A quick run down of the shows I’ve watched. A lot of winners so far.

Series 16 of Top Gear flew right by! A new Stig was brought in and the usual high quality car enthusiast programming continued on! The Christms special was a particular stand out.

Shameless on Showtime just finished up it’s first season and it was damn good. William H Macy rules, pretty much the whole cast does aside from the youngest kids. A lot of crazy stuff goes down every episode and the finale was especially rough. Not sure how Frank is going to live through it.

Face Off is the first show I’ve watched on Sci-fi (sorry buy SyFi is fucking stupid) in at least a decade. I can’t believe it took this long for a movie makeup competition to happen. It’s a great premise and the show found a great cast for it’s first season. I was happy with who won and look forward to the next season.

Skins, Season 3! As expected, no where near as good as the first season. The cast change was a tough one to get over, I found most of the characters to be more annoying than anything. JJ was my favorite, he was the easiest to relate to and the most believable. It wasn’t a terrible season, but it was a huge drop off in quality.

The two ABC shows I watch are Modern Family and The Event. MF is basically brilliant and The Event has gotten better since it’s cone back. It got really slow for awhile there and things seem to be picking up again.

Fringe continues to be the best Science Fiction show on TV. Just terrific writing and acting every episode. There’s some complex story telling going on but they manage to keep everything very clear and easy to follow. Changing the credits for the stories in the alt dimension (and for flash back episodes) is brilliant. When Olivia was possessed 2 episodes ago it got me worried that they took a turn down Stupid Lane, the concept and explanation was hard to swallow and this is on a show where the impossible is tested all the time. Looks like it’s going to be a quick and interesting arc so I remain positive on things working out.

Mad Men season 4 just hit DVD and I’m plowing head first into episode 7 this weekend thanks to Netflix. Great show and the new ad agency is surprisingly effective at breathing new life into the show. The story of these broken people continues to keep my interest high.

The second season of Archer is more than half way done and holy shit is it funny. I can’t even explain how great this show is. They take some dark subjects on and just steam roll you over with it.

Hawaii 5-0 is the only CBS show I watch, I enjoy it because it’s just a brain dead show. Like it just fits the cookie cutter mold and follows the most basic TV rules around but it works. Must be the cast and location that does it for me.

Justified on FX (this network might have the best collection of shows right now) is another winner. It’s fun stopping in on US Marshall Raylan rousting the creeps of his Kentucky home town. It’s got that Wild Wild West vibe going on that I really like, you don’t see that much these days. Special mention to Walton Goggins who plays Boyd, he’s amazing. One of the best TV characters around today.

NBC’s Thursday line up is pretty strong too. I watch Perfect Couples for Olivia Munn and while it isn’t the best show, it makes me laugh. Parks and Recreation is on a roll with its 3rd season. 30 Rock is always worth tuning into, I can’t really think of an episode I haven’t liked. The Office is a rough one though, I kind of watch out of curiosity now. There’s been more than a few terrible episodes and the show just feels tired. I can see why Steve Carell wants to leave and it may be in the best interest of the show. Michael Scott is just played out as a character. I like how they have things set up with Holly, it looks like they can move Michael on in a positive way and the combo of Will Ferrel and Ricky Gervaise giving the show a shot in the arm for the last few episode of the season could be great. I’m not sure if I’ll keep watching next season.