Obviously it's a borderline impossible task to intertwine different genres of movies into one massive countdown. I did my best to line up a film based off where it stands within it's genre or subdivision and tried to rank accordingly. My basic criteria was: How much did I like it. Actually, that was my only criteria, prevented me from going crazy you know? Special thanks to Netflix and my overall lack of energy for their massive contribution to this list...
100. RED DRAGON – Original Lechter. Good shit.
99. STATE OF PLAY – Love me a good political thriller
98. COLD MOUNTAIN – Renee Zelwegger at her ugliest. No small feat.
97. THE PATRIOT – Bravehart, only set in South Carolina.
96. MEAN GIRLS – The first hint of Tina Fey’s genius
95. THE OTHERS – And I’ve hit my Nicole Kidman quota.
94. DISTURBIA – Surprisingly good, had extremely low expectations
93. SHREK – Only animated film I saw all decade. Had its moments.
92. A BEAUTIFUL MIND – Overhyped tremendously but quality nonetheless
91. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE – Tells the stories of the late 60s as sung by the Beatles. Duh.
90. EASTERN PROMISES – Unique, engaging, twisted. Great formula.
89. UNBREAKABLE – Before M. Night Shamilan went to shit
88. THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU – Top notch dry humor.
87. THE RING – Gotta respect a quality horror flick
86. WE WERE SOLDIERS – Before Mel went off the deep end, covers a period of the Vietnam War often overlooked. Bonus points for being the first movie I saw at a drive in, in the serial killer area of northern California.
85. ABOUT SCHMIDT – Yeah, nothing really to add
84. PINEAPPLE EXPRESS – Gets better with each viewing
83. MASTER AND COMMANDER – Darwin. Respect.
82. IDIOCRACY – You got it or you didn’t. If you didn’t, you proved its point.
81. WE ARE MARSHALL – Most “based on a true story” movies blow. This one didn’t.
80. GI JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA – Ain’t afraid to admit it, I thoroughly enjoyed this throwback.
79. ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGANDY – Eminently quotable. Whale’s Vagina.
78. BAD SANTA – Tis the season to laugh your friggin ass off.
77. CINDERALLA MAN – Why are boxing movies so easy to do right?
76. SYRIANNA – What a wonderful world we live in.
75. MIRACLE – Like “We Are Marshall” only better cause Soviets are involved.
74. THE GOOD GIRL – Unheralded but probably John C Reilly’s best work ever.
73. THE KINGDOM – I’m glad I never held hands with a Saudi Prince
72. CAPOTE – PSH at his best.
71. BLOOD DIAMOND – Kind of a disappointment based off cast/premise. But a good watch anyway.
70. BEST IN SHOW – I will NEVER tire of Christopher Guest movies. Never.
69. STAR WARS: EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES - I always have a hell of a time ranking a SW movie. Empire it wasn’t, but it was sure better than Menace.
68. I AM SAM - Sean Penn plays an austic man who likes ponies and the Beatles. Oscars for all!
67. ENEMY AT THE GATES – Soviets, Nazis, snipers. Only missing midgets.
66. MINORITY REPORT - Personally think Tom Cruise only had like 3 great roles: A Few Good Men, Born on the 4th of July, and this.
65. GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK - Dry and bland but tells a great story and captures the time perfectly.
64. VERONICA GUERIN - Irish. Sold.
63. NATIONAL TREASURE - A guilty pleasure that I’ve enjoyed thoroughly through many airings on TNT or USA.
62. BATMAN BEGINS - Finally broke the funk of bad and predictable comic book movies.
61. AMERICAN PSYCHO - The part Christian Bale was born to play. Literally.
60. DOUBT - An absolutely shitty ending knocks this otherwise incredible film down about 50 spots.
59. ANGELS AND DEMONS – Perfect cast, perfect adaptation.
58. TROPIC THUNDER – Did not expect to laugh as much as I did.
57. A MIGHT WIND – E A Oe’s. Another Chris Guest classic.
56. MONSTERS BALL – One hot woman with issues.
55. RESCUE DAWN – Another incredible performance by Christopher Bale and Steve Zahn shows a side you’d never have thought possible.
54. DODGEBALL – I found it funnier than most.
53. FOG OF WAR – Stunning McNamara memoir.
52. AMERICAN GANGSTER – Makes me wonder why I never heard of Frank Lucas before this film. By the end, you’d have thought he was Al Capone.
