The absolute best 10 TV series of 2012

So far, 2012 has lived up to initial expectations. We were promised new quality TV series this year and that promise has certainly been delivered. In addition to the wonderful series that return, such as breaking bad Y Damages we’ve seen some top notch new releases hit our screens for the first time. series like Magic City Y the news room prove that 2012 may well be the best year for sensational television programming yet. Here is my list of the best shows that aired this year so far.

1. Breaking Bad – Season 5

A troubled high school chemistry teacher struggling with many aspects of his life, Walter White (a brilliant Bryan Cranston) is diagnosed with terminal stage three lung cancer. At his wits end, Walter turns to selling drugs to support his wife and disabled son. The story begins in season 1 with Walter on a ‘ride’ with his brother-in-law from the DEA when he spots a former student, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) fleeing the scene of a methamphetamine lab. She contacts Jesse and creates a plan to cook and distribute high-grade meth to pay for her treatment and leave her family financially stable.

Season 5 begins with a flash-forward to Walter’s 52nd birthday. He is in bad shape, with disheveled hair and beard, uses a false name and buys a car with preloaded guns in the trunk. Things can only go from bad to worse as we reminisce in the aftermath of drug lord Gus’s death at the end of season 4. His wife Skyler is stunned and bewildered by Walt’s murderous triumph over Gus while Jesse and Walt they make peace. DEA brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris) visits the scene from previous seasons burned down, a high-tech drug lab in search of clues. Remembering the surveillance cameras in the lab, Walt and Jesse seek help in getting rid of the digital evidence.

2. Damage – Season 5

Up-and-coming law school graduate Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) became the protégé of ultra-successful, hard-hitting high-stakes litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) in previous seasons, but this year she’ll face her mentor head-on. As is the formula for previous stories, nothing is what it seems in season 5.

Ellen starts her own firm in the final and final season of Damages and her first client and case comes face to face with Patty in a twisted and sordid story based on the death of a Wall Street whistleblower and her connections to the founder of a online information exhibition site. Ellen is killed in the final verse and is Patty responsible?

3. Dexter – Season 6

Dexter is the most ‘killer’ father in the world!

Based on the novels by Jeff Lindsay. Dexter dreaming darkly Y Dear Devoted Dexter This crime thriller series follows Dexter Morgan, a forensic blood spatter analyst for the Miami Dade Police Department. He is the rock of support for his sister, he had a steady girlfriend with two children who became his wife before becoming the victim of a serial killer at the end of season 5. It’s a normal life on the surface, but Dexter It also has a very “active” nightlife.

Based on a code instilled in him by his adoptive father, Harry, he hunts down those who have escaped justice and makes sure they never get away with it again. Dexter is a charming serial killer whose urge to kill is controlled by Harry’s code. In Season 6, Dexter finds himself alone again raising his infant child following the death of his wife at the hands of his Season 5 nemesis. Can he control his urges? Will he be able to maintain his anonymity? All will be put to the test in the turmoil that awaits them in the final season.

4. Falling Skies – Season 2

Falling Skies is set after an alien invasion of earth has left most of the world fundamentally crippled.

The first season focused on the period several months after the initial invasion, the few remaining survivors banded together on the outskirts of several major cities to begin the difficult task of rebuilding and eventually fighting back. Every day is another test of survival as the citizen soldiers attempt to protect those in their care as they wage an insurgency campaign against the force of the occupying alien force.

Season follows the survivors as they slowly make their way to join up with two other survivors who are reportedly gathering in numbers. A united front seems like their best hope of survival, though the journey is full of trials and tests of resolve.

5. Justified – Season 3

US Marshall Raylan Givens is a 19th-century-style modern lawman, imposing his own brand of justice in a way that puts a target on his back with criminals and puts him at odds with his bosses in Marshall’s service. . That conflict and a ‘justified’ shooting case result in a reassignment of Givens to the US district office covering the city where he grew up. He is an anachronism, a cold, hard, soft-spoken gentleman who finds his neighborhood fascinating, but never budges an inch despite his past relationships. Dig a little deeper under his placid skin and you’ll find an angry man who grew up in rural Kentucky with an outlaw father who knows a lot more about who he doesn’t want to be than who he really is.

