When Eleven Equals Ten

Yet another television season has come to a close, and it's yet another year in which I have 11 top-10 shows. I guess that math was never my strongest subject.

Anyway... onto the best of the 2006-2007 television season:


10 (tie) How I Met Your Mother (CBS)

How I Met Your Mother truly came into its own in season two… and if you didn’t laugh out loud while watching the “Robin Sparkles” episode, then you wouldn't recognize true situation comedy if it hit you in the face... which, by the way, would be funny.


10 (tie) 30 Rock (NBC)

I loved 30 Rock’s first pilot… which NBC went on to scrap… and I found myself disappointed with its retooled pilot. However, something unusual happened as the season wore on: 30 Rock improved. Markedly so. The show became tighter and funnier… Tina Fey’s character became the straight center of the show (around which all of the inanity revolved), and Alec Baldwin’s character was allowed to truly blossom. Slowly, but surely, 30 Rock is turning into my new Arrested Development.


9. Heroes (NBC)
Heroes took a page out of the Lost playbook, and spun it into new directions... and gave NBC its first breakout hit in many years. However, a disappointing season finale took a lot of the wind out of the sails of our Heroes, leaving us to wonder if season two will live up to season one.


8. The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS)

Christine is still a classic-in-the-making. To the producers: I implore you to get the brother out of Christine’s house and to upgrade Wanda Sykes to series regular. With just a couple of tweaks, in no time at all you’ll be able to shed your “classic-in-the-making” moniker for the title of “modern classic.” And that's a promise.


7. The Simpsons (Fox)

The Simpsons… well, it ain’t what it used to be. Not even close. Take out your season four and season five Simpsons DVDs for a viewing party, and then you’ll see what I mean. That being said… even a lukewarm episode of The Simpsons in its 18th season is better than most of what passes for comedy on television these days.


6. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)

Studio 60 has to be the biggest disappointment of the season. After viewing the Studio 60 pilot last spring, I had proclaimed it to be the best pilot that I had ever seen. Yes, it was that good. Yet something happened as the season progressed: the quality of the show dropped. By the end of the season, that drop had become precipitous... and when all was said and done, Studio 60 was relegated to the cancellation heap. What a shame.


5. Jericho (CBS)

If Studio 60 was the season’s biggest disappointment, then Jericho would have to be this season’s most pleasant surprise. Dark and claustrophobic, Jericho follows the Lost manual of storytelling (that Lost playbook was popular this year, wasn't it?) in its portrayal of a small Kansas town struggling to survive in a post-nuclear-bombs-hit-America world. Kudos to CBS for trying something different from its usual spate of crime procedurals, and double-kudos to the Eye for reversing its original Jericho cancellation order.


4. I Love New York (VH1)

I Love New York was without a doubt this season’s guiltiest (and most addictive) pleasure. A spin-off of the outrageous Flavor of Love, the equally outrageous I Love New York shined its spotlight on two-time Flavor of Love runner-up Tiffany Pollard as she attempted to find love in a mansion filled with twenty eligible bachelors. It played as a kind-of retread of ABC’s The Bachelorette... on crack, that is. Word of advice: do not miss I Love New York 2, coming later this year on VH1.


3. Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

There’s no better person who mixes political humor with political commentary than Bill Maher.


2. The Sopranos (HBO)

Well, this is really the end of the line for The Sopranos... and that end came in the form of a series finale that'll go down as one of the greatest series finales in television history. If you saw the closing scene of the finale, then you'll never look at a basket of onion rings in the same way again.


1. Lost (ABC)

Scheduling snafus by ABC aside, Lost truly was once again this year the best of the best. And after seeing Lost's extraordinarily-good, game-changing season finale, the idea of having to wait until next February to see our favorite island castaways again becomes that much more painful. I'm counting the days already...

