US release date: 2006-08-06
Network: Cartoon Network
Cast: Tommy Blacha, Mark Hamill, Laraine Newman, Brendon Small
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/m/metalocalypse1.jpg
MPAA rating: N/A
Airtime: Sundays, 11:45 pm ET
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List number: 10
Metalocalypse
Adult Swim/Cartoon Network
In a programming realm that’s seen similar slices of animated brilliance, Metalocalypse stands apart. To call it better than Spinal Tap would not be an overstatement. This is by far the smartest, most insightful statement concerning metal ever conceived. The obvious creation of true fans, what we witness is the direct deconstruction of the sex/drugs/rock ‘n’ roll mythos mixed with every warning ever issued by the PMRC and the FCC. These animated agent provocateurs are absolutely flawless. Toss in a selection of songs that turns the power of parody on its pointed little head and you’ve got a remarkable example of The Evil Dead meets anime. Bill Gibron
Subtitle: Season One First Three
US release date: 2006-10-01
Network: Showtime
Cast: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, David Zayas, Julie Benz, Lauren Velez, James Remar, C.S. Lee
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/d/dexter-showtime.jpg
Website: http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/home.do
MPAA rating: N/A
Trailer: http://a1959.g.akamai.net/shocomstor.download.akamai.com/8606/partner/m80/323_101c_700.wmv
Airtime: Sundays, 10pm ET
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List number: 9
Dexter
Showtime
Definitely one of television’s most subversive series: what other show would dare feature a cat and mouse duel between a serial killer and an action-hero cop, and have viewers rooting for the killer. Or a stalker ex-girlfriend whose murder was eagerly anticipated and cheered by fans. With taut writing and powerful performances, Dexter‘s second season was slasher-horror, psychological study, boy-meets-loses-gets-girl romance, and office politics drama. Michael C. Hall shook off any lingering memories of Six Feet Under, frighteningly barring the soul of television’s most complex good guy / bad guy. Michael Abernethy
Subtitle: Series Premiere
US release date: 2006-09-25
Network: NBC
Cast: Santiago Cabrera, Ali Larter, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Sendhil Ramamurth, Milo Ventimiglia
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/h/heroes-2006.jpg
Website: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/
MPAA rating: N/A
Trailer: http://www.nbc.com/
Airtime: Mondays, 9pm ET
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List number: 8
Heroes
NBC
Season two of Heroes, NBC’s weekly drama about genetically gifted do-gooders and villains, got off to a slow start. An amnesiac Peter Patrelli spent a lot of time crushing on an Irish barmaid, Matt the cop and Doc Mohinder were playing My Two Dads, and loveable time-traveler Hiro hopped back to 17th-century Japan to live out a fairy-tale. Least interesting of all: would Claire make the cheerleading squad at her new high school? Gradually, though, the pace accelerated, the risks heightened, and the stories intertwined. Soon, we discovered that the parents of several heroes had designed a virus that threatened to wipe out most of humanity. Also, a neutralized Sylar hooked up with Maya, a deadly Latina on the lam. In the wild finale of Heroes‘ strike-shortened season, the good guys saved the world again. Still, the future seems grim. It looks like mother Patrelli has gone filicidal. Oh, and Sylar? He’s baaa-aack. Michael Keefe
US release date: 2007-07-19
Network: AMC
Cast: Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, Elisabeth Moss, Maggie Siff
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/m/mad-men.jpg
Website: http://madmen.amctv.com
MPAA rating: N/A
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Qyk3ugM5A&mode=related&search=
Airtime: Thursdays, 10pm ET
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List number: 7
Mad Men
AMC
AMC’s Mad Men is rightly noted for its gorgeous production design, but that look backgrounds intelligent, searching drama. Set in 1960, Matthew Weiner’s series hints at explosions to come in U.S. society, but resists rewriting the past to make what follows seem inevitable. This is particularly true with regards to gender, and the show’s unapologetic depiction of sexism, but extends to race, ethnicity, and sexuality. In a fabulous exchange from “New Amsterdam,” Roger Sterling (John Slattery) explains generational differences to Don Draper (Jon Hamm) in terms of service in war. The U.S. war in Vietnam simultaneously frames this moment and is hardly a glimmer in the minds of Sterling and Draper. Mad Men is deft and beautiful TV. Shaun Huston
Network: Fox
Cast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/s/simpsons-2006.png
Website: http://www.thesimpsons.com/
First date: 1989-12-17
Airtime: Sundays, 8:00pm
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List number: 6
The Simpsons
Fox
As part of the recent Simpsons Movie DVD package, Fox offered a Season 19 trailer that jokingly states that this is the one show that “will never die” — and frankly, why should it. Certainly, old fans who’ve long since abandoned ship (usually for messageboard myopathy), continue to complain about newcomers keeping the show in ratings rewards. Yet what most critics miss is the fact that, even with its occasional uneven results, Groening and the gang have managed to find success within the simplest of formulas — the dysfunctional yet loving family. Two decades on, that definitely deserves some credit. Bill Gibron
US release date: 2003-12-08
Network: Sci Fi Channel
Cast: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, Grace Park, Tricia Helfer
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/b/battlestar-galactica-2006.jpg
Website: http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/
MPAA rating: N/A
Airtime: Fridays, 9pm
