Best of the Decade: TV

Here’s the ten best TV shows of the decade. This was by far the best decade for TV in the medium’s history, and this list is pretty close to my best series all time list. There's a lot of great shows that didn't make it, these are the elite.

10. Angel
Best Season: Five
Best Episode: ‘A Hole in the World’
The most uneven show on the list, Angel veered from the boring standalones of season one and the endless, at times nonsensical season four arc to the morally ambiguous challenging heights of the Darla arc in season two, Wesley’s arc in season three and in particular the entire final season were fantastic enough for it to merit a spot on the list. What makes the show shine above its inconsistencies were the fantastic character development work done on Angel, Cordelia and Wesley. All three of those characters were fantastic, and anchored the show in a very real way. It’s a shame the show was cancelled at the height of its powers, but at least we got one of the all time best series finales.



9. Freaks and Geeks
Best Season: One
Best Episode: ‘Discos and Dragons’
Like its ‘cancelled too soon’ brethren Arrested Development and Firefly, Freaks and Geeks has become a legend of TV, and the massive success of virtually all its actors and creative team only enhanced the legend. But, despite the team’s massive success, nobody involved has topped their work here. The performances were fantastic, and the show did a great job of world building as it went on, and letting you watch the people grow and change in subtle ways. It’s the best depiction of high school life ever captured on film, and, as with Angel, even though it was cancelled too soon, it went out on a fantastic high note.



8. Doctor Who
Best Season: Four
Best Episode: ‘Parting of the Ways’
Far from the most consistent show, Who had probably more weak episodes than any other show on the list, but at its best, it hit me emotionally like nothing else out there. The thing I love so much about Who is the core of optimism about humanity’s potential and our place in the world. The Doctor sees excitement and joy everywhere he goes, and even when the show got dark, as it often did to great effect, it’s about him struggling to make things better and having to deal with the fact that he can’t. I particularly like the show’s reinterpretation of the hero’s journey, as we see that just being chosen and taken to a world of adventure doesn’t make all your problems go away. The show is spectacle on a scale never before attempted on TV, and when it succeeds, it blows your mind and breaks your heart at the same time. I’m excited to see the story resolve itself in the two part finale over the course of the next week.



7. Mad Men
Best Season: Two
Best Episode: ‘The Jet Set’
Mad Men is probably the best example of the new kind of shows that became possible thanks to shifts in the perception and consumption of the TV medium. The Sopranos pushed the boundaries of art in TV, but even as it plunged into subjective artiness and de-dramatized character stories in its later years, it still was based around action stories and had violence as the dramatic hook for viewers. Mad Men has no violence or action, but it’s still riveting in its precise exploration of a set of characters trying to survive or thrive in the 1960s. Visually, the show is unparalleled in its gorgeous production design and costuming, capturing all the glamour and narrative ambiguity of 60s European art cinema. It’s great to watch something on TV that feels like Fellini or Bergman, that uses our familiarity with the characters to explore complex issues and new storytelling methods. I’d be shocked if this show isn’t here when I do the best of the decade list ten years from now.



6. The Office (UK)
Best Season: Two
Best Episode: Season 2, Episode 6
The Office is the only comedy on the list, largely because it’s so much more than just funny, it’s got a core of sadness that is shockingly overturned by the show’s joyous Christmas finale. It’s also the most influential comedy on the list, pioneering the comedy of awkwardness that was widely adopted later in the decade, and influencing the documentary aesthetic of shows like Arrested Development, as well as obvious descendents like the American Office and Parks and Recreation. But, thanks to its short running time, the series makes no compromises, and is true to its characters and world. Thanks to the overall sense of hopelessness, the final scene between Tim and Dawn is one of the most romantic and beautiful in all of film. And, on top of all that, it’s the funniest show of all time.



5. John From Cincinnati
Best Season: One
Best Episode: ‘His Visit, Day Five’
I’ve seen John mentioned in a lot of decade writeups, usually in the context of the erroneous idea that Milch allowed Deadwood to be cancelled in favor of doing this show. One, that’s not at all true. Two, JFC was in many ways the continuation of Deadwood that they wanted, but for me, it refined all the things that worked about Deadwood and brought the dormant themes to the fore for a fascinating exploration of the way that communities form and what spirituality and the extraordinary mean in a contemporary context. The series blend of mysticism and verite was hard for people to take, but I loved it, few series had the religious awe this one carried, and moments like John’s sermon in the parking lot or the descent from the clouds that opened the final episode are among the most profound ever captured on film. I don’t consider this a qualified success, it’s outright one of the best series of all time.



4. The Wire
Best Season: Three
Best Episode: ‘Final Grades’
One of the most important and ambitious series of all time, The Wire has been praised extensively, and virtually no compliment about the series is hyperbole. It really is as good as people claim, both in terms of social relevance and in simple story construction. The show built an elaborate world and by the end of the series had nearly 50 regular characters floating through at any given time. And, it’s the characters who linger for me, particularly moments like the apocalyptic fourth season finale, or the operatic Avon and Stringer stuff at the end of season three. People will watch and analyze this series for years to come, it’s one of the most important documents of the aspects of our society that no one else is talking about. You need look no further than the fact that Crash won a best picture Oscar the same year as The Wire aired on TV to see where the real cultural dialogue was taking place this decade.



3. Six Feet Under
Best Season: Five
Best Episode: ‘I’m Sorry, I’m Lost’
Six Feet Under is a show that on the surface lacks the ambition of something like The Sopranos or The Wire, but it’s so brilliant in its character work, and its exploration of the search for meaning in everyday middle class life in the 2000s. All the characters were looking for definition, for a way to give their lives purpose and to find love and fulfillment in a world that often makes it hard to believe in anything. In a decade of irony and distance, this show forced its characters to confront their true selves, and the performances and writing crafted some of the most well rounded characters in literary history, Nate and Brenda in particular. By the end of the series, the accumulated experiences of all the characters led to a devastating series of events, and ultimately transcendence in the final montage that took us outside time to show that everything ends, but we all have to live first.



2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Best Season: Six
Best Episode: ‘Restless’
The 00s featured the series’ best episodes, the two season arc that spanned seasons five and six, as well as my personal favorite season of any show all time, season six. But, it also featured some shakier stuff in season four and season seven. Still, take everything I said about Six Feet Under above and add it an epic hero’s journey and you’ve got what makes Buffy so special. The character work was phenomenal, and I’ve never been as completely addicted to a series as I was watching the later seasons of the show. New characters like Tara and Anya, as well as Spike’s rise to prominence kept the series fresh, and Whedon’s auteurial experiments pushed the show to new heights of visual greatness, particularly in ‘Restless’ and the dazzling ‘Once More With Feeling,’ which managed to simultaneously be a great original musical, and forward the overall season plot. I still love the show so much.



1. The Sopranos
Best Season: Five
Best Episode: ‘Long Term Parking’
The show that redefined what a TV series can be, The Sopranos is the greatest sustained examination of a single character in cinema history, and is also a fascinating look at the priorities and concerns of everyday people in a post WWII, post 9/11 world. While the show drew attention for its mob storylines, what jumped out to me was how much the characters’ world reminded me of my life, and how the relatability of what was happening. It was an intellectually riveting series, full of internal patterns and long reaching character arcs and symbol tracks, but it was also intensely addictive. Watching the last couple of seasons, I was desperate to see the next episodes, and upon rewatch, the series reveals more and more layers. If The Wire functions as a portrait of the poor and downtrodden in society, The Sopranos explores the troubles of people struggling to maintain their hold on the middle class, to continue living their lives in a world where the country slips into financial ruin and loses its status in the world. Tony Soprano is America, and his dream is ours. The instantly iconic finale only adds to the series status as fascinating, endlessly debatable entertainment.

TV Power Rankings: November 2009

With a few new shows having premiered, and one on the way out, it seems like an opportune time to do another TV power ranking.

1. Mad Men – By far the best show on TV, it’ll be a long wait until next season. I didn’t love the backhalf of the season as much as I liked the first half, but it closed on a great note, with a vast array of possibilities for next season.

2. Parks and Recreation - The best comedy on TV, the recent Halloween episode was a series high point, and last week’s library battle was another classic. This is better than the American Office has ever been, if it keeps up this level of quality, it could be an all time comedy classic, a Seinfeld or Arrested Development level series.

3. Bored to Death - I haven’t seen the season finale yet, Mad Men took precedence, but I just like this show more and more. It does have that weird HBO comedy feeling of not really being funny, but I love the atmosphere and the characters, and the past couple of episodes have been really top notch, particularly the mission to retrieve the sex tape. It’s great to see so many New York locations on screen, and I’m glad this is coming back for a second year.

4. 30 Rock - A lot of the buzz this year has been about how 30 Rock is going downhill. This season has had some issues, but the trip to “real America” last week was consistently hilarious, and I don’t think there’s been a full on clunker in this batch of episodes. I think the show might have been overpraised a bit, so it’s logical for things to even out. I think the bigger issue is that the characters have become so familiar that jokes that might have been funny earlier have become tired. But, Jack and Liz still work well together, and there’s enough material each week to keep it on the higher end of the Thursday comedy lineup.

5. How I Met Your Mother - This is another show that’s struggled with balancing the wacky and the emotional side of things. The Barney/Robin relationship has had some strong jokes, but I haven’t felt that emotionally engaged with them as a couple. Maybe I’m just expecting too much of the show. It’s still been pretty sharp and relatable, and perhaps the groundwork is being laid for some more substantial stuff down the line.

6. The Office - Another show I’ve had mixed feelings on. This most recent episode was one of my least favorite of the show’s run, not working on an emotional level, and balancing a maudlin, pointlessly cruel A story with a pointlessly dumb B story. Still, the previous week’s episode worked well, and the supporting cast gets better and better. I’d be happy if Jim and Pam disappeared and we got more time with Andy and Erin.

7. Community - The show has done a better job of balancing its goofier side with its emotional side, particularly in the standout Halloween episode, which featured some great surreal imagery and an ability to be absurd but still smart that is the hallmark of many great sitcoms. Some of the storylines still feel too rushed or sitcom cliché, but it’s getting better, and that’s one of the best things you can say about a freshman show.

