So while this has primarily been a movie blog, I also love TV, so I thought I'd list my favorite shows of the past year.

REALITY

Ghost Hunters
A show Jeri and I discovered this year. It's fun to see what evidence (or lack there of) that these "ghost hunters" will find. And the fact that they go in trying to debunk hauntings makes those times they do find something even better.

Beauty and the Geek
What could have been a horrible show has shown time and again that it's a show with real heart and one that's all about growth. Something that's never been as true as the third season which aired last spring, When Nate, someone who deserved to win base don the amount he's changed over the season, asked everyone not to vote for his team because his teammate, the horrible Cissy, hadn't changed at all and didn't deserve to win. I can't wait for Season 5 to air this spring (Season 4 aired in the fall and was fun, if not as good as season 3).

COMEDY

5. Samantha Who?
A great new comedy, with some of the nicest writers around, which follows Samantha (Christina Applegate in a triumphant return to comedy) a rotten person, who after being run down by a car, has amnesia and has to learn how to live life all over again, all while discovering how awful she was and trying to make amends.

4. The Big Bang Theory
The best new comedy of the season. It started off slow, but grew very quickly into a hilarious romp, which strikes at my heart with all the geeky references. And sadly some of the "Geeks" remind me of friends.

3. The Office
Still one of the best comedies on the air, even if it had a rocky start with those hourlongs this season. The Pam/Jim relationship has been well handled this season and I look forward to Thursday nights every week because of it.

2. 30 Rock
I missed this show when it debuted last season, after the first episode lost me within minutes. But after constantly being told it was good if not great I rented the first season in august and fell in love almost immediately. Simply some of the funniest characters and situations on television. I mean what other show would you find two characters going on a date only to discover they were 3rd cousins.
And with Kenneth the Page and Tracy Jordan, this show has two of the greatest characters on any show. I've discussed this show before and everything I said then is true now.

1. How I Met Your Mother
The show that makes me long for Mondays. Sure Chuck, Heroes, and Journeyman were a bonus but HIMYM is what makes me long for Monday Nights. This is Jeri and my favorite show currently on TV. To us it's the new "Friends" a show we can watch over and over again, and in fact do as we own the first 2 seasons on dvd.
The show follows 5 friends, the now married Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Allison Hannigan), the single Robin (Cobie Smulders), the womanizing Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), and the main character Ted (Josh Radnor), who in 2030 is telling his kids how he met their mother.
This year brought us the funniest episode of the show so far "Slap Bet" which chronicled the gangs search for why Robin hated Malls. Marshall believe she was married in a mall and Barney thinks she did Porn in her home country of Canada. So the two make a "slap bet" which allows whoever is right to slap the other. Through a series of events Marshall ends up having 5 slaps which can be dealt out at anytime in the future. This has lead to two other genius moments, one last season where Marshall used slap number 2 (he used number 1 in "Slap Bet") and this season's "Slapsgiving" in which Marshall sent Barney a countdown to the next slap.
The show constantly is better than most comedies on the air, and at it's worse it's still hilarious. I give it my highest recommendation and urge you to give it a try by renting season 1 and 2 from your local video store or NetFlix.

DRAMA

10. House
They really shook things up this year, by firing House's entire team and bringing in 40 candidates to play House's games to see who would fill the final 3 spots. It made a show that's the same each week (A strange disease, a mis-diagnosis, patient almost dies, they discover the right diagnosis and usually the patient lives!) and made it new again.

9. Criminal Minds
A team tracking serial killers. I watched the entire 2.5 seasons of the show this year and it's great. Another crime procedural, but I prefer it to CSI. And it's doing just fine without their "leader" Mandy Patinkin.

8. Reaper
A new show this season, Sam finds out on his 21st that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. When Satan comes to claim it he tells Sam he's to be his "reaper" and has to capture the souls who have escaped hell. The show really
belongs to Bret Harrison as Sam and the wonderful Ray Wise as The Devil.

7. Supernatural
This show just keeps getting better. What started out as two brothers fighting a new urban legend each week has come into it's own with a wonderful mythology and race against the clock as Dean, the elder brother, has only one year left to live as he sacrificed his soul to save the life of his brother, Sam.
The show really feels like mini horror movie each week (and not one of those horrible torture porn movies)and with the exception of a few episodes it's great every week.

6. Chuck
Another new show that I love. It follows another Chuck, this one a guy who works for the Best Buy-esque Buy More as a member of the Geek Squad-esque Nerd Herd. He's also accidentally downloaded all of the NSA and CIA's secrets into his brain and has to deal with a CIA and NSA agent as they use him to complete missions and save him from danger, and occasionally himself, all while keeping it a secret from his friends and family.
The heart of the show comes from the will they/won't they relationship between Chuck and the beautiful NSA agent Sarah Walker (if that indeed is her real name).

5. Pushing Daises
Best new show? Yes. A show about a boy, his deceased dog he can't touch and the love of his life who he brings back to life only to be able to never touch her again without killing her.
The premise is simple Ned can bring people back from the dead with his touch, but if they stay alive for more than a minute then someone else must die. Also if he ever touches them again they die for good. So he uses his power to being back murder victims and ask them who killed them. But when one of the victims turns out to be his childhood love, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles he brings her back, without worrying about who will die to keep her alive. But of course he can never touch her again.
So the show is a fantasy, crime procedural, and the most beautiful show on TV. It's also one of the most expensive shows on TV. It's fun for the whole family!

4. Lost
FLASH FORWARDS?!?!?!? HOLY CRAP this show got better in the second half of last season. The show left me speechless so really all I can say is Flash Forward!!!! Amazing!

3. Dexter
A show about a serial killer at first glance might not sound very intriguing, but when that serial killer only goes after other serial killers it makes for quite an interesting show. In it's second season (which I watched in its entirety in the last week) Dexter became more human than he ever thought he could. He showed that he really does care for the people in his life and cared what happened to them.
The season began with police finding the bodies of Dexter's past victims and bringing in the FBI to track down the so-called "Bay Harbor Butcher". Suddenly Dexter's life was thrown into turmoil as he had to avoid the FBI, Detective Doakes (a homicide detective whose been suspicious of Dexter for quite some time), and even his own sister, another homicide detective working with the FBI.
As his only real relationship, with his girlfriend Rita, deteriorates and a horrible, awful woman enters his life (if you can't tell I hated Lilah the worst character on TV in years) and his life unravels in takes most of the season for Dexter to embrace who he really is and get his life back. The season was great and makes me long for next season, which probably won't come until next October.

2. Battlestar Galactica
This show really is one of the best on TV. Sci-fi, Drama, Politics, Romance, comedy all come together in one of the best shows to hit TV in a long time. Luckily, Sci-Fi has just expanded next years Season 4 from 13 episodes to 22, so it will be back for one final season.
I watched the entire first 3 seasons this year and was blown away by how amazing it was, and was disappointed I hadn't been watching it from the first season. The end of the third season, which aired in March, was amazing and pulled out one of the best twist to hit the air waves in a long time.

1. Veronica Mars
Readers of the blog know that Kristen Bell is my favorite celebrity around and she carried this show squarely on her back. It was consistently funny, dramatic, and the mysteries were always intriguing. The supporting cast was amazing, but the real heart of the show was always between Veronica and her Father, played be Enrico Colantoni (Just Shoot Me). The father and daughter banter and exchanges were always wonderful to take in, and the love between them was one of the truest portrayal of a familial relationship in a long time.
Sadly the show was canceled far before it's time, but at least we got 3 wonderful years of this show. It will be severely missed in the CineManiac household.

Well that's my favorite shows of 2007, what were yours?

Labels: best of 2007