The Good News: No Chicken George

With the season 8 debut of CBS’s Big Brother just a week away, it’s time to fill you in on some of the changes in store for this summer’s edition of the “trapped in the house” series…


1. EXTREME MAKEOVER
The Big Brother house itself is undergoing a makeover. Expect an “Alice in Wonderland” theme to the house, with some rooms featuring very-oversized furniture, and other rooms featuring tiny chairs and beds. One of the bedrooms, with its miniature theme, will have a dollhouse-like feel to it.


2. PULL THE STRINGS
In 2007, Big Brother will be more interactive than ever. In a new element to the show, entitled "America’s Player," houseguests will have new chances to win money and prizes…by carrying out actions requested by viewers via the internet or text-messaging.


3. I’VE GOT A BEEF WITH YOU PEOPLE
Presumably, a few of the houseguests have known each other in the past… and didn’t necessarily get along.


4. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
Do you like your Big Brother live, uncut and unedited? Then have I got a show for you! Big Brother: After Dark will run live nightly at midnight, exclusively for subscribers of the Showtime Too channel.


5. SLOP, WITH A SIDE OF SLOP
Big Brother’s own punishment gruel, affectionately known as “slop,” returns for a second season. In previous seasons, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were used as punishment for houseguests who lost competitions. Last season, the slop was introduced in place of the PB&J, and apparently was so popular (with viewers, at least) that it’s coming back for another year.


The eighth season of Big Brother premieres Thursday, July 5 at 8:00pm on CBS.

What's Rose Doing on a Monk's Desk?

Whether you know me in "real life," or whether you know me only from reading this blog, you know one thing about me for sure: I am a huge fan of Lost.

So, imagine my excitement last weekend when I found myself at the same party with actress Fionnula Flanagan. While she's best known these days for her role as matriarch Rose Caffee on the Showtime series Brotherhood, my fascination with Ms. Flanagan stems from her guest appearance last season on the aforementioned Lost.

Flanagan turned up in a Desmond-centric episode of Lost, in which she played Ms. Hawking, a salesperson in a jewelry store... a somewhat mysterious salesperson, actually, as she ultimately ended up delivering a strange message to Desmond. Very weird, and naturally very much in the style of Lost.

Now, what makes Ms. Flanagan's connection to Lost even more important is that, several weeks after her appearance on the show, her photograph turned up in yet another episode. For reasons that have yet to be explained to us, the humble viewers, a photo of Ms. Flanagan was in a monastery (of all places), perched on the desk of the monastery's head monk! Huh? Ms. Hawking... and the head monk? It was one of those "blink and you miss it" moments for which Lost is famous... thank god for the freeze-frame button on my TiVo! Of course, I was completely perplexed, and I became obsessed with learning the connection.

Fast-forward to last Saturday night: I was at the closing-night party of the Newport International Film Festival. As I was engaging in casual conversation with some friends, I turned my head and... there she was: Fionnula Flanagan! Immediately, and almost instinctually, I bolted from my conversation in order to head across the room in order to introduce myself to Ms. Flanagan. After she and I exchanged some pleasantries, I came right to the point: I was there to ask her a question. THE question. I said to her... "I have to know - what was your photo doing on the monk's desk on Lost?"

Here it was. The moment I'd been waiting for. I was about to get an answer to one of Lost's more vexing "blink and you miss it" mysteries. As my anticipation built, she responded with a direct and to-the-point "I don't know." It turns out that the whole thing was a mystery to her as well! In fact, she's been kind of lost on Lost, and had asked her agent to send her the Lost DVDs so that she can at least get caught up on the show. Why would she want to get caught up on the show, you may ask? Well, because she'll likely be making another appearance on the show next season! Get ready for the return of Ms. Hawking! But what about the monk?

Anyway... she's expecting to be invited to a Lost party in the not-too-distant future, and she hopes to get some answers to the mystery of who her character really is... and why that monk has her photo on his desk. She said that she'd let me know if she finds anything out... but something tells me that I'm going to vanish from her memory faster than Nikki and Paolo vanished from the Lost island.