8. Curb Your Enthusiasm - After a very strong start to the season, things have dipped into boring and predictable in this last batch of episodes. I think the problem may be that I’ve never loved the show, and this Seinfeld reunion hype got my hopes up about it becoming something that it’s not. The scenes with Jerry are great, but the rest is just Curb by the numbers, and when you’re expecting more, that’s not going to cut it.

9. Glee - The show hasn’t aired an episode in a while, but the last one was fairly strong, and even though there’s still a lot of things that bother me, I’ve got a better feeling about the show going forward. If it gets out of the rut of just hitting the exact same beats every episode and lets the characters grow and the situations evolve organically, not through terrible, imposed plots, it could become a very strong show.

10. Modern Family - This show is wearing on me a bit. The central issue is that it has the appearance of a slightly edgy, irreverent show, but is a traditional sitcom underneath, and the “awww” moments at the end of each episode are getting tiresome. It also feels like there’s no real evolution going on at all. I know it’s a sitcom and things aren’t going to change much, but I want a greater accumulation of feeling and events than I’m getting. It’s funny enough to be worth watching, but could slip off the radar if it doesn’t improve.

11. Dollhouse - Sometimes I feel like I’m watching a different show than people online because the one I’m watching is not very good. I’m sticking with it because of Joss, and it seems like there’s only a few more to go, but the show is so totally nonsensical and emotionally impenetrable, it’s hard to believe it came from the guy who managed to skillfully poke fun at the sort of absurdity that Dollhouse is mired in, and was able to find the emotional in for even the most absurd storylines on Buffy or Angel.

12. V - This was a pretty terrible pilot, with no defined characters and the most perfunctory telling of a potentially great premise. I’ll give it one more episode just because I’d really like to love the show, but the pacing on the pilot was horrendous, the whole thing felt like one long “Previously On…” section, skipping over a huge amount of potentially interesting story for no apparent reason. A real clunker so far.

TV Power Rankings

I’ve seen a couple of other people doing a ‘Power Ranking’ for TV shows, and I’m going to start doing that every couple of weeks, as the schedule allows. It’ll be a good chance for me to write up a bit about all the shows I’m watching without having to review every episode.

Right now, I’m watching a whole bunch of shows, mostly comedies. I think there’s a lot of good stuff on, but I would love to find a couple more great dramas out there. Hopefully next year’s return of Big Love and Lost will alleviate that, and I should be able to catch up on season two of Breaking Bad by then as well. I may sample Flash Forward, and try to catch up on that in the next couple of weeks, but it has the look of a show that I try and make it through a few episodes before losing interest in.

Anyway, here’s the shows I’m actually watched, ranked in order of enjoyment.

1. Mad Men - No question this is the top show on the air, and with each episode that airs, it strengthens its case to be one of the top shows of all time. This season has been the best yet, and each episode is a work of art. Last week’s wasn’t the series’ best episode, but did feature the wonderful role playing between Don and Betty in Rome, and all the glamour and atmosphere of a Fellini film.

2. Parks and Recreation - Unlike a lot of people, I really liked the abbreviated first season of the show that aired last Spring. I think the series built a really interesting world, and memorable characters in short order. The cast is really deep, with Aziz Ansari as a particular standout. And this season has just kept getting better. I think it has a grounding and emotional reality that the American office never had, and has managed to tell a wide variety of stories within what looks like a potentially narrow premise. The Dave/Leslie stuff this week was gold, as was Anne’s fake date persona. This show just keeps getting better and better.

3. Curb Your Enthusiasm - I’ve never loved Curb in the way that I loved Seinfeld. I think Curb is a lot more formulaic and predictable, but this season has been consistently solid. The second episode was the funniest, with the instantly classic “Fuck you Larry David, that’s some bullshit!” But, the third episode, with the Seinfeld cast reunited, was my favorite so far. Seeing Larry and Jerry interacting was amazing, and I’m eager to see how that arc develops over the course of the season.

4. How I Met Your Mother - I forgave the show a lot of its flaws when watching it in a binge viewing earlier this year. Watching the show week to week, the episodes can feel a bit slight. It’s always funny, but I don’t feel the emotional connection to the characters I had when watching it as a whole. This season has had some inconsistent character stuff with the Barney/Robin relationship, but has been generally sharp, and always leaves me wanting more. The only major misfire was the Ted dating the same girl storyline which felt like a retread of storylines from earlier seasons.

5. Bored to Death - This show may pander a bit to the hipster in me that loves all the local references and slacking Jason Schwartzman persona. In the same way that Entourage is, it’s a bit lax on drama and stakes, but the show is much more entertaining than Entourage and is building a nice little world. A lot of shows are just about people hanging out, so maybe that’s enough. I’m not sure how the show will develop long term, but for now, it’s got great mood and a strong cast carrying it.

6. The Office - This show is still frustrating for me because, even after six years, I still find the characters directly translated from the British Office annoying and problematic. The beauty of the British show was the relentless realism. That might be too much to sustain for six years, but the Michael Scott character all too often veers out of reality, sacrificing the emotional grounding of the series, and making the jokes less funny. You need this world to be believable to make most of the jokes work. Similarly, I find Pam and Jim annoyingly perfect, but the supporting cast is top notch. Ed Helms is great, and I’d love to see more screentime spent on him, Erin, Kelly and Ryan. The show’s still entertaining, but isn’t as sharp as the best comedies on TV.

7. Community - Another new comedy, this has been pretty sharp and funny, but still feels a bit like it’s finding its voice. Is it going to be a 30 Rock style absurdist comedy, or a more reality based romantic and sentimental show? Either could work, but the show needs to downplay the Britta/Jeff stuff a bit and just let the cast breathe and do their thing. The most recent episode was probably the best yet, and deepened the cast nicely, so I’ve got a good feeling about the show going forward.

8. Modern Family - I checked out the first two episodes of this show yesterday thanks to its great critical buzz. So far, I’d agree that it’s a solid show, definitely a bit of an Arrested Development meets The Office vibe, but not at the level of either of those series. The potential is definitely there, but I feel like comedies need to cut out talking heads for a while, it’s getting played out. And, this show, like a lot of comedies on now, would benefit from a slightly longer 40 minute running time, to give more room for the stories to breathe, and more opportunities for all the characters. But, it’s good so far, and seems like a solid mix of goofiness and solid character stuff.

9. Dollhouse - Clinging on here, Dollhouse had a slight uptick with its third episode, but remains frustratingly boring. I see a lot of people defending the show as the most intellectual on TV, to which I’d say Mad Men is still on people, and has much more to say about adopting and abandoning identity than this show ever has. Ultimately, it’s a decent hour, but any hope of it being truly great fades more and more with each episode.

10. Glee - I really liked the pilot for the show, but could feel the hand of Ryan Murphy in its cynicism and cartoonish characters. I hate his attitude towards the world, as evidenced by Nip/Tuck, and it seemed in particular contrast to the hopefulness in some elements of the show. The show since then has fluctuated wildly in quality, burning through plots without deepening the characters. I still think it’s a great premise, and like the musical numbers, but it feels like the real story, the growth and training of the glee club, is barely mentioned, and all the focus is on the same character beats. I’m giving this one a few more episodes, but it could easily slip off the radar.

TV Roundup

I’m watching a whole bunch of shows this season, and while nothing’s totally wowing me, there’s a bunch of good stuff out there. Most of my favorite shows air on a more haphazard schedule, Mad Men just ended, Battlestar won’t resume until January and Doctor Who is just throwing out episodes whenever they feel like it. In bad news, Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse will now be airing on Fridays, which is pretty much acknowledging it’ll never be a big hit. I hope that the awful timeslot means Fox will give the show a longer leash, we shall see. Anyway, here’s the shows I’m watching now.

Life on Mars

Right now, I’m really liking the show. The premise seems better to a limited series, as with the original, or even better, a film, and after the weak second episode, I wasn’t sure if it was going to work on a week to week basis. But, since then, we’ve got a couple of really strong episodes, and an alright one last night. For me, the show’s greatest strength is the sense of place it conveys. I don’t know if it’s an accurate depiction of the 70s, but even if it’s just a depiction of the mythic 70s created in our culture, I like spending time there. I think it’d be annoying to run into a lot of the hippie mystic characters from the time in real life, but I love watching them on film. Our world may be in a paradigm shift now, but for the last eight years, things have been pretty dire, and it’s nice to look at a time when people were interested in expanding their consciousness and changing the world.

The show’s strength is the trippy interludes that happen every so often, like when Sam got dosed with LSD. Those are really interesting visually and tie in with his existential dilemma about why he’s in the 1973 and what it means for his existence. In general, Sam is a really likable, fun lead to watch. He, along with Michael Imperioli always keep things interesting, even when the show falls into rote police procedural territory. My major concern looking ahead is that the show becomes a 70s issue of the week police procedural, and after a certain point, the trippy material will slip away. After Sam runs into everyone he new from the 2000s in the 70s, what’s left for the show to do beyond just tell stories about him in the 70s? I still don’t see the show lasting more than a season or two without radically shifting its premise at some point. Still, I really like what I see, and the presence of three Wire actors in last night’s episode helped keep things rolling along.

My greatest concern beyond the simple in sustainability of the premise is the fact that each episode seems to end with Gene siding with Sam on whatever argument they had, and doing the right thing instead of the morally corrupt thing. The problem with that is if you do it every week, shouldn’t Gene just evolve morally at some point? It seems like we’re heading towards that TV problem where every initially edgy characters gets worn down into an ally, and is given something in their past that explains why they do evil things. It can be a lot more interesting to just let your characters do bad things, and explore them from there than to try to make everyone live by 2008 morality in a world that doesn’t necessarily hew to that morality. The show needs to go edgier, and go stranger, but I don’t know that a first year show having some ratings issue is going to get the latitude to do what they really need to do.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

This is a show I had essentially no expectations for. I didn’t see the theatrical movie because reviews were so dire, but I figured I’d check out the first TV episodes. It’s strange that a Star Wars TV show has gotten so little heat as this has. I guess it’s because it’s targeted at kids, but I don’t see anyone talking about this. I suppose that’s the consequence of the prequels, in the mid 90s, any piece of Star Wars material was cherished, now with so much more out there, it’s just not that special any more. But, perhaps it’s best that this show comes in with lower expectations. I don’t think it’s a great show, but it’s pretty entertaining, and occasionally touches those emotions that the classic trilogy hit so well.

