Grid Effect

Television tends too be slow in the waning weeks of the calendar year, I thought I would count down the top television series’ of 2006. The basis for the rankings is how well a series accomplished whatever it set out too accomplish, not which series is more culturally relevant, humorous, etc. Because under those pretenses there is no basis for comparison between series’ like The Wire and Curb Your Enthusiasm. With that in mind, the top ten:

10) Entourage
No Mandy Moore, no emphasis on girlfriends and no comments like, “What if this is it? For both of us”. Just plenty of good natured ribbing, hijinx (Dom, Saigon), settings (Vegas, The Valley) and a multi-layered focus on the film industry (Bob Ryan, Warners, Miller Gold). Even the acting was noticeably improved from Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Connolly (Not good, but better). The third season wasn’t without its shortcomings, namely the disinteresting “three-way” sub-plot; but for the most part it was back to basics and a welcomed change to the melodramatic lovelorn tale of Vincent Chase and a moderately attractive starlet.

9) South Park
Fourteen episodes into the tenth season of this now classic animated series, where the good (”Manbearpig”, The Return of Chef), sometimes great (”Cartoon Wars Part II” “Smug Alert”) episodes far outweighted the letdowns (”A Million Little Fibers, “Mystery of The Urinal Deuce”). The series did seem to teeter on the brink of tiredness over the course of this season, I am reminded of a quote from the “Cancelled” episode a couple of seasons back, in which the Alien network executive explains too our four protagonists, “Once a show goes over 100 episodes it starts to rely on ridiculous plot lines and settings”. While we are not even close to the territory where they should consider cancelling this heralded series, it did seem to have the vibe that they were running out of ideas. Never the less, I am placing it at #9.

Rescue Me
The first two seasons were definitely in my top five in 2004 and 2005. But the series slipped a bit this year, bordering on a soap opera from episodes 3-7. Tommy Gavin, the anti-hero of anti-heroes, was sympathetic too start, scorned, redeemed, despised, redeemed again and then scorned once more. There was entirely too much controversy around one scene in which advocates and detractors debated at great length whether or not Tommy had raped his ex-wife, which spawned an even broader debate about the series’ overall illustrations of women. I still think the show has more than enough redeemable qualities (the acting, firehouse banter, subtle Kennedy family references), but the level of tragedy Tommy Gavin endured in season three made it hard too suspend disbelief. For a series that prides itself on realism, that is a major setback from its two predecessors, luckily those first two seasons were arguably flawless, so Dennis Leary and Peter Tolan’s firehouse drama gets settled in at #8.

7) Friday Night Lights
Unequivocally the best new series of the year. We are at the mid-season point for both the series and the team that inhabits it. The acting, writing and production are all exemplorary, more so than any other drama on any of the four major networks. While most series have a target demographic, Peter Berg’s high school football drama, adapted from the film (which he directed) and novel, offers something for every age, male and female alike (Which makes the deplorable ratings all that more surprising). It territory eclipses the limited confines of the football field and portrays small town America without a condescending or morally superior perspective. Hopefully the move to Wednesday nights will improve its standing in the mainstream.

6) Curb Your Enthusiasm
The playfully classical soundtrack floods my memory banks in just writing out the title. This was yet another series that has seen better days but i’ll take a mediocre Larry David over just about anything else on television. The fifth season of Seinfeld on pay cable provided us with hijinx on pedophiles, religion, adoption, sandwiches, illness, and left nothing and no one unscathed. If you are a staunch supporter of something other than the environment, then this series will probably offend you; that’s why I place it at #6.

Back with the top five series in 2006 sometime this week.