Best of the Year- Television
I'm back and ready to talk about tv. I like tv, and there are many good shows on tv right now. So many, in fact, that I get annoyed when Lowe's schedules me to work in the evenings. But that's a topic for another entry. These are the best shows on television right now, regardless of genre or classification, according to me.

20. Stargate SG-1 19. Drawn Together 18. Survivor 17. The Boondocks 16. Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex 15. South Park 14. Alias 13. 24 12. House 11. The Amazing Race


10. Battlestar Galactica- I'm not as enamored with BSG as many of my sci-fi loving friends are. I have small issues with its unending melodrama and absolute straight-faced treatment of its plot. When it does try to do laughs, it's more embarrassing than funny (see season 1's dinner party episode where drunkenness ensues). Despite that, though, the storytelling is usually great. The series' first episode, "33," may still be my favorite, but the second season's first half finale is up there. And the desperate shootout between the small squad of marines and the Cylons in season 2's episode 3 was probably the most exciting action sequence I saw anywhere this year. BSG does its thing, and does it well.

9. CSI- TV's #1 show does not suck. CSI is a procedural, yes. It revels in gory close-ups and insanely convoluted murder methods a lot of the time. But most of the time, it's flat-out entertaining. Despite there being three of these shows in the franchise now, I still watch the original and am amazed that it feels fresh. The Quentin Tarantino episode was great last spring, and this year has had some highlights as well. I loved the Heaven's Gate-like mass cult death episode, and the two-part investigation of a police shootout in a residential neighborhood was a welcome change of pace.

8. Prison Break- This show sounded preposterous. A guy pulls an armed robbery in order to get sent to the same prison where his brother is on death row, about to be executed for a crime he swears he didn't commit. He gets in in order to break his brother out. My question was, "What the hell is season 2 going to be about?" And when the creator answered, "Well, it'll be a lot like the Great Escape- there's gonna be a lot of people escaping, and we're going to follow the different threads," I decided to watch. It turns out the show is every bit as preposterous as it sounds- just check out the cartoonishly evil Secret Service guys, who pulled the trigger on dozens of more-or-less innocent people in the conspiracy subplot outside of the prison. Amazingly, though, I find I don't care how preposterous the plot machinations are, because, once again, the show starts with the characters and their personality clashes (Well, on the inside- less so with the outside characters, which is why that part of the show has been weaker) and goes from there. I can't wait til this comes back in March.

7. The Shield- Vic Mackey just keeps on going. Glenn Close added a tough new dimension to the show in season 4, but it was former punchline Anthony Anderson (Kangaroo Jack) who was a revelation. As a tough and smart drug dealer who was well-liked and respected in the neighborhood, he went toe-to-toe with Close and Michael Chiklis and pulled it off. The Shield remains the most daring and most nuanced police show on tv, and the low per-season episode count keeps things focused and filler to a minimum.

6. Doctor Who- I live in Detroit, which means I get Canadian television, which means I got to watch the new Doctor Who on a tv screen instead of on a computer where I had to illegally download the episodes because nobody in the US picked up the show. Not even BBC America. WTF? My only memories of the original forever-running BBC series were vague childhood recollections of seeing it on PBS and being unimpressed by the production values even as a small child. The new Doctor Who series is a big improvement on that. Okay, some of the time the aliens look cheesy (the Slitheen are pretty embarrassing), and the CGI folks could take some lessons from the people who do the Stargates and Battlestar Galactica on making stuff look good with limited budgets. But the show itself is wonderful. Christopher Eccleston kept the show grounded as The Doctor, staying calm and wry about all the craziness around him (It's a shame he's already left the show, the jury is still out on new Doctor David Tennant, although he was solid in the just-aired Christmas Invasion special), and Billie Piper gives the show a strong emotional core as Rose. The episodes ranged from epic to silly to emotionally wrenching, and I was glad I was along for the ride.

