What I watched in 2009: TV Shows

Since it seems to be the season for best of 2009 retrospectives I thought I should get in on the action. First up, here’s my top 5 for TV Shows for the year that was.

1. Arrested Development. I know, it’s like six years old, but I finally got around to watching all 3 seasons of this awesome series. The quality of the comedic writing is simply amazing. There are so many set-ups for the ultimate joke which you don’t see coming. And the clever yet subtle tie-ins with previous episodes make it well worth a couple of re-watches.
2. True Blood. I didn’t think I would get into this series, especially in an industry so saturated with Twilight piggy-backs. True Blood is more than “just another vampire show”, it’s raised the bar for this genre by just being so damn compelling. The Season 2 story was a bit slow for a while and Bill Compton’s incessant chivalry makes me want to puke or just stake the guy, but apart from that it’s great.
3. Battlestar Galactica. This series wound up this year to a semi-surprising climax with it’s 4th and final season. I’m glad it didn’t go longer as even Season 3 was starting to suffer from “filler bloat” which is where they pad out the main plot with pointless episodes to stretch it to 22 episodes or whatever. BSG remains in my opinion one of the best shows OF ALL TIME.
4. Heroes. What can I say, I’m a sucker for punishment when it comes to this series. Season 4 has introduced some new characters, mostly original. Still has a good amount of mystery but the overall plot is pretty obvious. I used to watch Heroes for the powers but these days they’re a dime a dozen. Now I watch for Sylar, the evil antagonist who is really the only character that still has balls. He knows what he wants. He wants to kill everyone with powers, steal their powers and rule the world as the only one with powers. I respect that, you know. Too many characters these days are just lolly-gagging around while they “discover” their “destiny”. Snooooore.
5. The Big Bang Theory. This show was hella funny even if it does reinforce geek stereotypes. Then there was S02E07 where Sheldon is a complete bastard prick. That turned me off the show because real people would not accept his behaviour, nor even care enough to react. They would simply ignore him or get a restraining order. The artificial construction of Sheldon’s character became even more apparent to the point where I stopped believing and started being angry at the writers. This has happened before and it’s an edge I am only rarely pushed over, but when I am it’s not pretty. But if I can ignore that one episode, it still makes my top 5 for the year.

So what have I missed? Did you watch anything last year that I don’t know about? Besides Dexter and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which are both on my to-watch list.