NTAs 2011 - And The Winners Are Mostly Rubbish

Okay, I don't usually like to bitch about award ceremonies and I certainly don't need them in order to validate my support in certain programmes, actors, etc, but wow, tonight's National Television Awards certainly dropped the ball in a big way, huh?

Doctor Who lost out to Waterloo Road, Fatboy from EastEnders scored Best Newcomer and EastEnders gets Best Soap? Have I slipped into a parallel world where mediocrity has suddenly been rewarded? I mean, seriously, I've heard of bad winners but this takes the biscuit to be honest. Let me know what you think of the result linked below ...

NTA Wins: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a300378/national-television-awards-2011-winners.html

2010 - A Year In General

Best Show (UK): Misfits. Spent the last five months catching up with this superlative series. So glad a third season is coming.

Worst Show (UK): The Deep. Just terrible to be honest.

Best Show (US): True Blood. Because both Seasons 2 and 3 kept me hooked like no other show.

Worst Show (US): The Event. More like non-Event to be honest.

Best Villain: Arthur Mitchell in Dexter. Honorable mentions go to Dream Lord in Doctor Who and Russell Edgington in True Blood.

Worst Villain: Smoke Monster in Lost. Much as I liked Season 6, I grew tired of that fecking monster.

Best TV Death: Um, everyone's in Ashes To Ashes. Not many TV deaths affected me this year.

Worst TV Death: Freddie's in Skins. I was never a big fan of the character but he deserved better.

Shocking TV Moment: Bill being revealed as a total bastard in True Blood. Also Rita's death in Dexter.

Sexiest Male On TV: Matthew Rhys in Brothers And Sisters. Just cos.

Sexiest Female On TV: Going with Karen Gillan in Doctor Who. Even I'm drawn to Amy Pond.

Best Finale: Dexter's fourth season finale, The Getaway.

Yes, Kids Are Annoying: Cooper and Paige in Brothers And Sisters. Sorry, but they irritated me this year.

Neither Use, Nor Ornament: Holly Harper and Ryan Lafferty in Brothers And Sisters - again. Though at least one of them is long gone and forgotten by all.

Good Reality TV: The Apprentice. Both Irish and UK versions this year.

Bad Reality TV: Big Brother 11. Well, the parts that were the John James and Josie show.

Best Gay Couple: Kevin Walker/Scotty Wandall in Brothers And Sisters. Emily and Naomi from Skins come a close(ish) second for the second and last time.

Worst Gay Couple: Bob and Lee in Desperate Housewives. Shockingly dull those two.

Best Straight Couple: Dexter Morgan and Lumen Pierce in Dexter. It shouldn't have worked but damn it did.

Worst Straight Couple: Jason Stackhouse and Crystal Norris in True Blood. Something lacks with those two.

Best Guest Appearance: Julia Stiles in Dexter. Though she was practically a regular in Season Five.

Worst Guest Appearance: Will Young in Skins. I like the guy but I found his cameo in Freddie's episode jarring for some reason.

Killed Too Soon: Ivan in Being Human. I liked him towards the end.

Difficult Season: Heroes. Even with it's fourth season, this show couldn't get it's act together. A shame really.

Best Male Character: The Doctor in Doctor Who. Because bowties, stetsons, fezzes and everything else is cool according to him.

Worst Male Character: Dave Karofsky in Glee. Just go away please.

Best Female Character: Sue Sylvester in Glee. She might be cartoonish but she is fun to watch.

Worst Female Character: Beth in Desperate Housewives. Dull, dull, dull, dull.

Most Improved Show: Misfits. Season 1 was fun but Season 2 was sublime TV.

Least Improved Show: Desperate Housewives. Season 7 has been all over the place to be honest.

Best TV Partnership: The Doctor/Amy Pond in Doctor Who. Amy might not sit well with certain viewers but damn, I like her.

Worst TV Partnership: Sean and Christian in Nip/Tuck. In the end, they went their seperate ways. Doesn't say a lot about friendship, eh?

Best Use Of Music: Skins. One of the best things of Season 4.

HoYay Award: Sherlock/Moriarty in Sherlock. The hoyay went stratospheric during The Great Game when these two finally met.

2011 Hopeful: Boardwalk Empire, which looks awesome.

Happy New Year everyone.

Reviews For Remainder Of 2010

As August is here, the summer is drawing to a close and this blogspot will get a little busier during the next couple of months. So here's a list of shows that you can expect highlighted over the next couple of months.

Doctor Who: Some Classic Series serials will be reviewed along with the 2010 Proms Concert upon BBC3 transmission and the Christmas special. Set reports/filming pictures for Series 6 will also surface as well.

