It’s a new year and time to shake up the TiVo (not literally of-course, that thing is expensive). The holiday break gave us an opportunity to step back and re-evaluate what was worth staying atop the TiVo Season-Pass list (the priority order in which TiVo finds and records your shows).

Staying at the top:

24: The show is generally indistinguishable from previous seasons; but, what makes it so much fun is to enjoy it as a popcorn-blockbuster and not take it too seriously. Sharing the enjoying with comic writer Dave Barry who blogs in real-time as he watches the show has added to the fun.

Desperate Housewives: Selena got me hooked last season, which was truthfully not good, but with the resurge in this current season, the show has solidified its place as a top TiVo program.

My Name is Earl: This is the funniest show on TV right now. The writing is sharp and pushes the envelope; yet it still maintains a folksy lesson-learned type style (reminiscent of 80′s sitcoms like Family Ties and Growing Pains). This season they have expanded to give every major character a major storyline, not just Earl with the list, and even dabbled in new point-of-view narration. Simply great.

On the brink of sliding down:

LOST: I want to recapture that fascination and awe from the first season and much of the second, but storylines are developing way too slowly and most of my favorite characters are shunned off-camera on the actual island while I’m force-fed the Others storyline which is killing the mystique.

Prison Break: The breakout season of this show was probably the best single season of television ever ever; but, since they’ve been on the lam, the shwow has been floundering. The suspense that used to live in subtleties (will Michael get the screw out of the bleachers); now it is being beaten over the head with a sledgehammer: (will Michael take down the President). Too much.

Studio 60: I really really want to like this show, but I have so much trouble caring about most of the characters and really whether they get their live stetch TV program up or not. I watched SNL this weekend and they had the wrong mic on twice, and it didn’t really bother me. That would be a two-part finale probably for this show.

Speeding up the charts

Heroes: This is THE show I want to see each week. The premise is so innovative, there is still so much to discover, and I really like the villain character Siler. It’s early to stat comparisons to Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader, but I really think he has the potential to be one of the best fictional villains ever: a clear motivation, plausible back-story, and a cornucopia of incredible powers. Wow!

Slings and Arrows: They only have six episode seasons, and yet it feels like more development than you would get in 23 episodes of most network TV shows. Found on the obscure Sundance Channel, this show about the trials and tribulations of running a Shakespeare theatre is hilarious. Plus, seeing scenes of great actors performing great scenes is an absolute joy.

The magic is gone

Sopranos: Is this show still on? This is the danger of the long hiatus, I was a huge Sopranos fan in 2004, but my life is very different today. Unfortunately, they picked up right where they left off referencing stories from nearly 50 months ago. I have passed this show by.

Making their debut:

30 Rock: I watched the pilot and thought it was terrible, but hype has brought me back to give it another chance and I am pleasantly surprised how quickly the show gelled and has become very clever and funny. It just went on the TiVo this week, which is a real tribute to be the newest addition to a very picky TV watcher.