My Top 5 Wishes for television in 2012

Everyone is providing their top lists of what they want to see happen in the world of television for 2012.  Here's mine

1. The Death of Reality Television: I just want the concept to die.  I'd argue there's no such thing as true "reality" some of it always ends up on the cutting room floor.   "Dancing With The Stars" it seems reaches increasingly for the dregs of Hollywood food chain the longer it goes on.  American Idol is getting so that I can predict who they'll take based on the stories at the auditions- "the Single Mom" "the sick one," etc.  And there are the serial reality contestants- Clay Aitken won on Idol, and is now on Celebrity Apprentice.  "Boston Rob" has done Survivor at least twice, and the Amazing Race once. He's now is hosting some kind of car-related shows.

2. A Return to Scripted Dramas:  A return to relying on well-crafted scripted dramas.  One of my favourites this season has been Once Upon A Time.  It's like someone took the world of fairytales put it in a blender and turned it on.  The Evil Queen from Snow White, is friends with the evil witch from Sleeping Beauty... who'd have thought?  I've loved the twists and turns of it; those who watched last night's episode know what I'm talking about... see Rumplestiltskin (aka Robert Carlyle).  Pan-Am the show about the airline of the same name should be given another chance; what I saw of that it was smartly written, and stylishly presented.  It's got some of the same names attached to it on the production side as West Wing did and that show was classic.

3. A Torchwood return? I got watching a Space marathon  one day over Christmas where they ran the last two seasons (Children of Earth, and Miracle Day) all day and I longed for that show's return... especially after "Miracle Day"'s ending.  However only if it's more like Children of Earth; Miracle Day's story was good, but didn't have nearly the tension in  the story as Children of Earth did.

4. This one is more of a hope; That CBC keeps the Murdoch Mysteries the same as it is right now.  I've just really started getting into that show watching it on DVD, and the writing has gotten better every season- the dialouge has had more of a crispness to it every season.  And I really like that it keeps me guessing.  I'll be watching it, and have it reasoned out who the murderer is.. then baam there's a twist that completely changes it.

5.  A Return to Soap Operas: I've read elsewhere online that the ratings for ABC's pair of lifestyle shows aren't the greatest.  My wish is that they return to the land of soap operas.  I've watched parts of "the Chew" and found it disjointed.  I hope network executives realize people don't really want to watch that.  If they do, then they'd flip it to the Food Network.  People want that daily dose of escapism that only Soap Operas deliver.  If they do come back, hopefully someone will realize that these are driven by storyline.  Without a decent storyline, everything else falls by the wayside.