5 TV Shows Liz thinks you should watch!

Anyone who has interacted with me lately on Twitter or Facebook, knows that I am on a kick to save the NBC TV Show "Chuck" and that I watch a lot of MTV reality shows. I am, however, going to make a list here of shows to watch, that do not include either Chuck or MTV reality. These are my Top 5 shows that I'd love to see other people watch too; shows that are either currently in the middle of a season, or have already been renewed for a future season (hence, Chuck is eliminated under those guidelines as Season 2 just ended, and no word yet on Season 3. I still think you should buy Season 1's DVD and then pre-order Season 2 somewhere like Amazon...

I'm not going to give you the synopsis of the shows that you could get anywhere else on the internet. I originally started writing it that way back in April, but that's really boring. This is just what I love about them!

Liz's Top 5 Current TV Shows (in alphabetical order - I couldn't actually rank them!):

• Burn Notice - Thursdays on USA Network, Season 3 coming this June. This show is a fantastic mix of action, drama & comedy, and is sort of a MacGyver meets Magnum P.I. Lead character Michael Westen & his friends Fiona & Sam help people who are in need in the Miami area (the Magnum P.I. connection) while Michael comes up with the coolest devices created from household items (the MacGyver connection). I get hooked very easily on shows that really make you laugh without actually being comedies! After you watch it, you will be wondering why you don't have a friend like Sam & an ex-girlfriend/current friend like Fiona (you might also be happy that Sharon Gless' character isn't your mother!). If you haven't watched it yet, Seasons 1 & 2 are available on iTunes, Season 1 is on DVD and USA Network keeps playing little marathons of it too. (If you are wondering where you saw Jeffrey Donovan before, I actually decided to check out Burn Notice because of his recurring guest appearance on Crossing Jordan as the investigator that Jordan thought was digging stuff up on her).


• Friday Night Lights - DirecTV in the Fall, re-shown on NBC in the spring, with a deal through 2011. This show had all the love from critics, and a passionate fan base, but not high ratings, so NBC signed a deal with DirecTV to split costs, and DirecTV subscribers get first crack at watching the episodes in the fall, with no commercial breaks (there's a nice Vaseline ad before each episode, and every time I see that ad now I think of FNL). Then NBC & iTunes start over again in the late winter/early spring. Kyle Chandler (of Early Edition fame) plays the football coach Eric Taylor, and many people think this is a football show, but its really just about life. Story lines about Coach Taylor's wife & daughter, as well as other members of the community, are more prevalent than ones about football. The characters are all well written, and played very well, and seem more realistic than a lot of reality shows. The teens don't have all these witty, grown-up lines like on "The O.C." or "90210." They are like teenagers...except for the part that they're all played by people in their mid-20's. But they act more like normal teenagers than the real teens did on "Laguna Beach." (As a disclosure, I do watch 90210, and I did watch The O.C. & Laguna Beach, and enjoyed them, but did not find them to be "realistic."). If you watch this show, you will become attached to the characters in it, I promise. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.


• Lie To Me - Wednesdays on FOX. This show stars Tim Roth & Kelli Williams (The Practice) as part of a firm that uses the science of facial expressions to figure out when people are lying, and they are hired by different people, companies, etc., to establish who is telling the truth. I heard about the show before it came out, from some surveys that Fox sent about advertisements for it, but it honestly didn't appeal to me. My mom started watching it though, and told me how much she loved it, so I decided to check out the first couple episodes on iTunes. I was hooked! So much fun! Only caution is that I find myself analyzing people's facial expressions on everything else that I watch, even though I have no training in this field, and start coming to conclusions without any actual expertise. But it is fun!
  


• The Mentalist - Tuesdays on CBS. This show's season finale is Tue, May 19, so there's not much time left, but I feel like they'll be showing re-runs throughout the summer for anyone who hadn't checked it out. Hopefully, because unlike most CBS shows, its not available on iTunes! Aussie Simon Baker plays Patrick Jane, a former "psychic" who admitted he was a phony & just has great observational skills. He is a consultant to the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI). As a side note, without TV, if NCIS or perhaps MBI (I'm assuming Minnesota has a bureau of investigation too) came to my door, I would've had no idea they were real organizations...but I digress. This is also a fantastic mix of comedy & drama. Simon Baker has had a lot of shows in the US, and only The Guardian had any longevity, but he's a household name now thanks to the Mentalist (and also allegedly the only man to make Barbara Walters blush on The View). I originally saw the premise of the show & thought...doesn't Psych do that already? But its completely different from Psych (which I also enjoy). The cast all meshes really well together, so it's easy to understand why it is the #1 new show of the year, and toward the top of the rankings for any shows. If you've missed it, find a way to check it out. I promise you'll love it, or you get your money back for the purchase of this blog...
  


• Southland - Thursdays on NBC. This was a mid-season replacement, taking up ER's spot, and that is the perfect place for it. I'm not even going to bother explaining a lot about the show - just consider it to be the ER of a Cop show! It takes place in South LA (hence the title) and goes with the same large ensemble cast format like ER, and has the same quick moving action. Also available on iTunes.
  

So there you have it! The 5 TV shows that are still going now or already renewed for their next season that I think anyone with a TV & satellite dish/cable should check out!