1. UTOPIA

...Britain is the new US

Even Sons Of Anarchy dared not show the school shooting that instigated this season's dramas. Nor did Utopia show it but it sure as hell felt like it did. The conspiracy theory sci-fi looked like nothing else on TV, soaked in bright yellow hues and dashing about in a manner that made Skins seem gloomy and Misfits looked dated in contrast. It took its cues from the graphic novel at the story's centre and from those pages shook out a hyper-Spooks plotline for paranoid online forum lurkers.

Other UK high points:

Oona Chaplin looked pretty in pink in series two of now-axed '50s newsroom drama The Hour - hard to shine amidst a cast that boasted Peter Capaldi, Dominic West and Ben Wishaw (she didn't look so good in red on Game Of Thrones though).

Gillian Anderson copped-off with random cops and re-defined 'honey trap' in her pursuit of a serial killer in The Fall - an Irish-set, sexed-up Prime Suspect.

There were queer zombies cured of undeadness for In The Flesh, a three ep series with a fresh take on the unliving that involves rehabilitation and an organised political movement for zombies. Series two is on its way.

Charlie Brooker's sci-fi anthology Black Mirror returned for a second outing, this time exploring the horrors of extreme instant messaging, reality TV justice and the worst case scenario of politics-by-soundbite.

With British series much shorter than their US contemporaries, they have yet to succumb to the latest scourge of bingeables... the mid-season hiatus. Thankfully, it's too hard to spin a cliff-hanger midway through a series' second episode.

Not so good: The amount of UK shows from 2013 that we just simply didn't have broadcast here. Where's Toast Of London and The Wrong Mans for starters?

2. THE AMAZING RACE

...and other TV contest projects

"Does anyone here speak bad make-up?"

Cycle 23 of The Amazing Race and still can't get bored of boorish Americans travelling the globe while cursing foreigners for not speaking English. And hey, this year we got a double dose of drag, stinky fish challenges and uncooperative camels.

Elsewhere, Arena attempted to get us all caught up on Project Runway, wooshing us through the mis-step that was 'team' season and expressing us to the latest, more Tim Gunn-focussed season.

Locally, The Block revamped more than just properties as its 'Sky High' edition tapped into the inner urban apartment living boom and made us all thankful none of those couples were wielding buzzsaws at 7am in flats next door to us.

Not so good: The Mole. Twelve people gave up their lives to lie (badly) and cheat (or look moronic) in the hope for fame and fortune. How must it feel to know you were catapulted with balls, thrown in with sharks and even made dress up like extras in a Bond flop, for what? Less people watched all 15 weeks than stuck around for the closing credits to Celebrity Splash.

3. TOP OF THE LAKE

...and other waterside mysteries

...and at the bottom of the lake

It's been noted by a few critics now but something about death and large bodies of water made for the most involving storytelling in 2013. Or maybe it was only those of us who can't swim very well who viewed Broadchurch, Top Of The Lake and The Returned with an added investment of dread.

Not so good: Maybe had the town in Under The Dome actually been immersed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it might have had some intrigue.

4. BATES MOTEL

...a mother of a prequel

Years of therapy lie ahead

Move over Carol Brady, Norma Bates is the new benchmark in TV mothers. She loves her son. Like, reeeeeeeeally loves her son. The idea of the Bates Motel prequel to Psycho (but reset to modern times and weed-growing country) seemed as badly thought out as Gus Van Sant's frame-by-frame '90s remake of the Hitchcock classic. But thanks to the uncomfortable-to-watch chemistry/tension between Vera Farmiga's Norma and Freddie Highmore's Norman, it's difficult to look away. Besides, when she flips the sanity switch, Norma could out-freak Crazy Eyes.

Not so good: Norma lost her deputy toyboy (Mike Vogel) mid-season to Under The Dome. Hasn't this show caused enough harm?

5. REDFERN NOW

...or, iView > all the other network catch-up services

You'd be upset too if you'd lost your iView

Although not bothered to express anything from Britain that doesn't involve a flying blue box, Aunty gave us the only good local productions these past 12 months. Series two of Redfern Now was the only decent local drama in a year that saw Puberty Blues' return delayed and still nothing to fill the gap left by axed cable dramas Tangle and Spirited.

Also, The Chaser rode out the inevitable backlash of recent years and delivered consumer awareness as satire in The Checkout and then did the same with election awareness in another round of The Hamster Decides.

Plus, Next Stop Hollywood was the year's best reality show and Exhumed was the year's best TV talent contest.

And it was all watched on iView without the ads, inexplicable screen resizing and low resolution of other networks' catch-up sites.

Not so good: Ja'mie. It's time for Chris Lilley to create new characters and cast some actors or we will be begging the government to make good with their veiled threats to axe ABC funding... as long as they leave iView alone.

6. ENLIGHTENED

...and the joys of binge-watching non-network US teev

Laura Dern tried hiding from HBO executives

From HBO came the year's most un-TV-like TV show Enlightened. But this feel-not-so-good comedy was too far from the norm to survive even at the home of patient audience-building. Having also been the highlight of 2012, the doing-their-own-thing space that the Laura Dern/Mike White show filled for two years at HBO is now owned by Getting On, a remake of the despairing hospital comedy that, like its forebear, is as depressing as it is humourous.

