TVSquad

Before pondering the meaning of identity on Dollhouse, Joss Whedon gave us some great shows featuring iconic heroes and some really nasty but unforgettable villains.

Unlike Dollhouse, most of Whedon's earlier shows featured a "big bad," a major villain who caused trouble throughout an entire season, or series, for the heroes and their friends. Luckily, Whedon's heroes always managed to outwit these evildoers, but they couldn't stop them from stealing scenes and making the Whedonverse a very, very dangerous place to live.

Let's take a look back at some of Whedon's best "big bads" that made life a living hell for Buffy, Angel and Captain Mal.

OK, so she turned evil and veiny and almost destroyed the world after someone murdered her hot lesbian lover. But at heart, Willow Rosenberg was always a computer-hacking, research-loving nerd.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer character landed at number one on Topless Robot's list of "Pop Culture's 10 Greatest Nerds." I was surprised by the pick at first, but I can't think of a better choice to top the list. Willow was a great character, and will probably always be actor Alyson Hannigan's best role (sorry, HIMYM fans, but it's true).

Eric Deggans, the TV and Media critic for the St. Petersburg Times has an interesting article up discussing the death of the TV theme song and also providing a list of his top-ten theme songs of all time.

Deggans points out the obvious -- that TV producers, ever wary of viewers flipping channels, have tried to keep the start of the show as peppy as possible -- but he also ventures a theory that is in desperate need of further explanation....

Oh, I know some folks think the entire genre of reality television is odd. But I'm a reality television junkie, yet there are some shows that even I can't justify existing. I'm not talking about Being Bobby Brown or living with the Bonaduces or shows of that ilk. I'm talking outright strange, bizarre, odd, sometimes dangerous, and just plain out there shows.

Now, I've personally thought of shows with names like So You Think You Can Skydive (self-explanatory) or Piranha Pond (marooned on an island in a piranha-filled pond and must swim ashore), but no one takes my ideas seriously. But the shows on this list either existed, were canned after production or will be coming your way!

Back in January, Jay Black put his hetero-manliness on the line to confess his five mancrushes, and he is to be commended. Honestly, I've been kicking around a list of my own heterosexual girlcrushes for a really long time but I never got around to putting it into a The Five post because I couldn't narrow it down. So, instead of taking the psychoanalytic path and trying to figure out what this dilemma indicated about my subconscious, I ignored the issue and left my unusually long list to collect dust. Ah, but now TV Squad has grown and we can make lists as long as we want! So, I will.

It still took me a long time to narrow this down to a respectable number, but I've finally succeeded... Ladies and gentlemen, this is the list of my seven and a half heterosexual girlcrushes (TV Edition).

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

NBC's My Name Is Earl officially centers on the lives of 5 characters: Earl, Randy, Joy, Catalina, and Darnell. However, there is a 6th character. Not a person but something that is as important as Earl in this series: Earl's list. Without the list, what would the series be?

Since the series premiered, fans across the world tried to keep track of all the items on his list. The "The List (My Name Is Earl)" page at Wikipedia is probably one of the most complete and comprehensive one out there. When I stumbled on it I couldn't help myself but to read all the items and giggle at a few entries.

Best:
5. The Backyardigans A preschoolers' show I'd watch if I didn't have kids. Yes, when you drove past my house the other day, that was me dancing along to "I love being a princess!"
4. Law & Order: Criminal Intent  I thought I couldn't watch the show without Vincent D'Onofrio. But Chris Noth and Annabelle Sciora have the kind of vulnerable-yet-professional chemistry that I never dreamed possible between Chris and Sarah Jessica Parker or Annabelle and James Gandolfini.
3. Grey's Anatomy  It's kooky, it's outlandish, and all the characters, I can't help but love 'em despite their annoying peccadilloes. And who knew I'd fall in love with Dr. Bailey?
2. Medium  I'd watch it just for the family drama. But the mysteries are fantastic, the writing eloquent and witty, the twists always fool me until 52 past the hour.
1. The 4400  Sci fi that transports, characters that draw me in, and it's coming back in 2006. Hurray!

Worst:

5. Saturday Night Live  My husband still gets excited about Saturday nights. Until I remind him, honey, it's just not funny!
4. ER  I'm so sad that I hate Thursdays now. I used to love Thursdays.
3. 7:30 p.m. timeslot  There's nothing good on at 7:30 p.m., not even on the Food Network. I hate 7:30 p.m.
2. Sandra Lee's Semi-homemade Cooking  Make it from scratch or buy it from the store. And either way, aren't we all old enough now to admit whether we can, or cannot, cook?
1. Out of Practice  Stockard Channing, Henry Winkler, what have ye wrought?

The Best:

Battlestar Galactica: Holy Frak, does this show kick ass. I barely caught the old version of this show back-in-the-day, though from what I saw, it just can't be compared. If you think you'd be uninterested in overly sci-fi aspects of a show like this, throw those fears aside. There are no aliens and no light sabers. Pick up this series on DVD now and get caught up before next week, for Gods sakes!

The Shield: Has yet to disappoint, and this past season's inclusion of Glenn Close was masterful. I have to admit that I was skeptical when I heard she was coming aboard for a season, at first. In the end, though, I wished she was able to stay. Now coming on its (likely) final season, I'm very sad to see it go, and I'll savor every moment of it.

Veronica Mars: As some of you may know, I wrote about my experiences catching up with season one within a week or so, and I fell in love with this show. The second season has lived up to...no...beyond my expectations. The rest of this season is likely going to place this show on my Best of 2006 next January.

(Part 5 of 5)

We have no shame in capping our list off with one of our favorite happenings in TV being the launch of our beloved site. Hey, put it this way -- at least you won't have to hear us boast about it again until our birthday.

In case you're not familiar with who TV Squad is, we are one weblog of many within what is known as Weblogs, Inc. As happens with some of the sites within what we call WIN, writing for TV Squad began a bit earlier than the official launch to the public. The first post dates back to a review for an episode of Battlester Galactica, written by original lead editor, Dave Thomas. Not a bad show to start off with, if I do say so myself. Dave has since moved onto bigger and better things in the writing world.
 

According to a poll taken in England by the Home Media Networks, Star Trek tops a list of shows that are most missed by the viewers. There's been a couple of different iterations of Star Trek and it didn't really specify which one, so they've got a leg up. Head on across the pond to the BBC's site and check out the entire list. After reading this list however, it got me thinking about my most missed shows, and I'm not talking about the "painfully short" shows that we've talked about numerous times in the past here at TV Squad, just overall shows that I miss the most. So here we go, the shows that I miss the most.