The major flaw for me is the animation. It all looks like a video game cut scene, I don’t know why they chose the wooden puppet look for the characters. The stuff without people is really pretty, but the people look awful. And, there’s a lot of the same issues as the prequels have, the inexplicably retarded battle droids, and lack of really well defined characters. Anakin here is used as kind of a blank slate hero, lacking the moral ambiguity that the character should have.

But, there’s also some good stuff. I like the way they depict the clones, people who are all similar, and struggle to find ways to define themselves. They exist for a mission, but still hope to carve out an individual identity. The space battles are pretty great, and the liberal swipes from the original trilogy make for some nice action sequences. The best episode for me was the one in which Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme sneak aboard the Malevolence to destroy it from the inside. That had the fun adventure feel of the OT that the prequels rarely captured. I don’t love the show, but it’s got its moments. I just wish that I was more excited about a weekly Star Wars TV show.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Continuing a theme, I really like some things about this show, while others frustrate me. I was getting close to losing interest when they dropped the fantastic episode about John going to therapy, all the while being observed by Cameron and Sarah. That episode conveyed the difficulty he has trying to express himself and grow up while dealing with both the pressure of his future destiny, and the constant watching eyes of his mother.

But, amidst interesting character stuff, there’s a lot of random b-movie action that doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s a show focused on narrative, not characters, and that means that things can get a bit samey. How many episodes have centered around our characters hunting down some random Eastern European guy? Monday’s episode did surprise me with Cameron’s brutality, when she killed the three guys who had robbed them.

There’s always some interesting stuff in each episode to keep me going, but the show isn’t making it to great. It’s like Buffy pre “Surprise,” I watch it, I like it, but it doesn’t really capture my imagination. The tough thing with watching any series as it goes is you don’t have the benefit of a pre-existing critical response. I stuck with Buffy and Babylon 5 because I knew they would get better, who knows what will happen with this show? It could become a classic this season or it could just keep going along as it is. Right now, I’m liking it enough to keep watching, the quality fluctuates, but for every weak episode, there’s a solid one.

The Office

I’ve written about my mixed feelings on the US Office before. I do really like the show, but I was so emotionally invested in the original, I’ve never been able to really get into the Pam/Jim stuff in the same way. My least favorite aspect of this show is definitely Pam and Jim, I find them both unlikable, precisely because they’re so engineered to be likable. In yesterday’s episode, Jim is called smug and arrogant, but rather than engage with this criticism, it’s revealed as a lie. I think it would have been a lot more interesting to deal with the idea that Jim hating his job is reflected in how he does it, and play with his flaws. But, they choose not to engage with it, and instead we get the annoying cutesy Bluetooth stuff.

The supporting characters have always interested me more. I really like what they did with Ryan. The Holly arc was solid, but I’m getting tired of the Andy/Dwight/Angela triangle happenings. I still enjoy the show, but I don’t think anything this season has been as focused as the post-strike episodes last year.

My Emmy Nominations 2008

So, the Emmy nominations were announced today. I wasn't hugely thrilled with them, it was great to see Mad Men get a lot of respect, but almost all my other favorite shows were pretty much shut out. How would I have done it? Read on...

Actor (Comedy):
Alec Baldwin – Jack on “30 Rock”
Jemaine Clement – Jemaine on “Flight of the Conchords”
Ricky Gervais – Andy on “Extras”
Stephen Merchant – Darren on “Extras”
Tracy Morgan – Tracy on “30 Rock”

I combined supporting and lead actors for comedy, since I don’t watch enough comedy shows to fill both categories. So, we’ve got a dense bunch of talent here. Gervais’s work in the last episode of Extras wasn’t the funniest performance, but it was the best. Unlike other people in the “awkward” comedy movement, he always remembers the humanity underneath, and that makes it both funnier, and more emotional.

Actress (Comedy):
Tina Fey - Liz Lemon on “30 Rock”
Jenna Fischer – Pam on “The Office”
Melora Hardin – Jan on “The Office”
Ashley Jensen – Maggie on “Extras”
Angela Kinsey – Angela on “The Office”

People may point the American Office’s Pam as the soul of the show, but she’s just an echo of what Gervais can do with his characters, and Ashley Jensen was brilliant on her tragic path through the last episode of the series. I think some elements of the episode were overplayed, but she was great.

Supporting Actor (Drama):
James Callis – Baltar on “Battlestar Galactica”
Austin Nichols – John on “John From Cincinnati”
Ed O’Neil - Bill on “John From Cincinnati”
Andre Royo – Bubbles on “The Wire”
Michael K. Williams – Omar on “The Wire”

Perhaps the richest category this year, there’s another five or ten people you could easily fit here from John From Cincinnati or The Wire alone. However, my favorite supporting performance was Ed O’Neil as Bill. Shifting between a prickly surface persona and the emotionally wounded person underneath, he was consistently the more entertaining character on screen, be it delivering lengthy soliloquies to his bird, or shouting “Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ!” No One was more fun to watch this year.

Supporting Actress (Drama):
Ginnifer Goodwin – Margene on “Big Love”
Christine Hendricks – Joan on “Mad Men”
Keala Kennelly – Kai on “John From Cincinnati”
Emily Rose – Cass on “John From Cincinnati”
Katee Sackhoff – Kara on “Battlestar Galactica”

Katee Sackhoff was brilliant this season, fusing the religious destiny Starbuck with the hardass military Starbuck into a really compelling new evolution of the character. It’s a testament to her performance that I find it hard to imagine her in another role. She just is Starbuck.

Lead Actor:
Kyle Chandler – Eric Taylor on “Friday Night Lights”
Jon Hamm – Don Draper on “Mad Men”
Edward James Olmos - Adama on “Battlestar Galactica”
David Tennant – The Doctor on “Doctor Who”
Brian Van Holt – Butchie on “John From Cincinnati”

Jon Hamm looks like he stepped right out of a 50s movie, and it’s his very guarded performance that makes the series work. With another actor, the mystery surrounding Don’s backstory could have felt contrived or teasing, here it just plays out. Don never gives anything away, and it’s not until the final scene of the season that we get a real open, emotional moment with him. But, the genius of Hamm is that we know what he’s feeling the whole time, even when the character himself won’t face it.

Lead Actress:
Connie Britton – Tami on “Friday Night Lights”
January Jones – Betty on “Mad Men”
Mary McDonnell – Laura Roslin on “Battlestar Galactica”
Catherine Tate – Donna on “Doctor Who”
Jeanne Tripplehorn – Barb on “Big Love”

In her first appearance on the show, she was rather annoying, and not someone I wanted to spend a whole season with. However, over the course of Doctor Who’s fourth season, Catherine Tate’s Donna became the best companion on the show to date, matching Tennant’s swerves between ecstasy and tragedy. I have some issues with how it happened, but her acting in the final episode, as we watched the person she’d become get torn away made the moment one of the most excruciating character fates I’ve ever seen.

Guest Actor
Julian Bleach – Davros on “Doctor Who” (Journey’s End)
Bernard Cribbins – Wilf on “Doctor Who” (Journey’s End)
Callum Keith Rennie – Leoben on “Battlestar Galactica” (The Road Less Traveled)
David Schwimmer – Greenzo on “30 Rock” (Greenzo)
Paul Schulze – Hobo on “Mad Men” (The Hobo Code)

I was talking about the show with someone, and she said that Bernard Cribbins’ Wilf was exactly like her grandfather. I felt the same way, I feel like Wilf tapped into this archetypal grandfather role, such that you were instantly emotionally attached to him. In “Journey’s End,” it’s him telling the Doctor “But she was better with you” that breaks open the emotional floodgates, and his final speech to the Doctor is a beautiful capper for the season.

Guest Actress
Ellen Burstyn – Nancy Dutton on “Big Love” (Take Me as I Am)
Camille Choudri – Jackie Tyler on “Doctor Who” (Journey’s End)
Edie Falco – CC on “30 Rock” (Goodbye Toby)
Alex Kingston – River Song on “Doctor Who” (Forest of the Dead)
Lucy Lawless – D’Anna on “Battlestar Galactica (Revelations)

Lucy Lawless walked onto the show in its second to last episode and immediately took control of everything. Her glee at knowing something that no one else does was wonderfully played, and she had a lot of fun with the role. It was great to have her back on the show, and hopefully she’ll be there for the whole season next time.

Best Writing:
“The Wheel”: Mad Men by Matthew Weiner and Robin Veitch
“His Visit, Day 5”: John From Cincinnati by Alix Lambert
“Forest of the Dead”: Doctor Who by Steven Moffat
“Late Editions”: The Wire by George Pelecanos
“Series Finale”: Extras by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant

These are all absolutely brilliant episodes, each emotionally devastating in its own way, but I’ve got to give the respect to “Forest of the Dead.” The others are more about paying off year long arcs, “Forest” builds several worlds in the hour and brings them all to a smashing close in an emotionally wrenching, mind blowing hour. It’s one of the best episodes of new Who, and definitely the most well written. It’s basically everything I want from a piece of fiction.

Best Direction:
“The Wheel”: Mad Men by Matthew Weiner
“His Visit, Day 9”: John From Cincinnati by Daniel Minahan
“The Stolen Earth”: Doctor Who by Graeme Harper
“Late Editions”: The Wire by Joe Chapelle
“The Hub”: BSG by Paul Edwards

The other episodes are all downers, that push their characters through awful, awful things. But, can’t there be some joy in the world? “His Visit: Day 9,” the series finale of John From Cincinnati is pure joy from the opening frame on. The opening sequence of this episode is one of my favorite film moments ever, the soaring descent from the heavens to John and Shaun surfing to shore. It’s an unparalleled rush, the payoff of the entire series. The rest of the episode keeps the strong energy, particularly during the manic party sequence that closes the episode. The show went out on a high note.

