What a year of telly! A true story made for groundbreaking and controversial viewing, a chalk-and-cheese pair finally got it on β and a gorgeous Japanese epic became an instant classic More on the best culture of Its debut season started with a complaint being made by a conservative mum that our eponymous teacher, Evan Marquez, was spotted kissing his boyfriend on school grounds β and ended with him dressed in rubber at a fetish club with the entire faculty doing poppers and singing karaoke.
It had charm, sexual tension and a sky-high gag rate. Instantly lovable stuff. The supporting cast were wonderful, too: David Hyde Pierce as her loyal life partner Paul, Isabella Rossellini as her pastry frenemy Simone, and Bebe Neuwirth as her sarcastic best friend Avis. In fact, it was their individual stories that collectively made this such a rich show, tackling issues of the time with nuance, wit and piles of delicious food. During its eight episodes, standup comedian Carmichael interrogated the failings of himself and those around him so gratuitously that it felt pathological.
He professed his love for his best friend. He filmed himself cheating on his boyfriend. He engineered a truly excruciating fight with his father. At times it was like staring directly into a wound, and yet it had more fun dancing on the line between performance and truth than any show since The Rehearsal.
Hopefully that will run and run. Her family β the Sheridans β were as dysfunctional as ever, bringing equal parts heartbreak and hilarity to the story, as Shiv continued to try to get her life back on track in Dublin. Who would have thought a man hiding in a vent in a concert hall for 24 hours and weeing in a bottle would make some of the most breath-stoppingly tense TV of the year?
This is still an excellent drama powered by a rare emotional intelligence. I guess you have to be to play Tony Blair twice and still be loved by everyone. Give yourself time to digest it. The love will come. Channel 4 This hair-raising feature-length documentary followed the impossibly courageous anti-fascist activists Hope Not Hate as they attempted to infiltrate and expose various far-right groups in Britain and Europe.
