TV Meme: Day 4 - Favorite Show Of All Time.

This was, by far, the hardest to choose. Let me explain. I really don't have a "favorite show of all time." I have shows that I love, but they're all about equal. Usually what happens, especially recently, is that I watch a few shows devotedly and then move on to the next handful of shows to watch devotedly. I rarely if ever go back and re-watch shows, especially the more dramatic ones (24, LOST, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, etc.). So that can hardly mean a show is my favorite. It would mainly be a "which show did I like more at the time?" Which, again, is an impossible choice. History shows that, of course, you're going to love your most recent obsession because it's the freshest in one's mind. That's why people always say their favorite movie of all time is something they saw recently. Also, I didn't want to choose a show for this that I was gonna choose for another day's topic (for instance, the "Favorite Childhood Show").

So what did this mean for me? This meant that I wanted to choose a show that I've not only loved in the past but still love now and would watch it if given the chance. It needs to be a show of which I've seen episodes multiple times. It needs to be a show with good stories and great characters. And there were only a handful (besides the one I'm choosing) that fell into this category. And those include the following:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (actually my choice up until about 5 minutes ago)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (which I'm actually currently re-watching)
  
• Heroes (Mainly just Season 1, which I own)
• Family Guy (only falling into this category based on its rewatchability)

But I decided to change some things around. I'm going with a show I haven't watched in a long time, mostly because they don't air it anymore. But it was a show I watched religiously growing up and then again with reruns for years. It was actually going to be my "Favorite Childhood Show," but I'm going to change that answer to something else so I can use it here. And what is this show, you may ask?


Boy Meets World. That's right, the 90s sitcom starring Fred Savage's little brother (Ben). I absolutely loved this show and wish they'd still run re-runs. For those of you unacquainted (how dare you), let me introduce the show to you. The show followed sheltered Cory Matthews and his misadventures and relationships with family and friends. Really, the show had what I like to call its "3 Lives." There were 3 different overall feels to the show depending on the ages of the characters. Let me now go into the 3 different lives.

The First Life

This was its really early stuff, which is mostly the stuff I really didn't care for in the show. I was more of a fan of its second and third "lives." This first life was your basic 90s sitcom. Every episode had a different theme and ended with some moral lesson for kiddos. Luckily, the show turned away from this tone and style pretty fast, but not without its inconsistencies (which I'll get to later on). But this first life introduces us our main batch of characters. Cory's parents were pretty straight-forward parents named Alan (William Russ) and Amy (Betsy Randle), with more of the interesting stories going to Alan. Let's not forget his older brother, the ever-so-cool Eric (Will Friedle). He also had a little sister, Morgan (Lily Nicksay/Lindsay Ridgeway). Cory's best friend Shawn (Rider Strong) was a tough kid who lived in a trailer park with his dad, Chet (Blake Clark) and every-now-and-then mom, who was sometimes there and sometimes run-away. And, of course, we had everybody's favorite, Cory's Principal/teacher/next-door neighbor, Mr. George Feeny (William Daniels).

Cory also seemed to have a few random friends in these early days that we really never saw again. These early shows also introduced us to a few strange kids. The first was named Stuart Minkus (Lee Norris), who was just the smart, snooty kid that nobody liked. Then there was the vastly more important Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), who, during these years, was just a very strange hippie child with no overall purpose except to be very strange. Oh, and Eric had a friend named Jason Marsden, who was played by Jason Marsden (is it just me, or did he essentially play a friend in almost every TGIF show?). You might not recognize Jason Marsden if you're not a child of the 90s, but you'll almost definitely recognize his voice. Check his imdb.

This "First Life" only lasted one season, thankfully. It's basically their 6th grade year. There really wasn't too much to it. It wasn't overtly interesting, and the cheesy moral lessons at the end brought it down a few notches. But, as I've said, it moves on into its "Second Life" pretty quickly.

The Second Life

This part of the show, starting second season and around 7th grade, really changed the overall tone and feel of the show.

There was an introduction of the school bullies, who were actually in the show a lot less than you might remember (all except one, anyway). These included Harvey 'Harley' Keiner/Griffin 'Griff' Hawkins, Joey the Rat, and (really, the only important one) Frankie Stechino (Ethan Suplee).

