This word, you keep using it. I… do not think it means what you think it means.

Also, yay, you’re checking out Profit! I’m really interested in hearing what you think of it. Thought it was such an interesting thing, what with its relatively high age for such a dark concept, Adrian Pasdar as the main character, David Greenwalt as one of the big guys behind it and the awesome dude who played Holtz on Angel as a regular. By no means perfect or anything, but… Yeah, I’d just be very interested to hear your take on it.

I should do a re-watch of Walkabout one of these days. Perhaps after Profit? Yes, perhaps.

Lost’s pilot might be technically good – and it is entertaining, by all means – but after all the hype, I was thoroughly underwhelmed when I saw it (I saw it about the time the first season was one third through, after the insistence of several friends). In fact, I was planning to drop the show after giving it only one more episode, and would have too – but then that episode was Walkabout. That blasted David Fury! That sneak Terry O’Quinn!

Totally agree on McGinely having had little awesomeness in the last few years, but considering the cut down original cast, I’m assuming he’ll simply have more scenes and more impact now, and that this alone will give him enough material to improve the situation a little.

Agreed on the opening credits = good, but opening credits at the expense of actual running time = bad. As for the trend, possibly – it occurs to me that Legend of the Seeker did its entire season 1 with just the logo-shot, but has gotten an opening credits this season. Also of note is the sort of in-between that Fringe does, while I can’t pin-point other examples I think that is sort of becoming more common, too.

Finally, I’m upset you didn’t compliment my parantheses-theme jokes. I was so totally planning to respond slyly with “A little thing called cadence” and then run around in euphoria for several weeks from having managed to produce a situation where I could quote Sam Seaborne.

Lost’s pilot is pretty stellar, as I recall it. In fact, it’s so stellar that there’s been a remake of it every year since it aired (the last being Flash Forward). But yes, Walkabout is the winner, all though the Constant probably nudges it out as a personal favourite (yes, yes, I know it’s season 4).

I dunno about McGinley. I love him to no end, but he kind of lost his balls these last two seasons, what with giving him a character arc and so on. Tsk tsk.

Hah, your adoration of all things Whedon led you to Epitaph One, just like everyone else who has watched it. I bet Joss would have to make a show that’s all about killing kittens and poaching puppies for you to stop watching a show of his. Then again, I would probably like such a show (if it was done in a tasteful manner of course).

The only thing that bothers me by the TB intro is that the song isn’t sung by Nick Cave, but that is, as complaints go, quite nit-picky.

Totally agree with you about missing opening credits, but if it means we get more show for the minutes, then I’ll swallow the camel any day of the weak. It’s probably something that comes and goes though, don’t you think?

Lost: Fewer episodes WOULD give a stronger sense of direction, by default. That was my point. But as I said, a better series of the same length as we’ve gotten would of course be by far preferable. As for season 1, yeah, it is pretty alright. But it’s hardly stellar (except for Walkabout. Ah. Walkabout).

Scrubs 2.0: No matter how awful, any show with John C. McGinley is something to be excited about. (John C. McGinley. Ah. John C. McGinley).

Most Improved Show: Well, there’s a lot of shows like that, but unlike me, you have the good judgment to STOP watching mediocre stuff when you realise it is mediocre. Me, by then, I’m invested in characters and stupid shit like that. And I end up watching anyway. (This attitude did lead me to Epitaph One, though. Ah. Epitaph One).

True Blood: Totally agree that the intro is the (usually by far) best part of the show. (Except the part with the fox being eaten by ants. WAAAAAH. Fox being eaten by ants!)

Best intro on a current show: This one is TRICKY. So many shows these days don’t have intros at all, just a quick logo with a sound-effect (I find that to be a shame, actually. Opening credits are great for putting one in the mood). I feel Mad Men has a really awesome one and should be mentioned, and True Blood, as mentioned above. But I think I’ll have to disagree with you and put Dexter on the top-y-top – even though they totally SHOULD have changed it up by now. (I wish your category didn’t say “Current”, though, Firefly, BSG, Angel, West Wing and Deadwood all had such lovely opening credits. Ah. Firefly, BSG, Angel, West Wing and Deadwood).

