Favorites of the Naughty Aughties Part 1

Over the course of December many different publications and websites were doing their Best Of... lists. For 2009 and also for the decade. Many of them were specific lists - best television series, best film, best album, etc. Well I decided to cherry pick some catagories for myself and give you my personal favorites of the decade. I chose in the end to not do my favorite movies because it was too hard for me to separate favorites between my choices of Walk the Line, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine, Inglourious Basterds, The Bourne Trilogy and a few others. And it was just too hard to pick my favorite movie star between Matt Damon and Johnny Depp and Reese Witherspoon, Anne Hathaway and Kate Winslet. But hey there you go - you got the cliffs notes for my decade in movies.

So here it is. Part 1 - The Televison Favorites

FAVORITE TELEVISION SERIES: Arrested Development (2003-2006)

No television series ever got a hold of me the way that AD did in Fall 2003 and I don’t think another ever will. The show centered on the extremely dysfunctional and yet in our weird American way, normal, family - The Bluths. I really think the motto for creator and writer, Mitchell Hurwitz was ‘anything goes’. When I finished watching the first episode I knew it was doomed because I knew that most of America would just ‘not get it’. And most didn’t since it was cancelled way too soon. But for me, and the rest of its cult following, the three seasons and nearly 60 episodes we got made for some of the best television ever put together. Front to back, start to finish - the one of the smartest and funniest television series ever made.





Runners Up:

Sex and the City (1998-2004) - Single best thing ever done about the inner most thoughts of women about other women, friendships, men, love, sex, etc... Oh and the fabulous clothes...

Dexter (2006-present) - Whoever thought that a serial killer would become the most compelling character on television? And a character that you root for every week? And the most recent season finale, which is still fresh since it aired on December 13, may be the most shocking and brilliant hour of television I have ever seen.

Honorable Mentions: The Sopranos (1999-2007), The Office (UK and US version), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-present), Project Runway (2005-present), Six Feet Under (2001-2005), Mad Men (2007-present), Late Night with Conan O’Brien (1993-2009)

Favorite Series Episode: Six Feet Under Series Finale, September 2005 - Simply for the final 7 mimutes alone. And it also introduced me to one of my favorite songs of the decade.



Favorite Individual Performer: Conan O’Brien

His stint as the host of Late Night is why he is my favorite individual performer of the decade. When I put together some random catagories to talk about I knew Conan must be included in some way because he is quite possibly my favorite celebrity out there. My crush, obsession, fixation - whatever you want to call it only got worse as the decade went on. Some of the most creative and innovate comedy came from Late Night with Conan O’Brien because Conan is never afraid to take risks or fail. And he does it all with class and intelligence. Then the Writers Strike struck in 2007 and he was the first host of this kind (those that had to shut down their show) to pay his entire staff out of his own pocket for those three months. Letterman, Stewart and Colbert eventually did the same (notice Leno is NOT included). That cemented my eternal loyalty to him. And then when the late night shows returned sans writers he produced some of the best comedy just flying by the seat of his pants and even Stewart, Colbert and O’Brien used each other to make comedy which culminated in a one night 3 show crossover between The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Late Night with Conan O’Brien on February 4, 2008 in which all three appeared on all three shows.

Runner Up: Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert, Once I experience the loss of Conan from the air for however long it will be Stephen will save me. When Colbert was on The Daily Show, his partnership with Steve Carell was the reason to watch TDS in the first few year of the decade. When The Colbert Report premiered in October 2005 it by far surpassed The Daily Show for me and it is completely because of Stephen Colbert.

*NOTE: My thoughts on Conan’s departure from The Tonight Show and NBC will be it’s own massive rant... er, I mean entry.

Honorable Mentions: Neil Patrick Harris, Ricky Gervais, Michael C. Hall, Tina Fey, Larry David, Idina Menzel, Steve Carell, Kristin Chenoweth, Amy Sedaris and The Women of Sex and the City (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon).

Part 2 coming... FAVORITE MUSIC

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