TVSquad

Another year, another Thanksgiving, and another Fall TV season with plenty of reasons to be thankful. Here's what's winning me over this holiday season...

FX's Sons of Anarchy -- Talk about a complete 180°. This show went from near the bottom of my list last season to one of the most superb dramas on TV right now. Midway through last year's up and down freshman season, I argued that that show had more to offer at a second glance, but for the most part, Kurt Sutter and his team were still finding their footing. Well, they found their footing and then some this year. Season two has been expertly plotted and executed this season and this past week's penultimate episode put the pieces in motion for a season finale that no TV fan should plan on missing.

The upcoming seasons of 24, Damages, and Lost -- Sure, they don't return until January (or February for Lost), but all three of these shows have me drooling for more. 24 saw a resurgence in creativity last season after a critically panned sixth season (for good reason -- it sucked), Damages wowed everyone after an extended hiatus because of the WGA strike, and Lost set the stage for one of the most anticipated final seasons of any TV show ever. Something tells me I'm gonna wear a few new spots into my couch cushions once these three come back.

The continued mediocrity of The Jay Leno Show -- Hey! My Festivus wish from last year came true! The Jay Leno Show is a miserable failure! It's been marred by poor ratings and despite Leno's promises of a fresh, different show, it's slowly turned into a crappy clone of his version of The Tonight Show. NBC will probably stick with it for a while since it's dirt cheap to produce, but it's rather satisfying that the American TV viewing public didn't end up being as predictable as NBC had surely hoped they would. We were expecting change and all NBC ended up doing was shifting its late night schedule up by an hour and a half.

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Christmas special -- It doesn't air until December 13th, but I'm already betting that this is gonna became a Christmas staple (right up there with A Colbert Christmas and the recently released It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia X-Mas special), especially if it features performances of any of the songs from the ATHF Christmas CD. Meatwad + Christmas carols = comic gold.

The Boston Celtics being on TV -- Well, they're always on TV, I know that. But being a displaced Bostonian living in New York, I never got to see my Celts as much I wanted. Then they went and acquired Kevin Garnett, won the World Championship in the '07-'08 season, and the number of times the boys in green were featured in a national telecast went from two or three times a season to around 20. Thank you, Danny Ainge, for finally making my favorite team relevant again. GO CELTS!!

And finally, on a personal note, I'm very thankful for my wonderful new wife Katie and, considering that I watch this much TV, I'm especially thankful that she's still with me. Hmm... maybe I should cut back on all the shows I watch...