The best television I watched in 2014

This will be a short one.

For news and commentary, I preferred some shows in the MSNBC line-up: All In with Chris Hayes, The Rachel Maddow Show, and Melissa Harris-Perry (the most diverse of the Sunday shows in 2014 for the second year in a row). On PBS, Bill Moyers remained consistently good. (They’re liberals, but I’m not expecting anarchist television any time soon...) And for comedic political commentary, John Oliver’s weekly show has been a superb addition.



(That clip is actually from this week, but it’s important enough to mention here – I discussed this very issue here last year.)

I continue to enjoy Scandal, Revenge, and Castle on ABC, but there are two other lesser-known shows that captured my interest last year. First, Manhattan on WGN America:



I love the music and look forward to the second season. I can’t do that with the other interesting drama series on a small channel, We TV’s The Divide,



because they cancelled it. Very unhappy about that.