BN: The Brandon Network
Brandon's Best
9-05-08
TV Guide thinks they've come up with the 10 best first
episodes (not pilots). Unsurprisingly, I think they're nut-burgers. But I'm
gonna be brief because I don't think my picks add anything new to the
conversation. Also, I'm on borrowed time, er, computer.
So, this is the TV Guide list. Not the worst list I've seen, but the fact that
it's ranked (and so poorly) drives me batty.
1.
Lost
2. 24
3. The Shield
4. The Sopranos
5. 30 Rock
6. Football Wives
7. Desperate Housewives
8. Saturday Night Live
9. ER
10. Alias
I have to abstain from opining on the ones I haven't seen, so that takes out
The Shield, Football Wives, Desperate
Housewives, and ER. I haven't
seen all of the SNL series premiere
either, but it's safe to say I wouldn't include it on my list.
Why
does everyone think the Lost pilot is
the greatest thing since sliced airplanes? I take issue with the gimmick pilots
leading the list, because the shows don't live up to their respective concepts.
I still love the (admittedly far-fetched) real-time plotting of
24, but that series opener erred on the
side of boring. I'd probably take better to the
Lost premiere if it had characters
resembling people, rather than leads on a Sci-fi channel original movie (that's
a knock at the writers, not the actors who mostly do the best they can with
their teenage dialogue). Sure both pilots were intriguing, but to call them the
best ignores so many smarter or more cohesive premieres.
And it gives me no pleasure to say this, but the pilots for
The Sopranos and
30 Rock, though good, are not worthy.
Well, Sopranos' premiere may deserve a
slot in the lower ten, but 30 Rock's
pilot-by-committee (and yes, I did just refer to NBC's treatment of the most
recent Best Comedy as socialist) is not nearly as hilarious as the show became.
As for my top 10, I know my shortcomings. It's probably more accurate to say
this is the 10 best pilots of the past 10 years. Through the '90s, I pretty much
just watched Seinfeld and
Star Trek, and it wasn't until 2004
that I really watched television. So, it's too bad I haven't seen the pilots of
Twin Peaks, MASH, Hill Street Blues,
etc., but even without that, I have 10 series premieres to put the TV Guide list
to shame.
Honorable Mentions:
1. Battlestar Galactica
- I'd give the miniseries a B+, but if we're strictly ranking the best first
episodes, "33" has a fighting shot for the top spot.
2. Star Trek
- the best Trek pilot is the unaired
pilot of the original series, but even the second pilot ("Where No Man Has Gone
Before") is worthy of mention.
On with the show, my unranked list of the 10 best series premieres:
Arrested
Development - Leaving off
AD is literally worse than the
Holocaust.
Deadwood -
"Welcome to fucking Deadwood" indeed.
Firefly -
The two-part "Serenity," for clarification.
Freaks and Geeks
- I have fonder memories of this homecoming
than my own.
Friday Night Lights
- When the show was about community.
Mad Men -
I was hooked from that first scene with Don and the waiter.
Scrubs -
Perennially, unfairly overlooked.
Six Feet Under
- Remember the ads for funeral home equipment?
Spaced - I forgot about this at first, so
I'm squeezing it in as an eleventh choice.
Veronica Mars
- Possibly my favorite.
The Wire -
Unquestionably dense, but that makes rewatching it that much more rewarding.
You may have noticed, I don't think Aaron Sorkin is nearly as entertaining as he
does. I should have given Twilight Zone
an honorable mention--great show, great first episode, but as an anthology
series, less complicated than the others that introduced long-running arcs and
characters--but I'm all the way down here already. And I promised brevity.
So there you go. Your turn!
Archives:
(4-06-08) 10 Favorite Moments of The Office Season 4
(10-01-07) Top 10 Networks
(8-9-07) My 10 Favorite TV Shows of All Time
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