20. Greg House (Hugh Laurie), House

I’m a sucker for sarcasm, and Laurie delivers. I’m also not a huge fan of procedurals, and so whether it’s just me or not, I can’t help but feel that so much of his bile is aimed at the genre itself, and at the expectations of heroism, functionality, and so forth. If only the staff of Grey’s Anatomy had a date with Dr. House.

19. Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda), M*A*S*H

The womanizing is kind of pat and tiring, but behind it is a remarkable charisma. If people watched the show and did so for so long, I’d bet that a large reason is Alda’s ability to grab and maintain interest. He also managed to sell the hardship and tragedies of M*A*S*H with subtlety, never letting it become just another happy-happy sitcom even while being the source of such happy-happy-ness.

18. Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), Twin Peaks

MacLachlan manages a hard feat in Twin Peaks, playing his character in a way that makes him both a point of entry into the profoundly bizarre world of Twin Peaks, and someone who is no less profoundly bizarre in his own way.

17. Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), The Pee Wee Herman Show

Simply put, is there any more fucked up character on television who is so enjoyable? A great hybrid between kids performer and drug-induced, crazed indy character, Pee Wee’s kind of awesome.

16. Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), Fawlty Towers

As pure as sarcasm gets on television, Fawlty is also the pregenitor to a whole slew of characters who just missed the cut for this list, including Larry David, David Brent, Michael Scott, and Black Adder. Seething contempt for the world, and doomed to failure, Fawlty’s great television.

15. Dr. Who (various), Doctor Who

It’s hard to know where to place the Doctor on this list, since some performances are deserving of higher placement, some of no placement. But I love the idea of a character with so many versions and actors and capacities, so he has to be here somewhere. #15 seems as good as any a place.

14. William Adama (Edward James Olmos), Battlestar Galactica

Another Draper-esque performance involving long looks and an unflinching face that still evokes such interest and sympathy. Indeed, he’s kind of like Don Draper mixed with Eric Taylor.

13. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), The Sopranos

Like #9, I haven’t seen all of this show, partly because it always seemed a little too over-hyped. But Gandolfini does an excellent job at putting some flesh on the very skeletal mob boss of so many other films and shows. He’s also really funny.

12. Don Draper (Jon Hamm), Mad Men

Hamm manages to do a heck of a lot without doing much at all, his stoic expression a cipher at times. He behaves like an asshole so much of the time … and yet I’m fascinated by him and often feel for him, a testament to a really well written and acted character.

11. Eric Cartman (Trey Parker), South Park

Does evil turd-dom get any better than Cartman? I struggle to think of a more utterly reprehensible character in comedy history who is so delightful. Or who has such a hilariously wonderful singing voice.

10. Walter White (Bryan Cranston), Breaking Bad

I can already hear the BB fans raging at White’s placement here, but from the outset I should note that I’ve only seen Season One to date, so I can’t get carried away. It’s hard not to, though, given the strength of that performance. A lovely and contradictory mix of a character who seems so desperately lost yet who also has such purpose.

9. Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby), The Cosby Show

The “everything ends up just fine”-ism of the show may rile my critical capacities, but Cosby is just such a wonderfully gifted comedian at peak in this show, always a pleasure to watch.

8. Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen), Da Ali G Show

First breaking into the television world via The Eleven O’Clock Show on Channel 4 in England, Cohen took Chris Morris’ character-based mode of interviewing to an entirely new level. There’s an element of Eric Cartman in him, as he says shocking things, but the satirical purpose is usually a lot clearer and stronger than with Cartman. It also produces a few rare moments when interviewer, interview subject, and topic of interview are all being satirized for different things. Smart stuff.

7. Al Swearengen (Ian McShane), Deadwood

Easily the most compelling presence in a highly compelling show, Al is a joy to watch as he moves from bad guy to good guy to victim to victimizer and all sorts of places in between. Famous for his colorful language and swearing, he also has come of the densest, more complex dialogue in television, a fact that’s easy to overlook since McShane’s acting makes it all so seamless.

6. Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), 24

It’s really easy to criticize and lambaste both the show and the performance. Endless torture and endless yelling. But if you actually watched it, both the show and Jack were always more complex. Jack was often (and especially in the conclusion) out of line and irascible, excessive, and a raging shell. In the process, Sutherland gave more humanity and depth to the action hero than I’ve seen pretty much anywhere else.

5. Stephen Colbert (Stephen Colbert), The Colbert Report

I must admit that when Colbert’s show started, I didn’t see how it could last, and how he could keep character for so long, four days a week, while still being amusing. He proved be completely wrong, not only being so very funny for so long, but also skewering the punditocracy all the more in the process.

4. Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), Friday Night Lights

Kyle Chandler brings so much complexity to Eric – he can be the show’s best comic relief at times (his one-eyed squint/twitches are especially amusing), he can be a hypermasculine turd at one moment while a sensitive and thoughtful father and husband and coach at others. This upcoming season seems to be bringing a lot of the Losties back to TV, but there is no justice in the TV world if we don’t see Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler back soon too.

3. Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), Dexter

Dexter is often the only character in the show who is truly allowed to be a character, but boy does he deliver. Michael C. Hall’s performance is fantastic, his soothing voiceover a rare exception to my cringing reaction to most televisual voiceovers. I like the moral ambiguity, I like how damaged he is and yet how much he tries, and since almost everything in the show is set up to tell us about him, his character is constantly building.

2. Kermit the Frog (Jim Henson), The Muppet Show and Sesame Street

Sure, he’s not fleshed out like many of the serialized characters on this list, but Kermit is still a guide to and role model for all that’s good in the world. #1 on this list may’ve got me through the last twenty years of my life, but no character did a better job at helping me through the first few years.

1. Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta), The Simpsons

Did you really think I’d pick anyone else? Nobody does stupid like Homer, few have come up with as many memorable lines, and few make me smile as much just at the mention of them. The writers give him great jokes, and the animators do great things too, granted, but Dan Castellaneta’s vocal performance is simply brilliant. Mmmmm … supelerior performance.

~~

20. Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer), The Office

In a show full of unreal characters, to even keep the semblance of a “realistic” style of camerawork requires someone identifiable, and that’s Pam. While almost everyone else is larger than life, Fischer does such a good job of being funny in a subtle, quiet way.

19. Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), The Mary Tyler Moore Show

We can’t really have a top women on television list without Mary, can we? Mary Tyler Moore rocks, from The Dick Van Dyke Show onwards, and so it was nice to see her get to carry this show. She might just make it after all.

18. Cathy Jamison (Laura Linney), The Big C

I’ve only seen the one season, and it was a short one, but Linney struck me as doing an especially wonderful job of playing a character who is equal parts winning and affable, and reprehensible. In other words, she comes across as a very real person. In true Showtime form, she’s not really funny, in a show that’s often billed as a comedy, as those around her handle the comedy, but she handles the drama with deft skill.

17. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), The X-Files

I gravitated away from the show after its initial seasons, but back in its first season when I loved it, Scully was a rich and interesting character, who did all the heavy lifting of the show dramatically.

16. Charlotte “Chuck” Charles (Anna Friel), Pushing Daisies

I have a serious weak spot for the work of Bryan Fuller. Yeah, yeah, it’s twee, and cutesy, but so charming, especially in short bursts. And Chuck’s incredible energy and enthusiasm fill the color-saturated screen. She also captures the rhythm of Fuller’s dialogue better than most of his actors and actresses do, making for consummately poetic delivery.

15. Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), The Gilmore Girls

I grew sick of the patter between mother and daughter, but for a couple of seasons, the dialogue and energy demanded my attention. Nice to see a “cool” mom who is more than just that too.

14. Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel), Bones

For all the celebrations and plaudits that House gets, I’d put this quirky doctor right up there as a fascinating individual. Kind of like House meets Scully, I guess, but Deschanel handles her with real ability.

13. Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I should admit to liking most of the other characters in Buffy better, or at least I’ll often say so. Yet she’s the engine that makes it all move, and that brings and holds them together. So as much as it might seem to be Willow and Spike and Xander and co. who interest me more, Buffy deserves credit as the ringmaster and producer.

12. Maude Findlay (Bea Arthur), Maude

And then there’s Maude indeed. Such strop, such power. Bea Arthur commanded each and every scene she was in. Nice to see a feminist on television too. I just wish she and Lisa Simpson could have met each other.

11. Edith Bunker (Jean Stapleton), All in the Family

As much as Meathead and Archie are the official sparring couple, it’s Edith who usually gets in the best and most (unintentionally) caustic attacks on Archie. Indeed, while Archie’s daughter and son-in-law usually come across as intensely smug and annoying, it’s therefore left up to Edith to bring the audience over and away from Archie’s side.

10. Sarah Silverman (Sarah Silverman), The Sarah Silverman Program

Few comedians or comediennes alive do inappropriate humor with as much commitment and follow-through as does Silverman. Along the way, she manages to challenge how women can be funny in a more unique way than many other comediennes whose work I admire greatly. Plus, she sings and talks about poop, so what’s not to like?

9. Tara Gregson (Toni Collette), The United States of Tara

Collette manages a rarity for Showtime by being the funniest thing in the show, not letting the supporting cast provide on that score. It’s a bumpy script, for sure, but she takes a rather unbelievable premise and gives a lot of personality and humanity to it. She’s a joy to watch, and easily the best thing about the show.

8. Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren), Prime Suspect

Television’s best female detective, and one of the few to develop a character (or to get the chance to develop a character), and boy does she. This show is justly loved and applauded by many, and its about 95% the character and the performance.

7. Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), Mad Men

Some will definitely question my classification of her as a lead actress. But the first day of hers at Sterling Cooper is our first day, and she’s easily the viewer surrogate in many episodes and scenes. So I stand by my classification. Moss does brilliant things with her too, The character is written very well, but the acting adds a great deal. Nice to see Zoe Bartlet all grown up.

6. Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), I Love Lucy

You didn’t think we could get through this list without her, did you? Few funny people can do physical humor as well as her. Indeed, there’s a reason almost everyone in this country has seen her chocolate eating scene and loved it. Amazing, too, that we’ve gone fifty years since without anyone coming close to mimicking or copying her schtick. Kudos to Lucy.

5. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), 30 Rock

Rumors of the show’s demise are over-stated. Liz continues to be brilliant, even if Tracey and Jenna are often lame. Fey has a unique style, too – neither acting “ugly” (despite her protestations to the contrary) nor pretty, and hence already in a very small minority of comediennes. So often in control of the humor, and responsible for most of the jokes on a funny show.

4. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), Battlestar Galactica

Starbuck is another person who might be seen as supporting, but she powers so many of her scenes. The range of those scenes is impressive too – she can do humor, badass fighter pilot, drama, and punk behavior. Dirk Benedict complained about her being cast, ranting about Starbuck being a woman, but this Starbuck could kick the old Starbuck’s ass in so, so many ways.

3. Tami Taylor (Connie Britton), Friday Night Lights

In the Emmys’ long history, few crimes are as inexcusable as Britton being denied an award. I love my mother deeply and am proud to have the kind of mum who all of my friends growing up wished they could have. But if I had to have a different one, Tami Taylor would be it. I’m so tired of television parents who sound like after-school specials, but Tami’s a blessed original.

2. Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr), Roseanne

Sarcasm has seen no greater practitioner on this side of the Atlantic. After years upon years of perky, impossibly happy and content, comfortable middle class sitcom mothers, Roseanne was such a wonderful breath of fresh air, as she and #1 on the list blasted a massive hole in the side of American television and culture.

1. Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith), The Simpsons

Find me an academic who doesn’t love Lisa Simpson, and I’ll show you a bad academic or at least a bad person. She’s one of television’s only environmentalists, one of its only bona fide feminists, she’s one of it smartest characters, and she’s awesome. Homer gets the press, and you won’t see me putting him down, but Lisa belongs up there as one of television’s best offerings. Many would see her as supporting; I’d argue that her awesomeness makes her a lead.

Continuing with my lists, below I tackle best supporting performance by a dude. Once again, there are some arguable distinctions between lead and supporting (which is John Locke?), but let’s get going all the same, shall we?

~~

Best Supporting Male

Honorable Mention to Duquan Weems (Jermaine Crawford) from The Wire, Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer) from 30 Rock, Hank Kingsley (Jeffrey Tambor) from The Larry Sanders Show, BA Baracus (Mr. T) from The A-Team, Gob Bluth (Will Arnett) and Tobias Fünke (David Cross) from Arrested Development, Bill Haverchuck (Martin Starr) from Freaks and Geeks, E. B. Farnum (William Sanderson) from Deadwood, and Lee Adama (Jamie Barber) from Battlestar Galactica. It’s a deep category, as you can see.

~~

20. Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), Entourage

The show itself often bugs me — it’s too much like something I’d imagine two especially horny fifteen year old guys would write. And Ari’s way over-the-top. But Piven does it like few others have, and with so much more gusto. So I have to give the guy credit, I suppose.

19. Phil Dunphey (Ty Burrell), Modern Family

A glorious man-child, and even better when Luke’s in tow, Phil is a great addition to my television screen. Burrell manages such sincerity in everything, as though he’s not even aware of how dumb his character is.