You’re very right about the fact that a better written s2 of Heroes would make it better. Obviously. But that’s no fun, and that’s not the way it turned out. In a perfect world, every show should or could possibly have been better written (except Deadwood), but in reality, we’d been better off with one season of Heroes.

I disagree about Lost. I still think the first season is quite strong; they just didn’t know what to with themselves in s2 & s3 (enter BKV & voilá, you’ve got a better s4). It didn’t need fewer episodes; it needed a stronger sense of direction (or bewilderment, or what-have-you).

I will give Scrubs 2.0 a shot, if only just to see how horrible it’s going to be. I’m not so much excited for it as I’m dreading it, quite frankly.

As for why no category for Most Improved Show, it’s probably ’cause I haven’t seen those you refer to. If I had to pick one, it’d probably be the Big Bang Theory, all though I didn’t follow it closely enough in s1 & s2 to be entirely sure.

I got a new headline!

BEST SHOW INTRO ON A CURRENT SHOW

*True Blood

I actually think I like the intro better than the show more often than not. Runner-up: Dexter (all though they should probably think about changing it after four seasons. I always liked that the Buffy introes changed after each season). Runner-up to the runner-up: Entourage (the same applies here as with Dexter, all though this show has been using for six seasons…).

And yes, Loki, you pulled your weight. Much obliged, as always.

Can You Spell Mini-Series?
From what you yourself put in this category, I take it it is not intended to list an actual good mini-series, but rather a show that could’ve been good as a miniseries but is not as an on-going. No such really occurs to me. The shows that would’ve benefited greatly from wrapping up earlier (Scrubs, Heroes, etc) could all have gone on with great success if they’d had better writing. “Make it a miniseries” seems like an odd statement, then – if you’re going to have them change the nature of the show, why not just have them make the whole thing better written? I haven’t ever seen a show where I’ve thought “this is a really good story if only they did it more rapidly and tied it up right away”. Even when plot-points are dragged out, I usually see tons of ways it could’ve been done a lot better without cutting the number of episodes a lot. (And I while I see your point on Heroes, I disagree on Dollhouse; no matter what else Whedon had been doing with his time – movies, comics or webseries – none of it would’ve produced as many hours of entertainment with as great regularity as his having a TV-show has. And I’ve enjoyed season 2 more than the entire first half of season 1, so I disagree on the “should have ended with Epitaph One”-thing too. Not to mention there’s still two thirds of the season left to see. If he’d been making a movie or a comic book for this past year and a half instead, it’d give me entertainment for perhaps two hours put together. There are more than enough awesome episodes of Dollhouse to best that.)

All that said, if I absolutely have to pick one, Lost. Could still be done well as an on-going with the same amount of changes it’d take to make it a miniseries (and in fact in recent seasons HAS been done well), but if they did it as ten episodes or so it could probably have held a level of quality quite beyond anything that approaches their averages in seasons one through three as it stands now.

Where Did You Go? Or, surely it must be Firefly!
Firefly

Enough is Enough! Or, the cow dried up a season ago!
Scrubs. Scrubs, Scrubs, Scrubs. (And yet, I’m excited to see season 9, even though it is sure to be even more trite than before)

Fee Fay Foo, This Show Should’ve Had Another Season
Deadwood. (And I agree on your runner-ups, except I’d put Angel before both of them – and in no way thought the Kings-finale sucked. I also think Rome, Veronica Mars and Arrested Development should have had one, and that BSG’s last half of a season would have been a lot better with an additional ten episodes to actually deal with and set up stuff.)

The Show That Lasted Just as Long as It Should Have, Thank You God in Heaven
The West Wing. Also Babylon 5.

Surprised you had no category for shows that started out rather meh but eventually actually found, built and cemented its own potential as it went and got rather good by its later seasons. I’ve seen a lot of those – Stargate SG-1, The 4400 and to a certain extent Smallville springs to mind.

So… did I pull my weight?