You can check out his awards here: The Pie Man Television Awards 2009.

The only real rule I’m sticking to is that its focusing on cult/sci-fi/fantasy type TV shows.  The time frame is fairly vague, but pretty much anything in the last 12 months.

Best New Series

There’s been a load of good new shows over the last year.  Sadly most of them are now axed thanks to the recession and the usual keenness of US networks to axe anything that doesn’t have brilliant ratings from the get-go.   I was personally very tempted to give this to My Own Worst Enemy, which is currently airing on Sci-Fi UK and is ruddy brilliant.  However, its still halfway through its run, so in fairness I should give it to a show that’s shown all its episodes.  And this is the first award where I’m in complete agreement with Pie Man 70.

The Middleman

Its difficult to understate just how much I enjoyed this series, and how gutted I was when it was axed. Apparently ABC completely failed to realise what a potential hit they had on their hands and neglected to advertise it. Which has been a real shame, as every review I’ve seen of the series raves about it. Gloriously silly, great sense of humour and visuals and a great cast. Grab the DVDs, buy it on iTunes, pray Sci-Fi UK buy the rights, but see this show.

Best Returning Series

I’ve slightly tweaked the name of this award from PieMan’s version just for clarity.  There were loads of really good returning series this year.  Heroes followed up its slightly lackluster volume 2 with a great volume 3, but volume 4 didn’t click nearly as well for me.  Battlestar Galactica headed towards its finale with confidence, Prison Break delivered a brilliant payoff in its finale that was a real treat for fans following the show from the beginning, Dexter continues to be superb television, delivering a great story every year and Lost continued to be must-watch TV, revelling in its own backstory.  However for me, the ultimate winner has to be:

Chuck

Despite barely escaping cancellation this year, season 2 delivered on everything that made season 1 so popular.  A brilliant sense of humour, great action sequences, a stellar cast and most of all, heart.  Be it Chuck dealing with the carnage his double life causes to those closest to him, the Buymore staff dealing with their latest evil deputy manager, you really care about all these characters.  Cap it off with some superb guest stars, and really, its amazing this show had to struggle for a third season.

Most Improved Series,

This one’s very tough.  Partly due to so many shows getting the axe these days after their first season.  Galactica was a serious contender for me.  I felt that season 3 seemed to lack focus, and I wasn’t hugely impressed with the first ten episodes of season 4.  However the final ten episodes turned everything around and reminded me how much I loved this show.  Ashes to Ashes also improved a lot over its not-brilliant first season.

However for me the winner has to be:

Torchwood

Granted, the time period this is covering is pretty vague, but for me it works for either series 2 or especially series 3.  See the numerous other blog posts about how good series 3 was, but even series 2 was a marked improvement over a ropey first season, dispensing with the almost adolescent aspects in its approach to being the “adult” Who spinoff (a feeling they nailed with the third series), giving us a great new character in Captain John and delivering a great storyarc with Owen’s “death” leading up to his and Tosh’s final sacrifice.

Most gratuitous T&A in a series.

Dollhouse is probably the only other contender in this award, but even it doesn’t match up to the winner:

Knight Rider

Really the only choice.  Its arguably one of the main areas in which the show was misjudged and thankfully calmed down as the show went on.  They were a bit too fond of the gratuitous numbers of women in bikinis in the first half of the season.

The Andromeda WTF is this still running award.

Like Pie Man, I can’t really give this award to anything.  As shows have been axed left, right and centre.  There’s probably a soap opera or something that it applies to, but there’s nothing particularly on my radar for this.   Dollhouse is a potential contender for this next year unless it really blows me away, and Heroes is dangerously close to going off the bubble unless they manage to recapture some of that series 1 magic.

This is going on a bit long, so I think I’ll split it up a bit.  Look for parts 2 and 3 in the near future.

Its certainly sparked a lot of debate, with people either loving or hating it. For myself, I like its vague nature. Yes, I know that Matthew Grahame’s given an interview where he explains his take on it, but like all things, people can take what they want from the shows themselves. For myself, I like leaving it open to interpretation. Did he Time Travel? Is he dead? Was he mental? I don’t know. I’d like to think there’s an element of time travel involved, although there’s enough evidence to the contrary, I think some episodes lose their power if he’s just in a coma, or a nutter. I do like the theory that Sam never woke up in 2006, and those sequences were just a deeper aspect of his coma.

I especially like the idea of leaving things vague with Ashes to Ashes coming up. If you accept Life on Mars has a definitive answer, then Ashes to Ashes becomes a harder sell. Why should we care about her attempts to change the future for the better, if we know she’s just in a coma? (Assuming that’s the tact they’ll take again, of course).

Gridlock was another cracking episode of New Who. I loved the twist halfway through, and while the Face of Boe’s message wasn’t a surprise for anyone who’s read the 2005 annual, David Tennant nicely opened things up in Dr Who Confidential with his “Boe’s right, but the Doctor’s not wrong” statement. I just hope this season can keep this quality up throughout, as we’re off to a flying start again.

And finally, I’ve been gorging myself on Prison Break. I’d been meaning to watch it for months now, and I finally got round to using some time off to start working through the season 1 DVDs. Little did I know I’d get sucked in 24-style and blitz the lot over4 days. Yes, there’s some inherent daftness in the escape plan, and Michael is frequently the luckiest man alive, but the storylines remain gripping nonetheless, and there’s some really good acting. Of course, there’s not been much discussion about the morality of Michael helping various convicted and guilty convicts escape, and I’m sure that’s going to cause him some serious grief in season 2. Its great TV though. Now I just need to get my hands on season 2…