

This latest series was very good, in part due to the good new cast but also Moffat's competant writing. He took the series in a direction it needed to go in since the Davies era was becoming repetitive.

 

I had never seen a bit of Doctor Who before this year, but I decided to jump in with this season and was really happy I did. Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are both tremendously appealing actors and I'm totally on board with what Moffat's doing, enough to start getting interested in his other work.

 

24. United States Of Tara (Showtime)

"In its first season, United States Of Tara was about a normal family affected by a most abnormal problem: the family matriarch?s Dissociative Identity Disorder. When the show returned, the Gregsons thought drugs had enabled Tara (Toni Collette) to control her condition, allowing them to achieve the normalcy they so craved. Creator Diablo Cody, meanwhile, had other plans. Delving into the futility of normalcy, the second season pulled few punches. Collette, whether paired with the great Viola Davis or with versions of herself, was fantastic throughout, and Keir Gilchrist did comparably strong work as teenage son Marshall, who searched for normalcy in an attempt to define his sexuality. While the family members? collective abnormality brought them together in the end, the investigation of their identities transformed a solid show with a great lead performance into Showtime?s finest series."

Best episodes: ?Torando!? ?Explosive Diorama,? ?To Have And To Hold?

 

23. Eastbound & Down (HBO)

"A true second act to the Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) saga, the second season of Eastbound & Down jettisoned most of the characters from season one (save for Steve Little as the indispensable Steve Janowski, the sublimely pathetic Powers disciple) and sent the washed-up fireballer to Mexico, where he attempted to rebuild his career. The culture clash brought out the best in McBride, who has developed Powers into a masterful comic creation, a self-deluded, self-absorbed, destructive force who?s just sad enough to love. (Or at least fragile enough to wring the maximum pathos and comedy from a line like ?Hey, Kenny, you?re from America. You probably have a printer.?)

Best episodes: ?Chapter 7,? ?Chapter 10,? ?Chapter 11?

 

22. Archer (FX)

"The world didn?t need another James Bond parody. By now, super-spydom?s general proximity to douchebagginess has been well established. And Archer doesn?t feel fresh, exactly; after Adult Swim, the animation style and ensemble of selfish lunatics wandering through a web of global intrigue is standard stuff. But Archer works, often amazingly well. H. Jon Benjamin leads a voice cast stuffed with ringers (including Aisha Tyler, Judy Greer, and Chris Parnell) as Sterling Archer, espionage expert and self-centered ass. As head agent for the security firm Isis, Archer supposedly travels the world stealing briefcases and killing bad guys. Mostly, he just screws the help, acts oblivious, and drinks too much. Jessica Walters voices Sterling?s mom, and Archer sometimes recalls Walters? last big project, Arrested Development, with its consistently driven characters and increasingly absurd setting. It?s been done, but it?s seldom been done better."

Best episodes: ?Diversity Hire,? ?Skytanic,? ?Dial M For Mother?

 

Damn, was Archer a funny show. Great all around.

 

Archer is hilarious.

 

21. It?s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (FX)

"Television?s most loveable sociopaths continued to give bad taste a good name in the hilarious sixth season of It?s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. The season got off to a bumpy start, but by the time the gang decided to film its own homemade version of a Lethal Weapon sequel in ?Dee Reynolds: Shaping America?s Youth,? an episode that wryly referenced both the die-hard fans of Insane Clown Posse and the soft-focus love scenes of The Room, the series was firing on all cylinders. God bless these horrible, horrible human beings and their complete lack of shame."

Best episodes: ?Mac?s Big Break,? ?Mac And Charlie: White Trash,? ?Mac?s Mom Burns Her House Down?

 

This season was a return to form for this show. The previous couple were good, but not great, but this season was a lot of fun. From trying to find out who got Dee pregnant, to Lethal Weapon 5 a lot of funny stuff this year.

 

20. Huge (ABC Family)

"It must be tough to launch yet another series about teenagers in a media environment that seems to green-light nothing else. But ABC Family?s late, lamented Huge managed to make the genre seem fresh by filtering the perennial problems of growing up through a group of teens with one problem that trumped all others: their weight. Set at a summer fat camp and starring a wonderful ensemble of kids whom viewers wouldn?t normally see on television, Huge was touching, brave, funny, and unfortunately too hard to market. But while it lasted, viewers in the know followed Will (Nikki Blonsky), the rebel; Dorothy (Gina Torres), the food-addicted camp director; Amber (Hayley Hasselhoff), the pretty girl; Alistair (Harvey Guillen), who wanted to be called ?Athena?; and half a dozen other unforgettable characters through the tribulations and solidarity of being too much of a good thing."

Best episodes: ?Talent Night,? ?Spirit Quest,? ?Parents? Weekend: Part I?

 

19. 30 Rock (NBC)

"One knock against 30 Rock is that it leans too heavily on guest stars, but when the guest casting is so good, why not milk it? From Buck Henry as the club-hopping father of Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) to Elizabeth Banks as the crafty, perfect companion to Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the quality of the featured players has kept some sparkle in the show, as did the year?s biggest stunt, a live broadcast that was more fun and rewatchable than it had any business being. The show?s ability to find new permutations of the sweet, complex Liz-and-Jack friendship has really driven things this year. Fey and Baldwin are a virtuoso double act, one where the roles of straight man and goof constantly switch."

Best episodes: ?Anna Howard Shaw Day,? ?Live Show,? ?College?

 

I've really been enjoying 30 Rock this season. It's a really good show, and the guest casting usually works out really well.

