Four years ago I wrote a blog post titled ‘The Best Frakkin’ Show On TV‘ in which I singled out my five favorite shows at the time.

In the top spot was Friday Night Lights, the first season of which was practically a religious experience. The rest of its run didn’t consistently reach the heights of those first two dozen episodes but it remained the best show on TV until it bowed out — with typical grace and emotional power — earlier this year.

Three of the other shows I featured (Battlestar Galactica, Lost and Entourage) have also gone off the air since I wrote that post, and the remaining show (The Office) lost its main character.

So it’s time, I think, for an update (complete with lots of YouTube goodness).

I started that post by commenting that television had pretty much eclipsed movies when it comes to complex characterization, intricate plots, smart dialogue and meaningful laughs.

At the time that might have been a somewhat novel thing to say. These days it’s an accepted fact. Just look at the laundry list of film actors who are lining up to join TV shows on cable and network TV. And look at the film directors who have brought their talents to the small screen.

Considering that it costs close to $40 for my wife and I to see a movie with popcorn and Coke in hand these days, the $80 I spend per month on DirecTV feels like nothing considering the entertainment it provides (but don’t tell them I said that).

Think about it… in addition to the wonderful TV shows I’ll mention soon, I get news, sporting events, music, children’s programming, old movies, home improvement channels… all on a 50-inch hi-definition TV that looks and sounds about as good as the smallest screen at my local multiplex.

Rather than run off a list of my favorite shows, I’m going to cast a wider net and explore the various ways I enjoy TV these days. I’ll wrap things up with the countdown.

I started watching Survivor when it debuted eleven years ago. It was the first show of its kind to hit America and its blockbuster success led to a reality television explosion that has gotten well out of hand. The flip side of the quality programs I mentioned earlier are the awful spectacles about privileged housewives, addicted celebrities, musclebound lunkheads and other wannabe stars.

I don’t watch any of those shows, but I still watch Survivor. I still love it, too, for its blend of strategy and competition and the fact that it still works as a social experiment even after 20+ seasons.

I’ve always resisted American Idol and the talent shows that crept up in its wake, but this year my family tuned in for The Voice and got a kick out of both the coaches and the contestants. Love that Blake Shelton! I’ve also been drawn into The Sing Off by the nerd-tastic judging of the wonderful Ben Folds and the sheer talent involved in creating transporting music without instruments.

And if HGTV is considered reality TV, I’m certainly guilty on that front. My wife and I have watched more kitchen and bathroom renovations, international home purchases and Mike Holmes inspections than I care to divulge. The great thing about HGTV is that you can leave it on in the background on a weekend and not worry about the kids seeing anything inappropriate. Except maybe an out-of-control animal print.

I remember watching a lot of family sitcoms as a kid. Classics such as The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Silver Spoons and The Facts of Life. I don’t know how well those shows would hold up today but for their time they were perfect.

Today I can’t name a single network sitcom that I can watch with my kids. But that fact is more than made up for by the plethora of quality family programming on Disney and Nickelodeon — iCarly, Victorious, Good Luck Charlie, Pair of Kings, The Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb, Big Time Rush and A.N.T. Farm.

And of course there’s Spongebob Squarepants, which a recent study suggested is about as harmful to a youngster’s brain as crack, a suggestion I find ludicrous. I find more wit in an episode of Spongebob than a dozen network comedies.

These shows are clever, safe and often hilarious. They appeal to children but throw in plenty of jokes aimed squarely at parents — parents like me who often still feel like kids.

I’ve made an effort in recent weeks to watch more of the shows that have gotten critical acclaim over the past few seasons. With the booming selection of TV on DVD it’s never too late to start a new show and my NetFlix membership (even considering the extra $2) is a perfect way to sample.

Season One of The Walking Dead lasted all of six episodes but they formed a compelling (though gruesome) introduction to a series about to start its first full slate of shows. Frank Darabont has adapted the comic book with style, atmosphere and a healthy dose of moral ambiguity. Watching a band of small-town southerners try to survive a zombie apocalypse without killing each other turns out to be a wonderful way to pass the time.

I’ve watched only a few episodes of Community but I already love its anarchic wit and flair for the absurd. I look forward to gobbling up the first two seasons, 22 minutes at a time. Thanks to Zooey Deschanel’s goofball charm, The New Girl is the one new show this season I can see myself sticking with after a couple of episodes.

I’ve seen only a few episodes of Louis CK’s Louis but I can tell it’s special — a blend of Curb Your Enthusiasm and an art-school film project. And Louis CK is officially my favorite stand-up comic.

The Good Wife is a legal procedural that transcends its genre through smart writing and a fabulous cast of characters. Julianna Marguiles is excellent as the wife of a philandering politician who pursues her legal career while he sits in jail, but its her supporting cast that really elevates the show: Josh Charles as the boss who’s had a crush on her since college, Christine Baranski as the firm’s caustic second partner, Alan Cumming as a deliciously vicious political operative and especially Archie Panjabi as the firm’s brilliant, guarded and sexually ambiguous private detective.

Each episode’s courtroom drama is compelling, but it’s the interaction of these great characters and the unfolding political story that make this one of the best shows on TV. I’m three episodes into Season Two and it keeps getting better.

Two other shows I watch regularly are Glee and Hawaii Five-O.

