Best Shows of 2017

A few shows I've been watching for a while had down or least unexciting seasons in 2017, but for the most part it was a great year for TV, with several new series that really impressed me.

Best of 2017

10. Review (Comedy Central)


Review's third and final season was very brief, but it was a perfect send-off for a series that was much more fascinating than I really expected when I gave it a shot. Right up to the end they kept coming up with new ways for Andy Daly's Forrest MacNeill to torture himself, putting his obsession with doing his job over every other concern he should have. You really just have to see it for yourself.

9. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC)


This was maybe the biggest surprise of the year. From the beginning, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been the dutiful television branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that cleans up the scraps of story left by the movies and does competent but bland espionage action every week. Things were different in season four, when they finally abandoned the pretense that they were really "connected" to the movies and focused on three tighter story arcs instead of a single meandering thread. It resulted in what was quite easily the show's best season, recalling what works about the Whedon TV formula with smart plots, strong character drama, and twists that really stick the knife in. I don't know if I would tell anyone they really need to watch this show, but that season alone made the years of investment worth it.

8. Samurai Jack (Adult Swim)


Samurai Jack returned after many years to finally conclude the tale of his defeat of Aku and return to his own time. The show matured along with most of its audience, becoming more violent and bittersweet as it introduced a couple of new concepts but focused mostly on creating a proper ending for the series and its characters. I thought the climax could have used a bit more time to breathe, but it was a really good show with some of the best animated sequences you'll ever see on TV.

7. Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)


Rick and Morty's fandom really seemed to boil over into full on insufferable, ashamed-to-be-associated-with-some-of-these-people mode in the last couple years, but the show itself is about as good as ever, mixing razor sharp humor with wild sci-fi ideas and bitterly human moments at a crazy pace. It continues to be formally experimental in eye-opening ways, and a few of these episodes are easily among the most memorable half hours of entertainment to come along in a while.

6. Legion (FX)


FOX has been having a nice of run of success with its X-Men related output lately, and Legion might be my favorite thing they've done. It's a superhero story as a psychological drama. In the comics, David Haller is the son of Professor X. In the show, there are no real references to any well-known mutants to be found, but the character is intact as a mentally unstable, powerful mutant who isn't sure where his abilities end and his hallucinations begin. The show is really more of a horror series than anything else, with some truly unsettling moments as the characters fight to survive some truly bizarre situations. It stands apart from other X-Men adaptations as something truly unique.

5. The Good Place (NBC)


The new comedy from the Parks and Recreation brain trust takes place in "The Good Place", the place good people go when they die, based on a complicated point system. The problem in the first episode is the new arrival and protagonist, played by Kristen Bell, knows there's no way she shouldn't have been sent to "The Bad Place", and from there begins a whole series of complications and screw-ups that drive one of my favorite new comedies in a long time. The Good Place is ambitious, smart, and hilarious, and is story focused in a way that makes compulsive watching easy if not unavoidable. And the cast is diverse and brilliant, particularly Ted Danson as Michael, the architect of the neighborhood the show takes place in. He might be the lifetime sitcom MVP.

4. The Deuce (HBO)


David Simon's new show is a return to what he does best - rich, complicated examinations of systems of crime and neglect that inevitably end up hurting the vulnerable the most. It's about the intertwined industries of prostitution and pornography in 1970s New York, as the former is pushed behind closed doors and the latter starts gaining mainstream acceptance. The ensemble cast is reliably excellent, as is the writing, which takes time to explain how things work and why they're terrible and won't be fixed without being preachy or unnatural. There's a lot of sex in this show, but it feels illustrative rather than titillating. When you know how the sausage is made, you don't want to eat it as much.

3. Better Call Saul (AMC)


In some ways, I think Better Call Saul might be better than Breaking Bad. I don't want that to be taken the wrong way, because there are things that Breaking Bad did that no other show can do as well, and that Saul doesn't really try. But it can do subtler, smaller storytelling in ways that show this team doesn't need Breaking Bad's excesses to make one of the most consistently riveting dramas on TV. The rivalry between Jimmy and Chuck is one of the most heartbreaking family conflicts I can remember, and Mike getting himself intertwined with Gus and the cartel, knowing where that eventually goes, is always great stuff. And what the heck is going to happen to Kim? God this show is fun.

2. The Leftovers (HBO)


The Leftovers' third and final season (déjà vu) brings the story to a close in a way that satisfied, bringing more comparisons to Lost, Damon Lindelof's other show about mysterious, unexplained events. It's all a matter of perspective. While people expected certain things from Lost that the creators never intended to give them, it seemed clear from the outset that the focus of The Leftovers was how the strange disappearance of 2% of the population affected the people who remained, and not the disappearance itself. That was driven home here, as the characters struggle to find some catharsis or really anything to latch onto, as they reel from further events that spun out from the results of the "rapture". The final season was raw, emotional, devastating, and hopeful from beginning to end.

1. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime)


There was some trepidation about what to expect from David Lynch's return to the world of Twin Peaks for the first time in 26 years, and his first major work behind a camera in 11. Does he still have it? Will it be too familiar? Too different? The answers to those questions are yes, no, and no. Twin Peaks still resembles the old Twin Peaks, but it feels appropriately twisted. Evil has been running free for decades, and the advanced aging of the many returning cast members illustrate the toll it has taken on this world. It's like Lynch got to make an eighteen hour long movie and could do whatever the hell he wanted with it as long as it tied into a story that didn't get a proper ending the first time. There are a few moments of comfort and familiarity, but the show is frequently challenging, even frustrating, and often very experimental. It won't work for everyone, but as a fan of most of Lynch's filmography, I loved the hell out of it. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything as ballsy as that ending. Also, Kyle MacLachlan kills it. I'd love to see another season, or really anything else David Lynch wants to make.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2017 but I didn't watch until then.

