TVSquad

BEST

Summer Heights High: Including this Australian show from 2007 is only kind of, sort of cheating because it premiered in America (HBO) this year. Ha! Loophole! Anyway, this show was a great discovery and it's worth a look if you're into mockumentaries. Chris Lilley's performance(s) were hilarious and I am not ashamed to admit I still get "Naughty Girl" stuck in my head every once in a while.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: I greatly admired the way The Daily Show and The Colbert Report handled the situation during the writers' strike; they showed their support of the writers without abandoning the rest of the crew and the audience. Plus, we got the amazing late night brawl with Conan O'Brien because of this mess. The election coverage was also amazing. The whole event was thrilling, but watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert cover it even more special for me. It was a sharp contrast to my memory of Stewart on election night 2004, live and frustrated, ripping up his blue cards after the gay marriage votes came through.

Dexter: Everything about this season was fantastic, especially Jimmy Smits as Dexter's new BFF.

The Venture Bros.: Even though I still think Season Two was funnier (tough act to follow), Season Three raised the bar for character and story development on Adult Swim. Heck, I'll even go as far as to say it went above and beyond what we know from American animation today. Each twist and turn was marvelous and unexpected, and we discovered new love and hate for characters that we thought we already knew. Plus, the Shirt Club was pretty awesome. I'm anxiously awaiting Season Four.

Lost: Beautiful, intriguing material. How foolish of me to doubt Lost, even for a moment... And by "a moment", I mean "Season Three." After several episodes of messiness and everyone but the Smoke Monster getting charged with DUI, Lost managed to escape that hole they were digging, thanks to creative types like Brian K. Vaughan. Have I made it obvious enough that I really, really love that guy?

WORST

Doctor Who finale: First of all, Rose getting a Doctor #2 that she could sleep with was no good for anyone but the fangirls. Secondly, Donna Noble's good-bye was terrible. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I grew to love Donna Noble as the Doctor's companion in the latest season, and the memory wipe really hurt after all that fantastic character development. Please note that I absolutely loathed her in the runaway bride special. I guess this is what happens when I get attached.

Heroes: I suppose in some ways this decline was inevitable, but I was surprised to see it wallow in crappiness instead of picking itself up. I grew frustrated after the first two or three episodes of this newest season and stopped watching for a while. Then, I told myself that I should probably catch up on a few episodes for Adam Monroe, my favorite character, but the episode where I decided to start re-watching featured Adam getting Indiana Jones'd. Boo. Lost managed to save itself; maybe Heroes should have been taking notes.

The reality hosts at the Emmys: That was excruciating. I prayed that the ceremony would cause the entire country to simultaneously realize that reality television needs a serious revamping, but I guess we're just suckers for punishment because that nonsense is still going on strong. Sigh.

MTV: They're such a given that I normally wouldn't bother even putting them on such a list, but I just had to this year, thanks to folks like Tila Tequila. Recently, MTV realized that everyone hates them and decided that the best way to go about solving this problem would be to add more reality shows. Brilliant, MTV. Bury yourself deeper into irrelevance. However, despite the fact that I personally see absolutely no appeal in video-less MTV anymore (save for maybe a wee bit of True Life and Made), the young folk are still watching enough Tila Tequila to keep the boat afloat. Shame on you, people my age.