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Gifts of the small screen: The 13 best TV series

Offerings were so good this year, just 10 were not enough

The Columbian
Published: January 1, 2015, 4:00pm

What’s the next “Breaking Bad”?

That’s the question I was asked most often in 2014, as viewers found themselves longing for the transcendent excellence of Walter White’s last episodes.

There was no next “Breaking Bad,” though. No show that could make a case for setting out the best season in television history.

But there was a surplus of excellent television this year, particularly for dramas. There was so much good stuff, in fact, that when it came time to name my 10 favorite series of 2014, I couldn’t do it. There were simply too many strong shows.

So here are the top 10. No, make that 13:

  1. “The Walking Dead” (AMC): There are so many factors to consider when assessing a show: acting, writing, cinematography, originality, intellectual and emotional impact. But in selecting my top series of the year, it came down to one rather basic question: Which was the hardest to wait a whole week to see again?

  • “True Detective” (HBO): An oddly ethereal murder mystery built around the most mismatched detective team: Woody Harrelson’s character is a cop so stereotypical he seemed purchased at Costco; Matthew McConaughey’s is more philosopher than policeman, a spouter of lengthy musings on the nature of existence. But both are driven by an almost crippling sense of obligation. Were it not for that clunky ending, this would have been No. 1.

  • “Fargo” (FX): We were skeptical that a series based on the Coen brothers’ idiosyncratic movie could work, especially given that the Coens were only marginally involved. We were wrong. “Fargo” the series was a revelation, a brilliant black comedy built around some sensational performances. Chief among those was Billy Bob Thornton as the bloodless assassin Lorne Malvo.

  • “Mad Men” (AMC): The penultimate season was the best in a couple of years, driven by the return of Don Draper to center stage. As Draper’s fictional life unravels around him, he becomes more of a real person. We’ve lost hope for his salvation but gained more empathy for him.

  • “The Americans” (FX): The cold-war spy drama turned up the emotional dial in its second season, leaving the main characters with painful dilemmas to negotiate.

  • “Vikings” (History): What a fine drama this has become, foreign and exotic and yet universal at the same time. Like “The Walking Dead,” “Vikings” mixes pure action with intellectual depth, wrestling with questions of politics, loyalty, religion and gender without missing a swordfight.

  • “Orange Is the New Black” (Netflix): The second season of this hard-to-categorize comic drama/dramatic comedy was nearly as good as the first. Newcomer Lorraine Toussaint brought a dose of villainy that “Orange” badly needed.

  • “Veep” (HBO): “Modern Family,” while still funny, ain’t what it used to be, leaving “Veep” as TV’s reigning comedy. Oddly apolitical for a show about politics, “Veep” stays away from issues and focuses on the dysfunction inside the Beltway. It is also loaded with the meanest, funniest insults you’ve ever heard.

  • “The Affair” (Showtime): What began as a “simple” story of marital infidelity gets darker and more involved each episode. The two narrators rarely agree on any details, giving viewers little to cling to but plenty to ponder.

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  • “The Missing” (Starz): The mystery of a boy’s disappearance is told in two time frames: his 2006 disappearance and the reopening of the case in 2014. The taut and surprising story rides on a current of dark emotional turmoil and regret.

  • “The Roosevelts” (PBS): What TV will always have over movies is time — in this case 14 hours to tell the life stories of three of the most influential Americans of the first half of the 20th century: Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Ken Burns’ documentary was exhaustive and engrossing.

  • “The Honorable Woman” (Sundance): Or “Honourable” as it read in its British airing. The miniseries starred Maggie Gyllenhaal as a British-Israeli woman who becomes entangled in a murder/kidnap mystery so convoluted it makes the politics of the Middle East seem simple. Demanding, but worth it.

  • “Legit” (FXX): Jim Jefferies writes comedy so outrageous that it would make Lenny Bruce blush, but his bits have a way of making us laugh in spite of our better judgment. For all its inappropriateness, “Legit” celebrates friendship and the importance of human connection. Or rather it did, as it was, sadly, canceled.

  • And that doesn’t even include: “Homeland,” “Justified,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Bates Motel,” “The Knick,” “Peaky Blinders,” “Orphan Black,” “Black Mirror,” “House of Cards,” “Sherlock,” “Episodes,” “Broad City,” “Silicon Valley,” “The Game” ….

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