The Last Man on Earth (FOX)

I'm now caught up on this show, and while it didn't quite land on the top 10, it's also another one of my favorite new-ish comedy series. Will Forte stars as Phil Miller, an oddball of a man and one of only a few who seem to be immune to a virus that wiped out almost all life on the planet (spoiler, the title of the show is quickly shown to be inaccurate). The whole cast is good, but it's really Forte who drives the thing. The show actually takes its premise quite seriously, and it has its share of effective dramatic developments and careful consideration of what would follow the near-extinction of humanity. But taking that story, and putting this character at the center, is so weird and brilliant and funny. Will Forte should have gotten his own show a long time ago.

Best Shows of 2016

Of the ten shows on my list last year, eight had their final season or just took 2016 off. Eight! That left me scrambling to come up with a list, especially since I didn't jump on many new shows to compensate. So there's a few shows here I feel strongly about, and several more than I like and haven't written about before.

Best of 2016

10. Daredevil (Netflix)


Daredevil is a messy show. It's more violent than it needs to be, and the supporting cast can often feel wasted, and the plotting is fairly inconsistent. But as Luke Cage (sorry) showed us, there are definitely worse alternatives. Daredevil has been Marvel's most consistently good comic over the last fifteen years, and the show doesn't reach that standard, but it's a fun adaptation of the darker depictions the character has had, and it has some of the best action scenes of any regular TV series I've seen. The second season added the Punisher and Elektra as foils to Matt Murdock, and while both stories had their ups and downs, their coexistence kept the show's energy high and its tone varied. Not every show needs to be great to be worth watching.

9. Todd Margaret (IFC)


Todd Margaret is sort of a hybrid of American and British comedic sensibilities that works really well. After the apocalyptic ending of the second season I wasn't expecting a third, but it shakes up the formula in a really clever way and gets a lot of comedy out of its half-rebooted premise. David Cross says this was definitely the last season, but I think he's there's another series coming with a similar concept (Cross + England = comedy gold), so I'm looking forward to that.

8. Agent Carter (ABC)


I watch and enjoy Agents of SHIELD, but I don't think it really benefits from having 22 episode seasons. Even the 13 episode Netflix seasons might be a bit long based on the amount of story they come up. Agent Carter is in the sweet spot with 8-10 episodes. Or it was, because it got canceled. I can understand why the show never built a big audience, but the fact that it was an enjoyable, charming, 1940s sci-fi spy action series starring a woman (who was great) was incredible, and I wish there were more series that idiosyncratic.

7. Broad City (Comedy Central)


I've seen Broad City described as something like the female equivalent of Workaholics, but the fact is it's actually better. Abbi and Ilana are a great classic odd couple, with their clashing personalities making their friendship richer and the show's solid emotional core. They're also hilarious, and I would watch them try to work their way through any awkward situation they care to imagine. The third season wasn't the show's best, but it was still very good.

6. Bob's Burgers (FOX)


For my money, Bob's Burgers is easily television's best current traditional family sitcom. The three kids are generally the standout characters, but the parents are great too, avoiding the cliches of moron husband and shrewish wife. The voice cast is wonderful, including the great names they get for guest voices, even for roles that might easily be forgotten without the right character quirks and performance behind them. The show seems like it should be getting long in the tooth at this point, but I still enjoy it every week it's on.

5. Decker Unclassified (Adult Swim)


Decker Unclassified is televised continuation of Decker, a webseries which was a spin-off of On Cinema at the Cinema, another webseries which was itself based on On Cinema, a podcast satirizing bad movie podcasts. So there's a weird lineage here, a lineage that helps explain what Decker Unclassified is. It's a spy show starring fictionalized versions of Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington playing special agents Decker and Kington, with intentionally-unintentionally terrible writing, acting, and production value. It's great and terrible and great because it's terrible. If that sounds interesting, check it out.

4. Stranger Things (Netflix)


I think Stranger Things has some problems. It's eight episodes long but doesn't have much more story than the average two hour 80s movie it's paying homage to, so things feel stretched. Characters often willfully withhold information for no real reason, or fail to change much over time and feel like they're stuck in place. But the core of what it does is so fun that I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The kids are generally great. The horror and sci-fi elements are well done without being too alienating. The period style isn't totally accurate, but works as a pastiche for what's obviously an homage coming from a good place. And the theme music is great. It's got flaws that I hope they improve in season two, but I kind of love it anyway.

3. Game of Thrones (HBO)


So they finally did it. The sixth season of Game of Thrones surpassed the books it's based on in the story, and it makes no apologies about that. Characters die, stories continue, battles are fought, events transpire that readers did not already have knowledge of. It was a new experience, and an interesting one. Part of me wishes I had gotten to read some of these things first, that I had more detail in my mind for what was happening on screen. But part of me also enjoyed being surprised by the show consistently. The show has the same strengths and weaknesses it always had - it's great at big moments, and not quite there on connecting those moments with quieter scenes and meaningful character work. There are two seasons left, and I'm eager to see what happens next.

2. The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)


Six seasons in and the show is as good as ever. After the Gargantua-2 special wrapped up a lot of long-term storylines, the season proper is a bit of a refresh, as the family moves to a new headquarters in New York and quickly begins piling up new problems and distractions for them to tackle. The series has always been a hodge-podge of genre influences, but super heroes take more prominence here, as the Ventures have trouble with the neighborhood Avengers/Justice League hybrid, and The Monarch starts dressing as a Green Hornet knock-off to go after his enemies in the Guild. It's the same mix of zany plotting and humor it's always been, and I'll continue waiting however long it takes for the creators to return to the wonderful world they've been creating for the last decade-plus.

