The Best TV Shows Running in 2013
If you're looking for "quality" shows that are innovative, off-beat, "special," and feature characters you'll become enamored of, this List is for you.
*** If something is on this List, it's here because it's *different* and stands out from its genre!
(And if you're a movie buff, you might also want to have a look at my new List-in-progress, "MOVIES: Excellent, Offbeat, Quirky, Eye-Candy, Heart-Shredding, and Dark Films of the New Millenium: 1990s-2000s-2013-Present".)
*** This list (and my taste) leans towards:
* Themes of social justice, charitable humanity, and original, innovative, ground-breaking or quirky themes;
* "Authentic" or quirky characters; highly-talented or charismatic actors (either as a single lead or a "team"); and
* Shows starring a lead character or group with a "special gift" of some sort (e.g., hyper-intelligence or professional or supernatural talent).
Although the list may seem top-heavy with crime-themed shows, there are also off-beat dramas, comedies, and several animated series.
Don't "judge a book by its cover" here: Some of the show names, ID pix, and one-line synopses you'll see here may "look like a dozen others," but they're not--again, if something is on this List, it's here because it's *different* and stands out from its genre.
*** If something is on this List, it's here because it's *different* and stands out from its genre!
(And if you're a movie buff, you might also want to have a look at my new List-in-progress, "MOVIES: Excellent, Offbeat, Quirky, Eye-Candy, Heart-Shredding, and Dark Films of the New Millenium: 1990s-2000s-2013-Present".)
*** This list (and my taste) leans towards:
* Themes of social justice, charitable humanity, and original, innovative, ground-breaking or quirky themes;
* "Authentic" or quirky characters; highly-talented or charismatic actors (either as a single lead or a "team"); and
* Shows starring a lead character or group with a "special gift" of some sort (e.g., hyper-intelligence or professional or supernatural talent).
Although the list may seem top-heavy with crime-themed shows, there are also off-beat dramas, comedies, and several animated series.
Don't "judge a book by its cover" here: Some of the show names, ID pix, and one-line synopses you'll see here may "look like a dozen others," but they're not--again, if something is on this List, it's here because it's *different* and stands out from its genre.
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- CreatorKevin MurphyRockne S. O'BannonMichael TaylorStarsGrant BowlerStephanie LeonidasJulie BenzLife in the city of Defiance, in a near future after the arrival of different alien lifeforms to Earth.BOMBSHELL ALERT: This is a classic in the making!
[SHOWTIME: On "Showcase" network. (In Canada, 10:00 P.M. U.S. Eastern Time on Rogers Channel 39)
(I'm sorry I can't determine showtimes on other networks in other countries; if you know a resource that can provide this information, please PLEASE add a Comment to this List so that I can provide such data for this and all other series--THANKS!)
NOTE: Ep. 2, Seas. 1 plays Monday night. Catch the storyline, avoid playing catch-up!
The story opens with an alien war-orphaned girl and her human adoptive father (ex-mil, now a scavenger/tracker ["My friend here? She has a thing for edged weapons. A knife, a bottle--your broken teeth maybe..."], and a more-humourous reincarnation perhaps of the Captain of "Firefly"). His "daughter" Irsha--orange-haired, cute, flat-nosed and cat-eyed--is a fox-fast walking arsenal of of metal and holographic-bladed knives secreted all over her lithe body.
Yes: these are two of many important main characters of thisbig-screen-quality, ambitious, star-studded new TV SERIES whose series premiere, one-hour-and-forty-minute-episode (whuich I have re-watched 4 times already) of a bombshell new deep-sci-fi series which I bet--all-in--is a classic in the making.. And it's set on Earth.
