JOSH BELL ON TV
1. 30 Rock (NBC)
The funniest show on TV slowed its rapid-fire pace a little for its second season, but has compensated with increasingly involved and effective character arcs. If there are fewer jokes, the remaining ones make up for it by being funnier.
2. Friday Night Lights (NBC)
Okay, there’s been a major plot misstep in this otherwise impeccable drama’s second season, but earlier in the year it wrapped up its first season perfectly, and other than that one ill-advised decision, the second has been nearly as good.
3. Mad Men (AMC)
This 1960s-set drama about New York City ad execs was sometimes slow and heavy-handed, but as the season went on it developed a deft balance of period cheekiness and affecting drama, teasing out the complex sexual politics and familial turmoil of its era.
4. Sin City Law (Sundance Channel)
After all the glossy, empty reality shows focusing on Vegas, this sobering documentary miniseries was a welcome change. Focusing on heartbreaking murder cases, it showed our city as one just as screwed up—and just as capable of handing out real justice—as any other.
5. Gossip Girl (The CW)
Perhaps my love for Gossip Girl is irrational, but it so successfully combines the best of two of my favorite genres (the teen drama and the nighttime soap) that I am helpless to resist. It’s equally a celebration and critique of the upper-class Manhattan lifestyle, a bottomless well of clever put-downs and a hyper-stylized representation of the very real teen experience of discovering your own values apart from your class. And Leighton Meester’s genius performance as Blair Waldorf, icy and mean and vulnerable and hurt all at the same time, deserves all the awards it won’t get.
6. Veronica Mars (The CW)
The tail end of this once-great show divided fans, but even if it never reached the heights of its first year, the final season still showcased sharp writing, engaging characters and rich mysteries, and its graceful conclusion in May was achingly bittersweet.
7. Lost (ABC)
After a shaky start to its third season, the second half picked up greatly, with some exciting developments and real forward momentum, showing a payoff for those willing to stick around for the long haul.
8. Battlestar Galactica (Sci Fi)
Wildly ambitious and often falling short, this nevertheless remained one of the most daring shows on TV, and its grand, unpredictable storylines this year set it on course for a dark, complex final season in 2008.
9. Burn Notice (USA)
Just the right mix of humor and suspense, this breezy action comedy was consistently more entertaining than its more serious counterparts, while still delivering some surprisingly nuanced character development. All that plus the insanely charismatic Jeffrey Donovan as the world’s suavest disgraced spy.
10. Chuck (NBC)
Blending elements of Alias and UPN’s forgotten Jake 2.0 with the nerd-centric humor of co-creator Josh Schwartz, Chuck is light and fun and entirely far-fetched, but has become one of this season’s most enjoyable and quotable new shows.
JULIE SEABAUGH ON COMEDY
1. Doug Stanhope, No Refunds (DVD)
Direct from his be-loathed New York City, wearing a Libertarian ’08 baseball jersey and drinking, smoking, stammering and haranguing through an hour of unvarnished, outraged truth, this generation’s Bill Hicks vivisects nationalism, religion, immigration and government-and-economic-sanctioned fear. Stanhope can deliver lines like, “At least black people knew when they were slaves. You remain clueless,” and still the most shocking thing about him is that he remains a cult, rather than mainstream, hero.
2. Comedians of Comedy: Live at the Troubadour (DVD)
Though this list could easily include individual 2007 releases from Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt and Maria Bamford (lazy much, Brian Posehn?), trust that this latest from the Com o’ Coms features the creamiest performances of this year’s alt-comedy crop.
3. Louis CK, Shameless (DVD)
He hates his wife. He hates his kids. He hates himself. We hate that HBO cancelled his Lucky Louie, but we love that he can channel it all into scathing brilliance.
4. Mike Birbiglia, My Secret Public Journal: Live (CD)
The perennial Next Big Thing not only scored a massive Comedy Central Live tour this year, but he also unleashed his inner storyteller.
5. Sean Rouse, Spilled Milk (CD)
Informed by drugs, a raging drunk of a dead dad, a Catholic upbringing and a case of rheumatoid arthritis, Rouse explores guns, racism, alternative uses for the flag and overlooked effects of the tsunami from a vantage point below even the gutter.
