Monday, June 04, 2007

Best of TV - Fall 2006/ Winter 2007 The Most Tapeworthy Shows Of The Television Season

This is my personal list of what I thought was the Best of TV during the Fall 2006 - Winter 2007 Television Season. (Entourage doesn't make it onto the list only because it was unavailable to me during this season so I haven't watched any of this years yet and need to play catch up).

I deemed the "Best" as somewhere in combination of quality and how much I found myself wanting to watch the next episode. (Number) in Brackets Is Ranking From December 2006 List.

Best of TV Fall 2006- Winter 2007 - The Most Tapeworthy Shows This Past TV Season

1. Friday Night Lights (3) - Simply, a perfect first season. Every episode was great. The characters were real and moving, the stories, honest and poignant. Almost every episode brought me to tears at some point (or watery eyes at the very least), which is not an easy feat for me. The Taylors are hands down the best written family on TV EVER.



2. Lost (6) - Even when I didn't make sense to me, I was dazzled and razzled and always left me wanting more. Of course when the finale wrapped up a lot of things (and of course threw in a billion more questions in the air), I knew this was thrilling TV on a philsophical level and that indeed, the journey from being Lost is all worth the ride.



3. The Office (2) - The gang at Dundler Mifflin always seem to get knocked out of first place on my list just as they are about to emerge into the top spot but this consistently funny show makes us care about the poor office drones stuck listening to Michael incesant commands and we are all the more lucky to listen in.



4. Ugly Betty (9) - Camp, Cartoonish and Corny, yet the TV show, led by the generous America Ferrara as the title character always balanced perfectly between the melodramatic, the comedy, and the actually serious parts. As the season continued, the show found it's perfect timing in the zippiness between all the wonderful characters that developed beyond caricature whilst still throwing out zany quips and some of the best lines on TV.



5. Veronica Mars (5) - While the show lost some of it's darkness without having one major arching mystery, we still got some of the best characters, and character development within the town of Neptune. Veronica and Keith still maintained the best father daughter relationship around. I'm going to really miss this show.



6. How I Met Your Mother (10) - With the exception of a very few regular episodes, the team here built on what could have been a tired premise and twisted usually clichéd plots (Lily and Marshall's breakup, Robin and Ted's relationship, the wedding plans, Barney) into ones with humour and pathos and more humour (between Robin Sparkles, Slap Bet, Barney's brother, and Slap Bet revenge 2, I fell on the floor several times laughing so hard).

7. Weeds (8) - Oh, life in Agrestic has been topsy turvy and between Celia as the new mayor and Nancy's new "business", the black comedy sure kept surprising me .

8. Heroes (11) - Popcorn fun with storylines that moved at the speed of light and a few enjoyable characters (Hiro and Ando, the Bennetts) that kept us pulled into the lives or ordinary heroes trying to save the world. Sometimes the plotting was too fast, not giving enough time for character development, and it ended with a whimper, but like a rollercoaster, it was cheap and fast while it lasted giving some good thrills along the way.

9. Brothers & Sisters (18) - The popcorn fun with a bit more estrogen, the soapy drama that followed the Walkers started out morosely and boringly but with Greg Berlanti's edition behind the scenes, the show whipped out faster plots, funnier dialogue and more poignant moments with a TV A-list cast that took the sometimes trashy (but joyous) scenes and knawed them to brilliant fun.

10. 30 Rock (Not Ranked) - Much like Brothers & Sisters, it started off slow, with a bit too many quirks and not enough quips to balance it out, but as the season went on, 30 Rock, and its cast of VERY colourful characters, including Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy, Tracy Morgan's Tracy Jordan, and Jack McBrayer's Kenneth the Page, surrounded Tina Fey's Liz Lemon and somehow turned it from absurd and weird TV into an absurdly hilarious weird television show.

11. The New Adventures of Old Christine (17)
12. The OC (Not Ranked)
13. Project Runway (14)
14. Bones (20)
15. My Name Is Earl (19)
16. Men In Trees (Not Ranked)
17. Scrubs (12)
18. Grey's Anatomy (4)
19. Boston Legal (Not Ranked)
20. Notes From The Underbelly (Not Ranked)


Shows that Used to be good, started this season bad, but finally ended well : Gilmore Girls
Shows that Used to be good, started this season good, then lost some of its mojo:
The Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives
Shows I Really Like That I Still Find Myself Missing, Then Forget To Watch Later: Everybody Hates Chris, House, Supernatural
Honourable Mentions for good shows that need(ed) a bit more time to grow: Smith, Help Me Help You
Shows I Know I Shouldn't Like That I Still Did: The Class, Justice, American Idol
Procedurals I Don't Watch Regularly But Are Still Decent: Without A Trace, Cold Case, L&O:SVU

Shows I Finally Gave Up On: ER, 24, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, What About Brian

Best of TV 2006
Best of TV Fall 2005- Winter 2006
Best of TV 2005

No comments: