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[TV reviews]

Comfort me with ziti
The year in television

BY ROBERT DAVID SULLIVAN

There were few new hits on TV this year, and maybe there’s some truth to the cliché that audiences preferred old favorites in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Then again, there were so many successful series launched in 1999 and 2000 (from the blockbuster CSI: Crime Scene Investigation to the boutique hit Queer As Folk, plus several shows mentioned below) that there just wasn’t a lot of room on the prime-time schedule for other shows to catch on.

First, a few shows that didn’t make my list. Two espionage dramas, ABC’s Alias and Fox’s real-time 24, had impressive pilot episodes, but I just couldn’t look forward to seeing them every week. I did make it through the first five episodes of 24, and it is indeed a well-produced and innovative series. The problem is that with one story stretched across the entire season, we have to watch the bad guys triumph every week from now until May. So Kiefer Sutherland’s teenage daughter, who’s kidnapped in episode one, keeps escaping only to be abducted again a few minutes later (often thanks to strangers who refuse to help her). 24 is supposed to be Fox’s attempt to improve its image, but it often beats such infamous specials as When Animals Attack! in capturing the feel of a snuff film.

Then there’s Emmy champion The West Wing (NBC). I kept with it until the recent episode in which Rob Lowe makes an earnest case for the abolition of the penny and Bradley Whitford mocks him for caring about such a trivial issue. I realized that not only could writer Aaron Sorkin have switched the two characters in this argument, he could have fed any of the lines to any other character on the show and nobody would know the difference. I still love the premise of The West Wing; I just wish Sorkin would allow other writers to do something new with it.

With those disappointments out of the way, here are my own comfort shows of 2001, with the same two at the top as in 2000:

1. The Sopranos (HBO). After a rough start, the third season of TV’s best drama went in all kinds of unexpected directions. The most intense moments included Dr. Melfi’s rape and Jackie Jr.’s bullet to the head, but the quirky scenes were just as memorable: Christopher and Paulie scarfing down semi-frozen packets of catsup while lost in the New Jersey Pine Barrens; Tony’s mistress hurling a raw steak at his head; and a drunk Meadow lobbing dinner rolls at Uncle Junior. The season finale had plenty of dangling threads, but it served its purpose of keeping everyone eager for the next season. (Be patient; we’re almost halfway through the 15-month wait.)

2. Survivor II (CBS). The Australian installment of the king of all reality shows was almost as fresh as the first go-round. Michael’s exit from the show (after falling face-first into a campfire) was as shocking as Janet Leigh’s early dispatch in Psycho, and the removal of bitch bartender Jerri was sweeter than the imaginary chocolate bars that had her moaning in ecstasy. As for character development, you couldn’t top Colby going from Texas doofus to master politician, or host Jeff Probst’s Willy Wonka–like turn as he scolded his charges for pigging out on rice. Still, once a year is enough; I haven’t seen a single episode of this fall’s adventure in Africa.

3. The Bernie Mac Show (Fox). With so many "ensemble" sit-coms tepidly waving for our attention, it’s a pleasure to see the high-strung Mac take complete control of our TV sets every week. Mac has also redeemed the now-tiresome device of having a character speak directly to the camera — and he’s talking to "America," damn it, not some off-screen psychotherapist. A cross between George Jefferson and Felix Unger, Mac’s character is stuck raising the three kids of his drug-addicted sister, and so far the premise hasn’t turned saccharine. Food highlight: Mac’s scheme of drawing lines on every jar and bottle in the refrigerator (the kids get the top half of each item, he gets the bottom).

4. Undeclared (Fox). Producer Judd Apatow’s follow-up to Freaks and Geeks is a laugh-trackless comedy similarly cursed by low ratings. Like Freaks, this squirmingly accurate look at college is probably best appreciated by those who are long past the ages of the main characters, four freshmen sharing a dormitory suite. The best gluttony scene would be the beer binge that follows the roommates’ inheritance of a half-empty keg. But I also loved the mass make-out session in the student lounge (the shy kids are all banished there because their roommates are having sex upstairs), and Steven’s frantic attempts to escape the jealous boyfriend of the girl across the hall (more terrifying than a dozen episodes of Oz).

5. Once and Again (ABC). It’s not the only commercial-TV drama with a great cast or intelligent writing. But unlike The West Wing, it also gives us sharply delineated characters. I refer you to the contrast between trying-to-stay-hip mom Lily (Sela Ward) and control-freak mom Karen (Susanna Thompson). Better yet, there’s the train wreck waiting to happen between two stepsisters, steel-eyed Grace (Julia Whelan) and fragile Jessie (Evan Rachel Wood). And I give Once and Again bonus points for raising hot-button issues — anorexia, drug use, kleptomania — without the moralizing that bring other shows to a halt. Its best food scene: Grace’s discovery of a pizza slice in Jessie’s desk drawer.

6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (WB/UPN). "Once More with Feeling," in which a spell causes musical numbers to break out all over Sunnyvale, was a rare example of a stunt episode that was as enjoyable as it was clever. Another high note was "The Body," in which Buffy’s mom died of natural (!) causes. I was less impressed by Buffy’s death and (of course) resurrection, but a show that aims so high can’t be successful every week.

7. Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS). Patricia Heaton won a deserved second Emmy this year; only Seinfeld’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus is as funny in her outbursts of exasperation with juvenile male behavior. The year’s best episode, "The Canister," found Heaton frantically trying to hide the title object from her mother-in-law (Doris Roberts, another worthy Emmy winner).

8. Saturday Night Live (NBC). David Letterman proved to be a class act in his post–September 11 shows, but SNL couldn’t really follow his lead by suspending its comedy segments. So the show expanded its satiric targets to include Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft, and only a few days after the release of the infamous Osama bin Laden "smoking gun" tape, it came up with its own hilarious translation (in which bin Laden promises to join the September 11 hijackers on the path to martyrdom — "in about 30 years"). The most brilliant sketch of the fall, in which the recent terrorism scares merged with last year’s election debacle, featured CBS anchor Dan Rather (with all of Rather’s bizarre speech mannerisms nailed by Darrell Hammond) making "projections" about which journalists had contracted anthrax (and then, à la Florida, having to take it all back).

9. Band of Brothers (HBO). One of the most expensive series in TV history pretty much dropped off the radar screen after the first episode, which aired only two days before the September 11 attacks. The 10-hour epic about World War II paratroopers was often confusing and sentimental. Its battle scenes, however, were unforgettable. I don’t like to praise any TV series just because it’s based on fact, but Band of Brothers affected me more than any of the ingeniously plotted crime dramas that aired in 2001.

10. The Tick (Fox). I couldn’t decide which of the remaining single-camera comedies to put here, so I went with the one in most danger of cancellation. Seinfeld’s Patrick Warburton is the title character, a blue-costumed superhero who is equally perturbed by a vending machine that withholds coffee and a Russian robot that’s programmed to kill Jimmy Carter. The Tick is ignorant about sex or death, and the poor parasite would be crushed to learn that millions of Americans actually sat through NBC’s Inside Schwartz on Thursday nights instead of tuning in to this charming fantasy.

Just missing out: NBC’s Scrubs and Ed, ABC’s The Job, Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle, and HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. The one real disappointment among the new single-camera comedies, The Mind of the Married Man, aired on HBO, the network most responsible for weaning the other networks off laugh tracks.

Issue Date: December 27, 2001 - January 3, 2002

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