QotD: Top 5 in '06 - Television

What were your top 5 TV shows of 2006?

Easy peasy!

5.  24

24 lands the fifth place slot by default, because it has been so long since we have had fresh episodes.  That said, this is a best list, so fifth best is still amazing, as is 24, which manages to dish up suspense, intrigue excitement and torture, without victimizing its audience.  JJ Abrams should take notes, and bring them back to the Lost writers' room (since we can't see him getting David Fury, himself, to return from 24, but we digress...).

4.  Heroes

We are so head-over-heels about Heroes (and Hiro), we're tempted to rank it higher, but it is still too new.  So far though, we haven't been disappointed by a minute of it, and highly recommend you start watching.  Now.

3.  Veronica Mars

Our hearts were insisting we list Veronica Mars in our number 1 slot, because for some reason, we love it best of all.  Our heads, however, overruled our hearts, and our heads control the typing fingers.  Veronica Mars is still our won't-miss show way above and beyond all other (currently on-the-air) don't-miss-shows, but we have quibbles we hope to get into (in detail) when the new episodes start up, in January.  Veronica Mars is still fresh, still exciting in its moral ambiguity, still sharp as a tack, but it's been missing by miles some of the finer emotional notes it used to be nail while blindfolded, fifty paces away.  Rob Thomas, because we're rooting for you, we sentence you to watch 22 hours of our number 2 show, and 11 hours of our number 1 show, so you'll know what we're talking about.  You'll thank us for it.   So will your audience. 

2.  Battlestar Galactica

We can't even...our love for BSG is so huge.  After our number one choice, it's the most realistic show on television -- since Buffy the Vampire Slayer bowed.  What's that?  You're scoffing at our claim that shows about Cylons and Vampires are steeped in realism?  Who are you, Rob Thomas?  Watch.  Watch.  Watch.  Feel the pain.  Feel the shame.  Feel the burn.  Feel Jamie Bambers arms--er...the emotions resonate within you.  The only show that's liable to grab you harder is...   

1.  The Office

The Office is the little show that not only could, but did, does, and as far as we can tell, always will.  It's so simple, and as an American make-over of a brilliant British original series, it's own brilliance was so unexpected.  The characters don't have big jobs saving lives, or convicting murders.  They don't have big hair.  They don't even have big breasts.  They're dowdy cube jockeys in a dowdy office park in dowdy Scranton, Pennsylvania.  They're awful.  They're wonderful.  They're awfully wonderful, and they're ours -- our favorites, that is.