Top TV Shows of 2008

Traditionally, I'd write a top five or a top 10 list for whatever. Actually, really it would just have to be an interval of five, that's all that really matters. However, this year in television six shows stood out above the rest in my book, so I'm going to stick with six. No more, no less. Below are my six favorite TV shows of 2008.


1. How I Met Your Mother

This combined with the number two show makes me say a euphoric "thank god it's monday!" every week, as it is the perfect way to start the week. It's part Seinfeld, part Arrested Development, but take out the cold, emotionless centers and replace them with heart and realistic relationships. This really feels like a sitcom designed specifically for me.

Kudos to my boy NPH for this as well. He may get all the publicity, but he deserves it. No one on television is funnier than Barney Stinson. No one.


2. Chuck

I love the rest of the shows on the list, but the character of Chuck (brilliantly played by Zachary Levi) is the guy that every nerd wants to be, meaning I relate to him and envy him while watching his antics on television. That's a unique and alluring combination. I find myself grinning uncontrollably while watching this show, as Chuck, Casey (Adam Baldwin), and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) go off on another wild mission, from saving the world from a satellite by beating the old arcade game Missile Command while listening to Rush's "Tom Sawyer," to defeating rogue CIA entities embodied by ex-girlfriend and Michael Rooker, to surviving the average day in the Buy More.

In terms of hour long shows, this has the most consistency and one of the most balanced and diverse casts on television. It's the best thing that Josh Schwartz has ever done, yet no one realizes it.


3. Battlestar Galactica

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Well, not really. Battlestar is still the best show on TV, it's just this year was the year of the comedy and Bstar Glac only provided me with 10 new episodes this year due to the writers strike and other ridiculousness. It did provide the single best episode of the season (the action packed and gut wrenching finale) and some of the best performances (when did Saul Tigh become the most dynamic character on television?), but it just didn't provide the product necessary to take number one.

However, there's a fairly decent chance I'll fall apart as a human being when the series finale airs some time in 2009. January 16th, 2009, you're too far away!


4. Dexter

Dexter and friends threw down another incredible season full of pitch black humor, tense drama, and buckets of blood, and they didn't lose a step from the first two remarkably great seasons. While the structure changed somewhat, losing the season long killer mystery for the most part, the show did not lack in awesomeness.

Why?

The cat and mouse awesomeness between Jimmy Smits' character Miguel Prado and Michael C. Hall's Dexter Morgan. You never really knew who was the cat and who was the mouse, but for the first time in the series, you never really knew for a fact that Dexter was going to make it through unscathed. He met his match, and he met it in his first real friend. Perhaps the two best performances on TV this year were featured here with Smits and Hall absolutely bringing down the house every episode. Incredible work.


5. Lost

Lost was freaking awesome this year. A huge return to prominence, featuring a change in structure from time to time, answers, and significant forward movement. Everything has been said about this show already, so I don't need to say much here. However, I do want to say the number five ranking here isn't to say it wasn't a great season (it was), it just means the other shows were truly exceptional.

Although, I did not like the season finale (I know, I'm the one).


6. Entourage

In the year of televisions most unlikely comeback, after two abysmal seasons (sad but true), Entourage got back to basics and provided us with its single best season. It was back to the hijinks with the crew, the wheeling and dealing by Ari (and his put upon assistant Lloyd), and the mix between the good life and the bad that comes with it that this show should be all about.

More shows need to realize that when they go astray, just get back to basics. Entourage did, and it's better than ever.

Slices of Fried Gold - 10/14/08

Another week, another set of recommendations from me. This week I have two things I'm massively late on and another something that I'm sure anyone who reads this regularly is likely absolutely sick of hearing. No less, here are my recs for the week.

Music: Ratatat

Anything and everything Ratatat. Almost entirely instrumental, pretty much entirely fantastic as well. If you're the type who doesn't enjoy beat oriented electronic music, this isn't likely for you. Looking for deep lyrics? You don't get any lyrics here.

However, if you're looking for wondrously layered soundscapes, amalgamations of many electronic sounds, and actual panther roars in your music...well, have I got some music for you to listen to.

They drop some fat (phat?) beats here, and whether you want to listen to 2008 release LP3, 2006 release Classics, or 2004's self titled affair, you're going to get some damn fine music. Also, yes, I am rather late to this party. But it's cool, I'm making up for lost time quickly.

Books: Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis is my favorite comic writer. Well, to be fair, it's probably a tie between him and Brian K. Vaughan. Both dabble in extracurricular activities however, with BKV being a top writer for Lost and Ellis working the occasional prose based novel as well.