Torchwood: Series 4 won't begin filming until January 2011 but I'll be posting the odd spoiler here and there when they become available as well as any set report/filming pictures that become available in the new year.

The Sarah Jane Adventures: Series 4 is due to start soon, so reviews and pictures of cast shots and trailers will surface here.

Lost: When I get the Season 6 DVD, a review will surface for it. I might do a rundown of Top 20 episodes as well but that could be next year.

Desperate Housewives: Season 6 overview blog will emerge next month and I'll do some trailer talk/cast shots for Season 7 when they become available.

Nip/Tuck: I'm gonna talk about the last three episodes in my weekly reviews and do a Season 6 overview in two weeks time.

Brothers And Sisters: Expect some discussion for Season 5 spoilers as well as cast shows, trailers, etc. Also if Season 5 is the last for the series, I might do a Compare/Contrast blog next year with this show and Six Feet Under.

True Blood: I'll review the remaining episodes of Season 3 as well as the books Dead In The Family and A Touch Of Dead.

Dexter: I've fixed the Season 3 reviews (damn formatting errors) and I'll start reviewing Season 4 upon UK transmission on FXUK - August 20th. Some reviews might be early/late depending on timing but they will appear on this blog.

Merlin: A review for Season 2 on DVD will appear in the next few days. Season 3 trailers/promotional pictures will appear and I'll do mini-reviews of the episodes for the new season as well.

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl: Reviews for the first three seasons will appear on this blog. They'll be tackled somewhat differently from other reviews though.

Skins: A review for the Season 4 DVD will be up in the next few days and anything spoilery for Season 5 will appear on here.

Single Father: This will factor on my blog but I don't know if I'll do mini-reviews or discuss it as a part of my weekly TV discussion.

Christopher And His Kind: This will be reviewed for this blog in the same way that Lennon Naked and Hamlet have been in recent months.


Buffy The Vampire Slayer: There's a Riley one-shot out this month and the final arc, Last Gleaming starts in September, so reviews are imminent for them.

Weekly Reviews: Soaps, reality TV, other US programmes and whatever else takes my fancy will still be discussed here as well as a guide to Christmas 2010 TV.

2010 Overview: Like the previous two years, an overview of the year will surface on New Year's Eve.

All my reviews are still archived on my main group as well.

Shawnlunn2002 TVHITS: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/shawnlunn2002/

How About Not Keeping It In The Family, Guys?

It's been a while since I've really watched Nip/Tuck and FXUK pulling from the schedules certainly didn't help matter so I'm thankful for TG4 for airing the latter half of Season 6 instead. Not that the season has been a massive improvement. Christian and Kimber's train wreck of a relationship saw them getting married, Kimber shagging Sean behind Christian's back and eventually Kimber doing herself in when Christian dumped (not because of Sean, that's something he's clueless about). The episode after her death introduced Kimber's mother, Brandee played by Melanie Griffiths and of course, Christian had to sleep with her. With five episodes left until the finale, it's almost reassuring to see some things don't change. Almost.

Yup, I got sucked into watching Big Brother 11 on Thursday and Friday and I'm actually glad that I did watch them. Mainly because Rachael after a week of whinging was finally out of the house. I know John James was a jerk about the 'Nuts magazine' comments but he wasn't exactly wrong either. It's high time some of these contestants realise that after a few weeks of magazine coverage, they're all heading back to obscurity. Only Katie Price can be in the public eye for no reason whatsoever nowadays.

Oh, Stephen Fry. I'm sometimes amused by your tweets, I like your documentaries and I'm partial to a bit of QI whenever I remember that it's on TV but wasn't your comments about Doctor Who and Merlin a little harsh? As Stephen Moffat pointed out, the former is definitely a family show (then again, so is the latter) and while the BBC should promote other dramas as heavily as both thosw shows get promoted, your comments were misplaced. Besides that sort of snobbery should be aimed at Britain's Got Talent to be honest.

Speaking of Doctor Who, who had the more controversial comments in Radio Times this week - Karen Gillan for her standpoint on feminism or Christopher Eccleston for spilling the beans (sort of) on his experiences with the series? Eccleston's comments did come in promotion with the arrival of Lennon Naked (Wednesday, 9.30pm, BBC4) but it's interesting that during the course of the interview, he never specified who he had specific grievances with. It'll be interesting if anything further materialises from those comments.

2009, That Was A Year

Best Show (UK): Torchwood. The first two seasons were fun but Season 3 certainly took the show to a new level.

Worst Show (UK): Big Brother 10. Thank God this shit is ending in 2010.

