My TV Fave Five

Yeah, I know it's Friday, and technically I should be posting a Fiction Friday installment. I might still do that later, there's an idea I'm kicking around in my head but it has to take shape a little bit more before I can do anything with it. While I ruminate on that, I thought since I spend so much time talking about television, I should let me faithful readers in on my favorite TV shows of all time, especially since I just realized this list has changed dramatically in the last few years from what i always thought it was. I've always said my favorite shows were Quantum Leap, Babylon 5, Saved by the Bell, Boy Meets World, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel (I count them as one show, for obvious reasons). Now that I'm almost thirty-one, the level of amazing television I've been exposed to over the last decade or so has changed this list dramatically. So, here we go! And yes, this is going to be a photo/video-heavy blog.

5.) How I Met Your Mother

The fact that I ignored this show's existence for so long shows that I'm clearly an idiot. I didn't start watching HIMYM until some friends of mine recommended it to me over and over again. Finally, over a sick weekend where I barely ever left my bed, I downloaded the first three seasons and watched them all in three days. I was hooked. At its best, HIMYM is full of equal parts heart and humor... and at its worst, it's just hysterical with the legend... wait for it... ary Neil Patrick Harris stealing just about every minute he's on screen with his antics as Barney Stinson.

I totally apply this rule to my personal life...

Aside from a whole lot of comedy and romance within the overarching mystery of just who Ted Mosby is going to marry and when the hell he'll meet her already, HIMYM has given us such gems as the Bro Code, the above Hot Crazy Scale, "Suit Up!", Robin Sparkles, Ranjit the Taxi/Limo Driver, Swarley,... the list goes on. My personal favorite being Slap Bet, which of course led to Slapsgiving...

HAPPY SLAPS-GIVING! from Rich Shook on Vimeo.

Oh, and spoiler alert... it's the only show on the list that is actually still on, so you should watch it.

4.) The West Wing

I was going to use a full cast photo, but, c'mon, he's Martin Sheen!

Sure, the show was naive as hell, creating an administration that was far too idealistic to ever actually exist in American government. And sure, it dropped off a bit after creator/writer Aaron Sorkin left at the end of the fourth season. Criticisms aside, the show was built and carried on the back of solid acting performances from an incredibly talented cast and some of the most amazing, snappy, smart dialogue I've ever seen. People who have read my writing will say that dialogue is what I'm best at, and Sorkin's writing style on this show has a lot to do with that. Here's one of my favorite examples of why I love this show:

If only we had real presidents that awesome...

3.) Friday Night Lights

Anyone who's known me over the last five years knew this was going to be on the list. I watched the first episode when it aired on a whim because it was a Wednesday night and there was nothing else on, and I was hooked from the first moment. Nominally about a high school football team, this is a show about anything but. Life, love, growing up, family... all the bases are covered. The show really centers around Coach Taylor and his family, as well as the kids on his team and their friends/girlfriends/family. Coach Taylor, by the way, is easily one of the greatest television characters ever. While it never really caught on in the ratings, this was a show so beloved by its fans and critics everywhere that for the first time, a major network split the costs of a show with a channel on DTV and let them air episodes in the fall, followed by NBC then airing those episodes as a summer replacement for the last three of the show's five seasons. The show was just too good to cancel. I wanted to show you a clip that proves that, but NBC is apparently a tightass about FNL clips online, so you get this instead:

2.) Scrubs

Easily the funniest show I've ever watched. i can literally watch episodes of this over and over again. It's hysterical, full of heart, with great characters, and it never really goes the way you expect. It's a show that embodies the phrase "from the ridiculous to the sublime." Plus, Percival Ulysses Cox, M.D., is another of TV's greatest characters. Not counting the final bastardized season, it had an almost perfect run, punctuated by what I think is the greatest closing sequence of a series finale ever:

Boy, that was short. Can you tell I'm out of steam?

1.) Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

I don't think this one is ever changing. There's nothing I could say about these two shows that I haven't already said, and I'm tired of writing. Joss Whedon is my master now. That is all. The end. Grr, argh.

Like any of these shows? Hate any of them? Want to tell me what your faves are? That's what the comments section is for... hop to it, people!