CS Weekly Archive > The Big Picture > 01/25/08

The Best TV of 2007

edited By david michael wharton

With our television screens filled with reality programming and game shows as the strike rolls on, the CS Weekly staff takes some time to appreciate the scripted television that was must-see TV for us in 2007.

After several months of the WGA strike, the days of sorting through a fully-stocked DVR seem like a wistful memory. As the WGA and the AMPTP have resumed informal talks in the wake of the DGA deal, this week CS Weekly presents our staff's picks for their favorite shows of 2007. In a medium that often affords the writer more power than in feature films, these are the shows that earned our season passes this past year. May they all soon return…

Peter Clines (Writer, CS and CS Weekly)
Doctor Who
Recreated by Russell T Davies
Based on the original BBC series
I was a huge fan of this show as a kid, but even I am still stunned by how fantastic each season of this resurrected BBC series is. From the new-viewer-friendly season opener "Smith and Jones" through the knuckle-whitening horror tale "Blink" (in which the Doctor [David Tennant] hardly even appears) and even in the fan-pleasing "Utopia," the smart storytelling far surpasses any simple genre label, favoring sharp stories and character-driven elements more than the trademark time travel and aliens.

Heroes
Created by Tim Kring
Again, excellent writing makes any premise believable and enjoyable. By showing the different responses real people would have to developing powers like flight, telepathy, or invisibility, the scribes of Heroes made us tune in for the abilities but made us come back for the characters (and Hayden Panettiere's cheerleading outfit). The series waffled a bit in its second season, but even kneecapped by the writer's strike, it still finished strong and left us wanting more.

Drive
Created and written by Tim Minear
Right now Fox is probably wishing they'd let this mid-season replacement run for more than a handful of episodes. Combining road trip movies and game shows into an ongoing chase scene, Drive has to be the cleverest idea to hit American television in ages, the story of a ruthless cross-country race where half the contestants have been forced to compete by one means or another. The format guaranteed action and character moments every episode, while the open-ended premise (much like 24) ensured a fresh story arc every season.

Jason Davis (Writer, CS and CS Weekly)
Doctor Who
Beginning its third season (or 29th, if you don't mind the 15-year gap) with Rose Tyler (Billie Piper)—the metaphorical human heart of the show—lost in a parallel universe, Doctor Who proved once again the resiliency of its concept by teaming the eponymous Time Lord (David Tennant) with spirited newcomer Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). The 13 episodes that followed brought the series to the emotional highs of Paul Cornell's "Human Nature"—wherein the Doctor was forced to choose between a normal life or sacrifice it to save the world—to its most terrifying moments in Steven Moffat's "Blink"—wherein guest star Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan) found herself unraveling a post-modern temporal mystery while being stalked by television's most frightening creation. To cap the whole thing off, showrunner Russell T Davies tied together all of the year's thematic undercurrents and dangling plot threads into a three-part opus of positively Biblical proportions…as the Doctor preemptively said of the final Harry Potter novel: "I cried!"

Dexter
Created by James Manos, Jr.
With virtually every sophomore season guaranteed to disappoint die hard fans of the first year, it's always fun to point out exceptions like Dexter. His oceanic burial ground discovered by divers, serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) must use his forensic skills to throw the FBI off his track, get to the bottom of his adopted father's (James Remar) deceptions, and contend with an unstable artist (Jaime Murray) that falls for him at an addict's support group. Expanding the show's canvass with new characters and offering up new perspectives on what was revealed in earlier episodes, the second year of Dexter produces everything a viewer could want and then exceeds expectations with a final barrage of episodes that spare not a single drop of blood-soaked brilliance.

Mad Men
Created by Matthew Weiner
In the summer of 2007, AMC's Mad Men, the creation of Sopranos alumnus Matthew Weiner, raised the bar for original programming on cable. Set in 1960 New York at the advertising agency of Sterling Cooper, the series delves into the world of ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and recreates the era with disconcerting detail. Ostensibly an era of post-war American utopia, the show peels back the nicotine clouds of nostalgia to revel in the period's sexism, ignorance, and ennui with writing that recalls the quality of characterization and execution that used to epitomize the fictional happenings in North Jersey.

Danny Munso (Writer, CS and CS Weekly)
Extras: The Extra Special Series Finale
Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant continue to remind everyone else working in television that they're still a step behind. Though Extras, their follow-up series to The Office, wasn't quite as brilliant as its predecessor, this 80-minute finale absolutely is, often forgoing the comedy for some all-too-real drama. If this is any indicator, Gervais and Merchant's next collaboration should be for the big screen.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Created by Larry David
After a tired fifth season, Larry David decided his onscreen alter-ego would take in a family left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. What resulted was not only some of the best episodes in the show's history, but also a renewed life for a show that, after seeming like it was on its last legs, could now go on for a few more years.

Sean Siska (Writer, CS Weekly)
The Sopranos
Created by David Chase
One of the most intelligent, intriguing shows ever to air cemented its legacy with a conclusion that (while satisfying in retrospect) was completely unforeseeable and, thus, a subject of national conversation for weeks to come.

Lost
Created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams, and Jeffrey Lieber
This serialized descendant of The Twilight Zone has always been good at balancing plot with character, but the mind-bending season finale took it to heights never before imagined.

