Emmys: Best Series

Best Comedy Series

My picks: Arrested Development, Desperate Housewives, Gilmore Girls, The Bernie Mac Show, Unscripted

As I've mentioned in several previous posts this was not a strong season for comedy. It was so weak that even the extremely uneven Americanized take on immediate British classic The Office was widely viewed as one of the season's strongest comedies.

At least Arrested Development was back for a second season. There isn't a funnier show on television.

Joining Arrested at the top of the season's comedy class are two hour long shows. Plenty will argue that Desperate Housewives is a drama, and it is, but it's also consistently funny and embraces one of the widest range of comic styles on television: from satire and dark humor to slapstick and innuendo. Gilmore Girls also has its share of dramatic moments but clearly belongs here. Too bad the show has never received proper credit from awards groups for its quick wit, intelligence and rich characters.

Arrested and Housewives are the frontrunners for Emmy attention, while Gilmore seems forever destined to be ignored for no good reason. Instead the Emmy voters are expected to include the final season of Everybody Loves Raymond (which is fine, since the show never really got any better or worse with age, it always just was what it was). That's where the valid choices end and the likes of Will & Grace, Entourage and Two and a Half Men begin.

Personally I'll take two shows not even on the Emmy radar: Fox's family comedy with an edge, The Bernie Mac Show, and HBO's undervalued verite look at struggling actors in L.A., Unscripted.

Best Drama Series

My picks: Deadwood, The Shield, Six Feet Under, Lost, Rescue Me

There's little doubt cable has greatly improved television drama. By allowing shows to flourish without demanding they deliver mass audiences, or conform to restrictive content standards, cable has forever altered what is possible on television. Some of last season's most remarkable drama occurred on two of television's most exciting networks: HBO, with Deadwood and Six Feet Under, and FX, with The Shield and Rescue Me. (Also praiseworthy for its originality was Showtime's The L Word; while HBO's The Wire and Sci Fi's Battlestar Galactica had their share of passionate devotees and are on my list of shows to catch up with in the future.)

Proving broadcast television can occasionally deliver a show on par with the best of cable, ABC's Lost became a well deserved sensation and it earns a place on my list for the same reasons the other series do.

To watch these five shows is to experience a makeshift community taking shape amidst the lawlessness of the Old West; cops playing both sides of the law on the streets of modern day Los Angeles; firefighters dealing with issues of masculinity and morality in a post-9/11 New York; a close-knit family struggling with the painful, joyous experiences of being alive; and a disparate group of strangers finding themselves at the mercy of a mysterious island that both unites and divides them.

Separately and together they represent the best of what television is capable of. The level of storytelling, the exploration of complex characters, the rich environments, the unique points of view. These series have it all.

When it comes time to celebrate artistic excellence they're all worth remembering.