A bunch of my favorite TV shows have been renewed for new seasons – here is a quick round-up.  (Yes, some of these are old, but so what?)

Fringe was just given the go-ahead for a third season, which is fantastic news.  The show’s ratings have been down thanks to its hyper-competitive timeslot, but the stories this season have been phenomenal, and the show is really coming into its own.  If you’re not watching it, you should be!

Smallville, which has seen every season since #7 potentially be its last, has gotten a pick-up to continue for a Season Ten.  As a fan of the show, I have been hoping for years that it would come to an end; it’s not that I don’t love it, I just think that based on the concept of the show – Clark Kent growing into the hero he will be – needs to eventually come to its logical conclusion.  For years, the show seemed to be dragging its feet, but no more.  The show still has its issues, but it has proven that it still has legs, and I am excited that they will continue for another year.  I still stand by my assertion that the show does need to come to a satisfactory conclusion, and that the showrunners should negotiate an end that will leave them and the fans happy.

NBC picked up the three Thursday night shows we watch, The Office, 30 Rock, and Community, for additional seasons.  Similarly to Smallville, The Office, as much as I love it, needs to end at some point as well.  What on earth is this documentary crew still doing in Scranton?  Are they *ever* going to take all of this footage and make it into something?  Or are we supposed to now think that the cameras are there as an ongoing reality series?  Has that ever been established?  I still like the show, and I’ll keep watching it, it just seems like it’s gotten a little too silly for its own good.

Community is also pretty funny, and while I can’t see it staying on the air forever (community college is only for two years, right?), another season is good news.  And 30 Rock is pure brilliance, and they need to keep that show going as long as they can keep Alec Baldwin on it.

How I Met Your Mother got a green-light for a sixth season, which is also great news, but once again, the show is going to need to come to an end based on the premise of the series.  Eventually, Ted’s gonna have to meet the Mother, and all of the story lines will have to pay off.

Big Love was given an order for a fifth season, which isn’t terribly surprising given that the show pulls in pretty solid numbers for HBO.  This season seems to be moving at a breakneck pace, which is a nice change from a lot of the other scripted shows on the air that seem to plod along.

And for what it’s worth, here is my official opinion on these shows that are still “on the bubble:”

24 – I could go either way on this one.  The show is still entertaining, but the formula has gotten a bit stale.

Heroes – Yeah, I have stuck with this show despite swearing off it several times.  I didn’t finish this past season, but now with the last few episodes on FiOS’ On Demand, I am planning on it.  The show is also past its prime, so I wouldn’t be heartbroken if it went off.

Scrubs – They never should have brought Scrubs back from the dead after last season, but to cancel it now would just be extra insulting.

V and FlashForward – Both of these shows have potential to live for a few seasons, if the writing can stay strong.  I personally have a little more faith in V, but I’m looking forward to seeing how both shows play out their seasons.

Every December, a ton of “Best of the Year” lists pop up everywhere, and they can get old pretty quick, but I’m digging the “Best of the Decade” lists that I’ve been seeing lately. So I figured I’d jump on that particular bandwagon, and so I now present my list of some of the best pop culture trends of the past ten years.

Funny Music from Artists Besides Weird Al
Don’t get me wrong – my obsession with Weird Al Yankovic, the king of parodies and musical comedy, is still strong as ever. And he had a great decade in his own right, with the fantastic albums Poodle Hat and Straight Outta Lynwood, as well as his several Internet Leaks songs and videos. But he also had some competition in the funny music department. Tenacious D’s first album is side-splittingly funny. Though the movie and its soundtrack were less hilarious than they could have been, the genius of their first batch of songs more than makes up for it.

Then there’s Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island crew. The videos for Lazy Sunday, D*ck in a Box, I’m On a Boat, and others are brilliant in their lyrics and their visuals, and the digital shorts have been some of the best stuff on Saturday Night Live in recent years.

And who could forget the brilliance of Flight of the Conchords? Their two seasons on HBO, their two albums, and their EP were full of catchy, quotable, fantastic, and hysterical songs. I cried a little bit (on the inside) when I heard the show was officially done. Hopefully they’ll keep putting out music into the next decade.

