And the Buffy goes to ...

Our fifth annual award to the most underappreciated show in all of TV land.

Editor's note: This is the fifth year we've awarded the Buffy, named after a certain vampire thriller. (Read more of our TV Week 2008 coverage.)

By Heather Havrilesky

Read more: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Arts & Entertainment, Heather Havrilesky, Arts & Entertainment TV Features, TV Week, TV Week 2008

Sept. 6, 2008 | Four years ago, the Buffy was born in an attempt to honor the most underrated, overlooked show on television. And each year, the proud winner of the Buffy seemed to gain wider recognition in the wake of being awarded our glorious (and entirely theoretical) golden statuette: In 2004, "The Wire" won based on its first two seasons. In 2005, "Veronica Mars" had aired one season and won the award for showing enormous potential. In 2006, "Battlestar Galactica" won just as it was starting to gain a wider audience, and in 2007, the immense charms of "Friday Night Lights" looked poised to take the world by storm. (Oh well, can't win them all.)

This year, we depart from our typical focus on relatively young shows to recognize a veteran drama that stands head and shoulders above the rest. This show entered the cable-drama fray six years ago at a time when the words "cable drama" automatically called to mind "The Sopranos" and nothing more. In fact, when this shakily shot, testosterone-fueled cop show stole the spotlight from "The Sopranos" in 2003, with the show's bald-headed star practically ripping the Golden Globe for best actor right out of James Gandolfini's hands (and the show taking home the Golden Globe for best TV drama), most of us die-hard "Sopranos" fans rolled our eyes in disbelief. We bemoaned the show's burgeoning popularity, assuming it was just a trendy, sensationalistic procedural drama, all style and no substance.

And then something strange happened. Just as quickly as it had emerged, this drama disappeared from the radar, failing to win another major award over the past five years, with only a smattering of Emmy nominations along the way. Meanwhile, the show has arguably improved each and every season, to the point where it may be the most impeccably scripted, well-acted, dynamically plotted drama currently on television.

So this year, the Buffy goes not to a show that's about to break out, but to a show that was celebrated for its first two years on the air, and then largely ignored.

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