(no subject)
Day 1: A show that never should have been canceled
Day 2: A show you wish more people were watching
Day 3: Your favorite new show (aired this TV season)
Day 4: Your favorite show ever
Day 5: A show you hate
Day 6: Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 7: Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 8: A show everyone should watch
Day 9: Best scene ever
Day 10: A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11: A show that disappointed you
Day 12: An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13: Favorite childhood show
Day 14: Favorite male character
Day 15: Favorite female character
Day 16: Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17: Favorite mini series
Day 18: Favorite title sequence
Day 19: Best TV show cast
Day 20: Favorite kiss
Day 21: Favorite 'ship
Day 22: Favorite series finale
Day 23: Most annoying character
Day 24: Best quote
Day 25: A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26: OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27: Best pilot episode
Day 28: First TV show obsession
Day 29: Current TV show obsession
Day 30: Saddest character death
There are a lot of shows I have considered "favorites" at one point in my life or another, and I certainly don't want to bias dramas over comedies. With that said, Six Feet Under is probably the first of this recent (that is, in the past decade) crop of cinematic, long-form television dramas that struck a chord with me. It's flawed, certainly -- which is why it ranks as (sentimental) Favorite versus Objective Best Ever. Six Feet Under really had a tendency to walk a fine line between the genuinely cathartic and the somewhat maudlin. Still, the quality of actors that were pulled together for the ensemble cast (and even guest spots) is pretty peerless. The plot arcs each season were nearly uniformly great. And, more than any other show I can think of (okay -- The Sopranos can't be discounted here, either), Six Feet Under tested its audience's capacity for forgiveness and reconcilliation of some really serious, really real transgressions in its characters.
Around the Horn
I may never be "forced" to watch this again, so long as we remain cable-less and I work daytime hours, but Cullen can attest to the depths of my longstanding antipathy for ESPN's Around the Horn. I am functionally sports-illiterate, so every point these commentators debate sounds like it's being relayed by Charlie Brown's teacher. Except much more shrilly.
Pass.
My favorite episode of Six Feet Under? I don't really have one. In fact, reading over the episode synopses to try to answer this question was making me a little physically ill. I imagine that's the catharsis I alluded to, creeping up on me. All the horror surrounding Lisa's death? "That's My Dog"? Maggie-the-Quaker? Sorry if it's hard to extract a "favorite" from all the pathos!
Instead, you get my favorite episodes of The X-Files, which, even at their most unsettling, boast the emotional buffer of science fiction -- for those of us who are healthily skeptical, and don't really fear human-sized flukes living in our reservoirs. Plus ... well, I was going to note that The X-Files tends toward self-contained episodes (moreso than Six Feet Under, anyway): lots of monster-of-the-week stuff, especially in the early seasons. But the ones I selected do require a little prior knowledge for maximum impact.
My top picks:
"Jose Chung's From Outer Space"
This is a kind of meta-leaning, auto-skewering exercise from Season Three, which exploits the show's established conventions for comic effect, takes aim at the fans, and dabbles in the dismantling of logical fallacy. Plus: Charles Nelson Reilly.
"Sein und Zeit" and "Closure"
A Season Seven two-parter that, as the title of the latter episode would suggest, brings some kind of resolution to the "Samantha" plot arc. You've got your serial killer (dressed as Santa! If nothing else, The X-Files is certainly adept at tapping into iconographic terror) angle, your shared paranormal phenomena angle, your psychic detective angle, and effective use of mid-career Moby scoring. It's really solid, all around. And profoundly touching, too.
Twin Peaks: "Checkmate"
Another of my favorite shows, mentioned in a previous entry, is Twin Peaks, which was fairly consistent in terms of overall quality. As many have noted, it does flag a little after the "Who killed Laura Palmer?" fulcrum ceases to exist. Far more irrelevant than Windom Earle, however, is the not-brief-enough plot concerning (contender for Most Annoying Character) James Hurley's quasi-affair with Evelyn Marsh: an abused wife who, along with her brother/chauffeur/paramour, attempts to implicate James in her husband's murder. David Duchovny does show up in this episode, as Denise Bryson; so it isn't a total wash. But very damn nearly.