Top 10 Of 2009
This will be my only posting of the week, but it's a biggie, since I name my Top 10 shows of 2009.
This wasn't an easy list to make, since I had a lot to choose from. I narrowed my selection to 25, then worked it down from there. I'd say about eight of the final picks were no-brainers, but trying to cut down to 10 was extremely difficult.
The only criteria I used was that the show had to air the majority of its episodes in 2009.
How good were the top 10? Well, here are the honorable mentions, each or any of which could have made the final cut:
--Burn Notice (USA)
--How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
--Modern Family (ABC)
--Nurse Jackie (Showtime)
--United States of Tara (Showtime)
That should give you an idea of how good the Top 10 is, because those were tough cuts. Some of the shows that didn't make the honorable mentions include: NCIS, Friday Night Lights, FlashForward, The Good Wife, House and White Collar, among others. Again, all good shows, most of which are probably on someone's Top 10 list somewhere.
Without further ado, in reverse order:
10. Battlestar Galactica (SyFy): A decade from now, this will still go down as one of the Top 10 shows of the decade, maybe ever. Not many shows get invited to the UN to discuss the themes of the series. The ending may have been controversial to some fans, but no one can deny it was a spectacle.
9. Torchwood: Children of Men (BBC America): I debated this one, not because of quality, but whether it was fair to stick a miniseries against a regular series. But this miniseries was so well done, so shocking with its nightly cliffhangers, that it was really impossible not to include. Certainly, it's rare to see a series in which the heroes lose more than they win.
8. Lost (ABC): "Lost" continues to build toward a momentus finish and has given us a cliffhanger in which it's impossible to determine -- or even guess -- where the series is headed next.
7. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO): When "Curb" is at the top of its game, as it was most of this season, there isn't a funnier show on TV. The "Seinfeld" storyline was inspired and creator Larry David proved there was nothing that he WOULDN'T mine for comedy, be it a storyline involving cancer or a subplot centered around Michael Richards' infamous meltdown. It may have been almost two years between season, but it proved worth the wait.
6. Glee (Fox): One of the most enjoyable hours of TV, for so many reasons -- the satirical look at high school, the astounding musical numbers, the awesomeness of Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch). The music, however, is still the show's main appeal, and there have been so many good covers that I don't think the legions of Gleeks out there could come up with duplicate lists of the best songs on the show. It also gave us perhaps the most beautiful moment of the season, the spoken word/sign language version of John Lennon's "Imagine" by a school for the deaf.
5. Breaking Bad (AMC): That this is only the fifth-best on the list shows how good the other four are. One of the cleverest satires on TV with a breakthrough performance from Emmy winner Bryan Cranston and a breakout performance by Emmy nominee Aaron Paul, it's also a sharp commentary on the difficulties many middle class Americans are facing today.
4. Sons of Anarchy (FX): This has been described as "The Sopranos" on motorcycles, but I think that's selling SoA short. It's more Shakespeare on bikes, with elements of Hamlet, MacBeth and King Lear all woven into a complex tale of outlaws trying to preserve the sanctity of their hometown. It not only gave us two great villains in Adam Arkin and Henry Rollins as neo-Nazis, but it also has the best two female characters on TV, played by Katey Sagal and Maggie Siff.
3. Supernatural (CW): It's tough to put this as only No. 3, because this is my favorite hour of viewing each week. What could have been a mediocre, monster-of-the-week series is one of the cleverest hours of TV, deftly mixing humor and horror. Once again, the writers are unafraid to mine anything for material, and adding Misha Collins (as an angel) to the full-time cast has only made a great show even better.
2. Mad Men (AMC): Not No. 1, you say? Believe me, this surprised me as well, and I'm the guy doing the list. This season was absolutely perfect in its execution. The spectre of the JFK murder loomed all season, and when it finally came, it wasn't a letdown. The finale took the series in a bold new direction, and I can't wait to see what's next.
and, drumroll...
1. Rescue Me (FX): I thought this series was dead in the water after its last season, but re-invigorated writing and storylines were nailed flawlessly. What makes this series so great? It's excellent cast with perfect chemistry? Some of the funniest scenes I've ever watched during an hour of TV? Or drama that will punch you in the gut? I say all of the above. Even the storylines designed to make the viewer squirm also challenged the viewer in a way few shows can.
So, which series do you think should be in the top 10?
WEEK'S BEST BETS: Here's a list of the highlights:
Monday: New stuff from the CBS sitcoms and a new "Lie To Me" (Fox, 9 p.m.). NBC airs a new reality contest, called "The Sing Off" which will run all week at 8 p.m., while TNT has new episodes of "The Closer" and "Men Of A Certain Age," beginning at 9 p.m.
Tuesday: CBS has new episodes of "NCIS," "NCIS: LA" and "The Good Wife," while ABC has "Scrubs" and "Better Off Ted," beginning at 9 p.m.
Wednesday: Fox wraps up the current season of "So You Think You Can Dance?" while CBS' regular Wednesday lineup is all-new.
Thursday: CBS again airs new episodes of its regular lineup, while NBC has the "SNL" special, a "Very Gilly Christmas" at 8 p.m., featuring the Kristen Wiig character.
Friday: "Dollhouse" (Fox, 8 p.m.) has been on a roll ever since it returned, and two more hours air tonight.
Saturday: BBC America airs "Doctor Who: Waters of Mars" at 9 p.m. Featuring a great turn by Lindsay Duncan as the Doctor's (David Tennant) latest companion, it starts off as the most convential "DW" story you can imagine, then twists into one of the cleverest and most controversial endings you can imagine.
Sunday: "Survivor" (CBS, 8 p.m.) wraps up its latest season with a winner chosen.
See you next week!
This story was originally published December 14, 2009 at 2:34 AM with the headline "Top 10 Of 2009."