5. Pushing Daisies
"Pushing Daisies" is not the best show on TV (duh, it's 5th!). But I will say this: it might be the best example of television.
What I mean to say is this: a lot of people like to bash television as a whole. I call them "idiots." These are the people that brag, "I don't even own a television." How do they know where all their furniture should point? I loathe these people. My saying is, "I look down on people who look down on television."
Anyway, if you had to show someone who hated TV one show, why not this one? Unless you just don't "get it" ("too sugary" was a complaint I got from some friends) this show is almost flawless. It looks amazing, the writing is top notch (I get choked up every single week) and it has a very fantastical feel to it that is just unmatched by anything else.
In a pilot season completely devoid of anything good -- "Chuck," "DSM" and "Gossip Girl" are the only other shows worth watching -- "PD" has immediately entrenched itself as one of my favorite shows on TV.
6. Friday Night Lights
From our good friends at Wikipedia:
A sophomore slump or sophomore jinx (U.S. English) refers to an instance in which a sophomore effort fails to live up to the standards of the first effort. It is commonly used to refer to the performance of students (sophomore year), athletes (second season of play), bands (sophomore album), and television shows (second seasons).
Whenever a critical darling gets picked up for a second season, true fans of the show are left to wonder -- will the network meddle with the show so much they ruin what it made it great in the first place?
The best example of this was the NBC show "Boomtown." It was a "L&O" type of show -- but it was so smart and so well done it was, of course, a ratings failure. But critics loved it, so the network picked it up for season 2. But everything that made the show great in season 1 was stripped away and in season 2 it became just another procedural. Show ruined.
Season 2 of "FNL" has been mostly devoid of what looks like network interference -- less football being the only noticeable difference. But the show has still struggled a bit this year, mostly due to the "Landry killed a guy" storyline. But that is over, thankfully, and the show is back to being what made it great -- just a phenomenal cast of characters, and some of the most honest and true storylines on television.
Ok, all that stuff was true -- but seriously, is there a hotter cast on TV? I couldn't possible pick the hottest woman in the cast -- maybe Minka Kelly, but you could throw a dart at a board and I wouldn't be upset with any of them. This show is the reason why HD was invented.
7. 30 Rock
I told myself before I did this list that I wasn't putting any comedies on it. Since "Arrested Development" went off the air, I just feel comedies have fallen off creatively -- remember when "Entourage" and "Curb" were consistently funny? Those were the days.
Then came "30 Rock." Look, I know "The Office" is the show people are supposed to say is the funniest -- but it's not true. In fact, it's not even close. Not since "Arrested Development" has a show been so funny and so completely out of left field. I present to you the following two lines from this season:
"Never go with a hippie to a second location." -- Jack
"You know I never judge race! Remember when I asked that black man if he saw Sideways?" -- Liz
'Nuff said.
8. Rescue Me
One of the reasons why I loved the Michael Moore film "Bowling for Columbine" so much was how it seemlessly went from being drop-dead hysterical in one scene to gut-wrenchingly serious the next -- and it totally worked. That's "Rescue Me" for me.
We've talked before about how there are very few "comedies" on TV anymore -- but that some shows are just funny sometimes. "Rescue Me" is by no means a comedy, it's just hysterical. Though it had a few missteps in the past few years, I often look at a show and think "How much do I care about what happens to these characters?" And you'd be hardpressed to find a cast like this one.
And for the record -- SPOILER ALERT -- the final scene where Tommy's dad died was a perfect scene of television.
9. Chuck, Nip/Tuck and Ugly Betty
Plenty of shows fall under the category of "guilty pleasures." You hold them up to different standards than other shows. Characters come back from the dead and you don't blink an eye. Everyone sleeps with everyone and it is par for the course. There will always be a place for good guilty pleasure shows, and these are my three favorites.
About halfway through this TV season, a strange thought occurred to me: I really like "Chuck." I mean REALLY like it -- in a "I want to watch it that night and not put it off" kind of way. The entire premise is completely and utterly implausible (there is no way in the world Sarah and Casey wouldn't have just killed him in the pilot) but I love it anyway. It's just fun, period.
Speaking of fun ... there's "Nip/Tuck." People use the phrase "jump the shark" a lot in television and in this case it applies to the entire show. Once you establish that anything can happen, you can do anything you want and make it "believable" in the universe of that show. "Nip/Tuck" can do things that "Law & Order," for example, just can't. If you're going to nitpick a show like "Nip/Tuck," you'll never enjoy it.
Then there is "Ugly Betty" -- which is the soapiest of the bunch. Crossdressers! Mom on the run! Stop the wedding! You get the idea. This show separates itself from the other three in one way -- some of the snappiest writing on TV. The banter between Marc and Amanda is always priceless. Witty dialog wins me over everytime.
Action, sex and comedy -- if only we could combine these three shows. "Ugly Nip/Chuck," perhaps?
