Alyson Hannigan

Best of 2005: Television

CBS makes our television critic’s list this year with How I Met Your Mother

-1-
Battlestar Galactica
(Sci Fi)

-2-
The Office
(NBC)

-3-
Weeds
(Showtime)

-4-
Sometimes in April
(HBO)

-5-
Project Runway
(Bravo)

-6-
Wonder Showzen
(MTV2)

 7- The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)

-8-
How I Met Your Mother
(CBS)

Five witty, good-looking young people dating, hanging out and trading quips in Manhattan. It’s a revolutionary idea for a sitcom—in 1994. Overshadowed by more distinctive sitcom debuts this fall (see #10), Mother does for the young-urbans comedy what Everybody Loves Raymond did for the bickering-in-laws genre: proves that originality isn’t everything. The gimmicky hook—narrator looks back on his courtship from 25 years in the future—is a distraction; what stands out is the crackling dialogue and rapport among the ensemble cast. (When Neal Patrick Harris isn’t slipping the show into his tailored breast pocket, Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan are so cute you could sprinkle powdered sugar on them and pop them in your mouth.) Mother feels like it’s been on for years, and I mean that in a good way; you sense that, just a few epsiodes into the show’s run, the writers know these characters inside and out. I can’t pretend this is anything but a well-executed Friends ripoff. But I’ll be there for them anyway.
-9-
Prison Break
(Fox)

Breakout drama, indeed. The most addictively cockamamie new show of the year, this thriller is paranoid and far-fetched enough to make 24 play like the 9/11 commission report. Combining an old-fashioned escape story with a timely story of oil, lies and conspiracy in the government, Prison Break takes your sense of skepticism and plunges a shank into it. The drama knows how to build and maintain suspense, and nowhere is that better embodied than in star Wentworth Miller—an inmate with his escape plan tattooed in code on his torso—who after 13 episodes seemed tense enough to crack walnuts behind his ears. With the titular breakout under way on the show (it returns in March to resolve its cliffhanger ending), it’s unclear where it can go in a second season. But for now I’ll follow wherever Miller’s tattoo leads.

 10- Everybody Hates Chris (UPN) & My Name Is Earl (NBC) [tie]