Inq. of the Week: Television

This week’s Inquisition comes direct from my latest obsession, which would be the Battlestar Galactica season 1 and 2 dvd’s that The Main Event lent me.  All I really knew beforehand was that it was a remake of an older 70’s tv show which I’d seen a re-run or two of and was generally disinterested in, but I respected it as I knew how important sci-fi was back then to the propogation of our nerd-empire.  Other then this, all I really knew was that there was a smokin’ hot blonde (who I knew was some sort of “cylinder” and somehow inside of a crazy guy’s head), which would normally be enough to make me obsessed with just about any show.  The problem back then was that I hadn’t really been into watching tv for the last few years, and shows like Lost, My Name is Earl, and The Office were really stretching my abilities to explore the new medium known as “television that doesn’t blow”.  That brings me to this week’s question:

What is your favorite TV show?

You can consider your current favorite, all-time favorite, best of 2006, whichever and however you like.  List several, just your one all-time fave, or flat out say you hate all television that’s ever existed!  The requirement is only something that is episodic in nature and has been on tv at some point in any country.  My personal picks after the break…

Lost (2004-present) – Not many people argue with the idea that seasons 1 and 2 of Lost were bordering on brilliant, mysteries abound and interesting characters left and right.  Sadly, not many people will argue with the idea that season 3 has come way down from the high standards set by the previous two.  I attribute this almost entirely to experimentation, they split the season in an different way to create a 7 episode “mini-series” at the beginning of the season, and then 16 rapid-fire episodes starting February 7th at 10pm that I believe will provide all the excitement, intrigue, and excellence that the first two seasons contained.

Battlestar Galactica (2003 miniseries/2004-present) – We started with the season one dvd’s, including the original 3-hour miniseries, just under two weeks ago and we’re already about to finish with season two.  That’s 13 episodes in the first and 20 episodes in the second, giving us a total of 33 episodes watched in about two weeks.  That should say enough, but I’ll add that it is very close to competing with Lost as my current favorite (read: most enjoyable) tv show.

Beast Wars (1996-1999) – This show is single-handedly one of the best cartoon series ever produced, if you can get passed the base facts that they’re transformers which change into animals/dinosaurs/bugs and give themselves slightly hokey names.  Some people can’t get passed those things, and I hate them for it…so much.

The Office (US 2005-present) – Anyone who says that this show is crap and could never live up to the British original is a flambouyant arse who just wants something about their life to make them feel cool.  The US version was created by Ricky Gervais (one of the funniest people around) and is so damn good on its own that you can tell someone hasn’t seen a second of it if they say anything contradictory.  You can not like the show, sure, but then you probably shouldn’t like the original either.

My Name is Earl (2005-present) – I’ve always been a big fan of Jason Lee, and was hoping beyond all hope that this show would turn out good.  I was completely satisfied, as the show has been consistently funny and creative, while mocking pretty much everything about Americans which makes us love it even more!

Animaniacs (1993-1998) – This is absolutely the funniest show that ever graced the television, so much so that my mother and I used to sit down and watch it every afternoon and she’d laugh even more then I did.  Any cartoon that can do that is something truly special.

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996) – Obviously since I have never lived in Japan I only saw this show through dvd’s, I am simultaneously mad and happy that we don’t have programming such as this in other countries.  NGE is an amazingly adult and philosophical cartoon (anime) that provides such epic and introspective situations that I was floored the first time through watching it, all under the guise of another big-robot action anime.