HBO are doing well with UK source material/talent, with season two of Veep (from the makers of Thick Of It), relying less on punchlines and nailing it with character while transplanting ridiculously-British comic actor Stephen Merchant to LA for Hello Ladies has mastered the comedy of embarrassment. And, let's not forget that Game Of Thrones would just be nudity and dragons if it wasn't crutch-deep in British cast and crew.

HBO also bowed life-enhancing musical drama Treme and life-threatening turbo comedy Eastbound & Down - leaving gaps that even the chatter of more Girls cannot distract from.

Over at AMC: Mad Men the sixth had the added allure of '60s swinging, Bob Benson's shorts and Linda Cardellini; The Walking Dead dropped zombies through the roof and we have all gone cold turkey after Breaking Bad - we are still jonesing.

FX's Justified quietly became TV's best yarn-spinner with its uncommon use of Harlan County dialect and bluegrass. Quite rightly, its creator Graham Yost was also given the keys to The Americans, bringing the cold war back with Fleetwood Mac-car chases and reel-to-reel bugging devices. And FX, also deliver consistent laughs with Archer, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and Legit.

Three shows from new player Netflix screened here: the mighty tense House Of Cards; the mighty hard-to-follow-without-keeping-notes Arrested Development and the might-as-well-be the missing prison years of Weeds, Orange Is The New Black. All binge-worthy.

Not so good: FX's Sons Of Anarchy chased its tail. HBO finally saw what everyone else saw three seasons ago and decided to put True Blood down (it limps on 'til September) while their Aaron Sorkin project The Newsroom continues to alienate viewers by pretending to be smarter than them. As for Showtime's Homeland... it wasn't just us that it kept hanging.

7. HANNIBAL

...killing us softly with his wrong

If Dexter can be a lumberjack, Hannibal can be an installation

Bryan Fuller is one of TV's most thrilling creatives. He also struggles to keep his wildly imaginative shows on air for more than a season or two. First there was Dead Like Me about a band of undead reapers led by Mandy Patinkin, followed by Wonderfalls about a Canadian girl led by the voices of inaminate objects and then came Pushing Daises about a baker led by his ability to resurrect people. So Fuller's not likely expecting to get beyond 2014's second season of this Hannibal Lector origin tale of artful killings, dense dialogue and grand battle between the mystical, the philosophical and the physical. But it will be a beautiful corpse that is left behind.

Not so good: Oh, Dexter, you're a lumberjack and you're okay? At least Brody did the decent thing.

8. BOB'S BURGERS

...the burgers are better at Bob's

The Belcher Bunch

Four seasons in and the Belchers are firm family favourites alongside the Simpsons, the Griffins and the Archers. Kristen Schaal was born to voice youngest Belcher, Louise - Flight Of The Conchords and The Daily Show stints perfecting her manipulative cunning and artery-slicing turns-of-phrase in Bob's Burgers.

Sadly, the Dawson-reviving Don't Trust The B In Apartment 23 ended at year's start. The nasty comedy devised by Amercan Dad writer Nahnatchka Khan to lay waste to the fantasy of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl gone while New Girl survived.

Thankfully, more non-MPDGs can still be witnessed in Miranda, The Mindy Project, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Parks & Recreation and Community.

Not so good: Was I really the only person to think that Upper Middle Bogan was not funny? ABC need to drag Toby Truslove off the floor of Seven's Slide Show and give him a follow-up season to the sit-com of his choice: Laid, Strange Calls or Outland. Surely, he's sick of viewers only recognising him on an angle.

9. SUSAN 313

...drop the pilots

Sarah Silverman takes the news of her axing well

In which Sarah Silverman combined her Lost obsession with her potty mouth and came up with a sit-com pilot that was never going to fly on network TV. A self-obsessed woman who market-tested every frame of her story as it unfolded to a mysterious audience of misfits? Lesbian stand-up comedian Tig Nitaro as her neighbour? Jeff Goldblum? Freaks & Geeks/The Office director Ken Kwapis? The shelved pilot finally streamed online and at 30 minutes it was not enough to combat a world where Modern Family is considered progressive.

Not so good: It's easier to find a pilot online than it is to find a pilot in an airport bar these days. Amazon flooded us with pilots to help select what should be greenlit to series. We call that unpaid consultancy work.

10. REAL HUMANS

...and other Euro visions

Auditions for The Bachelor

Swedish robots. How could this not be good? The Scandi's just kept delivering the goods. Akta Manniskor, its original title, crossed political tensions between human and android-kind with sci-fi cyber action and plenty of sexbot activity (mid-life crisis of the future solved with toyboy or ladybot - kinks programmed to suit). But we also got more Scandi noir of the darkest order in the final season of The Killing (literally dark… how many unlit rooms can Sarah Lund stumble into?) while the mismatched cop duo of The Bridge continued to reel in more red herrings than a Finnish fishing trawler.

Not so good: Is there evidence that Come Date With Me and the local version of The Bachelor weren't both robot casts?