Bad is Still Good

Last year at this time I shared my favorite television shows. Breaking Bad topped my list of dramas in the spring of 2009 and The Office was my favorite comedy. Now a year later have my picks changed?

No and yes.

Breaking Bad, currently in its third season on AMC, is still my choice for best drama. The characters, the tension, the comedy, the drama, the acting, the writing--everything with that show is crazy good. If you haven't been watching, check out seasons one and two on DVD.

My favorite comedy has changed. The new champion is Modern Family (ABC, Wednesday night). Absolutely hilarious. The show follows the lives of three different families that, despite being related, are very different from each other. The talented ensemble cast produces continual laughs regardless of which storyline is being featured.

Honorable mention: Glee. Sue Sylvester never fails to crack me up. Outstanding.

Get Lost

Tonight begins the final season of Lost. Last season’s finale ended with a hydrogen bomb explosion and left us with many unanswered questions . . .

Did Jack’s plan to set off the H-bomb actually reverse the course of events that led to the crash of Oceanic 815?

Did anybody die in the explosion? If so, will Hurley be able to see them?

What does the death of Jacob mean? And will his nemesis (now appearing as Locke) bring good or evil to the island’s inhabitants?

Just how old is Richard, and why doesn’t he age?

How many funny nicknames will Sawyer come up with this year?

Will Charlie come back with his three hobbit friends: Frodo, Sam, and Pippin?

How tall is Walt now?

Will the Oceanic 815 survivors meet up with Gilligan and the other folks from the S.S. Minnow?

Tune in to ABC tonight to find out the answers . . .

A Farewell to Kings

It is Saturday. For the past several weeks the arrival of Saturday has brought a new episode of Kings on NBC. Last week, however, was the season finale. And since the network did not renew the show, that episode was also the series finale.

Premiering in April, Kings was an alternate reality drama based on the biblical story of King Saul and King David. I confess I had mixed feelings about it at first. It intrigued me, though I wondered if it tried to do too much with too many different elements. But the show held my interest enough to keep watching. Each week it drew me deeper and deeper into the story. By the middle of its 12-episode run, I counted Kings as one of the year’s best television shows. The writing, production quality, and acting were superb. More than once I had to rewind a scene to absorb the full power and beauty of Ian McShane’s Shakespearean dialogue.

Despite garnering much critical acclaim, Kings did not draw high ratings. So NBC pulled the plug. We will thus never know the fate of Silas, Rose, Jack, Michelle, William, and of course David Shepherd, who at season’s end, had to flee his homeland to seek refuge among his nation’s enemies.

Goodbye Kings. You were an innovative show that deserved a much longer run.

Maybe I should check out Deadwood on DVD.

The Best Comedy on Television

Last time, I shared with you my choice for best drama on television. Now it is time to reveal the best comedy (among the ones I watch) on TV. The candidates: King of the Hill, The Simpsons, Scrubs, My Name is Earl, The Office, 30 Rock, Best Week Ever, Entourage, and Everybody Hates Chris.

The winner is The Office. But the competition is tight. So much so, that I’ve decided to say a few words about each of the shows:

The Office: Boss Michael Scott, both buffoonish and brilliant, keeps me cracking up and cringing (often at the same time). Indeed everyone at Dunder Mifflin has their eccentricities and personality quirks. Yet the goals they pursue and the problems they face are relatable. The workplace interactions among these office colleagues (and often rivals) are consistently hilarious. Strong writing has kept the storylines interesting through five seasons now. My Dwight Schrute bobblehead is nodding in agreement.

30 Rock: I didn’t like this show at first, but now it is among my favorites. The humor is quick and sharp. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are comedy geniuses. Kenneth the Page is one of the funniest characters on TV.

Everybody Hates Chris: Easy to overlook because of its Friday night time slot, this show is one of the best comedies going today. I love Chris Rock’s narration and the contrasting yet complimentary personalities of the parents (Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold). There have been some great episodes this season as Chris faces “older” teenage issues.

The Simpsons: Debuting in the Bush administration (the first Bush administration), this is one of the greatest comedies of all time. The show is not as strong today as it was in the early 1990s, but Springfield remains a very funny place.

King of the Hill: Another animated legend. Now in its final season, Hank and company show that there is still much humor to be found in propane, drinking beer, and a boy who just “ain’t right.”

Scrubs: Perhaps the best comedy on TV in its early years. Fell into a couple of so-so seasons, before regaining its punch this year. Janitor rules. Wonder if we will ever learn his name.

My Name is Earl: Another show that started strong (it too was once my favorite), then lost momentum, and now is back on track.

Entourage: Comedy, thy name is drama. Johnny Drama.

Best Week Ever: I like the new format with Paul F. Tompkins as host, though the show is hit or miss with its pop culture commentaries. And why is it so rare for an actual person to have the best week ever?

The Best Show on Television

What is the best show on television? Since I don’t watch all the shows on TV, I can’t definitively answer that question. But I can tell you the best (drama) program among the shows I watch. The candidates include: Lost, 24, Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Reaper, Monk, Psych, and Kings. (I’ll save comedies for a separate post)

And the winner is . . . Breaking Bad. I must admit, I almost did not give this show a chance. All I knew about it before the first episode aired was this: The guy from Malcolm in the Middle is a high school chemistry teacher who finds out he has cancer, so he starts cooking meth to pay for his treatments and provide for his family. Cancer, chemistry, and cooking meth. I’m not a fan of any of those three subjects. But the pre-pilot critical buzz for this show was unusually high, so I tuned in. I’m glad I did.

What is so great about Breaking Bad, you ask? The acting and writing, of course. Beyond that, what stands out to me is the exquisite use of imagery. Unique angles and memorable shots of the seemingly innocuous convey a sense of foreboding—a consequence of the precarious path the two protagonists have dared to walk. And then there is the “shock and awe” factor. In the last episode, for example, there was a severed head crossing the desert on the back of a tortoise. Now that’s something you won't see on American Idol.

Watch Breaking Bad on AMC Sunday nights at 10:00 Eastern / 9:00 Central.