Best Show (US): True Blood. When I fall for a show, I fall hard and this I fell for.

Worst Show (US): 90210. More vacuous crap courtesy of CW.

Best Villain: The Master in Doctor Who. Closely followed by Maryann in True Blood.

Worst Villain: Danko in Heroes. Dullest too.

Best TV Death: Juliet Burke in Lost. Also tempted to say George in Grey's Anatomy too.

Worst TV Death: Tracy's not a death in Heroes. Edie in Desperate Housewives as well. She deserved something better.

Shocking TV Moment: The second season finale of Ashes To Ashes. Coma within a coma. The hell?

Sexiest Male On TV: Russell Tovey in Being Human. How can you not love George?

Sexiest Female On TV: Is it early to include Karen Gillan? Okay then, Anna Paquin from True Blood then.

Best Finale: Although I'm still watching it, I'm gonna say Doctor Who's The End Of Time two parter.

Yes, Kids Are Annoying: The Scavo twins in Desperate Housewives. Two years in a row.

Neither Use, Nor Ornament: Holly Harper and Ryan Lafferty in Brothers And Sisters. Take the hint, writers and do away with them already.

Good Reality TV: The Apprentice. Come on, it's the only thing in this genre I get into.

Bad Reality TV: Big Brother 10. At least it's ending.

Best Gay Couple: Kevin Walker/Scotty Wandall in Brothers And Sisters. Emily and Naomi from Skins come a close(ish) second.

Worst Gay Couple: Julia McNamara/Olivia Lord in Nip/Tuck. Look at the shitty way they killed off the latter as well.

Best Straight Couple: Jessica Hambry/Hoyt Fortenberry in True Blood. Genius idea and the most believable couple on the show.

Worst Straight Couple: Bree/Orson in Desperate Housewives. Talk about devolution in a big way.

Best Guest Appearance: John Simm on Doctor Who. Thank God the Master was the last big villain for David Tennant's last story.

Worst Guest Appearance: Lindsay Lohan in Ugly Betty. Dull.

Killed Too Soon: Jacob in Lost. Why introduce him to kill him off, guys?

Difficult Season: Heroes. Season Three failed to improve the show and Season Four seemingly isn't helping either.

Best Male Character: The Doctor in Doctor Who. I'm gonna miss his tenth incarnation while looking forward to his eleventh one.

Worst Male Character: Paul Ballard in Dollhouse. Boring character, even if the second season has made him slightly more tolerable.

Best Female Character: Tara Thornton in True Blood. Rutina Wesley is arguably the best actress on the show and it's hard not to love her character.

Worst Female Character: Claire Bennett in Heroes. I had to pick someone, didn't I? Maybe Katherine Mayfair from Desperate Housewives as well.

Most Improved Show: Lost. Season 5 was wonderful.

Least Improved Show: Nip/Tuck. Season 5 wasn't.

Best TV Partnership: The Doctor/Wilfred Mott in Doctor Who and Alex Drake/Gene Hunt in Ashes To Ashes.

Worst TV Partnership: Sean and Christian in Nip/Tuck. And I used to love their dynamic.

Best Use Of Music: Skins. This show fires on all cyclinders on that front.

HoYay Award: Doctor/Master in Doctor Who. Mind-tapping, bondage ahoy. You'd almost think David Tennant and John Simm would go gay for each other.

2010 Hopeful: Glee, which looks awesome.

I'll edit this later to include more stuff.

The Remnants Of 2008

Best Show (UK): Doctor Who. Because apparently I’m easy that way and this show really did deserve it.

Worst Show (UK): Rock Rivals. Because whoever came up with this deserves a swift kick in the back side. TV at its most pointless.

Best Show (US): Dexter. Because the second season really went above and beyond the levels of excellence I wasn’t expecting.

Worst Show (US): Gossip Girl. Because it continued a trend of bad US teen shows that doesn’t seem to be letting up.

Best Villain: Benjamin Linus in Lost. Seriously this guy just ruins you by being in his company or by being related to him.

Worst Villain: Eden Lord in Nip/Tuck. Poorly written character played by a very weak actress and that’s me being nice.

Best Spin-Off Series: Ashes To Ashes. I know some might strongly disagree but I had fun watching this series unfold.

Best TV Death: Chris Miles in Skins. Top marks to Joe Dempsie throughout the second season for his consistently brilliant performances as the pill popping teen.

Worst TV Death: Elle Bishop in Heroes. Poorly realised in my opinion. Surely the girl could’ve been kept around for Fugitives at least.

Shocking TV Moment: David Tennant announcing his Doctor Who departure and now, the casting of Matt Smith as his successor. Both surprising, neither bad.

