Best of 2007

Best of TV 2007

1. Lost-The greatest series arc this side of The Sopranos continues. The show slowly expanded its vacuum sealed universe, with this season inching closer to their exit off the island. The death of Charlie played a vital role in this. As for the introduction of Jacob, well it blew all of my theories into pieces. Oh yeah, the flash forward finale is the most surprising thing for a show full of surprises. The best show of the year and definitely one of the best shows ever.
2. 30 Rock-After Arrested Development was canceled, I firmly believed that we would not see a show as funny as that show in about 5 years. Well, 30 Rock is not as funny, but it is damn funny and damn great. All of the characters are as mannered as Tobias, GOB, and Buster were. The two main draws of this show are clearly Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey. Any scene with the two of them in it is pure gold. Highlight of the year: Baldwin’s racist portrayal of Tracy Morgan’s family, with the Puerto Rican neighbor included just for kicks.
3. The Sopranos-The show was really about family, and this became more obvious in the last season. Tony hopelessly watched as his life fell apart and as desperately as he wanted to prevent it, his son would soon follow in his footsteps. The finale brilliantly dealt with both of these issues: AJ rapturously embraces Dylan and his hippie ode “It’s All Over Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” to then quickly return to his inept, useless ways, and Tony remains in purgatory in the final scene.
4. Ugly Betty-Considering how quickly shows fade, this show was suppose to suffer after its brilliant first season. Nope. It got better. It got funnier. It got faster-paced. This is a show that I watch and can’t believe how much I am enjoying. My favorite story line of the season was Justin’s hetero rebellion. Any other show would have milked this to the point were it became ridiculous but instead it was actually funny.
5. Friday Night Lights-I’m sure you’ve heard of it: this is not about football. It truly isn’t. Not since the days of Freaks and Geeks has a show captured the problems of teenage high school life so well. The show really peaked in the second half of its first season. Although the show has gone to the murder-as-ratings-ploy, it is still fantastic.
6. How I Met Your Mother-In its third (?) season, the show’s characters continue to grow and form even tighter connections not seen since Friends. The show is at its best when it focuses on the friendship of the five characters and not on Robin-Ted and/or the titular mother. Eventually we will find out who the mother is, until then, I will be entertain by more slap bets.
7. The Office-This show would be higher on the list, much higher, were it not for the hour long episodes that opened the season. Other than that the show is the Lost of comedy’s: all of the characters are engaging even the bit players. The show even made the Jim/Pam relationship unannoying and funny. Oh yeah, Save the Rabid!
8. Desperate Housewives-A show most people gave up on and I mostly kept watching mostly out of habit is back! Bree’s fake pregnancy in conjunction with the Dana Delaney character is the best thing to happen to this show in a long time. What also has made the show great again are the Housewives interacting as much as they were in the first year, even if they continue to play poker for the umpteenth time.
9. Chuck-Seth Cohen as a secret agent? Surely you’re joking. Oh you’re not? Count me in! This show is non-stop fun. It has the witty banter of The OC (first season and half of the second season) and the spy elements of Alias. In a TV season were Bionic Woman came in as the most heavily hyped new show and ended up being too serious, tedious and boring, Chuck stood up as the best.
10. Big Bang Theory-The characters in this show are as brainy as the characters in Frasier were pretentious. The back and forth dialogue between the characters is really fun and funny. If this show was in the era before 876 channels and when comedies were successful, this show would be a huge hit. As far as this season goes, I've enjoyed it more than Grey's Anatomy, seriously.

--Luis A.