forget the Emmys, my vote for the best shows on TV goes to…

1. Lost season 5

The best show on TV right now is “Lost.” That’s it. List closed. Nothing on television came close or even tried to come as close. The formula for success these last few years owes just as much to the show’s blessed lack of filler episodes as it does the twisty turny back-to-the-past-to-the-future plot which spun heads, blew minds, and confused the retarded mainstream network audience who found a lot more comfort in the millions of stand alone murder shows than this deep mythology that actually –how dare it– required abstract thinking! If I could go back in time a year just about the only thing I’d do is re watch this season and, okay, maybe also spare myself the trauma of watching “Transformers 2.” Season’s 4 and 5 of “Lost” will go down in my book as a miraculous return to form that surpasses what I thought the “form” or format was in the first place! That the lush visuals are as eye popping and layered as the retro storytelling (most of the season is set in the 70s, which allows Hurley to “make some improvements” on the Star Wars OS!!!), nuanced characters and the nerd god comic writer Brian K Vaughn make “Lost” the most pleasurable show on television in what’s gotta be years. And that’s despite the vacuous vortex of fan (un)favorites Jack and Kate. This a brave and brilliant show whose impact on TV’s landfill landscape will really be felt and missed once it finishes its run next year.

2. Damages season 2

This is a fantastic lawyer show. Next to “Law and Order” in the 90s, the best lawyer show ever shot in fact, though I’m not a fan of the genre so what do I know? Well, what I do know is that season 2 does not suffer from the sophomore slump that many claimed it had. They said it was overly complicated and that there were too many characters and then I issue them with a subpoena of whoop ass. Not sure if we are watching the same show because what I see here is a consistently entertaining drama that does not take the easy way out by being a Grisham-y thriller and, instead, is more “Murder One” in the way it submerges the viewer in a single case throughout the season (Glen Close vs. a dicky corporation vs. a superb William Hurt as the whistle blowing wife killing baby daddy) and surprises us by making characters we love bastards then making us love the bastards. I also give “Damages” credit for being the only show on TV besides the above one for using a flash forward framing device well.

3. Breaking Bad season 2

Controversial, I know, but this is the best show on AMC. I don’t know about it being great art like ”Mad Men” but it is certainly great in terms of blending genres (death, drugs, action, family comedy genres) and pulling off the neat trick of being entertaining, perhaps even funny, and dramatically inclined as well. Dying teacher turned drug dealer Walter White’s wife (whoa, three Ws!), as always, is annoying. So is his wigger partner Jesse “I can’t do this anymore, dogggggg!” Pinkman. But that only makes us flock to Cranston’s wonderfully drawn/driven Walt even more, does it not? We literally feel his pain it comes from all angels as well as from within. And in a fantastic development/evolution of the character, his moral ambiguity is leaning ever more towards the sinister side as he gets, against all odds, healthier. Before he had nothing to loose, now he has something to live for… and a lot to loose! If this keeps up the show’s going to have a lot of dark stuff to work through in subsequent seasons. Is redemption possible? Really, really solid stuff… except, of course, for the mind numbingly stupid opening flash-forwards this season depicting a stuffed animal in a bombed out pool leading up the season ender that, with a literal explosion of suckage, is trying to be “Lost” or, god, I don’t know what.

4. Smallville season 8–Wait, wait, come back! I haven’t lost it! Hey look, I even put “Mad Men” on my list to make up for my obsequious ”Smallville” love, okay. This is an indulgence but an indulgence I’m proud to defend (which is more than “Hero” fans could do these last few years) if you’ll hear me out. This show is not considered good by the public, it’s not critically respected and it’s not even a niche show like “Supernatural.” For Christ’s (or Jor-El’s) sake, even ”Smallville” fans are sick of “Smallville!” Bah! That it’s still on the air sometimes feels like a gift to me and me alone because I’ve never come into contact with an admirer. Whatever, season 8, coming off a good IMO (but, again, unpopular) season 7, was spectacular. Gone is Lana and the puppy love. Gone is the farm and city of Smallville (they should have changed the name of this show then, huh). Gone even is Lex Luther of all people (previously the best aspect and actor of the show). Here is a “grown up” Clark who is now a reporter at the Daily Planet in Metropolis and now acting halfway straight with his emerging feelings for Lois Lane. The usual array of lame plots and gags and, sigh, Lois Lane Lame (Erica Durance is so bad that I can’t look away) still exists but the show as a whole feels renewed and exciting to a point where it’s almost a new show. I should credit the show for subbing in the great comic writer Geoff Jones (I’m NOT a DC guy but even I’ve read and love his Green Lantern series), who, in just a few episodes (one nifty one has a team from the future assisting this boy Clark who “doesn’t even act like the man of steel” to defeat Brainiac) justifies and even argues in favor of the retconned existence this show’s “world,” is an enormous honor. It would be  one thing to say it’s all Geoff but it’s not. The “big” episodes are some of the best of the series. All that plus… Doomsday.

5. Venture Brothers Season 3

I adore this show and this season. Not just because it’s the most coherent and structured narrative being spun on Adult Swim but because season 3 found the Venture team looking a lot more reflective and, uh, a lot more nude too (the uncensored DVDs are a eye gouging blast–just wait till Dr. Venture jumps in a hot tub in all his glory… with a bomb strapped to him to boot). From the secret League of Extraordinary Gentlemen take off (set years before whatever date or universe “Venture Bros” is set in) to Sampson’s military origins (he answers to a guy that looks like a grizzled Sergent Slaughter with one addition: he has giant breasts) to poor Rusty’s childhood trauma (Papa Venture was a huge dick… literally), this season could have just provided more random fun (violence and humor need not always have a purpose on Adult Swim after all) but it instead chose to deepen the show’s increasingly madcap mythology.

