Rueben's Ramblings

Rueben’s Ramblings is celebrating its 10th Anniversary!!

In honor of that I decided to highlight some of the big events that took place during each year of the past 10 years.

Today’s salute is focused on 2014:

Some memorable shows that debuted during that year included:

* Chasing Life – This drama only aired for 2 seasons on ABC Family (now Freeform), starring Italia Ricci [who later starred in Designated Survivor and is married to Robbie Amell, current star of the Amazon Prime series Upload and star of last year’s movie Code 8, alongside his cousin Stephen Amell]. Ricci played April Carver, a talented young newspaper writer with big dreams whose life is turned upside down when she is diagnosed with leukemia. In what could easily have been a downer of a show was actually a touching series filled with love, family and friendship, and made all the better by Ricci’s moving performance;

* The Last Ship – On the opposite side of the scale was the TNT apocalyptic military drama that found McSteamy – Eric Dane from Grey’s Anatomy – at the helm of the U.S.S. Nathan James, a Navy missile destroyer, fighting to save the world after a catastrophic virus wiped out 80% of the world’s population (something that would be very scary to watch in 2020 given what is currently happening in the world);

* The Flash – It wasn’t easy to follow the success (at that time) of Arrow after two seasons, but The CW made the right decision by selecting Barry Allen and The Flash as the first spin-off from what would become a juggernaut franchise on the network. And, casting likable Grant Gustin in the lead role was even better;

* Jane the Virgin – Speaking of The CW, this U.S. version of the Venezuelan telenovela Juana la Virgen, was a breath of fresh air for the network that was known for its harder-hitting action-packed and/or thriller-laced dramas. It also helped that the charming and delightful Gina Rodriguez was cast in the lead role. She made the life of Jane Gloriana Villanueva very poignant and touching, and how many people just loved listening to the narrator during every episode!;

* The Librarians – Much like the made-for-TV movies from which it was based, Noah Wyle returned as Flynn Carsen, who oversaw a group of librarians (there were more than one now) tasked with saving mysterious and ancient artifacts.  It also helped that the show featured Christian Kane (from Angel and Leverage fame), veteran actor John Laroquette and bombshell model-turned actress Rebecca Romijn as well as Canadian actress Lindy Booth and Aussie John Harlan Kim

* Outlander – Based on the popular novel by Diana Gabaldon, this series was basically 23 years in the making. Other versions were attempted, but nothing ever happened until Ronald D. Moore (the man behind the remake of Battlestar Galactica) brought the much-beloved novels – about a time-traveling World War II nurse who ends up in the 18th Century living alongside, and eventually falling in love, with hero Highlander Jamie Fraser – to the small screen, turning Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe into household names nearly overnight; and,

* The 100 – Much of the first season of this post-apocalyptic drama from The CW was very much like all the network’s other shows – a story of teenage angst – but, thankfully, it improved greatly as the debut season took hold, finding the show become a mixture of Lord of the Flies and the remake of Battlestar Galactica. The series was loosely based on the Kass Morgan novel of the same name that eventually became a gripping story of survival of the fittest.

A favorite show of mine – Warehouse 13 – came to an end in 2014. After 5 seasons on Syfy, the show about a massive, top-secret storage warehouse that held every strange artifact, mysterious relic, out-of-this-world object or supernatural souvenir ever found by the U.S. government – what was snagged, bagged and tagged by the warehouse “staff,” ended with a flashback-filled finale, showing the most important moments in each of the agents’ professional lives (scenes, in fact, we had never seen before) as well as an elaborate dance-spectacular for Claudia.

Among some of the big events that took place on TV in that year included the following:

Oliver finally kissed Felicity on Arrow – It took three seasons for Oliver to finally take the step, and while it wasn’t a happy ending – Felicity says, “I told you as soon as we talked it would be over,” and for awhile it was, but we finally got that kiss!:

Here is the video:

It was revealed that Grant Ward was actually working for HYDRA on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – At the end of the first season it was revealed that Agent Ward, who was seen as the embodiment of the loyal American SHIELD agent was actually working for the organization enemy HYDRA. It was a big turning point for the show and the characters.

Richard Castle and Kate Beckett finally got married in 6th episode of season 7 of Castle – It took a long time for Caskett to become a legitimate couple, and an even more complicated way for them to get hitched – especially given the failed big wedding that was to take place – but they made it down the aisle in a very private ceremony, but they finally become husband and wife.

Supernatural aired its 200th episode titled “Fan Fiction” in 2014, which found the brothers investigating a haunting at a theatre where a musical about their lives was staged by an all-girl production. This episode was a love letter and thank you to the long-time fans, for sure.

Check out the video of the girls singing what became the unofficial theme song of the show “Carry On Wayward Son”:

It was in this year that the long-running PaleyFest, the annual two-week event honoring TV hosted by the Paley Center for Media, was moved to its largest location yet: the Dolby Theatre right in the heart of Hollywood.

For me, 2014 was an important year as I added to my staff: my good friend Dominick Dusseault joined as my official staff photographer; and that summer I attended the world premiere of the debut episode of Outlander at the San Diego Comic Con, getting to see the cast and creative minds in person as well as being enraptured by the pilot episode, and my getting a rare picture taken with a bunch of kilt-wearing hunks.

See the picture below, which is very atypical for me given my haphephobia (phobia over being touched):

The #1 movie in the world for 2014 was Guardians of the Galaxy while Veronica Mars – the box office movie – came out on March 14 (if only we knew what was set to happen next, right, fellow Marshmellows?!) while some of the worst movies that year included Transcendence, Tammy and A Million Ways to Die in the West.

Even a Firefly fan film was released that year; you can check out the video (fair warning it’s a little over 14 minutes long), below for “The Verse”:

It became a tradition for every year, when putting together my year-end round-ups, that I would select interesting people who were the faces of that year and those faces that people should be on the look-out for in the coming year.

Some of the people I picked for 2014 included: Caitriona Balfe, Margot Robbie, Ansel Elgort, Manish Dayal, Gina Rodriguez, Robin Lord Taylor, Ryan Guzman, Grant Gustin, Matt Ryan and Gal Gadot.

The Faces of 2014

The New Faces of 2015

COMING SOON: Salute to 2015

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