TV gets to Hong Kong slowly. Ok – that’s not true. Popular TV gets to Hong Kong a season or two behind, but GREAT TV rarely makes it to local stations. (Of course I mean the 4-6 channels that can be obtained via antenna – digital TV is just the internet: look it up…) When we find it, we consume it by the season. Time stands still as one is absorbed into the constant flood of formulaic story-lines with ‘new twists’ around each new episode, building over the hours to the second or third season finale of the days viewing pleasure.
Last year, to close out 2010 and welcome in 2011, The Wire (seasons 1-5) kept me pretty well occupied. During the year I caught up with The Mentalist and Lie to Me (seasons 1-3, each), 30 Rock (seasons 1-5), but my top two discoveries in 2011 TV season watching are some of the smartest and best written shows of their genre’s.
Comedy – ARCHER: While in London for work, I caught a TV commercial for seasons two preview on TV in the UK. I went online and discovered seasons 1 and 2: hooked. Take James Bond and cross him with melt-down Charlie Sheen.
Do yourself a favor, and watch the BEST OF ARCHER clip below. You’ll be happy you did.
Drama – BREAKING BAD: I wish I had waited for this show to be completed before I started watching. I’m starting to suffer withdraw from a lack of new episodes. It’s tough to go cold-turkey on this one.
Starring the father from Malcom-in-the-Middle, what’s great about breaking bad is that it plays out one continuous story line across all seasons. The writing goes so deep, that you’re discovering new things in season 3 and 4 that were alluded to in the first season with a whole back story as to where it came from.
Basic premise: a brilliant chemist who has been working teaching high school chemistry learns he has terminal cancer and decides to start cooking meth to save money for his family upon his passing. Add in the fact that he is the worst criminal in the world, his brother in law is a DEA agent, and the meth he produces is the purest form anyone has seen in the market, and you have for a pretty intense game of cops and meth labs.
