babbling blue

Those of you who know me well know that I watch a lot of TV. I mean, a lot of TV. It’s my number 1 hobby. Hey, don’t look at me like that. Everyone needs a hobby and I’m very good at mine. Okay?

I watch so much TV that it’s very tough to pick a few shows and say that they’re my favorites. But I’m going to try. So here is another installment in the “My Favorite Things” series. I am limiting myself this time to shows currently in production. Here they are, in no particular order.

“The Wire” on HBO
This is a cop show, plus. It’s not a crime procedural of the likes of “Law & Order” or “CSI”. Rather it’s a drama in which we see both sides of the coin, cops & robbers (or in most cases drug dealers). In both cases we get a glimpse of how the characters’ work affects their lives. Extremely well written and acted and produced.

“24” on FOX
Unless you live under a rock, you probably at least know about this show. It’s a show that takes place in “real time”, each episode lasting an hour and each season taking one day. It revolves around Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) a Los Angeles counter-terrorist agent. In every season lots of people die and things blow up. While they often take considerable liberties with the real-time format, it’s a great action/suspense show unlike anything else.

“Boston Legal” on ABC
It’s really the actors that make this show great, though it’s also pretty well-written. The show features Candace Bergen (you know, Murphy Brown), Renee Auberjonois (Constable Odo from “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and James Spader (the only actor left from “The Practice” from which this show was spun off). But the man who really makes the show is William Shatner. I’m serious. “Denny Crane!” The show is theoretically a legal drama, but it’s more of a dramedy as it’s constantly making me laugh.

“Arrested Development” on FOX
The only sitcom to make the list. This show is brilliant. Perhaps it’s too brilliant, since while it’s a critical darling it’s done mediocre in terms of ratings and always seems to be on the verge of cancellation. The theory I’ve seen espoused online is that the show is too clever for the average viewer. Maybe it is. I’m behind on this show by quite a bit. Thanks to Netflix, I’m catching up though. The show revolves around the quirky Bluth family, whose patriarch (Jeffrey Tambor) was arrested for various white-collar crimes. The most sane adult in the family, Michael (Jason Bateman) is trying to keep everything together. I can’t do it justice in a paragraph. Watch it for yourself!

“The Shield” on FX
A very gritty and realistic (from what I hear) cop show. There are a lot of excellent characters portrayed by an extremely talented cast, but the center about which the show revolves is Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis, who apparently got demoted since “The Commish”). Mackey is a dirty, violent cop. But strangely enough he seems to mean well. He’s constantly haunted by the fact that he once killed a fellow cop and covered it up. This show loves to push the limits and I always look forward to the next episode.

I don’t want to make this too long, so I’ll stop there. But I want to include a few honorable mentions that I’d feel remiss in leaving out. They are: “Jeopardy!”, “Battlestar Galactica”, “Family Guy”, “Nip/Tuck”, “Commander in Chief”, “MI-5″ (”Spooks” on BBC), “Without a Trace”.

If you follow any of the same shows and want to chat about ‘em, let me know.

Edit: I realized when I saw a commercial for it last night that I forgot to include “Prison Break” as an honorable mention.