6. Joe Rogan, Shiny Happy Jihad (CD)
Now that he’s cashed that final Fear Factor paycheck, onetime host Rogan is free to embrace his stand-up career. Best track to illustrate his remarkable growth since 2000’s I’m Gonna Be Dead Someday: “Pot, Jet Packs and Peace in the Middle East (and drunk people yelling shit on my CD).”
7. Tim Minchin, So Live (DVD)
This musical maniac is the bastard son of Spinal Tap and Billy Joel. His tracks sneak up before exploding in smoke bombs, leaving one unable to view canvas bags ... or pigs ... or all-consuming love in the same way again.
8. Dave Attell, Captain Miserable (DVD)
The reining comic’s comic offers up bemused, often nonsensical, decidedly adult musings on drinking, sex, midgets and more drinking. In other words, same old Dave, great new HBO special.
9. Brian Regan, Standing Up (DVD)
He’s doofy, swaggering and—gasp!—clean, but damned if those dumb old donkeys, Dora the Explorer songwriters, bow-wowing dogs, string theorists and fake-bird callers don’t seem to worm their way into everyday conversation.
10. Steven Wright, I Still Have a Pony (CD)
It’s a retread of last year’s When the Leaves Blow Away Comedy Central special, but Wright is still concise, absurd, bone-dry and deadpan as ever. And that title alone is worth the recent Grammy nomination.
GARY DRETZKA ON DVDS
1. Blade Runner
Upon its rerelease in 1993, Blade Runner not only introduced the “director’s cut” concept to Hollywood, but its critical and commercial success also helped turn a legendary flop into a sci-fi classic. The Ultimate Collector’s Edition provided Ridley Scott with yet another opportunity to clarify his original noir interpretation of the Philip K. Dick novel. The new five-disc set includes three additional editions of Blade Runner, deleted scenes, a feature-length documentary and commentary.
2. Planet Earth: The Complete BBC Series
The DVD incarnation of this astonishing nature series extends the experience with added making-of material and features on the critters captured by the tireless production team.
3. I Am Cuba: The Ultimate Edition/Killer of Sheep: The Charles Burnett Collection
Important mid-century titles, I Am Cuba is Mikhail Kalatozov’s poetic tribute to the Cuban revolution, while Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep describes the life of impoverished blacks in LA’s Watts district.
4. The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series
Time-Life packaged this entertaining ’60s spy-vs.-spy series in a secret-agent attaché case, adding another three hours’ worth of featurettes, interviews and the original color pilot.
5. Ten Canoes
The first film shot entirely in an indigenous Aboriginal language, Ten Canoes brings to life an ancient parable that’s been passed down from generation to generation of Arnhem tribesmen, while also demonstrating the story’s relevance to contemporary situations.
6. The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On
Kazua Hara’s documentary describes the ordeal of a Japanese war veteran confronting former officers about atrocities committed against subordinates in the final days of the New Guinea campaign.
7. Army of Shadows: Criterion Collection
Jean-Pierre Melville’s intense Resistance drama went unreleased in the United States for 37 years, deemed overly sympathetic to those French patriots who happened to be communists. A second disc adds fascinating insight into the minds of the filmmaker and France’s underground army.
8. 300: Two-Disc Special Edition
Zack Snyder’s CGI-enhanced re-enactment of the Battle of Thermopylae defied critics by becoming a surprise hit. The reduced scale of the DVD diminishes the impact of the gore without diluting the action.
9 Ingmar Bergman: Four Masterworks/Sawdust and Tinsel/Eclipse Series 1: Early Bergman
Lovers of the late Swedish maestro’s repertoire are blessed with terrific new editions of The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Virgin Spring and Wild Strawberries in Criterion’s “Masterworks” collection, and much earlier work in two other sets.
10. The Jazz Singer: Three-Disc Special Edition
Warner remastered The Jazz Singer, but the real gems are two discs of early Vitaphone shorts and material on Hollywood’s transition from silents to talkies.