Television Top Tens of 2012: Best Series

Here we are, the final tv top ten list of 2012, best series. The top episodes list is here, and the top new series list is here.

REMINDER: Lists are subjective. I ranked what I like. I don't watch Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones or The Good Wife or Boardwalk Empire or The Vampire Diaries or Downton Abbey. I don't watch any Fox Animated series or anything on Adult Swim. I don't watch any CSI or NCIS or Law & Order or anything that's title starts with Tyler Perry's. I don't watch anything on USA or CW or TNT or Starz. So if a show isn't included, it's probably because I didn't watch it, or because I didn't like it as much as the shows I listed. But feel free to ask away in the comments.

And with that, let's do this. Let's start with Brett Alazraki's Top Ten list.

There. Yell at him about ranking The Newsroom, it didn't quite crack my list. And now here's mine. Honorable Mentions are, again, kinda alphabetical.

I'm not going to breakdown each individually, because at this point I've pretty much written about each of these shows, so just a bunch of bullet points.

-The top four were incredibly close. I finalized this list only a couple days after what I thought was an incredibly strong Homeland finale, but on reflection I may swap it with Mad Men. But it's really close. Each of those four were in the top spot at one point while making this list.

-At the end of the day, while I think it's fair to say Parks and Rec is the better show than Happy Endings because of the world it has built and the deep emotional connections created in that world, there is no show I look forward to watching each week more than Happy Endings.

-The entire top nine are the same shows, albeit in a different order, as my top nine for the 2011-12 television season. I did not look at that list until I had finished this one. There's no good reason why Awake, which was #10 then, is not an honorable mention while Cougar Town, which has also not aired any new episodes since then, is. That's just kinda a mistake.

-Number 11 was Glee, and the two veteran shows that now share a time-slot went back and forth for the 10 slot week to week. Both Glee and Grey's had excellent falls and winters, and Grey's spring wasn't anywhere near as bad as some of Glee, even if it didn't reach the same heights, but that's a coin flip.

-Suburgatory probably gets as high as 7 if not for the Alicia Silverstone episodes. At its best it can be a top 5 show, if it ever reaches that best consistently.

-The top 4 were my clear top tier. New Girl was my clear #5. 30 Rock and Community were my next tier, and Parenthood and Suburgatory after that. Grey's, Glee, The Newsroom, and Cougar Town all received consideration for 10th, along with picking a specific arc or series of episodes from either (or both) The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

And that wraps this up. I might do some silly top 10s next week, but no promises. Feel free to comment/complain/laud in the comments or on twitter, and have a happy new year!

13 Hours of TV to Watch this Summer When You're Not Watching Mad Men

Look, Mad Men is good. It's really good. It's probably the best show on television. The Emmy voters certainly seem to think so. It might even be one of the top television dramas of all time. I don't know, I never watched The Sopranos or The Wire. But either way, it's up there.

And it won't air in 2011.

It might never air again, it might eventually air with dramatic changes, or it might come back in the winter of 2012 as strong as ever. But it definitely will not air in the Summer of 2011. (UPDATE: Mo Ryan of AOL is now reporting creator Matt Weiner has reached a deal with AMC for 2, and possibly 3 seasons. So Mad Men will be back in 2012. Hooray!)

So what will you do for those 13 hours of your life? You could rewatch some of your favorite Mad Men episodes of the first four seasons. AMC would certainly like you to watch The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad or whatever else they air in that slot.

But here are 13 hours of television I would suggest watching. Probably none of them are the quality of Mad Men, but they feature top notch performances from the Mad Men cast.

30 Rock- "Generalissimo" and "St. Valentine's Day"

Community- "Cooperative Calligraphy" and "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design"

Dharma and Greg- "Unarmed and Dangerous"

Gilmore Girls- "But I'm a Gilmore"

Grey's Anatomy- "That's Me Trying"

How I Met Your Mother- "Return of the Shirt" and "How I Met Everyone Else"

Parenthood- "Seven Names"

Saturday Night Live- "34x6: Jon Hamm/Coldplay"

The Office- "Customer Survey"

The West Wing- "Commencement"

Will & Grace- "Big Brother is Coming" Parts 1&2

...and the network show perhaps most inspired by Mad Men (although far less successful)...

Lone Star- "Pilot" and "One in Every Family"

The TV Musical Part II: Covers

This is part two of a two part post on musical tv moments/episodes. Today we focus on TV shows featuring covers of songs in advance of tonight's Grey's Anatomy's musical episode, "Song Beneath the Song." Two weeks ago we looked at TV performances of original songs in advance of the Glee episode "Original Song." 

