And this is a wrap on what was a surprisingly good decade of television. Of course, thanks to technology like the DVR and having real responsibilities prohibiting me from spending each night partying, I've also watch a ton more than I did in the previous decade.
#5. THE SOPRANOS. The show that changed television. Think back to what was considered a “TV Drama” in 1999. ER? Please. JAG? Spare Me. Party of Five? Eff Off. Before the Sopranos, our serial television shows were formulaic and the lead character was almost always a heroic, upstanding citizen who in the end would do the right thing. That all changed with the North Jersey Drama. Throw out the inevitable bonus points for being filmed in Jersey, at places we all knew and sometimes frequented. Even if you were from Greenboro, Alabama, the Sopranos was compelling television.
At its peak, Sopranomania was unlike any other phenomena in TV history. At its end, millions of people worldwide were stunned, shocked and confused by its conclusion (brilliant in retrospect). In between we were introduced to a collection of characters that rarely disappointed. Some of the plots were drawn out, and too often the public was clamoring for some Godfather-like score settling while missing the bigger message about humanity: We live in gray areas. People you assume to be good can have deviant intentions, while folks you’d think were vile, hardened criminals could have many a redeeming quality. Messages and character development aside, the lasting influence of David Chase’s vision is that television changed forever – and for better – not long after the 1999 debut of this series.
#4. RESCUE ME. A beneficiary of the Sopranos impact and the result of real world events, Rescue Me may be the defining series of the 2000s. The only thing to overcome is the occasional outlandish storyline (and the fact that every season ends with a significant character dying). No show has catalogued the American response to 9/11 better than Rescue Me (which has the obvious advantage of being based on members of the FDNY). After the dust settled, after the last frayed flag flew off an antenna on the highway, America had to figure out how to move on with their lives, which were suddenly turned upside down. And Rescue Me’s conduit for that experience is Dennis Leary’s Tommy Gavin – a man who can be a better father than Ward Cleaver and a bigger douchebag than Tony Soprano on his worst day.
Since it’s 2004 debut, we’ve seen real-life issues that those impacted by 9/11, along with the country as a whole, dissected and portrayed in a fashion that’s not quite simple to pull off. When you’re not on the verge of tears, you’re laughing your ass off. We see the dangers of being an alcoholic, a workaholic, blind patriotism and devotion. Conversely, we see the redeeming qualities of managing stress, breaking your back to provide for a family, and putting your life on the line for the greater good. “Hero” is a word that was thrown around way too liberally this decade, but nobody’s done a better job of portraying the dichotomy of a Hero than Rescue Me – this morning’s villain is this evening’s savior. Be ware of jading a man on either his greatest accomplishments or his worst moment.
We see in Tommy Gavin what we see in ourselves: the man has many flaws, but that doesn’t prevent him from rising to the occasion and doing the right thing.
#3. MAD MEN. It’s only been three seasons but this period piece has already made its mark on television, and has been a homerun for the little known AMC that carries it. Never before in TV history has a character been as intriguing as Don Draper. And never before has a time frame seem so real and authentic as 1960-1963 have appeared in the first three seasons. Admit it – of all the subjects you’d be interested in watching a television series about, the life of an advertising executive in the 1960s probably would rank right above the life of a mute Scottish goat herder in the 1740s. But the results of the show have been nothing short of fascinating. The dynamics that each character brings to the table work in such a fluid motion that you don’t even realize it. Unlike past period shows, “Mad Men” isn’t ABOUT the early 1960s, it just HAPPENS TO BE in the 1960s. The events, innovation and popular opinions of the time are just a backdrop. It’s not a parody in the vein of “That 70’s Show” and it’s not an historical examination like “The Tudors” or “Rome”. I can’t stress enough how unique this makes “Made Men”.
All that being said, Jesus Christ, how awesome must it have been to have regularly drank and smoke at work and come home to a fresh hot meal and a stiff Scotch every night?
#2. THE WEST WING. I’m gonna save the long, drawn out soapbox rant about how the WW provided my wife and I one hour of sanity in a world full of bullshit terror alerts, illiterate presidents, trumped up phony wars, mass CD burnings, tax cuts for the uber rich, congressional debate on a woman who was comatose for 20 years, and Donald Rumsfeld. Who wants to hear that. No, the “West Wing”, aside from being an oasis in a shitty world, was probably the wittiest, most well written show ever. The dialogue, sharp and quick, was intelligent without being dry. The messages were uplifting without being condescending. And above all else, it had the courage to speak to its audience like adults – no minor accomplishment for a prime time network television show.
