This morning on ABC Radio National Breakfast with Fran Kelly I revealed my Top 5 shows for the year.
It was another tough choice and I decided to make life easier by focussing purely on content that made its debut in 2012.
Honourable mentions go to: Puberty Blues, Howzat, Call the Midwife, Jack Irish, Smash, Episodes, Hit & Miss and Game Change.
Drum roll….
5. The Newsroom
4. The Voice
3. Redfern Now
2. Mabo
1. Homeland.
The Newsroom, Smash, Once Upon a Time, Hart of Dixie and of course my fave – I Will Survive! I know people will hammer me for last show – but don’t bother – personal taste!
Like “Homeland” but agree with whoever said its become too much like “24″ . The second series is a lot less believable than the first. I also question how you could leave off season 5 of “Mad Men” and arent we allowed to say season 3 of “Downton Abbey” because it was so much better than season two, just because Seven takes too long to show it. I find almost frightening so many people list “Revenge”. !!!???
And seriously, “Redfern Now”is very very contrived.But as you say, its personal opinion. i couldnt rate anything Australian in a top 5 I am afraid
5 Dexter
4 Homeland
3.Downton Abbey
2. Mad Men
1. Breaking Bad.
My top 5 would be :
1 Homeland
2 Revenge
3 Suits
4 Jack Irish
5 Neighbours – for consistency over many years
Honourable mentions go to Howzat, Puberty Blues, White Collar, Suits, Downton Abbey and I think the best 20 minutes of any TV show made in Australia, the last 20 minutes of Winners and Losers the final episode. Good action and suspense. The rest of the series was OK !
Best Shows
Game of Thrones
The Walking Dead
Breaking Bad
Can’t even rate which is better than the other.
Best new shows.
Moone Boy
Arrow
Newsroom
Plenty of other good shows, but yeah.
I enjoy CW series. These are my top 5 this year
5. Homeland
4. Revenge
3. The Vampire Diaries
2. Teen Wolf
1. Dexter
I also enjoyed Arrow, Elementary, and Supernatural. Hooray for genre shows
For me the top 5 of the year for me were
5.The Voice
4. Foxtel’s Olympic Coverage
3. Sydney Swans win AFL GF
2. Revenge
1. Homeland
Honourable mentions to Amazing Race Australia, The X Factor, Once Upon a Time, The Newsroom, Puberty Blues, Smash, Revolution and Redfern Now.
Personally think Hozat and Beaconsfield were overrated dramas.
Oh and Rake and Sam Simmon’s Problems would be two runners up.
My top 5 in no particular order:
- The Newsroom
- Homeland
- Treme
- Revenge
- Mrs. Brown’s Boys (surprised it’s not on more people’s lists!)
gotta say crazycatlady is not alone. love aboriginal programming but Redfern Now was overrated, inconsistantly written, and episodes were hit and miss.
Yes The Hour second season screens over summer.
Channel 9 Olympic coverage
Everybody dance now
Breakfast
The shire
Being. Lara bingle
Just joking her are my Top 5 shows in order
5 foxtels Olympic coverage
4 master chef
3 big brother
2 the biggest loser
1 puberty blues
Thanks for sharing your choices, David. Definitely agree with Homeland!
Am I the only one who thinks Redfern Now is a bit over-rated? I watched it and I enjoyed it, but I found it a bit cliched. I had really high expectations for this show…I thought we were going to get an Aboriginal version of ‘The Street’, but when I watched it I didn’t feel like I was watching any ‘real’ people (in the way I did with The Street, or shows like Friday Night Lights), and the representation of Redfern didn’t really seem authentic either. But that could just be me. Good to hear they got a second season.
Also, I agree about The Hour, what a great show! Does anyone know if series 2 will be airing on ABC in the new year? It has already started airing in the UK.
I didn’t mind beaconsfield either. Lachy hulme was great in both beaconsfield, howzat kerry packers war and offspring.