The former is wildly uneven but capable of wonderful humor and some truly transcendent moments. And no other show on TV gives me ten musical moments worthy of Song of the Day treatment… Glee is not just great TV but great music.

The latter is a guilty pleasure procedural that boasts eye candy both in the form of Grace Park in a bikini and Hawaiian scenery that stretches the boundaries of hi-definition TV. The multi-ethnic cast is refreshing, I love the banter between Scott Caan and Alex O’Laughlin and it’s neat to see Terry O’Quinn and Daniel Dae Kim walk though the same jungles they traversed together on Lost.

Finally, the best three shows on TV are the following:

This is the funniest show on TV, in large part because it’s the most real. It’s obvious that the plots of this documentary-style sitcom — particularly those centering on the Dunphy household — are inspired by actual events. I’m both proud and embarrassed to say I see myself in Ty Burrell’s Phil on a weekly basis.

Modern Family has an ensemble cast that puts most shows to shame. All six of the adults and all four of the children have flawless timing. Three cast members have taken home Emmys already and I hope they all take the stage eventually. I’m particularly impressed with Ed O’Neil and Sofia Vergara, who make their absurd May-December romance feel completely genuine.

In two seasons, Modern Family has already risen to the ranks of the best TV comedies of all time (Arrested Development is the other recent show I’d put on that list).

I love Mad Men with all my heart and even I am sick of seeing Matthew Weiner take the stage year after year at the Emmys to collect the Best Drama trophy. But it’s hard to argue with greatness.

Mad Men is The Sopranos minus the bloodshed… a rich, morally complex character study of an anti-hero you hate yourself for loving. Don Draper is such a beautifully drawn character — he’s like something out of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. And Jon Hamm, who better win an Emmy one of these days, has peeled away the layers of this onion with astonishing skill and nuance.

Draper aside, I tend to look at this show as the story of Elisabeth Moss’ Peggy Olson. I believe we’re witnessing the 60s through the eyes of a woman who triumphed in the face of ugly workplace sexism and rose to the top of her field. When all is said and done, I expect Peggy to be running an agency, proud of the battle scars she sustained clawing her way to the top.

Last season’s episode titled ‘The Suitcase,’ essentially an extended dialogue between Don and Peggy, goes down as one of the finest episodes of television I’ve seen in my life. It’s funny, sad, cynical and ultimately hopeful, and a beautiful microcosm of Mad Men at its best. And it barely featured John Slattery’s scene-stealing Roger Sterling, Christina Hendricks’ iconic Joan Holloway or Vincent Kartheiser’s overachieving Pete Campbell.

With a bench like that, it’s no wonder Mad Men has yet to skip a beat in four amazing seasons.

Speaking of four amazing seasons.

I’m still coming off the high of the season four finale of Breaking Bad, so forgive me for lapsing into hyperbole. This is the best television show I’ve ever seen… period. It was cooked in an industrial meth lab, scientifically designed to fire off in my brain like the 4th of July.

The most apt description, and the highest praise, that I can give is to say that Breaking Bad feels like the TV show the Coen Brothers would create at the top of their game. It’s as darkly comic as their funniest work and as chillingly suspenseful as their most intense work — it is Fargo and No Country For Old Men mixed with Miller’s Crossing and a sprinkling of Raising Arizona.

Show runner Vince Gilligan got his start on The X-Files, but nothing he did there hinted at the level of precision and pacing he achieves here, nor the perfect combination of nuance and bold strokes. Imagine Tarantino’s gift for tension and suspense run through with emotional and psychological depth and rich humor.

Bryan Cranston’s portrayal of high school chemistry teacher-turned-meth manufacturer Walter White has earned him three straight Emmys (he was ineligible this year or might have brought home a fourth). He has beautifully sketched a character who, as each season passes, becomes a more and more despicable human being. And somehow, I hate to admit, I still find myself rooting for him on some basic level.

Gilligan has said that he wants to create a show that not only exposes the moral ambiguity of his characters but makes the audience question their own morality. Mission accomplished. How am I supposed to feel about caring so deeply for Walt’s partner, Jesse Pinkman (played with heart-breaking power by Emmy-winner Aaron Paul), a drug dealer and killer? Here’s a guy who should no doubt be locked up for life, and I think of him as a lost and wounded puppy (who loves saying “bitch”).

And am I wrong to have deep respect, and even a small rooting interest, for Gustavo Fring, the drug kingpin (and fried chicken magnate) played with chilling fastidiousness by Giancarlo Esposito? In this season’s opener, Fring wordlessly carried out a scene of horrific violence that branded him as the most dastardly of villains. By episode ten, I was cheering him on as he plotted revenge against the man who murdered his partner (in business and life, it is suggested) years earlier. How the hell did they pull that off?

No write-up of Breaking Bad would be complete without mentioning Bob Odenkirk’s corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman. Never has comic relief been so comic, or so relieving. Breaking Bad is full of twisted humor and on that front Odenkirk is the MVP.

I’m thrilled that AMC and Gilligan have agreed to an end point for this series. It will run for 16 more episodes, broken into two 8-show runs. That means he and his writing team will be able to plot out the end game with the same unpredictability and focus with which they’ve tackled every episode thus far. I have no idea where Walter White’s journey will take him, or the viewers, but I am confident that it will be a finish worthy of the best frakkin’ show on TV.