2010 was the year that I managed to come out of my New Mother haze and actually have the presence of mind to enjoy movies and television shows other than the re-runs of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom that I continually watched in my weepy, sleepless postpartum days.
You haven’t lived until you’ve cried the Ugly Cry to Amber & Gary’s shenanigans!
And so I happily present to you – in no particular order — my Best of 2010!
1. Boardwalk Empire
I gotta be honest: my heart still has not fully recovered from the departure of The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Carnivale from HBO. Big Love will do in a pinch, and Eastbound & Down is funny (more on that later), but don’t you EVEN come up in here with that poorly-acted and ridiculously-scripted True Blood crap. I want an HBO DRAMA, my friends, not Anna Paquin with her David Letterman teeth and half-baked dialect work. Well, this year HBO delivered with Boardwalk Empire. Never in my life did I think I’d enjoy a program that regularly features wide expanses of Steve Buscemi’s naked body, but here we are. Just watching the opening credits of the first episode had me sold that this was going to be a good one, and I wasn’t disappointed. The cast acts the SHIT out of this show, from cray-cray Paz de la Huerta as cray-cray Lucy, to Michael Shannon and his Big-Ass Wide-Set Eyes of Intensity as Agent Nelson Van Alden.
Let us never speak of their horrifying sex scene ever again.
(I admit the post-coital weeping was kind of awesome.)
2. Eastbound & Down
Look, you either love Eastbound & Down, or you hate Eastbound & Down. The Eastbound & Down Facebook page has made me well aware that, in liking this show, I am in the company of individuals who look up to Kenny Powers as some sort of hero instead of a complete and total (but somehow lovable) buffoon. This is…troubling. But I love this profoundly obscene little show, and can’t wait to see what wisdom Kenny shares with us next season.
This is me every night, dude. Just staring at buttholes, and gettin’ a buzz on.
3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Let me put it to you plain: I want to be friends with all the actors on this show. I’d even be friends with all the characters on this show, even if that meant hanging out with the McPoyles.
Big ups to FX for keeping this truly hilarious show onboard, and for letting them get away with showing Danny DeVito bursting out of a leather couch completely naked in the Christmas special. Speaking of awesome FX shows…
4. Louie
About a year ago, I fell asleep on the couch and woke up alone and confused at around 3am, as you do. Louis C.K.’s stand-up special was on TV, which was good because 1) after my epic couch naps, I usually wake up to some disturbing History Channel shit about Nostradamus predicting the fiery demise of all mankind, and 2) I finally had the chance to hear his stuff, and man, Louis C.K. is funny. As soon as we heard about his new show on FX, we set the season pass on Tivo and were off to the races. The show is great because it does what Louis C.K. does so well in his stand-up: humor of the uncomfortably real variety.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD3yrKQGAWQ[/youtube]
5. Inception
Allow me to be real and tell you that I only saw two films in the theater this year: Inception, and Toy Story 3. Toy Story 3 got the job done as well as I expected: I wept so hard that I nearly burst a blood vessel in my eye. But Inception? Man, I loved that shit. Yeah, yeah, go on and be all cool and tell me that you didn’t see what the big deal was and blah blah blah douchebag. I LOVED IT. IT WAS COOL. Also: way to go, Joseph Gordon-Levitt! You’ve crafted quite the little career for yourself, despite having spent your formative years around Kristin Johnson and French Stewart.
He’s earned more money than you’ll ever have by doing this. Vomit accordingly.
6. Dexter
I had my doubts that the Dexter crew would be able to top last season’s Trinity storyline, but after a few slow beginning-of-season episodes, things were deliciously butt-crawly tense once again. I was even pleasantly surprised by the addition of Julia “Save the Last Dance” Stiles, who seems to have come a pretty long way as an actor in her turn as Lumen Pierce.
Stepps ain’t no square dance, Lumen!
7. Amish Grace
What, like you don’t have a favorite Amish-themed 2010 Lifetime Original Movie starring that chick from Father of the Bride who married Brad Paisley?
As if.
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