Top Ten TV Shows of the Season

[Temis the Vorta]

Season 3 of Dexter doesn't even come close to the two other seasons

50% of the quality would still put it ahead of everything else but Lost.

Why did you stop watching 30 Rock, Temis? I love that show.

I only have eight timeslots on my VCR so I can only watch eight things per week.

But maybe I should just watch it live; it's pretty funny a lot of the time. There's just too much to watch this time of year...

OOoo....definitely try Dexter! Rent season 1. You won't be able to stop watching. And Season 2 is actually even better than season 1.

"...won't be able to stop watching" is about right. Haven't seen the third season yet, but I watched the first two in a matter of days. I was transfixed. The most interesting thing about watching it that way is you realize the show flows from one episode to another like one very long movie. I would not be surprised to find out the seasons are fully written before committing to film.

They've gotta be. There's a particular incident in S1 that doesn't seem very important at the time - or followed up on - which foreshadows (and plays into) the resolution of S2. So I think they're thinking ahead to future seasons all the time. The whole backstory about Harry and why & how he adopted Dexter, is a complicated mystery that unfolds over at least the first two seasons (and I still don't think we have the full story).

Dexter is the most immediately addictive show I've ever seen. It's hell having to wait each year for August to roll around, when they release the DVDs, but then I watch the whole season in about a week and the seamless serialization of the episodes really becomes apparent.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Heroes??? Sorry, no.

Let's see. I didn't even watch ten shows because I don't like to watch crap, but here's my list:

1.)The Shield. Beyond outstanding
2.)Dexter. Micheal J. Hall. Enough said
3.)Supernatural. Never seen a show up its game so much in its fourth season; the writing improved 200 percent. Both hilarious and completely engrossing. Puts every sci-fi/fantasy show with the exception of Galactica to shame. Criminal that not enough people watch it or think it's nothing but CW pretty boys.
4.)Mad Men. The outstanding period drama of a period not so long ago but so very, very different from now still delivered. Superb cast.
5.)Big Love. The best written series on television with the most nuanced, complex, and crazy female characters.
6.)Battlestar Galactica. Great cast, but the last episode really, REALLY sucked eggs which brought it down a couple of notches on the list. God, was that finale awful.

 

[Thrall]

Chuck would be on this list if I was watching it but I'm waiting for the DVD.

No! Go to NBC.com or Hulu and watch it now, ASAP. It's like sex and cocaine combined with Jesus. It's like the tastiest hamburger ever stuck between Marissa Miller's cleavage and you're starving. It's like Han Solo, dipped in strawberry-chocolate-cherry flavored 65 Ford Mustang , and transplanted RIGHT INTO YOUR BRAIN. Sure, none of that makes any sense what so ever. But it's the closest one can describe the sheer magnitude of the awesomeness that is Chuck.

1)Chuck
2)Supernatural
3)Dexter
4)How I Met Your Mother
5)Tru Blood
6)Reaper
7)My Name Is Earl
8)Burn Notice
9)World Warrior
10)The Office

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Heroes??? Sorry, no.

You must watch next week, because

Spoiler: spoilery speculation

I'm almost certain Sylar is going to kill Nathan - FOR GOOD!!!!

Argh Big Love is another one I forgot to mention - when the heck are the S3 DVDs going to be released? Seems like eons since I've seen that show.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Lost
Supernatural
30 Rock
BSG
Party Down
24
Eastbound & Down

 

[Warp Coil]

Hmm... this list will be difficult for me, since there are a couple of shows I have watched this season that have disappointed me, overall. I've continued to watch because they are shows I used to enjoy, but the love is gone. So they aren't really "top" programs in my book these days.

Battlestar Galactica
Brothers & Sisters
Dollhouse
Family Guy
Friday Night Lights
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
Lost
The Office
South Park

 

[Barbados Slim]

1. Friday Night Lights
2. Lost
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. The Shield
5. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
6. Legend of the Seeker
7. Southland
8. Skins
9. Life
10. True Blood
11. Kings
12. The L-Word
13. Burn Notice
14. Leverage
15. Dollhouse

Comedy

1. 30 Rock
2. The Office
3. South Park
4. Family Guy
5. Eastbound & Down
6. How I Met Your Mother
7. The Colbert Report
8. Entourage
9. The Daily Show
10. Psych

Reality

1. Top Chef
2. America's Next Top Model
3. For the Love of Ray J
4. Intervention
5. American Idol

I cut a ton of former must-see stuff out this season due to newfound suckage on the part of the show: Grey's Anatomy. Damages. Heroes. Reaper. Pushing Daisies. Dirty Sexy Money.

