Best (and Worst) New Shows of 2014

Best:

True Detective

The 8-episode HBO crime miniseries starring Matt and Woody. The first season was a very good character drama, as well as an intriguing mystery. Every season will be a different story and cast so hopefully it's great again.

Fargo

The sequel-but-not-really to the mid-90s movie, Fargo is set in 2006 and stars Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton. This is actually the show that made me a fan of Freeman. If you're a fan of the movie, you'll like the show, same tone, humor, kind of crime. It's 10 episodes, with season 2 set in 1979 and being a different story.

Silicon Valley

A show about nerds making an app. Raunchy, nerd and sex humor. Some great comedy actors in it, TJ Miller obviously, and some random ones you've seen in random stuff such as Martin Starr (the bearded one) and Kumail Nanjiani. The red-hoodied one makes a super sweet app that Hooli (a made-up company making fun of Apple) tries to buy. Season 2 starts April 2015.



The Leftovers

3% of the entire population disappear at the exact same time. The show is the aftermath of that happening. Nobody knows why. Coming from one of the two main writers of Lost.

Disappointments:

Crisis

A terrorist organization takes a bus-load of important kids hostage. It tries to be intense and have a complicated plot. I only made it through 5 episodes, and then was cancelled.

Believe

This one was a bit better, and it came from Alfonso Cuaron (the famous movie director), and some things he did good, such as the main character, but the rest was just them running around, and not getting to know the characters to care. Only watched 5 episodes as well.

Has Potential:

Helix

Season 1 starts out with a bad biological virus starting in Antarctica and the CDC trying to contain it. The show started out good, then went down to kinda-good around episode 6. If it was less cheesy, and more gory, it'd be a much better show. Season 2 starts January 16, 2015.

The 100

This is mostly for season 1, since season 2 (and even at the end of season 1) already righted it's wrongs.

The Strain

A vampire virus is spreading around New York but we didn't feel the danger we should have. Also, some of the characters thought stupidly, especially for CDC scientists. Season 2, starting July 2015, will hopefully course-correct.