In a mere 100 minutes, a strong handful of subplots are set in motion: The introductory imagery of a war-ravaged Earth wherein Antarctica has been rendered a dry land mass and whose shores are rumoured to be a new paradise; the back-story a failed alien invasion in (ca. 2053?) and the subsequent "Ark-Falls" from the sky to Earth; gangs of non-human motorcycle raiders, survivors of the failed invasion; a tale of two star-crossed lovers--alien and human--and the family feud in-detente between their fathers; the relations between the Seven Races and humans; and the fortitude of a newly-appointed Mayor--Amanda--whose first day in office finds her faced with waging a defensive war against the to-be-New-Historic event, the Battle of Bissel Pass, in real-time, where the residents of the city of Defiance must face off with what I personally find to be the most horifying army of brutal, heavily-armoured alien Volge climbers supported by giant battle-mechs, doing a slow, thundrous, metal-heavy march over the former St. Loius Bridge to unleash barrages of from their dreaded coldfire weapons, all aimed at Defiance.
[...]
[MORE SYNOPSIS NARRATIVE TO COME]
[...]
PARTING COMMENT: If the 3 writers and sundry producers intended this show to be a head-on assault of the bright but (recently-sputtering) flame that is "Continuum," their victory--IMO--is more than overkill on every level.
-- "Eyes" - CreatorBruno HellerStarsSimon BakerRobin TunneyTim KangA famous "psychic" outs himself as a fake, and starts working as a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation so he can find "Red John", the madman who killed his wife and daughter."Psychic" Patrick Jane is the real star of this character-driven "whodunnit" series. He's not really psychic, but rather an uncanny judge of human nature and motivation.
The real kicks in this show come from watching Patrick's "seeing right through" suspects and telling them (quite untactfully) who they really are and whatever thoughts they're hiding--simultaneously embarrassing both the suspect and Jane's superiors (who, while baffled and even outraged by his methodology, "put up" with his "antics" because he is the best case-closer in the California Bureau of Investigation [CBI]).
Whether his hunches about who's the true culprit are right (which is 95% of the time) or wrong, he uses his uncanny ability to read people to set personalized, elaborate traps that manipulate the bad guy into revealing himself.
It's enjoyable watching Patrick in action: despite his calculating (and sometimes ruthless) professional mind, he has an endearing and disarming boyish charm and is an old-school gentleman. He's also mischievous and enjoys pranking people when someone's bugging him. A born showman, he always "fills the room" no matter what's going on, and that's the real appeal of the show: enjoying watching Patrick Jane being his various selves, and eagerly waiting to see just what he's going to pull out of his sleeve next.
Character background: Patrick Jane has zero police training, and is paid by the CBI as a "consultant." Jane was raised by "carnies" in a traveling carnival, and his father was also a con-man, who had Patrick running cons with him from childhood--an early education which left Jane with his trademark finely-honed people-reading (and -manipulating) skills. - CreatorTim KringStarsKiefer SutherlandDavid MazouzGugu Mbatha-RawA widower struggling to raise his emotionally challenged son discovers that he can predict events before they happen.
- CreatorRick BermanMichael PillerJeri TaylorStarsKate MulgrewRobert BeltranRoxann DawsonPulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home.
- CreatorJonathan NolanStarsJim CaviezelTaraji P. HensonKevin ChapmanAn ex-CIA agent and a wealthy programmer save lives via a surveillance AI that sends them the identities of civilians involved in impending crimes. However, the details of the crimes, including the civilians' roles, are left a mystery.
- CreatorDonald P. BellisarioDon McGillStarsDavid McCallumSean MurrayMark HarmonFollows the Major Case Response Team (MCRT) from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), as they get to the bottom of criminal cases connected to Navy and Marine Corps personnel.This quirky, elite team of Naval Criminal Investigators solve murders of Navy personnel against a lightly humourous backdrop of inter-team teasing and one-upsmanship.
