Canada has some great shows, eh?

Puppets Who Kill is a Canadian show about a halfway house for troubled puppets. One is a comfort doll named Cuddles who is highly suggestible and fairly neurotic. Another is a ventriloquist doll named Bill who is a sociopath and a serial killer. Rocko is a talking dog with a tattoo, a love of cigars, and a complete disregard for others. And Buttons is a former corporate mascot whom the ladies find irresistible… and who isn’t above committing crimes to add to the thrill of the chase. While this might sound like a fairly odd idea for a comedy, it’s extremely well-written, and the puppets are operated by some people who really know what they’re doing. And, since the puppets are cursing, drinking, committing crimes and serving as the worst role models possible, even the few ho-hum episodes have some great moments. I’d recommend this to anyone who doesn’t have small children who might mistake these puppets for, I don’t know, Muppets or something.

(Get Puppets Who Kill Season 1 here on Amazon.com)

If you haven't seen this show, get your hands on it IMMEDIATELY.

Police Squad! is the subject of one of the most tragic stories in television history. The show aired on ABC in 1982, and it’s clear that the network didn’t realize what they had, because it was cancelled after only six episodes. And yet this show, written by Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (the writers behind the film Airplane!) and staring Leslie Nielsen, was absolutely one of the best comedies every produced in the 1980s, and way ahead of its time. The people involved went on to develop the idea for the silver screen and released The Naked Gun down the road, but Police Squad! is where it all begins.

It’s hard to describe this show’s rapid-fire jokes and do it any justice. From the moment the credits begin to roll, the jokes pour out of the screen. Every episode has two titles – one announced by the narrator and another shown by the title card. They generally have nothing to do with each other, or with the content of the episode itself. Every introduction also noted a “special guest star” who was immediately killed off in some horrifc way.

Nielsen plays Detective Frank Drebin, a straight man in a world of lunatics. There are all sorts of running gags, such as a scientist in the lab who always seems to be instructing children on how they can do dangerous science experiments (a la Mr. Wizard), or how one character will use a doorway while Drebin will walk around the set. There’s also a shoeshine boy named Johnny who seems to know everything, and who is visited by other well-known people looking for advice (such as Joyce Brothers or Tommy Lasorda) once Frank departs.

I cannot recommend this show highly enough. It’s one of the best comedies ever made, and it’s well worth watching over and over since there are so many jokes that you’re bound to miss a few.

(Get Police Squad! on Amazon.com)

What a great name for a cop, huh?

Sledge Hammer! follows in the spirit of Police Squad! by featuring a cop named Inspector Sledge Hammer who embodies the spirit of all those police dramas from the ’70s and ’80s. He looks down on women, has a strange, almost sexual love for his .44 magnum, and is thrilled by gratuitous violence of any variety. He never stands down from a gunfight, and he isn’t afraid to use excessive force or to create massive collateral damage to win. Hammer also isn’t exceptionally bright, which makes his catchphrase, “Trust me. I know what I’m doing,” all the more hilarious. This show aired on the USA network and got two seasons. Most of the episodes are send-ups of cop movies, shows and stereotypes (parodying popular works was quite common in the ’80s), but the show eventually evolves into something not so different from the classic spy show, Get Smart.

I found myself enjoying Hammer’s antics once I got into the spirit of the show, and some of the comedy bits were absolutely priceless. One of my favorites was in an episode where Hammer finds out he’s been poisoned and only has a few hours to live. He goes on a rampage, wrecking an entire office by breaking things, throwing books on the floor, knocking over bookcases, and so forth. Then, he turns to the doctor, smiles as if nothing happened, and says, “Are you sure?” That mix of gratuitous violence and destruction aside a nonchalant attitude towards it all really makes Hammer a fun character to watch. And the supporting cast is very good as well.  I’d say this is a great show for fans of Police Squad! to check out.

(Get Sledge Hammer Season 1 on Amazon.com)

Man, this show is out there. In a good way.

Manhattan AZ is a single camera comedy that aired on the USA network several years ago. It’s about a cop from Los Angeles who gets tired of the daily routine and who takes a job as a sherriff in a little town in Arizona that’s named after its founder, mayor, and resident movie star, Jake Manhattan. The town is just outside a secret government base, and it’s populated with some really strange people. Sherriff Henderson also has a son named Atticus, named after the character Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird to instill some values in him. But Atticus is actually a surly jerk who absolutely hates the town and who frequently tries to run away to return back to Los Angeles. Most of the episodes revolve around Sherriff Henderson trying to clean up a mess made by the bizarre antics of the mayor or trying to repair the damage caused by his son. There are also some pretty good running gags involving a local tribe of American Indians who look suspiciously Anglo-Saxon and the sherriff’s aversion to tuna, due to a tragic accident involving his deceased wife, a Greenpeace mission gone wrong, and an accident at the canning plant.