While it sometimes mirrored real life events too closely (possible presidential impeachment over insignificant issues and tax rebate stimulus checks) the bigger point to the WW wasn’t the policy or issues per say, it was how they were handled. It was about showing America how our government works in an honest and optimistic fashion. The Presidency of Josiah Bartlett was one that any American of any stripe would have been proud of, and the staff around him was even more impressive. We admired Toby Ziegler’s defiance, Josh Lymon’s intolerance towards bullshit (a character based on current White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who held Lymon’s position in the real-life Clinton White House), CJ Craigg’s moral compass, Sam Seborn’s zeal and prose, and most of all, Chief of Staff Leo McGarry’s battle scars, patriotism, and pragmatism. The secondary characters all brought something special to the show as well but after 7 seasons they’re too numerous to cite.
President Bartlett is in a most special tier of television characters, of this decade, only Tony Soprano and Don Draper can even challenge him. And maybe the show was too optimistic, too rosy and too impractical. Maybe it made us believe that inspiration in the public sector is possible when the reality is, it’s likely a lost art.
However, I remember the show’s final rundown, which focused on the search for Bartlett’s successor. Lymon left the White House to run an upstart campaign of a little known, inexperienced Presidential Candidate who was historic in the fact that he wasn’t a privileged white dude like the 40-something who proceeded him. After a long, tough and drawn out campaign that actually ran the distance on the primaries, that candidate won, and that candidate inspired the people to elect him to lead the country into a new era. And then I think, maybe the West Wing knew something about us Americans that we didn’t even know about ourselves.
#1. SIX FEET UNDER. Best Show Ever. Best Ending Ever. Most Interesting Cast Ever. Just some of the terms I’ve used to describe Six Feet Under, and 3 years after it’s perfect conclusion, I don’t take any of them back. The reality is, much like “Mad Men”, the premise doesn’t really suck you in to watch it – a family drama about a family run funeral parlor. Outside of the necrophiliacs and the morbid, it’s not as if it comes across as “Must See TV”. But 6FU debuted in the golden era of HBO – after the initial successes of The Sopranos, OZ, and (even though it aint my cup of tea) Sex and the City.
This platform and the publicity that came along with being on HBO allowed 6FU to flourish. From the vision of “American Beauty” director Allan Ball (which by the way, was my favorite movie of the 90s) we met the Fisher family and television was never the same again. When you speak about 6FU to someone who’s watched it, you’re preaching to the converted. Nobody who’s seen the entire series would argue that it’s among the best shows ever. When you speak to someone who hasn’t, they can’t fathom that from what they know about the show, that it’s as good as you say it is. But no show has ever covered the great taboo the way that 6FU did: Our mortality.
Nobody likes to broach the subject, few are comfortable even thinking about it. But 6FU tackled it head on. We aren’t going to live forever but its not our death that should concern us, it’s what we do with our time on earth that should. No character brought that fact home better than oldest son Nate Fisher. Who’s only real hiccup was getting his 10 year old sister stoned when he was 30 and Kurt Cobain killed himself for being too pure.
If you want to speak to the depth of the characters, look no further than Nate’s on-again-off-again-girlfriend/wife Brenda Chenowith. Talk to most men who watch the show and they hold a disdain for her on par with the likes of Terrell Owens and Hitler. It’s easy to dislike a character, but it takes some very special development over time to inspire such vitriol.
I don’t want to shortchange the rest of the cast be it the Matriarch Ruth, Middle child David, his partner Keith, youngest daughter Claire or any of the many others who drew prominent roles over the course of the show, but it would take too much time.
The most outstanding achievement of the show, however, was knowing when it was time to say goodbye. Many a show has gone off the air too late, and some couldn’t muster the staying power to last long enough. 6FU was a perfectly arced series from start to finish, not an episode too short nor an episode too long, and it delivered the single greatest finale in television history.
For all of these reasons listed above, and for the countless others I’m leaving off, I say without any hesitation, doubt, or disrespect to competitors that Six Feet Under is the Best Television Show of the 2000s.
And then some.
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