Top 5 Fridays – Best new shows of the year

As another season of TV winds down with a week or two of season (and sometimes series) finales, you will be missed LOST, I feel it is time to let you know what my 5 favorite new shows of the year are. And these are ones that will be back next year so you can look forward to them in the fall.

5. The Middle (ABC) – This is a show that I had no intention on ever watching and it was purely my curiosity that got the best of me and got me hooked. I never watched a single second of Everybody Loves Raymond, so my adoration and appreciation of Patricia Heaton is minimal at best. I am an avid fan of the original Scrubs (not the redux that they tried to push off on us this year that was just an insult to the originality of the true show) so I was familiar with the work of Neil Flynn and wanted to see what he was capable of outside of Sacred Heart Hospital. What we get here is a funny and charming slice of life comedy set in a small town in Indiana. It is not ground breaking by any stretch but it is well written and quite funny. The cast of kids in the show is also very strong. They don’t play to the cute, overly smart traps that a lot of shows tend to go for. My favorite of the bunch is Eden Sher as Sue Heck. This girl is so awkward and geeky and at the same time utterly hopeful and adorable. Don’t be fooled by its title or casting, this is a very strong comedy in a year of VERY strong comedies.

4. Justified (FX) – I recently wrote a post about how much I like this show. And not everyone agrees with me (Steve) but I stand fast in my support of this show. Timothy Olyphant is near perfect as Raylan Givens, a US Marshall sent back to his home state of Kentucky. There he encounters his past while trying to deal with his present actions. The casting is great and the use of Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole” as a pilot is the best way to set the tone and mood of what is to come for the season. Every hour is entertaining and well written and directed. There is the perfect amount of plot development and each episode tries new themes and drama. I also love how it is shot in LA but is set in Lexington, KY. It had me fooled.

3. Modern Family (ABC) – Few shows come flying out of the gate as fast as this one did. Within 2 episodes I was hooked. This ensemble comedy is the highlight of my Wednesday night TV watching. Revolving around 3 families from the same extended family, it manages to touch on a lot of different problems and issues that we have all had to deal with at one time or another. The casting is great, with the stand out for me being Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy. I haven’t seen a character on a show be this consistently fun since well, the cast of Arrested Development (you will have to pick which one, because I can’t, they were all brilliant) Every time he is on screen he is either saying something subtlety hilarious or just reacting in a way that makes me laugh. Part of why I think I find him so funny is that I have no previous reference of his work. He is Phil Dunphy to me, and I am not hung up on him being someone else. This is quite possibly the breakout hit of the year and will hopefully be on the air for many, many years to come.

2. Glee (Fox) – That’s right I am a Gleek. And I am proud of it. I record almost all my shows on my DVR so I can watch them at my leisure and skip through all the commercials. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get around to watching a show, and there are a select few that I either watch immediately after they are recorded or on what I like to call the 15 minute delay. See, if you wait 15 minutes to start watching a show after it begins, you can use the DVR to skip through the commercials and if it works out right, you will finish watching the show live as it ends. This only applies to LOST, Castle, Thursday Night Comedies on NBC, and Glee. I absolutely love everything about this show, from its over the top musical numbers, to its sentimentality to its subversive comedy. I never expected this show to be so funny in the weirdest ways. It always makes me laugh and the musical numbers make me smile. A few weeks ago they did a number to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and to me it was near perfect. The song, the staging and the performances were top notch. There is a reason why this show is so popular, because it is that good.

1. Community (NBC) – Last week I wrote about an episode of Community called “Modern Warfare” To me it was the best half hour of TV this season. It also is the reason why I picked this show to top my list. The ensemble comedy about a group of mismatched friends in a study group at a community college is the freshest and funniest new show of the year. It is perfectly cast and even the inclusion of Chevy Chase doesn’t distract from the hilarity (in fact for the first time in a long time Chase manages to be funny and not ruin a show) This inaugural season of the show takes the sitcom and pushes the direction into new and fresh areas. Most notably the genre of satire, which it manages to do well with out turning into a super meta winking at the audience comedy (ahem, 30 rock). I implore you to give it a chance of you haven’t. This is the perfect beginning to NBC’s Thursday night line-up, and after Parks and Recreation, the funniest show of the night. Hopefully the show can at least last for 4 seasons and they can all graduate and we can all be happy.