Best Series (Comedy):
30 Rock
Extras
Flight of the Conchords
Pushing Daisies
The Office

Extras closed out its run with an emotional odyssey of a TV movie that was at once bitingly funny and really emotional. Gervais approaches comedy differently from anyone else. He stresses character and narrative arcs as much as laughs, and that means that we’re much more engaged with the material. It’s a great story on its own, the laughs are a bonus. I do think some of the musings on fame got a bit self indulgent, but there were enough great moments to keep it strong on the whole.


Best Series (Drama):
Battlestar Galactica
Doctor Who
John From Cincinnati
Mad Men
The Wire

These are all exceptional series. Doctor Who and Battlestar each had their strongest seasons yet, Mad Men had one of the greatest debut seasons of all time, and The Wire was up to the brilliant standard of its previous years. But, one show captivated me like no other, the much maligned, but brilliant John From Cincinnati. JFC was interesting on a narrative level, and featured some of the most fun characters on any series, but what made it so great was the spiritual nature of the series. It wasn’t like a normal show, it was a religious experience in the guise of an ensemble drama, and a window into one man’s view of the world. At its best, it worked like our minds do, dealing in symbols and dreams and archetypes as a way of understanding the world. It will be remembered as one of the most underappreciated series of all time, it’s just taking the world a while to catch up.

Total Nominations/Wins

The Wire - 5
John From Cincinnati – 8 (3)
Big Love - 3
Battlestar Galactica – 8 (2)
Mad Men – 7 (1)
Doctor Who – 9 (3)
Friday Night Lights - 2

Pushing Daisies - 1
Flight of the Conchords - 2
30 Rock - 6
The Office - 4
Extras – 5 (3)

Best of 2007: Top 10 TV Series

10. 30 Rock
Best Episode – Greenzo
The second season was a bit uneven, but this show was still anarchic and hilarious in a way not seen since Arrested Development. It’s comedy was occasionally stupid, but always in a smart way, and the cast is consistently stellar. And, David Schwimmer’s guest appearance in “Greenzo” was better than the entire run of Friends.

9. The Office
Best Episode – The Deposition
Another show where the year started out uneven. The goofy race episode nearly killed it for me, but the abbreviated season ended very strong with the devastating “The Deposition.” This episode is the closest the American version has gotten to the original’s blend of dark, dark darkness and uncomfortably funny humor. For me, the darker the show gets, the funnier it is and the more emotionally affecting it is. So, go darker like that episode, not goofy.

8. Flight of the Conchords
Best Episode – The Third Conchord
The best new comedy of the year, Conchords never failed to entertain thanks to the fantastic songs in each episode. The songs were both goofy and funny, and genuinely good songs, surveying a variety of genres over the course of the series. Some felt awkwardly shoved into the episode, like “Frodo, Don’t Wear the Ring” and “Bowie’s in Space,” but generally they fit well. And, on top of that, the non-singing parts of the show were fun, if a bit repetitive. I’m not sure how well it will hold up in year two, but this year was a lot of fun.

7. Gilmore Girls
Best Episodes – Lorelai? Lorelai?
The show was far from what it was under the Palladinos, but Lauren Graham is such a strong presence, she, and the actors surrounding her, keep the show entertaining. Lorelai is the series, and even though I’m not a fan of the season on the whole, it was nice to see her get a happy ending. This wasn’t an X-Files level collapse, even slightly off Gilmore Girls is still strong.

6. Big Love
Best Episode – Take Me as I Am
The first season of Big Love had its moments, but didn’t ever really click for me. The second takes a big leap, going deeper into the characters’ lives and exploring the darker side of what it means to polygamist. The stuff at the compound is still hit or miss, but Barb’s arc, Rhonda’s arc and Ben’s arc all more than made up for it. The show grew a lot, and I’m eager to see where they go in season three.

5. Battlestar Galactica
Best Episode – Crossroads: Part II
This calendar year was not a particularly strong one for BSG. We got a bunch of weak filler episodes after the stellar opening run of year three. However, the two part season finale was amazing, primarily because of the final ten minutes, as bizarre and invigorating as anything I’ve seen on TV. The spiraling camera shots and surreal battle to “All Along the Watchtower” made up for what had come before, and even as I pondered the nonsensicalness of the cylon revelation, I was awed by its execution. But still, they’re going to have to do better next year. A great season opener and closer does not make up for phoning it in the rest of the year.

4. Friday Night Lights
Best Episode – Mud Bowl
If the show had not been picked up for a second season, it might be ranked even higher. The end of year one was fantastic, particularly the emotionally devastating “Mud Bowl” episode, as powerful as anything I’ve seen on television. However, the second year fumbled a lot of that opportunity with some really poor writing. The Landry murder plot is the most obvious target, but there was a lot of other lazy plotting along the way. The cinematography is still some of the best in TV history, and the acting’s stellar, but the writing is going to have to get better. Still, there are moments in the show that are almost unspeakably beautiful, the aforementioned mud bowl, the team’s trip to Dallas stadium in the season finale, and Lyla’s baptism in the season premiere. That baptism was at a Malick level of beauty. Why not tone back on the meth dealers, murders and underage relationships and get back to telling simple stories about a football team and the town it inspires.

3. Mad Men
Best Episode – The Wheel
The loss of The Sopranos left a big hole in the TV landscape, where would we find the adventures of a morally conflicted hero who cheats on his, gets drunk with his male coworkers and has many unresolved psychological issues? If HBO was smart, they would have put this show on after The Sopranos’ finale, not John From Cincinnati. The show picks up on much of what made The Sopranos great, the barely there stories which exist primarily to bring character tension to the surface, and the marvelously subtle characterization. There are so many fantastic performances here, Jon Hamm as the inscrutable Donald Draper, Christina Hendricks as the gorgeous manipulator Joan and my favorite, January Jones as the psychologically disturbed housewife Betty. The show really grew on me as the season went on, each episode adding more layers to the world and characters. The evocation of period look, and sensibility, is unlike anything attempted on television, and I’m eager to see the show move forward through the 60s and the change it will bring to our characters. There are certain shows you enjoy in spite of the fact that you know on some level it’s not good, this is not one of those, it’s challenging art all the way through.

2. John From Cincinnati
Best Episode – His Visit: Day 6
It’s been tough to watch this show pop up on countless worst TV of 2007 lists. While it might not be for everyone, JFC was a challenging work that showed how much wonder and joy can be found in everyday life. Milch continued the work he began on Deadwood, showing how social networks and community can be built, but added in the spiritual component, which took everything to a new level of philosophical interest. In future years, people will be analyzing JFC in universities, writing books about it and generally hailing it as a lost masterpiece. If you take the time to understand the series’ cosmology, it’s not that hard to understand, and along with this philosophical stuff, there’s some fantastic character development. Butchie’s transition from selfish junkie to caring man is inspiring, and the supporting cast went deep with great performances. I loved this show, I loved its message and I loved its execution. Give it a look when it comes out on DVD, it’s Milch’s masterwork.

1. The Sopranos
Best Episode – Walk Like a Man
It’s indisputably one of the best, and most influential TV shows of all time and this final nine episode run was probably its strongest season. Say what you will about the finale, the four episode run leading to it was the show’s strongest run. There was a crushing sense of doom hanging over the entire season, which delved deeper into Tony’s psyche than ever before. In the twin tales of his two ‘sons,’ Christopher and AJ, we recognize simultaneously how warped Tony is and how ordinary he is. The beauty of that last scene for me is that it takes Tony out of the mob world and puts him into the everyday world. Those people at the diner aren’t all potential killers, they’re people like you and me, he is part of everyday American life, and the blood it takes to uphold that dream is quickly forgotten if it’s spilled in the service of ‘family.’ My favorite arc of the year was Christopher’s dissolution, captured most wonderfully in “Walk Like a Man,” which sends him on such a spiral that his death in the next episode is a mercy killing. The season is a masterwork, and a perfect conclusion to one of the greatest TV shows of all time.

TV Status Report: Winter 2007

One of the things I'm glad to see developing in the world of TV is the split run system, where shows do a run of 10-12 episodes in the fall, take a couple of months off and then come back for a run of 10-12 in the spring. It makes it easier to keep track of when there's a new episode, and also allows the story to flow without interruption for as long as possible. Having caught up on a bunch of stuff on DVD, I'm now watching more shows on a weekly basis than ever before, though the process of natural selection may cause some of these to slip away before the season ends. Anyway, here's an update on what I'm watching.

24 - Due to an excess of Babylon 5 and other stuff, I've only seen the first two hours of the season. They were pretty strong, but I'm more aware of the 24 formula at work. I'm sure I'll get caught up in the season as it goes, but this opening wasn't as riveting as last year's. I've got the next three episodes and will hopefully catch up with them soon.

Battlestar Galactica - It's sometimes frustrating, but no other show on the air now comes close to the experience of watching a new Galactica. The effects just keep getting better, and this last episode did a good job of setting up a bunch of potentially interesting storylines. This is always a Sunday night watch, no waiting.

Friday Night Lights - I haven't seen yesterday's episode yet, but I could see this show going away for a while in February sweeps, so it's no rush. This is still one of the best shows on TV, and the past couple of episodes have done a great job of maintaining the show's quality. No other show feels more real than this one, the camerawork, acting and writing all make it totally believable, and that believability is the key to the show's success. I have the feeling this could be a show like Freaks and Geeks, where it's cancelled after one year, but every actor on the show goes on to success.

Gilmore Girls - I haven't seen Tuesday's episode yet, but I've grown somewhat disenchanted with the show under its new leader. Attachment to the characters keeps me watching, but the storylines just aren't that good, or particularly original, and I'm just waiting for the inevitable Lorelai/Christopher breakup. I have the feeling this is going to be an X-Files situation, where collective consesus will conclude that the last seasons didn't happen.

