4B — Thursday, January 8, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Best TV
Shows of

2014

2. The Good Wife

CBS

“The Good Wife” continued

to blow away audiences in 2014,
from the tail end of season five
to its season six mid-season
finale. With razor-sharp writ-
ing and a newly-trained focus on
character, Michele and Robert
King’s legal and political drama
proved that Will’s death was a
springboard into new narrative
heights. Its brilliance showed,
sweeping up a bevy of awards at
the Emmys and Golden Globes.

Season six saw Alicia move out

of her grieving funk and make

the decision to run for State
Attorney (plus a Gloria Steinem
cameo!). Cary’s long criminal
trial heartbreakingly unfolded;
and after the January premiere,
viewers will have only a hand-
ful of episodes to savor Kalinda
before she departs. Indeed, the
writers’ treatment of Kalinda
has been the weakest part of
the show as of late, but if Will’s
departure has shown anything,
“The Good Wife” is a constantly
evolving and flexible show.

-CATHERINE SULPIZIO

3. Orange is the New Black

Netflix once again succeeds

in dominating our lives. For 13
straight hours of our summer, we
became introverts, never peeling
our eyes from the screen, captivat-
ed by “Orange is the New Black”’s
sophomore season.

The series brings a stigma-

tized, condemned community of
convicts to the forefront – illumi-
nating a complexity and human-
ity behind their crimes. The show
teaches us to be empathetic, and
gives
insight
into
characters

behind the superficial. It forces us
to be introspective, and demands
that we analyze the human condi-
tion as well as the despicable, yet

neglected, failures of institution-
alization. In the second season,
creator Jenji Kohan shifts the
show’s narrative attention to indi-
viduality, an aspect that makes the
show relatable despite its uncon-
ventional characters. The charac-
ter development is fluid, and the
season focuses on portraying the
multi-dimensionality in not only
Piper, but in the secondary and
tertiary characters, too.

“Orange is the New Black” is

progressive, emotional, enlight-
ening – and certainly one of the
best television programs of the
past year.

-KAREN HUA

4. Game of Thrones

Consistent oversight by the

Emmys isn’t hurting the ascen-
sion of “Game of Thrones” into a
pop-culture phenomenon. This
past season included some of the
series’ strongest moments and
maintained an average viewer-
ship of 18.6 million across all plat-
forms.

The show continues to chart

new territory in the realm of genre
and television. Despite living in
a world populated by dragons,
“Game of Thrones” ’s characters

ditch clichés in favor of astute
psychological realism. The visu-
als, from the effects to the cinema-
tography, rival the vast majority of
big-budget blockbusters. In every
frame, an inescapable feeling of
unease and dread plays the nerves
of the audience like a fiddle.

The multi-cultural, multi-tal-

ented cast and crew have rendered
one of the finest screen adapta-
tions of a source material in recent
memory.

-DREW MARON

5. True Detective

In an industry flooded with

crime shows and bound by yel-
low caution tape, it takes a certain
ingenuity to make a whodunit
series stand out. First, it needs
a brilliant storyteller to weave
in the twisting plots that we
crave, someone like novelist-
turned-screenwriter Nic Pizzo-
latto. Then add two Hollywood
big-shots with a penchant for
darker projects, like Matthew
McConaughey and Woody Har-
relson. The result is “True Detec-
tive,”
HBO’s
groundbreaking

series that follows detectives Rust

(McConaughey) and Marty (Har-
relson) in their search for a serial
killer with a fetish for sacrificing
women in the willowy plains of
Louisiana.

What
differentiates
“True

Detective” from other crime
shows is not its frontrunners’
edgy chemistry. It’s because it has
an expiration date. Each season
brings a different cast and story.
Season two, airing this summer,
will feature Colin Farrell, Vince
Vaughn and Rachel McAdams,
and will be set in California.

-HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK

HBO

WHAT’S NEW ON

Best

Community


Events of

2014

2. Alice Walker Lecture

In
November,
critically

acclaimed author Alice Walker
spoke at Hill Auditorium for
this year’s Zora Neale Hurston
Lecture, an annual lecture
sponsored by the Department
of Afroamerican and African
Studies and the Center for the
Education of Women. Walker
was the first African-Ameri-
can woman to win the Pulitzer
Prize in Fiction for her ground-
breaking novel “The Color

Purple.” While best known
for her work as an author,
Walker is also very passionate
about social justice issues and
women’s rights. In her lecture,
Walker touched on several
different topics including the
political system, war, friend-
ship and the necessity of empa-
thy as a stepping-stone toward
world peace.

-REBECCA GODWIN

3. Espresso Royale’s

November Write-a-thon

Whether it be Tea Time in

the Hopwood room, readings
in the basement of Literati or
poetry slams at coffee shops
you’ve never heard of, Ann
Arbor’s literary scene has a
place for everyone. There’s no
better example of this than the
November Write-a-thon. Each
fall, for 10 hours, poets and
authors, professors and stu-
dents, professional writers and
professional
coffee-drinkers

gather in Espresso Royale on
State Street for free donuts,
free coffee and free electrical
outlets. There for a minute or
the full 10 hours, participants

work on their writing – often
on manual typewriters – and
meticulously craft their pieces:
from formless poems to dia-
logue-heavy short stories to
the first paragraphs of novels
that will be deleted as soon as
they’re finished. It’s about the
process, after all, not the prod-
uct. The event isn’t high bud-
get, and it isn’t fast-paced; well,
unless you consider the typing
“fast-paced.” The November
Write-a-thon is just one more
example of how Ann Arbor has
a vibrant, inclusive literary
scene.

-ALEX BERNARD

4. 52nd Annual Ann Arbor

Film Festival

After 52 years, the Ann

Arbor Film Festival has estab-
lished an integral presence in
the community’s film scene.
This past March brought the
newest crop of independent
and experimental films to
the Ann Arbor community,
attracting visitors from all
over the country to witness
the latest in experimental
and independent filmmaking.
The 52nd festival highlighted
over 200 full-length films,
short films and performances,

more than 30 of which were
premiered at the event. 2014’s
AAFF also featured retrospec-
tives of iconic independent
filmmakers like Thom Anders-
en (“Los Angeles Plays Itself”)
and Penelope Spheeris (“The
Decline of Western Civiliza-
tion”), honoring their impact
on the world of film and its
greater
impact
into
other

artistic mediums. The festival
also promoted local artists in
media outside of film.

-KATHLEEN DAVIS

5. Françoise Mouly Lecture

Françoise Mouly spoke as a

guest lecture at the Michigan
theater as part of the Penny
Stamps Lecture series. Mouly,
art director for The New York-
er, took an especially personal
approach to the lecture, bring-
ing her accomplishments down
to earth for her audience. She
discussed her early years in
Paris studying architecture,
and how her desire to be more
involved in the final product
of her work led her to move
to New York and pursue print

making. She encountered a
comic artist, Art Spiegelman,
whom she would later marry
and work with. The couple
made their first New Yorker
cover together, which led to
her employment and eventu-
ally to her role as Art Director.
Mouly’s lecture felt more like a
friendly and nostalgic conver-
sation, giving a crowd insight
into the personal life of one of
the leading women in the art
world.

-FRANCESCA KIELB

Best Viral Videos of 2014

1. Too Many Cooks

A video created for “Adult

Swim” titled “Too Many Cooks”
was released in October as a par-
ody of classic sitcoms. It begins
by recreating the opening titles
of many familiar sitcoms from
the ‘80s and ‘90s. However, it
doesn’t stop after one cast of
characters is introduced, but
continues to introduce more,
with each set’s introductions
growing more ridiculous. The
parody consists of many stock
characters, including a puppet
and a slasher villain, mocking

the over-the-top acting that the
era is notorious for. Watching
the video derail from family-
friendly to plain bizarre was
like watching a car crash: we
couldn’t look away and neither
could the rest of the world.

The video went viral and even

received a Twitter shout out
from Zach Braff (“Scrubs”). It
left us with a theme song stuck
in our heads, with more ques-
tions than answers and a strange
feeling of nostalgia.

