HollywoodIdiocy.com

Next on my list of year-in-review posts is comedy shows. As more and more shows begin mixing comedy and drama, this becomes a harder category to handle. Is House a drama or a comedy? What about Pushing Daisies? Or Chuck? Anyone who’s used Cisco knows what I mean.

So here they are, my Top 5 comedies of 2007, with my best guesses as to whether the shows I’m praising are comedies or not.

5. Pushing Daisies (ABC)

There were a lot of shows vying for the fifth spot. CBS’s The Big Bang Theory was an early favorite. So was another Monday Night on CBS show, How I Met Your Mother. I like Tina Fey’s 30 Rock even though I can’t stand Alec Baldwin. And The CW’s Reaper was, at times, hilarious. However, even though I was a late-comer to ABC’s Pushing Daisies, it immediately became a favorite for its dark theme yet wonderfully loony cast of characters. Reminds me a bit of other short-lived favorites like Fox’s Wonderfalls and Showtime’s Dead Like Me. Creator Bryan Fuller is the reason for that; he was involved in all three shows and still makes wonderful television. He has the feel of a young Glen Gordon Caron. Here’s hoping Pushing Daisies lasts longer!

4. Extras (HBO)

Ricky Gervais is a dark comedy genius and Extras gave me a lot of laughs this year. The series-capping Christmas special was the perfect way to fill out the characters. Here’s hoping NBC doesn’t try to snog this one into their lineup with a less-talented American cast. (Yes, The Office rebounded after a dreadful first season, but still…)

3. Chuck (NBC)

Sure, it’s frothy and not very deep, but it’s fun and that’s what counts. NBC’s spy comedy was a fun way to warm up for Heroes every Monday night, and fully enjoyable in its own right. With an appealing cast, Chuck looks like a keeper.

2. Psych (USA)

Aging well in its second season, USA’s dramady is still one of the fresher, more appealing shows on non-network television, and full of gentle laughs and good mysteries. A perfect companion to Monk.

1. Scrubs (NBC)

In their final season, Bill Lawrence is pulling out all the stops and it’s just too bad the series may not get the ending he envisioned thanks to the writer’s strike. The tales of JD and his many cohorts has always been a personal favorite, and this one will be missed when it disappears for good.

read comments (0)

In a decision related more to ratings than the writer’s strike, USA Network has announced the cancellation of the sci-fi drama, THE 4400. A show that focuses on the idea of what might happen if all the alien abductees who’ve disappeared over the past century or so were all returned at once, many of them displaced from the times and people they once knew, slipped in the ratings last summer and was among the lowest-rated original hours of programming on USA.

For about three seasons, THE 4400 was a part of many people’s summer viewing habits, as reliable as a bunch of plumbing fixtures; but the summer series lost steam, perhaps due to running all 13 of its episodes each season over the summer, rather than adopting the “seven in the summer, six in the winter” schedule favored by more-popular USA hits like Monk, Psych and Burn Notice.

USA’s The Dead Zone, based on the Stephen King bestseller which chronicles the psychic adventures of Johnny Smith, a school teacher who gets into a car accident, spends a decade in a coma, and awakes with supernatural powers to foretell the future, which was at one time one of USA’s top-rated hours of original programming, was cast aside as well; the Dead Zone’s ratings were roughly the same as The 4400’s.

read comments (0)

With four shows in the Top 10 this past week, it seems America’s catching up to my eclectic summer viewing tastes, if only a bit. More specifically, USA Network rocks!

The four shows USA had in the Top 10 have all been personal faves for a while now. The ol’ reliable standby, MONK, is still strong even though showing signs of age as a concept.

Completely fresh and addictive in its second season, PSYCH is the perfect companion piece to MONK, with a talented, appealing cast. Shows like this make me wish USA offered longer seasons to these hits.

BURN NOTICE has a slightly grittier edge but still dwells in the same space of action-comedy-mystery that MONK and PSYCH occupy.

And WWE RAW is great, mindless summer fare. It’s also the place where you might see the most creative use of a safety utility knife.

I’m a bit disappointed that viewers seem to be abandoning THE 4400, which is smart science fiction; however, I’m surprised THE DEAD ZONE is still hanging around, considering how terrible Anthony Michael Hall is in filling in for Christopher Walken, who breathed first cinematic life into the role for the Stephen King-inspired character.

read comments (0)