In a VERY particular order, here are the top five television moments of 2009 that I found particularly spectacular.
5. Max (John Corbett) and Tara Gregson (Toni Collette) watching their children bowl as each of Tara’s alters (she has DID) arrange themselves in the scene to watch the kids bowl. It was an epic portrait and the ending of an engaging series which she would win the Emmy for later in the year. Season two of The United States of Tara begins Mar. 22, 2010.
4. Mma Precious Ramotswe (Jill Scott) tailing a suspicious dentist, cross cut with Mma Grace Makutsi (Anika Noni Rose) befriending little Wellington (Mosako Mogara) from The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. The music in the background was a track called Mahlalela from Hugh Masekala Presents the CHISA years featuring Letta Mbulu. It opened my eyes fully to the gorgeous show, the literary works of Alexander McCall Smith, and to a world of Afropop I barely knew. I hope more episodes are created.
3. Watching Nicki Grant (Chloë Sevigny) comforting Sarah Henrickson (Amanda Seyfried) as she is miscarrying in a motel bathroom during a family road trip. There was a heaviness to the moment, an emotional gut punch, and the remainder of the season three of Big Love grew better and better as time passed. HBO explored massive changes in the Henricksons and Grants this year. Season four begins January 10th 2010.
2. Anna (Morena Baccarin), leader of the Visitors, stripping down to nothing but her human flesh in some sort of Hype Williams R&B video chamber with Sigur Ros’s “Svefn G Englar” thrumming in the background while she comforts her fellow visitors during a telepathic “gift” called “bliss.” I finally found my way to Sigur Ros because of that scene, the song formerly burned in my brain a few years ago somewhere else. Baccarin is amazing as Anna, and I can’t wait for more episodes of V.
1. Jackie Peyton (Edit Falco) lying on the floor in a stark white American Beauty style tableaux, with pellets of painkiller replacing the rose petals, while the theme from Valley of the Dolls plays. Fucking sublime, from my favorite show of the year, Nurse Jackie. The first words Jackie speaks are priceless and set the tone flawlessly for the series:
Let us go then, you and I
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a tableT.S. Elliott 10th Grade English Sister Jane Dechantal. What a champ. She’s the one who told me that the people with the greatest capacity for good are the ones with the greatest capacity for evil. Smart fuckin’ nun.