When sticking to debut series of 2012 I only have a top three and they were howzat kerry packers war, the voice and homeland. Would like to see the newsroom. I didn’t mind watching mabo or a moody christmas but wouldn’t say they were a fav.
It’s only one opinion. GoT was on my list last year, but again I have stuck to content that debuted in 2012.
Absolutely no ‘reality’ or ‘talent’ show deserves a spot in the top 25 let alone the top 5.
1. Game of Thrones
2. Mad Men/Boardwalk Empire
3. Rake
4. Hit & Miss
5. A Moody Christmas
Homeland debuted in Australia in 2012. I’m an Aussie blog.
This rule also precluded a lot of other content.
My personal top 5 are:
Moody Christmas
Episodes
Breaking Bad
Puberty Blues
Big Brother
Was a good year for TV this year, especially for Australian produced shows. I found my list really easy to make based on the shows we watched religiously
Mabo and Redfern Now PC? I’m pretty sure the only reason David chose them is because they’re good.
Mine would have to be
5 – teen wolf
4 – revolution
4 – grimm
3 – the walking dead
2 – the newsroom
1 – falling skies
besides, neighbours and spicks and specks I only watch foxtel.
David – Didn’t Homeland make it’s debut in 2011?
Drama-
Breaking Bad
Mad Men
Game of Thrones
Justified
The Hour (a better version of the Newsroom without the Preachyness)
Unlucky:
Homeland for the first 9 eps of the season before it turned into 24 (The CIA all of a sudden stopped bugging Brody’s phone the moment he starts talking to Abu Nazir… Really??)
SOA
Comedy
Parks and Rec
Community
Suburgatory
30 Rock (sad to see you go)
House of Lies (Entourage with an IQ)
Unlucky
VEEP
New Girl
Happy Endings
Modern Family
you missed out on the great series of The Bridge. Although it wasn’t mainstream enough, you did make great reviews of it. Nice show tucked away on sbs2.
Also, i wish Rake was there. It was in it’s second season though
I’m assuming you missed season 5 of Mad Men since no-one in their right mind would have it on a list lower than The Newsroom, The Voice, Episodes or the execrable Smash.
Snog Marry Avoid?
Ugh – The Voice?
How about shows that have been consistently excellent this year?
The Good Wife
Modern Family
and out of left field – Into the Abyss and the Death Row documentaries by Werner Herzog.
Mabo and Redfern Now, very PC.
Did not debut this year, but Downton Abbey the best of 2012.
Can’t see how The Voice can be mentioned in that company but anyway it’s your choice.
You left Smash off the top 5? But you love Smash, David! Definitely all for Homeland and as a huge West Wing fan, love The Newsroom too. I would round it out with Scandal, OUAT and Howzat.
Steviep: Well I used to swing on them in the kitchen as a kid if that’s what you mean…
Oh tough one my top 5 of the year in no particular order.
- Newsroom
- Girls
- Puberty Blues
- Offspring
- Dexter
- Homeland
Ok….I can’t choose 5 because I loved all 6 of the above that I couldn’t possibly cut one.
You have always been a sucker for rotating chairs
For me…Redfern Now and Call the Midwife…both excellent!
Woo! Homeland is my favourite show as well. It’s so good and it doesn’t get enough love.
Love Homeland..but I also love Dexter , Modern Family and Smash.
The Newsroom was my #1, but I loathed The Voice. Respect for some diverse taste there, Mr. K!
Good choices David. Can’t fault any of them.
Are you talking about Australian 2012 debuts? Because Homeland started in 2011 in the US.
Nwesroom > the voice
Interesting list David – plenty of food for thought there.
I strongly agree with both ‘Homeland’ (as top choice) and ‘The Newsroom’ – despite some reservations I have, there’s nothing else like it on TV, and it boasts incredibly strong performances from all the main cast members. ‘Howzat’ would definitely be in my own top five, along with ‘The Hour’ (technically it might have been made in 2011 but I think it premiered in Australia this year) and, perhaps, ‘Media Watch’ for being so consistently informative And entertaining.