Top 5 TV shows of 2012
1. “The Mindy Project”
2. “Parks and Recreation”
3. “The Walking Dead”
4. “Sherlock”
5. “Louie”
“OK, the ‘Mindy’ show is amazing — not because there’s finally a cool Indian chick on TV, which BTW, is major — but because it appeals to real women. The ones that perhaps didn’t get asked to the prom but grew up to be badass, hysterical, Celine-bag swinging hotshots. I don’t mind that she’s flaunts it.” Tina Chadha
“I want to steal Mindy’s life and/or be her permanent brunch date. She’s like a Zooey Deschanel that I don’t want to smother a little bit.” Monica Weymouth
“I really like ‘The Mindy Project’ — it’s good — but there’s no way it’s the best show on TV, like our list suggests. That would be ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Breaking Bad.’ I would kill a man to work on ‘Sherlock.’ I know people say that as hyperbole but I really, really mean it (sorry, random dude). It’s as close to genius as TV gets these days.” Dorothy Robinson
“I want to state for the record that against all of my best instincts I welcome the world knowing and loving a man with the so-British-it’s-silly-on-an-almost-Monty-Python-level name of Benedict Cumberbatch!” Pat Healy
“Anyone else have a weird crush on Louis CK? Just me? I can’t help it: He hates us all so good.” MW
“I’ve caught the occasional Louie episode and somehow they’ve all left me wondering: ‘… the f– was that?’ in a good way. Meredith Engel
“Angry dudes, obviously, make the best TV — from a divorced doc (“Mindy”) to a zombie-fighting lawman (“The Walking Dead”) to an anti-government government employee (“Parks and Rec,” though give Ron Swanson his sax and all is right with the world). Amber Ray
I was late signing on to “The Walking Dead.” And if I’m being honest, I mostly watch because I know — I know — that Andrew Lincoln will drop the zombie slaying act any day now and declare his undying love for Keira Knightly with cue cards. Wait for it.” MW
TV Editor Amber Ray’s Top 5
1. “Sherlock”
2. “Louie”
3. “Parks and Recreation”
4. “Breaking Bad”
5. “Homeland”
We’ve all seen Sherlock Holmes done dozens of times before. And yet the detective, in Benedict Cumberbatch’s guise, becomes this incredibly exotic, infuriatingly distant being who we’re nonetheless impossibly drawn to because of his genius and unyielding confidence. Well, and his impeccably tailored sense of style.
Or maybe I’m just a sucker for tortured mad men with hypnotic gunmetal eyes.
Then there is the writing on “Sherlock.” Sherlock’s back-and-forth with Irene Adler (Lara Pulver) in “A Scandal in Belgravia” produced some of the best sexual tension on TV this year — quite a feat when we’re talking about a celibate detective. And the ending of “The Reichenbach Fall” and Sherlock’s showdown with Moriarty (Andrew Scott) was so, so good, I can’t believe we might have to wait until 2014 to see the cliffhanger’s resolution in Season 3.
