Best Of 2013: Paul Casey

Television:

1. HBO, Eastbound & Down
Eastbound & Down is the funniest, most original, and daring show in the last decade. If you have ever said to yourself “Oh, I wish there was something truly new to watch,” put your eyes on this. As with Boardwalk Empire, this fourth season is the best of the whole run and is stranger and bleaker than just about anything else that has been on TV, including even Chris Morris’s work! Danny McBride and Jody Hill have maintained Kenny Powers as a character in ways which so few shows are able. He was ALWAYS an asshole, but never became evil. His bad moments came from his insecurities which never went away, even though a regular show would have made him in the hero at the end of Season One. It reminds me strangely of Six Feet Under in its capacity to show the length of the human life and the struggle that a person has with their own shortcomings. Even though we wanted Kenny Powers to just be the hero, he couldn’t be. He was a deeply flawed man who hated himself more than he ever hated anyone else and McBride and Hill never forgot that. There is real emotion through the show that will make you shed a tear even as you are laughing until you puke. The finale is sublime. Keep a look out for Sacha Baron Cohen’s grotesque appearance. . .

2. HBO, Boardwalk Empire
Boardwalk Empire’s fourth season was almost certainly its greatest. Michael K. Williams has overseen the development of Chalky White from a marginal player to the most important character in the show. Throw in Jeffrey Wright as a supremely manipulative and complex adversary, a brilliant conclusion to Gillian Darmody’s storyline, a fearless attitude towards the fate of beloved characters, top performances from everyone on the bill, a finale that is just about the best hour of anything you will see this year, and you have just about the best show on television in 2013. There is nothing cheap or obvious about Boardwalk Empire. It is afraid of nothing and it shows. A superior bit of work from superior people.

Games
Music: Albums
Music: Singles
Television

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