Traditionally, I'd write a top five or a top 10 list for whatever. Actually, really it would just have to be an interval of five, that's all that really matters. However, this year in television six shows stood out above the rest in my book, so I'm going to stick with six. No more, no less. Below are my six favorite TV shows of 2008.
1. How I Met Your Mother
This combined with the number two show makes me say a euphoric "thank god it's monday!" every week, as it is the perfect way to start the week. It's part Seinfeld, part Arrested Development, but take out the cold, emotionless centers and replace them with heart and realistic relationships. This really feels like a sitcom designed specifically for me.
Kudos to my boy NPH for this as well. He may get all the publicity, but he deserves it. No one on television is funnier than Barney Stinson. No one.
2. Chuck
I love the rest of the shows on the list, but the character of Chuck (brilliantly played by Zachary Levi) is the guy that every nerd wants to be, meaning I relate to him and envy him while watching his antics on television. That's a unique and alluring combination. I find myself grinning uncontrollably while watching this show, as Chuck, Casey (Adam Baldwin), and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) go off on another wild mission, from saving the world from a satellite by beating the old arcade game Missile Command while listening to Rush's "Tom Sawyer," to defeating rogue CIA entities embodied by ex-girlfriend and Michael Rooker, to surviving the average day in the Buy More.
In terms of hour long shows, this has the most consistency and one of the most balanced and diverse casts on television. It's the best thing that Josh Schwartz has ever done, yet no one realizes it.
3. Battlestar Galactica
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Well, not really. Battlestar is still the best show on TV, it's just this year was the year of the comedy and Bstar Glac only provided me with 10 new episodes this year due to the writers strike and other ridiculousness. It did provide the single best episode of the season (the action packed and gut wrenching finale) and some of the best performances (when did Saul Tigh become the most dynamic character on television?), but it just didn't provide the product necessary to take number one.
However, there's a fairly decent chance I'll fall apart as a human being when the series finale airs some time in 2009. January 16th, 2009, you're too far away!
4. Dexter
Dexter and friends threw down another incredible season full of pitch black humor, tense drama, and buckets of blood, and they didn't lose a step from the first two remarkably great seasons. While the structure changed somewhat, losing the season long killer mystery for the most part, the show did not lack in awesomeness.
Why?
The cat and mouse awesomeness between Jimmy Smits' character Miguel Prado and Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan. You never really knew who was the cat and who was the mouse, but for the first time in the series, you never really knew for a fact that Dexter was going to make it through unscathed. He met his match, and he met it in his first real friend. Perhaps the two best performances on TV this year were featured here with Smits and Hall absolutely bringing down the house every episode. Incredible work.
5. Lost
Lost was freaking awesome this year. A huge return to prominence, featuring a change in structure from time to time, answers, and significant forward movement. Everything has been said about this show already, so I don't need to say much here. However, I do want to say the number five ranking here isn't to say it wasn't a great season (it was), it just means the other shows were truly exceptional.
Although, I did not like the season finale (I know, I'm the one).
6. Entourage
In the year of televisions most unlikely comeback, after two abysmal seasons (sad but true), Entourage got back to basics and provided us with its single best season. It was back to the hijinks with the crew, the wheeling and dealing by Ari (and his put upon assistant Lloyd), and the mix between the good life and the bad that comes with it that this show should be all about.
More shows need to realize that when they go astray, just get back to basics. Entourage did, and it's better than ever.
Top TV Shows of 2008
Slices of Fried Gold (11/20/08)
More recommendations for one and all, with a diverse list this week featuring a graphic novel, a performance on a TV show, a online compilation, and a CD. All are definitely worth checking out and come highly recommended from me.
TV: Jimmy Smits in Dexter
Dexter continues to be one of the best shows on television in its third season, with this season possibly being the best yet. This show is incredible because it started out great and has consistently surpassed its own quality with each season.
One of the big reasons this season has been the subtraction of the distracting character Doakes with Jimmy Smits as the incredibly engaging Miguel Prado. His progression from possible enemy to Dexter's first real friend has been the most interesting plot point of the season, as it adds a dynamic to the story that has never really been present.
Smits is an actor that has always been praised but I've never seen act, but after seeing this season, I can safely say that every bit of praise he has been given has been earned. He's a top notch actor, and his role as Dexter's first real confederate singlehandedly has escalated this to the peak of Dexter seasons. That says a lot.
Comics: Maus by Art Spiegelman
Even though I'm a huge fan of comics, I'd never checked out Spiegelman's Maus, the Pulitzer Prize winning and most critically acclaimed comic ever about Spiegelman and his relationship with his father who survived Auschwitz. For some reason every time I looked at it, I was turned off by the simple and grimy art.
However, as years past my tastes changed, and it was time to read Maus, and I'm very glad I have, as it is about as good a story as the comic medium has ever produced and the perfect example to show why comics are a very real and very powerful medium. I'd put this on par with Elie Wiesel's Night as the best piece I've ever read about the Holocaust, and that is saying something (I love that book).
While the art is still not spectacular, it gets the job done and acts as commentary in its own right (especially with the anthropomorphic character designs - all characters' nationalities are displayed by the animal that represents them the best - example: the French are frogs). It's the story and writing that really make it what it is, as it is truly haunting. Of course what else would you expect from something about the Holocaust? A must read for anyone and everyone.
Music: the Slackers - Self Medication
Of course I discover the perfect summer album right as winter is really taking over in Alaska. This is the seventh album by the Slackers, but the first I'd ever heard. It's an excellent mix of ska and reggae into a very mellow and fun album that never stays too serious for too long. Just what you would want from an album of this sort.
Sure, this doesn't really reinvent the wheel, but if you're a fan of ska/reggae, this is a great album to check out as this band clearly has a solid grip on their home genres.
Music: Guilt by Association 2
This is a mixtape by Engine Room Recordings, and it's incredibly bizarre and full of covers of songs you would never imagine the artists performing. But strangely, they work out really well. On this mix, you have Matt Pond PA covering My Chemical Romance's "I'm Not Okay," you have Max Vernon covering Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," and most excellently, you have the incredibly underrated Robbers on High Street covering New Edition's "Cool It Now."
These covers are quite often shockingly different (especially the Matt Pond PA cover), but are at the very least interesting. The talent on this mix is worth at least one listen through, and if you like it, I strongly encourage picking it up on iTunes. Most of the covers are pretty awesome though. Check out Kaki King's cover of JT ("I Think She Knows") if you don't believe me.