4. Mad Men – Who knew AMC even had original programming? This drama about an advertising agency in 1960 started as a novelty – albeit an incredibly well-done novelty – and gradually evolved into a precise and disturbing show about identity and disillusionment. This is the heir apparent to The Sopranos and one of the most compelling dramas on TV. And I’m naming Don Draper’s presentation to the Kodak executives in the season finale as the single best scene of the year. That’s right, I’m drawing that line in the sand.
3. Lost – I’m obsessed with Lost. The amount of time I spend overthinking each episode, well, I don’t really want to run those numbers. The mythology of the series really opened up in 2007, thanks to the focus on The Others. Three years ago, it was a show about people stranded on an island with a monster and a polar bear. These days we’ve got a suburb of religious cultists, a pregnancy plague, a ghost boy, pneumatic tubes to nowhere, and the most audacious science project in history. And with this year’s season finale, we’ve seen a glimpse of the future that casts even more doubt on the present. I mentioned most of this in my reviews of the recent DVD release, but Lost manages to be both consistently entertaining television and an incredibly intricate logic puzzle. Any series that can make me research saints, theoretical mathematics, and 19th century philosophers after each episode is not just thought-provoking; it’s revolutionary.