This is Ellis' first release, and I'm only a little ways in but I love it all the same. It captures the high concept plots he always brings to the table, the vulgarity of Transmetropolitan, and the new wave, sci-fi anglings on political situations that he so often injects into his writings.

In short, this novel is about an extremely down on his luck private eye, hired by the government to essentially restart America by finding the second, secret Constitution that's been lost somewhere in the underworld. Pretty bizarre, but so far? Hilarious, and extremely well written. Like I'd expect from Ellis, any day of the week.

TV: How I Met Your Mother season 4

I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but I kind of like this show. So far, the season has been as good as ever, somehow making hysterical episodes out of the following concepts: hatred of New Jersey, picking up women in an old man costume, Regis Philbin, the world's greatest burger, interventions, Canadian alter egos that only come out when plastered, renaissance faires, not seeing Star Wars, and taking orders from bears.

This show can make a joke out of anything. It's proven it this season, plus it maintains its ability to be touching without laying on the sap too thick. That's a hard line to walk, but they walk it well.

Plus, Barney Stinson maintains his position as the single funniest character on television. You were robbed of an Emmy NPH. Jeremy Piven cannot hold a candle to you.

The Weekend Edition

Ahhhhhhh yeah!!!!!!

That's the sound I'm making because it was the first weekend of the year for me that really felt like summer hit Alaska. That of course is a very good thing, because summers in Alaska are absolutely incredible and the best place in the world to experience them. I can never get enough of them, and even with the late start this time I still feel as if this summer is going to be all-time, to quote Amy.

What made this bad mamma jamma so rad? Let me count the ways...

• Frisbee Golf fridays
• Margaritas at La Mex
• Bernie's outdoor patio, absolutely dominated by the Crewnit and the extended Crewnit
• Dance party plus at the Anchor
• Coffee with my sister
• Roughly 13 naps - very necessary
• Getting caught up on comics
• Camping out at Eklutna
• How I Met Your Mother redux
• Doing all that while keeping it vegan

Really, in an extremely unsurprising trend revelation, the days were decent but the nights were spectacular. Friday night we had a massive posse pretty much take over Bernie's Bungalow Lounge downtown and it was a heck of a time, and it all came on the heels of a great round of frisbee golf where Colver and I tied at even and an hour or two at La Mex having margaritas.

On top of that, after Bernie's a smaller group (key conspirators: myself, Amy, Kim, Cate, Patrick, etc.) went to the Anchor and had a blast rocking the dance floor. Suffice it to say, there was a significant amount of the running man thrown down that night, along with a lot of me getting strangely low to the ground. Little known David fact: I can get very, very low while dancing. I may be secretly good at the Limbo, if anyone in fact still limboed.

The Crewnit with our driftwood wizard wands

Saturday night may have been even better though, as Colver, Lorna, Kim, Amy, Hannah, Jason, and I went out to Eklutna for a camping trip featuring Loaded Questions (and the absolutely ridiculous answers that went along with them - my porn star name = Sir Francis Drake Huffman, for example), the First Annual Crewnit Beach Tag Football Game (Eklutna Megabowl? Discuss.), Johnson family domination (Jason's brothers Eric and Michael came out), driftwood wizards, steamrolling up the ying yang, and fitting everyone (besides Amy, who was satisfied by staying outside) into Colver and Lorna's mansion tent.

My team from the Eklutna Megabowl - Hannah, myself, and Eric

Camping is always one of my favorite activities during the summer (along with hiking, it forms a fairly deadly duo), and I have a feeling there will be a lot more trips like this throughout the summer. Sadly, I missed out on the first camping trip of the year (where the legendary Perv Com was created) but I vow to not miss any others for the rest of the summer. Or at least that's what I say now, as sometimes things are out of my control.

Picture of the Crewnit from Estadia de Bonfire, aka Bonfire Stadium in Eklutna

We had a rocking good time, and Amy and I even made it through totally vegan - vegan italian sausages are surprisingly delicious, FYI. If we can make it through an Alaskan camping trip without eating any animal products, I'm fairly certain the both of us are going all the way. Hurrah for our incredible willpower I say.

Hook it to my veins!

Barney Stinson...come on down!!!

So tonight, it's almost bed time and I haven't written a blog in two days. Really, I've only blogged twice so far this month, just when I did it I churned out a lot of content. I haven't really been blogging with consistency, just hitting it with major flurries. Really, there is one major reason as to why I've lacked any real consistency.