The Renaissance of the Serialized Drama
The aughts may be remembered as the decade when hour-long, serialized dramas came back with a major vengeance. The best of the bunch has to be Lost – a show that not only blows your mind every week, but it has you obsessing in between episodes, talking over theories and trying to guess what it all means. The season 1 and 3 finales are two of my personal favorites in a standout series.

While the writing may not be as strong at 24 as it is on Lost, it’s still an extremely entertaining show, and it’s made Jack Bauer an instant kick ass pop icon. Sure, it’s cheesy when he screams “Dammit, we’re running out of time!” yet again, but it’s hard to resist the show’s real-time Die Hard feel. Then there’s Smallville, which has gotten much better at telling long stories over multiple episodes instead of just relying on freak-of-the-week episodes. And Fringe straddles the line of stand alone episodes with a greater mythology, and so far has been doing a great job of both. I also have high hopes for FlashForward and V, but it will remain to be seen how well those shows pay off long arcs, but they’re both off to good starts.

Even when theses kinds of shows haven’t worked all that well (Dollhouse, Terminator, Heroes) or when they were good concepts that were canceled too soon (Eli Stone), it’s still good that network executives are giving their audience some credit, understanding that we have patience, and can appreciate the kind of story-telling where everything isn’t all wrapped up in a tidy package in 42 minutes.

There is a great, albeit very long article about this topic at GQ.com with the guys from Bad Robot – I recommend it if you have a half-hour to kill.

Sit-coms Are Amazing Again!
It wasn’t just hour-long dramas that rocked the decade; the sit-com was reintroduced as a medium of clever comedies, and not just full of pratfalls and one-dimensional characters. Arrested Development was able to use bad puns, sight gags, kissing cousins, and The Final Countdown to great effect for powerful belly laughs. The British version of The Office gave us an amazing new brand of painful and awkward humor that would live on in the American series, as well as Ricky Gervais’ show Extras. 30 Rock is written so brilliantly and the jokes come so fast I find myself having to constantly rewind back to listen to jokes again. How I Met Your Mother gave a new twist to the story of urban singles looking for love. And we got 8 great years of Scrubs – even if Season 9 leaves a little to be desired.

The Superhero Is Cool Again
It seems like ages ago, but there was a time in the not-so-distant past that superhero movies weren’t really anything to get that excited about. Then in a single decade, we got four fantastic films in the genre: Superman Returns, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man. (I know I’m going to get mocked for making those the ones I single out… but I just can’t get behind Spider-man. I tried, really, I did. And I enjoyed X-Men and X2, but I don’t know if they were amazing.) Too often, superhero movies were considered formulaic drivel, and could be released, hated, and forgotten about quickly. But the aughts made them not only bankable hits, but films that both nerds and critics agreed were actually good. I’ve defended Superman Returns so many times I’ve lost count, so I’ll just make this quick – it had its fans, and its share of people who hated it, but I loved it, so it goes on *MY* list, OK? The rebooted Batman films were also incredible, and they made that world so dark and believable it’s hard to not be foaming at the mouth for more sequels. And even though I knew nothing about Iron Man, I thoroughly enjoyed that film as well. Sure there have been some bad superhero movies in the past ten years, but the good ones were so great, it almost doesn’t matter.

The Apatow Movie Method
If some strange pop culture villain put a gun to my head and demanded I name the funniest movie of the past ten years, it’s a safe bet that I’d answer Superbad. I was laughing out loud a lot when we first saw that flick, and every time I’ve watched it since, I have the same reaction. That’s impressive considering I know the jokes that are coming. I also feel similarly about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, and The 40-Year Old Virgin. And Anchorman and Talladega Nights and Walk Hard and any movie that had Apatow’s name attached to was guaranteed to be at least funnier than your average comedy. Of course, Judd himself didn’t always have much to do with every all of the above movies, but his influence can be felt in them – and others where he had no involvement whatsoever, like I Love You, Man; there are outrageous moments, painful moments, and things that are ridiculous enough to make you laugh so hard your stomach hurts, but they still keep themselves grounded in such a way that you buy what’s happening. Movie comedies will probably continue to evolve, but these movies will always make me laugh.

