Raising Hope, the new family comedy from Emmy Award winner Greg Garcia, starring Lucas Neff, Martha Plimpton, Garret Dillahunt and Academy and Emmy Award winner Cloris Leachman. The sweet, offbeat comedy follows Jimmy Chance (Neff), a well-meaning screw-up trying his best to raise his infant daughter with the help of the eccentric family who did a less-than-stellar job of raising him.
This is a tough category. These shows all lasted more than one season, and are better than a lot of shows around, but not as good as the best of the best in their category. Some of them were gone too soon, and some overstayed their welcome a bit. Some of these I will re-watch, and for some once was enough for me.
Best in this List: American Crime, Psych, The Following, Gravity Falls, and Scream Queens
Worst in this List: Leverage
Shout-Outs: American Crime for making a genuinely dramatic and gripping crime anthology with a very solid cast
Nostalgia for making Boy Meets World, Charmed, and Full House better than they should be today
Burn Notice for continuing USA's trend of long-running solid dramas, with a nice spy twist on the formula
The Following for bringing Kevin Bacon back to TV and for making some fun and dangerously human serial killers
Glee for wearing its heart on its sleeve and becoming a phenomenon of sorts, even spawning a sub-genre of high-school music club dramedies
Hot in Cleveland for bringing together some sitcom legends for a fun start to TV Land's original programming with many cameos to boot
In Plain Sight for knowing the sweet-spot for having fun and then bringing the drama
Leverage for being extremely repetitive but bringing me a cast that I grew to love
Melissa and Joey for bringing together childhood friends and Disney survivors
Perception for being another in the long line of "Professional X helps detective because of their genius but it haunted by their past" but making it pretty fun
Pretty Little Liars for starting off strong, becoming too roundabout and inane, and then reigning it in for a solid finale
Psych for being one of the best shows around with a fun crime procedural and more laughs than should be allowed
Raising Hope for a surprisingly good dysfunctional yet wholesome family comedy
Revolution for having an incredibly amazing premise that kind of went to shit and a laughably absurd body count
Sirens for being better than it should have
Suburgatory for that title and pretty much being a live-action Daria
Torchwood for being so British and for not being afraid to kill people off
Warehouse 13 for having a super fun premise, cast, plot, and villain selection. Way better than it should have been on SyFy
Wayward Pines for taking a very suspenseful and exciting first season to a close with a fairly mediocre second season
Zoo for embracing the insanity needed to make an absolutely bonkers and entertaining summer show
This list is for all the shows that, for one reason or another, I liked way more than the average person. Some of these I can tell are objectionably bad, but I like them anyway, and some I just can't put my finger on why I enjoyed them at all.
Best of this List: Save Me
Worst of this List: Persons Unknown
Explanations: Dads - better jokes than I thought the writers could muster
Galavant - I'm not sure, it was just so different and happy and doofy that I was kind of forced to like it
Ghost Whisperer - It was just on for so long and also Jennifer Love-Hewitt
Glee - It was a random phenomenon that I think went on a little too long, but had some fun characters and performances
Hot in Cleveland - That all-star cast and those cameos I guess. Also Betty White being an asshole to everyone else is always funny
Leverage - Probably because it was on for so long that I just started to like the characters enough
The Lying Game - Those twin deception shows just really get me I guess, and the cast was fun with surprisingly good chemistry
No Tomorrow - Again, not sure. Maybe it's my soft spot for Joshua Sasse
Persons Unknown - I'm not sure why I like this so much. I've even re-watched it like multiple times. I guess I just really like the premise, and wish it kept getting developed
Raising Hope - That cast and just being fun and dysfunctional
Reaper - Probably the weirdly obvious plot that I wish more shows would tackle with their own unique spins
Red Band Society - Not sure, I guess bringing attention to the kids who live their lives in hospitals was pretty interesting
Revolution - Another really fun premise and cast that was wasted by trying to be the next Lost-type mega drama. Also the absurd nano-plot and that hilarious body count!!!
Save Me - It was too funny, and I don't know why anyone else didn't feel the same way!
Sirens - It was just surprisingly sweet and gave a surprising amount of depth to some unique side-characters
Terra Nova - Fun premise with dinosaurs and because of my support for Jason O'Mara
Touch - Another cool premise with some off-kilter execution that could have been pretty interesting
Trophy Wife - My expectations were so low and it really just surprised me with how open the characters were
Vegas - Jason O'Mara again I guess??? I might have a problem
Wayward Pines - That first season was just really fun with a really exciting conspiracy plot