Brian and TV

This weekend folks were watching Pirates of the Caribbean in the living room (I should probably see the sequel to that, huh), and a commercial announcing the new season of the Shield came on.

"Whoooo!" I fist-pumped. "One of the top 5 shows ever!"

Zach, one of the founding members of Zazz Incorporations, immediately asked me to name my top 5 in order. Uh....I immediately realized that my claim had a lot more to do with enthusiasm about the show's return after well over a year, and it really wasn't one of the 5 best TV shows ever. But how to rank them? I can't really compare comedies to dramas directly, so I should probably split it out into two lists. As for a ranking criteria note....I tend to try to combine "good for its time" with "good right now". Obviously you can't fault older shows for being, well, older (there has been a steady increase in the rise of quality of the best TV shows, unlike movies, I'd argue). But I also don't want to go nuts on the whole "this may not be funny anymore, but it was hugely inspirational to stuff I do like" angle - I think that you gotta weigh both factors.

Before I make any lists, I want to take a short detour to discuss one of the stranger phenomena I see: people who make very proud declarations of "Kill your TV! " or "I haven't watched TV since 1985" or whatever, and then go on to list 60 or 70 movies or so that they deem absolutely essential in their life. TV snobbishness is stupid; it is easy to watch only really amazing shows (many of which are of far higher quality than those 80 movies that people rewatch over and over) and ignore the rest of the crap. I have never seen an episode of American Idol, Grey's Anatomy, ER, Survivor, or really any reality TV show (save a one season stint of Project Runway), game show, etc. It just seems retarded to be proud of arbitrary excluding one visual medium...like people saying "I love books - but only ones you can read in less than two hours!!!". But it seems like more and more people are realizing that great TV exists.

Arbitrary lists

Dramas
1. The Wire - Only seen Season 4 of this, but if the rest are anything close to it...like nothing else on TV.
2. Deadwood - Higher quality than the Sopranos as far as cast, story, etc. are concerned.
3. The Shield - Gritty, engrossing.
4. Twin Peaks - Lynch = brilliance.
5. Sopranos - Certainly deserves credit for leading the TV renaissance. But I've never felt as attached to it as I have other things.
6. Heroes - Cheesy, but unafraid to do whatever to advance the story line. Proving that a pure network serial can work without stupid gimmicks that come to hurt the show (24's real time thing, Lost's flashbacks, etc.)
7. Veronica Mars
8. Lost
9. X-Files (I guess...I kind of hate this show in some ways).
10. House? Maybe...I'm already kind of tired of this show. Maybe Big Love?
Things I've never seen but might deserve to be in the top ten: Six Feet Under, Battlestar Glactica

Comedies
1a. Arrested Development - the most advanced form of comedy yet reached in any TV or movie, I think.
1b. Simpsons - Would be at the top easily if it had ended 4-10 seasons ago.
1c. Seinfeld

4. Venture Bros - The best show most people have never seen.

5a. The Office (US) 5b. The Office (UK) - A tough call, but a long running show that frequently manages an excellent portrayal of absurdity just barely edges out a short lived, flawless show about awkwardness.

7. Futurama
8. Home Movies
9. 30 Rock
10. Cheers

Sketch shows

1. Mr. Show (if only David Cross could get a guest spot on the Wire, he could complete the hat trick)
2. Kids in the Hall
3. Flying Circus
4. The State
5. Chapelle Show
6. Reno 911
7. Viva Variety

Notable mention: Inspector Gadget. Thailand put out a live-action version of the show: