1. ”30 Rock” (NBC)
As fun as the whole “jumping the shark” thing can be as a parlor game or debate fodder, I feel like it’s come to have a kind of poisonous effect on television fans, who now more than ever sound like “I liked their first album better” rock snobs who can’t wait to tell you how proud they were to jump off the bandwagon of their favorite show first. The AV Club’s campaign to convince people that “30 Rock” totally sucks now is especially ridiculous since it's, if not still at its season 1 peak, then still pretty much the funniest show on TV, and they even basically shrugged at one othe best episodes the show’s ever aired.

2. ”True Blood” (HBO)
Last year, “True Blood” seemed too trashy and mindless to qualify as anything but a guilty pleasure, but in its 2nd season it graduated to actual great compelling TV, without actually being less trashy and mindless, albeit in a way that was well plotted and entertainingly performed.

3. ”Party Down” (Starz)
There wasn’t much reason to expect Starz to have particularly great original programming when their first big venture was a TV version of Crash, but then they went and got “Veronica Mars” creator Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd to assemble a dream team ensemble of underrated comic talents to play the miserable staff of a catering company. And even though the handheld camera work and comey of embarassment make it easy to spot the obvious influences (“The Office,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” etc.), I think “Party Down” successfully forged its own identity, partly by structuring every episode around one catering event, and by making its most sympathetic characters prickly and flawed while humanizing its broadest comic foils.

4. ”Lost” (ABC)
After years of catching episodes and intriguing details here and there but not having followed it enough to watch it regularly, I finally became a “Lost” devotee about a year ago, when my brother gave me the first four seasons on DVD for Christmas and my birthday. So the 2nd season was the first time I was able to follow along with everyone else, more or less (actually I was watching episodes online a couple weeks late most of the time) and being part of the cult, and I really like where the show’s been going and can’t wait to see how they wrap it up next year.

5. ”Tool Academy” (VH1)
VH1 has made a mint off of putting a bunch of morons in a house and letting cameras capture their exploits, so it was, in some strange way, a huge breath of fresh air when they went ahead and called the tools on their show tools for once, and dedicated a series to telling them what douchebags they are and trying to reform them. Plus, it was really entertaining.

6. ”The Venture Bros.” (Cartoon Network)
The only complaint I have about the first half of the 4th season of “The Venture Bros.” that just finished airing this week is that only 2 or 3 of the eight episodes featured even a little of Patrick Warburton as Brock Samson, who may be my favorite character on television. But beyond that complaint, the show’s been in top form.

7. ”The Daily Show” (Comedy Central)
When the Bush years came to an end, a lot of people wondered whether “The Daily Show” would lose some bite with a new president the show had eagerly cheered on throughout his campaign. They shouldn’t have; there’s more terrible shit to satirize in this country than ever, and Jon Stewart’s risen to the occasion, and proved often enough that he won’t pull his punches when Obama sets himself up for a deserved zing.

8. ”How I Met Your Mother” (CBS)
“How” is the only show that I’ve put on this list the first three years and coming back for a fourth, and it consistently remains one of the best sitcoms of the last few years. I just bumped this up a few spots after this week’s episode, which had a line about Marshall and Lily having a son in a few years that reminded how much I care about these characters and identify with them.

9. ”Community” (NBC)
After 5 years of making fun of bad TV on “The Soup,” Joel McHale was finally famous enough to headline a network sitcom, and the pressure was on to make something better than the shit he mocks clips of every week on E! And amazingly, he did it, with the help of “Acceptable TV” genius Dan Harmon, and “Community” has quickly becoming appointment viewing for me, to the point that I’m just praying it gets a timeslot back-to-back with “30 Rock” eventually, so I don’t have to channel surf for that hour in between that NBC plays its boring ‘mockumentary’ shows.

10. ”The Soup” (E!)
Oh right, “The Soup” itself is still great, I should mention that, and I would be pretty bummed if McHale’s career ever takes off to the point that he Kinnears up outta there.

11. ”Tosh.0” (Comedy Central)
This year “The Soup” launched its third spinoff, “Web Soup,” and while it was decent (and at least a lot better than “Sports Soup”), it had the misfortune of debuting at the same time as Comedy Central’s own take on essentially the same idea, with Daniel Tosh, one of the sharpest standup comics of the last few years, putting that guy from “Singled Out” to shame.

12. ”Better Off Ted” (ABC)
Victor Fresco, the creator of the great, short-lived “Andy Richter Controls The Universe,” came back this year with another hilarious madcap sitcom that maybe isn’t built for major popular success. And while it spent most of its first season getting pushed back and then getting episodes dumped in the middle of the summer, the fact that it’s back and is now well-matched with “Scrubs” as a lead-in makes me just a little bit optimistic that it still might survive.

13. ”Man V. Food” (Travel Channel)
Someday I want to go on a tour or road trip that would involve visiting places featured on this show, such is my desire to try all the weird burgers and hot wings and breakfast foods they make look amazing on here.

14. ”Reaper” (CW)
The best show cancelled before its time this year.

15. ”Samantha Who?” (ABC)
The 2nd best show cancelled before its time this year.

16. ”Southland” (NBC)
The 3rd best show cancelled before its time this year, although honestly the handful of episodes they did produce were so dark and harrowing to get though that I’m kind of relieved that I won’t be compelled to watch this every week for a few years.

17. ”The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” (NBC)
Conan’s well-earned ascent to the most coveted gig in late night should’ve been a joyous occasion, but at every turn it seems like he’s had a hard road, from Leno taking a prime time spot to once again be his lead-in, to losing to Letterman in the ratings even after Dave’s sex scandal, to Jimmy Fallon’s thoroughly OK new “Late Night” not flattering Conan by comparison as much as it should. But real talk, his show’s as good as ever and the return of Andy Richter alone is enough to make the move to 11:30 a positive change for the show.

18. ”Spectacle: Elvis Costello with...” (Sundance)
Even though I’ve seen Elvis live enough times to know he can work a crowd when he’s not singing, I didn’t really have an idea of how well he’d pull off hosting a talk show until I saw it. And the format of this one has turned out to be gold, with a mixture of interview and performance that often results in some real fantasy collaborations, like the one with The Police where they do a medley of “Watching The Detectives” and “Walking On The Moon.” He even manages to get really frank, interesting interviews out of people I wouldn’t imagine saying anything of note anymore, like Elton John.

19. ”The Colbert Report” (Comedy Central)
I really love that Colbert’s more character-driven humor works as a counterpoint to “The Daily Show,” but really this would be higher if I hadn’t been annoyed by how often the 2 shows cover the same story the same night, and even use similar jokes.

20. ”The Dish” (Style)
The girly version of the many “The Soup” spinoffs isn’t the most sharply written of them, but it’s one of the more entertaining ones because Danielle Fishel is so willing to throw herself into really broad comedy here and there, and really I just still got a thing for Topanga after all these years.

21. ”The Big Bang Theory” (CBS)
Chuck Lorre sitcoms will always be unfairly hated on and full of as many hilarious zingers as any show on the air, but since his flagship “Two And A Half Men” has been going downhill ever since they added a terrible boring love interest to the regular cast, the little brother “Big Bang Theory” has been consistently more enjoyable. I thought the Sheldon character would be getting old by now, but they’ve gotten into a good groove with writing his dialogue, and figured out that he’s funnier in scenes with Penny than with Leonard.

22. ”Tough Love” (VH1)
While “Tool Academy” grabbed my attention with the goofy premise and name but kept me watching with the kind of earnest self-help process of the show, this show is all self-help, for relatively normal women who can’t find or maintain a relationship, and it’s really compelling television because it’s so sincere in really trying to help people, but still has enough drama and stupidity to be a VH1 reality show.

23. ”Hung” (HBO)
I’m not sure I like what this show has done with its premise, but the pilot alone was my favorite thng Alexander Payne’s done since Election and one of my favorite things on TV this year.

24. ”The New Adventures of Old Christine” (CBS)
A while back I watched an episode of this immediately after watching a Seinfeld rerun, and it wasn’t until it was almost over that it even occurred to me the slightest bit that I was watching the same actress, which is proof enough that Old Christine isn’t Elaine redux, and that this show has carved out its own little niche.

25. ”Pushing Daisies” (ABC)
This show had already been cancelled by the end of 2008, but I’m giving this a sentimental little spot here for the handful of final episodes that were burned off in ‘09.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 10:29 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.