Heroes - I watched the most recent episode yesterday, and even though the show is technically fantastic, it's still never really hooked me. I think the reason is I just don't care that much about the characters. On a TV show you're pretty much there for the characters, sitcoms are basically about hanging out for a half hour with your fictional friends, and dramas are about watching your fictional friends go through tough times. But, I don't really care what happens to the Heroes people, much like Lost, the appeal of the show is in the shocking revelations rather than logical character development. It's still entertaining, but they're going to have to kick up their game a bit to get me back for the next season. The show is lacking that magic that makes you really care about what happens to the characters.

The Office - I'm through episode 3.7, and even though I still don't think it comes close to its British counterpart, the show is still one of the funniest American sitcoms ever. It's broader than the UK one, and that sometimes hurts them, but much like the last two seasons of Seinfeld, that broadness can also get bigger laughs. It's such an easy show to watch, always entertaining.

Rome - I'm through episode eight of the first season, and am hoping to catch up before episode three of the second season airs. HBO's shows are always a cut above when it comes to production value and ambition. The show manages to make the historical figures lively and accessible, and the emotions always feel real.

Veronica Mars - I wasn't particuarly impressed with the first half of the third season, but there's always just enough of interest to keep me watching. Maybe the lack of an overarching mystery in the last chunk of the year will free them up to do some bolder creative things. If I drop one show, it's most likely to be this one.

Wow, that's a lot of stuff, and I've got Babylon 5 in there as well. But, there's a lot of good shows out there, and once you're hooked, it's hard to back out.

The Office (US)/Knowing Me, Knowing You

Recently, I've been watching the the American version of The Office, through episode 2x06. I watched the first episode when it aired and was pretty unimpressed. It felt like a community theater group ding a take on a show I'd just seen on Broadway, the lines were the same, but something was off. However, watching the first twelve episodes on DVD, I've seen the show grow into its own thing, a thing that is good, but nowhere near the quality of the original.

My major issue with the show, particularly in the second season, is that every episode seems to be scrambling to get the characters out of the office. The whole point of the show is to dwell on the mundane realities of day to day life, and find humor in the interactions between people at work. Sure, the British version had the club episode and a couple of other field trips, but generally speaking, most of the plots revolved around goings on in The Office itself, and the difficulty of navigating the office social scene.

However, with the American version, there's all kinds of outside plots being brought in to punch things up. David Brent didn't do much work, but at least he was in the office, Michael Scott is out all the time, and seems to make no effort to do anything. I could believe that Brent didn't get fired, but it's hard to imagine they're happy with what Michael's doing. Now, I think the character does work on some level. The second season premiere found that perfect awkwardness when the people make fun of Michael's song parodies. That scene was tough to watch, and emotionally satisfying when the others stood up for him. However, having Michael crank call Ryan as Michael Jackson is more absurd than sad. He's a less believable character then Brent, because with Brent you got the sense that he was trying to hard to perform for his office mates, while Carrell seems to be trying to hard to perform for us, the viewers. His acting is so over the top it takes me out of the reality of the show, the one thing the British show never punctured.

The American version frequently makes note of its status as a documentary, but it feels much more artificial than the raw British version. A lot of that is simply due to the sitcomy nature of a lot of the plots. Dwight in particular feels totally removed from reality, whereas Gareth seemed like a believable loser. Pam and Jim do the best in translation, but I don't feel the investment in their relationship that I had for Tim and Dawn. That's largely because I've already seen the resolution for their counterparts, and that relationship has been mythologized in my mind, standing over the Pam/Jim dynamic. I think the most fruitful territory there is in seeing both Pam and Jim's defensiveness about their flirting. The moment where Angela tells Pam about her game is fantastic, as is the unease when they have their mock fight in the dojo.

I think the major problem is that the show has to sustain an indefinite length. As any comedy goes on, the plots get more and more outlandish and the rough edges are hewn off characters. The UK Office is like the first two or three seasons of Seinfeld, painfully sharp in its distillation of human interaction. The US version is like the later years, still funny, but much broader. Because the UK version had so few episodes, we never had to delve into the issue of where David lives or who Gareth's sensei is. Instead, we only see the characters in the work environment, and as viewers, we are immersed in that world. Some of the most memorable moments in the UK version are those quiet shots of stuff printing and people working, downtime that is allowed because of the longer running time of UK episodes. The eight additional minutes per episode gives them the chance to have a slower pace and give a better sense of actual work going on.

And ultimately I feel like the UK version told the story. Despite the growth, the basic plot arcs still draw from the British series, and I've already seen Brent redeemed and Tim and Dawn united. I don't know that I really care to see it happen again. Plus, I tend to find British restrained pompousness funnier than the American outright stupidity when it comes to comedy.

That's a good segue into the other show I've been watching, Knowing Me, Knowing You. Ah ha. I first heard about this show from Tristram-Shandy, and now I get the contsant references to Knowing Me whoever, Knowing You Steve Coogan. I'm sure in the UK this was played out as an Austin Powers quote in 2000, but it's just so fun to say. And, luckily, this is not the UK. The downside is that no one would have any idea what I'm talking about if I reference the show. Anyway, I read an article that talked about how "I'm Alan Partridge" focused on the character after his show had ended. I love works that explore multiple layers of a piece of fiction, and I think it's a fantastic conceit to position Alan as a real person outside of the show. This intrigued me enough to give Knowing Me, Knowing You a look.

This show was made in 1994, and its style of awkward embarassing comedy clearly went on to influence many other shows, particularly The Office. Like The Office, this show focuses on a man who's got a massive ego and no clue about the total disdain or indifference others feel towards him. Coogan plays the character in such a way that there's very few explicit jokes. For the first few minutes of the first episode, I wasn't laughing too much because it just felt like a standard, uninspiring chat show. However, once you figure out this guy, his rampant egotism becomes increasingly hilarious. I love the way he constantly says his own name and forces everyone else to adopt his catchphrase, even a widow standing over her husband's coffin.

As the series wears on, bits like his constant punning on chat and his antagonism with Glen Ponder yield many laughs. The series also perfectly captures the dynamic of banal chat shows, with Alan constantly trying to control the dynamic of the conversation, but frequently finding himself losing power. Much like Brent on The Office, the humor comes from watching someone who thinks he's much funnier than he is come up against the reality of the situation and struggle to deal with it. Partridge is essentially a conservative guy, and he can't deal with the people he's forced to work with on the show.

The show works best when everyone plays things straight and lets Partridge simmer in his own issues. A bit like the Kojak Slaphead scene at the end of episode five goes too over the top, out of the realm of reality. Of course, a lot of my criticism of both this and The Office is based purely on personal taste. A bit like the jacuzzi scene at the end of episode four could be criticized as equally ridiculous, but it's funny, so I forgive it.

I also like how the show does give Alan the chance to be right occasionally. By making the French designer's clothes so ridiculous, we can easily agree with what Alan's saying. There, the humor comes from Alan's tactless treatment of his guests more than his innatte wrongness. And he also gest some nice moments, like the Abba medley, which is played for laughs, but ends up being pretty sweet and entertaining on its own.

It's pretty easy to trace a line from this show to the comedy of Borat or Stephen Colbert. If the show was done today, we'd probably see the Partridge character interviewing real people and provoking them in the same way he provokes the fictional people here. The show is a critical step in creating a style of comedy with few overt jokes, that instead presents a character who is inherently ridiculous and lets the audience laugh at his behavior, to the point that his attempts at humor become funny because of how they fail as jokes, rather then their actual value as humor. It's a complex blend of fiction and reality, and I'm excited to see it further complicated with "I'm Alan Partridge."

Weekend Update

The American Office

I finished watching the first season of the American Office, and it's better, but still nowhere near the British. The show's much broader, the UK characters did some ridiculous stuff, but it all felt plausible within the office environment. However, Michael Scott's out of the office in half the episodes, and in something like the basketball episode, it feels more like a club than an actual workplace. I love the awkwardness of office social gatherings in the quiz episode of the UK one, but at least that one happened after work, so it was plausible. I'm definitely laughing at the show, but it feels sort of like late season Seinfeld, to the UK's early Seinfeld. Early Seinfeld is painfully attuned to the way that real people interact, and the humor is mixed with pain at knowing that you're just like this. The American one is more just a well written wacky comedy. That said, I did really like the final scene in thep arking lot at the end of the first season, where all the characters go their seperate ways, each jealous of the others in some way.

The Box Office

This week saw the virtual death of Marie Antoinette at the box office, with only $2.5 million gross in it second week. I don't think it was going to be a blockbuster, but I know it's not playing near me here at Wesleyan, and I've talked to a bunch of people who wanted to see it, but couldn't. Same thing with The Science of Sleep. These are films that people want to see, and need to be released to more theaters. And the saddest thing is that an utterly hollow enterprise like Saw III winds up at the top of the box office. If I was running a studio, I would make these crappy horror films too, just because it's the only thing that people will reliably go to.

Media Censorship

I think it's really ridiculous that people will refuse to run ads for 'Death of a President' and the Dixie Chicks documentary. For DoaP, it's a piece of fiction! People aren't going to see this and all of a sudden to decide to assassinate George Bush. Did Elephant cause a rash of school shootings? I think considering the effect of an assassination is a very valid intellectual question, and the fact that people are unwilling to even ponder it is going against the principles on which the country was founded. It's not free speech for people you agree with. And that's where the Dixie Chicks issue comes in. Now, I lost respect for her when she apologized for making the comments about Bush. That was cowardly, but it's even more ridiculous to criticize someone for stating their opinion. Dissent is the very essence of what America was founded on, and saying that we can't debate a war while it's going on is a travesty.

This is the same logic that led people to say that we shouldn't "play the blame game" about Hurricane Katrina. When someone gets murdered, you don't call an investigation into who did it "the blame game," and Bush's actions led to hundreds of deaths. Why shouldn't we call him out on that so it doesn't happen again?

Weekend Update

Seven Soldiers

This week, Grant Morrison's megaseries, Seven Soldiers, finally comes to its conclusion. I read all the books in June, and it's been a tough four month wait for the finale. I've started rereading the series and am loving it even more. Being familiar with the overall arc makes it easier to appreciate the progression of each series. On the first read, I was a detective, searching for connections. Now, I'm trying to sit back and take everything in. SS #0 stands up as one of the best things Morrison's ever written, as does the start of Zatanna. I'm only through four issues, so I'll have to speed up a bit, since I know once #1 is here, I'm not going to do anything else until I've finished the series.

