I'm not a fan of these edited memories. They smell like sanctioned revisionist history. They never reflect my year. Let's just say I was more upset about the passing of Rick Mayall than Robin Williams. Let's just say I thought True Detective was an overblown vanity piece for two pretentious unintelligent blonde movie stars, and a failure in comparison to less showy offerings. What if I thought Secrets and Lies, a locally produced drama that was buried somewhere on Ten in March, was better than Party Tricks, or Broken Shore. My personal ruminations of the year, and yours, are not reflected in the narrow lists.

Always missing from these time capsules are the ubiquitous evils of the year. Nobody mentions that the ABC ran, or appeared to run, about 80,000 episodes of QI to fill up gaping holes in the schedule. Nobody asks why Seven runs Parks and Recreation, one of the finest comedies on air, in the middle of the night, while torturing us with Mrs Brown's Boys when children are trying to eat dinner.

Our wretched coverage of the young royals tour down under in April has not been mentioned. A low point for the year was certainly the Easter break when all normal transmission was suspended so that Melissa Doyle and a lot of other women who look like Melissa Doyle, could stand by a pig display at the Royal Easter show, waiting for a glimpse of Princess Kate, wearing another outfit that appeared to be stolen from Marlo Thomas' wardrobe on the set of That Girl.

Of the blockbuster TV, so much has been made of True Detective and Game of Thrones, the quality minnows of TV are overlooked. There were episodes of Masters of Sex (SBS) this season, which rivalled the best of Mad Men.

The Missing (BBC First) and The Fall (SBS and BBC First) delivered the most haunting uncomfortable thrillers of the year. Leaving an equally disturbing aftertaste, The Devil's Playground (Showcase) has definitely moved the goal posts for local drama. It will doubtless end up resting in a pantheon with Brides of Christ and Blue Murder, but for 2014, Devil's Playground tops a heap of good local production.

For period drama with a modern sensibility, both The Knick (Showcase) and Peaky Blinders (BBC First) combine gorgeous production with extreme violence, graphic bloodshed, great performances and sexy music. Something for everyone.

Granted, this was the year the Modern Family came to Australia, to no great effect. Seen by approximately as many people who met Modern Family's plane at Mascot, are a handful of groundbreaking comedies that won't make anyone's lists. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (Comedy), Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy) Black Comedy (ABC1) and Please Like Me (ABC2) were funnier and more important than any comedy on commercial free-to-air TV.

At this point it would make sense to sign off on 2014 with a witty "What's this then, slut!" but it would only resonate with a handful of Black Comedy fans, and might possibly tempt less adventurous readers to greet me in the street with "What's this then, slut!" without high camp delivery.

We press reset and begin again. More talented quests, cooking contests and reality shows about Amish midwives. Unless a Kardashian marries, how will we know what year we are watching?