5. My Name is Earl- When I heard Jason Lee was getting his own show, I was excited. When the tv critics saw the pilot episode back in May in LA and came back gushing about it, I was even more excited. When I heard it would be competing against two excellent top 20-rated shows on Tuesdays (House and The Amazing Race), I despaired that the show would never find an audience. Well, not only is the show itself hilarious, it's the top-rated new comedy on tv, and NBC is moving it to Thursday nights to anchor Must-See-Thursday in a time slot it owned all through the 80's (Cheers) and 90's (Seinfeld), until CSI came along. Earl is a show that manages to be hysterical and heart-warming without getting too sappy, which is a tough trick to pull off. Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, Natalie Valasquez, and Jamie Pressley manage to make their characters seem real and trashy without falling over the edge into "You know you're a redneck if..." territory.

4. Full Metal Alchemist- Yes, this anime show is that good. I know it's already finished in Japan, but it has shown on Adult Swim throughout the year, so I'm putting it on the list. Start with a unique-for-anime setting- A 1920's-style world with alchemy magic in full effect. Then add a nice odd couple as main characters- the tempermental Ed and his kind-hearted brother Al, who just happens to be a consciousness in an empty suit of armor since his body was destroyed. Toss in a hugely powerful military with its own agenda and large cast of regulars. And top it off with an ongoing plot concerning the dangers of alchemy and its consequences, and you have a formula for a show which does everything. From action to slapstick comedy to heart-wrenching drama, FMA is another show that starts with the characterization and builds from there. Did I mention the animation and character designs are top-notch? Because that's important, too.

3. Deadwood- Every episode of Deadwood is like a new Christmas present to open. The dialogue and characters are spectacular. It's easy to get caught up in the preponderance of bad language, but the rhythm and cadence of the dialogue is at a level rarely seen on tv. It's sort of like watching a David Mamet movie every week, it's that delicious. The way the plot twists and turns is good, too, especially with the way Seth's sister-and-law and nephew were introduced this year. In fact, all of the new characters were inserted smoothly (or roughly within the show's terms) into season 2. And watching Ian McShane's Al Swearingen go through a horrible bout of kidney stones was as gripping as it was agonizing.

2. Arrested Development- The brilliance of this show is amazing. Too bad that it's 5-10 years ahead of its time, and the audience is far too small for network tv. It's amazing that Fox even gave this show 2 1/2 seasons- I'm bummed that it was cancelled after only 13 episodes this year, but not surprised. Not only does Arrested not have a laugh track, the jokes are so fast and often so complicated that the guys who usually insert laugh tracks wouldn't know where to start. Replacing Henry Winkler's lawyer character with Scott Baio, the Charlier Brown episode, Ron Howard saying, "Nobody was making fun of Andy Griffith, I want to emphasize that." And those are just the in-jokes for people who watch a lot of tv. There's the wordplay, such as Lindsay talking to Michael- "Michael, if you tell George Michael no, you'll just drive him to her." George Michael walks into the room- "Dad, will you drive me to Ann's?" Ron Howard's narration has taken on an air of snarky editorializing in season 3 that wasn't there at the beginning of the series, but they've kept it low-key, and it, like everything else about the show, has been brilliant. The show has revitalized the 1/2 hour sitcom, the general public just doesn't know it yet.

1. Lost- Simply the best show on tv. Everything about Lost is top-notch. From the emphasis on characterization to the multiple weird mysteries of the island, the actors, writers, and producers rarely hit a wrong note. In season 2, they've managed to open up a bunch of new mysteries, and the answers to old ones have mostly led to new questions. They're balancing out the questions with more info on the character's backgrounds. The Kate episode in November was great, especially since it was titled, "What Kate Did." The hatch has become the bunker, the creature is still out there, and the new cast members are very good (Well, I don't like Michelle Rodriguez's performance, but at least Eko rules). The show could've lost a step with JJ Abrams away filming MI: 3, but Damon Lindelof and newcomer Carlton Cuse have kept things going.