by Sam Juliano
The 2017-2018 school year is just two weeks from commencement, and those of us in the profession are wondering where all the time has gone. It only seemed like yesterday when we were cleaning out our offices and desks and preparing for a protracted summer season, but in the end the eternal lament about time disappearing is again ruling the roost. In any event we must face reality and and face the coming autumn season, which for me anyway is the most exciting time of the year in a cultural sense.
The Greatest Television Top 80 Countdown Part 1 has been moving forward successfully, and by all barometer of measurement has been an artistic and statistical smash. As always the writers and those joining in the comment sections derserve all the credit, but to those registering likes and propeling the page view totals, I extend our deepest gratitude. We have now officially eclipsed the half-way point, what with today’s posting of Allan’s review of the British documentary masterpiece Civilisation, which has checked in at Number 38. The project will continue until late September, when the Number 1 essay, courtesy of Robert Hornak will be published. But the excitement and artistic prowess will hardly conclude, as our much more grandiose Part 2, which will showcase the television works that finished from Numbers 81 through 218 is coming. That much longer part will begin on Tuesday, December 24 and conclude on Thursday May 10th. (no post on Christmas Day). Needless to say this massive consideration of television, to the staggering tune of 217 works (arthouse, aspiring arthouse, cult and guilty pleasures, brining together classic sitcoms, fantasy/science fiction/horror, contemporary masterpieces, British landmarks and documentaries and foreign language milestones is easily the most auspicious undertaking in the history of Wonders in the Dark, and what with your ertswhile curator set to turn 63 years old this month (the 26th for those wishing to send me imaginary bouquets) it will be the final enterprise of this magnitude at these hallowed halls. This Top 218 (the off-kilter number total was reached by way of incessant additions, arrived at by repeated return to the point totals) is meant to set this enterprise aside from others. Where pray tell can anyone find another Top 218 Greatest Television Shows on-line or anywhere else? Ha! And enough revisions have been made to make anyone dizzy, though by simply moving up the proceedings a bit in January, this obssessive pursuit was made possible. I can only imagine what my friend Pierre de Plume is thinking now?! (more…)