1. Better Call Saul (AMC)


In its second season, the Breaking Bad spin-off continued to wring more great material out of the backstories of two supporting characters than I thought anyone would be capable of. Jimmy realizes being part of a large law firm might not be his thing while his relationship with his brother gets more complicated and heartbreaking, while Mike finds himself slowly getting pulled further and further into New Mexico's criminal underworld. Obviously Bryan Cranston's work as Walter White was fantastic, but this show proves that it was just part of the entire team's ability to put together a show that is consistently original, beautiful, and enjoyable.

Delayed Entry

This is the best show that didn't air in 2016 but I didn't watch until then.

Friday Night Lights (NBC)

I don't usually go in for shows about sports or family and relationship drama, but there were enough voices saying Friday Night Lights rises above that I gave it a shot. It has its ups and downs, with the latter being exemplified by a pretty weak second season that ignores the show's core charms in favor of easier sensation. On balance though, it's a great drama about being true to yourself and giving everything you have to what you're passionate about. The cast is wonderful, especially Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as the central married couple, and Taylor Kitsch as the burnout running back you can't help but love. I finally understand why he's been given so many chances in major movies. It has as much heart as any show I've ever seen.

Modern Family - Season 2

It's hard to tell how much of a popular backlash there has been against this show. The ratings were a little better, and it still does very well in every advertiser's favorite demographic. But it seems like some people have been getting annoyed by how much of a standard sitcom Modern Family is. I thought it was obvious from the start, but the series is still a lot of fun because of the execution. I think at this point people are more aware of what to expect out of the show, which is a bunch of funny episodes and a few disappointing ones. The only real problem I had with this season was the tendency of Cam and Mitchell's stories to be more simple and rote than the other characters',  but everybody really gets plenty of good material over the course of the year. The show's at its best when the whole family is together and bouncing off each other, and while sometimes scripts end up keeping the households separate, it still manages to wring solid laughs out of even the tackiest familiar situations. For a show that people actually watch, it's remarkably good.

But I guess the question is how long they can keep doing the same thing. It's clear that some people are already impatient with the show's standard sitcom roots, which the nonsense mockumentary trappings don't hide that well. Would I prefer it if the series was a little more original about the wacky situations the characters get into? Maybe, but I'm not sure if it's still Modern Family at that point. The title is sort of ironic, because while the show feels up-to-date in some ways, with a gay couple getting a third of the screen time and remarkably solid child actors, at it's heart it's one of the most old school shows on the air, and I'm not sure what it would even do if it wasn't like that. It's kind of the point. It might prevent the show from being the best, smartest thing on television, but all it really seems to want is to be funny and touching, and it does both of things well almost every time. It's a bit broad and lazy at times, but the game it plays of teasing the most stereotypical plots imaginable and then somehow making them seem fresh again is fun. Sometimes it stumbles, but not often enough to turn me off on the whole thing.

Castle - Season 3

The last show got a stay of execution, but there is no such luck for Castle. I mean, for me, anyway. The show is going strong in the ratings and is coming back next year, but I won't be watching it. Having your show star Nathan Fillion will only get you so far before it has to be able to stand on its own, and after three years Castle is still just a mildly charming yet otherwise totally standard cop procedural, one that just doesn't do enough to keep me interested anymore. I don't know if the mysteries are actually getting lazier or if I'm just used to all of their tricks, but the cases each week are much less likely to be surprising, or even just passably entertaining. I swear there were two episodes in a row where the killer was the obvious suspect's assistant. With the episodic stories no longer being as thrilling, and the serialized elements reduced to a joke at this point, there's simply no reason to keep watching.

Obviously we're coming back to the sexual tension thing - how long can you have two characters who obviously dig each other but don't hook up for various flimsy reasons before it becomes irritating? I definitely prefer for relationships between characters to actually develop and change over time, but I think if it's just part of the story, you can keep it going for a while. The problem is that the will they/won't they crap between Castle and Beckett is the only thing the show has going besides the periodically boring crimes to solve. The other cops in the station are mildly likable to the point where a scene with them isn't a total drag, but they don't actually ever have anything interesting to do. Castle is pretty much the only character who is ever seen even having a life outside the scope of an investigation, and that stuff is extremely boring. His mother pretends to have an active social life and his daughter has teenage girl problems that always seem to have an extremely convenient thematic link to the case, but there is nothing close to entertainment to be derived from any of that stuff. So you have a show that exists only to come up with new ways and reasons to murder people and keep its two leads apart, and it doesn't do either of them very well.

Sometimes the show will go out of its way to have special events in certain episodes, two-parters or season finales that deal with especially high profile investigations or further the unfolding mystery of the conspiracy behind the death of Beckett's mother. These don't really work either though, because they often shift the focus away from the peppy tone that makes the show watchable in the first place, sideline the main character, or just expose the fact that the writers aren't very good at coming up with those kinds of stories. The show already has an entirely laughable premise it has to stick by, with a writer being partnered with a homicide detective for three years now. But when they try to do something like a nuclear bomb threat... it's supposed to be big and series, but it's just goofy. This year's finale was particularly egregious, ruining a perfectly serviceable supporting cast member for the continuation of a mystery that still doesn't make any sense. And then they had the balls to try and pull that final scene with the sniper. I don't hate watching Castle, but I am indifferent enough to it that it just isn't worth the hour every week.

Best Shows of 2010

While the last three lists were compromised by not being able to pay for stuff, this one was actually probably enhanced - there's a lot of time to sit around watching television when you don't have a job. The last couple of years for TV have seemed a bit dry in comparison to what we had before that, but 2010 was another one for the ages. There were are a couple shows that I unfortunately had to cut to trim this list to ten, although a few will get recognized tomorrow. But these shows in particular entertained me an amazing amount this year. Remember, this is recognizing these shows for the seasons which ended in 2010.

