I'll try to be more regular these days - I swear

Okay, so I get my SiteMeter numbers every week and I know there are a few of you out there who are still checking in regularly. For that I'd like to thank you and reward you with a new post. So, here it is - you lucky few.

I'm gonna start where I almost always start: with TV.

As the 2005/2006 season winds down I have a short list of both highlights and low-lights that I will now pass on to all of you.

I am still about a month and a half behind in television land so for me there's still plenty of TV left but for everyone else, this is what I think you should have been doing all year.

Highlights (network TV):

1. Prison Break/Lost - To everyone who said that scripted TV was dead, I say, in the immortal words of Bill the Cat, "Ptthbbbt!" These two shows single-handedly brought quality television back to the water cooler. Naturally, 24 did this as well but I don't watch any show that is impossible to get back into if you miss even one episode. This is also why the impending end of Alias means less than nothing to me.

2. Gilmore Girls - Perrenial favorite yes, but still high-quality television suitable for everyone (yes, mom, even you). The girls have been a bit off their games for a while this season but from what I've read that'll be changing even in the episodes I have recorded and have yet to watch. The series creators are taking a walk after this season (presumably to go create another show because, God forbid, someone who hasn't ever made a show get a shot at something new. I mean Carsey-Werner are still making shows and it seems as though every season someone's trying to lure Stephen Bochco back to work) but, also from what I've read, the series will be in good hands after they leave. Call me optimistic, but I'm not worried.

3. Veronica Mars - Ben Green calls this the BEST show on television and I think he's onto something there. Every once in a while I think I'm not into watching this and then I pop one into the VCR or hear that satisfying "bloop" from my TiVo and the next thing I know I'm pulled back in and have to watch like three episodes back-to-back. I mean, come on, it took me like half the season to even really figure out what the actual mystery this season was. Bus crash, I mean, obviously. But I just didn't figure out the fact that it was the search for the "whodunnit" that was the central theme. I think I was too distracted by either Steve Guttenberg or the Veronica/Logan push-pull romance. And what exactly is Charisma Carpenter's job here? I mean aside from filling out dresses (and un-dresses) to perfection.

4. How I Met Your Mother/Two and a Half Men - This back-to-back sitcom duo is the funniest hour on television in ages. Doogie Howser has his schtick down to science and I still can't figure out how come everyone isn't telling everyone else to "Suit up!" like every day. I get the most consistent laughs since Seinfeld from every episode of Two and a Half Men. I am constantly switching back and forth between thinking the genius of the show is Charlie Sheen or Jon Cryer (Go Duckie!) but either way I'm usually too busy busting a gut to care. And, squeaking in under the wire and rounding out Monday nights, The New Adventures of Old Christine has proven, at least to me, that the Seinfeld curse was nothing more than crummy shows. Julia Louise-Dreyfus is a total riot. Everyone else on this show is kinda bland but she holds it down anyway.

5. Bones - I've been a fan of Emily Deschanel's sister, Zooey, for ages but putting Emily together with David Boreanaz (Angel) was the smartest casting on the small screen in ages. The spark (it's been a long time since I've read TVGal at Zap2It.com and I wonder if she's come around to this yet). Every time I start to get bored with this show, it takes a surprising turn and draws me back into a new facet I wasn't even paying attention to earlier. And the "squints" are more than just background scenery in this smart show.


Low-lights (network TV):

1. Inexplicable (and unnecessarily long) breaks - Both Everwood and Prison Break were taken away from us for what seemed like forever. I mean, really, how is that supposed to help a show. Especially something like Everwood which with the coming CW (the combining of UPN and the WB) is already on shaky ground? Prison Break I'm back for and I've watched a couple of Everwood's since it came back but honestly this was not good programming.

2. Grey's Anatomy - I can't take credit for this but I can't remember where I read it so I can't actually give the credit either but I read somewhere about the protagonist fo the show that (probably more of a paraphrase than an actual quote but...) "Not since Ally McBeal has a character been this adept at making EVERYTHING that happens be all about her." And it's true. Izzy not withstanding this show is just plain, bland programming that has somehow caught the eye of America. And the soundtrack is about a year behind good television. If you like the music, watch The O.C. or just about any teen drama on the WB, you'll hear it all first.

3. Reality TV - Isn't this over yet? Survivor, nope. Biggest Loser, really? Those nanny shows or the ones where they trade spouses, are you kidding? And celebrity (and I use that term loosely) reality, I mean, come on, how do they know what's reality? And I save my most vitriolic rants for The Apprentice. Why on Earth is anyone watching the Donald? Seriously, someone tell me.

4. CSI/Law & Order - Now, I, like most people who watched TV in the mid- to late-90s, was a big fan of the original Law & Order series but this is just too much. Too, too much. And don't get me started on CSI. Any of them. Any at all. Like Emily Gilmore said a couple of seasons ago, "I guess I'm just not as interested in forensic science as the rest of America."

5. Living with Fran - It takes a lot for me to not be able to sit through something with Fran Drescher (yes, it's true. I will not apologize for it.) but this show stinks. Badly. Like my old Stan Smiths - and those were some STINKY shoes.

Best of the rest:

Pros Versus Joes on FX - Funny. Think you can take on a pro who's a bit past their prime? So did these guys. And they couldn't. Especially on a football field. Or really any field at all.

Monk - Yeah, it's still like Columbo with less coordination but it's like a little slice of genius in a cable wasteland. That and I love Traylor Howard.

The O.C. - For me, it's all about Summer. All. And then a little Nikki Reid.

Classic Concerts & Decades Live (VH-1 Classic)/Crossroads (CMT)/Austin City Limits (PBS)/SNL (NBC & E!) - TiVo has made it SOO easy to record and then transfer to another medium live music from television. With quality sound. LOVE IT!

Okay. There it is. I promise something a little different for next week.

Thanks everybody. Keep it real. Catch you on the flipside.