by Sara Morrison and Hilary Rothing
Just because our favorite shows suffered shortened seasons due to the writers' strike doesn't mean the year in TV was a total wash. To the contrary, '08 gave us some great tube treats - Don Draper returned in rare form to smoke more cigarettes while hawking "electrosizers"...A bunch of Oceanic survivors finally got off the damn island, and Dexter returned to the scene of the crime(s). So while 2008 may have made for abbreviated seasons for some, there were still plenty of reasons to carve out a dent in your couch with your favorite high-fructose corn syrup infused snack and beverage of choice in hand. Here are the shows that mesmerized, entertained, shocked, induced painful bouts of laughter and just wowed us overall in 2008...
Best Drama: Mad Men
Giving Mad Men best drama this year was a no-brainer. Not only did the second season's ratings improve upon the first, with the season premiere doubling the number of viewers from the first season average, but it also got tons of critical praise and awards, culminating in its Emmy win for Best Drama – the first basic cable show to win the award in history. And all this for a show about ad executives in the 1960s on AMC, a channel no one associated with much of anything but old movies before. The second season finale left us with plenty of questions about what will happen in season 3, but the biggest of which is will there be a season 3 at all? While AMC is ready to go, series creator/show runner/EP Matthew Weiner and star Jon Hamm have yet to sign up.
Best Comedy: 30 Rock
Like Mad Men, 30 Rock also had a break-out year in 2008, thanks to series creator/writer/star Tina Fey and her Sarah Palin impersonation. It picked up an Outstanding Comedy Emmy this year (and last year), and Fey added to that with an Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Lead Actress award, basically owning the ceremony. The show finally got the attention it deserved, and when it returned for a third season this fall on the heels of Fey's world-famous impression of one of the most ridiculous vice-presidential candidates ever, the ratings reflected that. It's still not a top ten show, but it isn't languishing at the bottom anymore – and that means it should get at least a few more seasons to keep us amused. Fey should probably invest in a trophy case.
Best New Show: The Mentalist
Say what you will about episodic detective dramas, but The Mentalist is one solid hour of entertaining television. Simon Baker's wavy blonde locks and semi-three piece suits are forgivable, as every week we're wowed by CBI "consultant" Patrick Jane's uncanny ability to cold read perps and find the big answers in the small details. Seasonsed TV vet Robin Tunney (Prison Break) along with relative newcomes Amanda Righetti, Tim Kang and Owain Yeoman provide solid support (and occasional skepticism) to Baker's lead. While other crime dramas attempt to woo us with complex DNA tech, Jane finds answers in the obvious and meaning in the mundane. While his CBI contemporaries are pre-occupied with the rapidly advancing techonologies that have become the tools of any good crime scene investigator's trade, Jane relies on something which often lies just beyond the reach of modern day gumshoes - common sense.
Best Sci-Fi Show: Battlestar Galactica (duh!)
No disrespect to the Losts, Fringes, and Stargates of the world but when it comes to sci-fi, nothing compares to a good space opera. Battlestar Galactica has just about every element a fan of the genre could want, massive battleships, complex strategitic maneuvers carried about cocky pilots with the weight of humanity on their shoulders, politcal intrigue, an enemy threat that is both incredibly cunning and infintely complex, and of course hot chicks. Yes, Battlestar has plenty of em, both human and cylon. But what makes the difference here is the hot chicks on Battlestar Galactica are also extremely intelligent and skilled at what they do. Heck, it's the women that make BSG what it is, keeping their often clueless and bewildered male counterparts in check. Indeed, Battlestar Galactica is as much a feminist statement as is it is a damn good show about space battles, Cylons and ocatgon shaped notpades. So say we all!
Best Reality Show: Survivor (still!)
New reality shows crop up every year. Some hit, most miss. But this year's prize goes to the granddaddy of them all, Survivor, which showed us that even after fifteen seasons, it still had the ability to surprise us. Season 16 pitted a tribe of "fans" against former contestants. The first half of the season was nothing to write home about, but as soon as the tribes merged, it got great, thanks to an
alliance of five women who suddenly turned into power players like this show has never seen before. It also helped that the men they were competing against were idiots. "Fan" Jason couldn't tell a real immunity idol from a stick with a crudely carved face on it; Ozzy was blindsided despite having the real immunity idol and it being his second time playing this game; Jason finally got the real idol,
but the girls somehow convinced him not to play it, then proceeded to vote him out; and last man standing Erik won an immunity challenge, only to be convinced to give his immunity away to Natalie. He was immediately voted out, which Survivor breaking formula and showing everyone's votes before host Jeff Probst read them. It was hilarious, it was surprising, and it was a shot in the arm for a show that was getting stale.
Best Reality TV Meltdown: Whale Wars
There are plenty of Rock of Love/Charm School/Celebrity Rehab moments to give this to, but I have to give it to the entire first season of Whale Wars. What looked like a series about idealistic do-gooders trying to save the whales of the Southern Ocean from the evil Japanese whalers turned into a comedic farce. The crew of the Steve Irwin had plenty of idealism, but it quickly became apparent that that was no substitute for skills and experience. Attempts to launch the zodiac for ill-advised missions routinely ended in disaster, damaging the helicopter, breaking fingers, and causing several people to fall into the freezing ocean – which was especially bad since no one knew the man overboard procedure. On the rare occasions that they actually did manage to launch an upright zodiac, the crew of the small boat always forgot to turn on their satellite phone and check in with the Steve Irwin, causing the crew to fear that they were lost at sea. While "Captain" Paul Watson responded to this emergency by sleeping, the first mate ran around the bridge cluelessly with no idea how to start a rescue mission. When the ship finally did, somehow, manage to locate one of the Japanese whaling ships, they bombard it with stink bombs and flour. Then they ran out of fuel and had to head back, but not before "Captain" Paul Watson made sure that the TV show based on his dubious achievements would get plenty of attention and ratings by (in my opinion) staging an assassination attempt. He found a smushed bullet in his bulletproof vest and declared that it was sniper fire from the Japanese ship (who denied the charge vehemently), and his life was only spared because it hit the fake captain's badge he wore over his heart. It worked – Whale Wars gave Animal Planet its highest ratings ever and a second season, which is filming now.
Best TV on DVD: The Wire
When The Wire was on TV, it never got the ratings or critical acclaim it really deserved. It ended after five seasons early this year, and HBO has done it proud with a full series box set of 23 DVDs packed with tons of commentaries and extras. And in many ways, the show is a better watch as a DVD set than it was as a weekly serial. Instead of waiting seven days in between each new chapter of the story (and then a year in between seasons), you can watch them all in a row and get the full effect of one of the densest and best TV shows most of us missed the first time around.
Best Show To Get Cancelled(?): Pushing Daisies
The fact is, Pushing Daisies wasn't perfect and it wasn't for everyone. But it was for enough people in its first season to get good ratings (the series premiere was the most-watched new show last year), a full season pick-up, and plenty of Emmy nominations and critical acclaim. Then came the writers strike. Pushing Daisies only got nine episodes out in its first season, and by the time the strike was over and the second season began (nearly ten months after the last new episode), the audience was gone. The ratings sank week after week, and by the end of November, ABC had cancelled it. Pushing Daisies would probably still be around today -- and doing well -- if the writers strike had never happened. It's ridiculously unfair, but that's show business.
