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THE BEST

1. 30 Rock
No show was more consistent this year than NBC’s low-rated Tina Fey/Alec Baldwin darling. 30 Rock won the Emmy for best comedy this year, beating out the more deserving The Office, which had a superb third season. But once you factor in the new season, 30 Rock reigns supreme. Alec Baldwin is so good that I completely forgot he’s a horrible father.

2. South Park
South Park is like a fine wine; with age it just keeps getting better. This year had everything, from Bono’s raunchy giant turd to the “Imaginationland” trilogy. But the best moment had to be the season finale’s callbacks to the early years with Kenny dying and Stan throwing up on Wendy.

3. Pushing Daisies
With a compact cast of spot-on actors equipped with jocular dialogue that could make Aaron Sorkin smirk, Pushing Daisies is not only this season’s best new show but also the most original show on television. It’s gimmicky and cute but it works. Chi McBride as knitting private detective Emerson Cod steals the show. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the episodes “Pie-lette” and “Bitches.”

4. LOST
LOST has always had its ups and downs but the third season made up for any lackluster moments from season two. Many new questions were raised but many were also answered. Charlie died but so what? LOST recognizes when a character has served his or her purpose and knows when to pull the plug. For the most part the cast remains top-notch, with Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson clearly standing out.

5. Battlestar Galactica
Lasts year’s best show got a bit sidetracked halfway through its third season as we had to endure a few filler episodes. But in the end, BSG rebounded nicely with multiple twists and a cliffhanger that should set up a dynamite final season.

6. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
FX’s crude comedy about five losers whose lives revolve around a shitty bar in Philadelphia delivered again in its third season. The standout episode had to be the season finale, “The Gang Dances Their Asses Off,” where almost every character spends the entire episode dancing. Not since the days of Seinfeld has there been a show about a despicable group of friends who revel in meddling and sabotaging the lives of others.

7. The Office
Don’t get me wrong, The Office was great this past year, but those four hour-long segs that started off the fourth season stretched good material a bit thin.

HONORABLE MENTION to new shows: Mad Men on AMC, Burn Notice on USA, Damages on FX, and The Discovery Channel’s beautifully filmed Planet Earth.

THE WORST

1. 24
What a difference a year makes… Last year I was singing the praises of 24’s fifth season. But after the laughable sixth season, 24 has tumbled into the abysmal abyss of television. The early praise from critics, not to mention my own, only applied to the first four hours or so. Once Jack killed Curtis and the nuke went off, it was all downhill from there. Long-time fans were introduced to Jack’s extended family that we never knew existed. Jack’s brother was bad, so was his father. But the family woes weren’t limited to the Bauer family. Palmer 2.0, as in Wayne Palmer, was entirely unbelievable as the President. And the Palmer sister, yet another contrived character, seemed to serve no real purpose. Watching the sixth season, it’s obvious that the writers and producers saw the direction the story was headed and decided to repeat past clichés, which only made things worse. If not for Peter MacNicol’s scene-stealing Tom Lennox, I would have bailed.

2. Heroes
Forever the example of a show that doesn’t learn from its own mistakes, Heroes took a steaming dump, in the form of reverse character development, on viewers this season. The lackluster first season finale led into a boring second season that culminated in nearly every character reverting to their original state. Even the characters that die can come back to life. There are no consequences whatsoever. The conclusion to the second volume basically ended where the first volume began. Nothing happens on this show. The acting is atrocious and it’s the worst written show on television.

3. Family Guy
When did Seth MacFarlane learn to suck his own dick? The once hilarious Family Guy can’t make me laugh even with the assistance of mind-altering substances. Every episode of has always consisted of just a few minutes of actual “plot” crammed between random gags and humorous callbacks to memory’s past. But now most of those aren’t even that funny. The best example is the hour-long Star Wars spoof they did a few months ago. When you remove the actual sound effects, music, and dialogue taken directly from the original film, the episode amounts to about twenty minutes of fluff. The Simpsons have been on the air thrice as long and can still churn out quality episodes more often than not. Family Guy could learn a thing or two from the predecessor that they frequently rip-off.

This Television entry was posted Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 2:27 pm.
Tags: 24, 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, Family Guy, LOST, Pushing Daisies, Seinfeld, South Park, The Office