How was your Christmas break?

Mine was good. I saw Juno (not as good as I thought it’d be — it kind of tries too hard with the sassy dialogue.  It’s like live action, pregnant Daria).  I also watched a loooooot of TV. Just like last Christmas when I started my Veronica Mars season one binge, this year I started season one of Battlestar Galactica (thanks “Pandacita”) with the hopes of being caught up by the start of the final season. I even caught up on some of Cane, which is really a pretty enjoyable show, albeit not a must-watch every week (oh Nestor…).

You know what my holiday season was also full of? Murderous anti-heroes.

Not only did I venture out to the movies to see Sweeney Todd (I generally hate musicals, but my love of Tim Burton trumps that), but I also finished the second season of Dexter. If you haven’t started watching Dexter, you need to either get Showtime or start sleeping with someone who gets it and then watch it on-demand.

When one watches so much righteous murder during the course of a single holiday season, one is almost forced to compare and contrast and then blog about one’s findings.

If I were to break break it down, it’d probably work out something like this series of pie charts on the right-hand side of your page.

Sweeney Todd’s rage is justifiable, but he’s definitely the more unhinged of the two. The whole world is his slaughterhouse and there ain’t nobody he’s not willing to kill. While you find yourself rooting for him (for no other reason than the fact that he’s the protagonist), there’s not a whole lot that’s redeemable about him. I mean, he got a bum deal when his life was ruined by Alan Rickman, but I’m not satisfied that justifies slaughter of such proportions.

So, you’ve got the emotionally scarred anti-hero who satisfies his bloodlust through wanton, indiscriminate killing.  And then you’ve got the emotionally scarred anti-hero who  satisfies his bloodlust through very calculated

Especially toward the end, the second season of Dexter focused a lot on the is-he-good-or-is-he-evil aspect of the series. It was inconclusive, with Dexter leaving the question in the minds of viewers via pensive voice-over narration. What did come to a conclusion was the character’s own perspective on the idea: indifference.

What I think makes Dexter significantly evil is the fact that, like Todd’s, his killing is selfish. He’s not outraged by crime for the good of society.  He has his own agenda and he’s managed to make it conform to a quasi-redeemable code of conduct (only kill people who deserve it).

It’s ambiguous, but that’s what makes the show interesting.

Lots of shot-over-gauze retrospectives in this batch.

• TV Guide lists some memorable 07 TV moments.
• Letterman’s writers are returning to work.
• Reality Blurred looks back at 2007.
• A rumored cast list has emerged for the half-all-star season of Survivor.
• Zap2It lists the year’s biggest guilty pleasures.
• E-Kristin’s looking ahead to some (gasp) new scripted programming in 08. She even has a list of winter premiere dates.

Closing out the year…

• Maggie revived the I’m Sick of Your Shit series, focusing her ire on Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio.
• I created some equations inspired by The Pick-Up Artist. This is my second best post of the year.
• I reviewed the pilot of Gossip Girl.
• I broke the news to Tim Gunn that his new show kind of blew.
• Maggie identified another contemporary TV archetype in the Superpowered Nerd (think Chuck and Reaper).
• I came around on Aliens in America, but not enough to watch it on a regular basis.
• I created a Grey’s Anatomy mad lib.
• I pronounced The Bionic Woman DOA.
• Maggie took a shine to a show in the new old-ladies-on-cable genre: Damages.
• TiFaux readers helped us come up with potential season four plotlines.
• David Chase got me all riled up again with some snooty remarks.
• We analyzed the season’s new shows and whether they lived up to their promise.  It’s on a chart!
• Cristin popped in to proclaim the glory of Friday Night Lights.
• We got nominated for another Weblog Award!
• Kyle gave a sneak preview of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.
• I talked about the semi-awesomeness of Project Runway Canada.

Okay,  that’s more than enough.  And everything else should be recent enough that you remember it.

We wrote a lot of stuff this year!  Good job, team!

Summer’s always rough in finding things to write about. But we managed to find stuff.