The Pixar Streak
So much has already been said about the brilliance of the Pixar movies, but here it goes anyway: The folks at Pixar are geniuses, and each and every one of their flicks have been funny, beautiful to watch, and full of great characters and stories. Two of the greatest films of the decade in my humble opinion are WALL·E and Up, neither of which sounded like a home-run concept, but were both executed flawlessly. Sure there are other companies doing similar kinds of animation, but those movies always just fail to impress me with their stories, and often times they are so full of timely references that the jokes will be out dated in a few years. Courtney and I have been watching a DVR’d collection of Pixar shorts, and even the company’s short films are crafted with amazing precision and humor. I sure hope my kids love these movies, because I know I’ll enjoy watching them too.

Nintendo Changes Video Gaming
I’m a Nintendo fanboy – always have been, always will be. And I loved the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance. But what Nintendo pulled off with the Wii and the Nintendo DS is truly incredible. Video-gaming is no longer just associated with nerds playing alone in dark basements – it’s now something that the whole family can do together, something that parents don’t dread if their kids want to do, and it’s even something that women actually enjoy. (And are not just pretending to enjoy for the sake of their boyfriends or husbands.) Wii Sports isn’t my favorite game personally, but I love watching people who have never held a game controller pick it up and play with ease. Wii Fit is a really fun way to exercise at home. The latest iterations of the classic franchises have all been fantastic: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii are all incredible games, as are their counterparts on the DS. (I just beat the first dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks this morning – it’s really fun so far!)

Sure Nintendo has room for improvement – better online capability, HD graphics, etc. But the fact of the matter is what they are doing now works, and it works well, and it works well for a huge chunk of the population.

Better, Clearer, Faster
High definition television. DVR. Portable players that let us watch movies, TV shows, and carry tons of music and photos, too. It’s pretty amazing that when we started this decade, those things weren’t common, and now it’s hard to imagine life without them. It sounds like a sweeping statement, but it isn’t, really. Try to go through a week without using your DVR. Or switch back to a standard definition TV. You’ll be going out of your mind in a week. What are you going to do, record your favorite shows with a VCR? Seriously.

And remember when you had to carry a discman with you to listen to music on the go? You looked strange wearing headphones, and you could only listen to one album at a time! Now you can carry thousands of songs in your cell phone.

And remember dial-up? When it would take a half hour to load a 30 second video clip? Now you can watch entire episodes of TV shows or whole movies on your laptop – or even on your TV – that load in seconds.

It’s hard to imagine so much has happened in ten years, and it’s even crazier that in December 2019, we’ll be looking back at all of this stuff as quaint and old-fashioned.

So, I guess that means he managed to survive at the end of last season, huh? Well, that was one heckuva shocker. Though I gotta admit the lines about Jack not looking like a grandpa got me sort of excited for the new season.

Of course, I am most excited for the upcoming and (definitely) final season of Lost. There’s a new teaser trailer, and even though it shows absolutely no new footage, it’s still sort of cool to get amped up about Lost again:

The new trailer does NOT make up for the fact that the show won’t be running uninterrupted in 2010 – ABC will force the show to take a break during the 2010 Winter Olympics. That’s just super lame. First of all, I can’t imagine that there is a ton of overlap between Lost fans and figure skating fans. And even if people are truly torn between finding out the secrets of The Island and seeing who takes home the gold in Curling, they can just DVR one, and not screw with the rest of us. (Although now that I think about it, a February 2010 hiatus might be a good thing for the Noah family…)

Like 24, Smallville is another show that may or may not be ending, but now there’s word that the Smallville producers are pushing hard to go for another year. This is sort of just par for the course at this point, considering that pretty much the last few seasons have all been considered likely to be the show’s last. Hell, I had been saying the show should have ended long ago as well, but I gotta admit, the show has been pretty cool lately. Sure, it still has its flaws (like last week where they were back to ripping off movies for plot ideas, this time it was “The Game”) but the show has gotten better at long arcs, and they seem to know what they’re doing and where they’re going. Hell, the simple fact that they are even planning ahead to know how to end this season and lead into next year speaks volumes about their “big picture” plans, which I can appreciate.