30 Rock
Created by Tina Fey
The genius of this sitcom lies in its ability to play around in the realm of absurdity, but still keep itself relatable by keeping one foot in the real world.

Jenelle Riley (Writer, CS Weekly)
House
Created by David Shore
This show had a really great year and kept things fresh while entering its fourth season. Ostensibly a drama, it has the best one-liners on television.

Dirty Sexy Money
Created by Craig Wright
This is such a tough genre to get right, but they do. It's over the top and soapy, yet somehow these characters never descend into caricatures. Too smart and funny to be considered a guilty pleasure.

The Simpsons
Created by Matt Groenig
It's an obvious choice, but has to be said. After all this time, it remains the sharpest, most incisive show on television. We take it for granted, but no show delivers more intricate and clever zingers on a weekly basis.

Dennis Sampson (Writer, CS Weekly)
The Sopranos
A brilliant end for television's greatest drama ever. The final moment of the series finale deserves every bit of analysis and scrutiny it's received. In the end, it was a perfect finish.

The Shield
Created by Shawn Ryan
Deep characters, dark scenarios, and superb storytelling have kept this evolving cop show a shining example of what gritty TV is capable of.

30 Rock
Tina Fey's show went from being the underdog to Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to soaring past it with well-deserved awards and a follow-up season. The show's biting wit and light tone give it a charm not seen by sitcoms in some time.

Sarah Skilton (Writer, CS Weekly)
Lost
In a move so brilliant and unexpected it made me forget all about season two and the $#%* button they had to press every 108 minutes, Jack (Matthew Fox) flashed forward, showing us what happens to the islanders after they're rescued—and it ain't pretty. The game-changing twist was surprisingly melancholy and soaked with dread, and boy do I want more!

House
Talk about showing the ugly side of addiction: a depressed Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) drugged himself into a frothing hot mess on the floor (in the Christmas episode, no less). And in the spring, the episode "Half-Wit" had it all: besides the usual medical mystery, viewers were treated to insightful, entertaining, and satisfying character studies of House's long-suffering team members (Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, and Omar Epps) as they reacted to the news of House's (false) death sentence.

Dexter
Though not as tightly plotted as season one (the Ice-Truck Killer story was flawlessly executed—pun intended), each episode of the recent season, in which blood splatter expert and serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) struggled with his basic nature and dispensed "justice" throughout Miami, provided a vicarious thrill. Also, the voiceovers, which can be a cumbersome device on other shows (ahem, Grey's Anatomy), are deftly and comedically handled on Dexter.

David Michael Wharton
(Managing editor, CS Weekly)
Mad Men
I came late to the party, finally turning into AMC's period drama about 1960s ad men after two friends in separate states sang its praises to me on different occasions. The phrase "better late than never" has rarely been so accurate. A compelling and unapologetic recreation of a politically incorrect time period, Mad Men serves up backstabbings, double-crosses, and power plays worthy of Shakespeare amongst characters lost in a moral haze as gray as the ever-present clouds of cigarette smoke.

Pushing Daisies
Created by Bryan Fuller
There's no way this should work as well as it does on a weekly basis. Bryan Fuller's lush fairy tale about a pie maker named Ned (Lee Pace) who can bring the dead to life with a touch (but only for 60 seconds, or something else will die) and the formerly deceased love of his life (Anna Friel) evokes the best big-screen fantasies of Tim Burton. Teamed up with private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), each week the pie man investigates an increasingly surreal series of crimes by briefly resurrecting the victim to ask who killed them. But really, the crimes are just to help fill out the hour: the real attraction here is a simple love story between two characters who can never touch, a tale as sweet as any of the pies in Ned's kitchen. Seasoned with the wry, frustrated wit of Cod and the delightful narration of Jim Dale (best known for his excellent audio book readings of the Harry Potter novels), Pushing Daisies is a delicacy unlike anything else on television.

30 Rock
It's hard to believe that this show was considered the underdog to Aaron Sorkin's take on life behind the scenes of an SNL-esque comedy show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, when both premiered in the fall of 2006. Between that and the fact that I hated the pilot episode, I still find myself amazed (in a good way) that this show makes me laugh harder on a weekly basis than anything else on television. Brilliantly skewering every sacred cow in the field, including and especially the network that airs it, 30 Rock is an unparalleled mixture of absurdity and razor-sharp wit, and is the best damn thing to happen to Alec Baldwin since the phrase "Third prize is you're fired."


…And the Ugly
But they can't all be winners, can they? While the negative responses were fewer in the realm of television than they were in the realm of film, there was one show that earned the unmitigated ire of one of our writers. Buckle up, folks…

Brothers and Sisters
Created by Jon Robin Baitz
The prosaic title perfectly encapsulates the banality of Brothers and Sisters. What it fails to convey is the mind-boggling array of TV clichés exhumed from decaying Eight is Enough episodes and tarted up with some Dynasty-style shenanigans in the hopes that viewers will be so exhausted by the infinitely more entertaining antics over on Wisteria Lane, they'll forget to change the channel. If you can't spot every plot twist and preempt each line of dialogue, you obviously just bought your first television.

Mad Men courtesy AMC
Doctor Who courtesy BBC
30 Rock courtesy NBC

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