There were a few major teachers introduced during these years, too, including Eli Williams and, more importantly, Mr. Jonathan Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn). Mr. Turner played a cool, motorcycling English teacher who essentially adopts Shawn. See, starting this season, Shawn's mother runs off, and his dad goes after him, leaving Shawn with nobody to raise him. This season, Shawn has also turned into quite the cool kid, but a real troublemaker at the same time. He stays with Cory's family for a while before Mr. Turner decides to take him in, thinking he can handle him. The relationship that's built between Shawn and Mr. Turner is an excellent one and ends in quite a tear-jerker where Mr. Turner has a motorcycle accident and ends up in a body cast. Shawn's in tears, thinking he's gonna die, but Mr. Turner squeezes his hand, showing he lives. Unfortunately, that's the last we ever see of Mr. Turner.

Somewhere in this transition, Eric turns from the cool ladies man into a complete goofball (to put it nicely). And, actually, I much prefer goofball Eric. He was a hilarious character and one of my overall favorite characters. In many ways, Greek's Cappie reminded me a lot of Eric, except Cappie is less goofy and stupid. During all of this, Eric gains a mentor/mentee relationship with Mr. Feeny that's both hilarious and heartwarming. There's an episode later on in the show where Feeny is retiring and moving away, and Eric--in a real puppy dog style--asks if he can go, too (though obviously Feeny doesn't stay away).

Also, starting around the third season, Cory and Topanga start dating. Apparently, they had known each other since they were toddlers and were soul mates. To get around the major plot hole that would have been the first season, they explain that Eric told Cory girls had cooties, which broke up their friendship for just long enough to get around the fact that Cory once thought Topanga was too weird to even be near, much less like. But this relationship will last the remainder of the show, eventually resulting in marriage. Of course, there are break-ups and make-ups (like the whole Lauren plot or the moving to Pittsburgh plot), but everybody always knew they'd end up together.

There's also a "lost" episode during this time. After one of their break-ups, Cory goes into a depression and gets drunk and arrested with Shawn. Shawn turns into a bit of an alcoholic for a little while, but gets yelled at by Cory's dad and a couple friends and stops drinking. It's a powerful episode, but it was actually deemed--at the time--as too adult and heavy, so there was a time when they actually refused to air the episode.

Then comes the very end of the "Second Life" (parts of which I included in the previous summaries, but still...). These include the latter years of high school and some new characters are introduced. We're given Angela Moore (Trina McGee) who becomes Shawn's major on-and-off-again love interest for the rest of the show. We're also given Jack Hunter (Matthew Lawrence), Shawn's half-brother. Eventually, Eric moves out of his parents' house to go to college and needs a roommate. They stumble upon Jack, who is also looking for a roommate. And, needless to say, they begin rooming together. And for a while, Chet forces Shawn to live with them to get to know his half-brother better. That is... until Rachel shows up. But that's in the "Third Life."

This "life" ends with high school graduation and Topanga asking Cory to marry her. Of course, the season ends without him giving an answer (which is yes, of course).

The Third Life

These are the college years. Season 5 (which was the last season of Second Life) throughout the rest of the show were my favorite parts, honestly. They were some of the best the show had to offer. The sixth season picks up as Shawn is kicked out of the apartment/dorm when Eric and Jack decide to help Rachel (Maitland Ward), a tall redhead who just left her boyfriend. Most of the comedy between these three for the rest of the show is fighting over Rachel, as they both have a crush on her.

Of course, everybody ends up at the same University (Pennbrook), including Mr. Feeny, who eventually becomes a professor there and gains a love interest of his own (the Dean). Shawn moves in with Cory, while Topanga rooms with Angela. That is, until Cory and Topanga get married, then Cory and Topanga get their own place. And Cory's parents end up having another baby, Joshua, who is born prematurely and nearly dies, but makes it. There's also a little subplot in here where Eric takes care of this orphan kid and thinks about adopting him, but decides it would be in the kid's best interest if he has a real, regular family. And also, Shawn and Jack's father (Chet) dies during this time, though makes a couple appearances as a spirit figure throughout the show.

In the end, Cory, Topanga, Shawn, and Eric move to New York as Topanga gets a huge internship at a major law firm. Angela ends up moving to Europe with her father to a military/R.O.T.C. thing. And Jack and Rachel join the Peace Corps to go to Guatemala. While the series finale is essentially just a flashback episode where they're remember everything over the course of the show, it does have one hell of a tearjerker ending. They all go back to their high school classroom and find Mr. Feeny. They all give him a hug, crying, and leave. Eric keeps asking Feeny to tell them he loves them, but Feeny refuses. The show ends when everybody leaves the room and Feeny looks around, sad. He declares "I love you all" then turns off the light and leaves. It was a great way to end the show.

