Hello everybody! Today, I’m going to be talking about my favourite TV during 2018, because while I’ll be doing a more general favourites post soon, I wanted to talk in a bit more detail about why I enjoyed these, like I’ll be doing for all my favourite books of the year too, probably at the very end of the month or beginning of January. Onto the post!
Unforgotten- this was probably my least favourite season of this show to date due to the ending, but it was still sublime. Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar play cold case detectives Cassie and Sunny to absolute perfection, the supporting cast portray the cast of multi-layered suspects so well, it’s so emotional and I was totally hooked by how intriguing the mystery was. I can’t wait for season 4 to air!
This Is Us- when I started this series, I was kind of expecting a frothy rom-com series, and some of it is that, but it’s also so many other things. It’s hard to explain, but it’s basically about the lives of three siblings called Kevin, Kate and Randall (twins and an adopted brother born the same day, known as the “Big Three “), and while we mainly follow their lives in the present day we also see flashbacks to their childhood every episode and in season 2 even start to see what their future looks like. I absolutely love each character in different ways (the only one I can’t stand is their mum Rebecca, and my feelings on Kevin are mixed!), with some particular favourites being Randall, his wife Beth and William, who is sadly only in the first series and who I missed dearly in the second. I got so invested in their storylines and root for them to succeed with all my heart, and I don’t think I’ve ever been quite as crushed by TV deaths as I have been with the two significant ones so far. The timelines are blended flawlessly and it’s nowhere near as confusing as it sounds, so if you’re looking for something that’s equal parts moving and hilarious, I can’t recommend watching this enough. I also recommend sticking with it for the first few episodes even you aren’t totally sold on it, because I wasn’t keen on some elements of the very early ones but now I adore the show so much that I’m checking GeekTown daily to see if season 3 has a UK air date yet!
The Vampire Diaries- People have been telling me I should watch this for years, and I have been saying for years that it doesn’t sound like my sort of thing at all and that I would never watch it. Well, I finally did watch it, and I am absolutely furious with past me because I enjoyed it so much. I didn’t think it was perfect, but it was absolutely addictive viewing and it was just what I needed, because I watched it during a pretty rubbish time and it cheered me up daily. If you’ve not heard of it, it’s about a girl called Elena as her life is linked to the vampire Salvatore brothers Damon and Stefan, and how this affects her, them and their friends/family. I thoroughly enjoyed watching their journeys and meeting all of the various wonderful characters who populate this universe (Jeremy is my ultimate fave) and seeing them face off against dangerous supernatural enemies (much like I’ve never seen anyone saying Jeremy is their favourite character, I’ve never seen anyone say Kai is their favourite villain, but he’s definitely mine!). If you want to read more of my Vampire Diaries opinion, I did the tag a few months ago!
Grey’s Anatomy- to be quite consistently sublime over 14 series must be difficult, but Grey’s pulls it off with seemingly effortless ease, and this was one of the best in my opinion. Some episodes made me laugh, others made me cry, I became invested in 2 brand new couples and grew to love Jo, who I’ve never really liked before. This season blew me away, and I’m also enjoying season 15 immensely. I’m already a die-hard Schmico shipper, and I am dying for Mer and DeLuca to just hurry up and get together already! Alex as the chief is giving me absolute life too.
And now… prepare for me to ramble about what is easily my favourite show of last year, and my definite new all time favourite!
Dynasty (reboot)- I decided to start watching this because I randomly got lyrics to a Victorious song stuck in my head one day, listened to it on Youtube and then stumbled onto an interview about this show. Why not give it a go, I thought, with no idea of just how hard and fast I was about to fall for this show. I set myself a goal to find a show I truly loved this year, and I thought I’d fail. Then I found Dynasty, and it overtook things I’ve loved for YEARS in my affections after a couple of episodes.
The twists are so well done and kept me hooked, in a way remniscient of Pretty Little Liars (though, in truth, I like this much, much more, and I loved that for the first few seasons). The other thing I especially adore about this is the characters, to the point where I couldn’t even narrow it to a top 3. I’ve settled for a top 4, and they’re in no particular order:
Feisty, feminist, fierce Fallon, who is complex and ambitious and wonderful; her charming brother and confidante Steven (if you held a gun to my head, he would be my absolute fave), who has subtle, witty humour that makes me laugh about 10 times an episode; his love interest, the smooth-talking, initially slightly shady Sammy-Jo (who is so, so funny, I love him! I also ship them as a couple MAJORLY, I went through a rollercoaster of emotions watching them get together and split up interchangably throughout. Steammy forever 😍. Sammy Jo is utterly precious in general) and last but not least the delightfully sharp-witted, devoted family butler Anders, particularly in the first half of season 1. Kirby is also a huge favourite! I still love or hate everyone else as appropriate though, because the whole cast is stellar.
As you might have gathered from my reasons for adoring these characters, I think this show is hilarious. The script is seriously clever in places, and I still laugh thinking about some lines. Even though the soundtrack is not especially my taste in my music, I think it suits it perfectly, and I love all the songs by mere association with this new fave (I think the cover of Tainted Love and original The Other Side are favourites, as well as the cover of What’s Love Got to Do With It, Lorde’s Swingin’ Party, Adam French’s My Addiction and Wrabel’s utterly stunning We Could Be Beautiful. The choice for the fire sequence was also sublime). I was so happy it got renewed for season 2 that I screamed for 5 minutes straight.
Other things that add to my enjoyment are the significance of the episode titles, which pay homage to famous lines of the original, and the costumes, which are superbly considered/curated and sublime.
I know this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s honestly like the custom-made blend of everything I love in a TV show. To give you a clue of just how much, I watched the first 13 twice in two weeks because I was so bereft there weren’t any more till March (I finished the first time on Valentine’s Day, and the second a week to the day. I enjoyed it even more the 2nd time round if anything) . I’d have done it a few more times to tide me over till it came back had it not been quite such odd behaviour. After it did return and I was watching weekly, I watched most episodes the day they came out and at least once during the following week before the next one. I also rewatched several times in the summer, anf of course have been hooked on season 2, despite a rocky few episodes after James Mackay (who plays Steven) was sadly fired. Anyhow, to conclude this rant about my favourite show of the year, and of all time (yes, it’s so good it shot above things I’ve loved for years), please watch it if you think it sounds like something you’ll like too, and then come chat to me about it. Also, a shoutout to my mum for watching it with me/putting up with me raving about it all the time, Liv for fangirling with me about it and of course all the amazing members of the Dynasty group chat I’m in on Twitter.
Thank you so much for reading! What have your favourite series been this year? Do you agree with any of mine? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter!
Amy x
Golden Books Girl 