Tim's TV Top Ten

But he makes it clear he's only doing it under duress.
OK, I give up -- Here's my Top 10 for the year (sort of)

This is partly because the television season does not fall in a calendar year, like everything else. It runs from September to May for the networks. And June to God knows when for cable. In fact, the whole concept of a season gets murkier each year.

To create a Top 10 list in December means that barely four months have rolled out in the TV season. That's not a year. Anything before that was LAST SEASON. Come on, where's the continuity here? Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Fox's "24" is one of your favorite series and you're absolutely positive it should rank in the Top 10. The question then becomes: "Oh, you're referring to last year, right? Because the new season doesn't start until January." The whole idea seems ill conceived and flawed.

I made this argument on radio station KFOG a few weeks back. The reaction? Shut up and give us your list. No one cares about the senselessness of it. Nobody cares about the cliche factor. Nobody cares that I could probably give you 10 entirely different picks while pressed into a corner at a cocktail party. Give up the list. Just give it.

Even my boss knows better. He doesn't even ask for it. I went on vacation and managed to not be involved in that Sunday Pink section collection of year-end lists that the other critics participated in. I got letters wondering why. People got back my out-of-office reply. Life was good. Except my vacation ran out and a review scheduled for today had to be moved. Which left only one true option:

Not one of my favorites made his list, so you have to go see what he picked.