Grey's Anatomy has been notable for popularizing several songs, most notably The Fray's "How to Save a Life" and Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars." Tonight, the show ventures into performing many of the songs that have appeared on the show, including those two.

While Grey's has the talent for musical performances (Sara Ramirez won a Tony award for her performance in Spamalot in 2005 while Chandra Wilson starred on Broadway in Chicago a few years ago), the show does not naturally lend itself to Glee-like production numbers. It will be interesting to see what direction they take this in.

It is certainly not the first time a scripted tv series has had its stars break out into well known songs. While Glee does this on a week to week basis, several other shows have featured out-of-character musical numbers from their stars.

While my intention was to include clips of some of my favorites as I did two weeks ago, most of these videos are not available online due to copyright issues, so we are limited to a list:

The Office has done two cast numbers of popular songs, with Kevin leading the cast in a rendition of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" in "Beach Day," and Andy leading the cast in Macy Gray's "I Try" in "Andy's Play."

The cast of 30 Rock performed a slightly altered version of "Midnight Train to Georgia" in "Episode 210," complete with a cameo from Gladys Knight herself.

The finale of Will & Grace included a somewhat odd duet of the classic "Unforgettable" from Karen and Jack.

Finally, before Emma was blinded by the catchy tune of the Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" on Glee earlier this month, Arrested Development played the same joke in the episode "Afternoon Delight," featuring dueling performances by Michael and Maebe and Lindsay and George Michael.

What other musical performances would you add?

Some Lists of Some Things

Sorry about the few days off. And then the half post. Busy becoming a law student and getting better internet access.

Today everything I say will be in lists. Because I can.

Top Five Things I Think About Bob's Discount Furniture, After I Ordered Furniture From Them In June to be Delivered Friday August 13th, They Failed to Show Up Friday August 13th, They Showed Up 5 Hours Late on Tuesday August 17th, and Only Brought My Bed and Night Stand Because the "Desk was Damaged" and the "Forgot I Ordered a Dresser," and Then My Father Had to Pick Up the Desk and Dresser from the Show Room and Drive Them to Brooklyn, Because They Weren't Sure When or If They'd Be Able to Deliver:

(spoiler alert: this list is gunna be negative against Bob's)

5. Seriously, this is what we got to replace Toys R Us in Freeport? Toys R Us would've done a better job delivering furniture.

4. When you called to confirm delivery on Monday, you couldn't bother to let me know that I was only getting half of my order? Even if you're just going out to dinner and the waiter brings one person's dish, he always says "your's will be out in a few minutes."

3. The fact (and let's call it Fun Fact #10) that Bob's Discount Furniture is an official partner of the New York Mets now makes total and complete sense.

2. I actually spent Tuesday evening hoping Ashton Kutcher would pop out and tell me I've been punked. It did not happen.

1. They gave me a $100 gift card for messing up. Just think about the assumption being made when you give someone who's order you completely and totally fucked up a $100 gift card.

Top Seven Things I'm Looking Forward to/Hoping to/Interested to See on the (many) TV Shows I Watch This Season (In Bergeronian Order):

1. How I Met Your Mother: We know there are major developments this season. We know this season starts off with a SPOILER ALERT. And we know that (and are very happy that) Rachel Bilson is back for another episode. This leads me to believe we may actually learn who the mother is this season. I go back and forth on this issue. On one hand, the show is called How I MET Your Mother, not How I Got to Know Your Mother. By introducing the Mother, it essentially ends the series. On the other hand, the show was mediocre to poor with few exceptions last season (the 100th Ep featuring Bilson, Tim Gunn, Stacy Keibler, and Barney's Suit Song being the most notable exception). Adding the mother would be the kind of shake up that could make the show more enjoyable, even if it brings about an earlier expiration date. We also know we're seeing more Robin Sparkles this season, so thats a positive no matter what else happens.

2. Big Bang Theory- Leonard and Penny broke up at the end of last season. There's a decent chance if they're still broken up at the end of this season, it could be my last season. Also while Jim Parsons is excellent at playing Sheldon as he does, the character has been the same for the entire series. There needs to be changes. I think there will be with a (potential?) love interest this season, but we'll see...

3. Community and Modern Family- It will be interesting to see if either (or both) of these shows suffer from a sophomore slump. I could have included Glee here too (see #6), but between the half season split and the first season ending more than a calendar year after it began, it does not seem like a second year show. Community put itself in an interesting position with the final couple episodes, having Jeff (SPOILER ALERT) first sleep with Brita, then the choice between Brita and Prof. Slater (who I loved in Grey's Anatomy and again on this show), and finally having him choose Annie. I am on Team Annie (along with being on the same team as Starburns, Team CoCo), Annie was probably my favorite character, aside from Abed, throughout the season. I haven't seen any spoilers on where they're going from here, so it will be interesting to see if Jeff and Annie are actually together when the season begins. My worry is this show didn't really grow outside of this one storyline last season, so a second season could become stale very quickly (much like Chevy Chase was by like the 3rd episode).