Inconsistencies

I said earlier that there were inconsistencies in the show, and there are quite a few, mostly to the fault of the early years and the major turn of the show's direction. There are tons more than I'm gonna even mention here. For instance, early on in the show, Shawn has a step-brother (or something like that) that's in one episode. There's also an episode where Shawn says they can call his sister for advice, which they do. Later, it declares Shawn as an only child, not even a step-brother. And then, of course, Jack negates this again later (though this one is a bit more forgivable considering Shawn wasn't supposed to know about him). There's an episode or two where Topanga has an older sister, but later has no sister.

Then there's the whole "Morgan" issue, though that's handled hilariously. The the first half of the show, Morgan is played by one young actress. But the character disappears from the show for quite a while. Then, randomly one episode, Morgan walks down the stairs, older and played by another young actress, and declares something along the lines of "Wow, that's the longest I've ever stayed in my room."

Similarly, a lot of characters disappeared from the show, which they handle in very funny ways. Around high school graduation (the end of the 5th season), Stuart Minkus shows up and brings back the rivalry against Topanga for Valedictorian (that's another inconsistency in and of itself. At the start of the show, Topanga was not a brainiac. That came in later). But they have an interaction along the lines of "Minkus! Wow, it's been a while." And his answer is something similar to "Yeah, I've been at the other end of the hall." And then he calls down the hall "Hey Mr. Turner! Mr. Williams!" Of course, you never see them, but it was a really funny way to try and tie up those loose ends.

Then there's the "bully" debacle. There was an issue with the actor who played Harley, so they decided to replace him with another actor. However, that just confused viewers, so they changed his name to Griff and said Harley went to jail or something like that. Though there is a great episode where Harley and Griff meet.

I know there are even more, but this article is already going on long enough, so I'll wrap it up.

Conclusion

I used to quote this show constantly, and I used to be able to relate any current issue or situation to an episode of Boy Meets World (now I do that with Harry Potter). It had great characters, great episodes, great comedy, and sometimes, great drama. All in all, it was just a great show. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but no show is. As I said, the latter half of the show was my favorite, though seasons 2-4 had some really good moments, as well. I'm just not an overall fan of the first season (but I wouldn't be able to tell you any fan of this show that is). And that's my favorite show of all time. I shall leave you with this:

TV Review: 24 - Day 4.

Warning: Here be spoilers.

-----------------------

Season Four: Day 4.

Season 4 picks up 18 months after Season 3. Jack works for the Secretary of Defense, James Heller, and is in a serious relationship with his boss' daughter, Audrey. He was fired from CTU due to the drug addiction problem from the previous season. CTU also has a new director, a woman named Erin Driscoll, who took over after Tony was sent to prison for breaking protocol (and the law) to save his wife, Michelle. And we have a new President, Keeler (and eventually Logan) after Palmer refuses to run again for a second term. But when Heller and his daughter are kidnapped, Jack is forced to help out CTU yet again to get them back... which leads into yet another set of master plans to attack the U.S. There's really only one way to describe this season: Lame.

Let's look at the character stories.


Jack Bauer

Jack is too... nice... in this season. I mean, right away he starts off in a great mood, loving his life with Audrey and not being at CTU. Not to say I want Jack to be disgruntled and/or depressed the whole season, but there was something about him this season--he was missing his usual edge. Most of it has to do with Audrey, who I'll get to later.

But most of what Jack does in this season feels like it has no real emotional impact. Kim is completely absent from this season, so she's not kidnapped or in any immediate danger. And after the first few episodes, Audrey isn't in any real danger (not like I cared while she was... but again, I'll get to that). There was just no emotional connection to anything he was doing, so his part of the story was boring. And since he's the center of the show, if Jack's story is boring, the whole thing is boring. There's also a torture theme going on, where he (or CTU) are constantly torturing people and with little to no real care about what they were doing.


James Heller and Audrey Raines

There seems to be a common theme going on with introducing a new family in each season. This season we have 2 families, the first of which is James Heller and his two kids, Audrey and Richard (Richard not being all that huge during the bulk of the season, but still mildly important to the story).

