Best TV of 2007: A Second Opinion

FRISKY DINGO

TV: KEN TUCKER'S 10 BEST OF 2007

10. LIFE OF RYAN (MTV)
The surprisingly poignant travails of a real-life skateboard superstar. It beats out The Hills for MTV-docudrama intensity if only because Ryan Sheckler actually is, unlike those hypnotically inarticulate Hills girls, a sweetheart.

9. LIFE (NBC)
Network TV's most underrated new cop show, with Damian Lewis as a freshly wealthy cop just released from jail, reentering his workforce with Zen humanism. Special shout-out to Adam Arkin as his loyal and expertly jaundiced best friend.

8. DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (ABC)
The two reasons this show is back on my radar? The gals are interacting again, making multiple plotlines entwine with comic efficiency, and you can never go wrong casting Dana Delany as a brainy woman with a highly suspicious past.

7. BURN NOTICE (USA)
Overshadowed in the big-city press by time-period competitor Mad Men, Burn actually had a bigger audience out there in the heartland tuning in for the sheer enjoyment of Jeffrey Donovan as a swaggeringly clever government agent forced to turn wily private eye. Plus cult hero Bruce Campbell as his beach-bum pal — who could ask for more?

6. FRISKY DINGO (ADULT SWIM)
No, not the animated version of Tell Me You Love Me, but the second season of TV's most underrated show, about a monster who wants to be president but is probably too articulate — and, oh yeah, murderous — to get the job.

NEXT PAGE: Ken Tucker's top 5 TV series of 2007