18. Roger Sterling (John Slattery), Mad Men

Sterling oozes charisma, and is responsible for a great deal of the show’s comic relief (given its pacing, moreover, it often really needs it). But he’s also a monumental asshole at times. This produces a neat dynamic, and makes him fascinating. Plus, I’m just sayin’, but while I never really care about being bald, Slattery always makes me wish I could’ve gone grey fox instead, cause he just looks so cool.

17. James “Sawyer” Ford (Josh Holloway), Lost

I really didn’t like Sawyer when the show began, but by the end I found him one of its best characters. Not just for the nicknames and the attitude, but because he was actually unpredictable in a rational, character-appropriate way, versus many of the original crash victims who were wholly predictable (even if in a good way) or a little inconsistent.

16. Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), Heroes

Heroes had so much wrong with it, especially towards the end. But Horned-Rim Glasses kept me tuning back in long past I should have been. I loved the moral ambiguity of the guy, kinda like Spike from Buffy mixed with Walter Skinner from X-Files.

15. Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick), Lost

With one of the best intros a character’s ever had, Desmond quickly became one of the more fascinating characters on The Island. In assessing his performance, it’s important to realize that he was often at the center of some of the more bizarre and unbelievable story lines, yet he sold them. Witness “The Constant.”

14. Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), The West Wing

Few characters manage to worry so well on screen. So much of Toby happened without words (and instead with a bouncy ball), a testament to Schiff’s acting, since Aaron Sorkin is way more fond of dialogue-developed character and plot. The whole leak storyline was especially well done. I miss Toby.

13. Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), How I Met Your Mother

Barney is so utterly outrageous that Harris’ performance is a really interesting camp hypermasculinity, so I’m interested in the role for representational reasons. But he also sells almost all of his lines, even / especially the cheesy ones, becoming such a force of energy in the show. The writing’s been a bit inconsistent, but Barney’s still fun to watch.

12. Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez), Modern Family

The old man soulfulness of Manny is charming. He doesn’t get much screen time, but does a lot with what he’s given. I struggle to think of any other kid in a sitcom who has been anything better than okay, especially if robbed of the ability to wisecrack or simply look cute. Plus his cup of espresso is the best objective correlative.

11. John Casey (Adam Baldwin), Chuck

Casey’s growl is classic. But so much else about him is winning, too, from his fondness for hiding out in walls for weeks on end to his chemistry with almost everyone else on the show (Jeffster, Morgan, Chuck, etc.).

10. Niles Crane (David Hyde Piece), Frazier

Kelsey Grammer’s alright, but overrated. It’s Frazier’s brother who steals the show and any scene with the two of them. The stuttery Brit or wealthy Northeasterner is a boring archetype, but he gives it a lot of life.

9. Randy Hickey (Ethan Suplee), My Name is Earl

Few do stupid as well as Randy. As good as sidekicks get in television, and so very likeable. If Homer Simpson lived and breathed, he’d be Randy Hickey, or something like him.

8. George Costanza (Jason Alexander), Seinfeld

Larry David does Larry David better, but Alexander introduced us to the character, and was one of the first really awesome unlikeable people in television, before Cartman, before Always Sunny, and before many other wannabes. The moment of anticipation as one sees George squint disapprovingly and get ready to unleash in the wrong place and at the wrong time is still good fun.

7. Omar Little (Michael K. Williams), The Wire

Given all the wrong that occurs to people in The Wire, the show needs an avenging force like Omar to give at least a little sense of justice. Make him the essence of bad assness while also being gay and out, and we have a wonderfully interesting character.

6. John Locke (Terry O’Quinn), Lost

O’Quinn did so much for Lost, not just as Locke of course, but as Locke he was often the rock of brilliant acting when some of the other characters (cough, Shannon and Booth, cough) were stinking it up. Nobody created such a stark contrast between their pre- and post-Island lives as much as did O’Quinn, which was single-handedly responsible for so much of the mystery and intrigue of the Island. O’Quinn was always brilliant, as was Locke.

5. Russell “Stringer” Bell (Idris Elba), The Wire

What’s not to love about a gangster with Adam Smith and Roger’s Rules of Order? The quiet menace of Stringer, mixed with his remarkable charisma, makes for one of television’s best characters. Elba makes every scene better, which is saying a lot when those scenes are in The Wire, and hence already pretty awesome.

4. President Josiah Edward “Jed” Bartlet (Martin Sheen), The West Wing

I was in love with this president from his first grand entrance in the pilot. Sure, he was often just a mouthpiece for Sorkin’s rants, but he did them so well, and I love so many of those rants anyways. To be fair, though, Sheen did so much more with Bartlet, too, from his firey raging at God in “Two Cathedrals” to playful moments with the First Lady, and from being a concerned dad to Zoe to owning a podium. Most of all, though, he was a small antidote to Bush when I really needed that. What’s next?

3. Reginald “Bubbles” Cousins (Andre Royo), The Wire

Bubs quickly became the guy to care about and to hope for. The Wire doesn’t allow much optimism or hope, and it’s usually at a very small level, but Bubs grabbed me. He was also the only character who really seemed aware of loss, and who marked loss, while everyone else lost so much around them. So he quite easily became this viewer’s surrogate, getting pinioned around by the city yet still picking himself up and stumbling on. Plus, the monologue in “Late Editions” was masterfully delivered. Up the stairs with you, my friend.

2. Spike (James Marsters), Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Spike could be such great fun, gifted with so many of Whedon & co.’s best lines and wit. But he was also such an interesting character — as opposed to Angel, the vampire with a soul, Spike was the vampire who wanted a soul, which made him, for me, key to the show’s spiritual vision. It’s hard to imagine a cooler character too.

1. Benjamin Linus (Michael Emerson), Lost

And yet pride of place must go to television’s best bad guy ever. Michael Emerson was nothing but spectacular. The writers didn’t give him enough in the final season, but both Emerson and Linus were aces at doing so very much with so very little. Ben was so impossible to figure out, seemingly so evil, yet always much more. And as fantastic a performance as many of the actors on this list delivered, Emerson really is in a category of his own. You’re deputy to no one, Ben.

Who are the best characters on TV, past or present? A couple of years back, I wrote a post giving a personal top 50. That post has received more comments and readership than any other I’ve written. I still get complaints about omissions, sometimes with great suggestions, sometimes with awful ones. So I thought I’d give it another crack.

But this time I wanted to break them down into four categories, parsing out leads and supporting characters. Also, since my previous list waxed more decidedly male, I’m dividing these into genders too. I admit to struggling a lot more to eliminate men than women when making the lists. Maybe that’s because television writers on the whole haven’t done as good a job of creating female characters, maybe it’s because I’m personally more drawn to the tales of masculinity, or a bit of both.

