Hannibal
‘Nuff said.
NBC
Wait, hear me out on this one. Yes, they canceled Dracula (to be fair, it didn’t get really good until the last few episodes, so I can’t blame them for that), but they also picked up Hannibal for a third season. Fun fact: this will be the first Bryan Fuller-created series that has gone more than two seasons.
Supernatural - “Fan Fiction”
Supernatural is at its best when it is weird and goofy and meta. Their 200th episode, in which Sam and Dean investigate murders at a high school, turns super-meta when the drama club turns the Supernatural “novels” into a musical.
The Simpsons - “Treehouse of Horror XXV”
The annual Simpsons Halloween extravaganza makes my “Best of” list every year, if only out of my sheer love of The Simpsons. However, this year’s entry is easily the best in the last decade or so, and actually have tales of horror instead of tales that are vaguely fantastical. “School in Hell” is the most gory segment The Simpsons ever produced; “A Clockwork’s Yellow” is a spot-on spoof of A Clockwork Orange and “The Others” is a cute self-reflexive look at the Simpsons from The Tracey Ullman Show.
The Walking Dead - “The Grove”
This was one of the most amazing, powerful, intense hours of drama ever televised. It was controversial: one of my coworkers at FEARnet (R.I.P.) vowed he would never watch the show again after mentally-disturbed, pre-teen Lizzie kills her younger sister, forcing Carol to then kill Lizzie. It dealt with mental illness in a very direct, very blunt way that I find brave and commendable.
True Blood Series Finale
I feel like I was in an abusive relationship with True Blood. It stopped being good after season three, but it was my job - even my duty - to watch every episode. The finale was awful, but now it is over and I never have to watch it again.
Salem
To be fair, I only watched the first couple of episodes of this series (cable issues), the first original scripted content for WGN America, but I was very impressed. When I first heard WGN was getting into the scripted arena, I was shocked - I only ever knew WGN as the weird cable channel in the middle of the lineup that played old 1970s sitcoms. But Salem proved to be smart, edgy entertainment. I am looking forward to catching up on the show before the second season premieres in 2015.
Teen Wolf - “Galvanize”
This whole season of Teen Wolf has been great (evil Stiles!), but this episode was particularly fun and creepy because it starred fan favorite Doug Jones (the man beneath the rubber in Guillermo del Toro’s films) out of makeup. He just plays a crazy serial killer, which is even weirder than seeing him bare-faced because he is the nicest guy ever.
Tusk
I know, this one has nothing to do with television, but Kevin Smith’s feature horror film, Tusk, was one of my favorite movies of the year. It is funny and weird and deranged, but didn’t get much attention at the box office. If you don’t like Kevin Smith, you won’t like this, but if you do, I urge you to seek this flick out.
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