Rueben's Ramblings

Back on June 10, 2010, I posted my very first article at Rueben’s Ramblings, welcoming readers from NiceGirlsTV where – at the time – I had been writing a weekly column for the previous year.

My goal with Rueben’s Ramblings was (and continues to be) my way of providing entertainment news, covering television, movies, music and books to those readers who love these mediums as much as I do.

Given that my site will celebrate 10 years TODAY, I wanted to salute just some of the top things that took place, or to be more specific, the TV and film events and people that I spotlighted throughout each year.

I’ll start with 2010 today, and then roll out the salutes for the remaining years as often as possible over the course of the next couple weeks.

I hope you will check out each year’s salute, and share what were the stand-out moments and/or events for you for each year.

2010 Highlights:

Some memorable shows that debuted in 2010 included:

* The Walking Dead, that starred relatively unknown British actor Andrew Lincoln, who most US viewers only knew from the 2003 movie Love Actually (that is if you actually saw that movie), in the zombie-laced apocalyptic AMC series;

* Haven, the Syfy fantasy-thriller loosely based on the Stephen King novel ‘The Colorado Kid’;

* Lost Girl, the Canadian supernatural series [which didn’t technically premiere in the U.S. until 2012], broke ground on Showcase (the Canadian specialty channel);

NOTE: I found a way to watch Lost Girl online each week shortly after it aired in Canada; but it wasn’t always easy to track it down.

* Sherlock – The very first 3-part mini-series debuted on PBS that summer, introducing a then unknown Benedict Cumberbatch as the master detective himself and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit franchise, Black Panther and Love Actually) as Dr. John Watson; and,

* Life Unexpected, the drama about a reunited family (in short: a very independent teen brings her birth parents together) debuted on The CW, in January; and while it only lasted for two seasons, the show garnered a very loyal following (that still exists today), and made life-long friendships for the cast and creative mind behind the series, which included Shiri Appleby (Roswell and UnReal), Kristoffer Polaha (Ringer, Condor and the Mystery 101 Hallmark Movies & Mysteries movie franchise), Britt Robertson (the box office film The Longest Ride and the TV shows Under the Dome and GirlBoss), Austin Basis (Ghostfacers and the reboot of Beauty and the Beast), Ksenia Solo (Lost Girl, TURN: Washington’s Spies, Orphan Black and Project Blue Book) and Kerr Smith (Dawson’s Creek, The Fosters and Riverdale) as well as Executive Producer/Creator Liz Tigelaar (Nashville and Little Fires Everywhere).

Here is the opening credits for Life Unexpected:

Additionally, there were two shows that were in their second seasons in 2010 that meant a lot to me personally, including:

* Being Erica – This Canadian import aired on the defunct SOAPnet, focusing on Erica Strange (the delightful Erin Karpluk), who thanks to her “magical” therapist helped her go back in time to repair regrets from her past [eagle eye viewers will recognize Orphan Black lead Tatiana Maslany in a few episodes of this show as well); and,

* Drop Dead Diva – This Lifetime dramedy delved into the world of plus-sized lawyer Jane Bingum (the charming and musically-adept Brooke Elliott) whose body was inhabited by the soul of vapid aspiring fashion model Deb Dobkins (a then unknown Brooke D’Orsay) that was really taught a lesson about not judging a book by its cover (and if you’re a fan of Superstore, you’ll recognize Ben Feldman as Jane’s guardian angel).

Another big moment on TV was the episode of Doctor Who entitled “Vincent and the Doctor,” which featured talented actor Tony Curran [who folks should remember from his work in movies like Outlaw King and Underworld: Evolution and TV shows like Defiance, SEAL Team and Ray Donovan among countless others] as the one and only Vincent Van Gogh. Watching Tony’s face in the guise of tormented artist Vincent as he listened to modern day art historian Dr. Black (the unforgettable veteran actor Bill Nighy from Love Actually) expound on what a gift Van Gogh’s work was on the world was beyond moving.

Judge that moment for yourselves:

Also in 2010, for the first time in 57 years, TV Guide let the fans decide what show would grace the cover of the long-running magazine. After 5 1/2 million votes, who was the winner? None other than the little horror show that could: Supernatural.

It should be noted that the competitors were Bones, Castle, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, Smallville and Supernatural. The voting lasted for two weeks with the final votes coming down to the wire with only about 20,000 votes separating #1 and #2. It should also be noted that, at the time, Supernatural was in its 6th season in 2010.

Here is a video of then Editor in Chief Debra Birnbaum making the big reveal on CBS’s The Early Show:

In the movie world, the #1 box office film for 2010 (in terms of most money earned) was Toy Story 3. It was the year that movie goers got to see the first real rom-com in ages in the form of Letters to Juliet and actress Emma Stone had her first big lead role in a film in Easy A. On the other end of the spectrum, two of the worst movies for 2010 were The Last Airbender and Grown Ups.

It was then at the end of the year that I pointed out some of the new faces of 2010 and faces to look for in 2011, as I believed they were going places.

Those actors included Maggie Q, Isaiah Mustafa, Jennifer Lawrence, the aforementioned Benedict Cumberbatch, Ruth Wilson, Jessica Chastain, Rami Malek, Jason Momoa and Sarah Shahi. I’d like to think that I was right about these choices, which I made in December of 2010!

You can see the posts below, and I apologize that the pictures I used in the original posts no longer work, but the predictions (for those mentioned above as well as a few others) were still “spot on”:

New Faces of 2010

Faces to Watch in 2011

COMING SOON: Salute to 2011

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