2011 Christmas TV Review
FeaturesDoctor Who, Great Expectations, Merlin and more graced our screens this festive season.
Posted 30th December 2011, 4:00pm in TV, by Christa Ktorides
Ah Christmas. The season of goodwill, the season of indigestion and hangovers, the season of fighting over the TV remote. Amongst all the inevitable dreck we uneathed some glittering gems over the festive week. So settle back with a leftover mince pie and re-live Christmas 2011.10. FATHER TED
The Christmas Special of the much-missed classic comedy is littered with some truly memorable moments. Who can forget Mrs Doyle and her epic run down of priests' names? The Mission Impossible style attempted theft of the Golden Cleric award? The creepy and hirstute Father Todd Unctious saying goodnight? Or the Platoon style retreat from a department store - it's Ireland's biggest lingerie department did you know? Nothing however can compete with the delightful, easy chemistry between Ted (the late great Dermot Morgan) and the childlike Father Dougal (a charmingly idiotic turn by Ardal O'Hanlon). A Christmas tradition for us, this is exactly how a festive special should be.
9. MERLIN
The finale of Series 4 saw mental goth Morgana smirking in that delightful manner of hers (if she had a moustache she would be twirling it constanly) in Camelot after spanking Arthur's knights in last week's episode. Things looked bleak for beefcake King Arthur and his faithful servant/BFF Merlin, who went on the run with new pals Tristen, Isolde and Arthur's unfaithful ex Gwen (she was under a spell, Arthur, you dolt). With the return of the dragon - voiced with typical class and panache by John Hurt - and dastardly traitor Agravaine cottoning on to "the big secret" we were promised a nail biter of an end of Series 4 and it delivered in spades. It's sure to be a bleak winter without the boy wizard and his pals brightening up our Saturday evenings.
8. BOARDWALK EMPIRE
This second series has seen some stomach churning violence and this last episode promised more of the same as Nucky fought to stay out of prison, and Jimmy came to the conclusion that his darling mother was the catalyst for pretty much every bad thing that's happened to him. Nice lady. With a desperate Margaret on the brink of confessing her night of naughtiness with Irish charmer Owen; Capone, Luciano and co readying themselves to betray Jimmy and the insanely intense and pious Agent Van Alden on the run we expected a humdinger of a finale but surely nothing could have prepared us for the devastating showdown between two of the series' lead characters. We raise a considerably large glass of moonshine to all involved.
7. WALLACE AND GROMIT: A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without at least one outing for the cheese-loving plasticine Wallace and his loyal smartarse pup Gromit and this story is as grand as its predecessors. Sally Lindsey makes a memorable stab as Piella Bakewell, the black widow bread enthusiast who sets her sights on Wallace. Can Gromit save the day? What do you think?
6. DOCTOR WHO: THE DOCTOR, THE WIDOW AND THE WARDROBE
Lovely bow tie-wearing Matt Smith has a riot in this festive flavoured episode set on Christmas Eve 1941. Outnumbered's harranged Mum Claire Skinner movingly plays another Mum here, with guest stars Bill Bailey, Alexander Armstrong and Arabella Weir adding some eclectic support, but as usual it's the eccentric and lovable Doctor who steals the show.
5. DOWNTON ABBEY
Nothing says Christmas like a bunch of poshos shooting things in the great outdoors. Hurrah then for Downton Abbey which has this and more in its festive-themed episode. It wasn't all shotguns and mince pies though, with honourable Mr Bates wrongfully accused of his nasty wife's murder and Lady Mary engaged to the controlling Rupert Murdoch a-like Sir Richard Carlisle while her one true love Matthew Crawley smolders in the background. Would justice be served for Mr Bates? Would Lady Mary and Matthew stop getting engaged to unsuitable people who alternately die or threaten to expose their naughty secrets? Would poor Lady Edith ever get lucky in love? Would Miss O'Brien grow a heart Grinch-style? In fact would Miss O'Brien ever get to unpin that fierce beehive of hers? Most importantly would the British public show their good taste and watch the servants and masters of Downton Abbey instead of the grim, depressing, indigestion-inducing Eastenders showing at the same time on BBC1? It was a battle of giants and while we supported the Dowager Countess of Grantham and her team they came in an admirable third to the big guns of Eastenders and Coronation Street with the Walford whingers on 10.2m and the residents of Weatherfield on 9.9m at their peak.
4. GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Showing consecutively over three nights this latest incarnation of Dickens classic tale arrived with a typically star studded list of thesps attached. Ray Winstone is a suitably menacing Magwitch and the former Agent Dana Scully - Gillian Anderson - gives her Miss Havisham a ghostly, childlike quality making her all the more unsettling as the jilted fruitloop who manipulates those around her in some strange game of revenge against the male race. Impossibly beautiful newcomer - teenage girls are sure to suddenly develop a fascination with the works of Charles Dickens - Douglas Booth makes a good impression as the hero of the piece Pip, and frankly we can never get enough of Harry Lloyd (Game of Thrones) - the great-great-great grandson of Mr Dickens himself - as the eternally cheerful Herbert Pocket. Quite lovely.
3. GAME OF THRONES
Sex! Violence! More sex! Game of Thrones hit headlines for its heady mix of sauciness and swordfighting, but at its heart is an utterly compelling fantasy tale as warring families fight for the Iron Throne of the seven kingdoms of Westeros. Based remarkably faithfully on George RR Martin's sprawling series of novels - A Song of Fire and Ice - Game of Thrones is without doubt the watercooler TV show of the year. Unafraid to off his characters, Martin ensures that there is zero room for second guessing. Anyone wondering why Peter Dinklage secured an Emmy award back in September could see for themselves as Sky Atlantic showed the first half of Season 1 on Christmas Day with the final 5 episodes on Boxing Day.
2. SHERLOCK
January, the most depressing month of the year, is suddenly cool. This is entirely down to the genius partnership of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss and their flashily modern take on Sherlock Holmes. You can read our spoiler-free review of the first episode of Series 2 here and it's not jumping to conclusions to assume the following two episodes will be equally glorious. Expect sales of that coat to soar in 2012.
1. AMERICAN HORROR STORY
The greatest TV show that you aren't watching is currently airing every Monday but - perhaps knowing that they have one of the most entertaining and frankly bonkers shows around - the good folk at FX have been showing the first five episodes of Season 1 every night since Boxing Day. Co-creator Ryan Murphy is forgiven for inflicting the increasingly twee and cheesy Glee on the world by giving us this warped and twisted tale of a haunted house and the unsuspecting family that move into it. Kinky, creepy and unlike anything else on television it's more addictive than crack cocaine and has so many great mysteries and secrets contained within that rabid audiences in the US have been hitting the internet to discuss their theories in their droves. Who is the rubber man? Why does housemaid Moira look like a mature lady to women and a sexy saucepot red head to men? Why does Dad of the family Dylan McDermott get his bum out so much? Why is Jessica Lange so jaw-droppingly brilliant? Lange may be the greatest single thing about the show but the rest of cast are no slouches. Breakout star Evan Peters brings charm and intensity to his troubled teen Tate Langdon and Taissa Farmiga is beautifully vulnerable as daughter of the house Violet. Don't be left behind, catch up now and prepare to become obsessed.
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