Bi-Monthly Power Rankings- Honorable Mentions

Now that the Olympics are over many of our favorite shows are set to return. Plenty of new shows are also on the horizon. Let's see where The Perspective's Power Rankings stacks everyone up. January and February brought back plenty of series in the Top 20, including perennial number one LOST. I've also caught myself all the way up on a couple of cable gems (Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad) so things might look a bit different near the top this time around. A few shows that have missed the cut (Bored to Death, V, Eastbound) not because of failure to entertain, but for lack of episodes and too much time off. Without further ado here are the shows you should be watching, The Quiet Pool Perspective's March Power Rankings.

Honorable Mentions

Show- (last time)...red=moving down, green=moving up

Californication- (HM) Sundays on Showtime
Hank Moody and crew have been off since the last rankings but will return for a fourth season sometime in September. Here's hoping Sue Collini is no longer a part of the show.

Dexter- (-) Sundays on Showtime
I am currently halfway through the second season of this serial criminal action series, but I've seen enough to recommend it to anyone. I've heard that the most recent season four was very good and co-starred John Lithgow.

Gary Unmarried- (-) Wednesdays on CBS
It's obvious. It's corny. It's on CBS. Having said that, it's still entertaining. Jay Mohr is over the top, but his kid Tommy is subtly hilarious.

Glee- (HM) Wednesdays on FOX
Rachel Berry and the rest of the gang won't return from their mega long winter hiatus until April. Maybe they've had enough time to figure out what about this show works well and what doesn't (any drama having to do with Mr. Shue).

Gossip Girl- (HM) Mondays on The CW
Returning this month, let's hope that the loss of a couple of great guest stars in the fall, especially Hillary Duff, won't make the spring session of the teen drama falter.

Greek- (20) Mondays on ABC Family
The spring session of the college series has been subpar so far. For as much as I want to see Cappie and Casey together I feel like they would've been better off to leave it for the series finale. They're making it kind of bland for now.

House, MD- (HM) Mondays on FOX
As I've said, House is House. I'll continue to watch it for Gregory himself, but other than his interactions with different characters there's nothing else really going on here.

JONAS- (HM) Sundays on Disney Channel
The comedy will start back up for its second season this summer. How are they going to work Joe's new haircut into the story of the season?

Men of a Certain Age- (-) Mondays on TNT
Sure it is painfully slow at times, but the work of Ray Romano and Andre Braugher has been fantastic. It's hard to find better tv than Detective Frank Pembleton stuffing his face with Fiddle Faddles in the middle of the night.

Wizards of Waverly Place- (18) Fridays on Disney Channel
This show has the perfect combination of characters in my opinion. Between Alex's overall hatred toward everything, Max and Jerry's inability to take anything seriously, Justin's complete nerdiness and the mom's stern hand, it all just works.

Wednesday Wisdom- Manny's Modern Family

Glee
The ladies carried this week's episode. Sue Sylvester was not in last week's ep that much, and I felt it dragged. She brought things back to good this time as she opened with making fun of Mr. Shue and Emma's terrible lunchtime conversation. Sue then went on to hate on Glee Club in her journal later in the day before taking action by convincing Mr. Shue's wife that he was having an affair with Emma. Sue left during the middle part of the ep, but made a glorious return at the end when she announced she would be taking over as co-director of Glee Club. Great Sue ep.

There is something strangely appealing about Rachel Berry's character. Maybe it's her quirkiness, or that she's just really weird, or maybe how intensely she wants to be good at Glee, but she's drawn me in and I continue to want to see her succeed.

Modern Family
This week's episode was responsible for the single funniest scene on television this season. Manny Delgado is rising up the charts on my favorite character list. In week one he was good with his mom and step-dad, Al Bundy. Week two, he and Al had plenty of quality time together and he was even funnier. This week, his interaction with his step-sister, Claire, was off the charts funny. Claire, being a middle aged woman, and Manny being 10 years old created a fantastic dynamic (especially since Manny fancies himself as a very mature 10).

Manny- "Those cookies smell like heaven...your own recipe?"
Claire- "No, I just throw 'em in the oven."
Manny- "And added the secret ingredient of caring?"
.....
Manny- "So what is the matter Claire?"
Claire- "What?"
Manny- "You seem sad."
Claire- "It's just stuff with Alex. You know, kids stuff."
Manny- "Uggg, kids. You don't have to tell me, my school's full of them."

As I remarked immediately after the episode, another great thing about this show is all of the different combinations of relationships they will be able to go through. This week we had Manny/Claire, Jay/Phil, Gloria/Alex...When Mitchell and Cam start mixing in the pot, I can see plenty of funny dynamics. Interestingly enough, Sepinwall had the same sentiment when I went to read his blog the next day.

Gary Unmarried
So it seems that Sasha, the station manager at the radio station, Curtis, Gary's old friend that works there also, and Gary's brother Mitch are now regulars in this second season of Gary Unmarried. Great call with raising Rob Riggles' character to regular status, and this chick Sasha seems pretty good so far, but Curtis is no Dennis from season one. So if the station manager and another dude that works there are series regulars, does that mean Gary is eventually going to get the job as a sports radio host? He certainly can't take an entire season to paint the station right? I don't know how I would feel if he did get the job. It would create a completely different feel to the show and it might not be in a good way. I guess we'll see. In one final note, Tommy was back in the game with a couple good lines in this week's ep.

Wednesday Wisdom- Gary Unmarried Plays Wii

Glee
--When Emma tries to ensure Mr. Shoe that Glee has a chance she states, "You remember the Jamaican bobsled team? Biiiiig long shots." Is this a joke? They lost! Have you seen Cool Runnings, Glee writers? Bootleg.
--Needle Nose Ned's last name in this show is once again Ryerson? That's sweet. Ned the Head trying to steal the lead of the school play was awesome.
--Former American Idol Allison Iraheta could learn a thing or two from Chenowith's version of 'Alone.' It's a really good song and she did a fantastic job with it.
--Phil Rivers (Finn) stringing Rachel along to get her back to Glee Club was kinda funny.
--How have I already got a spot in me for the Glee kids? Rachel's come back and the final act got to me. Great ending.

Gary Unmarried
As ESPN's Erik Kuselias would say, these are the types of people I can hang out with. In the cold open Gary alludes to the time he wanted to bring a turkey leg on It's a Small World and then Mitch goes crazy when Howard buys the kids a Wii with Wii Sports Resort. Nothing like grown men acting like children.

Modern Family
--A much better format than the typical sitcom. Even though it's documentary style, it has a ridiculously different feel than The Office and I really like it.
--Ed O'Neil and the little fat kid's relationship continued to shine in this week's ep. Cool Dad didn't disappoint for the second straight week and the fat gay guy came through for me this time. He put the show over the top as good for me. His paisley shirt wearing, dancing and pretending to be straight was fantastic.

Hank
Hank is so prosaic. The laugh track is ridiculous. It is such a standard sitcom it's not even funny. Kelsey Grammer is trying very hard, but it didn't work for me in this first episode. The kid's aren't funny, and Kelsey seemed much more over the top than in his last endeavor, Back to You.

Wednesday Wisdom

Modern Family
Decent to good series premier. Was that a mocumentary, because I definitely saw some testimonials? Ed O'Neil was great and Ty Burrell might have been better as the trying to be cool dad that can't be mean to his kids. Ed O'Neil's stepson was also very impressive in this first episode. It doesn't seem like there will be that many laugh out loud parts, but it does have a good start for me.

Glee
I wasn't that impressed with this show at first, but it has a pretty good mix of drama and flat out comedy. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of awful parts and terrible characters, but it's growing on me. The best from this week's episode was the football game. The whole team doing Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' dance at the line of scrimmage was unbelievable. I've never actually seen the original Beyonce video, but I have now have two great experiences with the song and dance. This latest Glee moment and the recreation by Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg for SNL last year.

Mike O'Malley as Kurt's dad was fantastic and I truly enjoyed the interaction between the two when Kurt came out to him. Finally, Sue Sylvester was awesome as usual. My favorite line of hers was when she was giving her final news cast and said that sometimes she sees homeless people and yells, "Hey how's that homelessness working out for you? Why don't u give not being homeless a try?" Unbelievable.

Gary Unmarried
I still feel like this is a show that I shouldn't find that funny, but I continuously do. Jay Mohr's obvious comedy just does it for me. After watching this week's season premier I am a bit worried that the son, Tommy, isn't going to be as good this season as he was last. He's older and I don't think age helped his comedy.

Eastwick
I'm still way up in the air on this one. I think I'm leaning towards dropping it, but witches are kind of sweet. It might depend on whether the main dude stays on as a regular or if it just ends up being the three chicks the entire time. If that's the case I am most likely dropping this like a bad habit.

Newbies on CBS

Last year when I first saw this commercial, I cracked up immediately. I continued to laugh every time I saw this guy act completely awkward on the phone. I literally turned to the person next to me after seeing it for the 30th time and said, 'now why doesn't this guy have his own sitcom?' Well I guess the television Gods were listening because now Kevin Bornheimer has his own comedy on CBS called Worst Week. Bornheimer stars as Sam Briggs who continually has a terrible week with his girlfriend and her parents. I think this show definitely has some promise.


Gary Unmarried is another new sitcom on CBS. It stars Jay Mohr (not the ex Wells High Basketball Coach) as a divorced guy with a kid. It seems like it will be kind of the generic sitcom that fails. It really doesn't have a niche to build on. I enjoy Jay Mohr but I don't think he'll be able to carry the show on his own. I'm gonna give it a shot this fall, mostly for the love of Christmas Do-Over.