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List number: 5
Battlestar Galactica
The Sci-Fi Channel
No shootouts, no fights, no space battles — as the third season of Battlestar Galactica drew to a close, its creators took a huge risk by ignoring the sort of action we’ve come to expect from the show and instead turning it into a courtroom drama. But the stakes remained as high as ever: the trial of Gaius Baltar, former President of humanity and possible Cylon collaborator, was a scathing look at the mob-like desire to see someone crucified in the wake of a tragedy rather than ask hard questions about how the disaster happened in the first place. If The Wire is a brilliant, multi-layered expose of how the institutions of our society — the government, law enforcement, the legal system — are unintentionally rotting our cities from within, then Battlestar Galactica is a fascinating “what if” scenario about how those institutions might function when the civilization that produced them is gone. Jack Rodgers
Network: NBC
Cast: Steve Carell, John Krasinski, B.J. Novak, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/o/office_us.jpg
MPAA rating: N/A
Airtime: Thursdays, 9:30pm ET
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List number: 4
The Office
NBC
The Office’s creative team has struggled maintaining ongoing storylines while masking the show’s conventional episodic structures within its documentary style and staying consistent through numerous extended episodes. For non-stop gags they’ve been overshadowed by 30 Rock. But they constantly seek ways to tweak themselves as a deeper exploration of modern ennui, balancing moments of unexpected fulfillment while constantly tracking soul crushing frustration. As the relationship between Pam and Jim blossomed into something sweet, heartbreak shifted to Dwight’s falling apart over his break-up with Angela and Michael Scott’s dysfunctional relationship with Jan. From the absurdly astute (Dwight’s reproduction of his real life in Second Life, except he can fly) to the depressingly realistic (Ryan’s wunkderkind facial hair) the writers and performers still show an endless capacity for trenchantly illuminating the struggle of cubicle drones against their ho-hum circumstances. Michael Buening
US release date: 2006-10-04
Network: ABC
Cast: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Evangeline Lilly, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O’Quinn, Harold Perrineau
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/l/lost-2006.jpg
Website: http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index
MPAA rating: N/A
Trailer: http://abc.go.com/fsp/index.html?channel=Lost
Airtime: Wednesdays, 9pm ET
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List number: 3
Lost
ABC
The six episodes of Lost’s third season that aired in 2006 were met with viewer and critical ambivalence, but the sixteen that aired in 2007 were the best run of the series thus far. With a concrete end date on the horizon, show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse quit dragging their feet and pushed the series forward at a relentless pace. Longstanding questions were finally answered, and though others were raised, at this point it’s clear they’re not just making it up as they go along. It all culminated in a brilliant two-hour finale that proved that if the next three seasons are even just nearly this good, Lost will be remembered as one of the defining shows of a very good decade. Nav Purewal
Subtitle: Series Premiere
US release date: 2006-10-11
Network: NBC
Cast: Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit, Jack McBrayer, Alec Baldwin, Rachel Dratch
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/3/30-rock1.jpg
Website: http://www.nbc.com/30_Rock/
MPAA rating: N/A
Trailer: http://www.nbc.com/30_Rock/
Airtime: Wednesdays, 8pm ET
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List number: 2
30 Rock
NBC
Tina Fey’s workplace comedy is many things: a media satire, a speedy farce, and a love/hate letter to New York City, among others. In fact, the show has mastered so many styles of comedy at once that picking stand-outs is like choosing a favorite Beatle, or a preferred watch gear. How can you compare the instantly quotable, stream-of-unconsciousness Tracy Jordan rants with Jack McBrayer’s loopy earnestness or Alec Baldwin’s hushed deadpan? Less flashy but maybe best is Fey herself as comedy writer Liz Lemon. Scarfing an entire steak, calling Homeland Security on her neighbor, holding her bras together with tape, and still managing to look like the smartest one in the room, she finds hilarious new angles on career gal tropes. Jesse Hassenger
Subtitle: Series Premiere
US release date: 2007-10-03
Network: ABC
Cast: Lee Pace, Anna Friel, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth
Image: http://images.popmatters.com/tv_art/p/pushing-daisies-card.jpg
Website: http://abc.go.com/primetime/pushingdaisies/index
MPAA rating: N/A
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qikoHqugOs
Airtime: Wednesdays, 8pm ET
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List number: 1
Pushing Daisies
ABC
Never before has a show so consumed with death been so darn perky. In a year when even the strongest comedies like The Office try to make us feel at least a little bit bad inside, Pushing Daisies reverses the formula and turns a dark premise into a virtual antidepressant. The setting is pure fairy-tale, an eclectic mix of candy shops, old-timey cars, and a city of vibrant, sunny colors. The leads are easily lovable, oozing charm and adorability and full of whip-smart banter. Even the ongoing will-they-or-won’t is more affirming than in most other shows — the scales are so tipped toward “will” (except for that minor touch-her-and-she dies thing) that the yearning experienced by the lead characters feels more like giddy pleasure-delaying. Taken as a whole, the affect is not unlike a fresh-baked pie with fancy cheese grated into the crust. Marisa LaScala