Geoff's top 15 TV Dramas, part 1: Honorable (and dishonorable) Mentions

Welcome back to my analysis of the top 15 TV dramas I've watched. If you want to know the background behind this series, take a look at the post previous to this one. In this post, I will do a brief analysis of shows I watch (or used to watch) that for some reason don't make the top 15. These can be grouped into three groups: Guilty Pleasures, Used to Love 'Em, and Almost but Not Quite.




Guilty Pleasures are shows that I know aren't deep or poignant or have great drama, but I find them entertaining nonetheless. With these shows, I can just park my brain at the door and watch them without expecting anything much. Some of them weren't well reviewed or popular, but there was something about them I still liked. My guilty pleasures (in no particular order) include:

1. "Burn Notice." on USA. This is the biggest guilty pleasure I currently have. It's main plot is mildly preposterous; A burned CIA agent bums around Miami with his trigger-happy ex-girlfriend from the IRA, his retired Navy SEAL best pal who's a boozin' womanizer, his 15-pack-of-cigarettes-a-day mom, plus a host of revolving characters, as he tries to find out who burned him while playing Robin Hood to various poor souls who somehow fall afoul of dastardly criminals each week and somehow can't tell the police about their problems. Hijinks ensue! Ok, you can take out "mildly", it's totally preposterous. Still, it's quite entertaining and the characters can't be called boring. The best part about Burn Notice is the effortless cool that Jeffrey Donovan brings as Michael Westen (burned spy) and Bruce Campbell as best pal Sam Axe is a great foil. Gabrielle Anwar can be a bit annoying as Fi, I've found that a little bit of her goes a long way, but she's gotten better as the seasons go on. The storylines in the first few seasons are repetitive and after time, you begin to wonder why Michael can't just his burn go...but then there wouldn't be a show, eh? More often than not, you can watch an episode and be entertained, and that's all I need.
2. "V" on ABC. Aliens called "Visitors" come, claiming to be 'of peace.' (Spoiler: they ain't.) This was a remake of a miniseries from 1983, and I can't really defend viewing this show. I watched it because I wanted to see how it would end, but it was a very frustrating show. When you spend the entire season praying for a character to die a painful and lingering death (suck it, Tyler!), you probably shouldn't watch that show. I stuck around because I love Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from "Lost") and she did her best as the heroine Erica, but bad writing and illogical character decisions killed the show. Too often, it seemed that the Visitors greatest weapon was the "stare of dire portent". You know, "The humans will have no idea what hit them. Go and carry out my orders." "Yes, my queen." All that's missing is the mustache twirling. Still, Monica Baccarin as Visitor Queen Anna was pretty effective (and pretty pretty). That is, she's pretty when she has on her human skin...underneath that, the aliens are like Lizard-Man from Soul Caliber.
   
   
   The series ended on a cliffhanger, probably hoping ABC would give them a chance to wrap it up. Nope, thank you, don't come again. At least I got to see Tyler get got...
3. "Falling Skies" on TNT. Another Alien Invasion show, that improves on "V" by making it clear that humans got greased by the aliens, and we're in survival mode now. It's brand new, showing Sundays on TNT, and the aliens are nowhere as hot as Queen Anna. In fact, they're a cross between Xenomorphs and tarantulas. Falling Skies can be pretty schmaltzy thus far, but I like the post-apocalyptic feel and it is kinda holding my interest thus far. We'll see how far it will go.
4. "Lights Out" on FX. This was the story of a former boxing champ who finds that he has no choice but to get back in the ring with the rival who beat him under questionable circumstances. Shades of Rocky, just done over 13 episodes with family, mob, and other drama placed in. Its appeal was limited, but it found a fan in me. I enjoyed seeing Reg E. Cathey on TV again as Barry Word (the Don King character) and while it didn't get renewed, it works pretty well as a mini-series. I only wish they had kept Eamonn Walker's character around for longer. Watch it, you'll see what I mean.
5. "Pushing Daisies" on, what was it, NBC? Anyways, this was about a guy Ned who could bring dead things back to life by touching them, and kill them again by touching them again. The catch is that if he doesn't touch them again within a minute, then some living thing in the general area will die in its place. Ned grows up to open a Pie Restaurant, and hHe ends up touching the girl he loved from afar, and didn't touch her again, and so they end up falling in love but unable to touch, and then he works with a private detective who uses Ned to revive (and re-kill) murder vics to solve crimes...and it's all set in this colorful whimsical fairytale-1950s-vibe yet still modern world. I still don't know how this show got made, I don't know how it got two seasons on Network TV, and I don't know how they made the show work, but work it did. It was almost like a modern day fairystory, and I enjoyed it very much. It kind of wraps up, so there's no fear of a cliffhanger although you can tell that there was much more story left to tell. If you never heard of it or saw it, go check it out on Hulu right now.
6. "The Chicago Code" on Fox. The new, straight-arrow police superintendent Theresa Colvin of Chicago and her unconventional, loose-cannon former partner Detective Wasocki try to take down the corrupt Alderman Givens who is the true power in the city. There's drama with other characters and the acting was pretty good, though Wasocki always got on my nerves. the more I think about this show, the more it seems like it was a poor man's "The Wire" just focused on the politics and corruption instead of the drugs, with Chicago as Baltimore, Wasocki as McNulty, Givens as a much more savvy Clay Davis and Theresa Colvin as Cedric Daniels. It took a while to get going, and the undercover cop character should have started the season as strongly as he had finished it. Still, it had its appeal and I think Fox should have given it another season. Consider it another mini-series.

Used to Love 'Em. These are shows I used to watch religiously, that could have been on the list, and then for some reason I just lost interest in them all-together. There aren't that many that come to mind, but two stand out for me.

1. "Dexter" on Showtime. If you don't know, Dexter is about a serial killer who only kills criminals. What does that make him? Should we root for him or not? Dang if I know, 'cause the series doesn't really want us to answer it or think on it too hard. I watched Seasons 1 and 2, and they were both really good, although they killed someone I think they should have kept around at the end of season 2 (and no, it wasn't the girl). I started to watch Season 3 when it came out and realized "wait a minute, this is just like the other seasons!" Dexter doesn't change or grow. He stayed the same, and it's just a different twist or obstacle in his way in the same vein "will he be caught, will another killer/sick mind mess with him or will Dexter prevail?" If you think Dexter will be caught, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. I just lost interest in the first episode of S3 and haven't watched any of it since then. I've seen too much good TV to settle for ok TV that aspires to be good.
2. Desperate Houswives on ABC. Don't laugh :) it used to be good, it used to be interesting, and then it went back to the same well too many times, Susan became too freakin' annoying, the craziness went off my tolerance level, and I decided enough was enough.

Next post, I'll put up the "Just missed the cut" shows.