More Morrison

This week also sees the debut of two new Morrison series, revamps of The Authority and Wildcats. Critical reaction isn't ecstatic, and I'll admit I'm not that thrilled to see Morrison taking on those two properties. I'd rather see him do some more creator owned work, hopefully his Vertigo series with J.H. Williams III will turn up soon. However, I don't think he could take on much more work now since he's got four ongoing series going right now. None of them have appeared in trade, so I haven't had a chance to read anything yet, but I'll certainly get them all eventually, and I'm especially looking forward to All Star Superman.

The U.S. Office

When the U.S. version of The Office first aired, I had just finished an incredible rewatch of its British counterpart. I watched the first two episodes, but it felt like a community theater group taking over for master actors. But, I keep hearing good things, so I decided to put my bias aside and take another look at it. I've seen those same first two episodes, and I was still not impressed. The thing that makes the British series work so well is its total realism. The characters and the actors playing them are indistinguishable, and the reality of the social situations is what makes the interactions so intensely awkward. I think the bulk of the people on the US show are pretty good, but Steve Carell just ruins it for me. Gervais as David Brent was not funny, but in a way you could laugh at. Carell is not funny in a way that's just annoying. Brent is a regular guy who tries too hard. Michael Scott's Hitler bit in the first episode is totally out of reality, he feels more like an actor playing a regular guy who's trying too hard. I'm going to watch some more, but so far, I'm not impressed. If you're going to be compared to a masterpiece, you've got to be better than alright.

Rescue Me

I wrapped up the first season of Rescue Me. I've mentioned before that I feel like today's TV world is like film in the 70s, and Rescue Me feels like one of those minor 70s classics. There's much better stuff out there, but this is totally reliable entertainment, hitting that balance of interpersonal drama played out against a larger canvas that's so popular for shows today. The supporting cast has gotten more fleshed out as the season progressed, and the addition of Laura to the firehouse did a great job of messing with the established dynamic. It's not quite gotten to greatness, but I was consistently entertained by every episode of the first year, and I've got the second on DVD, ready to watch.

New Film

On Friday, I start shooting on my senior thesis film. It's a twelve minute sci-fi piece about time travel, with a lot of crazy, Morrisonian stuff in there. It's the most planned out film I've done, and I'm hoping it will be the best. I'll hopefully have a trailer up online in a couple of weeks.

Top 20 TV Shows

Picking up on another blog trend, here's my top twenty TV shows of all time.

1. Twin Peaks
Best Episode: Finale (2x22)
Best Season: 1

Nothing ever made can match the moody weirdness of the first fifteen episodes of this series. Most shows you remember good characters or an interesting storyline, but with Twin Peaks, it's the atmosphere that lingers with you. After I finished the show, I remember missing the town, like it was a real place, and even now, just hearing the theme song puts me back in that mindset.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Best Episode: Restless (4x22)
Best Season: 6

I've never been as hooked on a show as I was on Buffy during the fifth and sixth seasons. This show is the perfect example of something that's simultaneously thought provoking, demanding of analysis and thoroughly entertaining. Once you get hooked, the show will define your life for a while.

3. Six Feet Under
Best Episode: 'I'm Sorry, I'm Lost' (3x13)
Best Season: 3

Six Feet Under has my favorite TV character of all time, conflicted lead Nate, as well as the most consistently sharp writing and cinematography on TV. I think the show hangs together perfectly as one 63 episode long story, with the perfect finale.

4. The Sopranos
Best Episode: 'D-Girl' (2x08)
Best Season: 5

The most consistently frustrating show on TV, watching these characters struggle through their lives is sometimes funny, sometimes painful. More than any other show on TV, this one feels like the writers had perfect control of what they're doing, creating a many layered narrative.

5. Cowboy Bebop
Best Episode: 'The Real Folk Blues' (2x13)
Best Season: 2

The moodiest show I've ever seen, this was like Wong Kar-Wai making a series. No other show has used music as well as this, to create singular moments that define the characters. There's subtle evolution of the arc through a series of seemingly unrelated episodes, it's only when you reach the end that you realize how every single piece of the show was building to the catastrophic finale.

6. The Office (UK)
Best Episode: 'Christmas Special II' (3x02)
Best Season: 2

It's simultaneously the funniest show in TV history, and one of the saddest. That's quite an accomplishment, in only twelve episodes, Gervais and Merchant sketch an entire world, then tear it down. The final moments of the Christmas special are some of the most emotionally rewarding in any work of fiction.

7. Angel
Best Episode: 'A Hole in the World' (5x15)
Best Season: 5

The show had a couple of off seasons, that's the only thing keeping it from being ranked higher, because at its best, season five in particular, this stood with the best of Buffy. And, unlike Buffy, they went out at the absolute top of their game, with a final episode that perfectly captures what made the title character so unique.

This makes the end of the shows I would consider masterpieces. After this, there's some really great shows, but they don't quite match up to the preceding shows, which represent the medium at its absoulte best.

8. The X-Files
Best Episode: 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space' (3x20)
Best Season: 3

At its best, The X-Files is my favorite show of all time. There's moments that have a scope and grandeur that eclipse anything else in TV history, but the show will always be flawed by its total disregard for plot and character continuity, and the fact that there were way too many uneven standalone episodes next to the brilliant mythology stuff. But, the show had enough good stuff to remain one of my favorite shows.

9. Freaks and Geeks
Best Episode: 'Discos and Dragons' (1x18)
Best Season: 1

The most accurate depiction of the highs and lows of high school life in any medium. The subtle character development and consistent growth over the season was great to observe, and each of the episodes works wonderfully on its own. If this had kept going, it would probably be much higher on the list.

10. Gilmore Girls
Best Episode: 'A House is Not a Home' (5x22)
Best Season: 5

Like Buffy and Six Feet Under, this show is notable for the way it tracks characters on the journey of life, covering a vast period of time that you just couldn't do in film. The show has gotten slightly darer as it's gone on, sharpening into a still funny, but more poignant exploration of Lorelai's loneliness in the fifth and sixth seasons. Lauren Graham is one of the best leading ladies in TV history, totally carrying the show.

And 11-20...

11. Arrested Development
12. Battlestar Galactica
13. 24
14. Seinfeld
15. Samurai Champloo
16. Babylon 5
17. Spaced
18. The Prisoner
19. Carnivale
20. Trigun

Top 25 TV Characters

This one's been going around. They're in alphabetical order by character name. Look out for spoilers for the characters' fate.

Adriana La Cerva (The Sopranos) - She was the one character on the show who was able to remain uncorrupted by organized crime, right up to her exit. That was a huge turning point for the show and it's been missing something ever since.

Angel (Buffy/Angel) - On Buffy he was one of the best villains the show ever had, but other than that rather uninteresting. However, the longer his own show went on, the more complex he got, culminating in a finale where he makes a series of incredible sacrifices to try and save the world. It's heartbreaking stuff. And this occurs in the same season in which he turns into a puppet. That's range.

Anya (Buffy) - She started out as a fantastic comedy character, drawing attention to the absurdities of human behavior. However, that naivete was wrenching in "The Body," and her ultimate choice to fight in Buffy's final battle is full of such mixed feelings. Is she embracing her human side, or has she been so messed up by recent events she doesn't care if she dies? Regardless, the final shot of Xander looking for her dead body is the most haunting moment of the series finale. Plus, her solo episode, 'Selfless' perfectly encompasses the way that Buffy can mix really broad comedy with heartbreaking tragedy.

Brenda Chenowith (Six Feet Under) - One of my favorite moments in the series, when Brenda yells at Nate not throw his engagement ring at her because "it's so cliche, I'll fucking barf" encompasses everything great and flawed about her character. This is someone who's so worried about not being normal and boring she's trying to preserve her originality rather than engage in the emotion of that moment. Her growth in the final season was astonishing and I love the way things ended up for her. Rachel Griffiths' work here is one of the all time great performances.

Christopher Moltisanti (The Sopranos) - Christopher is an endlessly frustrating character, someone who has dreams outside of the mob world, but can never quite make it. It's painful to watch him continutally fail, never more so than in the series' best episode, 'D-Girl,' in which he comes so close to getting out, but winds up retreating back into the family at the end.

Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks) - From his very first scene, Cooper is a fully formed personality, totally unique. I love his blend of rationality and mysticism, never better realized than in the early episodes, where his quest to save Tibet and throwing of rocks at bottles provides great entertainment. His mad run through the black lodge is another character highlight, pushing the best TV episode ever forward on the back of his personal tragedy.

David Brent (The Office) - He's absolutely hilarious throughout the series, but what makes Brent special is the few moments of humanity, his crying when he's fired and his sadness throughout the Christmas special. The "Fuck off" to Chris Finch is such a satisfying moment of character growth.

Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop) - When she joins the crew, they start to become a family and it's that uneasy family connection that makes for most of the emotionally powerful moments in the show. My three favorite Faye moments are the older her watching her younger self cheering for her on video and realizing that her life is nothing like what she expected. Then, the heartbreaking moment where she runs to find her childhood home and finds nothing but an empty lot, and finally, her tearful request to Spike not to go after Vicious, one of the saddest moments in all of TV.

Gob Bluth (Arrested Development) - The funniest character on a show stocked with hilarious characters. His ridiculous level of sleziness, the "Final Countdown" dance, Franklin. Some bizarre and great comedy.

Jack Bauer (24) - The Jack Bauer Power Hour is called that for a reason. At first it seemed implausible that Jack could do so much, but it's become a conceit of the show and now you just accept that this guy can do anything. I love the way that an entire military division could fail, but you send in Bauer and you get the job done. There's such an underlying sadness to the character, as he is forced to sacrifice all personal connection to get his job done. The last hour of the show has to end with Jack's death.