No-nonsense Special Agent Gibbs (who is old enough to be the father of everyone on the team) is a distinguished, masculine role-model for men and possibly an attractive father-figure type for women. Gibbs relies upon his polar opposite, Abby Sciuto, for genius-level forensics and hot-shot computer skills. Abby is the highlight of the show: brilliant, beautiful, and routinely showing up for work in Goth-to-the-nines attire, complete with studded dog collar. It's hard to talk to Abs because she works with headphones on with the music cranked unimaginably loud. Other refreshing treats in the show are the dazzling array of movie-references constantly spouted by film buff Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, and Israeli expat Ziva entertains by getting English idioms wrong in every other sentence. DiNozzo is a shameless womanizer who we love to hate, and Ziva routinely astonishes with her finely-honed close-quarters combat skills (acquired in Israel, where she was formerly a Mossad agent with a high-ranking father in the Israeli political scene). - CreatorShane BrennanStarsChris O'DonnellDaniela RuahLL Cool JFollows undercover agents assigned to the Office of Special Projects, a special branch of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) that investigate terrorism and National Security threats.
- CreatorMark EllisStephanie MorgensternStarsHugh DillonAmy Jo JohnsonDavid PaetkauThe missions and trials of a Toronto police tactical unit.So many good things to say about this top-notch Canadian-produced series!
Firstly, Kudos! to Executive Producer Anne Marie LaTraverse! It is rare to see a woman "behind" an action/crime show. But it is perhaps precisely because a woman is in charge of this show that it stands apart from most crime shows.
"Flashpoint"--although revolving around a "SWAT Team"--is no mere "break the door in and shoot all the bad guys" copycat. Rather, this special police team is an elite "Strategic Response Unit" (SRU), all of whose members have been additionally trained in the deeper aspects of "negotiating": Psychology, sensitivity training, you name it--with the result that they are able to resolve most stand-offs without a single shot fired.
Nevertheless, this superb show manages to induce a high level of viewer interest and involvement in every episode: it achieves a high level of humanistic and dramatic tension, along with edge-of-your-seat suspense.
To quote an oft-repeated negotiation lead-in offered to "subjects" by team-leader Sgt. Greg Parker: "Nobody has to die here today. We can all get to go home today."
And Parker's equally-life-affirming message to his SRU teammates when they are heading into an unusually dangerous situation:
"Let's go save lives, people." - CreatorJoel SurnowStarsPeta WilsonDon FrancksEugene Robert GlazerA clandestine anti-terrorist organization fakes the death of a convicted murderer and trains her in the fighting skills necessary to succeed in her new job.NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: 'Nikita (2010 TV Series)' (listed further down)
This late-nineties series totally rocked when it originally began airing in 1997, and now, 13 years later, it still rocks. Unlike many shows 10+ years old, this Nikita series does not on any level feel "dated". The dialogue and idioms are not anachronistic; the cinematography still holds its own in 2012; costuming (clothes and hairstyles) look just like the here-and-now; and the slick musical score is as current as any of today's music (largely because--to support the ambiance of the "dark plot"--someone really smart chose to score every episode with indie and "alternative" music tracks, and music from little-known, progressive groups).
Another reason the "look" of the show is timeless is because, in this "prequil" to the 2010 series, Nikita (blonde, and played by stunningly beautiful Australian actress Peta Wilson) and Michael are both working inside Section 1 (renamed "Division" for 2010) for the duration of the series, which means lots of "look" changes when these characters are on ops that require disguise or impersonation. This Nikita owns dozens of pairs of sunglasses of all colours, uses wigs of all colours, lengths, and styles, and dresses in cutting-edge fashion, both on and off the job
This show is very different from the 2010 reincarnation, because "this Nikita" is slave-driven and working under duress in every episode. Section 1 is under the thumb of "Operations" (reincarnated as 2010's "Percy")--a sinister, ruthless man who keeps Nikita under a microscope for her "unique style" of operating (i.e., Section hasn't broken her humanity, and she routinely deviates from and even blatantly defies orders in order to preserve her own humanitarian agenda). She lives under constant and repeated threats of being "Canceled" (executed in-house) by the fear-mongering. Machiavellian "Operations."
Many elements of Nikita 1997 were very "dark": they were shocking then, and are still shocking today.
