Couldn’t be happier that NBC has consolidated a worthy line-up of comedy onto Thursday nights again.  Between that and ABC marrying Lost and Grey’s Anatomy, my DVR runneth over.

Better still?  Tonight’s episodes of Lost and Grey’s really showed that their creative teams have hit a stride.

Lost has been DELIVERING this year.  My complaints with middle seasons involved too many riddles being tossed at us at once, never any answers.  Sure, there’s still plenty of puzzles and cliffhangers this year, but there are also answers.  Storylines move forward.  The big picture slowly reveals.  Frustration is the good kind, and overarching mysteries slowly unravel.  Sweet.

Meanwhile, Grey’s finally has the one component it’s been missing for years: chemistry.  During all its seasons, Grey’s  has tried to make me care about the central romance between Derek and Meredith.  And I haven’t.  But tonight, in one simple, elegant scene (finally featuring some compelling acting from Ellen Pompeo) I actually cared about the “central” characters more than the peripheral ones.  And they did it all with eyes.  Fantastic.

We are in the Golden Age of Television people.  That’s taken?  OK… Platinum Age.  Enjoy it.

Empire just released its list of the best 50 television shows of all time.  At the risk of getting all meta, I think it’s one of the top lists of the top that I’ve ever seen.  TV Guide made a similar top-50 list a few years back, and theirs included shows like 60 Minutes and Sesame Street.  While there can be no doubt that these are significant televisions touchstones in American culture, they are apples-to-oranges with the rest of such a list.

Empire’s list just compared entertainment.  What’s impressive is the lack of snobbery, yet the complete willingness to sift through the best of the premium cable shows.  Their list includes Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Dexter, the Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc.  And what list of the best television wouldn’t?  They don’t miss small-audience gems like The Shield and Arrested Development.

Of course, their list skews British, being a British publication.  But if you haven’t seen shows like period police drama Life on Mars, maybe it’s time that you do.

And naturally there are a few unforgivable placements, such as Family Guy at #12 while the British The Office is #23?  I don’t think so.

It also has too much sci-fi, even for my taste.  Calling the Dr. Who remake #16 is giving far too much deference to the British icon, given that show’s scattershot character development and story logic.  Babylon 5 belongs nowhere on a list of 50, let alone ABOVE the three flavors of Star Trek included.  At least, in the sci-fi realm, they gave Firefly and the remade Battlestar Galactica highest marks, so I’ll forgive them a transgression or two.  However, to truly qualify as a best of “all time” many of those sci-fi slots should better have been given over to older television hits.  As written, a few 80s classics are the most aged representatives.

Still, I’m on board with any list that ranks Buffy the Vampire Slayer #2.  And they only place it second to The Simpsons, which, body of work-wise, has it coming.  Check the list out for yourself.

When the very first image on the screen featured a mascot bunny rabbit in a fist fight, I was hopeful.

The premise behind Miss Guided is strong. Becky Freely, who was horribly awkward in high school, returns as an adult to her same school, now in the role of guidance counselor. Smart idea, and fleshing out the concept from there is strong afterwards as well. Our protagonist has a crush on a hunky Spanish teacher, but the new English teacher (who just happened to be Homecoming Queen in the guidance counselor’s senior year) is turning heads. Miss Freely is back in high school, and her new world comes with all the same dynamics as when she was a student.

Judy Greer is excellent as Becky Freely, and the writing is quality.  The world of the show is enjoyable, as we watch teachers who are not a bit qualified for their jobs struggle with their daily lives.  However, overall the first episode’s virtue is more its potential than it’s comedic virtuosity; all the elements are in the right place, except the laughs are few and far between.

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Jezebel James is the story of a children’s book editor who learns she is unable to conceive, so she asks her sister Coco to fill in as a surrogate mother. You’ll have to swallow the premise on your own, because the show doesn’t do much of the work for you, except maybe for a scene in which Coco considers her living conditions and is suddenly OK with loaning out her body.

I believe strongly that a well-written review should have very little to do with the reviewer’s personal experience with a piece of entertainment, at least unless I should expect to have a similar experience. A good review should give me insight into whether I might like something, and why. That said, I think it’s probably important to get my biases out in the open if you are to gain any value from this evaluation. First of all, I am a believer that the three-camera sitcom is not necessarily dead. Given enough originality and quality, people would watch another Friends. (See the ratings for How I Met Your Mother.) Next, I love love love love Parker Posey. Plus, Lauren Ambrose was in Six Feet Under, so she’s high in my esteem as well.

The last big element of this new half-hour is the question mark, by my taste: Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of Gilmore Girls. I have friends who find the stilted dialogue she writes charming. I do not. Much as it was for me with GG, I think the as-many-words-as-possible-in-each-breath style is probably a non-starter for me. I want my dramatic writing to sound the way people talk, each character with her own voice. If I wanted each character to seem like an overwritten facet of the author, I’d read a book. (Or watch some Aaron Sorkin.)

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“I went to law school, passed the bar in seven states… I’ve become a damned vaudeville act.  I need ignorant juries.  I need them worried.  And I need them to trust me.  And that comes down to whether this shirt brings out my eyes.”  FANTASTIC opening.

Many moments through Canterbury’s Law match the bar set by that writing, and even the weak moments are quality.  For a pilot, there is a lot more focus on the case du jour than on introducing Elizabeth Canterbury, let alone the minor characters.  Our primary window into her personality comes in the courtroom, as we watch her manipulate jury and witnesses.  She is devious and delightful.

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