Anyways, here’s the first of four. A caveat — I don’t intend this to be a master list, like the AFI Top 100 Films or something like that. It’s the characters that I like at this moment in time. Some aren’t here because I don’t watch that show, or never watched enough of it to allow them consideration. (And since I grew up outside the US, I don’t know a bunch of older shows). Some aren’t because, hey, it’s my list and I do what I want. I also had to draw some odd lines regarding who is a lead and who isn’t, though I usually defaulted to who the advertising treats as the lead. But please, tell me who you’d put on your own lists, and tell me when I’m wrong.

Now, without further ado:

~~

Best Supporting Character, Female

Honorable Mention to Betty Draper (January Jones) and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks), both from Mad Men. The former in particular was great early on, and worthy of taking someone’s spot on this list … but Season 4 gave her nothing to do, so her stock dropped.

~~

20. Trixie (Paula Malcolmson), Deadwood

We expect either a prostitute with a heart of gold or a foul-talking prostitute from westerns, but Trixie manages to be something unique. There’s a lovely unpredictability to her as a result, which Malcolmson and the writers extend to all her relationships, with Sol, Al, Alma, and others. I like, too, how she’s developed as much by Al and how he talks about her or maneuvers around her as by the performance itself.

19. Elaine Benes (Julia-Louis Dreyfus), Seinfeld

Seinfeld can be such a guy’s world, but Elaine manages to hold her own. She’s also the most complex character in the group. Granted, New Adventures of Old Christine eventually died, but it’s no surprise to me that she’s the one of the four who found the best work after the show.

18. Deborah Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter), Dexter

Deb gets a lot of hate directed her way on fan boards, but I don’t see why. In a show that doesn’t really let anyone other than Dexter develop, Carpenter finds a way to sell her moments, and she clearly worked out the character really well from the beginning, so there was already a lot to work with.

17. Alma Garret (Molly Parker), Deadwood

She can do the lemon face a little too much for my liking, but Parker still manages to add nuance to a lot of other moments. Kind of like Betty Draper for the Wild West, she’s wonderfully likeable at moments, a spoiled brat at others, and yet she navigates the room between with skill.

16. Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofía Vergara), Modern Family

I really disliked this character in the pilot, as she seemed such an awful stereotype. But I like how she often gets the laughs going the other ways, and how the character manipulates people’s stereotypes. She also has an infectious enthusiasm and energy.

15. Dr. Neela Rasgotra (Parminder Nagra), ER

Nagra was a wonderful addition to ER, its best character in my opinion. I don’t have much else to say other than she was awesome and very interesting: while she was on the show, she wasn’t billed as its star, but certainly was.

14. Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch), Glee

The writers on this show really, really need to learn consistency, and Sue’s often a victim of their struggle to find its meaning. She’s evil, evil, evil … but then she’s oh so lovely. Sounds like I’m not a fan, right? Well, the show’s not so hot. But Jane Lynch is Jane Lynch, and takes pretty much every laugh she’s given and sells it at a massive profit. I’d love a Sue spinoff, though I’d rather if she did the writing herself.

13. Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth), Pushing Daisies

Chenoweth is in good company in this little bracket with Lynch and Vergara as someone whose personality makes her characters so much more. I miss Pushing Daisies, and Olive Snook’s spontaneous eruptions into song and erratic energy are a large part of what I’m missing.

12. Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), Battlestar Galactica

I haven’t finished BSG yet, but I’m already very impressed. She can be a little too wispy at times, but I like that, as with Trixie, I don’t know what to expect from her. At times, it’s very obvious that I’m seeing a Minister of Education thrust into being President, while other times she’s an extremely powerful leader.

11. Sharon Valerii (Grace Park), Battlestar Galactica

As noted above, I haven’t finished BSG yet, but she handles the various Sharons with skill. So far, the Cylon unpredictability and unreliability is handled best in the writing and acting of Boomer. As a result, so much of the dramatic tension of the show revolves around her and what she’s trying to do in any given scene.

10. Sun Kwon (Yunjin Kim), Lost

A lot of Lost’s heart, for me at least, was embedded in Sun and Jin, with Sun punctuating many of the show’s most emotional moments, and becoming an incredibly interesting character too. We often learned more about characters through the flashbacks, but Kim took her character on an impressive arc without much being given to her in flashbacks. Kim’s one of the best actors on this list.

9. Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), The Wire

McNulty’s the louder example of a cop with not enough pay, too much alcohol, and too many cases to close, but Greggs’ subtlety is in many ways more fascinating to watch. She’s trying, but there’s not much traction. Her scenes with her kid are always wonderful too (Goodnight Moon was never so good!), and every scene including her is better for her presence. Pity there weren’t more.

8. Karen Walker (Megan Mullally), Will and Grace

I was never much of a fan of Will and Grace, so this may be an odd pick, but Karen’s such a unique character, and Megan Mullally did so much with her comically. Not a deep character by any stretch of the imagination, but not at all paint-by-numbers. Very few women are allowed to be this edgy on network TV either, something that’s often lost in the mix when W&G is praised.

7. Snoop (Felicia Pearson), The Wire

I thought that Omar was intimidating, but then I met Snoop. So very bad ass. The nail gun didn’t hurt either. And her final scene is a thing of beauty. Yeah girl, you look good.

6. Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), 24

24 needed comic relief for two reasons: (1) when good, the tension built up and needed some release, and (2) when bad, it would have been way too easy to laugh at many other things in the show, and some comic relief allowed the show to get away with a lot. Enter Chloe. The kind of character one would expect on The Office, but all the more captivating when outside of that realm as a result. O’Brian owned many a season too, and Chloe ended the show its ultimate hero, a nice way to honor her efforts.

5. Marge Simpson (Julie Kavner), The Simpsons

Some might quibble with me classifying her as supporting yet Lisa as the main thing, but Marge is nearly always on the outside, just as is the case with most of her sitcom mother counterparts. But Kavner does such a lovely job with Marge. Homer and Lisa are more like stark contrasts to their sitcom counterparts, but Marge is trying to be June Cleaver, yet stuck with all the wrong moving parts. It makes her very funny and very endearing. The episodes when she loses it are great too.

4. Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Willow was so often the heart of Buffy, and for many seasons was the “regular” person at the center of it. Hannigan then transitioned well to being something more. She was pretty cheesy as The Big Bad, I’ll admit, but she and Xander alone were responsible for most of the geek chic of the show, and for a lot of my love of it (see supporting males for the other reason).

3. Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert), Deadwood

I loooooove Jane in Deadwood. If there’s a great crime of the show only having three seasons, it’s that we don’t see any more of her. Weigert’s performance is so without parallel in this. She takes a famous character and makes her worthy of all the more fame. Best drunk acting ever.

