The year's best on TV
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Julianna Margulies in "The Good Wife" on CBS. -
Joh Hamm as Don Draper in "Mad Men," a series that continues to uncover new facets of its characters.
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It's never easy to devise a Top 10 TV list anymore because there are too many quality shows out there. With basic cable networks venturing more and more into scripted series, there's more filmed entertainment available, which means there's more bad stuff but also more high-quality programming. As it is, I had to cheat a little this year to squeeze more than 10 worthy shows into the Top 10.
It's also worth noting what you don't see in this year's Top 10 TV list: any surviving broadcast network shows that debuted this fall. Fox's "Lone Star" made the list, but it was canceled after two episodes. Creatively, it was a lousy fall for the broadcasters with a lot of mediocre (and worse) shows put on the air. Cable networks, most notably AMC, picked up the slack.
So the next time you want to hurl a brick at the TV, either turn it off or maybe consider giving one of these series a try:
1. "The Good Wife" (CBS): It's not as edgy as a scripted cable show, but this legal drama offers TV's most potent mix of procedural legal stories, character drama, family drama and even political intrigue as it chronicles the lives of lawyer Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), her politician husband (Chris Noth) and a cast of fully formed secondary characters, including the alluring, mysterious Kalinda (Emmy winner Archie Panjabi). Well written and terrifically acted by a talented cast whose members understand the value of nuance and underplaying a scene, "The Good Wife" lives up to its title -- and then some.
2. "Mad Men" (AMC): As much a psychological thriller -- "What is Don Draper Thinking?" -- as it is a period drama, this series continues to uncover new facets of its characters, particularly in this season that had such a strong focus on Don's daughter Sally (Kiernan Shipka), who is growing up and developing a more complex, interesting personality than most of the bland kids we see on TV.
3. "Community" (NBC): Last year at this time this NBC Thursday night comedy was still trying to find its way. But this season the show has grown into its own, relying more on comedy that originates with viewers' knowledge of the characters than on situations. Although the situations -- zombie attack, campus-wide paintball fight, rocket ship trip -- are often hilarious, too.
First Published December 26, 2010 12:00 am
