TOP TEN....TV SHOWS

Since the year is wrapping up, its time to have a look back at some of the "Top 10's" of the year.

Lets start with TV shows....

When I was growing up I loved to veg in front of the TV and I can still hear my mom saying “You look at that box any longer and you will get square eyes”! I still enjoy veggie in front of TV and now I know the square eye story is not true so I do tend on occasion to overdo the TV watching thing.  

The thing is that at the moment there are some really incredible shows on and that really makes time fly.  I did not realise how much TV I watched until I started putting this list together BUT (and we all have one!!!) I feel compelled to add that I do not always watch all of it when it is on……I do record a lot of the shows and watch them over weekends and so on…..so DON’T judge me ok!!!

Here is my top ten TV shows for 2012……the order is random so not in the order of preference just in the order I thought of them.

Royal Pains: I love medical shows and this is kinda of a mix between a medical drama (like Grey’s) and Macgyver from back in the day.  The show is about two brothers Hank and Even Lawson.  Hank is a young emergency doctor who is wrongfully accused for the death of a VIP.  He and Even then move to The Hamptons where Hank becomes a rather reluctant (in the begging) doctor for hire to the rich and fabulous. And so begins his “concierge” practice. There are several back stories with each character as well as all the medical drama each week. I really enjoy this one and it has some interesting medical conditions.  Also it is sponsored by one of my clients Profmed.

Perception: I was at first not sure what I thought about this show but was willing to give it a chance because it stares Eric McCormack  as in Will from Will and Grace.  I am now a dedicated fan of the series.  I love the talented and eccentric neuropsychiatrist Dr Daniel Pierce (played wonderfully by Eric).  Daniel is a lecturer but a former student Kate Moretti enlists his help to solve some of her more complex cases at the FBI. Their cases are always very interesting and find myself “googly-ing” all kinds of neuro stuff during the show so I am kinda learning stuff.  I find it very interesting how Daniel needs his teaching assistant Lewicki to keep him centered.  Lewicki lives with him and cuts his fruit the way he likes it and also tells Daniel when he is seeing people who are not there.  Its an interesting show and often the quick scenes where Daniel is talking to his students are thought provoking.

Chicago Fire:  I have never given much thought to the work or the life lived by fire fighters.  I know that after 09/11 I had a different point of view when it came to them but what their day to day existence consisted of was not something I really thought of. This show changed that for me. The show basically Telling the lives of the firefighters, rescue squad and paramedics of Chicago Firehouse 51.  The story picks up after the death of one of the fireman and how the loyalties between the leader of Truck 81 Lt. Matthew Casey and the leader of the elite rescue squad, Lt. Kelly Severide have become fractured and divided.  Each blames the other.  But as in all good stories the firehouse pulls together as a team when another fighter has a near death experience. The paramedics are interesting and I enjoy all the different characters stories. These guys face life or death decisions every day but they are like a family and they take care of each other.

The Fixer: This show is known as Scandal in America and I am not sure why the name change.  From the lady who brought us Grey's Anatomy comes a stunning new series. It stars (and I mean stars) the formidable Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope. She and her team has dedicated her life to protecting the public image of the nation’s elite and making sure that their secrets and indiscretions are never revealed. Olivia is a former White House Communications Director and helped to get the current president elected.  However, she has now moved on and started her own crisis management firm. Although the show is only a few episodes old in South Africa I get the feeling that Olivia was hoping to start a new chapter in her life but she is finding it hard to leave the past behind.  She has assembled an awesome team which includes a womenizer who wants to marry his current girlfriend, a smooth talking litigator, a weird investigator and a hacker with a past with I think the CIA.  Then of course there is the new fresh faced lawyer Quinn who I think may develop into an interesting back story.

I adore Olivia Pope and have decided that when I grow up I want to be just like this tough as nails women who has a definite soft side.

Revenge:  This is probably one of the most talked about shows this year.  Basically it follows the life of Emily Thorne who rents a house in the Hamptons for the summer, seemingly intent on nothing more than enjoying a break in the popular resort. But it soon becomes clear that there's more to her visit. Her real name is Amanda Clarke and her father was framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison for life and she has come to the Hamptons to seek revenge against the people who betrayed him and saw him sent to jail. 

I like this one but do at times find all the drama a little much.