2. Miss Piggy (Frank Oz), The Muppet Show

Okay, so there’s never any real development with Piggy, so it might be odd to rank her this highly. But she’s just perfect the way she is. A pig with a karate kick who likes a big of romance, but needs to be in charge. And she sounds like Yoda. What more could someone want? Every boy should grow up with Piggy as his ideal woman.

1. Claudia Jean “CJ” Cregg (Allison Janney), The West Wing

And when that boy grows up, his ideal woman should be Claudia Jean Cregg. Allison Janney’s performance is brilliant. She has a good script, but she also does so much with it. Sure, Jed Bartlet was pretty cool, but my vote’s for CJ as Prez. That will be all.

Oh, blog, I’m sorry I’ve neglected you so. But I promise to get you back up and running this year.

Towards that end, since seeing TV By the Numbers‘ invitation to create an all-time-best primetime schedule (sorry, I’d add a link, but I’m struggling to find it now), and in honor of the NHL All-Star Weekend, I’ve been playing around with my own “team”. And now, I present version 1.0 to you, with caveats and comments to follow:

~~

Monday

8pm – The Amazing Race

9pm – Chuck

10pm – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

(a nice fun night, and a good way to start the week without too much doom and gloom, Buffy s.6 excepted. I like the flow, too, from international race to international man of mystery to tonally similar, fun, asses-must-be-kicked show)

~~

Tuesday

8pm – Battlestar Galactica

9pm – Mad Men

10pm – Deadwood

(getting more serious tonight, as you can see. BSG doesn’t quite fit the other two tonally, but I thought it necessary to have something with a little action and thrillerishness in it before slowing down for Mad Men. Plus I like that it’s “different time and place night”)

~~

Wednesday

8pm – The West Wing

9pm – Survivor

10pm – Lost

(too hard to resist putting Survivor and Lost next to each other. West Wing’s kind of stranded tonally, but so be it: CJ’s up to the task)

~~

Thursday

8pm – Bones

9pm – Dexter

10pm – The Wire

(crime and punishment night. I had to get at least one procedural in here, and Bones is worthy)

~~

Friday

8pm – I Love Lucy

8.30pm – The Cosby Show

9pm – Modern Family

9.30pm – The Office

10pm – All in the Family

10.30pm – South Park

(and you thought I’d forgotten comedy? It’s just on the weekend, by which point I’m ready for it. We’ve got family life night here, working up from the more quaint to the more screwed up)

~~

Saturday

8pm – Arrested Development

8.30pm – How I Met Your Mother

9pm – Freaks and Geeks

10pm – Friday Night Lights

(I like the progression from HIMYM to FNL, with Jason Segel and that style of comedy segueing very easily from HIMYM to F&G, and then the high school line taking us to FNL. Arrested can go anywhere, it’s that lovely)

~~

Sunday

8pm – The Muppet Show

8.30pm – The Simpsons

9pm – The Dick Van Dyke Show

9.30pm – Seinfeld

10pm – Pushing Daisies

(the block of half-hours is self-reflexive comedy, so I think there’s good tonal flow. Then why not end the weekend with wimsy?)

~~

General Comments

• I started with only network primetime shows allowed, since I was thinking of this as a network schedule. I opened up to allow cable scripted shows, but felt it would be too hard to consider cable nonscripted too, hence the absence of Man vs. Wild, River Monsters, Iron Chef America, etc.
• I also cut off at 11pm, hence the absence of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. For the record, though, they’re on every night at 11pm and 11.30pm on my schedule
• It’s a fairly contemporary-centered list, but when I got down to it, I realized that I’d much rather watch, say, an hour of Dexter than an hour of Quantum Leap, as much as the latter show was fun in its own way.
• Some decisions were also based around scheduling. Indeed, exercises like this require some savvy scheduling. DVR Era bla bla bla: still way more people watch off DVR.

~~

And now, let the abuse and recriminations begin. Or perhaps my long period of absence from my blog has lost all readers, in which case, let the crickets begin!

~~

In no particular order, here are 14 of my top 20. I’m banking on having forgotten some biggies, so I’m hoping my readers will jolt my memory, and I’ll fill in the remaining 6 based on those. After the fold …

1. The Lord of the Rings Platinum Series Special Extended Edition DVDs

These are still the gold (platinum?) standard for DVDs, with an hour or more of extra footage per film, completely woven into the film with full post-production goodies, endless design stills, four commentary tracks, and so forth. They really laid down the gauntlet for what counts as a truly great DVD, and they made bonus materials de rigueur, changing the filmic text in the process.

2. The Disney Princess Line

In the 00s, Disney created its own All-Star team, not of basketball or hockey players, and not for Olympic glory, but of “princesses” for mass profit. It’s an intriguing idea: can you imagine if, for instance, Indiana Jones, John McClane, Dirty Harry, the Terminator, and Jackie Chan all teamed up in one product line? Why limit your extratextuals to one show or one character, in other words? And as anyone with a young girl, a friend or family member with a young girl, or any awareness of pop culture, for that matter, knows, the Disney Princesses have been remarkably successful, uniting from their landmark movies to have all sorts of other adventures in other platforms.

3. Where the Wild Things Are’s entire advertising campaign

Many remember the Arcade Fire song from the trailer, but the rest of the trailer was fantastic, as were the posters, all of which wonderfully captured the other-worldly character of the film. In the process, they helped send a swarm of adults to the film.

4. The Beast – The A. I. ARG

Alternate reality games hardly existed as a form before The Beast. But this wasn’t just one of the first; it was particularly impressive.

5. The Martha Stewart Empire

The post-Star Wars Eighties of host-selling televisions shows such as My Little Pony, Transformers, and GI Joe helped to destabilize notions of what the central product in a textual entourage actually was. But this was all for kids. Martha’s legion of craft and cook books, magazines, linens, utensils, and so forth has shown how lucrative an “after-market” merchandise can prove for adults, too. Transmedia is often seen as an older fanboy or younger fangirl domain, but Martha’s supreme success challenges this.

6. The Iron Man trailer

With multiple million views online, this really is a superb trailer, and is surely responsible for a significant portion of the box office draw by this film of what is otherwise a rather B grade Marvel hero played by a star with a rough past (don’t get me wrong: I really like the film, but I think the trailer played a huge role in getting many other viewers and I into the cinema). The proof is in the pudding of The Onion’s clip here.

