Welcome back to The Three Strike Rule.  You’d think I could come up with a better title for this week’s column than that, huh?  Today is my daughter Sophie’s 10th birthday.  When you hear that cliche, “I don’t know where the years went,” believe it.  I have watched a baby grow into an inquisitive toddler, then transform into a bright little preschooler and finally she has become an empathetic (I throw that word around a lot when I discuss my little girl), smart and talented 10-year-old. As I am prone to giving her advice (which she has already begun to ignore), I have opted to dedicate this week’s column to highlighting 10 standout television shows from the past 10 years that I hope Sophie will seek out to be entertained and enlightened.

In the past 10 years, due to DVD box sets, TiVo, and the Internet, we have seen a change in attitudes about television.  No longer is it just considered “disposable” entertainment.  Viewers are seeking out quality programming and making it successful.  Moreover, stars generally associated with motion pictures (once considered the high brow art form) no longer look at television as slumming it.  Instead, actors, writers and directors have taken to TV as a way to create and produce ongoing works of fiction that they wouldn’t be able to do in the expensive film industry.

Since any list is subjective, I’m sure some people will gripe about my selections and what was left off.  I hope so!  he purpose of this great website is ti incite conversation and debates.  In case you’re wondering, my criteria was that the shows selected had to premiere in 1999 or thereafter.  I must confess that I have not seen Dexter and I never went back to The Shield after the first few episodes (i.e. pre-TiVo in the Malchus household).  What I tried to do was pick shows that were consistent in their quality from season to season.  So, even though I loved the first couple seasons of The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and 24, the quality in the writing really started to suffer in subsequent years.  Sacrilege, I know, because The Sopranos is considered by many critics to be the greatest TV show ever.  Oh well, it’s my space, and since this is a special list I want my kid to read someday, these are the shows I feel are the best of the last 10 years.

So, without further ado… (more…)

Well hey there. In case you didn’t know, this is the last week of The Three Strike Rule until the new year. Hey, don’t get mad at me, take it up with the Editor in Chief. Anyway, it’s been a pleasure writing about the boob tube over the coarse of the year; we’ve had some fun. To wrap things up, my compadre, Shaun Hamid, has joined me in giving you our two cents’ worth what 2007 brought us in television. Until next year, aloha.

BEST SHOW

Scott: Friday Night Lights (NBC/DirecTV) The small-town football series’ 2nd season ended on a high note last winter as we watched it regain its form after stumbling with a soap opera-ish murder plot. Still, NBC ran the final episodes with little fanfare, despite the fact that there was little original programming on the air due to the writers’ strike. The network redeemed itself by striking a deal with DirecTV to co-produce a third season. Since October, the satellite provider has been airing these new episodes and come January, those same episodes will air on the peacock network.

The third season has been everything fans of the show love, in particular the study of a working marriage between two of the finest actors on television, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton as Coach and Mrs./Principal Taylor. They are the heart of the show. If you haven’t watched this show yet, what the hell is your problem? More than any other series on TV, FNL approaches each week with intelligence, humor and heart. At a time when the country is in turmoil, here is a quality show that taps into everything that is great about the America and reminds us of what we can be. Procedurals and medical dramas are a dime a dozen, and aren’t we all bored to shit with the woes of filthy rich people? I said it back in January, and now I’ll repeat myself: WATCH THIS SHOW!

Shaun: Mad Men (AMC) In spite of the remarkable amount of attention this show has gotten critically and awards-wise, it still feels unheralded to me. This show consistently elevates itself above much other dramatic fare. No network, NBC to HBO, has a show nearing its quality and innovation currently. While it can be irritating in its few failures, I think that is a testament to a show that a viewer expects so much from. If you have not seen this show yet, and judging by the ratings that may be a good bet, take the leap. It would be unfortunate for it to meet the fate of another similar luminary in another genre: Arrested Development.

(more…)

We had a good response to the Friday Night Lights writeup last week, and I thought that all the loyal fans out there should be made aware of Ben Silverman’s recent comments about the fate of this beloved (apparently cult) show.

Silverman is the new head cheese at NBC, and he was recently thrown some questions by one of the writers at RADAR. When asked the fate of FNL, his response was:

“I love it. You love it. Unfortunately, no one watches it. That’s the thing with shows. People have to watch them. We’re NBC, we have a reputation to uphold. And, man, with this writers’ strike … well, we’ll see what we can do. But start watching ‘30 Rock.’”

So there you have it, folks — when a network goes out of its way to NOT promote a quality show (especially when there’s a frickin’ strike going on and all we have to watch is Deal or No Deal and American Gladiators), they let it die a sad death.

Maybe all of us diehards should start sending jockstraps to send a message: Keep this show on the air!

Damn right I’m going to talk about NBC’s Friday Night Lights on Super Bowl Sunday. It’s the only show that deserves mention on a day when the Patriots are seeking perfection and the Giants are looking to become one of the greatest underdog stories in NFL history. Friday Night Lights is perfect — and it’s one of television’s biggest underdogs.

Inspired by H.G. Bissinger’s 1990 book and the 2004 film directed by Peter Berg,
Friday Night Lights uses football as a jumping point introduce us to the citizens of Dillon, Texas, one of those small American towns Steve Earle sang about in his song “Someday.” In Dillon, high school football isn’t just an extracurricular activity; it’s a way of life. The players on the Dillon Panthers football team are in their glory years, which is sad because most of these young men have yet to turn 18. Almost all of them will graduate high school, some will head to college, and one or two of the elite will be recruited to play college ball. The rest will either join the military or wind up living the rest of their lives in Dillon or some other blue-collar Texas town. They will sell cars, work construction, or just shuffle from job to job. The fame and attention they’re receiving may be the best they ever get. That sounds kind of depressing, doesn’t it? Not exactly the kind of “entertainment” you’re looking for on a Friday night, huh? I beg to differ. With delicacy and grace, Friday Night Lights strives to show the good and bad in humanity in all of us by giving us characters full of hope, trying to rise about the racism and economic hardships of their town. Whether you catch it live on NBC, TiVo it, or stream episodes online at NBC.com (where every episode from both seasons is streaming), I implore you…watch this show.

(more…)