How I Met Your Mother.

Pretty much every moment outside of work lately has been dedicated to this legendary TV comedy. It's a little sad.

Sad...but awesome.

I haven't gotten this hooked on a TV show in quite some time, however I've finally hit a wall as there are no more DVD's to watch. I burned through the second season over the last few days and I crave more (the download for season 3 going but the internet claims it will take 3 days to finish...3 days!!! seriously, get your act together internet).

Season 2 may actually have been better than season 1, as one episode late in the season caused me to laugh so hard I had to pause and then rewind a couple minutes because my laughter drowned out the dialogue. The show clearly stepped it up a notch in the comedy department. Another episode ("Slap Bet") both made me cry from laughing and also made me decide I wanted to start betting slaps with friends. Any takers?

I can't recommend this show enough. Get on this now! Costco has them super cheap, you can get both seasons for less than $50 combined! That's a steal of a deal if I've ever seen one.

Back to the point, now that I've exhausted my HIMYM resources, I'll try to post daily throughout the rest of the week, even including the weekend. Also, for those that were wondering I simply couldn't do a Capitalist Pig Tuesday's post. There simply was not anything I deemed worth purchasing, so I didn't want to lead my faithful readership astray.

Top 10 Reasons How I Met Your Mother is the Best Comedy on TV right now

I have a tendency to speak in hyperbole near constantly. It's something I cannot stop and is permanently ingrained into who I am (by the way, while writing this I am eating the best brownies ever made and drinking the best glass of milk ever poured - no kidding). I'll totally admit it too, as even I know I can be ridiculous with some of my statements (I once said Daredevil was a really good adaptation of the comic, which anyone who knows the latter and saw the former knows is an utter lie, sheer denial, and hyperbole up the ying yang) at times.

However, I feel ok with saying this: CBS' How I Met Your Mother is the best comedy on TV right now (shocking, because I hate CBS - this is the first show I've really ever watched on that network). I know I'm rather late to this party and I have not seen the second or the current third season, but I don't care. After tearing through the first season recently (I got on a Jason Segel kick after Forgetting Sarah Marshall) I feel that even though I love 30 Rock, the Office, and Weeds, that this little guy surpasses them all. Why's that? Here's a breakdown in this week's edition of Monday Lists.

1. Arrested Development being cancelled

I figured I'd get this out of the way. It isn't my all-time favorite comedy. That honor goes to Arrested Development, which was prematurely cancelled thus opening the door for HIMYM to take the top spot.

2.Ted Mosby

Ted Mosby is the central character of this show, and is the key to the success of the whole show in reality. His character is from which the majority of the plots spin out of, and his obsession with love and getting married is the key to the whole story. How is this? The central idea to the show is that Ted is telling his kids (in 2030) about how he met their Mother, so the whole show is a big flashback revealing to the kids (and to us) how they got together.

Back to the point though, his love obsession could be grating in others hands, but Josh Radnor (the actor who portrays Ted) handles the situation with a charm and realism that lesser actors likely couldn't lend to the character. If someone besides Radnor had taken the role, the whole thing could have crumbled by now.

3. Heart

Ok, I'm a total sucker for shows with heart. This is of course shocking to some, as my favorite shows all time are Battlestar Galactica and Arrested Development, which are pretty cold really. However, as my Mom used to tell me, I'm a hopeless romantic and frankly, the story to this show really sucks me in. I always loved the concept of a storybook love (or at least the romantic comedy version - also, leave me alone, I can't help it!) and the heart displayed by the characters within this story are fantastically reminiscent of that concept.

Also, in case this is a concern for some...it's full of heart without being cheesy.

4. Marshall and Lily

Marshall and Lily (Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan) are the emotional constant to the show, and one of the funniest on screen couples I've ever seen in TV. Of course, that has a lot to do with the fact that Segel is a comedic genius and Hannigan is unfathomably adorable, but still. Segel and Hannigan manage to be cute without cloying, couply (new word: couple + y) without being annoying, and great together and when apart. They really fit together unbelievably well, and do a great job of tying the rest of the cast together.

5. Chemistry

Speak of the Devil! This cast is greater than the sum of its parts, and that is because each character works so well together. These people seem like the five best friends on the planet, and they did from day one. That's the incredible thing about this cast is how seemless their relationships are. Their relationships remind me of how people described the cast of Friends, except one thing: Friends may have invented this game, but this cast perfected it. Inside jokes feel like inside jokes, ridiculous stories feel like ridiculous stories - everything feels organic, and there is something to be said about that.