7. Lord of the Rings’s Requiem for a Dream song (“Lux Aeterna” / “Requiem for a Tower”)

This piece of music didn’t appear in the trilogy, and its natural context was in a film about strung-out people fucking up their lives in all sorts of nasty, disturbing ways … but it became the theme song for the highest yielding trilogy of the decade, and indeed of film history. It’s also appeared in trailers for Avatar, I Am Legend, Assassin’s Creed, and Lost, and in several ads, the NHL All-Stars skill competition, Sky Sports, numerous mashups, and the Moscow State Circus, amongst many other things.

8. Lost’s transmedia

When a representative of a make-believe company in your television show appears on a talk show to respond to the accusations against said company made by a tell-all novel by a fictional character, you’ve got a pretty elaborate storyworld on your hands. When a billboard for a make-believe airline in that show appears in another show (Flash Forward), when fans can take recruiting exams to join a foundation in that show over the summer, and when your reruns appear with pop-up descriptions of past events, you’re doing even more impressive stuff. In its wake, Heroes learned a lot, as did many other fanboy shows.

9. LiveJournal

A key site for lots and lots of fandom. There’ve been complaints aplenty, power struggles, massive missteps in terms of the site’s policies and running, and its history hasn’t been a peaceful one, but so very much discussion of popular media occurs on LiveJournal.

10. Star Wars Videogames

According to the list in Wikipedia, approximately 60 Star Wars games hit the shelves in the last decade, quite a monumental achievement, and a sign of why that galaxy is never really much further away than the local Game Stop. Moreover, the games range in genre from MMORPGs to educational titles to first person shooters to flying games and so on. To understand Star Wars as a film franchise alone is to sorely underestimate the power of the trilogies’ extratextual Force.

11. Enter the Matrix

When the Wachowski Brothers decided to write their Matrix sequels across media, they created a licensed game that wasn’t simply a run-of-the-mill game with character and place names from an established franchise plastered on them. The game became an active site for the storytelling, with original scenes with the film’s cast members, and with references to the action of the game in the Matrix sequels. It was also a relatively fun game

12. The Family Guy DVDs

The successful sale of these DVDs brought the show back from the dead. Now, in the show’s eighth season, and with it regularly rating extremely well in the Nielsen rankings, it may be hard to remember that once upon a time, FOX canceled it. The heft of those DVD sales forced many to reconsider exactly what counts as meaningful sources of revenue for television, and helped in its small way to decenter ratings as the all and end all.

13. American Idol’s Deal with AT & T

How awesome a deal does AT & T have, when every person who wants to vote for American Idol does so by spending money for them. Evil genius. And while I was about to say that the text messages hardly create meaning for the show, thereby falling short of counting as true extraTEXTuals, in truth I’m sure that they help to personalize the show and one’s control over it, amplifying its pitch at being intimately related to all its fans.

14. The Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds Tour

There’s devious brilliance in how Disney have seemingly learned to control every aspect of their properties, even the living ones. Hannah Montana is case in point, and the concert tour of Miley Cyrus both in and out of Hannah character (though perhaps not out of Miley character? Or is there even a there there to go in and out of?) blazes a path for their future work (witness the Jonas Bros), and helped to affirm the spinoff concert tour as much more than just an oddity.

Movies

10. Enchanted. Silly but fun, and ideal for the second 9 hour leg of a trip to Malawi.

9. Sweeney Todd. I like Tim Burton’s aesthetic. Odd, dark, kinda cool.

8. The Bourne Ultimatum. If only I could move and fight like Bourne, my subway commute would be so much less of a hassle.

7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Admittedly, in other years, the movie that gifted the phrase “nuking the fridge” to movie criticism wouldn’t make the list, but it was fun, and it was great to see Harrison back in action. I spent a lot of playtime trying to be him as a kid, so he has a long leash.

6. Quantum of Solace. Not quite Casino Royale, but I’m intrigued by the decision to serialize the Bond films, and Daniel Craig is still easily the best Bond.

5. There Will Be Blood. By the time Daniel Day Lewis was drinking from the other dude’s milkshake, I was a little tired, since I also saw this on the way to Malawi, but it was gripping stuff. I wish I could’ve seen it on the big screen.

4. Cloverfield. A great ride. My sense is that New Yorkers liked this film more than others. I loved it. Wouldn’t want to own it or see it without a full theatre, but I really liked it.

3. No Country for Old Men. I have a real weak spot for totally dark, badass villains, so this movie hit all the right chords with me. And I love the Coen Bros. stuff.

2. Iron Man. Like Batman Begins, Iron Man has a brilliant first two acts, then falls quite flat. But its first two acts were really fun.

1. The Dark Knight. I know I’m not supposed to like it, because hype is bad, right? Well, much of Dark Knight’s hype was really bad (a Gotham pepperoni pizza from Domino’s? Come on!). I think much of its marketing sucked. To the point that I was ready to dislike the film, and especially Heath Ledger’s performance. Instead, I really liked it. The IMAX screen helped, no doubt. But it was great fun. Let the haters hate, but I won’t. I’m even one of the only people I know who actually likes Christian Bale’s Batman voice.

Now for movie posters after the fold. Yes, I get to the extratextuals eventually …

Movie Posters

10. Iron Man. The challenge for teasers seems to be to pick a good icon. This one does it for fans, but offers a visually evocative image for non-fans.

9. Punisher. Same as above.

8. Beautiful Losers. I’ve seen other posters like this, but it’s fun and snappy looking, warm and inviting.

7. The Eye. A simple concept done very well. As with some of the other horror posters (which are often the best movie posters, since they need to create the actual genre, making you scared, whereas many other posters just sell anticipation, a generic image [ie: tough guy with gun], and a few star names or images), it creeped me out every time I saw it.

6. Blindness. Most posters are dark or colorfully bright. It’s rare to go white. The sight chart and the figure behind frosted glass are nice conceits too.

5. Cloverfield. Quite clearly announcing itself as a creature-feature monster film, it does its job really well, as did almost everything that hyped this film. No film received such brilliant marketing since The Blair Witch Project, arguably.

4. The Happening (German version). A really cool image, and it captures the sense of seeing things from a different angle that M. Night’s films promise to give (even if they don’t deliver).

3. Man on Wire. Being scared of heights, perhaps I’m an easy mark, but both of these posters are totally arresting, both enticing one to see the film to get the full story of why someone would do such a stupid thing.

2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. A wonderful teaser poster that has one begging for more information while bemused, and while completely understanding the situation in which the film’s lead character finds himself.

1. Saw V. I have no plan to see this film. But every time I saw (ahem) or see the poster, I’m entranced. It’s not just the human mask conceit, but the completely blank look on his face: shouldn’t someone wearing such a mask be smiling, laughing, or cackling? It makes the picture all the more eerie. Is he dead? Plotting? Mourning? It’s an excellent poster.

