Year's Best Wrap-up

I got a call over the weekend telling me how I got it wrong with my year's best Top 10 list and how the caller disagreed with virtually all my choices.

The caller was my dad. He left the country a couple days later.

The timing of his leaving was purely coincidental and should in no way be construed that I can't take criticism.

But it just goes to show you that people can have vastly different cultural tastes, even within the same family.

Perhaps I should have clarified my Top 10 list this way: These are the 10 hours of TV I, Phillip Ramati, The TV Guy, can't miss at all, for any reason. If I do, furniture will likely be smashed.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the other shows I didn't put on the Top 10. As I wrote previously, "Ugly Betty" or "Scrubs" or any of them could have easily been included. But even though I don't want to miss any of those episodes, I feel that if I did, I'd still survive.

I can't say the same if I missed an installment of "The Shield" or "Battlestar Galactica." Some criticized my choice of "The Sopranos" in the Top 10, but at the end of the day, I still look forward to watching a first-run episode more than just about anything, because of the potential of what might happen.

And there are plenty of shows out there that I hope to catch at some point, like "The Wire" (produced by some of the same people that did "Homicide: Life on the Street," my all-time favorite American cop show) or "Dexter."

I like to watch a show from the beginning. I like to see story arcs in the order they are supposed to go and characters develop over time. In some cases, like "Lost," for example, you simply can't watch it out of order and be able to follow what is going on.

But in other cases, I think it simply adds to the enjoyment of the show. For example, I didn't catch "Buffy" when it first came out, mainly because I had no desire to see a TV show based on a crappy movie. Clearly, though, the TV series was a completely different animal.

I could have jumped on the "Buffy" bandwagon during any one of its subsequent seasons, but I decided to wait. I'm glad I did. I was able to catch up on repeats once FX started airing episodes, and it made for a better viewing experience watching the various characters develop over time.

Maybe that will happen with other shows currently on the air, which I never caught the first time around for whatever reason.

TUESDAY'S BEST BETS: Your favorite TV critic (at least, your favorite that isn't named Matt Roush or Mo Ryan) is a little worn out from being the only working reporter for real news during the holiday season. So the holiday TV break isn't all a bad thing, especially since new episodes will hit the airwaves just after the new year. Look for some comments late this week or early next week on new series such as "Dirt" and "Knights of Prosperity."

In the meantime, it's not all reruns. You can try to catch "Big Day" (ABC, 9 p.m.) while it's still on the air (which likely won't be that long).

Also, two more new episodes of "My Boys" (TBS, 10 p.m.) hit the air. This series is more enjoyable every week, though I stress that no sportswriter I've ever met has a career like P.J.'s, in which you get every night off to play poker with your friends. I try to look past all that, however.