Over a Candle

This has been a startling good season for television, I think. I can’t remember when I have felt so involved in this many television shows (which probably explains why I haven’t gotten further in Final Fantasy XII). Since I’m coming down from Monday night, which is the big night for me, I thought I’d take this chance to let you know what I find worth watching. (This list is likely aimed at those people who live in caves.)

1. Battlestar Galactica: This is the only show exclusive to cable that I’m hooked on. (I’m ignoring John Stewart’s The Daily Show.) And it is still the best show on television. Each season (almost every episode) they manage to up the ante. I worry that there is going to be no place left for them to go, but they haven’t reached that point yet. The season started with some of the most heart-wrenching events on the show so far. And it has certainly continued to intrigue with a Cylon disease, and Baltar stuck where he belongs. It’s the one show I haven’t deleted any episodes from our DVR. Ronni’s starting to get worried.

2. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: This may be the smartest-written show on television. The dialogue is quick and witty without being too self-aware. The two-part episode with John Goodman as a judge was a terrific piece of self-commentary. The show may have flaws, but I seem to be oblivious to them. The show reminds me a bit of the movie Metropolitan, which a friend of mine described as a “writer’s movie.” This show is a “writer’s television program” as it focuses a great deal on characters and dialogue. There are no cheap laughs, but the show doesn’t get overly serious, either. It has a good balance.

3. Heroes: I wasn’t sure if I was going to get into this show. It is a comic book television show. And I wasn’t sure if they could pull it off. But they have smartly followed the playbook laid down by J. Michael Straczynski in Babylon 5 and picked up in shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica. Namely, it has a coherent whole that it is aiming at. It’s hard to sit down and watch just one episode, because so much depends on what else is going on. Characters like Hiro (the Japanese space-time bender) are entirely engaging. And there is so much depth they are slowly peeling back to reveal. So far, only Sylar – the really nasty bad guy – seems to be a little under-painted. But that only heightens the fear around him. The show has me completely hooked now. It’s hard to tell how things are going to work out, but it’s a find ride watching it happen.

4. The Office: This sit-com is barely that. It is very funny, but the American version of this show has really shown magic. They have set up the death of the show in the Jim and Pam romance that should never be. Given every other show with a forbidden romance has died after the romance comes to be (Cheers being the one notable exception, but they only escaped by getting rid of half of the forbidden couple), it seems that Jim and Pam are either doomed to stay apart or will doom the show by getting together. But so far they’ve skated around it nicely. And the dynamic in the office, with the different stereotypes, still manages to find new ways to entertain.

5. House: This show should be higher on my list. I love this show. I love this character. But this season is making me a bit uncomfortable. The tragedy at the beginning of the season was a bit heart-breaking, but completely necessary for the character, I suppose. But the current plot-line… the cop out to get House… It seems almost sinister. The businessman who took over the hospital in the first season was a jerk. He made House’s life miserable. But he wasn’t sinister. The cop is sinister. I worry about how far he’s going over the line. And I’m torn about the plot. House does have a problem, and in that respect, the cop is right. On the other hand, the cop is just like House, and it bothers me how self-righteous he is. I keep wondering, can they do this to House and at the end, have him return to the way he was? Probably not. Not realistically. I still love the show. But I have a hard time seeing where this is headed.

Well that’s my top 5. Truthfully, those are the shows I’m really engaged in. Two more deserve mention, though. Ronni has sucked me into Grey’s Anatomy. While I don’t think it is the height of television, I think it is immensely more entertaining that E.R. in recent years. (I loved E.R. in its earlier seasons.) It’s not in my top 5 because many of the characters in the show have driven me nuts. It’s hard to really like most of them. But the show still has my attention. The other show is one that I love, but never get to watch. I own the first two seasons of Scrubs on DVD, and we’ll be getting the next two seasons soon. Its new season premieres this week. This is maybe the smartest, most engaging comedy on television right now. The characters grow and change, unlike most sit-coms, and there is enough real tragedy on the show to keep the silliness off-set. It’s a great show that I wish I had more time to watch.

Okay, that’s it. That’s what I’m watching now. I know you all care a lot. But this is my blog, so I get to write what I want.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 10:58 am and is filed under TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.