51. OCEANS ELEVEN – A lotta remakes suck. This didn’t. Thoroughly entertaining. I don’t care how low you set the bar.
50. ANGELS IN AMERICA – Technically a mini-series but whatever, my list, my rules. Pacino’s finest work in ages as Roy Cohn.
49. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE – Mind-bending.
48. EUROTRIP – Don’t even think the director would rank it this high but making a great “bad movie” is an art form.
47. SAVED! – Little know film makes a mockery of evangelical hypocrisy. Don’t take much more than that to make me happy.
46. THE QUEEN – Pisses on the house of Windsor. Score!
45. KNOCKED UP – So THAT’S how you get Pink Eye.
44. RENDITION – This is why the Constitution matters folks.
43. RELIGOULOUS – With George Carlin having left us, Bill Maher is my new spiritual guru.
42. BORAT – Disturbing, gross, offensive, hysterical.
41. FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL – Moves up 5 notches every time I see it.
40. THE STRANGERS – A great thriller. On the edge of your seat 5 minutes in and you’re there all the way through. The most disturbing part is probably the final quote. “Because you were home”.
39. BIG FISH – A bit cheesy but one of those movies you think about for days and days after you see it.
38. THE GOOD SHEPPARD – Over 3 hours long, but a great retelling about the formation of the CIA and the intelligence aftermath of the Bay of Pigs.
37. RAY – A perfectly cast, well produced biopic.
36. GARDEN STATE – From underrated to overrated and back again, settles nicely around the 36th percentile.
35. THANK YOU FOR SMOKING – You’re quite welcome.
34. SLUMDOG MILLIONARE – Was never going to meet the hype and expectation, but it was a fascinating tale nonetheless.
33. 61* - Thomas Jane’s Mickey Mantle was one of the best played roles I’ve ever seen.
32. SIGNS – M Night’s last hurrah before finally going down the crapper.
31. OLD SCHOOL – Possibly the funniest cast of the decade, Frank the Tank’s “Streaking” Moment might be one of the 5 funniest of these 10 years.
30. THE WRESTLER – I still can’t believe that was Mickey Rourke. Gotta respect 2 people doing shots and listening to Ratt in the middle of the afternoon.
29. IN BRUGES – 180 degrees different than what I was expecting, makes you appreciate films free from the Hollywood constrictions for story arcs. Also, Dwarves. Racist Dwarves with coke problems!
28. CRASH – Clever, intelligent and thought provoking.
27. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE – Over the top a bit, but very well done.
26. RAT RACE – Christ, my ribs were hurting after watching this, laughed non-stop for the entire movie. Highlighted by the trip to the Barbie Museum.
25. THE WACKNESS – I forgive it for making 1994 seem like it was 40 years ago, this little known Ben Kingsley movie was shockingly good.
24. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 – Really, do I need to explain why I loved this?
23. ROAD TO PERDITION – Outside of Forrest Gump, possibly Tom Hanks’ best work.
22. THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY – Tragic tale of the Irish Civil War. Done very well.
21. HOTEL RWANDA – Finally, Don Cheadle was no longer “That Guy from the Golden Girls Spin-Off”
20. IN AMERICA – Classic story about immigrant life, the decades may change but the fundamentals never do.
19. MAGDELENE SISTERS – Anyone else find it ironic that there’s likely a very special room in hell for Nuns?
18. MOTORCYCLE DIARIES – I hate subtitles but the highest compliment I can pay a subtitled film is that you didn’t notice them. Fascinating tale about the early life of Che Guevera (the dude with the Star beret on red T-Shirts that the kids wear). Also the last movie I saw at The Rialto Theater in RP. Pour Some Out.
17. WALK THE LINE – I don’t care if it was “Ray For White People”, it was done better, and cast just as well. Reese Witherspoon’s “June Carter Cash” might be the surprise performance of the decade.
16. 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN – A role that couldn’t be played by anyone other than Steve Carrell.
15. ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND – Extremely interesting premise, and Jim Carrey’s least annoying role since ever.
14. FROST/NIXON – Well cast, well produced and with an incredibly authentic feel. A bit dry but if you love politics and history that obviously doesn’t bother you.
13. SUPERBAD – Coming of Age Done Right. My ribs were sore for days after seeing it for the first time. McLovin enters the Pantheon.
