List #13: TV Shows

Time to fall back on an old reliable: TV shows that I actually watch regularly.*  I'll rank these not by how much I actually typically enjoy them or look forward to a new episode**, but by how confident I am in recommending them to you, my adoring audience.

* There are, admittedly, some shows that I due rather like that nevertheless fail to meet this criteria.  Chuck and Fringe, for example, are both consistently good but for one reason or another I've allowed myself to fall way behind on my TiVo homework.  Burn Notice, Bones, and CSI also fall into this category.


** Thus avoiding some personal embarrassment at how high some of these shows might rank.


(7) NCIS.  Yeah, I know.  But it's so very watchable formulaic crap.  The acting isn't going to blow anyone away, but it's better than you would expect for a show of its type, the plots are somewhat less outrageous than would be typical for this kind of thing.  Don't judge me.  Stop judging me!!

(6) The Amazing Race.  Nominally edutainment (due to the world travel and periodical cultural highlights), this is really just a fun contest/race.  It's generally well edited to keep the tension going and there is enough film of the various teams to let them show their character - watching a "do-anything-to-win" pair get trounced by a nice team is extremely satisfying.  Basically, if you have any interest in the "contest" group of reality shows, it's much fun.

(5) House, M.D.  House used to be higher on my list, and Hugh Laurie is still every bit as excellent.  The formula is starting to wear a bit thin for me after 7 seasons though - there are only so many unique medical mysteries that can occur in New Jersey before I begin to get suspicious.  Maybe if I begin to think of House as a Münchhausen-by-proxy character, deliberately seeding bizarre freakish diseases throughout the area so that he can "solve" them.....

(4) In Plain Sight.  Classic flawed heroine, interesting but not ridiculous cases, office politics but no overarching evil conspiracy.  Well written, well-acted, just an excellent show all around.  And while it's yet another law-enforcement drama, there is not exactly a long history of shows about the US Marshal Service's witness protection agents.

(3) Castle.  Nathan Fillon.  Enough said, but the show is true to his (and my) aesthetic.  If you have any doubt, watch this clip and tell me this show isn't better than every other procedural out there.  Funnier and yet also more realistic* than any other cop show currently running.

* There are still accepted TV "reality" boundaries of course.  Only a certain amount of grittiness is allowed in prime-time network TV, and this is definitely a light-hearted show.  But at least they don't regularly use magic** to solve crimes.


** A brief digression for those of you who watch Bones: I like the show, and of course I'm a fan of David "Angelus" Boreanaz.  But every episode, the artist character who has somehow also become an amazing computer programmer makes a vital contribution by making 8 keystrokes and creating a 3D model of the dead body and the exact angle and speed of the death blow, etc.  It happens every episode and it was ruining an otherwise solid show for me, and eventually I had to just accept that that character was a wizard from the future and that she was using magic.  Yes, the only way to watch the show is to accept that a wizard did it.  I suspect that many other shows have the same issues (eg I know that actual forensic scientists can't stand the way that there is always some insanely rare fabric trace or pollen that only exists in one 200-foot area involved), but it's so blatant in Bones that it was really driving me crazy.


(2) Archer.  One of the best damn things I've seen on television ever, bar none.  Just be absolutely sure that the kids are sleep or otherwise out of the house first.  Freaking hysterical, in a terrible, terrible way.

(1) Justified.  Unique-but-realistic characters in tense short-term and long-term situations in backwoods Kentucky.  Perfect Elmore Leonard*.  All of the principle characters a frakked-up enough to be extremely interesting but not totally unpredictable, and the viewer knows enough of the back story to see why things may be unfolding the way that they are, but not enough to truly see what's coming.  The best show on television.

* The series is based on his books and he's a consultant on the show.