The MamaPop Roundtable: Top Three TV Shows

Nee! And Huzzah! And It's just a flesh wound! And welcome to this week's MamaPop Roundtable, where the MamaPop writers answer enmass a single challenging, thought-provoking, or otherwise engaging question. We then ask that you, the reader, contribute your response to the same question in comments.

We invite readers to submit questions for the MamaPop writers to answer, and if we pick your question you will be handsomely rewarded with PDA and linkage. Please send your Roundtable questions to: roundtable@mamapop.com

This week's Roundtable is [drumroll]:

Q: What are, in your opinion, the three best television shows of the last ten years and why?

Lena:
King of Queens - Hilarious and authentic characters.  If your marriage isn't like theirs, then I can't be your friend.

Sex and the City - While the acting was often cringe-worthy, this was the first mainstream show that allowed women to own their complicated sexuality in a humorous way.

Golden Girls - Pretty much the same as Sex and the City, but with diapers.

Whit: For reasons I am not able to explain I must submit M*A*S*H, Happy Days and Sesame Street.  I would also have accepted Automan, Riptide or Pushing Daisies.  Also, pay-per-view porn, but only the hard stuff.

Tracey:
1. The Wire: Without a shadow of doubt, the best drama ever made for television in the history of television. I've written extensively about why you and everyone you know should watch this narrative masterpiece. So go read that, and then put the DVDs on your Netflix queue. Or better yet, go buy them. You won't regret it. I promise.

2. Buffy The Vampire Slayer: If you've never seen the show, I can understand some apprehension right out of the gate. The title of the series alone summons mental associations that I think makes people hold off bothering with the show -- a very unwise choice indeed. One of the richest, quirkiest, smartest, most sensitive, and funniest television shows ever made, it's a testament to the vision and sensibilities of its creator Joss Whedon (there's a reason he's so stalkable, people!), who season after season leaves you wanting more time with the very real seeming, fully dimensional characters he creates. Heads-up for Buffy newbies: the first few eps of the first season are a bit creaky, granted. But just trust me and plow through them knowing things pick up mighty quick (3-4 eps in). Your patience will be rewarded, AND HOW.

3. The Daily Show: God, what can I say about TDS? So smart, so goddamn funny, so *astute.* We needed Jon Stewart so, so badly during the Bush the Younger years, it felt sometimes that his commentary and perceptiveness about happenings in the U.S. and the world were the only things anchoring reality as I understood it, keeping The Real from being subsumed by great torrents of right-wing rhetoric and BS. Basically, I want to have Jon Stewart's babies. I SO FUCKING WOULD.

Runner-up shout-out to LOST, for breaking my fucking brain every week with your complexity and creative smartypantsness. I love you but OUCH, MAH HEAD!

Jennie:
3. Friday Night Lights -- Maybe it's because I live in Texas and have seen first-hand the dichotomy of small Texas towns. The small-mindedness, ultra-conservative stuffiness of people who could care less about culture and new experiences. The loyal, simplicity of people who have never been pretentious a day in their lives. Or maybe it's the two main characters -- Eric and Tammy Taylor -- two of the most interestingly developed characters on TV, who portray marriage in the most realistic way I've ever seen captured on television.

2. Weeds -- I wanted a comedy on my top three, and I struggled between this and The Office. I love shows that portray lead characters as royally screwed up and eternally flawed. And, my god, there is not a more flawed character on TV than Nancy Botwin. I get angry every year she loses whatever lead actress award she's nominated for.

1. Veronica Mars -- You may think this is just another show that the WB/CW churned out to appeal to teens, but, no. It's smart. It's quippy. It's dark. It's campy. It's so much! It only lasted three seasons (WHY!) but every time I go back to watch it, I am reminded why it's my favorite. There's nothing like it, in my opinion, and I think Rob Thomas is a genius.

Katie:
Joe Schmo - It's like they got into my head and played on my paranoid thoughts that everyone is in on the joke except for me. And since I love my paranoid nightmares coming true, this is by far one of my favourite shows of all time. Plus two words: pearl necklace. It really doesn't get any better than that.

Strangers with Candy - This series was made of what I consider a television nirvana triad: Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, and Paul Dinello. The fact that I kind of identifiy with Jerry Blank on a daily basis should tell you pretty much everything you need to know about me.

