My top 5 shows for the week ending September 12, 2014

This week was a bit different for me watching television. Many of the shows I watched were over a few months old but I wanted to catch up or at least watch them before the Fall season began. Along with 2 shows that were older than 6 months, I watched a Fall premier and a season finale in my top 5. One interesting thing was that these were almost all I watched this week as I was pretty busy with other things.

Number 5 – Boardwalk Empire

S5E1 – Golden Days for Boys and Girls (B-)

I am happy to see this show start up again, even if it is for the final season. I am a bit taken back from the time jump and the location jump, but it is still good ole Nucky. And there is a lot of stuff moving the story along. We learn some backstory as to how Nucky and the Commodore came to be partners, we witness firsthand with Margaret the impact of the Great Depression, and we see some of the mob wars heating up. Looks like it is going to be a fun final season – so far this is miles better than what they did with the last season of True Blood.

Number 4 – The Bridge

S2E9 – Rakshasa (B-)

This is a pretty bloody episode. I am really surprised that Fausto openly went against Eleanor and the DEA, and I am surprised the DEA went against Eleanor already too. Being in a three way firefight was not something I expected. Now I'm not sure who is still alive – waiting till next week. On the other storyline, I am surprised to see that Marco was able to find Sonya. The hitman Fausto hired was a bit too much like a Bond villain and letting Sonya walk away when she couldn't go anywhere was the worst part of this series I think so far. So while this was not my favorite episode, it was still pretty good, and better than most of the stuff on television.

Number 3 – Broadchurch

S1E8 – 1.8 (A-)

This is THE episode of the show. We find out who did it and why. For some reason, when this series aired on BBC America, our Tivo missed recording this episode so we never knew the resolution of the show. To be honest, I enjoyed the show just fine without knowing who murdered Danny, but this episode seals this as one of my favorite seasons of television from the past year. The main reason I had to watch this episode was because Graceland is coming out this Fall and it is based on this show. I did not want my love for Broadchurch to be tainted by an Americanized version if that show fails. Now that I know who did it and why, I can watch Graceland and see how it compares.

Number 2 – Dr. Who

The Time of the Doctor (A-)

So this is Trenzalore and this is the final resting place of the Doctor. This episode was wonderful and full of whimsy. It was also sad as the 11th doctor, Matt Smith, turns over the mantle to Peter Capaldi. There are some really touching moments and some exciting scenes which had me wondering if this was another Neil Gaiman episode, but it was not. Moffat crafted a lovely ending to the 11th doctor that I found reminiscent of one of my favorite Star Trek The Next Generation episodes – The Inner Light. I definitely enjoyed the episode and look forward to seeing how the new doctor puts his mark on the 50 year old franchise.

Number 1 – The Leftovers

S1E10 – The Prodigal Son Returns (A-)

The season finale of The Leftovers was everything I expected it to be. There was a lot of closure and answered questions while at the same time, many things were left unresolved for next season. The BIG event that the Guilt Remnant were heading toward finally came to fruition and as I expected, the town went nuts and mob rule may have finally excised the cult from Mapleton. With Patti missing, Laurie moves the GR into their penultimate act of remembrance and she nearly loses her daughter in the process – Kevin swoops in quite literally and saves her at the end.

So much of this episode was good, including the sense of confusion engendered by Kevin's “dream” sequence. With this show, it is never clear what is a dreaming segment and what is real. So basically, we are not sure if Kevin can see and speak with Patti now or if that was just a dream. Whatever the case, we know that the minister, Matt, is someone Kevin trusts and it goes back in the family and I think this will be important next season.

Another interesting occurrence, during the 6th episode, Guest, we learned that there were many other cults that had sprung up after the event, but we did not get a sense of if the guilty Remnant exists outside Mapleton. I am curious to learn if this Remembrance day thing was a local occurrence or if the GR did this to everyone around the world. There could be a lot of dead cultists if they did this everywhere.

The bottom line for me is that this was a great first season. I really enjoy this show even though it started out with nothing but depression. I think they turned things around and proved that the show is about more than just sadness. This may actually be a show I re-watch before the next season to see if there were bits I missed.

#BoardwalkEmpire #TheBridge #TheLeftovers #DrWho #Broadchurch