This is one of those comedies that’s in the spirit of Police Squad! and Sledge Hammer!, but with a little bit of the film Raising Arizona and the series Northern Exposure thrown in for good measure. Best of all, it’s available to watch on Hulu.com for free, so go check it out!

This show was a gem. Fox should have never cancelled it.

Titus is the only show on this list that has a laugh track. And I’m sort of glad it does, because this show is one of the darkest sitcoms I’ve ever seen. The show is loosely based on the life story of Christopher Titus (also the star), a comedian who grew up with a disinterested, alcoholic father and a flighty schizophrenic mother. Somehow, Titus managed to turn his comedy routine, “Norman Rockwell is Bleeding” into a sitcom that isn’t banal or predictable. That alone is an achievement. But what’s even better is that the show is brilliant, using its misfit cast of characters in inventive ways and really torturing them with awkward situations. Titus’s father, played by the marvelous Stacey Keach, is one of the greatest villains ever crafted for a comedy.

Fox cancelled this show in its third season for daring to make fun of airline hijackers months after 9/11/01. It was probably in poor taste, but the show couldn’t help itself. Here was a show that was willing to take the sacred cows of society – the nuclear family, the joy of a relationship, the bonds between friends and siblings – and absolutely shred them apart. I’ve never seen a comedy manage to be so raw and real, and yet so funny at the same time.

(Get Titus here on Amazon.com)

LOST is one of the best shows on television, period.

LOST is back for its fifth season, and like many people, I made a point of getting together with some other LOST fans and watching it. I’ve been keeping up with the show since the middle of the first season, which means I’m all too aware of its brilliant moments… and its slumps.

As it happened, the premiere hit on a lot of the strengths and the limitations of the show. So, while it’s fresh on my mind, here are a few observations I have about LOST overall:

Five things I HATE about LOST:

1) The characters never talk to each other about anything. So much in this show could be solved if these people would just sit down, ask, “what do we know?” and compare notes across camps. Instead, every time someone’s about to make a revelation, it has to be in the most dramatic manner possible, and generally accompanied by the line, “there’s not enough time to explain this to you!” This device has been so overused that even the writers seem to be bored with it; watching Sawyer slap Farraday in the face when he said it in the Season 5 premiere was funny, but it was also a reminder of how often it’s used as a way out of explaining the show’s mysteries.

2) Many of the show’s original mysteries still haven’t been resolved. The producers keep promise that the answers are coming, but it seems like they’re continuing to stretch things as long as they can. When you sit down and outline all of the mysteries that were raised in the first season, only a handful have actually been solved. Most of the mysteries that have been solved are those that arose later when, instead of offering answers, the show brought up more questions.Some answers to the big questions this season would be a welcome change.

3) The show has become mired in its own fan culture. Did you play the last several years’ worth of LOST alternate reality games? Did you read The Bad Twin, or play the video game? No? Yeah, me neither. And while I like the idea of the extended universe giving the hardcore fans a little extra bang for their buck, I feel a little left out when I’m not keeping up on the podcasts, monitoring Lostpedia or seeking out cryptic interviews given by the producers, writers and cast. Isn’t it enough that I watch every episode? Do I really have to scrutinize deleted scenes or watch all the extras on the DVDs?

4) The show has too many red herrings. This is particularly true of the constant allusions to literature, mythology, and popular culture. Often, things that seem to be significant aren’t, and it’s hard not to feel like the people involved in the show are using it as something of a vanity project to constantly tip their hats to their favorite influences. Granted, LOST goes beyond the typical stale literary illusions to things like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but when you look at the fan-made liner notes for some episodes, you have to wonder if the show’s got a little too much padding. Speaking of which…

5) LOST still has too much padding. It’s a lot tighter now than it was in the second and third seasons, but it’s still brimming with scenes that aren’t necessary and that serve as little more than overly complicated ways to get characters from point A to point B. Even the 2-hour premiere for season 5 probably could have been cut down drastically if some of the slower scenes with Hurley and Kate had been left out.

Five things I LOVE about LOST

1) After five years, it’s still intriguing. While questions may still be lingering from Season 1, the show has done a darn good job of explaining later mysteries without destroying the mystique of the show. LOST producer Carlton Cuse worked on another show in the 1990s that involved time travel called The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., and once that show wrapped up its main mystery with the John Bly gang, it quickly ran out of steam. LOST hasn’t made that mistake. It can be maddening to realize the lengths that the show goes to not to answer questions, but at least the mysteries are still interesting in light of the other revelations that have been made.