Trailer Park Boys - Dope smoking trailer trash who eat roasted chicken chips and pepperoni plus pull stunts like kidnapping Rita McNeil and her band to harvest their weed crop - does it get any better than that? Oh wait... well the pearl necklace in Joe Schmo is aces and Jonathan Torrens is in both shows so I guess I can say NO it doesn't get better than that.

Kelly:
The Wire (duh)
It's just the best that there is, hands down. The writing is amazing, the whole concept is amazing, the acting is amazing.

Six Feet Under
It was just a really interesting show and while some of the plot lines veered into the realm of WTF? it was still a really great exploration of death and family and existentialism in America. Plus, the ending sequence of the series finale made me lose my shit entirely.

Roseanne
Funny as hell and an awesome cast (even with the two Beckys) and was brave enough to portray the issues of a working class mother who aspires to be a writer. I can, um, relate.

Schmutzie:
Dead Like Me (http://www.deadlikeme.tv/) - I live with this intense death anxiety that keeps me up at night, and this show had a great way of mocking that.  Sadly, this show suffered the Mandy Patinkin (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001597/) curse.  He starts out with a really good television show, leaves, and the show crumbles.  Damn you, Mandy!

The Andy Milonakis Show (http://www.spike.com/show/16939) - I do not even know how to start to justify my love of this show.  He's an underdog. He's ridiculous. He's sad. He makes me lighten up and laugh despite myself.  I think that's brilliant.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/) - I know that this entire series was good, because I'm in the middle of watching the whole thing from the beginning again, which is years of television that I will manage to cram into a couple of months. Pathetic of me? Maybe, but it does speak well of the show.

Palinode: There is no question that TV has changed dramatically in the last ten years.  An explosion of networks, satellite and cable channels have made the days of Dallas vs. Masterpiece Theatre pretty much obsolete.  Or Small Wonder vs. McLaughlin Hour, whatever you like.  This is not to say that television has improved across the board; cheapo reality shows designed to fill the dead spaces in the schedule and inside your necrotic brain show no sign of abating, ever since the first sadsack was voted off the island some ten years ago.  But the best of the bunch have opened up the possibilities of the medium and lent credence to the notion that a television show can be as satisfying and layered as a novel.

The Obvious Pick:  Of the many excellent cable dramas that have come and gone over the last ten years, The Wire stands out for its multilayered and complex stories, its outstanding acting, and Omar, the outlaw's outlaw.  David Simons took a scalpel to inner-city Baltimore and laid its guts out for all to see.  The Wire had some of the best, funniest and most heart-breaking moments on television.

The Dark Horse:  When asked to name some of the best British television series of the last decade, most people might pick The Office or Doctor Who, or maybe Spaced.  Nuts to that.  Garth Marenghi's Darkplace ran for two hilarious seasons in 2004-2005 and changed the face of television forever.  Okay, it did not change the face of television one bit, but my god was it funny.  Matthew Holness, playing horror author Garth Marenghi as a lippy Britified Harlan Ellison, introduces each episode with a look back at the time that he made a show so DARING and so DANGEROUS that it sank without a trace.  The show-within-a-show, spliced with interviews and commentary, is a horrendously undercooked 1980s horror about a hospital filled with supernatural evil and heroic doctors.

My Favourite:  By the time 1999 came around, the best seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had come and gone, but even on a bad day, Buffy and the Scoobies were capable of sneaking past your defenses.  Despite its consistenly low ratings throughout its seven year run, Buffy has had a huge influence on the way we consume and enjoy television.  Internet forums sprang up in the '90s to discuss the show and, more importantly, trade episodes on VHS by mail.  By mail.  The creative team that Joss Whedon nurtured through Buffy, Angel and Firefly have since scattered to nearly every television program you currently watch.  And whenever you see the young female victim suddenly turn around and start kicking everyone's ass, you can thank Buffy for that.  You can also thank Buffy for: unexpected character deaths, heroes breaking down and fighting each other instead of the bad guys, and the ongoing puzzle that is David Boreanaz's career.

Amber:
Arrested Development, because it is the funniest show that ever was. I've watched every episode probably three times now, but I find new things to laugh at each time, because it's so layered, so much is going on there, that you miss stuff while you're busy laughing your ass off.

