Threshold
Dr. Molly Caffrey is the Type A who plans and over-plans for every permutation of every possible contingency. One of her plans, Threshold, is activated in order to handle first contact with an extraterrestrial species. A team is assembled and they get crackin’, each episode uncovering a little more of the mystery while exploring all the quirky personalities in the office. It differs from CSI in very few ways save the larger special effects budget and nerd sector appeal, but scores a little higher for having a really good energy between the cast members as well as having exciting personalities like Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and Brent Spiner (Star Trek: TNG). Oh, and because Carla Gugino. Purrs
Way to watch: Buy on Amazon or rent on Netflix.
Clone High
This animated teen dramedy parody went full bore to press every button and hit every note it could, like an ADHD kid left alone in an orchestra pit. It is so off the wall and so unexpected and so…rich. Rich like Family Guy was in its first three seasons. Every show ever is experimental at its outset, sure, but Clone High was cranking out the chemistry set and coming up with dark matter where every other comedy is just making vaguely fart-smelling gases. So long as you skip episode 11, the whole series is a symphony of good ideas, especially the decision to put the love quadrangle between Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra and JFK as the centerpiece. In the final moments of the final episode, you end up feeling for these incredibly nutty characters in a way that you just don’t expect, and so from beginning to end I can say it’s a ride worth taking.
Way to watch: Buy on Amazon.
The 10th Kingdom
Burly: This could be a long torture session.
Virginia: I’ll tell you anything you wanna know.
Burly: Torture first, then you talk. It’s better that way. Rush a torture, ruin a torture.
Another series that would have fared better in the current television fantasy fad culture, The 10th Kingdom is television’s answer to Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, a mash-up of fairy tale stories with a little of the ol’ Grimms’ darkness thrown in for good measure. While definitely lighter and altogether less sing-y than Sondheim’s work, Kingdom is likewise easy to get sucked into, the multi-hour miniseries passing in a breeze. Highly recommended for friends and families (though elementary age kids will probably get spooked by it), it’s a fun story that’s easy to come back to every few years, like a friend from out of town.
Way to watch: Buy on Amazon or rent on Netflix.
Titus
Christopher: “Bad news has never been broken gently in my family. Because breaking it gently takes an few extra seconds. And who’s got that kinda time? Hey, we may be failures, but we are very busy.”
[flashback]
Ken: “I’ve got a little story I wanna tell you. Once upon a time, your dog got hit by a truck this morning.”
This is the best sitcom. Right now I really want to purchase a microphone, throw up my hands and drop it (on a soft bed of pillows because microphones are expensive why oh why would you drop them). It is so different from any, I mean any, sitcom you have ever seen. Starring and based on the real life of comedian Christopher Titus and his hyper-flawed family, each episode takes place on a single set in front of a live studio audience. Interspersed throughout are flashbacks and a black and white room inside Christopher’s mind where he dismantles the fourth wall to talk to the audience. The show utilizes some serious mood whiplash to switch from literally laugh-out-loud comedy to perspectives on real-life subject matter including, as per Wikipedia, “death, attempted and committed suicide, rape, child molestation, mental illness, road rage, violence, drug abuse, domestic abuse, alcoholism, and terrorism.” There is even an entire episode that revolves around the hate crime murder of Matthew Shepard. What this show accomplishes seems impossible, but has been true every time I have watched it in the last 13 years: it is unbelievably funny, fast and clever, and it is unbelievably honest about the world around us. This show is one of my single favorite things on Earth.
Way to watch: Buy on Amazon Marketplace or eBay or rent on Netflix.
Touching Evil (U.S. version)
Susan: “Only neighbor we found at that place had a needle sticking out of her arm, and she pissed on Rivers.”
David: “Seriously?”
Susan: “Yeah.”
David: “Nice girl, claiming him for herself.”
This is the show that started my desire to defend series that fell through the cracks, so imagine me being misty-eyed and shaking my fist at the heavens as I write this. Touching Evil centers on Susan Branca (Vera Farmiga) and her partner David Creegan (Jeffrey Donovan), who was shot in the head some years ago, depriving him of shame and impulse control but gifting him with a knack for pattern recognition. The show had several things going for it that made critics all weak in the knees. One, Branca and Creegan had the kind of loving relationship Scully and Mulder had during the best years of The X-Files, like two stalwart bunnies paddling through the bloody sea of human depravity, paw in paw. Two, the writing and direction felt improvised and original, characters being allowed to stutter and form incomplete sentences like people do all the time every day but never on TV. Three, that writing continued with its criminals, who all had serious mental iniquities rather than simply being black and white evil. Which, four, made the show feel much darker than other procedural crime shows, since the villains were always as mysteriously terrifying as Iago at the end of Othello. So, a happy show it is not, but from the striking two hour pilot to the final scene of finale “Mercy,” which I contend to be one of the best things to ever happen in front of a camera in human history, you will feel big, worthwhile feelings.
Way to watch: Buy on iOffer.
For more great lost programming (like The Middleman), check out TVTropes.org’s Too Good To Last archive. Have a favorite you want to scream out and praise? Scream in the comments, children. Scream!
