The Return Of Top Five Friday!

First off, I want to thank everyone who left a commment or sent an e-mail or called or texted or whatever in support yesterday. It was a very difficult day for myself and my family that really made the health care system problems in our country starkly apparent. Bad stuff, people. Bad stuff. Think about things like that when you wonder why I spend so much time supporting Barack Obama on this blog. Anyways, my thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

On a lighter note, since I'm sitting at home today, I thought it would be a good time to revive Top Five Friday - a long-running feature that got pushed aside when I started working every Friday. It was always one of my favorite posts of the week and I was getting a little bummed out that I wasn't doing it anymore.

To get back in the swing of things, I thought I'd throw myself a softball. It's no secret that I've been quite underwhelmed with the offerings on television lately [thank God for the MLB Playoffs and the return of the Lakers and all the debates] but there have been a few things that still rock my socks. Therefore, I thought I'd give them a little shoutout today.

TOP FIVE FRIDAY: The Top Five TV Shows I'm Watching

DISCLAIMER: There's a lot of highly-regarded shows out there that I'm not watching yet - things like Dexter, Mad Men, etc. There's also a pair of shows that would probably make the list if I was caught up on DVD [Prison Break, Battlestar Galactica.] Also, no shows that haven't returned yet [24, Lost, American Idol, Scrubs, 30 Rock] are included. And finally, there's a handful of shows that I've got on DVR that I'm not caught up on yet [How I Met Your Mother, Fringe, Gossip Girl] which'll affect my rankings.

HONORABLE MENTION: General Hospital & GH: Night Shift
I don't know why but I had a hard time comparing these to the rest of the list so I decided to give them their shoutout in a different area. I've been watching GH on and off since I was... well, to hear my family tell it, since I was born. I can spout off and recall random GH storylines from the past two decades +. In recent years, it's gotten very mob-centric which is a little dull so when Night Shift came along focusing on the hospital again, it was like a breath of fresh air. Both shows are very different from one another but from the same family, it's very cool to see.

MORE HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Entourage - Started off pretty slowly but has really picked up steam starting with the ep where Ari got the Ferrari and carrying all the way through last weekend's which was might be my favorite of the season.

How I Met Your Mother - Due to a DVR error, I'm a few eps behind on this but the first episode of the season was fantastic. This is one of my favorite shows so I can't imagine the rest of the season hasn't been golden but I couldn't rank it based on one show.

Gossip Girl - Same as above. I'm 2 or 3 eps off on this one but what I've seen so far has been awesome. One of my favorite shows on TV easily.

TOP FIVE!

5. The Office
The Office, while still funny as hell, has felt a little off to me this season. Maybe it's the lack of Pam in the building but I haven't felt the same kind of magic that the show usually has. It still has some incredible moments but it's been a little off so far. I haven't seen last night's episode yet so I'm hoping that picks things up for the show.

4. The Amazing Race
Easily my favorite reality show, I remain so disappointed they don't shoot this thing in HD because it would be absolutely gorgeous if they did. TAR serves as the ultimate travel show, showing off some amazing places in the world while featuring some of the most fun characters in reality TV. The great thing about TAR is that we don't get overloaded on one character or another like you tend to see in Survivor or the like so we get just enough to love, hate, or be indifferent towards them without feeling like they're overexposed.

3. Pushing Daisies
This might bump up once I see last week's episode but I adore this show and every time I hear that it might be close to cancellation, I weep a little inside. Wonderfully quirky and adorable all at the same time, this show is one of TV's best and a cancellation here would rank right up there next to Arrested Development and Firefly as true tragedies in the course of TV history. If you're not watching this show and spreading the word, you're part of the problem, people! If Pushing Daisies gets canceled, the terrorists win!

2. Desperate Housewives
I know, I know - I'm not supposed to like it but dammit, I just can't help myself. After a lackluster second season, DH has been perhaps the most consistent show on television year after year. After pulling what many viewed as a ratings stunt by "jumping ahead" in last season's finale, they have really knocked things out of the park so far this season. We almost ditched this one when we dropped Grey's but I'm glad we stuck around because it's been a ton of fun.

And the #1 show I'm currently watching...

1. The Shield
SPOILER ALERT! You know a show is well-written when the death of a fairly minor character at the hands of another character is enough to make the Missus despise the killer so badly that she refuses to watch it anymore. The Shield has put out some of the most compelling and thrilling television that you could ever imagine seeing and it'll be a true loss to television when they wrap things up in about two months' time. This season has been a scorcher from moment one and last week's was simply awesome. Things are really heating up and I can't wait to see how it all ends. I'm guessing it won't be with the screen cutting to black.

Blue's Reviews: Monday Night Television

Season premieres is usually a pretty exciting and fun time of year but thus far this year, I've been fairly underwhelmed. I talked previously about Entourage, Weeds, and some others that have failed to impress but I had high hopes last night as I settled in for the premieres of How I Met Your Mother and Heroes.

To kick things off, we watched a DVRd episode of Real Time With Bill Maher from last Friday night. It was a fun show as the Palin abuse-a-thon continued. The female guest - whose name I can't recall - seemed unfit to be on television as she had incredible trouble finding her train of thought over and again. Will.I.Am was the "celebrity" guest and really contributed very little to the show. I was hoping to hear more from him about his support of Obama. The "conservative" guest turned out to be one of my favorite conservative guests. He didn't blindly praise the Republicans, he didn't blast the Dems at every turn, and when the topic turned to religion, he actually had a viewpoint that was shockingly reasonable. Cheers to him! With the election drawing near, this show is definitely worth checking out when you can.

Next up was the premiere of How I Met Your Mother. This was probably my favorite show of the night - how could it not be when it focused on the story of whether or not Stella would like Star Wars when she finally saw it and if Ted would decide he couldn't marry her if she didn't. The show laid out the basic stories for the coming episodes - Marshall dealing with unemployment, Barney trying to tell Robin how he feels, Ted and Stella barely knowing each other and being engaged. I think the "slip-in" of Robin applying for the cable news job will become an issue at some point - my guess is the job is out of the area which'll lead to Barney finally having to tell her to try to get her to stay. Anyways, still one of the best comedies on television and if you're not watching it, you're a heartless, soulless beast of burden who I don't want to be friends with anymore.

The final show of the night was the two-hour premiere of Heroes - a show I was eagerly anticipating after hearing it had gotten a standing ovation when it screened at Comic-Con although my brain knows very well that it's easy to get your shit praised at Comic-Con if it's put together slick enough. The end result? It just was... well.... kinda okay. Nothing fantastic, nothing horrible. Just somewhere in the range of "eh." I don't think I can recall a show that has dropped in quality so much in so little time. Since the disappointing Season One Finale, it's been mostly downhill in quality. The premiere did little to make me feel otherwise. I don't really feel like analyzing why but suffice to say that if you missed this episode, you missed some big reveals but... well, it still felt like I didn't care when it was over.

The next batch of shows I'm looking forward to is The Office on Thursday and Pushing Daisies next week. The Amazing Race on Sunday is a favorite as well.