Television Worth Your Time
It’s very hard to “rate” television shows. They are always quite tumultuous in their execution, after all it is hard to deliver mind blowing episodes week after week. In that vein it is easier for the simpler, smaller shows to be consistent in quality whereas the larger scaled story driven shows inevitably rise and fall in excitement and development.
However, there are some great television shows out there, past and present, that I would like to point out and possibly advise people in to checking out… TV Shows worth your time:
Lost
Overall Rating: 9.5/10
Genre: Science-Fiction, Action, Character-driven Drama
Age: Season 6 (Entering Final Season)
Network: ABC
Click here to check out Toon’s Lost Page
Summary: After Oceanic Air Flight 815 tears apart in mid-air and crashes on a Pacific island on September 22nd 2004, its survivors are forced to find inner strength they never knew they had in order to survive…
Toon’s Take: A pioneering television show, that has captivated an enormous viewing audience over its past five years. A show based around brilliant mysteries and character conflicts, ‘Lost’ delivered such incredible intensity on TV that is simply unmatched…
Fringe
Overall Rating: 9/10
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama, Supernatural Crime
Age: Season 2
Network: FOX
Click here to check out Toon’s Fringe Page for Pictures, Episode Guide and Reviews
Summary: FBI agent Olivia Dunham and Peter Bishop are faced with a rapidly spreading unexplained phenomenon of the threatening kind. In an attempt to stop the spread, they enlist the assistance of Bishop’s estranged father, the institutionalized scientist Dr. Walter Bishop, a man with a terrifying past...
Toon’s Take: ‘Fringe’ is a show that has captivated me like few others. Although the concept is steeped knee deep in science fiction, the characters of the show down to the fringe are greatly scripted, well acted and thoroughly captivating in each of their story lines…
Mad Men
Overall Rating: 9/10
Genre: Office Drama, Dark Comedy, Romance
Age: Season 3
Network: AMC
Summary: It’s New York in the 1960s, and the men and women who work at the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency are some of the top names in the industry. Master manipulator and leading ad man Don Draper is at the top of his game, but there are those who want to see him topple down.
Top Gear
Overall Rating: 9/10
Genre: Comedy, Talk Show, Cars
Age: Season 13
Network: BBC UK
Summary: More than just a show to review new cars, Top Gear is essential viewing. Not just for petrol heads, it also has a huge following amongst people with little or no interest in cars – both male and female. This is due to the show’s irreverent approach to motoring, the humour and the priceless chemistry between the show’s presenters. A global audience of 350 million can’t be wrong.
Desperate Housewives
Overall Rating: 9/10
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Family Drama
Age: Season 6
Network: ABC
Summary: About nine years ago on a sunny day in the loveliest of suburbs, in a town called Fairview, housewife Mary Alice Young (Brenda Strong) decided to end it all. Now she takes us into the lives of her friends, family and neighbors…
Entourage
Overall Rating: 9/10
Genre: Comedy, Bromance
Age: Season 6
Network: HBO
Summary: Vince Chase is a sexy young actor whose career is on the rise. To share the fun of his ride to the top of Hollywood and keep him grounded, Vince looks to Eric, Drama and Turtle, his childhood buddies from Queens. Together, they’ll navigate the highs and lows of Hollywood’s fast lane, where the stakes are higher, and the money and temptations greater…
Breaking Bad
Overall Rating: 8/10
Genre: Drugs, Family Drama, Dark Comedy
Age: Season 3
Network: AMC
Summary: Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) stars in this drama focused on a mid-life crisis gone bad for a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug dealer after he discovers that he has lung cancer.
Weeds
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
Genre: Dark Comedy, Family Drama, Drugs
Age: Season 6
Network: Showtime
Summary: This series is a single-camera comedy about a single mother who makes ends meet by selling marijuana in the fictional suburb of Agrestic, California. The series exposes the dirty little secrets that lie behind the pristine lawns and shiny closed doors of homes in the of this gated community.
Smallville
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Genre: Superhero, Action, Romance
Age: Season 9
Network: CW
Summary: Smallville tells the tale of a teenage Clark Kent in the days before he was Superman. It is the town where he came from where very strange things started happening with his arrival in a spaceship in the midst of a meteor storm of green rocks. Clark must deal with a variety of individuals given powers by the green rocks, keep his powers a secret, cope with his friendship with a young Lex Luthor…NBC
Cancelled/Alumni Shows
Arrested Development
Overall Rating: 10/10
Genre: Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Intelligent
Age: 3 Seasons
Network: FOX
Pushing Daisies
Overall Rating: 9.5/10
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Crime
Age: 2 Seasons
Network: ABC
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles
Overall Rating: 9.5/10
Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Family Drama
Age: 2 Seasons
Network: FOX
Kings
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Genre: Drama, War, Religion
Age: 1 Season
Network: NBC
A Waste of Your Time
Television is quite different from something like cinema. There, if a movie is s*** it will still get made and will still make the money it needs to make akin to something as horrendous as ‘Transformers 2′. There’s always exceptions like Pluto Nash or any other debacle-on-the-soul creation featuring Eddie Murphy in recent years, crap movie and crap money. There is justice in the world.
However with Television, s*** shows don’t last. They can’t… every few months these shows need to get their license-to-exist renewed so luckily not much sneaks through the crack, so to speak. So why does this section exist? Every now and then, something does sneak through… and it is at these times we must take a moment and applaud the s***-streak that has been allowed to exist. How or why is beyond most of us, that answer lies with general American public and their abominable advertisers and ludicrous “ratings” system on viewership. How does a show like ‘Heroes’ live on to four seasons when ‘Kings’ can’t even get half a season? I hate American Network stations. Go cable.
Heroes
Overall Rating: 3/10
Genre: Superhero, Action, Stupidity
Age: Season 4
Network: NBC
credit to TV.com for the show summaries
Haroon Aslam