12. THE DEPARTED – Odd that Scorcese finally won the Oscar for this but that’s besides the point. Jack and Damon carry a ridiculously impressive cast in an unpredictable and bloody masterpiece.
11. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS – You either love it or hate it. I’m with the former. Not exactly action packed or fast moving at all but a deeper “dramedy” that’ll have you thinking about it for days.
10. O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU – Why suffer through 600 pages of Homer’s “Odyssey” when you can watch the Cohen Brothers’ interpretation, set in the depression era South, in a little more than 2 hours. A vision you could only expect from them, the clever dialogue and adventurous journey ranks right there with the best of their work.
9. THE DARK KNIGHT – Throw out the fact that Heath Ledger died before its release, naturally over-hyping the movie and the reviews. This movie is THAT good, and Ledger’s role is THAT impressive. Can’t quite say the late brokebacker carried the movie, not with the performance that Christian Bale turned in, but he did what I thought was impossible: Out-Jokered Nicholson’s Joker.
8. THE HANGOVER – There’s got to be a spot in the top 10 for the best slapstick comedy of the decade, right? Instantaneously, The Hangover enters the Comedy Hall of Fame on a level with “American Pie” and “Dumb and Dumber”. With the release of the DVD just in time for the holidays, expect to hear a lot more about Tigers loving Pepper and how Rainman was “A Ra Tard”.
7. MYSTIC RIVER – Deep, sick, and an impressive cast of characters. Sleepers with a Southie twist and Tim Robbins’ finest work since Bull Durham.
6. JUNO – It’s like “For Keeps” only with a better cast, better dialogue, better soundtrack, better looking expecting mom, better storyline, more realistic and a better overall movie. Any movie that can cast Vern Schillinger as a sympathetic working class father doing his best to help his pregnant teenage daughter is worthy of all the accolades and praise that comes his way.
5. “V” FOR VENDETTA. And thus begins the Natalie Portman portion of the top 10. A movie you’ll either get or hate, this adaptation of an old comic book was nothing short of captivating. Part 1984, Part Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Part Red Dawn.
4. STAR WARS: EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH. Yeah it’s a bias pick. Whatever. Sith had the unenviable task of wrapping up the first trilogy and setting the scene for the original, more beloved trilogy and it exceeded all expectations. Seeing the rise/birth of Darth Vader on screen after 30 years was a treat for all moviegoers, SW Heads or not. And it kept to most sacred formula of all Star Wars films: Make sure the acting kind of sucks.
3. MILK. Tells a tale that needs to be told. Harvey Milk was a genuine American martyr and almost nobody had heard his name before this movie was released. Imagine that being the case with other American icons, be it Susan B Anthony or Martin Luther King? But simply retelling a story doesn’t make a movie great. Sean Penn delivered the performance of a lifetime and James Brolin turned in a solid one as well. The movie blended actual footage from the time into its cut production more seamlessly than any film before hand. Tremendous production, an all time great film.
2. ALMOST FAMOUS. While it has the best soundtrack of the decade, Almost Famous doesn’t get nearly as much credit as it deserves. Possibly the greatest Rock’N Roll movie ever, it’s completely rewatchable, stands the test of time, extremely quotable, and has women traded for beer. What’s not to love? Bonus points for PSH’s “Lester Bangs”, arguably one of the most interesting movie characters of the decade.
1. GANGS OF NEW YORK. I find nothing more fascinating than the history of New York City. How did this new world trading post grow to become indisputably the greatest city in the history of mankind? Why New York and not Boston or Philadelphia or Richmond? Who were the people that built this metropolis? Gangs covers (while taking some historical liberties) one of the more interesting eras in New York history (and lets face it, they’re all interesting). More of a composite than a rundown of actual events, Martin Scorcese does an impeccable job of capturing the mood and culture of both the “Natvie” Americans (as in, immigrants who’ve been ashore since the Revolution) and the more recent wave of predominantly Irish immigrants, who were arriving in lower Manhattan in droves in the mid-nineteenth century. It’s a story of their backbone, it’s a story of how they built the City and it’s a story of how they stuck together through thick and thin. With a cast anchored by Leo DiCaprio and the untouchable Daniel Day Lewis, Gangs of New York is Marty Scorcese’s finest hour, and the best movie of the 2000s.
Showing posts with label Best TV Shows of the Decade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best TV Shows of the Decade. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Top 20 TV Shows of the Decade: #5 - #1
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.
#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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