Here was my issue with these two main characters: You're introduced to them, given no real emotional connection except that Audrey and Jack are dating and James is his boss, and they are almost immediately kidnapped. Well... so? While they were kidnapped, I couldn't give a crap about either of them, and they bored from "who cares?" to annoying, particularly Heller. However, Heller did become more likable as the season went on; Audrey, on the other hand, went the opposite direction. Once her husband (who she was separated from) returned, she started heading back to him over Jack, which severed whatever care I had for her (I did like Paul--her husband--though. He was a pretty good character, and I liked the relationship he ended up building with Jack).

And after that, Audrey is just... kind of always around, bouncing between meddling in people's affairs at CTU, getting in the way, and whining about everything. And I honestly just did not care about her one bit.


The Araz Family

This is the second major family of this season. Like the previous family, I found it hard to care about most of them, sans one. The plot with this family is that they are connected to the terrorist plot of the season. There's the father, Navi; the mother, Dina; and the son, Behrooz. The father is your typical unwavering, "all for the cause," evil terrorist. In the middle was Dina, who was kind of an interesting character. While all for the cause, she would also do what was necessary to protect her teenage son, Behrooz, even if it included helping CTU and foiling her husband's plans. And then there's just the opposite end of the spectrum: Behrooz. He's really one of the first characters of the season I could actually connect with. He knew what his parents were doing was wrong, didn't want to be a part of it, and eventually tries to get out of it completely. He did have the tendency to get really whiny at times, but at the same time, he was a scared teenager afraid of dying and/or going to prison for the rest of his life. It fit.

The only major problem I had with this family is that, at one point, Behrooz is traded for Jack by the terrorists... and is never seen again! I mean, what the hell happened to him? According to Wikipedia, there is bonus footage on the DVDs that show him getting rescued by CTU, but I would have liked something to be shown on the actual show. It was just an open-ended plot point, and that annoyed me... especially after playing up his character for the bulk of the season.


Habib Marwan

Unlike other seasons, you pretty much get to know the main villain from close to the beginning. And instead of there being two distinct acts (the show being split into two halves), there are a bunch of mini-acts, as it were, and that got kind of annoying. Marwan himself was a great villain, and his portrayal by Arnold Vosloo was really good. But the character got way too repetitive. For instance, this is pretty much how it went: CTU finds somebody connected with Marwan, interrogates/tortures them, gets a location, sneaks in, gets found out, and chases Marwan. Then something blows up and Marwan escapes. Now multiply this by about 5 or 6 (yeah, it literally happens about 5-6 times) and you have most of Season 4.

Here are all of the mini-acts: We start with the Heller/Audrey kidnapping. Then we have the race to stop nuclear power plants from melting down. Then it starts coming out of nowhere... suddenly there's a guy attempting to steal a stealth jet to shoot down Air Force One. From there, we go to Marwan attempting to steal the nuclear football, which holds all nuclear codes and whatnot for the American arsenal. And then, finally, they steal and launch a nuclear missile. Some of the transitions aren't as fluid as others, but some work (the strangest transition was from nuclear meltdown to stealing of the stealth jet). Overall, it was just like Marwan had a million ideas on how to take down the U.S. and couldn't figure out which one he wanted; meanwhile, they portray it as if it was all one master plan, and it just didn't feel like one. Oh well.

CTU

Here's where I started having some other issues with this season. For the first chunk of the season, there are almost no returning characters, save for Jack and Chloe. But even Chloe leaves the show after the first few episodes, her character getting essentially replaced with a guy named Edgar. But Tony and Michelle are no longer at CTU. There's the new Director of Field Ops. There's the new commander guy at Division. Chase isn't back. Hell, even Kim is gone. Let's look through the characters we do get one at a time.

First we're given Erin Driscoll, the new Director of CTU/Field Ops. And she's so annoying. I couldn't stand her. She was just so incompetent at her job, but she acted like she was the be-all, end-all of what to do. We're also, eventually, introduced to her schizophrenic daughter (who is almost equally annoying, but in different ways). Fortunately, we don't have to deal with her for the entire season, as her incompetency at her job is doubled after an issue with her daughter (though the hypocrisy that comes from her actions after how she treated Edgar added to my annoyance of her).