Sexiest Male On TV: Gareth David-Lloyd in Torchwood. What can I say – I love Ianto like everyone else. Sometimes it’s good to heed the majority.

Sexiest Female On TV: Kristin Bell in Heroes. She’s just got that certain something I can’t put my finger on.

Excellent Use Of Flashback: The Torchwood episode “Fragments”. Everything you wanted to know about Jack, Owen, Ianto and Toshiko joining Torchwood got nicely explained here.

Best Finale: Doctor Who’s “The Stolen Earth”/“Journey’s End”. Yes, it reeked of fan fiction but I still adored both episodes. Lost and Brothers And Sisters came a close second/third.

Yes, Kids Are Annoying: The Scavo twins in Desperate Housewives. Less really is more if you catch my drift.

Neither Use, Nor Ornament: Holly Harper in Brothers And Sisters. Get rid, get rid, get rid and did I mention – get rid!

Good Reality TV: The Apprentice. Still amusing as far as I’m concerned and even the Irish version was fun to watch.

Bad Reality TV: Big Brother 9. Just plain abysmal.

Best Gay Couple: Kevin Walker/Scotty Wandall in Brothers And Sisters. And this is coming from someone who originally wasn’t that keen on the latter.

Worst Gay Couple: Julia McNamara/Olivia Lord in Nip/Tuck. Every couple on this show is bad nowadays and these two continued the trend.

Best Straight Couple: Dexter Morgan/Rita Bennett in Dexter. The second year certainly went further in giving them depth as a union.

Worst Straight Couple: Julia McNamara/Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck. Again, every single couple on this show is bad nowadays and these two did even more than any other pairing.

Best Guest Appearance: Julian Bleach in Doctor Who. Davros might have been overshadowed by his creations but Bleach made for an excellent presence in the season finale.

Worst Guest Appearance: Victoria Beckham in Ugly Betty. I know she didn’t exactly have a demanding role but she could’ve at least made the effort.

Industrious Character: Maria LaGuerta in Dexter. Who else would play on a co-worker’s paranoia in order to get their job back?

Lax Character: Tommy Walker in Brothers And Sisters. Not a criticism on Balthazar Getty but Tommy does seem to do damn all on the show.

Killed Too Soon: Danielle and Alex in Lost. Their deaths might have made more of an impact if they had been fleshed out better as characters.

Difficult Season: Heroes. Season Two was literally in some places a chore to watch and Season Three has been pretty hit and miss in certain places.

Best Revamp: Lost and its use of flash forwards. Who would’ve thought this would have worked as well as it did?

Worst Revamp: Nip/Tuck moving to LA. Less interesting patients and some irritating moments from our main players.

Good Show Producer: Bryan Fuller. Apparently he’s going to fix Heroes.

Bad Show Producer: Tim Kring. You’ll never make friends if you refer to your audiences as halfwits.

Best Male Character: Dexter Morgan in Dexter. Because of him, I can no longer criticise people who find the likes of Tony Soprano appealing.

Worst Male Character: Peter Petrelli in Heroes. Only because there’s so much whinging I can take from this character.

Best Female Character: Donna Noble in Doctor Who. I was stupid, Donna rocks, end of story.

Worst Female Character: Lana Lang in Smallville. How not to write a female character on a sci-fi show.

Most Improved Show: Torchwood. Season Two went above and beyond in silencing critics.

Least Improved Show: Nip/Tuck. Season Five was a hot mess and I’m not sure the remaining eight episodes will fix it. Then again, I hope I’m wrong.

Best TV Partnership: The Doctor/Donna Noble in Doctor Who. Alex Drake/Gene Hunt come a close second though.

Worst TV Partnership: Gabriel ‘Sylar’ Gray/Elle Bishop in Heroes. Clearly Sylar doesn’t play well with others, even with ones he sleeps with and then murders.

Best Use Of Music: Skins. Some pretty excellent choices throughout the second year, especially in the last few episodes.

Best Cancellation: Moonlight. Bland, boring vampire show deservedly got staked.

Worst Cancellation: Pushing Daisies. Surely ABC could’ve given this another chance.

HoYay Award: Merlin/Arthur in Merlin. Undoubtedly inspiring a lot of seedy fan fiction in its wake as well.

Good Use Of Retcon: Sara not being dead in Prison Break. I like her and she’s been good in the fourth season.

Bad Use Of Retcon: Rebecca not being a Walker in Brothers And Sisters. Poor judgement on the writers’ part.

2009 Hopeful: Dollhouse, which will hopefully not have the same fate as Firefly when it premieres in February.