 

18. Childrens Hospital (Cartoon Network)

"Riffing on the self-righteousness and hyperbolic drama of medical shows like ER, Scrubs, M*A*S*H, and Grey?s Anatomy, this Rob Corddry-created Adult Swim comedy features veterans of The State, Human Giant, Arrested Development, Party Down? just about every funny actor in Hollywood, really. Childrens Hospital was funny enough as a five-minute web series, but it really hit its stride in Adult Swim?s 12-minute format, which lets Corddry and company expand their parody to target movies and non-medical TV. Along with Community, Childrens Hospital is as dense and clever as contemporary TV comedy gets."

Best episodes: ?I Am Not Afraid Of Any Ghost,? ?Hot Enough For You??, ?The Sultan?s Finger: Live?

 

17. Sherlock (PBS)

"The concept of a 21st-century, cell-phone-using Sherlock Holmes could have gone extremely wrong, but Sherlock, imported by PBS from the BBC, not only pulled off the conceit, but quickly built a cult fan base thanks to good casting and clever production. Benedict Cumberbatch?s Holmes is weirdly compelling, one part sociopathic awkwardness, one part Withnailian haughtiness, one part diva nerd. Martin Freeman, sporting a crown of gray hair as Watson, does what he does best, playing a likeable, exasperated everyman to Cumberbatch?s much more intelligent but just as antisocial superhero. Holmes fans enjoyed the series? faithfulness to Arthur Conan Doyle?s original stories, while crisp gothic settings, a creepy, delicate circus-like score, and tastefully utilized technology brought a new freshness to the tales. But most of all, Cumberbatch and Freeman have real chemistry?sometimes bitchy, sometimes affectionate?that keeps the series from feeling like a retread."

Best episodes: ?A Study In Pink,? ?The Great Game?

I liked the first one a lot...but in the second one, they did stupid things, like leave the threatened woman alone. Oh, give me a break.

 

A great show; Cumberbatch and Freeman are both perfectly cast and bring the characters to life, while their integration to modern society feels absolutely seamless. Clever dialogue and great characterization are the show's strength; sadly, the plotting is its only real weakness, as it doesn't allow Holmes to adequately solve cases through his brainpower alone, which is really the point of the character. Hopefully they'll address that in the second season, and carry on the great running plotlines.

 

16. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

"Few shows can live up to the kind of expectations raised by Boardwalk Empire?s pedigree. But while it never became the Prohibition-era Goodfellas that Martin Scorsese?s bombastic pilot suggested, Terence Winter?s portrait of 1920s Atlantic City has its own unique charms, plus a bevy of astonishing performances. Through the eyes of Jersey power broker Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) and young gun Jimmy Darmody (Michael Pitt), Boardwalk Empire follows the birth of modern organized crime while keeping a tight focus on its sprawling ensemble, ranging from assorted bit players to better-known names, including a young Al Capone (Stephen Graham). A contemplative tone soured some viewers? interest, although bursts of violence and stunning setpieces kept the pace from getting too glacial. And as the season wound to a close, the many plot strands began to wind together in a manner reminiscent of the last show Winter worked on, that little cult favorite The Sopranos."
Best episodes: ?Anastasia,? ?Nights In Ballygran,? ?Home?

 

Should be up way further.

 

15. Fringe (Fox)

"Though Fringe was often entertaining in its first season and a half, it was never essential. That all changed abruptly in early 2010, as the show finally grounded its freak-of-the-week weirdness in deep sadness. In season one, the series introduced the idea that something unusal was going on with one central character, but the season-two episode ?Peter? finally dramatized the moment that changed his life, giving the series? overarching storyline a devastating emotional core, based in a father?s love instead of in theoretical concepts. It only got better from there, as the series expanded its world by further making those concepts concrete. Fringe is that rare blend of inventive ideas, wild ambition, and unexpected soulfulness."

Best episodes: ?Peter,? ?White Tulip,? ?The Plateau?

 

14. Justified (FX)

"Adapting Elmore Leonard for the small screen has its challenges, not least of which is reproducing Leonard?s distinctive voice week after week, long after the source material has dried up. With Justified, creator Graham Yost smartly chose a character from a couple of Leonard stories with a big enough hook to build a series around: a U.S. Marshal who operates like an Old West gunslinger and has simmering conflicts within himself and with various parties in his native Kentucky. As Raylan Givens, Timothy Olyphant brings the full force of his charisma to bear on a man who?s magnetic, quick on the draw, and filled with a well-concealed, frighteningly inestimable anger. Throughout the first season, Yost and his writers did a fine job crafting a show for casual viewers and devotees alike, with satisfying standalone hours and relationships that developed over time, especially Raylan?s cat-and-mouse game with a slippery crook played brilliantly by The Shield?s Walton Goggins. It?s the rare show that?s simultaneously rich and easy to digest."

Best episodes: ?Pilot,? ?Long In The Tooth,? ?The Hammer?

 

13. Modern Family (ABC)

"Part of what makes Modern Family so charming and lovely is how mightily its characters strive to build and strengthen relationships with people they could easily keep at a respectful distance. Viewers got to see the fruit of that labor in 2010, as those relationships started to live and breathe on their own. With so much groundwork laid in the series? terrific, Emmy-winning first season, the currently airing second season has been able to relax into a rhythm that?s just as likely to explore the dynamics within each household as those between them. But even as the three linked families at the show?s center live their separate lives, they deal with the same challenge: how to stay connected with the people you love, even as distractions?dog butlers, cell phones, earthquakes, cute boys?abound."

Best episodes: ?Fifteen Percent,? ?Truth Be Told,? ?Halloween?