6. 24 season 7–I love what I’m about to write: 24 is back!

7. Aqua Teen Hunger Force season who the F knows?

Perhaps my favorite show of all time. That said (and not said lightly): this is not one of the best seasons to date and I’m not saying that just because I have no idea what season the show is currently in exactly–I think the last four unaired episodes of season 5 were grafted or reused for season 6 but I have no fucking idea why!!! Certainly, though, this modernist (or surreal, or postmodern or whatever else they’re selling) animated show is unlike anything on TV. Last year I loved the underground creature/curvy PC repair girl (don’t ask) “CHUD” story because, well, any episode that shows Frylock for what he is (a lonely, needy, repressed creep) is instantly great. And of course how can I forget any episode that features a hairless Wookie? God damn! And the return of the “Dickasode” Dick Man was the dick flavored cherry on top, who, instead of attempting to leave the planet on a jet made of dicks, this time goes undercover as the toothfairy to makes a ship out of, yes, teeth… POWERED BY DICKS (but not really)! And what can be said about the live action episode? Erm, I’m still trying to figure that one out. Lots of fun. Lots of WTFs. Lots of meat, fries and master milkshakes. I hope it lasts forever.

8. True Blood season 1 and 2

It took me sooooo long to make the leap and watch/commit to ”True Blood.” It’s not that I was not keen on the subject (I practically have a tattoo that says “I heart gay vampire shit”) or the pedigree (Alan Ball, whose “Six Feet Under” was as good as it was infuriating)  but, rather, than I knew I would like the show which is “Twilight” for people with a sense of humor. So of course I finally watched and, yes, finally fell in love with the deep fried southern horror cheese. Vampires have made a comeback these last few years and I like that the mythology here does not take itself as serious as just about any other vampire mythology. It’s refreshing to laugh at vampires and the people who love/hate/fuck em and the writing team provides just enough cultural/political relevance to keep it from being total fluff. But mostly, it’s fun in a woman porn sexy kind of way. Even when it sucks (ha!), like the drunken orgy that was season 2′s main plotline (umm, “True Blood” did you forget this is a VAMPIRE show!), it’s laid back cornball charm is always on display and always hard to resist. Or perhaps I’ve just been glamored into liking the show.

9. Darker than Black series

The best new anime since “Death Note” is one that’s a lot harder to describe. “DTB” is not all out creepy and it does not resort to spiky hair/emo boy anime cliches. Stories move slow (most are two parts) and don’t always have true payoffs. What’s not lost is the show’s intense sci-fi driven wallop set in a world that’s… changed. By what? An alien dimensional portal that turns humans into X-Men (and I guess you could say X-files) like mutants. That we don’t know quite how is what makes this fantasy world so interesting. This show is mature and adult, but not talky and boring. We get really cool plots with international intrigue and cops but also hell gates and talking cats.

10. Dexter season 3

Gets worse with every passing season. So why do I still love “Dexter” do death? The character is that charming. You could put him in “Grey’s Anatomy” and I’d like it (provided he kills them)! This season sees Dex reverting deeper and deeper into the well of madness that is not serial killing so much as domestic life. WTF, NOOOOO! Here’s an idea, let’s have Dexter NOT buy donuts for his non-kids and not fight with his girlfriend and soon to be wife about where he goes or who he is. He’s Dexter, damn it, and he needs to be free!

10.2 Mad Men season 2

I’m not going to orgasim all over this show like everyone else but I’m also not going to deny its spellbinding power. What grabs me is simple. Complex characters engaged in struggles so internal that they hardly exist on the surface and are rarely spoken of directly. How… European. The show never opts for easy explanations and scene after scene plays out where we have no ideawhat, exactly, characters are thinking. The mystery, rooted in ordinary 60s corporate climate juxtaposed with “normal” domestic life, makes made ”Mad Men” an enigma of sunny and dark proportions. A symbolic anxiety is always looming over the narrative and that cloud never seems to part, even when characters are smiling. It’s odd though that a show so smart can be so dumb when it comes to the anything but subtle shoehorning of real life historical moments like Cuban Missile Crisis that are juxtaposed with the inner turmoil of the characters (sooooo contrived and unoriginal). This season, which started off slow and worked itself into quite a little package with a great separation subplot, even managed to make Don Draper’s previously unexplained past compelling (the L.A. set episode ”Jet Setter” in the pic above possesses the series best writing  and directing to date!), and this is something that season one failed to do.

also great…

• Battlestar Galatica–I must admit that I have not finished season 4.5. And what does it say about the show that I’m afraid or unwilling to finish out of fear of it sucking as much as I think it will? Hit or miss it may, but this is a landmark show that will be missed and, no, I’m not watching “Caprica.”
• Eastbound and Down season 1–Kenny Powers is that good, deal with it motherfuckers!
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia–Gets better and better as television comedy gets worse and worse.
• Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles–fare thee well sci-fi network show. You never stood a chance.

In a few days I’ll give a mention to the best and worst actors, writers etc.