Birdsong (2012)
Watched: 07 June
Director: Philip Martin
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Clémence Poésy, Matthew Goode
Channel: BBC One, PBS
Synopsis: As an English soldier fights in the horrific trenches of northern France, he haunted by the memories of his forbidden love affair with a French woman.
On this list because: I am a sucker for WWI and WWII romance dramas. I become obsessed with the 2007 film Atonement (still am) and became infatuated with a Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller film called The Edge of Love. I love the tragedy of a woman in the early 20th century or in the middle of the 1940s watching her beau go off to war. There's something very romantic about her waiting for him. Apart from this fueling my love for the sappy love stories, I partially watched this for Eddie Redmayne. It seems that every year I find an actor whose films I watch obsessively. Last year was Cillian Murphy and this year it has been Mr Redmayne. I first saw him in the March/April issues of Vogue modeling for the summer season at Burberry and was distracted by his exotic face. I started to binge on his filmography and ended up lusting over Birdsong.
Boardwalk Empire (2010 - present)
Watched: currently watching
Creator: Terence Winter
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Kelly MacDonald
Channel: HBO
Synopsis: Boardwalk Empire chronicles the life and times of Nucky Thompson, the undisputed ruler of Atlantic City, who is equal parts politician and gangster.
On this list because: of the fact that it is set in the 1920s. I've only watched about four episodes of the first season because they are long and a little sticky to get through. Sometimes the plot can become head nodding but then I'm woken up by Michael Pitt's character Jimmy Darmody associating himself with Al Capone before he was Al Capone. Enoch "Nucky" Thompson also wakes me up at times when he brilliantly balances his day job as Atlantic City treasurer and a "business man" for illegal alcohol. Apart from those two character's shananigans, the sheer decadence and luxury that I love about the 1920s holds is portrayed in the series. What's not to love about overly decorated hotel rooms, fur, drop waist dresses and stylish headbands?
Breaking Bad (2008 - 2013)
Watched: August - December
Creator: Vince Gilligan
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn
Channel: AMC
Synopsis: Informed he has terminal cancer, an underachieving chemistry genius turned high school teacher uses his expertise to secretly provide for his family by producing the world's highest quality crystal meth.
On this list because: of the writing. As simple as that. Some of the episodes I have watched have left my jaw hanging down onto my lap afterwards. You become so wrapped up into the main character and his life and situation and actually, as the show progressed, I came to loathe the main character. The suspense is sometimes unbearable, the endings of some episodes make you binge on the entire season without pause (season 3, guilty) and the camera angles. Oh those artsy shots that haven't been seen on television before. Sometimes we look up at Walt and Jesse from the bottom of one of the "meth ovens" as they poor in the methylamine. Or sometimes we are looking up from the trunk of a car as a body is about to be disposed. The show is just pure genius. Oh and this.
Girls (2012 - )
Watched: 15 April - 17 June
Creator: Lena Dunham
Cast: Lena Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Alison Williams, Zosia Mamet
Channel: HBO, Sky
Synopsis: A comedy about the experiences of a group of girls in their early 20's.
On this list because: of it's unbelievable freshness. It's been dubbed as "the new Sex and the City" or "Sex and the City for the new generation" but deserves more than just a lazy comparison. I don't know if it's better than Sex and the City, I'm a pretty big fan of both so it's hard. But Girls is definitely up there. It's raw and awkward and that's how life is. It's about time that someone showed the world that people in their 20's aren't like the characters of Gossip Girl or even in Sex and the City. The writing, again, is so witty. The one liners are often over looked. I think the bizarre sex scenes are distracting people.
The Pillars of The Earth (2010)
Watched: 06 - 07 November
Director: Sergio Mimica-Gezzan
Cast: Matthew MacFayden, Ian McShane, Rufus Sewell, Eddie Redmayne, Donald Sutherland, Alison Pill
Channel: Starz, Channel 4
Synopsis: Set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles which tears lives and families apart.
On this list because: of how obsessed I became with something out of my element. I've never been a big fan of the Medieval era with monks and earls and pardoners and what not. But for some reason I really got into The Pillars of The Earth. The story kept getting better and better and it kept unfolding into all of these different little sub plots. It sounds like it could get confusing but it really wasn't. Most of the time I find those Medieval television specials so boring and a total yawn fest but this wasn't. There were a lot of times where I feared for a character's life or where I was 100 percent rooting for them. I watched the 8 part mini-series in two days. A great, unexpected, underrated watch.
Tess of the d'Ubervilles (2008)
Watched: 29 September - 30 September
Director: David Blair
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Eddie Redmayne, Hans Matheson
Channel: BBC One, PBS
Synopsis: The story of Tess Durbeyfield, a low-born country girl whose family find they have noble connections.
On this list because: of the emotional pain. That sounds terrible. But it's true. I cried. I was a little ruined after watching this actually. The story of Tess Durbeyfield was foreign to me although I had heard of Thomas Hardy's famed novel. Poor Tess, all she wanted was some shillings for her family. The story has simple horror elements that will make you feel so sorry for Tess and want to give her a huge hug and a warm cup of cocoa. Everything from the constant look on Gemma Arterton's face, to the speech patterns to the English skies was gloomy. I seem to feed off of sad sap stories like these and I can definitely say that I was full after this one.
Twin Peaks (1990 - 1991)
Watched: currently watching
Creator: David Lynch and Mark Frost
Cast: Kyle MacLachlan, James Marshall, Madchen Amick, Sherilyn Fenn
Channel: ABC
Synopsis: An idiosyncratic FBI Agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks.
On this list because: it's Twin Peaks, of course. I believe I started watching this cult television show after watching Lynch's Blue Velvet. I fell so in love with Lynch's style and Kyle MacLachlan that I needed more. The pilot is essentially a film, much like Boardwalk Empire, and we are introduced to the infamous Laura Palmer. I'm not finished with the whole series yet but I am far enough along that I should know who killed Laura Palmer but I don't. That seems to be the catch to the show. In essence I have no idea who killed Laura Palmer. There are so many factors to this show that make it one of the best: the wardrobe, the setting, the characters (oh those characters: Cooper, Andy, Harry Truman, Bob, Leo), the soundtrack. All around, one of the best things to have ever appeared in front of my eyes.