Speaking of, we are also introduced to a new guy in the tech department, Edgar Stiles. I actually really liked Edgar. It took a while for him to grow on me, as he was essentially a male version of Chloe, but with a bit more heart to him. After Chloe leaves the show, his character gets really interesting, as he has to go from incompetent newbie to head-of-show real fast. Unfortunately, his character pretty much peaks soon after the "nuclear plant meltdown" mini-act, and then he starts to get slightly annoying--especially once Chloe comes back in. He does, however, still have some likable moments throughout, and does regain tolerable-ness by the end.

And then there's Chloe, who returned from the previous season. She's actually quite a bit more bearable this season, mostly because we start off with a friend of hers in danger and you get to see her actually care about something. She's given more personality and actual heart, and she's not just a bland, blunt, seemingly uncaring character. She even has some pretty awesome moments this season, like near the end when she's forced to go on a field mission. (And not to skip ahead, but I've watched the first episode of Season 5 as of this writing, and she's even more likable already).

There are a couple other CTU characters introduced, like Marianne, Sarah, and Curtis, but really the only one I cared about was Curtis. Marianne wasn't around very long, and there was just something about Sarah that bugged me. Curtis, on the other hand, was pretty cool, being another regular field agent. But he did have some things about him that bugged me, too (such as his dislike of Tony's eventual return). There was also Bill Buchanan, who took over Chappelle's position, basically. He didn't really evoke feelings from me one way or another. He wasn't an asshole like Chappelle, but he wasn't particularly incompetent at his job like... well... half the people this season. He's just kinda... there.

Finally, there's Tony and Michelle, both of whom come in about halfway through the season (Michelle a little after Tony). It's funny that Tony has essentially become one of my favorite characters, as I couldn't really stand him in Season 1 (then again, I don't think we were supposed to). Sure, he has some personality flaws, but they don't upset me like those of other characters. You can really feel the friendship between him and Jack and the trust that has been built over however many years they've known each other. Michelle, on the other hand, just got on my nerves this season... mostly for how she treated Tony. Yeah, Tony apparently became a drunk bum for a while, but the dude lost his job and went to prison to save her life. And how does she reward him? By leaving him. And on top of that, she treats him like crap when she returns, and then when she's put in a similar situation as he was the previous season? She damn-near acts uppity in the situation... yeah, I really liked her in season 3, especially during the Hotel stuff, but she lost most of my caring this season (which really put a damper on the Season 5 opening).


The Presidents (Keeler/Logan/Palmer)

I never really had strong feelings for President Keeler one way or another, except that I found it strange he was on Air Force One for the majority of the season. At one point he says he'd been flying for 20 hours. Where exactly was he coming from? Did it even say? If it did, I don't think I caught it.

(Vice) President Logan, on the other hand, annoyed the crap out of me. I swear, a theme this season had to be "people incompetent at their jobs," because they were all over the damn place this season. And Logan at the top of that list. And on top of that, he would ask for help, then act superior and unthankful when he got it. And he would bounce between pathetic and needing of help to "I got this, bitch" in the span of 3 seconds... and he did it way too often.

Eventually, Mike Novick, whose giant head makes a triumphant return this season, brings in David Palmer as an adviser to help Logan in his Time of Crisis. Thank God they brought back Palmer, despite it only being in the last 4-5 episodes. He was sorely missed for the majority of the season, having been central to the show for the last 3 seasons (and yes, I was like "Gasp!" at the start of season 5). He's not given too much to do here, but as I said, it was a welcome return to an overall boring and/or lame season.


Overall Thoughts

The season does pick up near the end--but its a too little too late kinda deal. Mandy-The-Hot-Assassin returns yet again, which is part of how the season kind of returns to its old self, as it forces Jack to regain his old personality (since it deals with Tony, as well... somebody he cares about). And there's an almost random Chinese consulate subplot that plays out for the last handful of episodes and leads into Jack's fate and Season 5. And it almost felt tacked on to the main plot like a last minute idea to segue into a plotline for Season 5 (or at least a way to kick off said season). This season had a much different feel from the previous seasons. Ironically, I felt the show held more Republican views of things (such as torture), while the season also gained a Republican President (instead of the Democrat Palmer). There's even a bit of "I'm gay, so you must hate me" in there near the end. But overall, the characters were boring, I only cared about those who were mostly innocent and/or inconsequential (Chloe's friend at the beginning, Behrooz, etc.), and half the cast were annoyingly incompetent at their jobs--with only one really overcoming that obstacle (Edgar). It was an awfully lame season that I probably won't be revisiting... but it is a necessary one, as it sets up Season 5... and from what I've seen so far--one episode--well... damn.