And so we reach the end of another exciting year of television. To mangle the words of the late, great John Lennon, and so this is Christmas, and what has TV done?
The year in local tele (or at least the year in Tube Ray Army land) began rather inauspiciously, with this magnificent moment of
Neighbours insanity:
(Why they never asked Rieu to come back and share his acting "talents" with the world a second time is beyond me; the man is clearly a future Oscar-winner.)
And, believe it or not, that was the first thing that sprang to mind when I sat down to ponder the year in television.
Not
MasterChef, not Gretel Killeen hosting the Logies, not the
Chaser's "kids with cancer" furore, not the hysterical amount of bosoms in
Underbelly 2 - no, Andre Rieu on
Neighbours.
What does that tell you about the state of my mind?
That's a question only scientists can answer, so for this final edition of the Tube for 2009, I thought I'd run through a few wishes for 2010 when it comes to television. Hopefully they'll all come true (in reality, I'll likely be gifted with the televisual equivalent of a lump of coal, but whatever).
MasterChef to return and expunge the memory of Celebrity MasterChef!
I think we can all now agree that the foray into the "celebrity" world came very close to spoiling
MasterChef's broth, non? There was something so gloriously fresh about
MasterChef, so unadulterated was it by the reality television "c" word (or, to use my favourite nonsense word of the decade, "celebreality"), so the between-seasons cash-in was a little sick-making. As Julie's paella so sagely put it during the show proper:
Plus, the continuation of the franchise also led to something I'll discuss next...
No more Matt Preston overexposure!
Something else we can all agree on is that Matt Preston was the highlight/"find" of
MasterChef. So much so that lots of people evidently decided we needed to see him EVERYWHERE. Ads for food, ads for paper towels, ads for MasterChef - STOP! Matt, please don't become the next Samuel Johnson's Voice!
Entertaining awards ceremonies!
So the Logies were a disaster this year, and the Oscars were groanworthy, and I don't think I even watched the Globes. However! Then, later in the year, Neil Patrick Harris swooped in on a unicorn to save the Emmys from eternal irrelevance, and in doing so, proved that awards ceremonies can actually be entertaining:
With Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin confirmed to host next year's Oscars, could we be entering into a new era of awards show coverage that isn't the televisual equivalent of a double-dose of Mogadon? Here's hoping!
Someone put 20-To-1 out of its misery!
Please!
More adventurous programming!
Given that Ten has seen
Glee become the runaway(ish) success of the year in the face of endless "A musical? Who'll watch
that?" naysaying, wouldn't it be nice if some of the other networks started signing up some great comedies and dramas for those of us who don't have Foxtel?
Have I missed anything? I've already received the first Christmas miracle in the form of
Heartbreak High returning to television (thank you, ABC3!), so feel free to share your TV wishes for 2010 here. Have a heaps sick holiday/season/Christmas/Kwaanza and I'll see you on the other side of New Year's!