 

[ialfan]

1. Battlestar Galactica
2. The Office
3. Dexter
4. House
5. Heroes
6. Pushing Daisies
7. True Blood
8. American Dad (sadly better than family guy for 3 seasons now)
9. Dollhouse
10. Degrassi TNG (showing my age but this season did pick up a lot)

 

[TheBrew]

In no order: Chuck, Heroes, Chuck, 30 Rock, Chuck, The Office, Chuck, Scrubs, Chuck, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

 

[sidious618]

In order with the top one being the best (although they're all good):

Battlestar Galactica
The Shield
LOST
Brotherhood
Fringe
NCIS
Supernatural
The Tudors
House
Burn Notice

 

[miraclefan]

1. LOST
2. Dexter
3. Pushing Daisies--damn it.
4. Heroes
5. Burn Notice
6. Chuck --huge improvement over last season
7. Reaper
8. BSG
9.24
10.Kings --I love it, but it is completely doomed.

Dang! I forgot about Burn Notice! I love that show!

 

[Mr Light]

"No! Go to NBC.com or Hulu and watch it now, ASAP. It's like sex and cocaine combined with Jesus. " I'm on dial-up and can't download anything It's my secret shame! ... Oh yeah I didn't list Daily Show and Colbert Report but those are my lifeblood. I'm totally in man-love with Stephen Colbert. He is so frickin' hilarious every single night. Love it!

 

[bigdaddy]

6.)Battlestar Galactica. Great cast, but the last episode really, REALLY sucked eggs which brought it down a couple of notches on the list. God, was that finale awful.

Have you ever seen the series finale of Rosanne or Will and Grace? Those are AWFUL!!!

 

[Dorian Thompson]

I ignore the final two seasons of Roseanne, they were so bad. I maintain that the finale of BSG was not up to par. That coda at the end was so god awful, and self indulgent, and cutesy pie. Moore just couldn't leave it with Bill Adama sitting by Laura's grave overlooking the bluff. That would have been such an elegant, fitting final statement, but no....sigh

Temis, that spoiler about Heroes better not be true or I'm going to have to knock down a bitch by the name of Kring. Are they f'ing joking with that crap?

Sidious, what did you think of the ice cold chill between Sam and Dean during the final scene last night when Dean told Sam he was exactly like their father and Sam thought it was a compliment when it wasn't? Ouch. Tim Kring needs to take lessons from Kripke and company on how to write a plausible, heartbreaking brotherly conflict that happens in real time and doesn't repair itself like magic because Peter Petrelli is just too good to live. Gag me.

Argh Big Love is another one I forgot to mention - when the heck are the S3 DVDs going to be released?

Probably not until the fall. I know, it's been forever. The writers' strike delayed season 3 for so long so the DVDs are following suit, I guess, Temis. I want season 4. They've gotta do something now that Teenie read Ben's letter to Margene. I've wanted shithead Bill to find out about that for the longest time.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

In no particular order:

- Lost (consistently the best show on TV to me)
- Battlestar Galactica (not as good as earlier seasons, but still better than 99% of what's on TV)
- Fringe (started out bland, but now appointment TV, especially the mythology arc)
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (the first part of the second half of the 2nd season was awful, but then it got back to the good stuff)
- The Shield
- The Office
- 30 Rock
- Burn Notice
- Pushing Daisies
- Chuck
- 24
- Life
- Psych
- Boston Legal (fantastic send-off)
- Reaper
- Dollhouse (started out poor, but picked up considerably)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Temis, that spoiler about Heroes better not be true or I'm going to have to knock down a bitch by the name of Kring. Are they f'ing joking with that crap?

Hang onto your hat, I just posted a clue from Ausello that could only work out if my speculation turns out to be true. There's just no other character they've done the proper setup for.

And I suspect it would be Bryan Fuller that you need to hunt down with pitchforks and torches - he seems to be the idea guy now.

To articulate this more fully if you don't want to bother with the Heroes thread:

Spoiler: speculation for Heroes finale & S4 that I'm pretty convinced will happen

1. Sylar will kill Nathan in the season finale and that Nathan is dead for good.

2. Because of a combo of Sylar's shapeshifting and memory absorption powers, he will start to lose control of his persona as Sylar and be a melding of Nathan and Sylar - this has already been foreshadowed and will continue to be developed next season.

3. If and when Sylar does become Nathan, it will be questionable who exactly he is. If he has Nathan's DNA and memories, doesn't that make him Nathan by definition?

4. It's a given that even if he seems to be Nathan for good, there will always be the possibility that Sylar could re-assert himself.