The show pushed the violence envelope farther than any show of its time, specifically, showing graphic, horrific torture, usually performed by a sinister pair of Section torturers. The steel restraint chair in "Containment" (Section's torture room) makes us witness the unthinkable. Most everyone unlucky enough to survive a Section "strike" is hauled back to Section, where they are tortured for information in Containment. Under Operations' iron rule, even the characters we know well and sympathize with (Nikita, Michael, Birkoff, Walter, and others) have all had their own turns in that dreaded chair in Containment.
The 2010 reincarnation is a lot easier to watch in some ways. We are spared the horrific inner workings of Section 1 as the "new Nikita" (Maggie Q) is free of, and operates outside of, that malevolent environment. - CreatorJanet TamaroStarsAngie HarmonSasha AlexanderJordan BridgesDetective Jane Rizzoli and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Maura Isles team up to solve crimes in Boston.
- CreatorHoward OvermanStarsNathan Stewart-JarrettJoe GilgunIwan RheonA group of young offenders doing community service gets struck by lightning during a storm and start to develop superpowers.
- CreatorCraig SilversteinStarsMaggie QShane WestLyndsy FonsecaA rogue assassin returns to take down the secret organization that trained her.NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: 'Nikita (1997 TV Series)' (listed further up)
- CreatorVince GilliganStarsBryan CranstonAaron PaulAnna GunnA chemistry teacher diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer turns to manufacturing and selling methamphetamine with a former student in order to secure his family's future.
- StarsAnais LilitRick OttoJose RoseteFollow the path of the red-handled weapon used by Rick Grimes to kill Terminus leader Gareth; from its innocent beginnings on a hardware store shelf at the start of the apocalypse into the hands of various survivors, familiar and new.
- StarsChris HardwickNorman ReedusDenise M. HuthA talk show about The Walking Dead (2010) and Fear the Walking Dead (2015).
- CreatorJeff DavisStarsKirsten VangsnessMatthew Gray GublerA.J. CookA group of criminal profilers who work for the FBI as members of its Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) using behavioral analysis and profiling to help investigate crimes and find the suspect known as the unsub.
- CreatorJeff EastinStarsMatt BomerTim DeKayWillie GarsonA white-collar criminal agrees to help the FBI catch other white-collar criminals using his expertise as an art and securities thief, counterfeiter, and conman.
- CreatorMatt NixStarsJeffrey DonovanGabrielle AnwarBruce CampbellA spy recently disavowed by the U.S. government uses his special ops training to help others in trouble.
- CreatorAlan DiFioreRobert WertheimerStarsAaron DouglasPaul PopowichOna GrauerA cop becomes a union leader for the police force. He has to balance between protecting the police force as well as take out the dirty cops in the force.
- CreatorMichael MacLennanAdrienne MitchellStarsMeg TillyJodi BalfourCharlotte HegeleA drama about World War II women at work in a munitions factory.
- CreatorMatt CormanChris OrdStarsPiper PeraboChristopher GorhamKari MatchettFresh out of the farm, Annie Walker must adapt to the challenging life of a CIA operative under the guidance of her handler, Auggie. But soon she realizes her recruitment might have to do with her last boyfriend rather than her talent.
- CreatorGreg SpottiswoodBernard ZukermanStarsAmy Price-FrancisAlan Van SprangGabriel HoganThe life of detective Jessica King does not run exactly smoothly. When she becomes the head of the Major Crime Task Force, she is eager to prove she is the best cop in town.
- CreatorChris HaddockStarsNicholas CampbellDonnelly RhodesVenus TerzoA Vancouver cop turned coroner searches for truth and justice with the help of his friends.
- CreatorGraham YostStarsTimothy OlyphantNick SearcyJoelle CarterEnforcing his own brand of justice, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a strong-willed, quiet law-man haunted by his past, returns to his native town to see that justice is served to those in need.
- CreatorTina FeyStarsTina FeyAlec BaldwinTracy MorganLiz Lemon, head writer of the sketch-comedy show "TGS with Tracy Jordan", must deal with an arrogant new boss and a crazy new star while trying to run a successful television show without losing her mind.NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: 'Third Rock from the Sun' (not in this list)