Six Feet Under: This is a show about family. And beyond the incredibly real dysfunction and love among the immediate and extended Fisher family, there's something else I noticed during the final season: at some point throughout the five seasons, I had been in love with each principal character—to the point where they were my favorite—and then hated their guts at some other point. And I don't think that's an accident. Alan Ball wrote those characters to be like people you fiercely love who can also really fucking piss you off sometimes. Beautiful, imperfect people that you love and hate. That's family. While some series have come close to portraying that (The Sopranos), no one did it as well as Six Feet Under. Also, the finale of SFU is the best series finale in the history of television and those people who are all about M*A*S*H*'s finale can really suck it. SFU's finale is better.

The Wire: For reasons that I'll just go ahead and let Tracey tell you: Why you (and everyone you know) should watch HBO's "The Wire"

And a fourth, because I'm a cheater. Buffy: Because Joss Whedon made a show that sounds like a complete joke into a complex, nuanced, beautiful, feminist story about a girl who saves the world a lot. But what it's really about is the hell of growing up. Joss shows quite literally the nightmare of high school and the terror of becoming an adult, with magic, monsters, demons and cursed vampires. It's maybe not the best show in television history, but it's probably my favorite. It's the one I will watch 50 times and never be sick of it.  

Jodi:
Friday Night Lights-I am still constantly amazed that more people don't watch this show and am on pins and needles every year just hoping they don't cancel it. so please, watch!

Friends-I know, I know, but it was the only sitcom that made me laugh every single week and I can still watch and still laugh.

Big Love-The writing is amazing, the acting is superb, and the fact that it has made me care about polygamy, like really, really care?  That's damn good tv.

GS Sarah:
1) "The West Wing". If you don't believe me, just watch the pilot. Pilots are never good. "The West Wing" pilot was phenomenal. The entire first season is amazing and it didn't get boring until the fifth season, but they were able to pull it out of the toilet. The casting was brilliant, it is shot and edited like a movie, it is political and poignant and smart and screamingly funny. Aaron Sorkin is a genius.

2) Arrested Development - This show is screamingly funny. How many shows can make you laugh so hard you are both crying and gasping for breath? Everybody on the show is hysterical. Every time I want to say that David Cross is the funniest person on the show I remember how fucking hilarious Jessica Walter is. This is a show where there is no weak link.

It is pronounced ah-nal-ra-pist.

3) The Sopranos - Say what you will. This show held everyone with cable's attention for years. It is the reason I started paying for HBO. Much like The West Wing it has it all, drama, intrigue, humor - but as a bonus you can say fuck and show boobs on cable.  And The Sopranos did both swimmingly.

HeatherB: In no particular order because then I'd have to choose and there would be tears and sadness and because all of these shows are pretty different. Ahem. My top three:

1) The L Word: Though the last season was a little 'meh' for me but whatever

2) Arrested Development: "Michael and wooomen? A doodle doodle do! A doodle doodle do!" Yeah, that's some good shit right there.

3) 30 Rock: Try saying "Rural Juror"

Comments

[schmutzie]

MamaPop is on Five Star Friday again!
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2009/06/five-star-fridays-edition-59.html

[tonya]

So happy to see Six Feet Under getting some love. It is always overshadowed by The Sopranos, which is also great, but the characters in Six Feet Under were so real. The finale left me with a gaping hole for days wondering what the hell I was going to watch now?

[Jennie]

GS Sarah, I came *THIS CLOSE* to putting "The West Wing" on my list. That show consistently blows me away. Man, I'd love to meet Josh Lyman in real life.

[TwoBusy]

I'm just so happy that someone else remembers the warped genius that was Joe Schmo.

[duchessbelle]

The West Wing - best show EVER. love love love it.

Gilmore Girls - excepting of course the ridiculous last season and a half with April and the marriage to Christopher and the rest of the terribleness.

American Dreams - too short lived but so great.

[Diane]

Jodi, I am totally with you. I own the whole series of Friends, and my husband and I have watched it all the way through several times. I don't know why we find it so hilarious, but damn it, it's good laughs!

And Jennie -- Veronica Mars? Just yes. I'm still so very sad and maybe a little bit in denial that it's never coming back. Boo.