2) The characters have depth. You can’t say this about other serialized shows, like Heroes or Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, where the characters are mere caricatures. LOST’s characters aren’t dumb, and they have motivations for the things they do. They’re all people who have been beaten and broken in some way, and even when their actions are mysterious, they don’t seem like two-dimensional morons who make the wrong choices for the sake of sticking with the plot.

3) The show’s not built on ridiculous twists. LOST does have twists, of course, and lots of them. Some have been well-received, while others have been criticized for being too convenient and easy. But the twists aren’t what make the show entertaining… it’s the perceptions that viewers build up of characters, only to see the characters in a different light at different points in time. LOST isn’t as much about twists as it’s about shifts in understanding. It’s very hard to predict what some characters will do because we don’t know enough about their motivations. Twists only serve to further illuminate LOST’s characters.

4) LOST has big moments that are hard to forget. Think about a network television program that has had a major moment that you’ll forever associate with the show, like the episode of M.A.S.H. where Henry’s plane is shot down as he’s heading home, bringing a somber reminder about the costs of war to the audience. Most shows have one of those moments per season, and generally, in the finale. LOST has one of those moments at least four or five times a season. It’s easily one of the most dramatic shows ever made for television.

5) LOST is intelligent. I don’t think I’ve seen a show that’s this smart since The Prisoner. Sure, there’s some pseudo-science, and there are moments where the show reveals that it’s not written by scientists. But in terms of its scope, its characters, its plotlines and its literary allusions, this is a show that reaches around the world and brings in all sorts of ideas about culture, philosophy, theology, metaphysics, and other heady topics. Many shows try to be this smart, but fail miserably. LOST, on the other hand, is the real deal.

Anyhow, with all that said, I’m sure you know now where you’ll be finding me for the next few months on Wednesday night. LOST might have its drawbacks, but the show’s so good that I can overlook them.

As it happens, I don’t watch a lot of television anymore, because most of it is garbage. But over the last few years, with seasons of shows popping up on DVD, I’ve found myself watching a lot of television shows. Part of the appeal of watching shows is that they’re just about the right length (20-40 minutes) for me to watch while I’m eating or resting, and they don’t require me to sink the time I’d put into, say, a feature film. TV shows are also typically less demanding in terms of my attention; as long as I know the characters and the premise, I don’t have to have much more information, unless I’m watching a serialized show like Lost or Heroes.

One of the things I’ve found out in recent years is that many of the best shows produced for TV are fairly obscure titles that were either cancelled prematurely or aired on networks most people don’t watch regularly. So, I thought I’d put together a list of five really solid shows, all of which are available on DVD, but most of which you’ve probably never heard of. All I ask is that you do the right thing and buy them on DVD if they’re available, and reserve searching bittorent sites for those which are out of print or not yet available on DVD in your country.

With that said, here’s the list!

The name "Trailer Park Boys" really tells you everything you need to know aboutt his show, doesn't it?

Trailer Park Boys: The premise of this popular Canadian show is simple: Ricky and Julian are two criminals who live in Sunnyvale Trailer Park, and Julian’s hired a documentary crew to chronicle their lives as they move from scheme to scheme and find themselves in and out of jail. Julian is cool and collected, the brains of the operation, with big muscles, a goatee and a tumbler of rum constantly in his hand. People in the park respect Julian, and he certain sort of code that he lives by, looking out for others and trying to get himself out of crime and into something more legitimate.

Then, there’s Ricky — a raging id of a human being who lives in Julian’s old beat-up car, who is well known throughout the park for his wild behavior, and who has fathered a young girl named Trinity with one of the women in the park. You never know what Ricky’s going to do, because he often doesn’t know himself; he’s often the reason that Julian’s schemes fall apart at their most critical moment, but Julian can’t seem to get rid of him.

Ricky and Julian also have a friend named Bubbles, described as “the smartest guy in the park,” a peculiar guy who wears big glasses and lives in a shed that’s been rigged up with electricity. Bubbles tries to keep Ricky and Julian out of trouble, but he inevitably winds up left behind in the trailer park as his friends are dragged off to jail.

This probably sounds very heavy and dramatic, but believe it or not, this show’s a comedy, and a very good one at that. If you enjoy the mockumentary style of The Office, This is Spinal Tap or some of Christopher Guest’s films (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman), you’ll feel right at home in Trailer Park Boys, provided you can put up with the heavy used of the f-word, the regular drug use, drunken antics and other general shenanigans caused by Ricky and Julian’s criminal behavior. I wouldn’t say that this show glorifies criminal life so much as it lampoons it. It’s surprisingly smart and well-written, and fun to marathon.