Best of 2010

10. The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)


The Venture Bros. fourth season was its biggest ever, and while maybe not the best, it was still pretty excellent. After some felt the third season strayed too far into building up its own world and just wasn't funny enough, the fourth struck a nice balance between comedy and mythology, developing further one of the most interesting and detailed science fiction universes to come around in a long time. It's a cartoon so consistently well-written and presented that almost every new episodes feels like it could be a contender for the best one ever, although the hour-long finale had the best case of all.

9. The Pacific (HBO)


Major Dick Winters, former leader of Easy Company and the man Band of Brothers spent the most time focusing on, died last week. Not only was he a great man, but he provided a central character around which possibly the best miniseries ever could build. The Pacific lacked that sort of central figure that the whole thing could be tied back to, but it still managed to match and even exceed its spiritual predecessor in some areas, from the scale and intensity of the battles to the harrowing way the horrors of war are portrayed. It wasn't as great as Brothers, but that's quite a lofty goal, and it was still quite good for most of its run.

8. Sons of Anarchy (FX)


This is the most inconsistent show on the list this year, with a tendency to occasionally go too far with some of its plot threads and have its characters make questionable decisions. But besides #1, it was also the best show at producing exceptional individual moments that make all the hiccups seem totally worth it in the end. Sons of Anarchy's world is a tough place to live, and that's just as evident in this season as the first two, especially in the final episode, which had one of the best conclusions I've ever seen and really helped cement the show as one of my favorites. Best finale all year.

7. Parks and Recreation (NBC)


Parks and Recreation was definitely iffy in its brief first season, but the second was just about brilliant from beginning to end. It reminded people of what The Office was like when it was really cooking and not just the acceptable sitcom it is today, and in some ways it was even better. The central cast isn't as big, but in many respects it's stronger, and whatever wacky idea they were tackling, they just seemed to nail it every week. It's been away for way too long, and I can't wait for its return a week from today.

6. Lost (ABC)


Kind of a drop on this list compared to the last two years, but that's more due to the strength of the competition than anything Lost actually did wrong. Like the show's whole run, its final season wasn't perfect, but its strengths were great enough to overcome issues of unanswered questions or uneven pacing. We got some really great payoffs for all the best characters, and I personally thought the ending was perfectly fitting what they had built up. I'll miss seeing it this spring.

5. Community (NBC)


Technically I'm not including what the show has done so far in its sophomore season, although I will say it really helped cement Community as my favorite comedy currently running. The first was plenty excellent on its own, as it transitioned from a likable Joel McHale vehicle about community college into a stunningly brilliant ensemble comedy about anything and everything. The themed episodes get the most attention, but every week you're bound to see something you weren't expecting. The show is hilarious, but it also manages a lot of sentiment without ever seeming cloying. Just a great show.

4. Mad Men (AMC)


This was my favorite season of Mad Men, and it's slowly creeping up my list of the best stuff you can watch these days. It's not as careful and well considered as it used to be, but it's a lot more enjoyable, with a seemingly conscious effort to make the show quicker, funnier, and more dramatic. It was just a bit dry for me before, but I thought they struck a great balance between entertainment and intelligence this time. And yeah, that finale was pretty crazy. Looking forward to what's next.

3. Boardwalk Empire (HBO)


You could swap this and Mad Men and I'd probably hardly notice, but for now I'm taking Empire by a nose. I think some people find it a bit slow, and while I can tell why, I don't really care because I'm always glued to the screen regardless. The show looks great, it uses violence and sex effectively without seeming too trashy, and I love the way they slowly build up their own slightly fictionalized version of 1920 over the course of the season. It's not quite the powerhouse it might have been and still could be, but it's damn good just the same.

2. Dollhouse (FOX)


A lot of people probably forgot about this already, but Dollhouse's second and last season finished airing way back at the beginning of 2010, and so it goes on this list. Dollhouse had a lot of warts in its first year, but it still ended up as a pretty series by the end of the season, and while season two couldn't help but stumble a bit again, I thought it quickly rounded into the best thing Joss Whedon as been involved with since Firefly and one of the best pieces of science fiction TV period. They really did a lot with what little time they had, and I know for one I won't be forgetting about it for a while.

1. Breaking Bad (AMC)


After seeing the final season of The Shield, I decided it was actually better than Breaking Bad's first effort, which is why I can't really say Bad was my favorite thing on TV for three years in a row. But for a while there it was. They stepped up their game yet again in season three, which was both the show's most thrilling and funniest yet. You might be wondering how I could say Anarchy had the best finale all year after Bad's, but the truth is it honestly just felt like another good episode and solid cliffhanger after all the amazing stuff that came before. It seemed like every week they were topping themselves in terms of mind-blowing events that were going on, and they never let you catch your breath. We have to wait a bit longer than usual for season four, but I bet it will be worth it.

Modern Family - Season 1

I thought I'd check out the show that finally usurped 30 Rock's title as standing Emmy winner for best comedy series. It's not the funniest show on TV in my opinion, but it's pretty darn good, and certainly more deserving of the award than Rock was last year. It's about three interconnected families living in Los Angeles, and the wacky sitcom hijinks they get into. Ed O'Neill of Married... with Children fame plays Jay, patriarch of the Pritchett clan. He's recently remarried Gloria and taken in her son. He has two children from his first marriage; Mitchell, who adopts a Vietnamese baby with his partner Cameron in the pilot; and Claire, who has three children with her husband Phil.