And last piece of news: the new Scrubs (which, like Smallville, just keeps coming back for “one more” season) is set to return on December 1st. It’s an odd time for a show to come back on the air, and I was really hoping they would at the very least change the title, but who am I kidding, there’s no way I’m not going to watch it.

And just in case anyone missed it/wants to watch it again, here’s Cartman singing “Poker Face” while Stan hunts Japanese whale hunters.

Dear Jack Bauer,

Hi, this is Alan Noah, I’m a big fan of your work. Now I know you’ve gotten a lot of flack on the whole “torture” thing, but I’m with you; sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to save lives. And if that means threatening to rip a bad guy’s stomach out through his mouth or stab him in the eye with a pen, so be it.

But that’s not the reason I’m writing today. I wanted to pass along a couple of new forms of torture, and you should feel free to use them whenever a situation merits.

1. Removing old wallpaper. Listen Jack, I’m not talking about wallpaper that’s recently been put on a wall; I’m talking about the kind that was put on back in the 70’s. The kind that is stuck to the wall with adhesives and glues that have long since been banned by the government. And don’t give the suspects any of those sissy chemicals, neither – make them do it the old fashioned way, with a steamer. Naturally, sanding the wall, patching it, re-sanding it, priming it with an oil based primer that is IMPOSSIBLE to get off of your body, and then painting the walls is all included in this form of torture.

2. Removing old carpeting. What you want to keep in mind here is that the carpet tacks and nails need to be rusty. So rusty that just looking at them from afar will require several tetanus booster shots. And sharp. So sharp that they will make a mockery of the thickest gloves your terror suspects will be wearing. You have to make sure that there are an obscene number of staples in the floor holding down the carpet padding, so that the bad guy in question will be on his hands and knees for hours, trying delicately to pull up each and every one. And, of course, there is always the matter of cutting up the carpet into the appropriate size strips so the garbage men will take them away. And don’t forget all the buffing and cleaning of the hardwood floor after the carpet is gone!

Look Jack, I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying to yourself, “Man, I’ve done some horrible things in my time to protect innocent people from harm, but is *this* too much? Is it possible to go too far?” Well my friend, we live in dark times, and these times may call for such drastic measures.

Best of luck to you,
Alan Noah

P.S. Please ask Kim why she hasn’t returned any of my calls since Season Two.

Super fast recap of the non-Lost season finales of the year:

Smallville – Super disappointing battle between Clark and Doomsday. They built up all season for 1 minute of a fight? And Jimmy Olsen wasn’t thew real Jimmy Olsen? Lame. And Chloe didn’t know that her husband had a brother? And she didn’t even try to use her healing power on him? Lame lame double lame.

24 – Tony was sort of kind of a little bit redeemed – he did have somewhat of a motivation for his actions, although he was willing to go to some awful extremes. And Kim in trouble was a tired way to end the season – there was way too much talking and not enough action in a finale where we knew Jack wasn’t going to die.

Fringe – A great end to a great first year. I really think this was one of my favorite new shows of the past season. The twists about Peter and where William Bell holds his alternate-universe meetings were great moments.

The Office – The best moment of the show was Dwight stalling for Pam and Jim. How many people have to get hurt before we do something? One? Two? Three? … FOUR?

Scrubs – What a great way to end the series, except that they’re not really ending the series. On the one hand I’m happy to have more Scrubs, but they did such an amazing job tying everything up, it could feel like overkill. And how wil they top the next series finale they have to do?

Another TV season has come and gone… Now I can begin a summer of watching baseball!

So after I was able to brag and boast and say “I told you so” when it was revealed that Tony was good, it turns out that he’s really evil? I didn’t believe it at first, and it still really pisses me off. For one because I loved the character and he’s been around for so long, but also because it doesn’t make a ton of sense – if he and his anonymous buddies wanted a full scale attack, why did they stop Jonas? He was a loose cannon because he wanted to attack too much too soon, but now they’re doing the same thing? Huh?

