2009 TV Win/Loss Report: Showtime and HBO

We close out our look back at the year in television with a serial killer, a nyphomaniac, a pill-popping nurse, a dope peddling mom and a bunch of vampires.  If you shelled out the cash for premium cable nets Showtime and HBO this year, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.  Unlike their basic cable counterparts, there were some definite wins and losses in this bunch.  Here's my take on what these two networks had to offer in '09. 

HBO

Win: True Blood

I've seen very little of Alan Ball's vampire drama so I'm gonna have to take the word of our own Parker Ward and the legions of True Blood fans out there.  From everything I've read both on the critical and ratings end of the story, True Blood's second season was a win for Home Box Office.  And really, you could air a show about vampires reading a phone book at this point and it would get ratings.  Still, the buzz around True Blood's second season has me ready to fire up the first season on DVD very soon.

Loss: Hung

It's a show about a guy with a big d*&k.  Some even went so far as to accuse the husband and wife writing duo behind Hung, who also brought us The Riches of biting off Showtime's Weeds with this new HBO series.  Both shows have a pretty similar premise.  A single parent falls on tough times and resorts to desperate measures.  In one case, it's slinging pot, in the other, a big d*$k.  No matter how you want to look at it, this highly rated series felt pretty limp to me.  Anyone whose seen Midnight Cowboy knows the notion of hetero male prostitution is literally a pipe dream.  But it seems viewers enjoyed watching Jane and his Dick enough to warrant a second season.   See what I did there?  Thomas Jane?  Dick and Jane?  Nevermind.

Showtime

Win: Dexter and Nurse Jackie

Dexter recovered nicely from last season's sleepy Jimmy Smits story arc for one wham bam bang up job of a season, thanks mostly to John Lithgow.  The Trinity Killer was the ultimate big baddie.  His cat and mouse game with Dexter culiminated in a staggering season finale that left fans breathless.  Newcomer Nurse Jackie thrust Sopranos and Oz vet Edie Falco into the well deserved spotlight.  We always knew Falco could carry her own show, but the series' terrrificly quirky ensemble cast makes that unecessary. 

Loss: Weeds and Californication

I don't know what Jenji Kohan and the rest of the Weeds writing staff were smoking but I couldn't even manage a contact high off last season's crop of episodes.  Weeds has always been over the top but when a show starts feeling like a parody of itself, there's a problem.  The same goes for Californication.  This season's attempt at humor felt bloated and cartoonish, much like Kathleen Turner's sadly self-mocking character, Sue Collini.  I say it might be time for a Weeds/Californication crossover, get Hank Moody and Nancy Botwin together and let them live out their lives in a little box made of tickey tackey and wreaking of pot smoke and dirty sex and call it wrap.  Just an idea.

That's it for 2009 in TV.  Not too shabby was it now?  Agree?  Disagree?  Let me know in the comments!