6. Robin

Robin (Cobie Smulders) is told by Ted in the very first episode that he loves her. Really, in terms of early frontrunners for being the titual Mother, Robin appears to be a favorite, if not an absolute lock. Her transition into being friends (but perpetual love interest) with Ted and his crew is very well conceived, and Smulders manages to make one of the most thankless and obvious roles in Hollywood (the love interest) her own by imbuing the character with a charm and a wit that are quite often absent from said characters. She feels real, as opposed to just some idealized "dream girl," which ironically makes her the ideal fit for the show.

7. The Music

This is a show that succesfully uses Otis Redding, Belle and Sebastian, and the 88 as plot points. Who couldn't love that? I mean come on, the season ends with Bloc Party's "This Modern Love" playing throughout the final scenes. Want to see how to use music in TV shows? Check that scene, as the instruments and lyrics are perfectly tuned to the on screen happenings.

With so many other shows being considered the harbingers of cool for music, it's incredible that the one that tries less hard than the rest can manage to pull it off better.

8. The Writing

The last sentence of the music breakdown really sums up this show and the writing style. This show seemingly tries less hard to achieve more, and really that stems from the fact that everything is written in an organic and believable fashion. For a sitcom with a (ugh...) laugh track, it's unbelievable that this show can feel so real and that you never feel the disconnect that you do with other shows. The writers cannot be applauded too much for their ability to achieve such a connection with their viewership (or at least with this guy).

Oh yeah, and did I mention the writing is hilarious? Every character is written to be funny, and every episode is packed with laugh out loud moments. There were a number of episodes in which I was crying I was laughing so hard, and those are pretty much the pinnacle of Mt. Laughter.

9. Barney Stinson

Barney is a jerk. Barney is somewhat one note. But Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) is pretty much the man and unbelievably funny. Over the past few years (thanks to this show and the Harold and Kumar movies) NPH has subverted his persona and made himself into one of the best comedic actors around. His sex and suit obsessed Barney has been the breakout character for the show, being constantly quotable ("Suit up" needs to be available for me to use more often) and consistently awesome.

Even though NPH himself describes the character as "part David Spade, part David Letterman and part Regis Philbin," don't hold that against him. He's about 425,326 times better than that description. Really, he's like the depravity of George, the bizarre of Kramer, the mean of Elaine, and the sexual success rate of Jerry combined into one character. Essentially, he's the Fantastic Four if you combined them into one character. Barney is legendary, simply put.

10. Relatability

This is what really makes this my favorite right now. While I cannot relate to the horribly awkward situations in the Office always, the office hilarity and askewness in 30 Rock, or the drug dealing in Weeds, I can definitely relate with a twenty something guy looking to find Mrs. Right. Ted and his friends remind me of me and my friends, and being able to picture yourself in that place is the key to the whole show working really. If you went into this show and thought, "well this isn't like me at all," then it isn't for you. For those that sit down during that pilot and say "yeah...that's about right," well, this one's for you.

This show is perfectly relatable for me if only for the episode "The Pineapple Incident," in which Ted's friends get him to drink heavily so he can turn off his brain. Not that they do that to me often, but it's funny how overthinkers seem so different (and impulsive) when drinking. It's pretty hilarious, and hits strangely close to home - just like the rest of the show.

The Weekend Edition

To wrap up my ode to Alaska that has taken place over the past few posts...thanks Alaska. Thanks a lot. I'm not going to say you ruined my weekend, but I am going to say you significantly altered my weekend. It was still a good weekend, but one that was hampered greatly by 17 inches of snow being dumped upon the greater Anchorage area and quickly followed by the rapid melting of said 17 inches.

For those wondering what exactly that is like, it is not good. It makes driving interesting and even though I get bored bored while driving, I'm definitely not looking for this kind of excitement. However, I'm not one to let Mother Nature bring my chi down, regardless of how evil she is being. Oh no, no I am not. Here's your weekend edition.

• Deciding on a Foosball Table (for the most part)
• Getting my camera (Booyah! See above post)
• Finally catching Lost (explosions, and Benjamin Linus, and smoke monsters! oh my!)
• Going out to Koots with Amy, Chris Sharpe, and Nick
• Dancing like an idiot and getting owned at Foosball
• Harold and Kumar go to Guantanamo Bay
• Bad Movie Night
• Snow City with Brian
• Bstar ruling...ho hum
• Finishing Season One of How I Met Your Mother (more on this later)
• Suite 100 with my parents
• Rocking out with Amy

So it was a good weekend, but one that was forced to take place almost entirely inside when it was originally planned to feature the Heart Run and a hike at a nearby mountain. Oh yeah, and it was also planned to have nice weather. Thanks for ruining plans Alaska!

