It’s almost impossible to find a series that can conceivably combine multiple genres, and still come out with something that’s any bit cohesive. Then last season Revenge came on the scene. It was a soap, a drama, a romance, a thriller and a mystery all thrown into one. It even came with packaged mythology. Amidst all that, Revenge’s main plot thread was always easy to understand; a young girl out to destroy the people who essentially killed her father, and ruined her life in the process. There were complications, but we always remembered our main goal. Flashbacks were regular and meaningful, and there was a concerted effort to make Emily even just a tiny bit sympathetic. I don’t think all that was lost in season 2, I just think all the extras were magnified so much that the show’s original mantra was buried underneath political campaigns, financial scandals and family secrets. [Major Spoilers Ahead]
2012 was an odd one. Quite a bit happened in TV land, yet not a lot at all in some ways. We saw a heap of shows really hitting the ground running and churning out some seriously great material (see Once Upon a Time, and The Vampire Diaries' third season), the birth of some promising newbies (Arrow), the death of potentially amazing ones (The Secret Circle :( ) and naturally, some shows have run themselves into the ground entirely. Some things didn’t change at all, though, like Ringer’s sucky second half and the Walking Dead’s proclivity for the disgusting and gory. I guess all this is pretty standard every calendar year in television. So, here are my thoughts on 2012, and what 2013 needs to bring.