The fact that I bothered to name all of the main characters, and I wasn't bothered by the fact that all of them except O'Neill were nominated for acting awards, tells you how great the cast is. Cam (played by Eric Stonestreet, the only one to actually win an Emmy) and Phil are definitely the funniest ones to me, but they all bring a surprising amount to the table, when they could have easily been sitcom clichés. Like, amazingly easily. The grumpy old guy! The fussy housewife! The feisty latina! The dorky dad! The gay guys! But the combination of smart writing and solid performances keep it grounded, and funny rather than painful most of the time. Even the child actors on the show are generally pretty good, at least able to deliver a punchline and not be too annoying.

Really, it's a miracle the show isn't depressingly tired, with all of the classic sitcom tropes it runs through during its first season. Comic misunderstandings, white lies that balloon into mass deception, an inordinate number of people discovering someone in a compromising position, even a twist on "He's right behind me, isn't he?" But that's sort of part of the fun, I guess. They do a great job of developing the characters, so you actually care about their relationships and hope it works out instead of just getting some cheap laughs out of impossible situations. Yeah, they'll do a story you've seen many times before, but the results will usually be illuminating in some way, if maybe trying a bit too hard to be touching. If I had to compare Family to one sitcom in the last ten years, it would be Arrested Development because of its large interrelated cast (and generally being good) with the only surface difference being Family has more and younger kids, but they're actually fairly different in tone. Development was always kind of cynical about how Michael can never really count on anyone in his family, and how sometimes even he wasn't a very good person. Family is a lot more sentimental and generally nicer, which is a fine approach, it just leads to the last two minutes of episodes tending to be pretty cheesy. Luckily that's diffused often enough with some humor that it never gets too oppressive. I'm looking forward to seeing the second season on regular TV with my other shows.

Twin Peaks - Season 2

The flurry of season finales that occurs every May always throws this blog out of whack a bit. Especially now that I prioritize posts about new things over old things. I finished watching this show weeks ago, but it's only now that I can talk about it. Season two of Twin Peaks is definitely a mixed bag. At the start, it's just as thrilling as the first, with the mystery of Laura's killer continuing to escalate and the citizens of the town continuing to get into bigger misses. It's the same mix of thrills and bizarre laughs that made the show awesome. But then the show does something it probably shouldn't have, at least so soon... they solve the mystery. David Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost argued about whether they should ever give an answer, but I'm sure they at least agreed that halfway through the second season was a bit quick. Flagging ratings meant ABC pushed them into it, and while that whole reveal is well done, it's clear that they hadn't planned on what to do afterward. The whole show is sort of left in a lurch, and while it's not terrible, it's simply not nearly at good from that point forward.

The problem is that there's not as much really driving the show to do anything. They come up with a new conflict for Dale Cooper, and a new villain, but the whole thing isn't developed all that well and there's a lot of time where not much stuff really happens. Goofy, aimless subplots take over the show, and there's really not much reason to watch it. Yeah, it's weird, but weirdness without purpose can get tiring quickly, especially on a series that was previously so engrossing. Things pick up a bit once Heather Graham shows up, in the sense that Dale seems to have a purpose and it's more clear that there is an actual plot, but it's still never as good as it once was. The finale is pretty good, though. It ends with about a twenty minute dream sequence filled with more bizarre imagery and hidden meaning, culminating in a cliffhanger that makes the show's cancellation a bit disappointing despite the lackluster tail end. There is a movie that may or may not answer some questions, and I do intend to see it some time. As it is now, Twin Peaks is something of an oddity, but one worth tracking down if you're into that sort of unusual drama.

FlashForward

Well, that was a big waste of time. FlashForward was a show that lived off building a mystery that span years, and now it's been canceled. So all that really happened was a bunch of people saw their futures, worried about the implications of their visions for a few months, and then their futures (mostly) came true. In really irritating ways, too. They push the idea that no matter how hard people fight it, they can't avoid their fate. Except when they do. Demetri was supposed to be killed, but he wasn't. Some FBI guy managed to kill himself to prevent a woman from dying, but she gets hit by a car... and the show doesn't bother to say whether she actually dies or not. A guy who saw himself uniting Somalia gets killed.

In terms of people's visions coming true, Mark was drinking in his flash despite being sober... and a few hours before a random guy on the street hands him a flask, which he promptly starts drinking. Good job, dude. It's a miracle how you managed to Die Hard a room full of bad guys while sauced. Olivia and Simon seemed to get closer together for no other reason than their visions said they should. No real romantic chemistry, no real reason for her to cheat on her husband... it was just sort of like, "Well, okay, let's do this. It's our future, right?" If Keiko does end up finding Bryce after all, why doesn't her mom remember being detained in an American airport? Ugh. If all that complaining seemed like a mess, welcome to the experience of watching the show.

Despite a premise that can't actually decide what it's really about and a muddled collection of undirected subplots rather than a direct story arc most of time, the show's biggest problem is that the characters are all terrible. They're not likable, their problems aren't interesting, they do stupid stuff for no reason... it's hard to enjoy a show when you don't have fun watching the people on it. And I'm seriously not exaggerating. Every single character is bad! How does a show get this far with a boring, angsty protagonist surrounded by boring, angsty supporting cast?

I will say, I liked the pilot. Its portrayal of the destruction caused by the whole world blacking out for two minutes was impressive and exciting, and the beginning of the mystery was intriguing. But it was only downhill from there. Without the bad guys having a clear reason for anything they do makes it hard to be interesting in their schemes, and simply too much time is spent on characters whose problems they forgot to make interesting in the context of a world that knows its future. You have a pretty high concept here, do something with it. Instead, it was pretty traditional, uninteresting melodrama. There were a couple episodes and bits I liked, but they were few and far between. There were some particularly bad bits I could pick on, but I don't really feel like it. The show is dead, no reason to keep poking the body.

