December is a great big dead zone for the entertainment world. Except for the movies that are rushed out at the very last minute so they'll be fresh in Oscar voters' brains, and except for Christmas albums by people you never wanted to hear doing Christmas songs (e.g., .38 Special), there's not much exciting going on. Which is just as well, because people seem to have little spare time for much of anything at the end of the year. There's too much shopping and too many Christmas parties to give any thought to entertaining yourself.

So, at least for me, December is one big month of reflection on how I did this year. Basically, it's my preparation for doing the whole damn thing over again in January. I'll spare you my own self-evaluation, but I will spend the last few columns of the year taking a look at what happened in TV, music and movies. I'd address art and literature as well, but that would have required me getting off the couch and turning off the TV. And really, who wants to live his life that way?

The year in television is strange to assess, since the first few months are the end of one season, and the last few months are the beginning of another. All the same, there have been some notable developments—both welcome and not so welcome. For starters, there's the 60-to-0 popularity decline of reality TV. 2001 started off with Temptation Island signaling a new low in just for how far executives would go with the genre. Little did we know that it would seem tame by the time we got the gross-out fest of Fear Factor in the summer. But right after Temptation Island's success came the first signal of the genre's fading allure: the second installment of Survivor.

The second edition of the daddy of reality shows only underscored my theory that reality shows are inherently limited in how far they can go. The reason is that those taking part in the second season have watched the first one; they understand the gimmick and how to work it. Survivor 2 still put up very respectable numbers, but almost everyone who watched it agreed that it was interminably boring. Some critics contend that the severe dip in ratings for other reality shows is the result of a jittery, terror-stricken public taking solace in familiar escapist television. But I think the public was bound to realize that the supposedly regular people on these shows are largely repugnant, shallow attention-seekers of dubious entertainment value.

It is true, however, that viewers did turn to the familiar this fall, in droves. Longstanding reliables like Everybody Loves Raymond, Law & Order and Friends have performed far above expectations for such old programs. It's an especially sweet turnaround for Friends, which just last spring was at a creative low and getting trounced weekly by Survivor. I will dissent, though, with the general assessment that Friends is back to form; it's as good as a show in its eighth season could be. The producers and stars should consider themselves lucky for that and follow through on their promise to make this the final season. That way, they'd still be able to bow out with class.

Speaking of surprising successes, Buffy has flourished despite its switch to the UPN network. And for those curious about how it could get away with those softcore sex scenes between Buffy and Spike, featuring the supersonic sound of his fly being unzipped: UPN has no standards. Apparently, the network's execs think, “FCC be damned, we'll do what we want.” Meanwhile, the suckers at ABC are still catching hell from the FCC for the blurred nipples on their Victoria's Secret special. Maybe it isn't such a bad thing when you can't get adults to watch your network.

This brings us to HBO, where you can pay to see more than innuendo. The cable network gladly served up explicit material on The Sopranos and its deserved new hit Six Feet Under. The former show had a somewhat mixed season, which only proved that mixed results on The Sopranos are still miles better than the best network TV has to offer.

As for the best network TV has to offer—NBC's West Wing—it wasn't looking quite so good this year. I loved Aaron Sorkin's previous program, the failed Sports Night, and I was definitely sucked in wholesale by West Wing's first season, but the show has slipped considerably of late. The focal characters have become pompous, arrogant assholes; they act like they're smarter and better than everyone else—meaning that they're just holding true to the worst clichés about the Democratic party.

Even more annoying is the way the president constantly spews forth a list of statistics and facts during any debate, as if they somehow refuted any and all dissension. If you want to use statistics, you have to back them up with some argument and reasoning. Otherwise, you're just throwing out information devoid of context and meaning. I liked the show more when it served as an occasional civics lesson rather than a blatant political platform. I'll admit that it's better written than most anything on network TV, but Sorkin needs to come up with less cloying content to back up that gift for dialogue.

So was there anything new on TV to get excited about? Six Feet Under may have been a bit more like network TV than The Sopranos, but it was still looser, more fun and more daring than most shows. It also deserves credit for some of the most honest and unfiltered depictions of a homosexual male ever in a TV show. ABC's international spy actioner Alias had a good, cartoonish start but has since quickly devolved into incoherence. FOX's 24 is the other CIA show with the super-big buzz around it. It's good, but not as good as the hype portended. It has failed to earn a big audience, which is largely FOX's fault for airing it on Tuesdays, the busiest night on TV this year, a month after all the other programs had gotten a head start.

My vote for best newcomer still goes to The Tick for sheer eccentricity. But it's probably not even going to make it to next year, with FOX having aired it twice before sending it to limbo. I guess I'll just have to wait for all the “family programming” coming our way next year in the wake of the big ratings successes of Garth Brooks' and Michael Jackson's specials and the Carol Burnett retrospective. Whoopee.

Politically ambitious

One last TV item for the year. Word in the rumor mill is that ex-President Bill Clinton will be playing the head of a law firm—crooked, I'm sure—in an episode of C.S.I. I stress that this is still unconfirmed from Harlem, but that's what's being passed around. My skin crawls at the thought of him flirting on national TV with Marg Helgenberger, but before you easily baited conservative Clinton-haters jump on your high horse, let me remind you of one thing: The Republicans went on prime time TV first, and no, I'm not talking about Nixon on Laugh-In. Many have forgotten, but both former Nixon Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and ex-President Gerald Ford made cameo appearances as themselves in an episode of Dynasty in the mid-'80s.

At least Clinton didn't go on Melrose Place (although I bet he would have taught Jane a thing or two). And at least he'll be acting badly in a fictional role. There is nothing sadder than watching someone of Henry Kissinger's erudition and accomplishment fail to play himself convincingly opposite Joan Collins.

Quotidian Challenge

“I got a letter from the government just the other day. I opened and read it. It said they were suckers!”

Be the first respondent to e-mail the origin of this useless bit of trivia to poplife the shame of your name printed as the winner and some free useless crap from the Nashville Scene!

Previous week's answer: “Knowing is half the battle.”—moral tag line at the end of every episode of the '80s cartoon G.I. Joe.

Winner: Taylor Cates.