Jet Black (Cowboy Bebop) - The gruff on the surface, but big hearted father figure to the Bebop crew, the thing I love about Jet is the way that he never says how much he cares about them, but we know that he'd do anything for his friends. His two best moments are when he rescues Faye in "Jupiter Jazz," and his quiet request to Spike not to go after Vicious. He loves them so much, but he can't save Spike.

Lindsay Weir (Freaks and Geeks) - She's someone who's looking for a higher purpose for life, but finds nothing in her suburban environment to match her lofty ambitions. I love her search for personal identity as she moves uneasily between social worlds.

Lorelai Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) - Another woman in search of her place, though this one's a lot older. Lorelai is one of the funniest characters on TV, but it's her tragic side that appeals to me. She desperately wants something more from life, but feels like she'll never be able to find it. I loved her sad journey through the sixth season, particularly the painfully awkward speech at Lane's wedding. But, it's not all bad, her enthusiasm and quirks are always entertaining, she's someone you'd want to hang out with.

Fox Mulder (The X-Files) - His total devotion to finding the truth was the fuel behind the entire series, but what made Mulder so endearing was his quick wit and ability to move from deeply serious stuff to really goofy quipping. The character took on a life of his own and made the series what it was. Just look at the post Mulder episodes to see how crucial he was.

Nate Fisher (Six Feet Under) - Nate is someone who always wanted more, he was looking for a higher purpose in life, a more fulfilling relationship, a more meaningful existence. This quest is what propelled him forward, but it's also what doomed all his relationships. Nate's story is a tragedy, but you can still respect him because he never settled. The other Fishers may have been built for ordinary life, but that existence was toxic to Nate. He was the soul of the show and my favorite TV character of all time.

Nick Andopolis (Freaks and Geeks) - Yet another character in search of something more than his everyday life, Nick was undermined by his lack of initiative and work ethic. His work in the final episode is brilliant, the character still clinging to the hope of a relationship with Lindsay throws himself into an apocalyptic disco dancing contest. I don't see good things in his future.

Dana Scully (The X-Files) - I don't think it was either Mulder or Scully who was crucial to The X-Files, it was the combo. They had such perfect chemistry, it could enliven even the stupidest monster of the week episode. However, when they did get the emotional mythology stuff, Scully went to many intense emotional places, always remaining relatable. She went through so much awful stuff, but remained strong through it all. Their relationship was the show by the end, and it was great.

Sharon Valeri (Battlestar Galactica) - The ultimate questioning of purpose, Sharon had to deal with the revelation that she wasn't actually human, while simultaneously another Sharon was dealing with the fact that she was a cylon, but could have human feelings. I love the line between artifical and human life and this character is like a TV version of Roy Batty. Her appearances kept the middle chunk of season two watchable.

Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel) - Here's a character who totally owned every scene he's in. It's no coincidence that the show started to get good when he first appeared, and Angel had its best season during the time he was on. Spike was such a charismatic character that he made everyone he interacted with more interesting. Buffy was the most interesting during his season six trysts with Spike and Angel was at his best when the two of them worked together. I love the way Spike tries to project this really cool image, but is a sappy romantic at heart. He's full of endless complexities and there's no character who's more interesting to watch.

Spike (Cowboy Bebop - Another complex Spike, he's the cool image of Bebop, totally above emotion and feeling. At first this is his attraction, but as time goes by, we see that it's his greatest flaw. The end of Cowboy Bebop, and Spike's role in it, is totally frustrating, but it's the only way he could have went out. Rarely do you see such a tragic character depicted on TV, someone who just can't move beyond his past.

The Smoking Man (The X-Files) - Whenever I saw William B. Davis in the opening credits, I knew that we were in for a good episode. Davis owned every scene he was in, and is the ultimate representative of conspiracy in fiction. As time went on, he became more complex, and his tragic nature was never better expressed than in 'Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,' or particularly in 'En Ami,' where we saw a man whose whole life has been squandered consigning himself to death. He's a very compex antagonist and despite Carter's best efforts, the character never lost his cool.

Tim Canterbury (The Office) - The ultimate everyman, he hates his job, but can't get it together to move beyond it. His facial expressions are priceless, look at Hat FM, or any scene with him and Gareth. His quiet "She said no by the way" in the second season finale is one of the saddest moments in the show, and his joy when Dawn returns is the best moment in the whole series. It's difficult to make a really ordinary character and not make him boring, but they pull it off with Tim.

Tony Soprano (The Sopranos) - The most complex TV character of all time? Maybe, he's certainly one of the most interesting. Tony is at a slight remove from the mob world, aware of his moral transgressions, but endlessly justifying them, blaming them on his mother or claiming that every white collar businessman is doing the same thing. He's a distinctly early 21st century guy, caught between alpha male tradition and the need to be more sensitive today. He's never been more interesting than post coma when his new moral code forces him to break out of traditional patterns.

Wesley Wyndham Price (Angel) - Wesley's journey is what makes the character so interesting. He starts out as a hopelessly inept guy not suited for the real world and ends up a hardened warrior so emotionally numb he has to die. And, that journey is totally organic, there's no one moment of change, it just happens as time passes and then you look back and realize how far he's gone.

Willow Rosenberg (Buffy) - Much the same, Willow has a huge evolution over the course of the series and is almost always more interesting than Buffy herself. I love Willow and Oz and I love Willow and Tara. Hannigan can do comedy and drama with equal skill and I hope that she does some serious work soon and doesn't just get typecast in a sitcom nitch.

Wonder Women, Aronofsky, Park, Nip/Tuck

Break is winding down. It's been pretty good, I haven't done too much, but I saw some great movies and TV. If each day is fun and I'm always pretty happy, that's enough. Wanting more and being happy with what you have is not mutually exclusive.

Yesterday the news broke that Joss Whedon is going to be writing/directing a Wonder Women movie. This is what I posted to alt.tv.twin-peaks on the subject: "On the project in general, I'll see it and I think it will be good, but I'm a bit disappointed. Part of me wanted to see Joss return to the Buffyverse again, but barring that, I'd have loved to see him writing an original script. I feel like he might have to make too many concessions to the studio and while something like Spiderman and X2 would great fun, I don't know want to see one of the most talented storytellers in film doing something that's just great fun. My favorite superhero movie is Batman Returns, and that's really a Tim Burton film that happens to feature Batman. I don't think Joss has such a tight set of themes or a visual style that he can make Wonder Woman a definitively Joss Whedon film. His strength is in creating
characters, and how much leeway is there to do that within the constraints of a studio action film."

Basically, I feel like this is a project that's definitely going to help his career. I don't see huge box office for Serenity, it'll be lucky to make it to $50 million, so by directing this film, he's going to stake his claim to the A list, and like Tim Burton wtih Batman, this film will probably make him a household name, if he's not already. So, hopefully he'll get this one out quick and it will get him the capital to be able to work on an original script. And Joss is a huge comics fan, so it's got to be cool to be able to make a movie based on a comic book icon. I know if I ever got the chance to direct an Invisibles or Flex Mentallo movie, I'd be all over that.

The New York Times Arts section today (for Sunday) was awesome. They had a lengthy article about Darren Aronofsky and his upcoming film, The Fountain. This is a film I've been hearing about for years, and back at the beginning of the year, I said it was my third most anticipated film of 2005. Aronofsky is one of the best filmmakers working today, and to see him doing a complex sci-fi film is a dream. I love science fiction so much, yet most sci-fi movies are just action movies set in the future, they use a sci-fi conceit as an excuse for action scenes. The best sci-fi stuff uses the conventions of another world to explore our own. Look at a film like 2001 or Blade Runner, both give you this astonishing new world, but also have tons to say about where we are now, and The Fountain seems to be doing the same thing.

The problem with a lot of science fiction is that it's cold and not emotionally real. The best sci-fi movies in recent years were Solaris and 2046, the latter had 15 minutes of sci-fi stuff, but in those moments so perfectly used the conventions of the genre to tell this really emotional story. The Fountain seems to be doing the same thing, and hopefully it'll live up to the five years of waiting for the film.

The other great article they had was on Park Chanwook, the Korean filmmaker behind the brilliant Oldboy, one of the most pop movies ever made. The movie finally comes out here next week, but I saw it a while back, and it really lives up to the hype as just a twisting, brutal film that's just so well made. It's a film that has a great plot, but the plot is really just a base upon which Park can riff with directorial flourishes. So, it was cool to read about that, and I got a better idea of how Park works and his history.



Another interesting article was about the American remake of The Office. Now, the British version is one of my favorite series, an essentially flawless work of art, and I just don't think the American version can compare. It's the performances and characters that make the show great, not the gimmick. And, considering it'll be an ongoing series, rather than the limited British run, they can't do the coherent plot and character arcs of the British version. David Brent works because we see him push the boundaries and ultimately get punished. If the series is going on indefinitely, he can never face consequences for his actions. But, I'll sample, even if it's got half the quality of the British version, it'll still be one of the best series on TV.

Over this break, I watched the first season fo the show Nip/Tuck. As much as I love film, TV can do things that it can't, and that's to create astonishingly complex and detailed characters, and give you a sense of their whole lives. Film is designed to show the most exciting day of a person's life, while TV is best for showing everyday of a person's life. To compare the media, take a look at Goodfellas and The Sopranos. Goodfellas, while it's a great film, is all about surface and giving you an overview of this guy's life. You get a sense of the world, but not how he behaves on a daily basis. The Sopranos is all about showing the details of daily life and how things always keep coming back to cause problems for Tony and his family. The Sopranos is a much more accomplished work, and the characters are more complex than any in film. For me, film is much more about the director and the way the material is handled, while television is more about the material itself.

Nip/Tuck has a couple of great characters, and a really interesting world. It's also compulsive viewing, like the best series, you just want to stay in this world and follow these people's lives. The most interesting character on Nip/Tuck is Christian Troy, a surgeon who goes along, sleeping with a lot of women and basically living for pleasure, with no concern for anything beyond the material. He's all about image, wearing the best clothes and driving the coolest car. It's fitting considering his profession that he'd be so fixated on his image. Over the course of the season, you have a lot of conflicting feeling towards Christian, since at times he's very cool, sometimes brutally cruel and also tender at times. So, basically he has a facade that's two faced, between very charming and very mean, and this facade hides the real person beneath. I have the feeling if Julia ever confessed she loved him and wanted to be with him, he'd give up his whole life to be with her. It's just that since the only woman he really loves is with Sean, he chooses to go for quantity over quality.