Lost - Season 6

What you got out of Lost's final season depended on what you wanted. People have always been intrigued by all the mysteries and twists that have kept them wondering what's really going on, but the creators have insisted for a while that the series is really about the characters. I was just hoping for a good end to the story, and I ended up pretty pleased with what I got. Yeah, I would have liked the opportunity to know more about all the strange things on the island, and in a way it's lazy to introduce all these elements and then just forget about them. But what was more important than answering every question was making a show that was fun to watch, and Lost was very successful in that way. The writing, acting, and direction was top notch for a TV show, it was funny and touching, it had more standout moments than any series rightly deserves, and they found a way to end it that was both fitting and expected.

It's sort of the end of an era for television. It's hard to imagine a new show with its scope getting greenlit by a network these days, and while other shows have had bigger audiences, few if any have had one so dedicated and committed to it. It's like the biggest cult hit ever. It's hard to say how many people gave up along the line, but quite a few stuck it through all the way, and they were rewarded with something unique and memorable. There was quite a it of misinterpretation of the ending going around, but those who can actually pay attention and listen to words know what really happened. It could be a long time before anything like this comes along, but in the mean time it's worth appreciating what the show was, and what it meant. It wasn't just a show, it was a whole pastime for some people. I never spent as much time theorizing and examining past episodes as a lot of them, but when it was actually on it was always a highlight of my week. It's sort of weird to think that there's no more Lost coming, but I know it won't be too long before I'm watching it all again, seeing what actually makes sense now and what never will.

V - Season 1

So ABC tried two new shows this season to fill the sci-fi drama gap in the schedule that Lost is going to leave tomorrow (holy shit), and unfortunately, they were both pretty bad. FlashForward stank itself into an early grave, but V managed to survive for another year despite actually being worse, in my opinion. I have a lot to say about why it's bad, so let's get the good stuff out of the way. Um... I think it's cool that there's a show about aliens on network television. And Elizabeth Mitchell as Erica is likable when she isn't making that smug smile of hers. That's about it.

So yeah, this show sucks. There's lots of things wrong with it, but it starts at the very top with the basic premise. In the first episode, a bunch of space ships settle over major human cities and Vs come out; human-looking, friendly aliens who only want to exchange their services for a few supplies. But it's not long before our heroes learn the truth - they've actually been infiltrating the planet for years, they're actually lizards under their human skin, and they want to take over the planet. Scary, right? Except... the show doesn't bother to justify any of its characters motivations. What do the Vs really want with Earth? You can make guesses based on the old standbys, but it's a question that's never actually answered. Neither is why they feel the need to play nice at first, when they clearly have the technological prowess to do whatever they want.

Neither does it make a lot of sense for the good guys to be trying to put out a fire with a hammer. That being, they're only concerned with fighting the Vs' war capability and not with the fact that they're winning the hearts and minds of many of Earth's people. All season long they make a single attempt to get a word out, and it's a word that only turncoat Vs that are already on their side would understand. When asked why they're fighting against the Vs, they don't even bother to come up with an answer. The rest of the time it's clumsy guerrilla tactics and a lot of getting labeled as terrorists. The show tries to do this whole morally-gray thing by having the heroes do things like torture a guy for information, but it's hard to be too concerned about it when they're fighting against alien invaders.

The show's plotting and characters are just inept, as things rarely seem to actually happen. People are easily fooled and ignore things right in their face. Something will occur that could easily lead to an interesting if unoriginal sidebar, but then just gets completely forgotten. It's honestly hard to like any of the characters. They're all idiots and hardly developed beyond generic archetypes. Erica's son is possibly the most annoying person I've ever seen on film. Both Erica and Ryan feel that the best way to protect their loved ones from the Vs is to just constantly hide them from the truth. Ryan is a V who got a human pregnant (preposterous), and he still doesn't tell her about him until she already knows something's up. Even the human media and governments can't avoid the stupidity. They take everything the Vs say at face value, this being the same Earth where we don't trust some of the other countries for anything. But the aliens seem so nice!

In one particularly insane example, the Vs go the the FBI after a warehouse bombing and tell them that their technology can recreate the explosive, right down to a fingerprint left on the bomb by an unwitting terrorist. And they just believe them like it's nothing! The writing is just constantly plagued by people doing things that make no sense and only continue the plot because they can't think of a way to actually justify it. And I haven't even gotten into the fact that the computer effects are completely awful. When a good third or so of your show takes place on board an alien ship, it would help if the green screen compositing wasn't blatantly obvious in every single scene. And when an alien chances to show off it's true screaming, toothy mouth, it's hilarious rather than scary. And with all of this, the worst part of the show might be that they managed to make Firefly's Morena Baccarin look ugly. How do you even do that? The season finale ends with what could be a shift in the show's focus, one that could potentially turn out to be fairly interesting. But honestly? With this writing team and cast, I highly fucking doubt it.

Castle - Season 2

Castle's second season picked up pretty much where the first left off, as Nathan Fillion and company make some pretty good jokes and solve some pretty interesting cases. Not every episode is a winner, and sometimes the real killer is just too obvious, but usually it's a solid, well paced mystery. The show gets heavy every now and then, like with the excellent two part story about a serial killer who's obsessed with the character Castle based on Beckett, though for the most part it's good, clean fun. I wish just once that a murder would be unsolvable or that the obvious culprit would be the actual perpetrator (this one would be easy to pull off; if you feel the need to have 40 minutes of hot cop action, just solve the first murder quickly and have it lead to another), but its goal is certainly to entertain and not to accurately portray homicide investigations, so it's just something my brain will have to deal with. The chemistry between Castle and Beckett remains strong, the rest of the cops continue to become some of the more likable characters, and Castle's subplots with his mom and daughter remain cute.