Hawaii 5.0: This must be one of the highlights of my week.  I enjoy watching the handsome Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett and his team running around Hawaii.  Basically the story is about the actions of a small special state task force which is created by the Governor to investigate serious crimes throughout the island.  The team investigates everything from terrorism to kidnapping.  The team consists of the yummy Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett, Detective Danny Williams, Chin Ho Kelly and rookie cop Kono. The task force does not follow the normal chain of command and instead reports directly to the Governor's office. The Hawaii scenery is gorgeous and the story line is interesting.

Homeland:  This was another series I had to warm up to but once I had I quite enjoy.  It is the story of a CIA officer Carrie Mathison, who after conducting an unauthorised operation is put on probation and reassigned to counter terrorism.  While on the unauthed op Carrie was warned that an American POW had been turned by al Qaeda.  Carrie becomes concerned when a US Marine Sergeant Nicolas Brody who was reported missing in action in like 2003 (I think) is rescued during a Delta Force raid on a compound terrorist Abu Nazir. Carrie comes to believe that Brody is the American prisoner of war who her asset in Iraq was talking about however, everyone else considers him a war hero. Carrie is now working to uncover if there is a plot involving Brody for another terrorist attack on American soil.

Arrow:  I like this one. The plot goes something like this.  Oliver Queen is a billionaire playboy of Starling City who spends five years stranded on an island following a shipwreck that claims the life of everyone else on board, including his father, Robert Queen, and Sara Lance, the sister of Oliver's girlfriend Laurel. Upon his return to Starling City, he is reunited with his mother, Moira, and her new husband, Walter, the former CFO of his father's company. He is also greeted by his younger sister, Thea, and his best friend, Tommy Merlyn, the son of billionaire Malcolm Merlyn; Oliver tries to reconnect with ex-girlfriend Laurel, but she blames him for the death of her sister, Sara. Oliver and Sara were having an affair at the time of the accident.

During the day, Oliver plays the billionaire playboy; at night, he becomes a green-hooded vigilante, following through with his father's dying wishes to right the wrongs of the Queen family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory. Oliver's vigilante persona becomes the focus of Detective Quentin Lance, father to Laurel and Sara, who is determined to harass him, blaming Oliver for his daughter's death and his wife leaving him, though he remains unaware of his real identity. Oliver is also constantly flanked by a bodyguard, John Diggle, who has now joined Oliver in his fight for justice. We have just found out that mom Moira is also hiding some secrets, as she knows that the family yacht was actually sabotaged.

Oliver is a superhero with no super powers only learnt abilities….the stunts are pretty cool and I think Oliver may have met a love interest last week….

Suits: I enjoyed this one from the first episode. In the first episode we meet Mike Ross is a brilliant college dropout whose dream of becoming an attorney was derailed after he was expelled. With his natural intelligence and eidetic memory, he makes a living taking the LSAT for others. To make the money he needs to keep his grandmother in a private nursing home, he agrees to deliver a case of marijuana for his best friend Trevor Harvey Specter is one of New York City's top corporate lawyers and is promoted to senior partner at the Pearson Hardman law firm. He is forced by company policy to hire an associate attorney. Mike discovers that the drug delivery is a sting operation and escapes the police by accidentally sitting for an interview with Harvey. Harvey is impressed with Mike's quick wits, encyclopedic knowledge of law, and genuine desire to be an attorney; he hires Mike and pretends that Mike is a Harvard Law graduate. Only Harvey's legal secretary and confidant Donna Paulsen knows the secret.

Every week there is the threat of the secret being found out and all kinds of interesting cases to solve.

A gift Man:  I think I fell in love with Patrick Wilson and as a result I fell in love with the show.  It follows the life of Michael Holt who is a talented but self-absorbed surgeon at an upscale New York City clinic. He lives a comfortable and materialistic life due to the wealthy clients he treats, but is nevertheless discontented with his life and acts coldly to those around him. His life is thrown into disarray, however, when he is visited by the ghost of his ex-wife Anna Paul, who was recently killed in a car accident. Anna asks Michael to help keep running the free clinic she previously directed, which leads Michael to be exposed to poorer patients in need who are far different from his usual clientele. Michael's sister Christina, a single mother struggling to care for her troubled teenage son Milo believes in the supernatural and is thrilled with the idea that Anna is back in Michael's life, as she insists he was a better person when she was around.

So the ghost thing is a little freaking but it is not done in a freaky way…..if you know what I mean.  Plus the medical side of it is really interesting…the illnesses they come up with are mind blowing at times.

Big Bang Theory: I know I know this one made the list last year but it is just so freaking AWESOME I had to mention it twice.  I think this is my favorite show at the moment BAZINGA!!!