Tatiana Maslany has one of the year’s best roles on “Black.”
This TV season has produced some of the most unexpected best new shows — all of which broke from the tired standard criminal investigation or hospital soap opera formats:
“The Americans” (FX) The best new series of the season. There’s no real sense of where this Cold War drama might take us — reminiscent of “Breaking Bad,” the best drama currently on TV — a rarity in the world of by-the-numbers procedurals and cookie-cutter dramas. The unhappy KGB couple (played by Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) is living a fake life with their family, but nothing is as simple or as black-and-white as past TV portrayals of the “reds” would lead us to believe. No one is all hero or all villain, including the FBI agent (an excellent Noah Emmerich) hunting down the couple who turns out to be his neighbors.
“Go On” (NBC) The only comedy to make the list is almost too painful to watch: The survivors’ group never shies away from the morbid, including a recent episode in which former “Friend” Courteney Cox played a possible love interest for Matthew Perry’s Ryan, but she used her widow status to pull increasingly outrageous and illegal stunts until he simply gave up on her. Weird and uncomfortable? Yes. Hilarious? You betcha.
“Bates Motel” (AMC) Still not sure how they can sustain a series about a young, already psychopathic, Norman Bates, but portrayer Freddie Highmore (inset) is uncanny in his resemblance to Anthony Perkins, the original Norman, right down to the way he shrugs. Learning that the entire town where the Bates Motel stands could be as crazy as the motel does provide enough fodder for at least a season, though.
“House of Cards” (Netflix) Proof that good things don’t always come out of the box. The political drama, an American take on the British original, gives Kevin Spacey the kind of deliciously devious role he seems born to portray. The writing is smart and twisty, and by giving us all the episodes in one shot, “House of Cards” feels more like a real long movie than a series.
“Da Vinci’s Demons” (Starz) Imagine Dr. House or Patrick Jane of “The Mentalist” living in 15th-eentury Italy. They probably could have ended the concept for the series right there, but for some reason they decided that a genius crime solver wasn’t enough and that he had to be da Vinci. A really cute, really hetero (and his history indicates otherwise) da Vinci (Tom Riley) who conjugates curse words that probably weren’t invented yet. If you’re looking for historical accuracy, you probably shouldn’t even bother. But despite its inaccuracies and modern encroachments, including da Vinci’s drawings that look more like an A-ha video, the series is addictive. The dark, action-packed mystery is at times mesmerizing, and the handsome Riley is engaging enough to help you get past the outrageous premise.
“Orphan Black” (BBC America) The sci-fi show features Tatiana Maslany as street punk Sarah who watches her doppelganger, a cop named Beth, kill herself by jumping onto the subway tracks, and decides to take over the dead woman’s life. Sarah and her dead counterpart are in fact clones, and there are multiple other copies on the loose, and there’s a conspiracy to kill them all to erase the unnatural experiment gone wrong. Maslany is fantastic as each of the carbon copies — from the nerd to the desperate housewife who seemingly lives in her laundry room to the psychopath who’s now impersonating Sarah/Beth — although her best relationship remains with the dead woman’s partner, the continually suspicious but loyal Art (Kevin Hanchard). What makes this show different from, and more fun than, your typical police drama is knowing that one of the cops is trying to undermine the case. Every new identity and twist adds to the tension that her identity will be revealed or she’ll be killed before her discovery.