All that said, I do have to say something about the Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST or URST depending on who you ask) that supposedly drives the show. That thing being, it doesn't. The two leads have a good repartee and I'd like to see them together. But I don't watch the show because of the will they won't they dance, I watch it because the whole cast works well together and the cases are usually interesting. Let's be honest, the show's basic premise is flimsy as hell. After a murderer mimics a character from one of Castle's books, he is brought in to assist a homicide detective and then sticks around to tail her for a bit of inspiration on a new novel. Okay, I'll buy that... for a few weeks. But at this point the duo have investigated and solved 33 separate cases over the course of two years. It's obvious that it's only still going because they're attracted to each other, but because a couple shows have mishandled actually putting its two romantic leads together, it's now considered a bad idea and the gods of ratings conspire to keep them apart. The problem is not that people don't like to see a developing romance pay off, it's that writers often handle it badly by forgetting to make the actual relationship interesting or trying to make it interesting in ill-considered ways. So instead of letting the characters take their natural course in the season finale, a wedge gets driven between them out of left field with little justification, and the show's premise continues to weaken. It was just poorly done and disappointing from a pretty good writing team. I'll be there for season three, but it won't be because of their clumsy handling of that aspect.

Twin Peaks - Season 1

For some reason, despite liking Mulholland Drive quite a bit, it's the only thing by David Lynch I've seen, though multiple factors have conspired to get me to see Twin Peaks in recent times. I blasted through the eight episode first season pretty quickly, and it might be the earliest example of good serialized television that I can point to. Lynch is known for doing supremely weird stuff, but he's not the only influence on the show's creative direction, and at least early on the weirdness is mostly limited to a disturbing dream sequence and a couple other brief bits, with the rest being relatively traditional, if slightly off-beat drama. It combines elements of mysteries and soap operas, as an unusual murder investigation is going on amid a collection of townspeople with a series of secret relationships so tangled they look like a spider web. It isn't long before the ring of crime surrounding the murder makes itself apparent and people start betraying each other, culminating in the extremely strong season finale which left me definitely wanting more.

One of the reasons the show works is that the cast is so good. There's something just a bit odd about all of the performances, and it's hard to say whether that's a deliberate a touch or at least partially an artifact of the early 90s way of doing things. Whatever the case, it helps the show. Kyle MacLachlan plays the sort of protagonist that could save almost any show, and the fact that he doesn't have to doesn't prevent him from still standing out. Dale Cooper is the FBI agent sent to investigate after a second incident after the initial murder makes the case a federal issue, and his unique personality makes every scene he's in a joy to watch. His genuine appreciation of good food and many characteristics of the small town atmosphere, his strange combination of standard procedure and spirituality in his work, every feature is unique and entertaining. And most of the people around him have similar things going for them. I've heard a lot about how things get weird in the second season, but even if the whole thing is garbage, the first is a shining example of good dramatic television.

Scrubs - Season 9

Or Scrubs: Med School, season one, depending on if you pay attention to the actual title card. Hopefully it's the only season too, because the show's just kind of sad at this point. It's not that it's completely devoid of laughter or a few decent moments that the show is known for, it just feels like the creative spark is completely gone at this point. Most of the main cast from before is either missing or only seen in a few episodes, as they tried to breathe some life into the formula with a new group of interns. Lucy is the JD stand-in, with all of his quirky nervousness but none of his comic timing. James Franco's brother Dave plays the privileged son of some rich donor, and he's half annoying, half the actual funniest character of the season with some of the ridiculous crap that comes out of his mouth. Denise is the only intern from season 8 to return in a significant role, and she forms an interesting relationship with Drew, a hotshot slightly older intern who had some non-medicine related issues the first time he tried to be a doctor.

Donald Faison and John C. McGinley are two of the most talented cast members from the show's original run, yet they're the only ones still around the whole time this season, making you wonder what it is that's keeping them there. It might have been okay to pull this several years ago with a largely circular cast of fresh faces, but for eight years it's been Zach Braff's show, and the conclusion last year was so wonderful, that keeping it going like this just seems wrong. I can't really bring myself to care about any of these new doctors' problems, and with the show's lagging ratings it's not even like they're effectively milking the franchise. It's like a child kicking and screaming while his parents are pulling him away from a birthday party that's already over. It's a good bet that the show's done at this point, and even if it's not I probably won't watch it again anyway.

Best Shows of 2009

Again, things get on this list by having a season end in the year in question. Even if all but one episode was shown in a different year. Causes some odd situations, but it makes it a bit easier. This was a good year for shows I like, with lots of them either maintaining high standards of quality or bouncing back from relatively sub-par seasons.

Best of 2009

8. Pushing Daisies (ABC)


This is one of those odd situations. ABC failed to renew Daisies for a full second season, so they waited until the middle of the year to unceremoniously air the last three episodes. The show's second run didn't have quite the verve of the first, but it was still a beautifully shot, fiendishly clever, and highly charming show while it lasted. Maybe too cute for some, but it never bothered me.

7. Mad Men (AMC)


I really thought this was the show's best run, showing just how much good stuff there was last year. It featured a few of the series' greatest moments so far, some of its best humor, and some truly game-changing upheaval of the status quo in the last couple episodes. Ultimately though, I want to know what happens now more than I want to revisit what already did.

6. Dexter (Showtime)


The show's best go-round since the first, it wasn't perfect but managed to recapture a lot of what was missing the last time and tell an exciting story again. John Lithgow was probably the best pure villain on TV last year, and there were a number of scenes as shocking, disturbing, and downright just as tense as what you can accomplish in the medium. Plus it was the only thing on this list to have a significant supporting character regularly show her tits, which doesn't hurt. Nah, if that actually mattered True Blood would be here.

5. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)


This year's best comedy, and I'd be tempted to name it the comedy of the decade if it weren't for Arrested Development. It's not as smart or subtle as some network shows, but it's just so damn laugh-out-loud funny all the damn time that you can't not love it. This was the year I feel Dennis overtook Charlie as the best character, but they're all so good that your personal pick doesn't really matter. I kind of wish the seasons were longer, but it might dilute the humor if they had to hire more writers.

4. Kings (NBC)


I kind of wish I had given it a shot when it was still airing. Not that it would have mattered, because I'm just one person and I don't have a Nielsen Box. Of all the shows I saw last year this one could be considered unique, with its own sense of pacing, dialogue, design, and themes. And Ian McShane played what was probably the year's best character. Just watching him pontificate while he shook hands with one arm and held a noose behind his back with the other was a treat every time he was on screen. Farewell Kings, I hardly knew ye.

3. Dollhouse (FOX)


It's really, really too bad FOX insisted on changing Joss Whedon's vision for the beginning of the series, because the consistently low ratings after just a few weak episodes show that it never really had a chance to recover, despite every nerd who kept with it shouting "No really, it's good now!" at everyone they come across. The show came to its own in the back half of season one, and the unaired (in America) finale was a big-time game changer.

2. Lost (ABC)


You can probably pencil this in for a similar place on the list for this year, as my anticipation for the show's final season is approaching a fever pitch and the creators have done nothing but prove they can do this sort of thing better than anything else on TV right now. Despite saying they weren't going to do time travel early on, they ended up instead creating one of the best long term time travel stories I've seen without coming close to overdoing it, and it ends with a few more shocking revelations while setting up what could be a truly special last run.

1. Breaking Bad (AMC)


Two straight years at the top of the hill. I don't know how much longer Vince Gilligan and company can keep it up, and it's going to take some doing with Dollhouse currently near the end of possibly the best season of science fiction I've ever seen. Still, I can see them doing it. The second season moved a bit beyond the first's angle, showing the meaning of the title as Bryan Cranston ably depicts a man who's lost sight of what's important and will do increasingly terrible things just to keep a leg up. Few shows manage its combination of genuinely good, intelligent drama and heart-wrenching, brutally intense moments. Just consistently brilliant.

Pushing Daisies - Season 2

I thought that after loving the first season so much, my affection might lower after prolonged exposure to the show's unique charm and feel. But honestly, it really didn't. Ned and Chuck are still adorable. Emerson is still the best displaced film noir protagonist I've ever seen. Olive is still a great, sympathetic supporting character. The revolving door of guest actors portraying murder victims and murderers is still overflowing with talent. The visual style is still one of a kind and fun to look at. The writing is still a perfect mix of honest emotion and sharp banter. It's just a damn good show in every aspect. It really is a shame it got canceled after only 22 episodes, but the characters will live on at least for a little while in comic book form, so I can't be too depressed.

In season two, they do a really good job of expanding the story while still having a new mystery every week. Ubiquitous character actor Stephen Root (If you don't recognize him from something, then you don't watch many movies or TV) plays a mysterious stranger who starts digging up everyone's pasts, we learn more about Emerson's daughter, Olive's time at a nunnery expands her character, and Ned and Chuck develop realistically without it veering too far into melodrama. Chuck's aunts also get pretty far with their recovery from their death, and by the end I was genuinely disappointed they didn't have time to get to plot teases like Ned's father, because they definitely showed they can handle long term stuff like that. The series finale wraps up everything very quickly in a little narrated sequence that's about as good as you can expect for something put together at the last second, but it's really just the final kick in the nuts after coming to grips with the fact that Pushing Daisies never got a chance to see its full potential.

Pushing Daisies - Season 1

Pushing Daisies is one of the most original and entertaining shows I've seen in a long time. It's just a shame I didn't find out until after it was canceled. I mean, of course it was canceled. It was unique and quirky and not marketed to the right audience. After it ended, creator Bryan Fuller returned to Heroes, the show that was good before he left, but only managed to write one episode (one of the best of the season, big surprise) before leaving again. Will he ever find lasting success with a show he can call his own? Who knows.

What I do know is there are a lot of words that can describe Pushing Daisies. Several of them are words like "cute" and "sweet" and "adorable". It's the kind of cute with a Tim Burton-esque edge to it though, which you can see from the premise - main character Ned can return dead things to life with the touch of his finger, but there are two caveats. Touching them again will kill them forever, and if he doesn't do so for one minute something nearby will die instead. Of course, he can bring that thing to life too, but then the cycle starts over. Anyway, him discovering his power and the rules to it lead to an eventual future as a pie maker who works with a private detective to solve murders by asking the victim who killed them on the side. One day the victim happens to be his childhood sweetheart Chuck, who he of course neglects to kill once again after reviving her, and then the show starts properly.

It's a mix of a bittersweet romantic comedy where Ned can never touch the object of his affections and a surreal forensic mystery show put together. Two of the show's strongest elements are the writing and the visual design, which work together to create an unusual and quite funny universe, trapped between a kid's fairy tale and a hardened detective story. Each episode brings a new case to solve and new issues for Ned and Chuck to deal with in their own version of a relationship. Things are predicated by flashbacks to Ned's earlier life as an abandoned child in a boarding school which relate to whatever's going on at the time, and it's a good mix of strong dialogue, clever mystery, and a fair amount of tugging at heartstrings. The entire cast is strong, from the two leads to Emerson, the detective who's not fond of the dead girl brought to life situation, Olive, the pie shop assistant with an unrequited affection for Ned, and Chuck's two aunts who are still dealing with the tragedy of her apparent death. Even the dog is one of the better animals on television. Or was. The only thing that ever bothered me about the show was the slightly overbearing nature of the orchestral score whenever anyone shared a moment. Otherwise, I pretty much loved every minute and can't wait to check out the second and final season.