Look back at the last six months of televisual entertainment- was this year's greatest TV series among them?Earlier this week, we investigated where our Film Of The Year 2013 award currently stood, looking back over what January-June have offered in terms of blockbuster entertainment. Now, we're doing the same for the realms of television, providing a retrospective for the first six months of the year in terms of the silver screen.
With that in mind, let's waste no further time. Without further ado, here's our retrospective of the first two quarters of 2013 and our assessment of where our TV Show Of The Year 2013 award could head...
Q1 RETROSPECTIVE
Once we moved past January, there was a great deal of impressive content on display on our television screens. First, Glee returned to our screens with its fourth season, bringing with it a host of spectacular song renditions and its fair share of melodramatic character arcs. Meanwhile, Being Human also made a rather brilliant reemergence on BBC Three, its opening, penultimate and finale episodes all managing to truly impress with their overall quality and underlying ambiguity. Toby Whithouse's ace fantasy drama could well have a high ranking in our final awards.
New shows were present too, with Derek a major highlight. Ricky Gervais' comedy-drama could easily have flopped after its strong pilot episode, but overall the first season was effectively humorous and emotional in equal measure, a truly pleasant surprise. Another unexpected hit was In The Flesh, another BBC Three supernatural drama whose first season improved with each passing week- it won't top our awards, yet don't be surprised if 2014's Season Two ranks very highly if the trend continues!
Q2 RETROSPECTIVE
April chronicled the return of three particularly high quality dramas: Arrow, Doctor Who and Game Of Thrones. DC's former superhero drama seemed to get more and more confident as its first season progressed, eventually developing into a heroic equal to Smallville by its epic finale. Meanwhile, Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary run had a host of highlights, Cold War, Hide, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and The Name of the Doctor included, although elements of the season were perhaps consistently 'good' rather than incredible, so it remains to be seen if the 50th Anniversary Special and 2013 Christmas Special can blow us away enough for the show to reclaim the award it won in 2011 and 2012.
HBO's Game Of Thrones was a spectacular blockbuster third season this time around. However, on too many occasions it felt as if either the various interwoven plot arcs were feeding into too little progression or indeed that certain plot twists weren't quite realistic enough. It was still a great third season, but again perhaps not quite enough to secure the top spot come the end of 2013. Bring on Season Four, nevertheless! Elementary's final episodes of Season One also picked up the pace of quality considerably, yet arguably not enough to redeem the run for its very mediocre opening and middle sections.
Q3/Q4 PREVIEW
Of course, as per usual the first half of 2013 is just the beginning in terms of its televisual offerings. Still to come, we have The Newsroom Season Two, Atlantis Season One, Arrow Season Two, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season One, Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary and Christmas Specials, An Adventure In Time And Space and Sherlock Season Three, all of which could easily surprise us and claim victory in equal measure. We'll have to wait and see, then- right now, Being Human remains my personal favourite overall show of 2013's first half, but we'll see how it all fares in the six months ahead...
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