This week’s Lost was good, but it was really all set-up for the finale next week, which I am totally psyched for. Can Locke kill Jacob? What is Jacob? And why the hell did the Others appoint Locke as their leader and not bother to explain the rules to him? How can he lead when he doesn’t know what’s going on around him? (Attention bleeding hearts: Insert Dubya joke here…) And now all of a sudden Kate loves Jack so much that she’s willing to allow tons of people to die (Charlie, Boone, Shannon, Libby, everyone else) just so she can hold on to a few happy memories with her ex-fiancée? Oh, and Chang’s questioning of Hurley? Brilliant.

And speaking of shows coming up on their season finales, perhaps Smallville will break it’s recent run of huge buildups to disappointing final episodes. The promo didn’t really sell it, but I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s gotta be better than the Heroes finale at least. They just. Keep. Making. The same. Damn mistakes! Show us a decent fight with Sylar! Let Ali Larter’s characters stay dead! Ugh. I don’t think I’ll be watching next season – they just haven’t given me any reason to in so long.

Hey, I was moved by the Kim-Jack reunion.  I mean, I saw it coming that she would come back and give him a transfusion or something to save him, but it was still an emotional scene.  The guy has one big weakness, and that’s his daughter.  This time out she didn’t look her best, but at least she was not being threatened by a menacing cougar!  And what the hell is up with Tony?  I do not get that twist at all – is he just trying to blackmail his way out of jail time?

On to Lost – I loved the past two episodes.  Ben’s run-in with Smokey was great, and I just loved the way he was lying for what appeared to be no reason.  The man might just be pathologically insane.  I was pretty chocked that he didn’t end up killing Penny – I did think she was a goner – but I’m glad Desmond was able to save his wife.  And I of course loved all of the Hurley-Miles stuff this week, especially the Star Wars references.  Although Hurley did get some of his Empire chronology wrong: Vader told Luke he was his father AFTER he sliced off Luke’s hand.  Jeez, Hurley, get your facts straight!  And who were those guys in the van?  I’m thinking they aren’t with Ben or Widmore – they’re some mysterious third faction, and THEY are the ones who faked the 815 wreckage.  Only a few episodes left!

Their season ended a while back, but Flight of the Conchords had another brilliant season, and I really, truly hope they come back for a third year.

South Park’s been a bit hit-or-miss this season, but I’m loving the great Randy moments.  Every time he says “Hey… hey Sharon,” it just cracks me up.  And the moment a few weeks ago where, after Kyle saves the economy and all of the credit goes to Obama? Well, that was pure brilliance.

And The Office has been as great as ever, and though at first I was hoping to see Michael, Pam, and Ryan rejoin Dunder-Mifflin, now I’m loving their side antics too much to care.  Oh, and this may be harsh, but after reading in Entertainment Weekly, the Times, and online how Parks & Recreation was going to be totally different from The Office, all I could see in two episodes was an Office clone, with one key difference – The Office is funny.  NBC let Scrubs go for this?  Oh, and the two-parter of Scrubs in the Bahamas?  Hysterical.

Really short post today…

This week’s Lost was a little lackluster, in my humble opinion. Not a lot happened – we found out that Sawyer, Juliet, Faraday, Miles, and Jin joined up with Dharma in the seventies, which we kind of already assumed, and that Sawyer and Juliet hooked up. It was great seeing how it all happened, but overall I just wasn’t that blown away. And it’s a gripey nerdy thing to complain about, but I hate when they use those “Three Years later” screens. What’s the point? The whole show has involved flashbacks and flash-forwards from the very beginning – we don’t need time frames to be spelled out for us.

Oh well. So some questions to ponder:
Has young Ben come to the Island yet? And what happens when that day comes? I assume Sawyer would want to at the very least keep an eye on him, if not wanting to get rid of him altogether.
Are the rest of the 316 survivors also in 1977?
And where/when are Bernard, Rose, and the other 815′ers? Have they been living with the Hostiles? Or worse, on the run? Why didn’t Sawyer ever go looking for them to bring them into the happy confines of New Otherton?

24 was also a little silly this week – why is the entire regime of Sangala in the U.S.? And how easy is it to break into the White House? You’d think in the 24-verse the President would have better security, seeing as how regular assassination attempts are. Speaking of which – how old is Jack Bauer? More time has passed between seasons than for the actors, so Jack would have to be in his late 40’s or so by now – right? Anyone done the math?

Quick note today, and as always: SPOILER ALERT!