[Blythe]

These are the ones I miss now that they're gone, and that I'd watch without hesitation if I came upon a rerun:
Sports Night
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
NYPD Blue

Honorable mentions go to My So-Called Life, The West Wing, and Veronica Mars.

[Snarky Amber]

Oh, Palinode, good call with the Darkplace. I need to sit my husband down to watch it. I pretty much watched all of Darkplace over two days and I almost had to have a bedpan under my seat, I laughed so hard.

[Keli]

Yes.

- Roseanne: People needed a break from the bullshit and get a dose of what real people are like. I still watch this show every morning when I get ready for work and laugh my ass off.
- Arrested Development: "Anal-rapist" and the chicken dances
- Veronica Mars: Veronica is a character who will kick your ass and she's 10,000 times smarter than anyone you've ever met. We don't get a lot of that kind of woman on TV.

[WonderSpot]

Only 3? Top 5 would have been so much easier!

Veronica Mars
West Wing
Weeds

[Jennie]

Agreed, Keli! She was a smart, tough, funny lead female character and how often do we get to see THAT?

[Palinode]

I'm Garth Marenghi. Author. Screenwriter. Dreamweaver. You are about to enter the world of my imagination. You are about to enter - MY DARKPLACE.

[Snarky Amber]

Hi, I've come to apply for the doctor's job. I can assure you my credentials are top notch. I've just graduated from Harvard College, Yale. I aced every semester, and I got an A.

[Palinode]

Joe Schmo: definitely the best reality show ever made. And Veronica Mars would have been on my list if this were a top five. Some of the scenes were nothing but Kristen Bell and Enrico Colantino riffing on each other, and it was astounding to watch.

[rebecca]

Woot woot for all the buffy love. we have a complete buffy marathon once a year, and this year plan to take on the herculean task of watching the corresponding angel eps at the same time...and arrested development is the funniest sitcom of all time.
Jennie, i am FINALLY going to start Veronica Mars...it better be good! :)

[Jennie]

Palinode, those were some of my favorite scenes too. Along with the Veronica/Wallace ones.

[BLT]

1-LOST. No need to say more.

2-Six Feet Under. Alan Ball is a genius. Loved SFU and digging True Blood now.

3-NCIS...i know i'll get some flack over this one, but it is one heck of a show. mark harmon and his ensemble is must watch.

[DRM]

1. Mad Men

2. Big Love

3. 30 Rock

But there are more, so many more! And do not even get me started on my Real Housewives...

[Linda_M]

I'm with Blythe on Sports Night. I still miss it! (BTW, Blythe, it's available on DVD. We have the set and frequently pull it out to watch an episode or two).

[indycitygirl]

Six Feet Under/True Blood-these count as one because they are from the great mastermind Alan Ball

Sex and the City-Lived in a big city and when single had my girls too(but not the shoes or clothes lol) its my chick moment show and makes me LOL

The Sopranos-Just overall badass acting and writing...

Hmmmm,who watches nothing but HBO I wonder!?!?!?!

[jodifur]

Thanks! I was between Friends and Sex and the City but I see that got picked, so I'm glad. Friends is the only show I ALWAYS laugh at. And still do!

[Whit]

And It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Which isn't true because I know it rains there, but the show is so funny it hurts.

[supertiff]

just three? REALLY JUST THREE? i don't know how you all do it, with the picking of the favorite songs and movies and whatnot.

i was going to say 'my so-called life,' but that was more than ten years ago.

how did we get this old?

so, rather than going for favorite shows of all time, i will just say that my recent faves (read:i am a crazy fan-girl) have been 30 rock, Top Chef, and Battlestar Galactica. (sorry about that last one, i came to the party late. i still don't know how it ends!)

[Tracy]

Yes! I love It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia! The dance marathon had me in stitches, omg.

Down here in wintry New Zealand, we *still* haven't seen The Wire and I'm itching to be addicted to a new show. My top 3, given my slightly country-cousin handicap (not having access to some of the top shows, or skipping seasons, even!), would be:

3: Buffy (I still feel sad when I remember it's over)
2. Lost (it's really a love or hate it show, and I love it)
1. 30 Rock (I am in love with Liz Lemon)

[Amanda of Shamelessly Sassy]

1.)Weeds
2.)Friends
3.)The Sopranos