With Sean, there's a feeling that he would be the straight man foil to Christian, but the writers do a good job of making him interesting. His affair with Meagan was a high point, particularly the 'Rocket Man' scene, which was brutal. The scenes at the funeral, where he has to guard his emotions from his wife are great, because the feelings between them are so complex.

Other than Christian, my favorite character is Julia, someone who basically gave up her dreams to be with Sean, and is now looking at her whole world coming down around her. Her flirtations with Christian and Jude make for some great drama, and she's got a lot of layers. It was really surprising to hear her on the bonus features speaking in a British accent, since she pulls off such a convincing American voice on the show.

So, that was good times. It's not as good as a Six Feet Under, which is the show I think it has the most in common with, but it's great viewing, and I'm really glad that it's got another season. It's been too long since I really got hooked on a series like I did on this one.

Related Posts
Nip/Tuck: Season Two (4/8/2005)
Nip/Tuck: 'Ma Boone' (9/24/2005)
Nip/Tuck: The End of Season Three (12/23/2005)

Top 10 TV Moments

So, here's my top ten TV moments of all time. What is a moment, I'm defining it as roughly one scene, so some moments are bigger than others. Obviously, there's spoilers if you haven't seen the show, so be cautious. I'm sure I forget some good stuff, and I did try to spread the wealth a bit, there could have been a couple more Buffy on here, but this is pretty representative. Enjoy.

10.
Show: Six Feet Under
Episode: Perfect Circles
Moment: This isn't so much a moment as the whole opening ten minutes of the episode, in which Nate wanders through various versions of what his life could be, as he drifts in a dimension between life and death. The show has never been reluctant to go into bizarre stuff, but this is the most challenging sequence in the show's entire run, as Nate wanders through a variety of really interesting parallel universes, seeing himself with Brenda, Lisa and even as an overweight white trash fellow. The reality where he's mentally handicapped after the surgery, and has to learn to read again is harrowing, while the Southern one is just funny. It's a brilliant idea, perfectly executed.

9.
Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Episode: Restless
Moment: Xander drives the ice cream truck, talks with Anya, sees Willow and Tara as vampy lesbians, then winds up back in his basement. This is my favorite episode of the series, and it has a wealth of great moments to choose from, but I think this is the best. The transition from Xander on the playground looking at another version of himself serving ice cream, to the other version of himself, picking up the scene is ingenious, and perfectly captures the feeling of a dream. The cheesy matte behind Anya lends more surrealism, and I'm still wondering what she was talking about with the hand gestures. The Willow and Tara stuff is both hilarious, and perfectly in character for Xander, and not bad for the viewer eiither. The ice cream truck itself is a great continuity tie in, and probably the most important thing is the fact that when he leaves the truck he winds up back in the basement. That sums up Xander at that time better than anything else, and it leads into the brilliant chase through many rooms.

8.
Show: The X-Files
Episode: The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati
Moment: A dying Mulder is lying in bed, when the Cigarette Smoking Man pulls back the curtains of his room to reveal a future where aliens have invaded, and destroyed the Earth. Amor Fati is by far the best episode of the latter chunk of The X-Files, and possibly of the entire series. Much like the sequence in Six Feet Under I mentioned earlier, this episode concerns Mulder's vision of an alternate world in which he didn't choose to pursue aliens. This moment gives you what we never see in the main continuity of the series, an Earth where aliens actually invade, and the effects work is phenomenal. The Smoking Man standing in the window looking at the world in ruins sums up Mulder's worst fears.

7.
Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Episode: The Body
Moment: Anya wonders why Joyce had to die. This whole episode is really intense and harrowing, the best depiction of what it's like to deal with death in any piece of fiction ever. It's very real, but Whedon doesn't back away from using what his show has to offer to add to the commentary. Anya's lack of familiarity with human customs is usually played for laughs, but here it's tragic. She can't understand why Joyce had to die, and even as the other characters are saying it's not appropriate it for her to question these things, they're wondering the very same thing. As they will do again with the trio and with Lorne at the end of Angel, using a generally comic character in a dramatic moment can make it incredibly shocking, and therefore much more sad. This is a huge turning point for Anya, and it's a painful, but truthful moment for the audience.

6.
Show: Twin Peaks
Episode: 2.7 (aka The Killer is revealed)
Moment: Leland is revealed as Bob, Laura's killer, and subsequently murders Maddie, while the people at the Roadhouse suffer a profound sadness. That may sound like a big moment, and it's a testament to Lynch that he can work it in all in a virtually wordless sequence. The reveal of the killer is obviously huge, it's what the series had been building to over its entire run, but the real brilliance here is the brutal murder scene, and the subsequent catharsis at the roadhouse. Julee Cruise's music is beautiful, and sets the perfect tone for how everyone at the Roadhouse is feeling, after somehow sensing that another murder has happened, or in Cooper's case, being told by the Giant. Lynch would go over similar territory in the Club Silencio sequence in Mullholland Drive, but this sequence may be the most emiotionally real moment in his entire body of work.

5.
Show: Angel
Episode: Not Fade Away
Moment: Angel, Spike, Illyria and Gunn meet in an alley, and decide to keep fighting until they die. While Angel as a series is uneven, great at times, not so great at other times, the ending is unquestionably brilliant, the best TV ending since Twin Peaks. It works because it captures the essence of the character, he's someone who will never find redemption for all the bad things he did in the past, no matter how long he keeps going. There is no "ending" for Angel now that he has signed away the Shanshu, like there was for Buffy, and his show doesn't get an ending either. Cancelled during its best season, Angel himself also finds an apocalypse that has come on too early. He doesn't have a chance of winning, but he's not going to retreat, he'll go out fighting, and even though they'll all probably die, maybe they can help some people along the way. It's not a cliffhanger, because as is, this ending ties into what Angel realized in season two, and is the perfect capper to the character's story.

4.
Show: Cowboy Bebop
Episode: The Real Folk Blues Part II
Moment: Faye begs Spike not to go after Vicious. This is the moment the entire series has been building to. The characters have kept their emotions strictly guarded up to this point, but after rediscovering her memories, and coming to terms with her past, Faye is ready to open herself to Spike emotionally. She says that Spike has a new family, and no need to go after his past, but for Spike, the past is the only place he can be alive, and he needs to go back there. It's Spike's past versus his present and future, and his central character conflict expressed in one moment. The eyes are such a potent metaphor, and the center of a harrowing speech he gives Faye. Faye herself cries here, and we can tell how much she's changed over the course of the series. She has found her home, and only wants Spike to have the same thing, but he can't stay. She cries because she knows he's going to die, he has to go because it's the only way he can live. In this moment, we see the end of the Bebop as we knew it, and it's only a matter of time until the inevitable sets in. What makes this moment so striking is it's the first time we ever see the characters ever open up emotionally, and after 25 episodes of guarded emotions, the torrent here is both cathartic and frustrating, because like Faye, we don't want Spike to go.

3.
Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Episode: Once More With Feeling
Moment: Giles and Tara sing a duet about how they must leave Buffy and Willow respectively. This is an episode where practically every moment could be on this list, but my favorite part is the Giles and Tara, for a number of reasons. One, both of them are great singers, and I love the way Joss combines the two songs they hand sung previously. Also, it's a great example of musical form, because Joss uses the music as a way to express pure emotion. It may not have as much deep subtext, but it pays off character arcs, and is just a brilliant moment in and of itself.

2.
Show: The Office
Episode: The Christmas Special (Part II)
Moment: Tim and Dawn kiss. Every one of the shows listed above is at least partially a sci-fi or fantasy show, so how did a British situation comedy end up this high on the list? Maybe because it's a brilliantly written one, and has character arcs just as complex as those of a great novel. This moment is the end of the series long development of the relationship between Tim and Dawn. These two were both people who were not happy with their status in the office, and dreamt of bigger and better things. The only thing they had keeping them happy was each other, and in the second season finale, when Dawn rejects Tim's advances again, you can tell that it's incredibly painful for both. Over the course of the special, we see the way that Lee has worn down Dawn's dream of being an artist, and replaced her idealistic notions with a strict pragmatism that has her depressed. Tim has found peace in his job, but he's still not who he wants to be. Dawn leaves to go back to Florida, but in the car, she opens Tim's secret santa gift, and it's a box of paints. This sends her back to the party, where we see Tim standing with Brent and Gareth. In the background, Dawn walks in, goes to Tim and kisses him, bringing closure to the arc in a beautiful moment. It's not sappy at all, it's completely earned, and to see the two of them finally together and happy is what so many romantic comedy movies go for, but fail to achieve. The Office earns it. This scene not only fulfills the character's romantic arc, it shows Dawn re-embracing her dreams, and Tim finding new hope in his job. Throw in Yazoo's 'Only You' playing in the background, and you've got a complete perfect moment.

1.
Show: Twin Peaks
Episode: 2.22 (Finale)
Moment: Cooper wanders the red room in search of Annie, and his soul is taken. This is sort of a vague moment, but it's essentially one scene, Cooper's travel through the red room in the last episode. This is Lynch at his most abstract, but with the backing of the events of the series, so he can get as surreal as he wants, and the viewer still understands roughly what's going on. Jimmy Scott at the opening of this scene sets the tone perfectly, and the run in with the Man from Another Place both clears up and muddies some questions from earlier in the series. Laura screaming at the camera still freaks me out, and the dopplegangers are frightening, particularly the Cooper one. This is pure abstraction and it works. Some other episodes I mentioned before here have attempted to go bizarre, but no one has matched this, not even Lynch himself. It's a completely alien dimension, and Lynch is just unhinged. What an episode. It's the best TV episode ever, and it's the best thing Lynch has ever done, and it's got the best moment in TV history.

Related Posts
Ten Works that Changed My Life: Part I (10-6) (4/30/2005)
Ten Works that Changed My Life: Part II (5-1) (5/2/2005)