Web Video

10. “Too Drunk to Fuck.” I had my vid watching orgy in late 2007, but one of Luminosity’s 2008 offerings helps explain visually why Family Guy will never rival The Simpsons: Lisa and Marge are just so much better than FG’s women.

9. “Talk to Your Parents About Voting Republican.” I’ve already posted about this, in the context of its political message, but I’m also a fan of its parodic attack on the earnestness of Talk to Your Kids videos that assume older people know better.

8. “Piece of Me.” Obsessive24’s vid about Britney Spears is excellent, and a 3m21 essay on celebrity exploitation and obsession.

7. Fox News Calls Ohio. I saw this after the fact, but it’s a sweet moment, as Brit Hume and Karl Rove see the writing on the wall, and Lurch delivers the news to the bald master of evil.

6. “Yes We Can.” Will.i.am’s video defined viral, and though I still laugh at its inclusion of some pretty C rate celebs (“hey look, there’s Ashley from Fresh Prince of Bel Air!”), it laid down a gauntlet to Obama’s contenders that they’d have to deliver online. They didn’t, and they lost.

More after the fold …

5. Obama Rick-Rolls McCain. Very funny, and taking full advantage of the horrible blue-screen invitation to create mischief that lay behind McCain at the Republican Convention. Rick Astley’s Rick Rolling of the Macy’s Parade on Thanksgiving was masterful (kudos, Cartoon Network), but this one is the funniest in the genre.

4. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. I hope hope hope that other writers follow in Whedon’s footsteps and experiment with web-distributed video. It took a long time till I finally watched it, and I already loved it in concept, but it bears out in actuality too, a funny and amusing piece of work.

3. Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. I could perhaps fill the list with the various iterations, but suffice it to say that I thought this was great satire, something that SNL is usually woefully inept at producing. Not only did it undoubtedly hurt Palin, but it undoubtedly helped keep 30 Rock alive. See my post about it here.

2. Obama’s Race Speech. Speeches are meant to be watched with others in theory, but I read about this one online just as it had finished, and before the reviews started pouring in. So I clicked, and started watching. Web video is, in theory, meant to be about 1-3 mins to be successful, and yet I kept watching. This was the moment that I truly drank Obama’s Kool-Aid, as he and I sat in solitary congress, and, as Jon Stewart pointed out that evening, finally an American politician talked to the public about race as if we were adults. I found it electrifying, and exciting.

1. The Onion News Network. Before The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, there was The Onion. And now, with the Onion News Network, the world of satire is all the more plentiful. I can’t list a single clip as worthy, so instead here’s a top 10:

10. Dominos scientists test the limits of what kind of crap people will eat on their pizza
9. A discussion about the “situation” in Nigeria
8. The strong women in TV awards
7. Nation of Andorra revealed not to be in Africa
6. Young girl sells cookies to fund her own attack ad
5. Bullshit revealed to be the most important issue to voters
4. Cressbeckler steals votes from John McCain
3. Iron Man trailer to be made into a feature length film (see my post on this here)
2. Latest poll reveals 430 new demographics
1. Supreme Court upholds the death penalty on the grounds that it’s totally bad-ass. I love how this clip takes the rhetoric of action film bravado and shows that it’s the “logic” behind the case for the death penalty. And the comic delivery of both announcers is spot on.

Music

This is a hard category, since I’m pretty much coasting on the music I’ve known and loved for a while, yet the list requires new material. So it’s an odd list, not wholly reflective of my tastes as much as it is reflective of what stuck this year

10. “Deewangi Deewangi.” I went to two Eurasian weddings in 2008, and this song was a total hit at both. The lyrics are totally naff (“all the cool boys, come on make some noise, and say Om Shanti Om”), but it’s wonderfully infectious
9. Adele. British singer-songwriter. I recently discovered that I don’t like listening to her while trying to park or get directions (it’s something about the whine in the voice), but otherwise I like her stuff
8. “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. Guilty pleasure. Very guilty
7. “It’s Time for War” by LL Cool J. I’ve joked in the past about how 50% of rap songs seem to be about being counted out, yet still being in the game, and this one is no exception. But it’s catchy, and a good song to sing in the head as one turns on the PS3
6. “Bruises,” by Chairlift. Apple ads really do stick in the head.
5. “Unnikondera Chani?” by K’Millian. This song was absolutely everywhere when I was in Malawi, and so it quickly became a summer anthem.
4. Vampire Weekend. Music stores don’t usually have a College Music section, but Vampire Weekend is exactly that (as were They Might Be Giants in an earlier age). Neat mix of sounds. Warm feeling
3. The Flight of the Conchords soundtrack. “You’re so beautiful, you could be a part-time model,” and (as a spot-on parody of the Pet Shop Boys) “The manager, Bevin, tries to abuse me, / Hey man, I just want some muesli” are the lyrics of parodic genius. Good show too
2. The Black Missionaries. A Malawian reggae group that really should be more famous overseas than they are
1. Regina Spektor. Lim’s vid “Us” introduced me to Spektor last year, but I really started exploring her other stuff this year

More later, with the extratextual categories still to come …

First, though, a word on categorization – if I saw it in 2008, it’s on this list, even if it came out earlier; and if I saw it on the Internet, it’s web video not television.

Television

10. Chuck. The show is infinitely silly, but that’s the point. Like Pushing Daisies, it kept me sane in hard times. Adam Baldwin, Awesome, Lester – fun stuff.

9. Food Network in HD. I knew when I got my HDTV that I’d love travel shows all the more, and nature shows. But I didn’t count on how much food porn I could stomach on a daily basis, and how that threshold would increase with HD.

8. Obama’s DNC Speech. Quickly forgotten because of the rise of Palin, it was excellent and worthy of greater remembrance. It began with meat and potatoes, then rose to his characteristic rhetorical heights at the end. I watched it in Canada and felt hopeful that with someone like this as President, I wouldn’t need to flee to Canada.

7. The Daily Show’s interview of the sitting mayor of Wasilla. The interview was strong satire, easily proving how woefully unprepared a Wasilla mayor would be for the vice presidency, let alone the presidency. But above and beyond the content was the fact that TDS scooped the mainstream news. This was a moment that proves why America needs TDS and Colbert – since the press is largely lazy, flabby, and inept. Why did we need a comedy show to tell us what the mayor of Wasilla or a community organizer actually does? For all those who worry about an America that gets its news from TDS and Colbert, look no further than this incident for evidence of why such worry is displaced when the press can hardly tie its shoelaces on a good day.

