I have a confession to make. Despite my handle, I absolutely loathe going to the movies. When I do venture to the theater, I usually go alone to a matinee. I've never understood why people feel the need to go to movies with other people. I'm not there to socialize, I'm there to watch a goddamn movie. I hate the sound of people munching popcorn in my ear. I hate the SOB teens with no respect for the people around them. I hate pretty much everything about it.
So, most movies I see at home, with the exception of big event movies or prestige pictures. However, sometimes when I'm sitting on the couch, munchies at hand, I don't want to watch a movie. Sometimes I'd rather watch television.
TV programs have always been in the ghetto of the filmic city. They are considered less worthy of praise, less artful, than good movies. I have to disagree. Good television can do things movies can't. A good season of television will tell a long format story, and the best will deliver enormous character arcs, or brilliant laughs. I'd have to say some some of the longer running shows have given me more hours of quality entertainment than any of my favorite directors. So, with that in mind, I present my favorite television shows.
Now before we can go on, I have to tell you that you won't find any procedural TV on this list. I hate the CSI's, Law and Order's, and all their many spin-offs and clones. They are boring and formulaic, and they don't require any investment at all beyond the hour they air (or the countless hours in syndication). I mean no offense to people who like them, but just know why I didn't put any on the list.
Good TV comes in one of two formats: one hour serial drama or half-hour hilarious comedy. I enjoy both, but I prefer the dramas, so we'll start there.
I'm going to let my geek flag fly here; I'm a committed Whedonite. Joss Whedon is brilliant, and his instincts for character and story are unimpeachable. Everything he's ever done has fallen between good to fucking awesome on the quality spectrum, and none more so than his first series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some of you may have written off this TV show, either because the premise is stupid (no argument there) or it aired on the WB. You missed out. The adventures of Buffy Summers and her pals (affectionately called the Scoobies) is my favorite thing ever put on television. Whedon uses the slayer metaphor to tell universal stories about the perils of adolescence, plus his dialogue is always whip-smart. I could go on and on about this show, but if you've never seen it, or you want to relive it again, the first two seasons are on Hulu, along with his other shows Firefly (peerless, and tragic) and the first season of Angel (not as good as Buffy, but still quality). And please, for the love of God, watch his new show, Dollhouse, when it airs on Fox this January. I couldn't stand to have another Firefly happen.
I don't begrudge people who ignored Buffy when it ran. I made the same mistake with Veronica Mars because its premise was stupid and it aired on UPN. The story of a high-school private eye, solving crimes for her classmates between study hall and lunch? Pass, right? Wrong. The first season of Veronica Mars (there are only three) is, simply put, the best season of television ever, and I'm not being hyperbolic. The central arc of the show follows Veronica as she tries to solve the murder of her best friend, Lilly Kane. The whole series is a tribute to noir films and literature, and any fan of the genre will see a ton of allusions (there are shades of Chinatown, The Big Sleep, and countless others). As Veronica solves mini-mysteries for her classmate each week, she also comes closer to cracking the mega-plot mystery. The acting is superb across the cast, and none better than Kristen Bell as Veronica and Enrico Colantoni as her father, Keith. The two share and incredible, breezy chemistry. It's easy to forget they're not actually related, and they're aided by another great team of writers, who manage to include trenchant social commentary on the nature of class in our society. I can't recommend this show highly enough.
Another element in the rise of TV as viable artistic alternative to the movies is the ascension of the HBO drama. Ever since the debut of The Sopranos, HBO has ruled the roost when it comes to television, and that show spawned many imitators and contemporaries, even on basic cable. However, for my money, The Wire was the best show HBO ever produced. A grittily realistic portrayal of Baltimore drug dealers and the Police officers trying futilely to stop them, The Wire delivered a stinging indictment of our failed war on drugs. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this show was the fact that there were no clearly delineated good or bad guy, both factions (drug dealers and cops) were presented as people who were simply trying to make their way in America. Everybody was just doing their job. Even more fascinating, the creators, through five seasons, tackled every facet of the drug war, from street level dealing, to supply, enforcement, politics,and the media. The show is dense, and sometimes tough to start a new season, but it always delivers if you give it the time.
Moving on to half-hour comedies, I would be remiss if I didn't start the discussion with The Simpsons. Despite the shows recent decline, for about a decade this was the best show on television, of any genre. Its characters were sometimes more emotionally realistic than anything else on air, and they were animated yellow people. Any episode between seasons two and ten is hilarious, filled to the brim with literary allusions, pop culture references, and freeze frame gags. The early seasons reward multiple viewings, which is why the show has been so popular in syndication. What M*A*S*H* was for my parents, The Simpsons are for me.
Currently, there are two great sitcoms running on air. There's 30 Rock, Tina Fey's hilarious and often absurd story following the production of an SNL like show, and How I Met Your Mother, the story of Ted Mosby, and which features the brilliant hook that Ted is relaying the story to his kids from thirty years in the future. Both shows feature brilliant casts of top notch comic performers, but I'm not going to talk much about either of them, because everything I can say about them was said about Arrested Development first. Arrested Development, the story of the dysfunctional Bluth family, and their struggle with keeping their fortune, broke just about all the rules of TV sitcoms. Instead of shooting a scene like a play with three cameras (see Friends, Cheers, Seinfeld), they shot like a movie with one. They completely abandoned the laugh track. Furthermore, they embraced a narrator (Ron Howard) who would undercut the characters and what they were saying. The show is full of cut-away jokes, brilliant sight gags, (one inept character is an understudy for the Blue Man Group, and as such constantly wears his makeup; watch for his handprints all over). Like most brilliant television, AD was short lived, (only three seasons) but its entire run is on Hulu. There has never been anything funnier on TV.
Well, I'm done. These are my favorite shows, but by no means all of the great TV. In fact, I've saved a few shows for the comments. Have at it.