"Supernatural," "The Middle," "Attack of the Show," "The Real World" and More: The Top 10 List You Won't See Anywhere Else, 2009 Edition - Ed Martin - MediaBizBloggers

In advance of next week39s column naming the Ten Best Television Programs of 2009 here is my second annual Alternative Ten Best list featuring noteworthy shows that likely won39t land on many if any Top 10 lineups but still deserve special recognitionAmerican Idol Fox amp8211 The producers of American Idol made many major boneheaded decisions this season that judgesamp8217 vote thing ceding so much power to Simon Cowell the addition of a fourth judge but even their suicidal tendencies couldnamp8217t kill this mighty franchise Outside of a few football and baseball showdowns the final round of competition between Adam Lambert and Kris Allen was the most exciting television event of the yearamp160The Middle ABC amp8211 Forgive me if Iamp8217m forgetting one but I donamp8217t think there has been a genuinely funny downtoearth timely broadcast sitcom that dared to focus on a cashstrapped working class American family since Roseanne at its peak No I havenamp8217t spaced on Malcolm in the Middle a personal favorite of mine Malcolm was a bit amp8220out thereamp8221 and made no claim to realism So hereamp8217s three cheers for the harried Hecks of smalltown Indiana Carsalesperson mom Frankie Patricia Heaton quarry manager dad Mike Neil Flynn dim teen jock and horn dog Axl Charlie McDermott socially awkward outcast Sue Eden Sher and bizarre little Brick Atticus Shaffer an instant scenestealer I hope they stay with us for yearsamp160The Soup E amp8211 Eamp8217s weekly take on the highs and lows of reality television and popculture jawdroppers is still TVamp8217s Funniest Show That has a lot to do with the talents of host Joel McHale who lost none of his comic timing despite losing a lot of sleep after adding a lead role in the new NBC sitcom Community to his workload He still plays club dates too Executive producers Ed Boyd and KP Anderson have also proven tireless taking on three additional shows on Eamp8217s sister networks Web Soup on G4 The Dish on Style and Sports Soup on Versus without letting The Soup slip Should McHale need to lighten his load next year with an occasional guest host E need look no further than Web Soupamp8217s agreeable Chris Hardwick another effortlessly funny fellow amp160amp160amp160amp160amp160Attack of the Show G4 amp8211 G4amp8217s live daily nobudget wonder Attack of the Show remains the coolest show on any screen There is no more entertaining rundown of the dayamp8217s technology and entertainment news in any medium Cohosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn and their team do so much with so little they put to shame the many television productions that do so little with so much My thanks again to the good people at G4 who managed to slip me into the AOTS presentation at last summeramp8217s ComicCon only a few hundred fans got in while thousands who had come to worship geek god and goddess Pereira and Munn were turned away Hereamp8217s hoping they get a bigger room next year amp160The Real World Brooklyn MTV amp8211 There is very little of any real interest on MTV these days and that includes the godfather of modern observational reality shows The Real World amp160Its most recent cycle set in Cancun was a sweaty dud But TRWamp8217s surprisingly effective twentysecond season set in Brooklyn proved to be the most profound since its third which was set in San Francisco and chronicled the personal heroism of the late Pedro Zamora a young man who was HIVpositive at the time of the programamp8217s production Interestingly in one episode of Brooklyn the kids attended a private screening of Pedro a madeforMTV movie written by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black about TRW legend Zamora Among other memorable young people Brooklyn introduced viewers to goodnatured guitar player Ryan Conklin an Iraq War veteran coping with posttraumatic stress who was called up for a second tour while the show was being filmed The fear and heartbreak that filled the house was palpable In another first for this groundbreaking franchise Brooklyn also featured a transgendered woman Katelynn Cusanelli who was still adjusting to her new lifeamp160Sons of Anarchy FX amp8211 It didnamp8217t make much of a splash during its first season but FXamp8217s blunt blistering violent and sometimes lunatic biker drama became a sensation during its sophomore year often earning higher ratings than some of its broadcast competitors among male demographics Attention Emmy Katey Sagal as nailtough motorcycle mama Gemma Teller Morrow deserves to be included alongside Glenn Close Kyra Sedgwick January Jones Juliana Margulies and Holly Hunter when next yearamp8217s nominees for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series are announced Remember thatamp160Supernatural The CW amp8211 Now in its fifth season this multilayered weekly monster movie about two brothers battling external and internal demons with equal heft might give Lost a run for its money as broadcast televisionamp8217s most ambitious series Thatamp8217s because its current story arc finds selfsacrificing bros Sam and Dean Winchester strikingly well played by Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles respectively caught in the middle of the Apocalypse Satan is already on the canvas and while God has been missing in action it wouldnamp8217t surprise me at all if genius executive producer Eric Kripke amp8211 who often works moments of grand humor into the grim goingson figured out a clever way to get Him involved as wellamp160Skins BBC America amp8211 The first two seasons of this BBC drama about contemporary teenagers made the top of my official Ten Best list last year largely because they made for the best and most realistic series about kids in the history of the medium Season 3 is still aamp160 cut above the rest in part because of its sublime production values but Iamp8217m sliding it from my official list to this oneamp160 because even though the drama of it all remains painfully real there is a new emphasis on rude and raunchy comedy that sometimes reminds me of Porkyamp8217s I also miss the original cast which was eliminated in its entirety in favor of a new group I understand MTV is producing an American version of this show How I wish HBO or Showtime or AMC were doing so insteadamp160Any Dream Will DoHow Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria BBC America amp8211 It seems to me that the increasingly clumsy producers of American Idol would do well to study these delightful twoyearold British singing competition series The brainchildren of musical theater legend Andrew Lloyd Webber who appeared on both as overlord and master judge these shows were talent contests that offered as grand prizes starring roles in the recent West End productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Sound of Music respectively Most of the young men and women who made it to the finals on these shows could readily outperform the average Idol contestant while the smart and articulate judges could easily kick their Idol counterparts to the curb So what if Dream and Maria were old Who cares that the identity of the winners was just a Google away Lively colorful wellproduced and thoughtful entertainment is timelessamp160The Secret Life of the American Teenager ABC Family amp8211 Iamp8217m reasonably certain that the hormonedriven teenysomething drama Secret Life wonamp8217t show up on very many if any Top 10 lists this year but Iamp8217m including it here for three reasons First itamp8217s an effective bridge between the kidtargeted scripted series on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and the more adult scripted fare on so many other networks especially The CW and as such may be the best effort by any network anywhere at keeping young teenagers interested in television programming outside of the reality genre Second for all the talk of sex breasts and unplanned pregnancy the crucial message of this show always comes through without being preachy Parents should talk to their kids about sex or at least provide an environment in which their kids can broach the subject with them Third even with all the teen promiscuity and sex talk which can be numbingly repetitive at times Secret Life reminds me of the family friendly television series I grew up watching Simplicity still counts for something especially when so many things including television are so complicated

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"Supernatural," "The Middle," "Attack of the Show," "The Real World" and More: The Top 10 List You Won't See Anywhere Else, 2009 Edition - Ed Martin - MediaBizBloggers

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