6. Stephen Colbert’s election coverage. I like Colbert, but am much more of a Stewart man. That said, Colbert soared in the election, with deep, cutting, Juvenalian satire at its best. On many a night, he really showed how satire is meant to work. I especially loved his interview of the actual Socialist Presidential Candidate in a week when the Republicans had spuriously decided that Obama was a Marxist. For an entertainer whose act is occasionally mistaken as the real thing, his bile was palpable these last few months, and I love me some good satire.

5. Man vs. Wild. I discovered this show late this year, and fell in love. Bear Grylls is hilarious, an amusing paragon of the British, “oh well, let’s give it a go, lads” attitude, and the show does a lovely job of balancing cringe-TV, travel TV, educational TV, and comedy.

4. Pushing Daisies. I don’t know if I could take more than two episodes back to back, but this show is so delightful, so refreshing, and so fun, all things that I really needed this semester. It was a balm, and ABC’s cancellation of it is a crying shame. One of my fellow Extratextuals ain’t a fan of whimsy, but when it’s done right, I sure am.

3. Lost’s 4th Season. This was a great season for the show. After “tapdancing” for the last two seasons, this one really got down to business. Half of what they’re doing is completely stupid in the abstract, but most of it is really working in practice. And I like shows like Lost or The Wire where I love enough of what’s going on that I can have long discussions about what’s not working without losing my love of the show.

2. Obama’s Victory. Jesse Jackson’s tears were a poignant reminder of the historical resonance of the moment. And the press were, understandably, quick to tout the first African American president angle too. But even without the older history, this was an important victory. When the McCain/Palin strategy devolved to the worst form of fear-mongering that has been the hallmark of Bush’s scourge of a presidency, surely I wasn’t alone in feeling that voters were determining the very soul of the nation, and the tenor of public discourse for years to come. Obama will no doubt disappoint me (which is why it’s #2, btw), but that night offered at least the hopes of an antidote to an eight year-old sickness. Hearing my neighborhood erupt as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and eventually the nation were called, too, made it all the more magical. Serial television comes no better than this year’s election campaign, and what a great ending!

1. The Wire’s penultimate episode, “Late Editions.” Season 5 wasn’t as great as it could’ve been, but this episode was the best hour I’ve spent in front of a television. Ever. Granted, it had to work to get me to this point. So, for instance, I’m sure Bubbles’ speech, Marlo’s monologue, or Dukie and Michael’s exchange wouldn’t mean much to non-Wire fans, but for those of us who were there for the whole ride, all three were remarkable, and devastating. As was Snoop’s last scene. The final episode wasn’t anything special, but this episode was pure beauty, television writing and acting at its best.
Honorable Mention – Hole in the Wall. This show must have been made for very drunk and/or very high people, since it’s completely whacked. But how can one not laugh at a show that announces to a full arena audience, “It’s time to face the hole!”?

Reading

In terms of leisure reading, I don’t tend to read many books anymore, odd since I love lit. For academic stuff, 2008 was mostly a year for writing, without as much reading outside my duties as co-editor of Popular Communication, or as reviewer for various presses and journals. So I apologize for the lack of books. Also, I won’t count academic articles, only books and websites.

10. Mike Newman’s Faves 2008. The list to end all lists. Love it. Thanks Mike.

9. Metacritic.com. A review aggregator, for movies, film, and games. Very helpful.

8. Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan’s an odd creature politically, but that’s why I like reading him. DailyKos and HuffPo can only go so far before one wants to rattle the cage. Sullivan makes me miss British Tories – people whose politics are quite opposed to mine, yet who I can have a discussion with that doesn’t begin and end with the note that I’m going to Hell and am enabling the terrorists with my beliefs.

7. Better Living Through Reality TV, by Laurie Ouellette and James Hay. Excellent analysis of reality television as a tool of neoliberal governance. I hate the word “neoliberal” (because nobody outside academia gets it, and so I question its utility), and thus for Ouellette and Hay to make me override my dislike of the word for the duration of the book is testament to how it is composed.

6. The Chutry Experiment. Chuck Tryon’s blog is great. I’m a waffler, as you’ve no doubt seen if you read this blog. So my posts are long. But I really like how Chuck’s stubs point me towards all sorts of things. And when he does extend a post, the analysis is reliably strong.

5. Heartland TV, by Vicky Johnson. This book is really good, mixing television history, textual analysis, policy discussion, and good, revelatory cultural analysis. It captures brilliantly the odd paradox whereby American transform the “Heartland” into the site of authentic, warm, (white), honest American virtue, while also making it a backward hinterland.

4. Great Lies to Tell Small Kids, by Andy Riley. Riley’s Bunny Suicide books are hilarious, and so too are these. Well worth the read, especially if you have friends with kids, and you want to mess with them.

3. Ethan Thompson’s What Me, Subversive? Television and Parody in Postwar America. Okay, so I’ve only seen the manuscript, and it’s early days yet, which means it may not be out till late 2009 or possibly 2010, and it may be even better when it’s out, but let me be the first to hype the thing. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that South Park, Jon Stewart, and Dave Chappelle were the first to find inappropriate, edgy, smart humor a home on American television, but Ethan’s historical look at subversive comedy in postwar America shows the lineage with great skill. When released, it will be a major work of comedy studies, and of television history. Keep your eyes open for it.

2. Facebook status updates. I know what 200+ nice people are doing with ease. How cool is that?

1. FiveThirtyEight.com. Nate Silver probably had as much of my time as did my wife between August and November, as I checked his stats and analyses about twenty times a day. Addiction doesn’t come close to characterizing my relationship to this site. In Winnicottian terms, it was a transitional object to beat all transitional objects.

Back later with more …

Caught up in a fervor of alphabetical list making, I decided to follow up on the Alphabet Meme with a list of best television shows. There’s a slight bit of cheating involved at S/Z (ooo — very Barthesian, no?), but I couldn’t bring myself either to nominate Zoey 101 as the only Z show I know, or to choose between the two best shows in TV history, both of which inconveniently begin with S. I also went only for series or continuing shows, not one-offs (sorry, 28 Up). Without further ado:

The Amazing Race

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The Cosby Show

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

ER

Freaks and Geeks

Goodness Gracious Me

Hockey Night in Canada

Iron Chef America

Jack & Bobby (neat idea, not super, but the J’s give little competition)

The Kingdom (the Danish one, not the American atrocity)

Lost

The Muppet Show

Northern Exposure

The Office (I’ll go with the American one, though Brit one gets a gold star too)

Pushing Daisies

Quantum Leap

Roseanne

The Simpsons

The Twilight Zone

Ulysses 31 (old school cartoon. Still have the theme song in my head)

V Graham Norton

The Wire (sorry, West Wing. You picked a bad letter to begin with)

The X-Files

Yes, Minister

Zesame Street