5. Adrian Pasdar and Zachary Quinto will both continue to be regulars on the show, but they are sharing the same character - Sylar. You will be seeing a LOT of Pasdar in S4, don't worry. And he will have some very meaty acting roles, because he's playing two different characters plus potentially those characters in various levels of control - how do you play 60% Nathan, 40% Sylar for instance?

6. The Nathan-Sylar tussle could take up most of S4 to resolve. I can't see this situation continuing beyond that, so one of the two actors will have to leave the show. S4 might be the last season anyway.

Then again I've been convinced about stuff before that turned out to be totally wrong. Monday will be interesting, to say the least. And S4 could be the best season yet because imagine how some of the surviving characters will react to this situation?

Spoiler: yet more stuff

Peter will be insane with vengeance - but if he tracks down Sylar and he looks and acts like Nathan - and with Matt's mind-reading, Peter can confirm his personality and memories are Nathan's and not Sylar's - can Peter kill the guy then? Wouldn't that mean he is killing Nathan, which is what he's angry about?

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Those are too many complicated sentences for the Heroes' writers to put together, much less ideas, Temis. They could never pull that off, and even if they did they'd do it badly. Meh, you know how I feel about those sort of things after Similitude.

Spoiler: spoiler death

It's absolutely not Nathan. I don't care if he has full or partial memories. I'd never be able to accept him as my brother again if I were Peter. Then there's the pesky "he might turn back into a serial killer at any moment" thing. It sounds very "oooooohh wow!!!" but in practice I don't think the idea will work. I understand why Ron Moore calls it sci-fi ghetto storytelling, a character being replaced with a clone/duplicate. It's taking a chance, but it's a chance that'll backfire. It won't work long term as story. Angela is supposed to accept some morphed remnant of Sylar as her son? Peter's supposed to love him as a brother? It's an insult to Nathan's memory. I knew they'd kill him. The Petrelli brotherly bond is permanently severed, Temis. Don't expect it back. What are they supposed to do with both Quinto and Pasdar in the part? Sooner or later the writers will have to decide he's one character or the other. Either way, Nathan's really dead. Hey, there's a reason I refer to Zoe-A and real Zoe on Caprica. At least its narrative asks the question of what's real and what's not. Zoe was a character we didn't know well. Nathan is a character we've known for three years. It won't work.

I am so done with Heroes. It'll NEVER work.

 

[J47]

I don't think I can rank them, so here's just my top ten all around.

Battlestar Galactica - Mostly-brilliant end to a mostly-brilliant show
Better Off Ted - Definitely the highlight of the new season. It's a shame there's no chance it'll get a second season.
The Big Bang Theory - The writing and acting for this show are spot on, it always entertains me
Dollhouse - Nobody's going to accuse it of being Joss' strongest show, but the plot is intriguing even when it's poorly executed.
Brothers & Sisters - After losing its was a bit last year, it seems to have rediscovered its footing this season. Combine that with a fantastic cast (led by the always-amazing Sally Field) and it deserves a place in my Top 10.
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia - I feel like this has been off the air for way, way too long, but I absolutely love it and can't wait for it to return (whenever that might be).
Lost - It's no longer must-see TV for me, but come on...it's Lost, it has to appear here.
The Office - I just can't get enough of this show. The last couple of episodes, especially, have specifically earned it its place here.
Psych - Probably the best argument (with the obvious exception of BSG) for cable channels to continue to chip away at the once-almighty networks. I have no idea when it's returning to television, but I do know it isn't soon enough.
Pushing Daisies - Canceled way, way before its time. ITV is currently airing the last three episodes, and it serves only to sadden me to think that the journey is about to come to an end.

Honourable mentions for How I Met Your Mother (which suffered for a while in the middle of the season, but has found its footing again), Kings (which deserved so much more than NBC gave it), and The Amazing Race (not having its best season, but it's still far and away the best reality show on television).

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Those are too many complicated sentences for the Heroes' writers to put together, much less ideas, Temis

Bryan Fuller's running things now, and on Pushing Daisies, complications like that were no problem for him. But maybe I should stop talking about this till Monday in case things turn out completely different from my assumptions and I run across real spoilers?!?

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Maybe, but things don't seem to pan out on Heroes so much, Temis. TPTB seem to want it simple. I still believe wholeheartedly

Spoiler: consequences of spoiler

that the Petrelli brotherly dynamic is dead for good if they go this route. You can't make Sylar into Nathan and have him accepted. The comic book fans want action. They don't want anything on a psychological level, and Ventimiglia sure as hell couldn't play out such conflicting emotions with any finesse. Who does Fuller think Ventimiglia is? Jensen Ackles? Or Padalecki for that matter? Pasdar could pull it off, but not Ventimiglia. How that boy manages to keep getting work is beyond me.