I watch too much TV, and if you’ve ever seen My 1970s Diary blog you’ll realise I’ve been watching too much TV all my life, it doesn’t look likely to change. And every year I tell the world my favourites, for what it’s worth. Let’s begin with the shows that I think lost the plot, the ones that never had the plot, and this year’s Hast Thou Got Crops In Jethro winner.
LOST IT
(Shows that had once been good but now…)
5) Baptiste
Really? This was by the same guys who did The Missing?
4) The OA 2
Whatever season 1 had had, season 2 lost completely
3) Line Of Duty 4
Unbelievably some people have this parody-of-its-former-self in their shows of the year. Bizarre.
2) Handmaids Tale 3
Sorry, but this was taking too long to get anywhere, after two strong previous series. We never made it to the end.
1) Preacher series 4
Such a shame. It looked like it was making a return to form, then went off at tangents from which it never recovered.
(Special mention for Later With Jools Holland. Why has someone replaced a perfectly good set & good lighting with a badly lit sports hall? Worst redesign of the past few years, apart maybe from the latest Tardis)
NEVER HAD IT
(Gave them a go, didn’t take)
5) MotherFatherSon
Most pretentious and baffling twaddle of the year
4) War Of The Worlds
So disappointing it was hard to believe it was written by the same bloke who did the Doctor Who episode where the moon was an egg with a dragon in it and the worst Zygon story ever
3) The Rook
Nice premise, but beaten by stiff competition from interesting shows
2) After Life
The Ricky Gervais thing? An excuse to give your mates a big pay check to appear in a story that went nowhere and rehashed stuff you’d done better before. In some peoples' best of the year, but not mine.
1) His Dark Materials
The winner of ‘show about which I have been told “you have to read the books”’ more than any other TV show ever. Having not read the books, this was meaningless and grip-free
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HAST THOU GOT CROPS IN JETHRO?
The show that shoehorns a message in, thinly disguised as drama. Previous winners include Butterfly (2018) and The Good Place (2017).
This year, either I wasn’t watching as many polemic-as-drama shows, or the only ones I saw were Eastenders and re-views of last year’s Doctor Who. Because this year there is only one HTGCIJ contender…
1) Pose
Also likely to be in my Top 25 (so stay tuned) Pose has been our Guilty Pleasure of 2019. Known in our house as The Kids From Fame With AIDS, it has ranged from some of the most daring and gripping original storytelling to some of the cheesiest screeds of exposition imaginable. At its best it’s dazzling and leaves not a dry eye in the house. But at its weakest (season two, we’re looking at a few of your episodes) it has been the very definition of Hast Thou Got Crops In Jethro?
So, what are my Top TV Shows of 2019? The Top 40 begins here…
Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here.
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