Another fantastic episode of Lost last night, and it was great to see the adventures (or is that misadventures?) of Jeremy Bentham. A strong case was made in the episode that Ben is the villain of the story (which we’ve long suspected) and that Charles Widmore is, in fact, the good guy. I’m hesitant about that, not just because he sent some damn scary mercenaries to the Island, but because of the way he snapped the neck of a fellow Other when he was 17.

Widmore mentions an upcoming war, which one presumes would be a Linus vs. Widmore affair. But what if this “war” is nothing more than a distraction. Think the Separatists vs. the Galactic Republic. Wait, Alan, that doesn’t make sense – why would Widmore be trying to kidnap Ben if they were on the same team? Well, remember the time Darth Sidious had Chancellor Palpatine kidnapped? Except here’s the thing – spoiler alert – they were the same dude. It was all an act.

My evidence for this Lost theory? Exhibit A: Widmore did not want Ben killed, only extracted. If they were true rivals, why not just kill him? Exhibit B: When Alex was killed, Ben told Widmore he had “broken the rules” – or something to that effect. Why are they playing with a set of rules? Exhibits C-R: Um, still workin’ on it. And as for WHY they’d be staging this battle – I also have no idea.

As for Heroes, the show has gotten so boring and unoriginal it actually bums me out a bit. Now Parkman’s making prophetic paintings, this time of Washington D.C. being blown up. That’s how far they’ve come in three seasons: New York gets blown up to D.C gets blown up? And both are predicted by prophetic paintings made in the exact same loft? So lame. 24 has recycled some plot points and moved locations to D.C., but they’ve managed to keep things interesti8ng and fresh enough (mostly) for the change of locales to have worked to their advantage. Heroes has just gotten incredibly stale, and it’s a dang shame.

SPOILER WARNING!

Ah, Lost, how I missed you. I still have some quibbles with the show here and there – like how convenient is it that every time the guys on the Island are in mortal danger, there’s a flash? And how convenient is it that all of the members of the Oceanis Six are in LA just as Ben needs to get them all back to the Island? And how was Jin able to be in the “sphere” of time travel around the Island, when the helicopter was not? Wasn’t the copter flying back to the Island after the freighter went boom? I would think the chopper would move faster than a drifting Jin. And if the Island “needs” everyone from 815 on the Island, why has it killed so many of them? And my BIG question remains – if the Island needed Jack and company so badly,why did Jacob have Ben move the Island when he did?? I still say this predicament of time-hopping is way more of Ben/Locke/Jacob’s fault than Jack’s.

But quibbles and questions aside, the show is still amazing. Seeing Jin alive, though not particularly surprising, was still a great moment. And he meets the young Rousseau? Whoa. I have long wondered about her backstory – what really happened to her crew? How did she live on the Island for 16 years and never see an Other? But did she interact with Jin in the earlier seasons? Did she recognize him? She may have given him an odd look and we would have regarded it as pure craziness. I may have to rewatch some old episodes for research.

And along those same lines, when Claire gave birth to Aaron, were there whispers that could have been Sawyer/Faraday? Could Sawyer have popped out and said hello to Kate? Would that have disrupted the space-time continuum? Could he have talked to himself? Back to the Future rules say no. Timecop rules say he could talk to himself, but the two Sawyers couldn’t touch. Lost rules on this matter have not yet been made clear.

In other TV matters, 24 is officially awesome again! The new characters haven’t bothered me as much as I thought they would, though I would like more Chloe and Bill action. But the tag-team of Jack and Tony is just fantastic. The drama is kept high, the action is fun to watch, and I find myself looking forward to each new episode, which I sorta wasn’t in the middle of last season. Part of me worries if they’ll be able to keep up this momentum, especially with another huge government conspiracy reaching into the White House, but hey, I’m an optimistic fella.

And Scrubs, 30 Rock, and The Office have been amazing this year. The episode of The Office post-Superbowl was unbelievably amazingly hysterical, and yes, I did whine about hour-log episodes of The Office before, but none was so brilliantly executed as this one. The opening sequence was so damn funny, it’s worth watching again. So here it is, my gift to you all. (OK fine, Hulu’s gift to us all.)