Top Ten Tuesdays: Television Shows

Credit the three and a half seasons of 24 I have devoured on Netflix in the past three weeks for my sudden renewed interest and faith in television.

There are some conditions for this list: I have not yet gotten around to seeing any of The Wire, Deadwood, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica, The West Wing, The Unit, Family Guy, South Park, That 70s Show, ER, M*A*S*H, Sex and the City, The X-Files, Happy Days, or most anything from the 50s, 60s, and 70s like The Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver, All in the Family, or I Love Lucy. I'm leaving out talk shows, news shows, game shows, and obviously... reality tv. Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live both suck, and I'm not much of a Simpsons fan.

10. Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962)-- Hitchcock himself hosted and occasionally directed the suspenseful (or at least ironic) shorts presented in every episode of this seminal series. If you're having trouble understanding what makes this show so awesome, let me repeat: Hitchcock presenting short films every week for seven years!

9. Invader Zim (2001-2003)-- An amazingly unique blending of careful plotting and total irreverence. And it's an animated cartoon! There's no joke in lazy juxtaposition (I'm looking at you, Stewie!), so what Zim gives us is a gleefully insane set of characters with clear-cut motivations working towards exciting but inevitable conclusions. Did I mention sidekick Gir?

8. Arrested Development (2003-2006)-- Again, really, really tight plotting which sets the stage for big surprises. This show suffers for only being half an hour, as a lot of the emotional check-points whiz by. You can also either love or hate the fact that everyone, basically, everyone, in this show is morally reprehensible. Anybody notice how well the characters in AD synch up with the whole family in The Godfather? Michael/Michael, Buster/Fredo, Gob/Sonny, the list goes on....

7. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)-- This show makes the list because it starts off just as clever and well-written as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and then it adds sci-fi!

6. Lost (2004-2010)-- The finale told us that the point of the show was never figuring out the answers to all the mysteries of the island, but figuring out the people involved. In all fairness, if you need to know the meaning and purpose of there being a polar bear on the island, beyond knowing that it was some genetic experiment, and an effective first-episode act-break shocker, then this show is probably not for you.

5. Veronica Mars (2004-2007)-- Gender doesn't matter, unless an antagonist makes it an issue. Try being a top-notch female private-eye sometime and you'll find you're peerless in your field but the boys will be second-guessing you every step of the way. A CSI for people with hearts, there's a reason why the show is named after a character, and not a department. On a separate list, Veronica Mars would be one of my favorite television characters of all time.

4. House (2004-present)-- A roller-coaster of quality from season-to-season, I am currently singing this show's praises because it's last season ended stronger than any other. Everyone's favorite misanthropic doctor is finally growing a heart, and going out with Cuddy! What an arc this poor fella has gone through-- from being the most haphazard misfit to almost exactly who we all want him to be.

3. 24 (2001-2010)-- I've only seen half of this show, but so far it is a mucking fasterpiece. The easiest thing to talk about would be the real-time nature of the show (when I first heard about this show at the age of 12, I thought there was no way they could do that, as he'd need to go to sleep sometime), which keeps the tension sky-high, which is perfectly suited to the subject-matter of the show. And who knew torture could be made to look so agreeable?!

2. Mad Men (2007-present)-- Biologically speaking, males philander in order to distribute their genetic material as widely as possible, and females play coy in order to draw protective males to them. Men will give money to get sex, and women will give sex to get money. Not on any other show is this dynamic explored as thoroughly as on Mad Men, all from within a subtle, hyper-accurate depiction of the 1960s advertising world.

1. Firefly (2002-2003)-- The great martyr of the medium. Cancelled after only 13 episodes and briefly resurrected in Serenity (2005) for some well-foought closure, this show was pitched as "What if Han Solo never joined the Rebellion?" Thus, we get Captain Malcolm Reynolds and company, all with troubled pasts and even more troubled futures, despite the captain's mantra that he just wants to keep flyin'.

--Serge