Anyways, what am I going to elaborate on this week?


Well, this weekend's highlight had to be the bad movie night. Although less good than previous successes (but really, what night can top two times ago - Sleepaway Camp AND Surf School? Nothing. That is the only answer) it was still a fairly successful one. Really, the keys to any bad movie night are fairly simple:

• Good mix of people
• Alcohol (or sugar/caffeine if underage)
• Movies must try to be good - cannot try to be bad
• Must include one Uwe Boll movie
• Must mix genres (although horror movies from the 80's are seemingly always good picks)

We had a strong mix, with Colver, Lorna, Amy, Brian, and myself being involved (stalwart Kim is off in the Carribbean having the time of her life - damn her!), plenty of drinks, we had Dungeon Siege to cover our Uwe Boll base (you haven't seen someone phone it in until you've seen Ray Liotta phone it in), and we had a fine mix of genres that all thought they were great (Dungeon Siege, Ski School 2, Bounty Huntress, and I Know Who Killed Me). On top of that, we had the unnecessary but wholly welcome addition of a Manhattan Pizza (amazing pizza).

It was a great time, however we made two huge mistakes - we started with Dungeon Siege which was over two hours long (total rookie mistake) and we Lorna somehow managed to pick a Skinemax movie for the third consecutive bad movie night (we knew it, but we thought we could make it work...again). They definitely brought the night down a bit, but we made it work great anyways. It was a great time like always, and any night I get to spend with my great friends is always one well worth spending. Especially when we're impersonating episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which is always great.

The Weekend Edition

To keep with tradition, this evening I present to you the weekend edition of A Slice of Fried Gold, also known as "Why the previous weekend rocked." However, once again due to my forgetful nature there was no camera present (others did have cameras though, so we'll see what I come up with later) and sadly I have absolutely no pictures. My bad! In standard fashion, I'll break it down in a Cliff's Notes format, and then go into details about a one or two specific happenings.

• First dinner ever at Ginger
• Cirque Dreams at the Performing Arts Center with Colver, Lorna, and Kim
• Palmer Open House for GCI
• Being recruited to be a mascot performer
• Dancing at a busy intersection in Palmer with a coworker
• Making sushi for the first time with Amy
• Jason's Bday BBQ
• Rocking killer vocal/guitar duets on Rock Band with Amy
• King's Cup again
• Wrestling and rap battling
• Tragedy striking Battlestar Galactica
• Forgetting Sarah Marshall with the crew
• Finally watching my How I Met Your Mother DVD's and falling in love

So yeah, busy weekend as per usual. Fueled by coffee and tons of delicious food, it all went really well and I had a ton of fun. Plus the weekend was gorgeous, with blue skies and sunlight in every direction along with 55 (!!) degree weather - leave us alone lower 48, we're Alaska, that's as good as we get. I really do think that nothing beats Alaskan summers, and I'm already getting that feeling even though the snow hasn't even left us quite yet.

What stood out this weekend? Well, in particular the GCI open house was a huge success, and I had a ton of fun joking around with coworkers, high fiving Bob the Builder, dancing at intersections to attract traffic, and being amazed at various networks ability to only hire attractive girls to work for them (at our open house there were two PBS Sprout reps, and they were both very nice and very cute).

In particular, I was pretty jazzed and my energy apparently stood out to a lot of people around me, including one of the people involved with the "talent" - aka the guys in the Bob the Builder outfit - who asked me to send in a resume to do mascot work in Alaska. Obviously, I won't do this, but if I'm ever in need of a third revenue stream (along with my primary job at GCI and my side business with Amy) I can always act as an Eagle or Tony the Tiger for a few hours and make bank. Seriously funny though, and I'm glad I seem to have the skill set necessary to run around in an oversized character costume.

Also standing out this weekend was the performance of Cirque Dreams that Kim, Lorna, Colver, and I attended, which was spectacular and very entertaining. My good friend Sobo always raved about the Cirque events, but I was never really interested in it. Now? Pretty impressed, as the show we went to was extremely well performed and visually arresting in a way I didn't really think it would be. Sure, it was still cheesy like I thought it would be, but it was a lot of fun and I love trying new things. This was definitely new, and I'm glad I had another weekend with so many new and exciting experiences.