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ADRIAN ROGERS / BBC |
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T H E O F F I C E
( B B C A m e r i c a )
The best HBO sitcom of the year wasn't on HBO. Clearly, though, this mockumentary-style portrait of a smarmy boss (Ricky Gervais) and his cubicle drones in a dreary paper merchant's office learned a few things from its Yankee cousins. Combining the cringe-worthy comedy of Curb Your Enthusiasm with the corporate typology of the 1999 movie Office Space, this was the kind of astute, sharply drawn sitcom big American networks don't make... |
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A R R E S T E D D E V E L O P M E N T
( F O X )
...or do they? The year's best American sitcom — about the idle rich Bluth family, fallen on hard times — was wackier and more broadly satiric than The Office. But it too had a flawless cast of character actors (with standouts Jeffrey Tambor and David Cross), a nicely executed "reality" look and layered scripts that reward close attention. Amount of the Bluths' losses? Millions. Laughing at their eccentric foibles? Priceless. |
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A N G E L S I N A M E R I C A
( H B O )
This was really more a great play than a great TV show — Mike Nichols' six-hour adaptation of the Tony Kushner AIDS epic didn't add to Kushner's masterpiece so much as preserve it. But that was good enough. An outstanding cast — from Al Pacino and Meryl Streep down to the unknowns — captured the anger, hope and generosity of this sprawling play of ideas. |
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Q U E E R E Y E F O R T H E S T R A I G H T G U Y
( B r a v o )
Who says reality TV has to be mean-spirited? Who says it has to be about winners and losers? Who says it has to promote stereotypes? OK, scratch that last one. Still, the Fab Five and their game makeover subjects had such witty, warm-hearted fun with gay-straight clichés that they made you feel good about your fellow man, even as they made you feel guilty about your moisturizing regimen. |
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T H E O . C .
( F O X )
A welcome revival of the teen-soap genre, it gave viewers everything you'd expect: glamour, heartbreak and over-the-top twists. But it also offered much you wouldn't expect: witty dialogue, believable and interesting adult characters and an unlikely breakout star in Adam Brody, who created a new type for teen shows to come: the smart kid who's so nerdy that he's cool. |
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N I P / T U C K
( F / X )
The first episodes of this risky, risqué melodrama about plastic surgeons were too beholden to its high concept: Yes, society places too much value on superficial appearances, we get it! But it deepened (not unlike HBO's Six Feet Under) into a rich exploration of family, identity and the complications of sex. Nip/Tuck began every episode with a patient being asked the same question — "What don't you like about yourself?" — and found myriad fascinating ways to answer it. |
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T H E J O E S C H M O S H O W
( S p i k e T V )
An average guy is chosen to compete on Lap of Luxury, a reality show that, unbeknownst to him, is fake and populated with actors. It was a cruel joke — but not on "star" Matt Kennedy Gould, who proved to be a charismatic mensch (and won $100,000 for his troubles). The laugh was on the clichés of the reality-show genre (the smarmy host, the typecast contestants, the cheesy elimination ceremony) parodied by this sharp, funny — and genuinely touching — spoof. |
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W H I T E T E E T H
( P B S )
Last year, I criticized PBS for spending its limited scripted-programming resources too conservatively on costume dramas. So let's give credit where it's due. This Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of the intellectually agile 2000 Zadie Smith novel (the story of a multiethnic cast of Londoners from World War II to the turn of the millennium) showed the network can be daring — and relevant — without losing its class. |
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T H E E L L E N D E G E N E R E S S H O W
( S y n d i c a t e d )
There's a new nice lesbian in daytime talk (and given Rosie's courtroom showing this fall, not a moment too soon). DeGeneres' dry humor and affable-but-not-obsequious style are perfect for her morning chat slot, as is her naturally chummy casualness: You half expect her to plop down on the couch next to you, put her feet up and grab the remote. Welcome, and stay a while. |
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S U R V I V O R : A M A Z O N
( C B S )
Great reality shows take a single, provocative question and brilliantly carry it to an extreme. In this reinvention of the granddaddy of modern reality games, the extreme was the Brazilian jungle, and the question as old as sexual reproduction: "Who's better, women or men?" The sixth season of Survivor recaptured the watercooler-worthiness of the original. (A woman won, by the way. I'll leave the "Who's better?" answer up to you.) |
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F O X A N D M S N B C ' S P A T R I O T G A M E S
It was bad enough that Fox's Geraldo Rivera and MSNBC's Peter Arnett made some boneheaded mistakes in Iraq (possibly giving away troop positions and giving an interview to Iraqi state TV, respectively). It was inexcusable that each network seized on the mistakes as a marketing opportunity, portraying the other as a quisling while competing to see who could fly the flag most shamelessly. |
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