Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Once upon a time, there were ducks. I thought the ducks would come back in the very last episode. They did not. I was sad.

But not as sad as Tony Soprano.

Day 26 - Most surprising season finale Favorite ne'er do well
I'm tired of cataloging episodes. I'm more about characters anyway. And it occurred to me as I looked at the remaining prompts that I wasn't going to have a chance to talk about Stuart Allen Jones.
Aidan Gillen rocks at playing these characters. Between this (Queer as Folk, UK), The Wire, and Game of Thrones (which I've swanned in on once or twice and which I as reserving judgement on) he's pretty much made a career of the morally ambiguous charmer. With QaF being the most morally ambiguous and most fun example.
This man drove a car through a dealership window, among other things. But one grin and all is forgiven. Must be the swagger. And the Irish accent.

Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
I was putting off watching Oz until I was done volunteering in prison, and I'm done now, so I should probably get on that.

Day 24 - Best quote
Oh goodness gracious. Well, I already mentioned my yearbook quote here (There's a way to be a person. --Leo McGarry) so I better come up with something else. In fact, I had a whole blog entry about how The West Wing, along with The History Boys, is my religious text of choice, so it feels like I should eliminate it from consideration here.

"That s**t was unseemly, man."--Cheese, The Wire

Day 23 - Most annoying character
This makes me so sad because I used to love this character and the actor is very handsome and very Irish. But they gradually made him greasy-haired and whiny and I'm still waiting to see how that serves the larger story. The best thing about Being Human (UK version!) at the outset was that it took these overdone character types and approached them from a different, often humorous angle. Eventually, though, it fell into traps/tropes it used to take such pains to avoid.
Of course, I still watch it.
(I picked a clip from the pre-deterioration era.)

Another brief note on comps:
"Pain has an element of blank," Maus, The Importance of Being Earnest, Pride & Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, The Secret Garden, Gender Trouble, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Woman in the 19th Century, and, parenthetically, The Great Mouse Detective.

Got some catching up to do, after slaying my English comprehensive exams, getting my thesis back with a very pleasing grade attached, and going off to Philly with Neighbor C from Florida where we rode the Duck Boat and then met up with a friend of hers who graduated from Princeton in '06.

Day 21 - Favorite relationship
Again, I'm picking two, because I can't control myself (and also because one of them is coming back in a different form in a later prompt).
First up: Tim Baylis and Frank Pembleton from Homicide. Prickly, close, working partnership, unquantifiable friendship. I wish I'd written it myself.

And I clearly like friendship relationships so much more than romantic relationships in television, because my second selection is Leo and the President's affection from The West Wing, on display here.


Day 22 - Favorite series finale
No. Question. Six Feet Under made the very gusty (but very in keeping with their theme) move of going years into the future and showing how each of the central characters die. And the song they use in the montage will always make me tear up. Nicely done, Alan Ball. Here are the last ten minutes. Now excuse me while I dislodge my cornea, crying.