20 Good Things That I Saw On Television in 2013

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Someday, I want to have my own tv network. I’ll call it Lisa Marie Television (or LMTV for short) and it’ll be like Lifetime but with the Lisa Marie difference. What’s the Lisa Marie difference? Sweetheart, if you have to ask, you’ll never know.

Anyway, as I wait for that day to come, I’m going to continue my series of posts on my favorites of 2013 by telling you about some of the best things that I saw on television over the course of the previous year. Here they are, in random order:

1) The series finale of Breaking Bad

Perfection.

2) The series finale of The Office

After a rough couple of seasons, The Office redeemed itself with a perfect conclusion. How can you do any better than Jim and Pam moving to Texas?

3) Children’s Hospital on Adult Swim

Without a doubt, the funniest 15 minutes on television.

4) Burning Love on E!

E! broadcast episodes of the hilarious, Bachelor-parodying web series in 2013 and gave everyone a chance to follow Julie as she pined for Blaze and asked lucky bachelors, “Will you hold my box?”

5) SyFy Saturdays

This year, my Saturday night ritual was to gather online with the Snarkalecs and watch an original movie on SyFy. And while all of the Normals (as we refer to the rest of the world) were going crazy over Sharknado, the Snarkalecs knew that End of the World was a hundred times better.

6) The only likable team won The Amazing Race 23

I can’t remember their names but I can remember that I liked them more than Tim & Marie, Nicole & Travis, and Leo & Jamal.

7) Bonnie and Clyde

Broadcast on three different networks and over two separate nights, Bonnie and Clyde was big, silly, over-the-top, glamorous, and full of style. It made me want to go out and rob a bank while looking good doing it.

8) Orange is the New Black

We lost a lot of good shows in 2013 but, fortunately, we also gained a few new ones.

9) South Park satirizes Obama and Game of Thrones

I like one of those targets and dislike the other (guess which is which) but the important thing is that both of them have reached a point where they deserve to be satirized. Not surprisingly, South Park continues to be one of the few show to have the guts to ridicule the topics that other shows are too cowardly to touch.

10) Bates Motel

Bates Motel was frequently uneven but it was always worth watching for Vera Farmiga and Max Thieriot.

11) The Space Kitten

That little space kitten that was singing Wrecking Ball at the American Music Awards? Adorable!

12) Jimmy Kimmel

Whether he was causing Kanye West to have a meltdown or posting fake videos on YouTube, 2013 was the year of Kimmel.

13) The Talking Dead

Look, we all know that The Walking Dead is great but, for me, The Talking Dead is usually the highlight of AMC on Sunday night. Chris Hardwick is adorable to begin with but the moment he choked up while discussing the death of Herschel confirmed that he’s not just a host. He’s a true fan as well.

14) Miley Cyrus at the VMAs

It was tacky, it was shocking, it was disturbing, it got people talking and overreacting, and it was everything that television should be. (That said, I would like to point out that — despite what some members of the media seem to believe — twerking existed long before Miley Cyrus decided to make it a part of her act. I was twerking back when Miley was still Hannah Montana.)

15) That episode of Girls with Patrick Wilson

One of the best 25 minutes of television ever, and not just because Patrick Wilson is super hot.

16) The Herstory of Dance and Intro to Felt Surrogacy episodes of Community

Without the guiding vision of Dan Harmon, Community‘s fourth season was undeniably rough. However, these two episodes reminded us that Community still had something to offer. (That said, I’m glad Dan Harmon’s back for season 5…)

17) Colton walks off Survivor …. again

Colton Cumbie is one of the most loathsome people to ever show up on a reality TV show so it was satisfying to see him utterly fail to win Survivor not once but twice.

18) The Big Brother Blog got a new writer named Lisa Marie

This year, Bill Lage asked me to write episode recaps for the Big Brother Blog. Of course, I said yes and, for three months, I had a lot of fun keeping people updated with what all of the loathsome people in the Big Brother house were up to. I made a lot of new friends and I even made a persistent enemy named Maggie Long, a poor little internet troll who just couldn’t handle the fact that I encouraged my readers to “Stay supple!” It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it all over again in 2014.

19) Winter Storm Cleon caused the local news people to freak out!

Yes, we did get some snow and ice down here in December. Unlike you folks up North, those of us in Texas only see snow and ice every other year so, whenever it does show up, you can be sure that all of the local newspeople are going to panic. That’s exactly what happened this year and it was fun to watch.

20) Degrassi!

My favorite Canadian show came back!

Tomorrow, we take a look at ten of my favorite books of 2013.

Other Entries In TSL’s Look Back At 2013:

Ghosts of Christmas Past #21: Ghosts of Degrassi Past

Posted on December 21, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s ghost of Christmas past comes to us from my favorite country in the whole entire world, Canada!

Admit it, longtime readers — you knew that I was eventually going to have to find an excuse to include an episode of Degrassi in my holiday series, didn’t you?

Ghosts of Degrassi Past is a mini-episode from 2009. Holly J is, as usual, stressing out so the ghost of J.T. appears and teachers her a lesson about Christmas spirit.

It’s Degrassi at its best!

What Lisa Watched Last Night #83: Degrassi S12 E39 & 40 “The Time Of My Life”

Posted on June 22, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Last night, I watched the 12th season finale of my favorite Canadian show, Degrassi.

Why Was I Watching It?

Because it was Degrassi, of course! As if you had to ask!

What Was It About?

