End of The Year Reflection on The Best & Worst TV of 2008

The end of the year is fast approaching and so it is only appropriate for us to reflect upon the best and worst of small screen past. The moments that I regard with high esteem?

...When we learned that Liz Lemon uses her oven for the sole purpose of warming her jeans in the morning... And, of course, the time we discovered that Michael Scott's relationship with Jan Levinson was legit abusive. I mean, he was regularly forced to sleep on a wooden chest at the foot of their bed, my friends...

And though a few of my favorite shows were somewhat lackluster this year, what with the writers strike interruption and all, there were always stand out episodes. Remember the hour we were gifted with Betty Suarez on some sort of cocaine, weed and mushroom-infused cocktail, sold to her in the form of Claire Meade's perfume? I don't think I ever liked the usually square Betty more, frantically typing memos like a superwoman one second, shoving people the next, licking Christina's face 'cause "it feels good," sniffing random people's clothes, noticing their brilliant colors for the first time, talking a mile a minute, mounting Henry in the elevator, lamenting the tragedy that is Molly Ringwald sans Oscar, combating cotton mouth by sucking down her sister's juice and subbing a breakfast of huevos rancheros for a squirt of whipped cream. Solid, solid work.

Of course, there were dramatic high points as well. At the top of my list? Betty Draper finally coming to emotional terms with her husband's serial infidelity by banging a hot stranger in the back room of some New York City bar. Bravo.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the myriad of Friday Night Lights moments which mixed both drama and comedy seamlessly. The simplest elements of the most commonplace scenes still stand out in my mind... like the look on Coach Taylor's face, overhearing Tami talk about some boy who dug her in high school and the way Tim Riggins smirked mischievously at a distraught Matt Saracen who he found skipping class. Or how 'bout Landry telling Matt he's in danger of becoming an "at-risk" youth after said skipping incident? One minute the show has us really laughing, like we would at old friends. And a second later, we were sobbing with a scared Saracen, whose abandonment issues finally came to the surface through a screaming match between him and Coach T.

Honorable mentions go to Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick for his impeccably slimy comedic timing, to In Treatment's Mia Wasikowska for a phenomenal overall performance, to Christian Siriano for the finest season of Project Runway so far, to Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers for all the kick ass SNL election coverage, and to the writing staffs of Greek -- for every clever pop culture reference they ever squeezed into a script -- and Dexter ...for just being damn geniuses. 

But with the good, no doubt, comes the bad. And I know there are many things you'd like to fix in 2009. For starters, the return of regular screen time for Cameron and Chase on House. I think some of you are still upset about Rebecca not being a Walker and hooking up with Justin on Brothers & Sisters. Of course, there's the whole Grey's Anatomy debacle -- shall we begin with the sudden departure of Dr. Hahn or the Izzie having sex with a ghost storyline? -- And many of us are just plain pissed off about the cancellation of Eli Stone, Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies.

And so I ask, if you had one holiday wish that a TV fairy Godmother would for sure grant you, what would it be?  Something I've already touched upon? Or a subject I've forgotten? Speak now... because you never know, the show runners and network suits could be reading this.

On a brighter note, if you haven't yet caught TV Guide Channel's Biggest Moments of 2008 Special, be a doll and DVR it -- on Saturday at 2 p.m., Sunday at 5 p.m., Monday at 5 p.m. or Tuesday at 6 p.m. -- because yours truly pops up all over that two hours of TV chatter... and though my hair has never looked worse, the program as a whole is pretty great. If you don't have the TV Guide Channel, don't fret. My girl Marisa downloaded a few clips from the show onto YouTube, so you can preview those below. And if the sound on your computer is busted, that's cool too, 'cause I did a little end of year thing in print for Yahoo!, which you can also peep ...because clearly, more of Korbi is what you wanted for Christmas... my apologies, if you're not going to pimp yourself, who will?

And on that note, I'd like to wish you all a truly happy holiday. Kick back, sip some egg nog, hang your stockings by the chimney with care and just hope that we don't have to deal with a freakin SAG strike in the coming year...

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