Season 3 unfolds quickly as old friends become enemies and old enemies become allies in a fight against out-of-town troublemaker Robert Quarles who has connections to the Dixie mob. The issues become more complex as local matriarch Mag’s Bennett enters the fray along with a number of already established locals, including Boyd Crowder, the Bennett brothers Dickie and Dewey, Ellstin Limehouse and Wynn Duffy. This mix of colorful identities is a surefire formula for the perfect storm.

6. Line of Duty – Season 1

From the UK, Line of Duty follows a unique multi-threaded investigation in five one-hour episodes, as Detective Sergeant Steve Arnott (Martin Compston), who is transferred to AC-12, an internal police anti-corruption unit, after of the death of an innocent Muslim in a mistaken shooting during an anti-terrorist operation.

Along with Detective Constable Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure), a popular and successful officer, Detective Inspector Tony Gates (Lennie James), assigns them to a team tasked with investigating alleged corruption (laddering). As DCI Gates cleverly manipulates his unit’s arrest numbers, Sergeant Arnott is forced to question whether Gates may actually be a scapegoat for an institutionalized spin culture, or whether he is, in fact, guilty of more corruption. dark.

7. Magic City – Season 1

In one of the best this season period dramas, set in the 1950s, Magic City focuses on Miami Beach’s most luxurious resort-style complex: the Miramar Hotel. Visionary hotel boss Ike Evans (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) must contend with the mob led by the notorious Ben Diamond (Danny Houston), his troubled family, and a city in the midst of histrionic change as Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba. , just 200 miles away.

During the day, the hotel in downtown ‘Magic City’ is alive with diving clown performances and poolside cha-cha lessons, but at night, the Miami Beach strip reveals a darker truth. Dopers, dealers, strippers, gangsters and those who arrest them merge to listen to the best nightclub acts. Just below the surface, racial tensions are stirring. As life becomes increasingly confusing, Ike must contend with a series of misadventures to keep his dream alive, while global unrest brews right next door.

8. The Newsroom – Season 1

This season is easily the best written new series. Clever script and brilliant performances from the lead actors make this my tip for the best new TV series of 2012.

The Newsroom follows an established cable news anchor, Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels), after he returns from a forced vacation to find that most of his staff have jumped ship and joined another news program at the same time. string. He is forced to work with several new crew members brought in during his absence, including his new producer and ex girlfriend Mackenzie MacHale (Emily Mortimer). The program offers an interesting perspective on the operation of a news program and obtaining information and commentary from “experts” on a series of very important news in recent years.

9. The Walking Dead – Season 2

Seasons one and two follow a group of holocaust survivors who do everything in their power to avoid contamination from a deadly disease that kills and leaves those infected as the walking dead.

Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) is a former small-town sheriff’s deputy who wakes up from a coma several months after being shot while on duty. When he wakes up, he discovers that zombies have taken over the world and assumes that he is the only person still alive. After his return home to discover that his wife and his son have disappeared, he heads to the city of Atlanta in search of his family.

As he narrowly escapes death at the hands of a rampaging zombie pack in Atlanta, he meets another survivor, Glenn, who takes Rick to his camp on the outskirts of town. By chance, Rick finds his wife Lori and his son Carl at camp, along with his partner and best friend Shane. The camp consists of a small group of survivors fighting to fend off hordes of zombies, while competing with other groups of survivors who are willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive.

10. True Blood – Season 5

It’s official; vampires are “out of the coffin” and now they live among us. Surviving on synthetic blood, they no longer need the blood of humans to survive. Or them?

The small southern town of Bon Temps, Louisiana boasts a large contingent of colorful locals, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) among them. Sookie is a sweet and innocent waitress who hides her ability to read minds and lives next door to Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a 173-year-old vampire who returned to town in Season 1. Sookie’s brother Jason (Australian , Ryan Kwantin) is a ladies’ man who can’t seem to keep himself out of trouble, though his new role as deputy sheriff has him at least on the right side of the law for now. Local bar owner Sam, Sookie’s gambling friend Tara, and Ella Lafayette’s cousin join the quirky cast of characters who hide their dark secrets in the shadows of the night.

From the pen of Allan Ball, writer of the Oscar-winning best picture American Beauty comes the critically acclaimed world of True Blood.