Another school year has ended and it’s time for the senior class of everyone’s favorite Toronto high school to graduate and get on with their lives.

However, while everyone else is enjoying prom and graduation, a few of the show’s longtime couples have to work through a few issues.

Imogen tries to sabotage her girlfriend Fiona’s attempt to get an internship with a famous Italian designer. Imogen does this by pretending to be Fiona and insulting the designer. The designer decides that he wants nothing to do with Fiona but then Imogen has a change of heart, apologizes, and the designer turns out to be the most forgiving guy on the planet.

Meanwhile, Eli and Clare are still broken up but not for long. On prom night, Clare finally loses her virginity but it also appears that she might now have leukemia because that’s the way things work when you’re a student at Degrassi…

What Worked?

Yay! Season 12 is finally over! Seriously, I’ve been watching Degrassi since it started and I’ve always appreciated its unique combination of over-the-top melodrama, self-reflexive humor, and Canadian manners. However, Season 12 was perhaps the worst in the series history and now, it’s finally over! Now, we can look forward to season 13 with a whole new group of seniors and incoming niners and we can hope that we won’t have to deal with any more storylines about hockey or politically-themed musical theater productions.

On another note, Degrassi has always been pretty good at capturing the excitement of things like prom and graduation. The show has always understood how important these rituals are when you’re a teenager and, to its credit, it’s never taken the condescending approach that you find in so many other shows about teenagers. If you didn’t get emotional watching all the graduating students singing at the end of last night’s episode, then you just don’t have a soul.

What Did Not Work?

I’m tempted to say that, since this was Degrassi, it all worked. However, I do have an issue with this episode and the show in general.

Degrassi has a really bad habit of dealing with the fact that everyone eventually has to leave high school by randomly having otherwise intelligent characters mysteriously flunk all their classes and end up having to retake a grade or two. The most famous example of this was the popular character of Spinner, who eventually managed to graduate at the age of 26. In Spinner’s case, however, it wasn’t that big a deal because everyone knew Spinner was an idiot. However, in the years since Spinner finally graduated (and somehow ended up married to Emma — don’t even get me started on that), more and more Degrassi students have ended up having to repeat a grade.

What’s odd is that no one ever seem to be that upset about being held back and nobody seems to suffer any sort of unfortunate consequences from having to repeat a grade. In fact, Fiona Coyne was last night’s valedictorian despite the fact that this was her second attempt to complete her senior year. Seriously, what does this say about Canada’s education system?

Anyway, this season, Imogen somehow managed to fail all of her classes and, therefore, did not get to graduate and will be back next season. Unlike a lot of Degrassi fans, I actually like Imogen but I still find it hard to believe that she would not only fail all of her classes but that she would also be so accepting of the prospect of having to spend another year in high school. I mean, I loved high school but, if you told me that I had to stay a year longer than planned, you would have seen one angry little redhead.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

One difference between previous seasons of Degrassi and this latest season has been that this season had a definite lack of just like me moments. While Degrassi has always been melodramatic, season 12 saw it get rather preachy and didactic as well.

So, really, about the only thing I could relate to was the fact that I had fun at my prom too. I also sang at my graduation but, unlike the Degrassi grads, I was asked to stop.

Lessons Learned

In Canada, you don’t just get a diploma for showing up. You’re expected to pass your classes as well.

Bleh! 10 Random Thoughts About The 2012 Emmy Nominations

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 2012 Emmy Nominations were announced this morning and, at the risk of repeating myself, “Bleh!”

I know that I’ve kind of set myself up as the awards-crazy member of the TSL team and that’s a title that I wear proudly. Usually, I love writing up posts about the Oscars and the Emmys and whatever other silly awards might be handed out during any particular week.

But seriously, this year’s Emmy Awards are just making me go, “Bleh,” with boredom.

For the boring list of official nominees, click here.

For the far more interesting list of my personal nominees, click here!

Here’s ten random thoughts that went through my head as I looked over the list of nominees:

1) The best comedy on TV, Community, was totally and completely snubbed with the exception of one writing nomination.

2) The Walking Dead was also snubbed. To be honest, I feel that the Walking Dead’s 2nd season was a bit too uneven to justify it winning but, at the very least, it deserved a nomination.

3) 3o Rock, which hasn’t been interesting for a while, received all sorts of nominations.

4) My three favorite guilty pleasures — Pan Am, The Client List, and Ringer — were completely ignored. I’m not surprised by that but seriously, I was still hoping that the Emmy nominations would be at least a little bit fun.

5) The tyranny of Betty White continues as she was nominated for Outstanding Reality Series Host.

6) I was excited by a few of the nominations: Girls and Veep for Best Comedy Series, Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire for best drama series, Claire Danes for best actress in a drama series, Uma Thurman for best guest actress in a drama, and Idris Elba for best actor in a miniseries. Degrassi picked up a nomination as well. Yay!

7) The two most overrated shows on TV, the Colbert Report and The Daily Show, were both nominated for like the 100th time.

8) Both the Office and Dexter were thoroughly snubbed, as they should have been. In the past, I’ve loved both of those shows but this season, they both seemed to take viewer loyalty for granted.

9) Apparently, networks can now pass off their failed shows as being miniseries. That’s the only possible way to explain Ashley Judd picking up a nomination for best actress in a miniseries.

10) With the exception of a nomination for Project Runway, the Lifetime Network was pretty much ignored. When you ignore Lifetime, you pretty much leave me no choice but to ignore you.