The Best New TV Shows of 2013:

Every year great new shows are released unto the viewing public, some heavily promoted, others not so much. Below is my list of those that you definitely need to check out ASAP. This year, the minority market really came alive. The traditional media market got a jolt with stunning Netflix shows and online/ cable shows picking up chunks of core supporters. Hell, even your tweets now are gonna go towards Nielson ratings!


First, my pick as the best new show of 2013…



House Of Cards (Netflix): an adaptation of a previous BBC miniseries of the same name, which is based on the novel by Michael Dobbs, the series stars Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, a scheming Democrat who was promised the role of US Secretary of State only to have it snared away at the last minute. Naturally, this being a show about politics, he doesn’t go quietly along the party line but wreaks blood without mostly getting his hands soiled by implication. The series won three Emmys, marking the first time an online series was winning such an award.



and the rest…







In The Flesh (BBC): like the great Sherlock, BBC has limited this zombie show to a mere three episodes per season but that doesn’t diminish its impact. Kieren (Dominic Mitchell) has returned home not fully cured from his zombie condition but with make-up, pills and contact lenses, he “looks” fairly normal. What makes the show so great is the tenderness which it treats his condition and the family struggling to love and accept him while he struggles to accept himself.








The Americans (FX): created and produced by former CIA officer Joe Weisberg, the show is set during the Cold War period in the 1980s. Two deadly spies-- Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), pose as an American married couple in the suburbs of Washington D.C. Russell is particulary effective as the loyal Russian spy who has an issue with authority if it’s less than 100% zealous in retaining the status quo.








BroadChurch (ITV/BBCAmerica): a little boy is found molested and dead on the beach of a small village and a cop with a past is chosen to solve the case. He unearths much more than he bargained for…including his and the town’s darkest secrets.








Masters Of Sex (Showtime): based on Thomas Maier's biography about the sex ed pioneers, the show started slowly but as its progressed it has picked up Mad Men-like speed. Lizzy Caplan (Virginia) especially has added layers to her function as Dr. Masters’ assistant and love interest.








Orange Is The New Black (Netflix): I doubt many fans of this show realize that it’s based off a memoir written by Piper Kerman. It matters little though because Netflix has stated at least they’re watching as Piper (Taylor Schilling) tries to survive the sex-starved and crazy women she’s incarcerated with.








The Wrong Mans (BBC/HULU): two idle British council workers get in a lot of trouble all for answering a phone in the wrong place and time.








The Bridge (FX): US and Mexican cops get together to solve a crime and so much more happen.








The Returned (Channel 4): a horrific accident takes place and while the small town mourns and tries to piece itself together, the dead suddenly start to return…







The Following (FOX): former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) attempts to recapture serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) and realizes how rabid Joe’s cult followers can get to defend him.

2013: The Best New Artists:

Not particularly a great year overall but the new talent was abundant. None more than my pick as best new artist of the year…



Divino Nino: Divino Niño is Guillermo Rodriguez (guitar),Javier Forero (bass) and Camilo Medina (guitar); they share vocal duties. After reforming over a split from a previous band, their sound has retreated into itself and out comes tasty Hispannic-flavoured oldies. Their debut wonderfully juxtaposes a lot of soul into the process and it’s a huge winner.



The best of the rest, in no particular order…



Jamaican Queens: five years ago, a band called Prussia released a gem of a rock album then disappeared suddenly. I always wondered what happened to them. Well, here are two members from that project making great music so I need not wonder anymore.



Lorde; just still 17, Lorde has that smoldering vocals that will last even long after “Royals” dies down.



Norwegian Arms: this was the music Vampire Weekend wanted to make with their recent album.



Merchandise: relevant alone for successfully bringing back the bad hair band days of the 80s.



AlunaGeorge: English electronic music duo from London, consisting of Aluna Francis (vocals and songwriting) and George Reid (production and instrumentation. Making delicious Euro-pop is swiftly becoming their forte.



Popstrangers: three years of making underground music has finally led them to the mainstream.



Charli XCX: multi-talented and bringing a fresh new voice to pop music.



The Child of Lov: Cole Williams is all about that slow burn daddy pop funk.



Courtney Barrett: new Aussie folk pop singer on the scene.



Haim: it’s hard to believe these sisters are white and teenagers.



Radkey: mission to save the world from fake punk has been accomplished.



Protoje: around the local scene for a few years but this year he, as we say, ‘tek off’.



Chance The Rapper: yet another geeky rapper with an intellectual point to prove. Bring it on!



Autre Ne Veut: Arthur Ashin may use a moniker for his music but that crazed 80s vocals will always immediately register. With a stunning debut album that juxtaposed Prince and Van Halen aping, this dude’s unto something fabulous and this is his debut proper.

2013: Top 15 Worst Films (That I Saw):

It figures that in a year where most critics have struggled to come up with great films to highlight going into December, a bumper crop of really horrible ones flourished. This usually is a top ten list but I decided to add five more in recognition of the crap that we all went to see this year.


There may be more or worse films but these were the ones I saw…





1. Carrie: a remake of the Stephen King horror classic, this time so painfully wrought with clichéd expressions and lack of a cohesive script. Both leads should have known better.

MY RATING: 0/10








2. After Earth: Will Smith and his son…how the hell did this idea pass any studio meeting?

MY RATING: 1/10








3. A Haunted House: it matters little what Marlon Wayans comes in once its comedy, prepare for gut-wrenching crap.

MY RATING: 1/10









4. Scary Movie 5: Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan are in this unfunny franchise…you need no further deterrent.

MY RATING: 1.5/10








5. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D: boring and utterly pointless, we don’t need another remake.

