What I like about TV, part 2!

Let's get back to the best in TV for 2007, picking up with the top 5.....

5. CBS SITCOMS

While most channels are veering away from the standard sitcom and moving more towards hour long location dramas or multi set comedy programs, CBS has figured out away to make the forever used live in front of a studio audience sitcom fresh again. With How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men and The New Adventures of Old Christine, CBS managed to bring the understated risque of sitcom's past to the very stale format in the early 2000s. This year had all three of these programs hitting their strides and bringing the laughter back. I can only hope that other network see how easily it can happen and bring back the format to their network lineups.

4. SNARKY POP CULTURE SATIRE PROGRAMS
I am a popaholic. Ok there I said it and if you are a reader of this site, you will be all too familiar with this addiction of mine. While 2007 was the biggest year so far in regards to celeb bashing blogs, the TV screen's satire programs got bitchier, snarkier and well god damn funny. Unfortunately, I am an avid watcher of TV, which means on a given day I can either get sucked into an SVU marathon on USA or Real Housewives mess on Bravo. What I love about Best Week Ever and The Soup, is they discuss the stuff I want to at the end of the week. And with abundant paparazzi coverage all of the fools in Hollywood are receiving, its refreshing to find two TV shows who have no problem making fun of everything. BWE manages to mock the weeks events in pop culture with local comedians and 2007 mainstays, like Sanjaya. And I have to thank the executives over at E! for bringing back the Talk Soup format of past years and mocking even their own programming. And if it wasn't for Joel McHale and the staff over at the Soup, I would have never fallen in love with Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, heard about Orpah's vajayjay and or found this little gem:


3. ANTHONY BOURDAIN AND CHEF CULTURE

I am not sure if it was my sincere interest in finally expanding my culinary tricks past macaroni and cheese, but I was all about chef shows this year. Anthony Bourdain will always stick out as the rock star within a very large chef pool. He laughs at vegetarians, drinks, smokes ( well used to) and doesn't mind trying anything at least once. With his program, No Reservations on the Travel Channel, Bourdain travels the globe while showcasing the local delicacies and embracing a bit of culture on the way. It was because of this man I found myself renting "Kitchen Confidential", an adorable flop of a comedy starring the always wicked Bradley Cooper, reading up on coq au vin and purchasing a chef's knife from Japan for my boyfriend's Christmas gift. The man makes cooking look cool. On the other side, you have the best season of Top Chef, lead by the way too good looking Padma Lashimi, which had the creme de le creme of cuisine as guest judges and a really talented group of chef's competing for the op prize. Also, there was no Marcel, which is enough reason for me to watch a program. Top Chef helped me realize that cooking can be interesting and that people who are the best chefs are those who can think on their feet and make a meal out of anything. This year, I also found myself watching way more Food Network and finding out what the heck is semi-homemade cooking and who really is the top Iron Chef. With the enrollment up in culinary education programs, I can definitely say that I am not the only one getting hooked into the culinary culture.


2. CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM'S RETURN
Officially stating this first, I am in love with Larry David and he can pretty much do no wrong in my eyes, well other then Sour Grapes. The sixth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm began with the crumbling of the marriage between Larry and Cheryl, which resembled David's real life. The caricature of his life this season was amazing, as he could blatantly mock the liberal tendencies of his real wife, Cheryl David. The last two minutes of this program could have been the best moments on TV all year, with Larry falling in love with his house guest , played by Vivica A. Fox and his impromptu family, The Blacks. While David said this could be the last year for his HBO program, I can not see him giving up on the opportunity to utilize his "new family" with the classic inappropriateness of Larry. For those who bashed this episode, I feel sorry that you can see how wonderful subtle way Larry David was able to get back at his ex with season six. I hope that this show will continue to make me laugh at the comfortableness that is Larry for years to come. Here it is again, the best moments of TV this year.


1. 30 ROCK

Let's just say it, this is the best comedy on television right now. Tina Fey has managed to make the behind the scenes tomfoolery occurring on the fictional program over at Rockefeller Center the funniest workplace ever!!! With the over the top republican/waspishness of Alec Baldwin, the vacant celeb focused nonsense of Jane Krakowski and indescribably ridiculous funniness of Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock allows quirkiness to override sensibility in the most perfect way. Liz Lemon, the character who could have only been produced by Rhoda and Mary, makes the lonely single woman life of working ladies in NYC affable and well, I hate to say it, realistic. This show manages to find the most perfect one liners and story lines keeps developing and getting better. NBC's strongest used to be The Office and while I still love the program, 30 Rock is bringing the strangeness of Arrested Development to TV again, which I missed so much! If the WGA strike does not stop soon, I might just have to watch the "American Race" neighbor episode again and again. I also love this show because it represents Little Chechnya (or Long Island City) on a major network. It's awesome to know that a lady is behind some of the funniest moments on TV nowadays and I will follow Liz Lemon to a second location any day!