Good Taste or Tastes Good?

Two of my favorite shows won big at the this year's Emmy Awards. This means either that I have impeccable taste, or that civilization has finally sunk to my level.

I love The Sopranos, and it won for best drama. Several cast members also won individual awards. Incidentally, for anyone who wants to catch the series from the beginning, HBO2 will begin showing the series from the very beginning next Monday. They're doing one episode every weeknight, so set your TiVo's now.

But the one that surprised me--and evidently surprised a lot of people--was the winner for best comedy: Arrested Development. This is a show that almost wasn't renewed because of its poor ratings. And that would have been a damn shame, because it was easily one of the funniest things on network TV the past year.

The basic storyline is that the patriarch of a very rich family has been jailed for looting the family business. Meanwhile, you have his spoiled wife is suddenly forced to do without many of the luxuries she's grown accustomed to. He also has three sons--two of whom are completely dysfunctional--and a daughter. The oldest son, Michael, is possibly the most normal of the clan. Not only is he now charged with running the company, he has to try to keep the family together while at the same time enduring the manipulations of his mother. There's a lot of quick jokes and flashbacks, which often set the stage for another joke later on.

One thing that may confuse some people: There's no laugh track. I suspect a lot of viewers have a problem with that.