Modern Family showed more of a willingness than Community last season to shine the spotlight during various episodes on various characters. Hopefully they continue to do this in the 2nd season, especially involving the children some more. I think Modern Family is in less danger of falling into a sophomore slump, but they are in some danger (as is Community and Glee) of over-using guest stars, and therefore not showing enough of the actual stars.

4. The Office- There is no show this season, or perhaps in modern tv history, that is facing a more curious season than The Office is facing this season. Two Things are Known: Fun Fact #11: Steve Carrell is leaving after this season. Fun Fact #12: The show is continuing past this season. There will be two questions that span the entire season- the minor question: What will happen between Michael and Holly? And the major question: Who will replace Michael as the boss? To me the second question is the most important. Going character by character- We've already seen Jim and Ryan as the boss, so lets rule them out. Pam hasn't put in the time in sales yet, so another no. Andy's personality is too questionable. Erin is too new and fresh. Stanley wouldn't want the job if it was offered to him. Kevin's too dumb, Creed too old. It's unlikely an accountant would become manager, so let's rule out Angela and Oscar also. This leaves Dwight, Meredith, Kelly, Toby, Darryl, Phyllis, or an outsider. I think they should go with Kelly. They set it up last season with the minority leadership training. Her relationship with Erin would take a whole new twist with Erin working for her, not to mention her relationship with Ryan. This is what I hope to see. It is not what I expect. I expect it will be an outsider, and quite possibly Portia de Rossi, as it was recently rumored to be a former Arrested Development star. I would be very content with this.

5. 30 Rock- Like Carrell, Alec Baldwin has announced he plans to leave. Unlike Carrell a) Baldwin still has one more season after this, and b) Baldwin is not the star of the show. I think the show can pretty easily survive without him. My question about 30 Rock is if they will bring back Josh. He suddenly, and for no particular reason, went to Mandyville a couple years ago. I also want to see how much of a regular Elizabeth Banks becomes. She's said she won't do TV full time at this point, but I do help the pregnancy leads to some consistant appearences. Big fan. If she wasn't on the list the other day, add her. Anyone who can simultaneously come out with one movie where she is a title character in Zach and Miri Make a Porno, and one where she plays Laura Bush, plus be funny on Twitter (see the third list) is awesome in my book.

6. Glee- I will do a more thorough look at Glee on the eve of the season premiere, but what I am looking forward to is probably the same thing many of you are looking forward to, but not for the same reason. I think Britney Spears is fine, the first concert I went to was the Slave 4 U tour (in a suite, at MSG, opened by O-Town (Fun Fact #13- I watched the entire first season of Making the Band. Really a good idea for a show)), and she certainly is entertaining. But I'm most exciting about an episode featuring Heather Morris, aka Brittany. She was by far my favorite character last season. I'd look forward to her 1-2 lines an episode more than anything else. When the first announced she was being promoted to full time I was very excited, and when they revealed she'd be the star of an episode it only got better. This episode, good or bad, could very well be what defines Season 2 Part 1.

7. Grey's Anatomy- Like Glee, I will likely devote a post to Grey's and Private Practice before their premieres. While the most interesting thing on Grey's will be coping with the shootings (and on PP the death of Dell), I'm most interested in seeing how it affects Jackson and April (first and third from left), and their relationships with the others, especially after the deaths of Charlie and Reed (second and fourth). Obviously Jackson and Cristina have some chemistry, and Meredith and April forged a relationship during the finale. It will be interesting to see where things for these two new full timers go.

Top Ten Non-Sports People You Should (and I Do) Follow (again in Bergeronian Order):

1. @Pres_Bartlet and the rest of The West Wing Crew

2. @arnettwill Arrested Development's (and Amy Poehler's) Will Arnett

3. @FakeAPStylebook Exactly what it sounds like. A parody of the AP Stylebook

4. @ElizabethBanks See section labeled 30 Rock

5. @IAmKellyFierce See section labeled The Office

6. @IAmErinHannon and @veRY_ANgelic for their interactions with #5

7. @ConanOBrien as if there is anyone who isn't following him already.

8. @chucktodd MSNBC's Chuck Todd, my favorite politico to follow.

9. @sethmeyers21 Seth Meyers, who is funnier on Twitter than when actually writing SNL

10. @McCainBlogette Meghan McCain, who is legitimately accepting of other's political views.

Well that does it for today. Sorry this post took so long. Actual law school starts tomorrow! Peace.