My Best in TV List

I was just going to make a comment, but I realized it would be a little long, so I thought I would throw my own list up there.

10 Favorite Shows of 2005/2006 Season

1. VERONICA MARS - You think Lost is confusing and deep in mysteries, you should have checked out the 2nd season of this well deserved critical darling. I counted 14 different mysteries going on at one point in the season, and what's amazing is that in the best season finale of the year they were all wrapped up very nicely, and were all tied together in ways that actually were believable. They even brought up some unanswered questions from season 1 and threw them into the mix without any confusion. And to top all of that we have the best father/daughter team in the history of televsion with the cute as hell Kristin Bell (Veronica) and Enrico Colantoni (Keith Mars).

2. 24 - This show hits high note after high note. No, it wasn't quite as great as last season, but it didn't really taper off that much either. I agree with Chris; I will cry when this show ends it's run.

3. BATTLESTAR GALATICA - Best Sci-Fi show ever, and I don't even think it realizes it's science fiction in the least. A cliffhanger ripped right off of the 2nd season of "Alias," but done even better with much higher stakes thrown out on the table. And, hopefully this show won't take the downward spiral our once beloved spy show did in its third season.

4. SOPRANOS - Even less than stellar Sopranos is a hell of a lot better than pretty much everything else on television. Most people say nothing happened; I say the show took some dramatic chances, and for the most part won on all of them.

5. LOST - This show was a bit of a rollercoaster for me this year, but at the end of the season I could see where everything was leading, and in many ways this was even better than the first season. I was looking back at a comment Chris made on one of my posts about how he was annoyed, like I was, that Michael's transaction via computer with Walt had the meatiest parts missing, and then sure enough, 13 episodes later we get to see what all happened in that lost interim. That's one thing I love about this show; it never forgets what came before, and the continuity is for the most part flawless.

6. GREY'S ANATOMY - I got sucked in just like everyone else (Including my wife, who treats this show much like most people treat a crack/cocaine addiction; she can't stop using.). And I have to admit, Ellen Pompeo's Meredith Grey is really the most annoying aspect of the show, and she's the star. However, there is a hell of a supporting cast around her that makes it all work. I still can't figure out why anyone ever goes to this hospital though; they can't seem to save anyone's life. I guess we'll forsake belivability for good drama and sex in the hospital. I'm all for it.

7. THIEF - Andre Braugher shows why every show should have him in it as the star, and why he doesn't need to play tenth billed in a movie like Poseidon. Much better than the god awful NBC show, Heist. And once again proving that FX should be taken seriously as a major series television provider; let's just get rid of Nip/Tuck; that show has strayed a bit off course.

8. SCRUBS - I use to say Newsradio was the best sitcom that no one watched; now I'm leaning more towards Scrubs. This show at first seemed to take a bit of a downspin infusing all of the tension and drama, but it all payed off for some of the funniest episodes yet later down the line. The episode where Dr. Cox went off the deep end into an alcholic binge turned out to be one of the greatest episodes of television I have ever seen.

9. HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER - As standard as a sitcom can be, but there's something about this show that brings me back to it every week. I'm even watching the summer reruns, which I have already seen. That is usually a mark of a great show. The show's got charm; it's sitcom comfort food, and there is nothing wrong with that.

10. SUPERNATURAL - The best scary show since the heyday of The Twilight Zone. It started off as an intriguing monster of the week kind of thing, and as the season went on developed it's own kind of mythology that really worked well for it. This was a show that got better each episode, and I can't wait for season 2.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

- SNL DIGITAL SHORTS - You can watch all of these on the NBC website, and if you haven't seen them you should go there right now. From Natalie Portman doing a gansta rap about her hardcore life ("What you want Natalie? To Drink and Fight! What you need Natalie? To Fuck all night!") to Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg doing a gangsta rap about loving "The Chronic...What...cles of Narnia!" you really can't go wrong here. It's not all gangsta rap though. In some of these, like the brilliant, "Doppleganger," the not ready for primetime players reach an almost Kids in the Hall type excellence. The rest of the show might still suck, but these shorts are things of beauty. "Hoo-wee, Tiara!"

- NBA PLAYOFFS - Finally, some NBA basketball I can actually get behind. A lot of great stories like LeBron James literally almost carrying his team on his back to the Eastern finals to all of the double overtime games and godawful foul shooting from the likes of Shaquille O'Neal (Go Figure) this has been a joy to behold. These guys actually look like they love to play again, and not just a bunch of overpaid dickwads.

- THE 2ND HALF OF DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, SEASON 2 - Desperate Housewives really struggled to it's rerun filled early winter, but once the 2nd half of the season began, the show got better, a hell of a lot better. Marcia Cross should be commended, and hopefully recognized by the Emmy voters, for her emotional range she took on in this season. And what a great finale filled with kidnappings, people getting run over by cars, and all of the affairs. ABC really shook up it's top moneymaker at the end of season 2; let's hope they can find a realistic way to get all of these crazy assholes back in one piece for season 3.

-SERIES FINALE OF ALIAS - Chris already touched upon the greatness that was the destruction of Arvin Sloane. And the whole episode really surprised me. The few episodes leading up to this just left me confused and pissed off; I didn't think bringing back Rimbaldi was really necessarry, but in the end it felt like it finally all made sense. By no means reaching the greatness of the first two and half years of this show; the finale at least brought us back to some of the basics that made us fall in love with this show in the first place.