-KIM BATCHELOR

2. Jimmy Fallon’s lip sync
battle with Emma Stone

The setup of a lip sync battle is

simple: there are two competitors,
one stage, one mic. In a “Tonight
Show” lip sync battle, whoever
can upstage Jimmy Fallon is the
winner – a feat in and of itself.
While promoting “The Amazing
Spider Man 2,” Emma Stone was
invited to the superhero-sized
challenge of battling Fallon off
the stage. Fallon stepped to the
mic first, breaking out a gyrating
version of “Fancy” by Iggy. Stone
wasn’t fazed though, and as the
determined diva that she is, she

ripped out a deadpan rendering of
“Hook” by Blues Traveler. In clas-
sic Fallon fashion, he retaliated
with a hilariously theatrical “Mr.
Roboto” by Styx.

But Stone kicked in for the

win, syncing “All I Do Is Win” by
DJ Khaled, with a performance
so head-bangingly intense that
her lyrical accuracy was unques-
tioned. Fallon was brought to his
knees in laughter and awe under
the power of Emma Stone, as was
the rest of the nation.

-HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK

3. The “Apparently” Kid

Give him a few years and

English teachers will be lay-
ing into Noah Ritter (i.e. The
“Apparently” Kid) for his repet-
itive lexicon. In 2014, though,
18 million plus viewers became
so enamored with the five-
year-old that he made the req-
uisite pit stops for all internet
sensations: “The Ellen Show”
and “The Colbert Report.” Rit-
ter gained viral status when a
local news station interviewed
him at a county fair – a natu-
ral logorrheic, Ritter managed

to use the word ‘apparently’
many, many times (probably
not worth counting) in a min-
ute-and-a-half clip. His act was
equal parts neurotic crank and
precocious tot, and it enamored
America. Later down the fame
road, he even got to chat with
Sofia Vergara (“Modern Fam-
ily”), but declined a kiss from
her, no doubt leaving the collec-
tive Internet – male and female
– scratching its head.

-CATHERINE SULPIZIO

4. Mile-high performance

of “The Lion King”

A video posted to YouTube

on April 1st captured the profes-
sional cast of “The Lion King”
singing “The Circle of Life” on
an airplane about to leave Bris-
bane for Sydney. The pure talent
alone is enough to merit a spot on
our list – “The Circle of Life” is
one of the most difficult songs to
pull off a capella, let alone when
the singers are sitting squished
between other passengers and
scattered throughout the plane,
making for less than optimal
acoustics. But the act is just as

fun to watch as it is to listen to
– the passenger reactions, find-
ing themselves in the middle of a
real life, “Glee”-like occurrence,
are hilarious. Some enjoy the
impromptu performance, taking
their own grainy iPhone videos;
others are simply bemused, and
the last third of the passengers
sit stony-faced and unamused
throughout the whole thing –
perhaps determined not to let
Disney on Broadway’s cast hijack
their April Fool’s Day.

-SOPHIA KAUFMAN

5. Strangers
kiss for the
first time

Last fall, WREN and Tatia

Pilieva produced a short film for
a social experiment that asked
20 strangers to kiss for the first
time. Under the lights, before a
white backdrop and in front of
multiple cameras – the subjects
introduced themselves briefly,
then gradually moved toward a
very intimate act of connection.

Though the couples were

quite cognizant of the initial
awkwardness, they soon let

themselves go – they allowed
their innate human vulnerabili-
ties to emerge. Once kissing, it
was as if the cameras and pro-
duction crew disappeared – and
the tenderness and passion of
human attraction overpowered
all else. This was no typical
meet-and-greet hook-up, but it
showcased a simple, beautiful
bond humans may have with
any other human.

In addition, the video show-

cased diversity, a silent com-
mentary on how connection can
merge
demographic
barriers.

The experiment included both
homo and heterosexual couples,
both the young and elderly and
various cultural backgrounds.
This opened up a fruitful discus-
sion in the comments section,
and elucidated differing opin-
ions about the nature of attrac-
tion.

-KAREN HUA

COLUMBIA

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