The show began with a TV movie pilot shot in black and white, which you won’t find on DVD and may have to locate online to watch. It’s not crucial to see it, though, and it’s missing a lot of the regular cast. Seasons 1-7 are all available on DVD, and each has between 6 and 10 episodes. I personally feel that the show peaked somewhat after its fifth season, but seasons six and seven are still enjoyable enough. There’s also a prequel Christmas special that takes place before the pilot; it’s one of the best episodes in the series, and definitely worth watching. Try to buy these if you can, but since the DVDs are so expensive, I won’t complain if you search for them online (especially since many episodes can be found instantly on Google Video). Watch an episode or two, and you’ll either be disgusted or you’ll be hooked.

There was also a Trailer Park Boys movie called The Big Dirty that features the same characters, but outside the continuity of the show. The film also sheds the mockumentary style and is a little more conventional in its storytelling. The movie’s funny, but it’s not nearly as good as the show. It’s easily obtained on DVD

Julian, Bubbles and Ricky are pretty bad at being criminals. That makes their show all the more entertaining.

Since the show was running out of steam in season 7, the creators apparently decided to release a new special in December, 2008 subtitled Say Goodnight to the Bad Guys and a new film in Fall, 2009 subtitled Countdown to Liquor Day. The special brings the show back to its roots somewhat, and the film will presumably pick up where the special leaves off.

DVD Sets on Amazon:

• Seasons 1-2
• Season 3
• Season 4
• Season 5
• Season 6
• Season 7
• Trailer Park Boys: The Big Dirty (feature film)
  
• Trailer Park Boys: Christmas Special

Don't let the simple animation style fool you. Clone High is one of the smartest animated series I've ever seen.

Clone High is a show that appeared on MTV’s animation block, but which never made it past the first season. That’s a shame, because the show was brilliant. The premise is that the government cloned a bunch of famous historical figures in the 1980s, and they’ve all been growing up in the same town with surrogate parents. So, it’s only natural that they go to high school together, right? The main characters include Abe Lincoln, a lanky, awkward teenager who’s obsessed with the sexy Cleopatra, a vain and petty girl who is upset when people aren’t paying attention to her. Cleo begins the show dating JFK, who is popular, but self-absorbed and dim-witted, and he becomes Abe’s rival for her affetions. Abe is also friends with Joan of Arc (who has a secret crush on him) and Ghandi, who’s a lot more free-spirited than you might think.

The show has some light continuity, but it differs so greatly from episode to episode that you never quite know what’s going to happen. Sometimes, you’ll get biting social satire, while other episodes are parodies of popular culture. One even features Jack Black as the villain of a rock opera. Several episodes feature voices from the cast of Scrubs, and that’s no accident – Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence was one of the producers of Clone High. Meanwhile, the creators, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, have gone on to write and produce How I Met Your Mother. It’s obvious that a lot of talent went into the writing and production of this show.

Oddly enough, the show was much more popular in Canada than it was in the US, and thus the DVD set is a Canadian release. You can find it on Amazon, and it’s worth every penny — I’ve watched these 13 episodes many times over, and still find it extremely funny. If you’d like to test the waters first, try Google video.

Rather than simply making fun of the pop culture of the 1980s, Freaks and Geeks gently reminds us how awkward that decade really was.

Freaks and Geeks is a show you might have heard of, but probably didn’t watch. You missed out — it’s easily one of the best “dramedies” ever made, a wonderful look back at the early 1980s that lacks both the annoying narration of The Wonder Years, the yuppie culture of My So-Called Life and the tiring goofiness of That 70s Show. It’s also one of those shows that was the launchpad for many young comedic actors and actresses whom have gone on to become stars in their own right, such as Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segal, Busy Phillips, John Francis Daley and Linda Cardellini. The show was created by Paul Feig (who now works on The Office as a director and producer and has directed episodes of 30 Rock, Weeds, Mad Men and Arrested Development) and produced by Judd Apatow (the writer of The 40-Year-Old-Virgin and Knocked Up and producer of many popular comedy films).

The show begins with a high school-aged girl named Lindsey Weir beginning to question her place in the world following the death of her grandmother. She leave behind her honors student friends, dons a green army jacket and begins hanging out with a group of stoners, the “freaks” of the show. Lindsey doesn’t fit in very well with the group, but soon finds herself becoming somewhat of a moral compass to her new friends — she accepts them for who they are, and they help her to break out of her shell and enjoy life. Her young brother, Sam, is trying to find his own place in junior high school along with his two geeky friends, Neil and Bill. Sam has a crush on a girl named Cindy Sanders and idealizes her, but as the show goes on, Sam discovers that she’s as human as anyone else.

