Annual TV Commentary 2013

Every year I put together a brief summation of the television I enjoyed or alternatively didn't during the previous twelve months. My 2013 commentary is a little different, all confined to a single post and occasionally lacking the detail I've given previous round-ups. My television viewing has changed, though, along with my own aspirations as a writer. Anyway, television. No real spoilers this year.

ATVC 2012: Revenge

Spoilers abound, so beware.

Revenge
22 episodes, ABC (September 2011 - May 2012)

It's something rare whenever a series arrives with an instant awareness of exactly the type of show it wants to be. Even rarer is when that 'type' is so schizophrenic, pulling from radically different genres at a time, but remaining consistently true to the characters and the tone that the writers are reaching for. I'm not somebody who gets all crazy over Revenge, since there were naturally growing pains along the way during its freshman season, but it was by far the network surprise of the year -- a deftly intricate and grandiose soap opera with dynamic themes and characters, which always fell on the right side of camp to truly work.

Revenge: Pilot (1.1)

There's an art to creating strong primetime soap operas. You can go so far into left-field that there's no break from the zany absurdity, and wind up with a Titans or the depressing later years of Nip/Tuck. Or you can get stuck playing things straight, making potentially juicy scenarios pretty weak. You then wind up with Ringer. Judging from the extensive ad campaign ABC launched for its newest night-time soap Revenge, I assumed that executive producer Mike Kelley had hit that tricky spot between both camps. Based on this pilot, he totally succeeded with it. As a result, we get some straight moral ambiguity, as well as a bad girl in a bad wig lacing soup with poison. Revenge is a sudsy guilty pleasure that has an irresistible hook and some ridiculously strong lead characters.