BEST TV Shows in 2007 USA

10. "Friday Night Lights" (NBC): Like a championship team, NBC's football drama "Friday Night Lights" is strong on all sides of the ball. It can display all the sweetness of a cheerleader's smile when it shows how Coach Eric Taylor juggles both his real family and his extended gridiron family. It shows the joy of being young and reckless and playing a game you love. But the show also hits harder than a blind-side blitz when it takes on subjects that many other dramas either avoid or mishandle: subjects ranging from disability to drug abuse, racism to mental illness. The "FNL" writers should consider holding a clinic that would teach the staffs of their rival hour-long dramas how to develop characters. Even secondary characters such as nerdy tight end Landry Clarke are fleshed out more than many leading characters on other series. The show itself is beautifully filmed and acted, and you can't help but get swept up in Dillon Panther fever when you watch it.

9. "Big Love" (HBO): Life is tough out there for a polygamist. Who would've guessed that fundamentalist Mormon life could feel much like the Mafia? In Season 1, Bill struggled with a hyperactive schedule, erectile dysfunction and a sadistic father-in-law. Season 2 upped the ante, putting Bill in the middle of scandal, blackmail and continued philandering. With each minor success, Bill's family faced the humiliation of exposure, and although the tension may have been unbearable, the series is utterly addictive. "Big Love" is as innovative as ever, exploring one of America's most peculiar subcultures and simultaneously humanizing the polyamorous lifestyle. After so many mediocre roles, Bill Paxton has finally reached his artistic peak. We can only hope the Biblical tribulations of the Henricksons continue for many seasons to come.

8. "Planet Earth" (Discovery): This 11-part nature series with segments shot in 62 countries is one of the best nature documentaries ever produced -- and one of the most ambitious. Segments focus on one of Earth's various habitats, from mountains to jungles to caves, and many include animals and fauna never before photographed. Costing $25 million, a cost split between Discovery and the BBC (where it initially premiered), and shooting almost entirely in high definition, the series is not only a marvel to watch, but thanks to narration by Sigourney Weaver, it is a marvel to listen to as well.

7. "30 Rock" (NBC): Tina Fey's peek behind the scenes of a weekly sketch show is one of the sharpest comedies on the air, and one of "Saturday Night Live's" most accomplished stepchildren. The ensemble cast features the fabulous Fey and Alec Baldwin, who plays a corporate shark with a surprisingly soft underbelly. Liz Lemon, we love you so much we're going to take you behind the middle school and get you pregnant!

6. "The Shield" (FX): The worse Vic Mackey's life becomes, the better for us. In 2007, the corrupt cop's house of cards finally toppled over, leaving us to marvel at the desperate machinations of a once-defiant man. Not only did it bring us Emmy-winner Michael Chiklis' finest hour as Mackey, but "The Shield" also bestowed meaty dramatic bones upon Walton Goggins, CCH Pounder, Jay Karnes and guest star Forest Whitaker. Hell, even the guy who plays Ronnie finally got to make an impact. Like O.J. Simpson in a Vegas hotel room, Vic is heading down a bad road; that much we've known for years. What we couldn't have predicted, however, was the sheer beauty in watching a man's discarded demons return for the kill.

5. "Battlestar Galactica" (Sci-Fi): Sure, the third season may have been a bit disappointing compared to the first two, but then Led Zeppelin's third album wasn't as good as their first two either -- and we all know how quickly that became a classic. Baltar's trial, the standoff for the Eye of Jupiter, poor working conditions prompting a strike -- you can't say this year's episodes weren't eventful. Then there's the action-packed flashback film "Razor." Best of all, the last episode of the season ended with such a big bang that you just know it'll quickly push the fourth season into overdrive.

4. "The War" (PBS): Ken Burns' style of massive, ambitious documentary filmmaking proved extraordinarily well-suited to the subject of World War II. This lengthy seven-part series demanded much of the viewer in terms of both time and emotion as it used memories from four U.S. cities to tell the story of what the war in Europe and Asia meant to the Americans fighting it and those who remained stateside. Burns and company's ability to blend personal anecdote with historical data made the war a profoundly human experience and a powerful lesson in the brutal realities of the darkest period of the 20th century.

3. "Mad Men" (AMC): "Who could not be happy with all this?" That's the question at the heart of the first season of AMC's brilliant series from "Sopranos" scribe Matthew Weiner. Set the way-back machine to 1960, and a world of cigarettes, martinis and highballs, where successful businessmen have wet bars in their offices and mothers don't worry about seatbelts. While the surface details of fashion and design are dead-on, this is no exercise in nostalgia, but rather a searing look at the social roles, sexual identity and disenchantment with the façade that is the American Dream. And the times are a-changin' faster than these Madison Avenue ad execs can fathom.

2. "The Sopranos" (HBO): Talk about going out with a bang. Or did it? The finale of HBO's venerable crime drama was equal parts infuriating and ingenious, neatly wrapping up the scintillating sixth and final season of the most critically acclaimed cable series in television history but failing to properly dispose of the body. Not that it matters, really. Regardless of whether you think Tony met his match or munched another onion ring, chances are you miss the big galoot and his scrappy crew something awful. After all, they're family.

1. "The Office" (NBC): We started out watching "The Office" to see if the Yanks could make this British import their own. We stayed for the whip-smart writing, the perfectly wrought, banal details and the brilliantly portrayed characters. Now in its fourth season, "The Office" has made pencil pushing sexy again, albeit while staying really, truly unsexy. Though recent hour-long episodes and one power-hungry ex-temp have some die-hard fans a little concerned, we're happier than ever to stick with this paper chase. Being deeply uncomfortable never felt so good.