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Season five of The Sopranos — 18 months in the making — is probably the show’s finest collection of episodes since the beginning. Gone is the shockingly graphic-for-the-sake-of-being-graphic violence of seasons three and four (creator David Chase seems to have taken that dark turn to remind us that these are not supposed to be likable characters). Oh, trust me… there’s plenty of violence and depravity in year 5, but it seems to serve the overall story better than, say, Melfi’s rape in year 3.

We pick up where season 4 left off — Carmella has dumped Tony, and he’s now living in what used to be his mother’s house. Tony’s cousin, also named Tony (played by Steve Buscemi, who has directed for the series before), shows up early and steps into the role of “guy who causes Tony trouble all season, who we know will be dead by episode 13.” (See also: Richie Aprile, Jackie Junior, Ralphie Cifaretto.) The twists and turns are as good as we’ve come to expect, and at least one death is as shocking as it could be without actually being a surprise.

The standout episode this season, though, is number 11: “The Test Dream.” This was a bold choice, coming as it did, so late in the season — with all the subplots simmering to a boil, we spend 75% of the hour inside Tony’s head, in a bizarre dream. For my money, this show gets dream sequences more right than any other TV show or movie I’ve ever seen — the strange associations, people and locations changing without notice, the incorporation of seemingly insiginificant details from your life… this is an episode I’ll be watching a few times over to see what I missed. Best of all, it managed to feature cameos from pretty much every character since the beginning — from Big Pussy and Ralphie to some of Tony’s more tragic love interests.

Once we steam out of that tunnel, the final two episodes wrap up everything neatly, yet leave enough threads dangling to keep us interested in season 6, which is scheduled for some time in 2006 (!). Every time the show goes away, we bitch about the wait… but every time it comes back, we’re all there at the edge of our seats. That’s just how good it is.

I freely admit that I was wrong about Buffy — I had assumed it was some crappy, campy chick show like Xena, and it turned out to be one of the best written TV shows I’ve ever seen. So catching up on the spinoff was pretty much a no-brainer.

I did have my doubts though, mostly because David Boreanaz’s character on Buffy wore thin pretty quickly. In fact, he was really only interesting on that show when he was the evil Angelus. Otherwise he just brooded a lot, moping his way through what I felt was one season too many.

But, like Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy, Angel’s character is actually pretty interesting once he pulls himself loose of that doomed coupling. The first season serves to establish his arrival in Los Angeles, his new calling as “champion” for the mysterious Powers That Be, and his unlikely alliance with formerly vapid Cordelia and formerly stuffy Wesley Windham-Pryce (both formerly of Buffy). That initial 24-show run starts and finishes strong, and my only real complaint is that it takes a little too long to separate itself from its sister show. Once the guest stars start showing up a little less frequently and Angel gets a chance to declare its independence… that’s when it starts getting good.

Season 2 involves, among other things, the return of an unlikely figure from Angel’s past — Darla, a previously a very peripheral character on Buffy. With the aid of numerous flashbacks to Angel’s vampiric heyday (a device that continues throughout the series, and never gets old as far as I’m concerned), we gain a clearer picture of the overall history and the specific impact of Darla’s arrival. Oddly, the Darla storyline resolves itself about halfway through the year, disrupting any sense of normal pacing and keeping you on your toes for the remainder of the season. It was, I thought, a nice touch.

Season 3 deals with Darla’s return with… Angel’s child? Things start getting more convoluted, and in lesser hands, the stuff that happens would never work. Fortunately, Angel’s writers possess greater hands and they know exactly what they’re doing. More flashbacks, another dark figure from Angel’s past and the first genuine cliffhanger for either series wrap things up.

Season 4 picks up a few months later, ties some of the loose ends up and goes full-speed into uncharted (and quite dark) waters. This is clearly the most bleak of all the seasons and despite some fine standalone episodes, probably my least favorite of all so far. Still, the worst of Angel rivals the best of most other series.

Season 5 has so far proven to be headed in more of a direction that I like. Buffy’s Spike is (somehow) back, and the gang has now, inexplicably been granted full control over the evil law firm, Wolfram and Hart. Where it’s all going and what happens next is nowhere within my capacity to guess — and that’s what I love about this show. I can rarely, if ever, predict what’s going to happen in the bigger picture, and it keeps me laughing and enthralled in the smaller.

If Buffy dealt with growing up and dealing with issues of newfound maturity, Angel is more about maintaining that maturity into adulthood. Joss Whedon has said that Angel’s day to day battle to remain on the correct side in the battle of good and evil is a parable for alcoholism. I see it more as a parable of everyday life — in a time where you just want to reach out and wring people’s necks sometimes, you instead must find restraint and try your best to do the right thing. Also, you should make as many hilarious smartass comments as possible.

No show currently running new episodes makes me laugh more than this one. I loved Dave Chappelle’s standup, and I firmly believe that Half Baked is an underregarded comedy gem. Chappelle’s Show is like Dave’s reward for all that hard work, and I can’t imagine any better venue for his talents.

While the whole “white people be like this, bruthas be like this” schtick does occasionally get tiring, for the most part, the skits presented here are outstanding. (Certainly they’re better than anything SNL or MadTV has done for years.) From characters like The Crackhead to Rick James (funniest skit of the series; you’ll have to see for yourself to understand why), Chappelle displays obvious childlike glee in performing, and it’s that glee that makes him so damn funny. In everything he just looks like he’s having so much fun, and it’s contagious.

I can’t fathom how this show gets away with half the stuff it does, especially in the current “Janet Jackson’s breast is the tool of the devil” climate. The DVD set of season 1 is out Tuesday, and I can’t wait to see the stuff that actually didn’t make it past the censors. Like South Park though, it’s not just vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake. There are jokes (and sometimes actual points!) under the shocking stuff. And those jokes consistently make me laugh my ass off, bitch!

Yet another brilliant Joss Whedon show stricken down in its prime (see journal entry for a rant on Angel’s premature retirement). When I initially heard the premise — a western set 500 years in the future — I resisted pretty strongly. I’m not a big fan of the western as a genre, and I think the last few crappy permeations of Star Trek have tapped out the “humans struggle in the final frontier” thing.

Like the Fox execs that cancelled this show, I should have put more faith in Joss. More than Buffy or Angel, Firefly is an ensemble show, and it’s almost impossible to imagine it enduring the same cast shakeups that either of those shows have. Each character fills a very important role, and together, they comprise a powerful (if sometimes morally shaky) family. Everything about this show is (was) top notch: from the better-than-TV effects to the acting to the writing to the scenery. Hell, one of the characters was your typical tough-guy-who-can’t-be-trusted, played by one of the lesser Baldwin brothers. And he still managed to be an incredibly fascinating and entertaining character! That’s just how good this show was. Joss claims there’s a Firefly movie in the works… one can only hope.