Okay okay okay. I've mentioned it enough and procrastinated enough that now it's become anti-climatic.
I dug through the nearly 100 shows I watched that aired new episodes in 2006 and then started cutting until I came up with a Top Ten. Are they the best? Not always. Are they my favorites? Surprisingly, not always. Are these better than others that didn't make the cut? For the most part. But I wanted to hit some shows that I love, some that are important to see, and some that really need the mention.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
My Top Ten TV Shows of 2006 (and, yes, I cheated and had more than 10-- even the legit critics do it):
1. [adult swim] (Cartoon Network). Specifically Venture Brothers and Frisky Dingo. For crazy-ass shenanigans and hilarious lines, go no further than the swim.
2. Conviction (BBC America). A fantastic tale about guilt, and how it can slowly drive a man crazy.
3. Entourage. Unique, profane, quoteworthy... And the icing on the cake of Jeremy Piven. And Martin Landau this season: "Would that be something you might be interested in?"
4. HBO Sports. Costas Now, Inside the NFL, and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel always has some feature every episode that moves me. These shows hit the stories that others won't touch, and even though I don't follow sports, I have to watch these shows.
5. "The New Face of Comedy": My Name is Earl and The Office (NBC) as well as How I Met Your Mother (CBS). Great writing, acting, and directing on these shows just proves that comedies aren't dead, they're just transforming beyond the set-up and punchline method that has been used for decades.
6. Prison Break. If you're new to this blog, you may not know that I am into this show. I read everything I can about it in magazines and on the Internet, and I am surprised every... single... episode. That's amazing.
7. Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO). There is no show out there that hits on the same beliefs I have about the world as this one. Things I've felt for years but couldn't explain get talked about, and I can suddenly express my thoughts and beliefs better. And while Maher is notoriously anti-Bush/Republican (and I can't blame him), he's also pretty negative about the Democrats (mainly for being p*ssies). He's an equal opportunity critic-- and now that the Dems have the House, I expect them to catch some of his wrath in 2007.
8. South Park (Comedy Central). There is no better (or needed) satire airing today than this show about a group of elementary students. Admittedly, it hits some low points, but the next episode always puts it back on top. The amazing one-week turnaround from script to air allows this show to be right on top of events. Or eerily ahead of the times (they called out Mel Gibson as a loon before he had his "episode" last year). And if the satire isn't for you, there are always plenty of poop jokes and swearing to go around.
9. 30 Days (FX). Mandatory viewing. What happens when someone is taken out of their element and put into the complete opposite of it? Understanding and friendship. What a neat concept: get people with opposing views together and they learn to respect each other. Imagine the progress humanity could achieve if we all walked in another's shoes...
10. Ugly Betty (ABC). The characters are garishly colored, the head of the company is a silver spoon horndog, the antagonists are more cartoony than a Bond villain, the acting can be borderline Soap Opera-ish (always by design)... And it works. Wonderfully. It's a breath of fresh air to see a show that isn't mean-spirited (remember: cartoony villains; as awful as they are, you can't hate them) and the "good guys" value friendship and family above all else.
So there you go. I wrote more detailed thoughts for the first half (long-hand, by the way), but I knew if I waited until I wrote them all (and then typed them), it'd be close to 2008. Maybe I'll add to them at a later date.
No promises, though. You see, I've discovered a method of time travel, and it's made it difficult to focus on the blog.
You take a DVD-ROM and insert it into your computer. When the screen comes up, click on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and then click on "load game". It's amazing, but that's all it takes to travel through time.
Take last night: I put the disk in at 10:30 pm, and the next thing I knew, it was 12:30 am. I jumped forward in time two whole hours, and it felt like ten minutes.
Try it if you'd like, but I warn you: this method only works to jump forward through time. I haven't found a way to go back in time or slow it down.
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