What's the opposite of "sophomore slump"? "Sophomore streak," maybe, although that sounds like a college tradition frowned on by the administration.
Whatever term you use to describe a situation where something gets better in its second year, it applies to two of the best dramas and the best comedy to air this year.
1. Breaking Bad (AMC) When it first aired last year, Breaking Bad seemed like a familiar type of crime story -- average Joe breaks the law, gets in over his head -- buoyed by Bryan Cranston's brilliant lead performance as Walter White, a chemistry teacher turned drug peddler. Thanks to the writer's strike, we got a seven-episode season that ended on an incomplete note. Then, in its second season, Breaking Bad picked up exactly where it left off and never looked back. The performances got better, the characters got deeper (especially Aaron Paul's Jesse and Dean Norris' Hank), and each episode felt like a wonderful little 45-minute movie. One week, the movie might be a black comedy ("Four Days Out") while the next might be a tense thriller ("Grilled"), but each of these parts built up to a breathtaking whole, a portrait of a once-decent man's trip to hell.
2. Lost (ABC) Each year, the Lost universe expands: the second season took us inside the hatch, the third to the Others, the fourth off the island and into the future. The decision this season to stay (mostly) on the island but to move back in time was one of the smartest moves the show has made yet: a chance to flesh out wide chunks of Lost's deep mythology while still introducing new mysteries (Who is the Man in Black?). And even though the show embraced its sci-fi side more than ever, its characters stayed grounded in the recognizable, human world, with people like Elizabeth Mitchell, Josh Holloway and (as always) Terry O'Quinn doing excellent work.
3. Big Love (HBO) The third season of HBO's best drama (sorry, True Blood fans) found new depths to what was already one of the best casts on television. Few -- if any -- of us have a family like the Henricksons: one with three moms, one dad, seven kids, and countless cousins and half-siblings. At the same time, we all have a family like the Henricksons: one that lets us down, helps us along, rejects us and welcomes us. Of all the shows returning to TV next month, this is the one I look forward to the most.
4. Parks & Recreation (NBC) Another show that really came to life in its second season. When it premiered,it seemed like a dull clone of The Office. Now, I'd put it up against any other sitcom out there, especially the critical darling Modern Family. Despite it's documentary format, P&R inhabits a world that's far weirder, and much more charming, than Dunder-Mifflin, while rarely venturing into the crazier territory of its Thursday night neighbor 30 Rock.
5. Sons of Anarchy (FX) The third and final "second year quality jump" program on our list. To be fair, Sons of Anarchy was showing the type of show it could be by the end of its first season, and then never really slowed down during its second. With The Shield gone, this could become FX's flagship drama.
6. Supernatural/Fringe (CW and FOX) If there were a version of The Amazing Race featuring fictional monster-hunting families, it's hard to say who I'd be rooting for: the Winchester brothers of Supernatural or Walter Bishop and his son Peter from Fringe. But let's give the edge to the Winchesters, whose show seems to get better every season. Five years in, it's one of the most underrated things on TV, with an ever-deepening mythology and a clever, playful sense of humor. Fringe is far more hit-and-miss, but the relationship between zany Walter and grounded, exasperated Peter is one thing the show always does well.
7. Mad Men (AMC) The Kennedy assassination was the least momentous thing to happen to the denizens of Sterling-Cooper this year. Don Draper's marriage finally imploded, he and his wife had a new baby, his secret identity was revealed, and half the cast left the company to start their own firm. Oh, and a guy got his foot hacked off by a lawnmower. Consider this an apology for all that "Nothing's happening" at the start of the season.
8. The Office (NBC) At the end of its fifth season, The Office seemed unstoppable, having come off an amazing stretch of episodes that began with the disastrous fire drill, continued through's bid to start his own paper company and ended with him achieving a rare moment of grace and wisdom. All that is enough to put it on this list. The uneven stretch of episodes so far this season is enough to keep it from the spot currently occupied by Parks & Recreation.
9. Torchwood: Children of Earth (BBC) This spin-off of Doctor Who had never really been as good as its parent show. But with this five-part mini-series, it became darker, smarter, and far more suspenseful than it had ever been, using fairly limited special effects to create a terrifying alien invasion scenario.
10. Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi) Yeah, people had problems with the some of the overtly mystical aspects of the show's finale. I thought it was a brilliant, poetic way to end a brilliant poetic show. And actually, BSG earned a spot on this list simply with its frightening two-part mutiny episode mid-way through the season.
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