Moments in TV Awesome: Teacup Humans

There's a reason people fall for the Spikes and Erics of vampire TV. Sure, the appeal of a vampire love story is that this untameable, beautiful brooder (they're always brooders) can actually be tamed by love. That makes Angel and Edward and certainly Mr. Bill Compton very appealing. They're dark monsters transformed into... whipped puppies. And don't get me wrong, that's well and good for a while. But such self-denying devotion gets boring but quick.

Cue a character with all the sexy, dangerous charm and none of the neutered self-loathing. These characters embrace life, even if they're not really alive.

Two minutes in, see Eric discuss children in a way that would give Bill the vapors.

Moments in TV Awesome: The Wire

I spent the weekend binging on Season One of The Wire. Mmm. Excellently executed drama. I think my favorite thing about the show is the way is sprinkles genuinely funny moments on top of all the darkness. McNulty bringing a doped-up informant to his son's soccer game, Bunk drunkenly burning his own clothes to destroy trace evidence of adultery, and this scene.

That Wee-bey. Hilarious. And scary.

Moments in TV Awesome: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Unapologetically un-PC and always envelope-pushing, It's Always Sunny... is more hit than it is miss and whipping boy Charlie has slowly emerged as the consistently funniest member of the amoral gang. Even funnier than his illiteracy is his penchant for writing super kickass songs.

Moments in TV Awesome: Grey's Anatomy

You know what? I like George and Izzie. Apparently I'm the only one in the Western hemisphere -- even Shonda Rhimes is like "I never said they were destined to be a great love story" -- but I think their storyline is perfect. I care a lot more about them as a couple than I do McDreamy and Meredith, who in the season opener both needed a big dose of SHUT UP.

Izzie's nice. George is nice. They're best friends and he's married so there's a lot of drama and forbidden angst. What's not to love about that? Is it that she's too hot for him? Cause I think George is pretty adorable and aside from the whole drunkenly cheating on his wife and being in love with another woman thing, in real life, he'd be a way better catch than, say, Karev.

So I present to you a moment that I think is awesome. And yes, I'm aware that their fan name is Gizzie.

Moments in TV Awesome: Dead Like Me

Surprisingly it doesn't even involve Mason and Daisy.

Moments in TV Awesome: Veronica Mars

Dick started out as a day player, merely one of Logan's minions who got to say things like "Let's kick his ass." When he was given a bigger role, that of Logan's main goon, he was just a malevolent source of comic relief. Then Beaver died and we got to see a more complex dick and some nice work from Ryan Hansen. I now present an evolution from dick to Dick.




Now let's hope he just gets the drinking under control in cancellation heaven.

Moments in TV Awesome: Wonderfalls

Wonderfalls was a brilliant (and only slightly flawed) show that blended the absurd and the ordinary with healthy doses of surreal sarcasm. I recently saw Michelle Featherstone perform live and I suddenly realized where I'd heard her haunting voice before: over this perfectly heartbreaking scene.

Jaye has come to tell Eric that she loves him and stop his impending remarriage to his whoring wife Heidi. Unfortunately, Eric has made his own momentous decision, to stop waiting for Jaye to admit she loves him and to honor the vows he made to Heidi. Oof.

Moments in TV Awesome: American Idol

This moment is why Kelly Clarkson is a star. She's got the chops, but she's also so endearing. This performance still gives me chills.


Fantasia is the first idol I was all about. I voted for her non-stop and this performance had me in tears. Literally. I was shocked, but it was so moving and perfect. Stick around after the performance for Quentin Tarantino's comments.


The fact that Carrie Underwood's a fellow Okie was all I needed to start rooting for her, but this was the jaw-dropping performance that blew me away.

Moments in TV Awesome: The OC and SNL

I watched a tape of this season's finale over and over again, such was my love for this plot point. It had the potential to be a really cool turn for Marissa as a character and for her relationship with Ryan. Sure, she was trying to save him, but she SHOT his brother. That's rad. In the end, the show decided to forgoe any character development and went with a mind-numbingly stupid series of events in which everyone hated Marissa for saving Ryan and the police were sure Ryan was behind the shooting, despite overwhelming crime scene evidence to the contrary. Also, Trey living was LAME. So maybe this was the beginning of the end, but it was still all kinds of kick ass.


Also kickass was SNL's belated, but hilarious parody. And Samberg even kinda looks like Trey.

Moments in TV Awesome: Friday Night Lights

At least one of my favorite shows got renewed...

Moments in TV Awesome: Gilmore Girls

Sometimes adultery's kind of awesome.

Moments in TV Awesome: The Office

Moments in TV Awesome: ER

Remember how Noah Wyle never won an Emmy or a Golden Globe for his role as golden boy John Carter? Yeah, I don't get it either.

Moments in TV Awesome: Oz

Ah, Oz. HBO's hyper-violent prison soap opera is absolutely delicious. The white supremacists vs. the Islamic dudes vs. the mob guys vs. the Latin dudes. The complicated drama is literally life and death, and I love this satisfying moment when O'Reilly kills the man who raped the female doctor with whom he is obsessively in love. It was sweet. Or at least as sweet as a prison revenge murder can be...

Moments in TV Awesome: Friday Night Lights

Anything involving Coach, Saracen and Buddy Garrity in one awkward scene automatically qualifies as awesome.

Moments in TV Awesome: Veronica Mars

Just a quick reminder about why we put up with this exhausting relationship.

Moments in TV Awesome: Freaks and Geeks

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Moments in TV Awesome: Veronica Mars

New episodes Tuesday, January 23. Get pumped, people!

Moments in TV Awesome: The Office UK

When Tim finally got the nerve to tell Dawn how he felt, he took her away from the cameras and into an empty conference room, where he yanked off his mic and spilled his guts. Unable to hear their conversation, we could only watch breathlessly as Dawn absorbed whatever Tim said and hugged him in return. Then they exited and Tim calmly informed us that she said no. It was an exquisitely beautiful sucker punch.

So as not to end on a downer, I present you with another Tim and Dawn Moment in Awesome:

The Christmas Special our last chance to see the should-be couple get it together and make love work. After leaving the party with boorish perma-fiance Lee, Dawn opened her Secret Santa gift and found proof that Tim was the one who got away (more accurately, the one she tossed back in favor of day old cod). Encouraging her "pipe dream" with oil paints and a note telling her to never give up, Tim finally got through to Dawn and she quietly broke down in tears. I might have also...but that's not the point. The peak moment of awesome came when she strode into the party to claim her man and we knew, just a moment before Tim, that his life was about to change forever.

Moments in TV Awesome: Degrassi the Next Generation

This weekend, The N aired a Degrassi marathon in honor of the show's return on Friday (looks like Craigers is coming back off his rockstar road with a bit of a coke habit!). I caught bits and pieces of various completely awesome episodes and among them was this stellar moment:


Marco's college boy beau Dylan has just told him that he wants to have an open relationship (after Marco walked in on him and one of many "interesting" new friends) and Marco has tried to go along with it by attending a college kegger and flirting with other boys. But unable to go through with a random hookup, he finds himself in the stairwell with his BFF Craig (post-bipolar diagnosis, pre-coke fiend phase).

It's such a great scene because it demonstrates what a non-issue Marco's sexual orientation is to Craig. He gives his friend a "You're awesome and if one of us was a chick, I'd be all about you"-style pep talk and when Dylan walks in and Marco kisses Craig in a last-ditch attempt to make his lovah jealous, Craig's reaction is awkward and bemused, but not at all homophonic. Well done, Degrassi.