SHIELD has had like nine episodes to get good and then just didn't. I don't think the 'get good' is coming - if the back half of season one doesn't pick up sharply I won't be around for season two.

Ah but the reverse is also true. A TV series can withhold answers and that'll be okay if they reveal it later (I just finished Ashes To Ashes and while I find that show's finale overrated, it did answer some lingering questions left over from the earlier Life On Mars series.)

The worst part of it is not putting Breaking Bad at one must be done for disingenuous reasons. If a website's writers actually like the Returned, Enlightened, or other enormously praised 2013 shows better, this is because they are dishonest, not because they actually liked those shows better.

The Guardian's reviewers really liked the Returned and expressed misgivings about Breaking Bad. Call it clickbait if you want, but there is no more quintessentially Guardian choice for best TV series of the year than a moody French language drama like the Returned.

Oh totally agreed. It's just Sarah takes the friendship super seriously and Carlos is trying to protect her unreasonably hard.. this is a tragedy in the making.

Well 'this year' would include the half of season two that aired in 2013, which was very good.

That would have been pretty awesome honestly.

Todd VanDerWerff was saying Enlightened would likely be his pick for best show of the year basically as soon as season two concluded.

It's a shame that the reviews for the Returned and Borgen were both so apparently lowly read, particularly given their enormous popularity elsewhere in the Anglosphere.

The original film is very opaque as to the 'whys' and wherefores of the dead returning.

Well, ultimately - ignoring all other arguments - the Returned has a second season. It has another eight episodes to choose to answer or not answer these questions (I think we'll certainly find out where the dead go, for example.)

B. I'm not as negative as some are about the season finale, but neither am I as positive.

I'm not sure why stating an opinion that the site's writers believe in counts as 'trolling for their personal causes,' 'Stating their personal opinion', sure.

Me too! Who thought an episode with the title "Phallic Victory" would be that beautiful and tragic? (This show.)

That's kind of why I chose Pete over the nephew Nick. Pete is a rugged no-nonsense survivalist type and I figure we'll need some of his hard wisdom before we're through.

SHIELD is just an astonishingly lazy show. Of all the genre series I've seen this year - and I saw a lot of them - it's hard to point to a show where less fucks were given. Falling Skies, maybe, but who expects Falling Skies to be good anymore?

Mm.

I'd say the latter, but then I wouldn't want the writing of the game to suffer, it matters more to me than the series.

Oh, he is.

Carlos also wants to keep you away from Sarah, so I vaguely feel like my friendship is gonna cost me horribly.