Channel 4 did a show recently highlighting the decades best TV shows as we entered 2010. I watched it with great expectations, waiting to recap my favorite TV moments of recent years.

Unfortunately, it was a dreadful show. Sure, they had some good shouts such as Life on Mars, but overall it was very Brit biased when in fact, most of the best shows have come from the US. I hate to say it, but it’s true. So here’s my list, feel free to tell me I’m wrong.

Channel 4 did a top ten. If you want a top ten, Marty is your man. I like fives. And I’m lazy.

Life on Mars (2006-2007)
The concept sounded absolutly ridiculous to me. It was a police show, that was a time travel show, but wasn’t a time travel show. Ok…
….the lead character, Sam Tyler (John Simm) is a DCI in modern day Britain. Where shows like CSI glamourise the detail of police shows, it seems to show as a more realistic mundane and soulless environment. After he gets hit by a car and ends up in a coma, he finds himself in the 70′s when police work was done by intuition and following instinct, more than science and technology.

Aside from being a pretty damn good police drama, Life on Mars placed the misogynistic Gene Hunt (Phillip Glennister) as Sam’s rival. He was everything Sam wasn’t and the two complimented, and learned form each other. Sam became alive again by figting against and learning from a more pro-active style where Hunt would learn morality and a better sense of justice.

More importantly, if Sam was in a coma, what was this world? Was he really in the 70′s? Or was this world just his mind grasping onto a reality he desperately wanted? He would find himself up against people he’d failed to capture in his own time, find out the truth about his father, learn about himself and in the end… all that learning led to one of the best TV endings I have ever seen.

The Big Bang Theory (2007-current)
Alright, I’m sure some will say there are better comedies out there. For me, this is the greatest that’s still on air.

The key to comedy being a success is bringing in a wide audience. Friends was the master above all of making something for everyone, and although some disagree, that makes it one of the best of all time in my view. But the Big Bang Theory is something accessable to me. Something I relate with more than Frasier, Curb, Friends or any other sitcom out there today.

We have two socially awkward genius level roommates, two genus level but still socially awkward friends, and one hot girl across the hall. A lot of people won’t get it, some of the jokes will be too subtle and a lot of the jokes will be too niche. But as a geek, to watch someone become overjoyed at the thought of having Leonard Nimoy’s napkin, therefore his DNA, or giggling t himself because he can make Cylon Toast… it’s funny as hell.

Dexter (2006-current)
This appealed to me right off the bat. A police drama where the lead was a serial killer trying to hide his identity. Based on Jeff Linday’s novels, Dexer Morgan (Michael C Hall) is a blood spatter expert working for Miami Metro PD who moonlights as a serial killer. This thirst to kill was nurtured by his stepfather, Harry Morgan (James Remar) who trained him to kill the bad guys who spilled through the net and evaded justice.

And thats part of the shows brilliance. Dexter is, at his core, a cold blooded killer who can’t connect with people. He’s socially awkward, not a particular spectacular person and the very fact that he’s a killer should make him the bad guy. But of course, he’s not killing good guys. He’s killing evil men. He’s a hero. Better yet, there is such a strong history between him and his father which is often shown through flashbacks that gain so much sympathy from the viewer. He constantly questions himself, who he really is, and this makes you wonder… is he a killer because he saw his mother hacked to pieces in front of him? Is he a killer because Harry taught him to be? Or was he born a killer?

Each season has forced severe dilemna’s with Dexter. From trying to lead a normal life, to avoiding being caught, to being stalked by another killer and theres more inbetween such as discovering more about his past and even gaining a student.

The lead character is incredibly engaging, but they don’t stop there. The filthy mouthed sister, the nice guy best friend, the manic sergeant chasing him, the girlfriend and her children… everyone has their moment and everyone is a huge influence on Dexters life. Whether it’s bad or good. His struggles have become engaging and incredibly written television that is a must see.

Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009).
A new take on a cult classic. The original BSG wouldn’t work on todays audiences unless it was a kids show. A revival scared a lot of people and even the actors cast were uneasy about taking the role, thinkingit would kill their careers. but what the show became was tremendous.

The basic plots the same deal. The Cylons have attacked, humanities homes are destroyed and we’re now on the run. What this new version allowed there to be was pain. A lot of pain and a lot of suffering. Each and every character was flawed. Even their leader, Adama (Edward James Olmos) and his go-to guy Colonel Tigh (Paul Hogan) was a drunken wreck of a man.

No character was good or evil. Even the bad guys, upgraded to synthetic human replicas from the metal men from the original, were so deep that there was good in them.

If you want to read more thoughts, go here, but overall, where a lot of science fiction runs the risk of falling off into it’s own reality, BSG stayed grounded, real and emotional. There were so many mirrors cast on our own reality that it became such great entertainment and far grittier and accessible than anything Sci-Fi/SyFy had produced before.

And the winner is…

Lost (2004-2010)
Alright, so a lot of people will disagree. A lot of people thought it was too complex, wasn’t going anywhere, the writers were making it up as they went along…

Every one of these critiques has been answered logically and they miss the best part, it’s fun. More importantly for me, unlike other TV shows where the audience will sit down and watch mindlessly, with Lost you really have to keep your eye on the ball. If theres a statue in the background in a scene with a bar brawl, you best remember that statue as you’ll see it two years later.

Lost was a show about a group of survivors. Their plane had crashed on an Islnd. They didn’t know where they were, they didn’t know if they’d be rescued and the longest they were on that Island, the spookier it became with another secret native group living there, mysteries popping up, secret hatches and abandonned research centres, everyones lives crossing at some point or another… there was elements of destiny at work, time travel, supernatural beings, secret projects, men coming back from the dead and thats only the highlights I can think of.

Despite it’s success killing it during the third season when the networks wanted it to last a while, causing th writers to drag it out, it kicked back into action and got back to the twists and turns it was famous for once they were promised it would end in 2010. But despite the twists, flash forwards, flash backs, the mystery of the Island and it’s people, the real talent came in it’s story telling.

Desmong was a man discovered in the second season who had been trapped on the Island. He’d gone on a boat trip around the world to prove his worth to his lovers father. The plots between Desmond and Penny were ridiculous. He travelled back in time, he hunted him down, there was some Days of our Lives drama with her father (who just happens to be Jim Robinson) and yet it was told in such aa way that only a monster couldn’t shed a tear.

For the emotion, the concepts, making the audience think, the twists and the characters… I rate this number one.

Honorable mentions go to the Wire, the Office (UK), The West Wing, The Soprano’s and Curb Your Enthusiasm. But if you think I’m wrong, feel free to tell me what you loved on your TV more these past ten years.

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Tags: fives, sci fi, telebox