Some people view Undeclared as being a spiritual sequel to Freaks and Geeks.

Part of what makes the show so compelling is its heart. These kids feel like real teenagers, struggling with real teenage issues and not the artificial stuff you see on shows like Beverly Hills: 90210 or Melrose Place. This isn’t a high school drama about jocks and cheerleaders, and it really stays away from stereotypes. One of the most endearing characters in the show, the ultra-awkward Bill Haverchuck, could have been portrayed as a two-dimensional nerd, but instead feels like a real person. You start off pitying Bill in the first few episodes, but by the end of the show’s 18-episode run, you realize he’s far stronger and deeper than he appears to be.

Sadly, NBC really squandered this show when it was on TV, and it never got the chance it deserved. Many of the cast members went on to work on Apatow’s Undeclared on Fox, which takes place in the modern day on a fictitious college campus. Though it’s also very good, it’s more of a comedy than Freaks and Geeks and less enduring.

Fortunately, since the show has achieved cult status, it’s available on DVD. You should watch it. It’s good. You might also check Google Video for some episodes.

Don't let the DVD cover fool you. Wonderfalls's main character, Jaye, is a pistol!

Wonderfalls was a show created by Bryan Fuller, who’s better known as being the creator of Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, as well as being one of the best writers on Heroes. The show had a short run on Fox before being canceled, but if life were fair, it’d still be running, because it was absolutely brilliant. The premise is sort of strange: a sarcastic and unlovable girl working at a gift shop outside a waterfall that looks suspiciously like Niagra Falls inherits a peculiar gift from a commemorative statue of an American Indian princess who perished going over the falls. This power gives her the ability to receive strange and cryptic messages from things that look like animals, such as a figurines, bookends, stuffed bears, or a little deformed plastic lion that she carries around with her. But Jaye is a reluctant heroine, often trying to shirk the quests that are given to her instead of following through. What’s more, she often thinks she’s being told to help one person, only to find that someone completely different requires her help. You never quite know where the show is going until an episode reaches its conclusion.

While the premise is a little weird, the characters are very interesting and well-realized. Jaye’s acidic, sarcastic wit is truly entertaining, and her entire family, which includes a meddling mother, a repressed and still-in-the-closet lesbian sister, and a brother with a secret girlfriend, adds to the color of the story. There are also some wonderful background characters, like a young boy who somehow orders himself a mail-order-Russian bride.

It’s very sad that this show got killed before the creators could really take the time to explore the powers behind Jaye’s gift, because it was clearly headed somewhere very cool and interesting. At least Dead Like Me (which was also prematurely canceled) got a follow-up film. I’m guessing we’ll never get to see any more of Wonderfalls. Thankfully, it’s available on DVD, and you can probably find it on Google Video.

Thank god for DVD re-releases of Fox shows; I never even knew this one was on the air or I would have watched it!

Action was another show prematurely killed off by Fox, but it never really belonged on a network to begin with. On the DVD’s special features, the creators and writers of the show explain that Action was meant for HBO or Showtime, but they got greedy, tried to get a bidding war going, and wound up on Fox instead. It starred Jay Mohr as the Jerry Bruckheimer-style movie producer Peter Dragon, an amoral character who secures funding for ridiculously stupid action movies so he can live a lifestyle of excess. Illeana Douglas (one of those actresses you see all the time, but who never seems to star in anything) plays a former child star turned Hollywood prostitute whom Peter Dragon signs on as his assistant when he begins production of the ill-fated film, Beverly Hills Gun Club, a movie that’s being produced soley because Peter’s people bought the wrong script by accident.

This is one dark show, and it’s got one of those cynical takes on Hollywood that would lead you to believe that the inmates are running the asylum. It’s easy to see why it couldn’t survive on Fox, since it debuted in 1999, when single-camera shows were still a curiousity and laugh tracks were expected. Had the show done better, it’s very possible the producers would have released a cut of Beverly Hills Gun Club during the second or third season. But since it was axed after a mere thirteen episodes, the writers decided to end the show with an episode that potentially secures Peter Dragon’s success, but has his assistant going back into prostitution because she wants to feel clean again — apparently, the film industry is just too dirty for her.

The show is pretty hard to find online (a Google Video search turned up few relevant videos), but it is available on DVD. Provided that you’re into dark humor that has some subtlety, it’s well worth the purchase.

Next Thursday, I’ll follow up with five more great shows you’ve probably never heard of, so be sure to check back!