MY RATING: 1.5/10








6. Gangster Squad: Sean Penn acts as if he has lead in his mouth and poor Ryan Gosling’s downward spiral continues with this film that misses its mark despite packing an impressive cast.

MY RATING: 3.5/10









7. Mortal Instruments: City of Bones: we’re accepting of all these fantasy trilogies but I’ll give this one the Gandalf quip…”you shall not pass!”

MY RATING: 3.5/10










8. The Lone Ranger: Johnny Depp…sigh.

MY RATING: 3.5/10









9. R.I.P.D: the undead battle fellow undead…police versus bad ghosts. Pass.

MY RATING: 3.5/10








10. Beautiful Creatures: yet another pointless coming-of-age witch story.

MY RATING: 4/10








11. The Hangover III: the characters starting to get collectively annoying now.

MY RATING: 4/10









12. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters: Jeremy Renner really should know better.

MY RATING: 4/10








13. The Host: had a fairly solid story but the boring levels of this film are unmatched in Hollywood.

MY RATING: 4/10







14. Oz The Great and Powerful: but for the talking monkey, this would have been totally forgettable.

MY RATING: 4/10






15. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters: still here wishing the lead characters drowned mid-way through this film.

MY RATING: 4/10

Top 10 Most Overrated Albums of 2013:

Every year there are those albums that critics proclaim earth-shattering, even before they’ve been released. What this portrays though is a position taken on a band or solo artist so held in reverence that it matters little what content they put out—it’ll be sacrosanct. Here are this year’s top ten such holy relics…


1. Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City: if anything, MVOTC reminds us that no matter the new suits or riffs involved, Vampire Weekend remains a band and not a lead singer tagging a few friends along for a joyride. Whether one views this as a blessing or limitation is totally up for interpretation but Ezra Koenig hasn’t broken any seismic new ground here. Somehow critics forget how enthused they were for the early folksy stuff which has been rep-laced by frosty pop/rock songs with stiff non-choruses and a clear lack of inspiration.

METACRITIC: 8.4/10



2. My Bloody Valentine MBV: the band’s first release of new material since their critically-acclaimed album Loveless, way back in 1991. Needless to say, critics were stumbling over themselves to proclaim a triumphant return but MBV shows that the two decade-long silence from the band had their creative process on ice and this was merely to be a celebrated thawing out. MBV sounds like Loveless reject ideas, and there’s a reason they didn’t make the final cut. It was no surprise then to discover that half of the songs were recorded prior to the band’s temporary break-up in 1997 and the rest of the songs finished more than six years ago. The albums sounds dated with no change at all to the production template and lead vocal delivery.

METACRITIC: 8.7/10





3. Daft Punk Random Access Memories: when best-of-decade lists pop up in a few years, I’d be very surprised if the enthusiasm for this record continues. RAM is an ode to 80s-era disco music and while that’s admirable but instead of lauding the past of others, Daft Punk has dragged us into an hour-long expose into their own history and its pretty bland. These are not even actual songs but mood music that occasionally throws in vocals. The first half is particularly sleep-inducing.

METACRITIC: 8.7/10




4. Deafheaven Sunbather: Sunbather's a seven-song collection that fuses into a massive 60-minute piece. The sequencing is pretty much your standard heavy metal template: scream, shout, whisper then scream again. It doesn’t extract anything new, which within itself is a big issue because critics then to give the genre a free pass, hailing every release as some great leap forward…as indicated by its astonishing Metacritic score.

METACRITIC: 9.2/10




5. Boards of Canada Tomorrow’s Harvest: critics have been yapping non-stop about this mostly silent LP as if some great insight has been unearthed by its release. Stepping into a near-emotionless space and failing to introduce anything new to the duo’s sound, the album boasts the same amazingly layered atmospheres of its predecessors but lacks any sort of differentiating aspect.

METACRITIC: 8.5/10





6. Bill Callahan The River: The first thing you notice is that Bill Callahan is in no hurry on this album. Need something to put you to sleep…look no further.

METACRITIC: 8.3/10





7. Kurt Vile Wakin On A Pretty Daze: Kurt Vile is a man who routinely elevates lyrical idleness to an art-form and while this is his best album by far, its hardly earth-shattering stuff. His songs often seem to get stuck in an arc of plausibility then he creates a melodious reverb around it. It’s a nice ploy but he’s gotten far too comfortable in this obscurity.

METACRITIC: 8.2/10





8. Run The Jewels Run The Jewels: so, Killer Mike and El-P decided to team up and while that enthusiasm bleeds into every facet: into the no-filler form of a quick-fire 33-minute run-time, the album falls flat every time Killer Mike tackles a chorus.

METACRITIC: 8.5/10





9. The National Trouble Will Find Me: Most people attribute the National’s escalating popularity to their reliability: every National album has been more ambitious, accomplished, and successful than the one that came before it. Not this time though---here the guys just sound bored and running through the motions.

METACRITIC: 8.4/10




10. Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience: Part One: a totally different phase of the Timbaland/Timberlake relationship, the kind of equal-needs project that both are looking to use to re-establish their brand. Both men satisfy themselves in weird ways on the album but the concept-model is set from the opening song, Pusher Love Girl, an arcane, over-long idea. Like most songs here, Timberlake puts in a vocally-pleasing effort only for Timbaland to pitch his still-formidable beats long after Justin has ended his contribution. This makes for unchallenging pop music, the type of safe idea that isn’t terrible but far from exceptional, merely allowing both artists to engage in respectfully avoiding each other’s flow. Timberlake has said that there was no aim or goal for the LP and that’s exactly what we got. This seems a lock for the upcoming Grammy awards.

METACRITIC: 7.5/10