First of all, let's get one thing out of the way: these aren't so much best and worsts as they are what I did and didn't like. If your choices aren't on this list, or are the reverse of your choices...well..start your own blog. Just link to me is all I ask.
So let's talk television.
Stay up late on a school night
Mad Men is still defying the PVR. I rarely watch TV live anymore, preferring to watch things when I have a free moment, or just binge on Friday and Saturday. However, I've often made it a point to stay up late when I can to at least watch the first half of Mad Men every week. No other show, even the competitive ones with definite spoilers, don't get that treatment. The best way to think of Mad Men is like a novel: Wait until the whole story is told before you try to really put it together.
Best reveal of the season
Dexter's cat and mouse game between Dex and Trinity salvaged a season that felt like a greatest hits parade of the past couple (Dexter's lies to his family, Deb falling in love with the wrong people, Vince is a perv). But I don't think any one moment on a show stunned me like Betty Draper opening the dryer and finding Don's key to his secret drawer on Mad Men. It was a moment fans of the show waited for, knew had to happen some day, but were still surprised when it happened, and knew that nothing was going to be the same after. What we didn't know, however, was that it was going to completely change the focus of the show.
From Zero to Hate
There's a great line in High Fidelity when Barry, in a moment of music-snob-pique says to Rob "How can someone with no taste in music run a record store?" When Glee came on the air, critics picked on its misandry/misogyny and bevy of unsympathetic characters. For some people, such as myself, that wasn't a big deal. What became a big deal the more I watched it was the completely literal and un-inspired song choices. Most of the time it seems that they just picked a song based on the title and not its relevancy to the plot - "Smile", a song about watching a philandering ex looking for mercy sex and turning him down, was used to try to get a secret crush relaxed for a picture. "You Can't Always Get What You Want", one of the darkest songs on the Stones darkest album, was used to show perseverance over odds. Does anyone on the show actually LISTEN to the lyrics? And even worse - as soon as I saw in the first episode that there was an overweight African American girl I was worried that before we knew it we'd have to hear "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going." Sure enough.... So I ask Glee, how can a show that hates music be a musical?
Happiest surprise
One show that I love is Top Chef. Now, we're not finished it here in Canada, but it's been amazing that Kevin, who looked - literally looked - like someone who would be eliminated in the middle stages turned out to be one of the most amazing chefs. He's a great example of having a consistent vision and style and not giving into the Voltaggio peer pressure to be something he's not.
Are you watching the same show?
The hip thing has been to pick on 30 Rock, which is only natural for a show that's become as critically acclaimed as it has. What these people are missing, however, is that the show has started slow every season, and it best viewed as a whole set of pieces rather than individual episodes and plot lines. When people think of the best 30 Rocks, they don't often point to an episode but to a series of events, almost like skits. The sum of the parts has always been greater than the whole. Trust me, at the end of the season people will feel the same way about the show as they do at the end of every other one.
An argument for giving a show time
People love to note that Hill Street Blues and Cheers started at the bottom of their ratings and were in danger of cancellations. People note it, but don't remember it. Thus last year they were crying for the cancellation of Parks and Recreations and this year were telling you you were stupid for giving up on it.
An argument for giving a show time, pt II
Sit Down Shut Up was never going to be the second coming of The Simpsons or Arrested Development, but it was certainly going to be more cohesive and better thought out than the show that replaced it, The Cleveland Show, which took its main character out of an environment where rape is considered funny and into one where dated racial stereotypes are considered funny. I guess that cleans it up a little. (Deaf people and homosexuals, however, are still fair game) If you can catch the late Saturday night repeats/burn offs of Sit Down Shut Up, do so.
No one asked
I watched the remake the The Prisoner while writing/doing other things, so I'll admit that I didn't follow it as closely as I should have. Even if I had, I think I would had found it confusing for confusing's sake, and with a payoff that really wasn't worth the time invested to get there. If there's one thing I hate, it's any plot that takes a surreal situation and tries to resolve it by saying 'Well, it's all in the subconscious.' It's lazy writing. It also made me think that Wild Palms was ahead of its time.
A great moment of Hubris, full stop
On the Oscar telecast this year, Ben Mulroney was talking to Melissa Leo about her nominated role in Frozen River. Since he only knows what people tell him, he tried to talk up the movie by saying it was a cast of amateurs. This brought out righteous indignation on her part, where she educated Mulroney on what it means to be an actor, that these were people who worked their heart out and were trained and not iditots savants or noble savages. Mulroney was kinda of flabbergasted but didn't have a chance to embarrass himself more before her handlers moved her on to someone else. Delicious.
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