The year 2016 may have taken many loved and revered artists from us but perhaps as a consolation price, it gave us several noteworthy TV moments. Living up to its reputation, the world of TV gave us quite a few stories and characters that we can no longer do without. Some featured actors that we have come to love while others made room for characters that were returning to the screen after a while. Others joined forces to save the world from aliens. So here is a quick look at shows that really stood out.
TVTIME
A round up of television shows that stood out for the better.
The year 2016 may have taken many loved and revered artists from us but perhaps as a consolation price, it gave us several noteworthy TV moments. Living up to its reputation, the world of TV gave us quite a few stories and characters that we can no longer do without. Some featured actors that we have come to love while others made room for characters that were returning to the screen after a while. Others joined forces to save the world from aliens. So here is a quick look at shows that really stood out.
Bull
It is entirely possible that Michael Weatherly, star of the hit TV show, Bull, had no clue that his new show would attain so much success in just its debut season - when he left crime procedural NCIS after a 14-year-run just last year.
Weatherly’s Dr. Jason Bull is not the most likeable character on TV. But he does get the job done by not only helping the innocent but also by tracking down the real culprits.
The show feels like an amalgamation of the short-lived Tim Roth series, Lie To Me merged with other police procedures where you have a team, a leader and a nemesis.
Conviction
Up until last year, Hayley Atwell, who featured in Marvel’s Captain America, was defending the world against Nazis as Agent Carter. But breaking away from that character in superb fashion, Atwell has returned to TV once more as former first daughter Hayes Morrison in a series called Conviction.
Alongside a team, Hayes runs a unit that looks at cases in which the convicted felon could be an innocent and works to have the sentence and verdict vacated. Hayes Morrison picks her own cases and watching her solve them is reminiscent of Cold Case, a hit show from the last decade. Watch Conviction if you are a fan of legal dramas because this one will keep you engaged until the very end.
Frequency
In the year 2000, actors Dennis Quaid (Frank Sullivan) and Jim Caviezel (John Sullivan) starred in a film called Frequency in which they worked together to solve crimes, in time. In the film’s premise, the father is living in the ’60s, while the son is living in the ’90s and their only connection is a radio signal, hence the name, Frequency.
This year, the same film has been recreated for TV with some changes. Peyton List has been enlisted to play the detective in the year 2016 who instructs her father Frank in the ’90s and creates a butterfly effect that changes things for the better and worse.
Lethal Weapon
Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) made for an unlikely pair as cops. The former, was always inching towards danger while the latter, away from it. But together they were ‘lethal’, as in Lethal Weapon.
Their magic was recreated this year for TV with Clayne Crawford cast as Riggs and Damon Wayans as Murtaugh. They have their own way of solving crimes which usually helps them catch the culprit. So what if they make a mess of things in the process?
MacGyver
His name is MacGyver and he doesn’t need guns to escape from enclosed places. All he has in his arsenal is his brain and Swiss Knife which is more than enough for him.
The action-packed series of the ’80s was brought back to the screens this year with Lucas Till playing the titular role and excelling in it. In Jack Dalton (George Eads) he has a friend who is always there, which only adds to the narrative. Watch Mac save the day using paper clips, candles and everyday items.
Stranger Things
It seems to me that everyone wants to live in the ’80s and Stranger Things is on top of the list since its recreation of the ’80s makes it the year’s best period/time-travel/sci-fi series. The first season is full of surprises and while some have found it to be slow-moving series, others have appreciated its pace and moodiness. You can almost trace the influence of Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter and Stephen King among others in the story and the execution. It should also be stated that the gang of children, who take it upon themselves to solve the disappearance of their friend, truly make a mark with their surprisingly powerful performances. Having Winona Ryder as mother of the disappeared child serves as an added bonus.
The X-Files
Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) made a surprise return to TV this year in January with The X-Files and behaved as if nothing had changed after all this time.
In season 10 of the once-beloved show, the duo gets assigned with two new partners - who do well given the fact that they were being mentored by the best. Mulder and Scully solve crimes but one must add that some of the mysteries shown came off as childish.
Timeless
There is a time machine on the lose and a team of experts is sent back in time to stop certain villainous figures from changing history. It is a concept that has been explored before on television but in Timeless, each character has a backstory (or I should say, front story) that they want to handle in their own way. Before the break, the show was going at a rapid pace and one hopes it continues to go up upon its return.
Westworld
HBO’s big sci-fi new entrant, Westworld, also made its appearance this year. An adaptation of Michal Crichton’s classic ’70s flick, it’s easily among the best shows to have come out this year as it explores ideas that relate to both technology and its impact on humanity itself and the evolution of artificial intelligence. Having a Nolan (Christopher in this instance) does have its advantage as he co-creates a magical world where everything that shouldn’t go wrong goes wrong.
Special mention: Invasion
Although it wasn’t a show per se, it was a mixture of 4 TV shows as four characters from the DC Universe joined forces. The ‘crossover’ began in Supergirl, continued on The Flash, Arrow and concluded in an episode of Legends of Tomorrow. In short, the heroes saved the world from an alien invasion by coming together, delighting comic book fans everywhere.