• The Who Would Win in a Fight series heated up with a bout between the matriarchs of Arrested Development and Heroes.
• Kyle was grumpy and took it out on Studio 60. Maggie tried to keep the peace.
• Maggie fell in like with Greek.
• Cristin talked about The Best Years — a show we haven’t heard from since.
• Maggie wondered why everyone is so worked up over Mad Men.
• I wondered if straight boys actually liked it when Giada DeLaurentiis looked like she was covered in menstrual blood (I’m sorry, was that too much? I can never tell.).
• I described my disappointment with the Jezebel James pilot (which, by the way, is that show ever premiering?).
• I also doted over Barefoot Contessa (this post, by the way, got me my full-time job).
• Maggie gave intense analysis of the High School Musical 2, including posts on Ryan Evans and Sharpay.
• Kyle wondered why “Lindsay Lohan’s well-manicured lady parts” was our number two search term.
• We began our Friends of the Faux series, profiling our chattiest commenters, starting with Tapeworthy’s Vance.

Here’s what we had to offer for the year’s second quarter.

• I took a trip to Savannah, Georgia and ate at Paula Deen’s Lady and Sons restaurant.
• Cristin love-hated the Pussycat Dolls reality show.  Actually, maybe it was just more hate-hated.
• I felt shame for my love of Work Out and Sam Champion.
• Maggie looked at the big picture on Heroes.
• Kyle did a post-mortem on TiFaux Madness — the wildly successful event that nearly made Maggie lose her faith in humanity.  Or, I don’t know, maybe it actually did.
• Cristin cried shenanigans on TV Turnoff Week.
• Kyle recommended solutions for fixing Studio 60 (too late, buckaroo).
• Cristin and I did a sweeps death-likelihood analysis.
• I broke up with Grey’s Anatomy (although it didn’t actually follow through). By the way, this is my best post of the year.
• Maggie sums up all of the seasons upfronts with a series of polls.
• Cristin went through the stages of mourning for Veronica Mars.
• Maggie dedicated an entire week to the celebration of Judd Apatow.
• I didn’t watch Shear Genius and freaked out about it. All went back to normal with my ill-fated recaps of Top Chef.
• I went ballistic of the bullshit series finale of The Sopranos.
• My favorite Cristin post of the year: I’m Sick of Your Shit — Age of Love.

Nothing to see here.

Go open presents with your family.

I’ll be at the movies, seeing Juno with my brother and sister-in-law.

No new content this week, kids.  It’s all because of Jesus.

But, to tide you over, this week we’ll be supplying y’all with links to the best crap we wrote all year. Chances are you’ve forgotten about it, so it’s just like real new content.

Here’s a look back at the first three months of the year:

• Remember that show with Courtney Cox-Arquette called Dirt?  Well, after watching the series premiere, Maggie and I posted virtually the same thoughts the next day. Read Maggie’s here.  Read mine here.
• In a personal post, Maggie links sex, High School Musical and ballroom dancing.
• Cristin began her recaps of season two of The Hills.
• I detailed my fascination with Food Network’s Sandra Lee.
• Maggie was aghast at a suicidal robot commercial during the Superbowl.
• Kyle recapped his and Maggie’s trip to the Buffy sing-along.
• This post makes me wonder “What ever happened to internet-in-her-brain woman on Heroes?”
• Maggie looked back on the insanity of her “Soaring, flying” High School Musical post. Just to give you some perspective, that is still one of the most viewed pages on the site.  To this day.
• I looked back at the glory of the gay-themed reality show “Playing it Straight.”
• Lost had one of its best episodes of the season starring (surprise, surprise) Nikki and Paolo.

BuzzSugar: This week, we got pumped about new previews for Lost and Heroes, celebrated the addition of Saved by the Bell to The N, and asked one very important question: Team Serena or Team Blair?

Daemon’s TV: This week Sandie took a first look at pictures from the second season of Jericho. Araya posted part three of our interview with the cast of Chuck, including Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, and Adam Baldwin. Eric shared his thoughts on the pilot of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Glowy Box: After answering some googled questions about Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency and Cash and Treasures, Liz celebrated the holiday season by recapping Pinocchio’s Christmas, which was surprisingly lacking in likeable characters, and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, the classic Christmastime ode to freedom and Democracy.

Mikey Likes TV: The graciously closure-filled season finale of Dexter put Mikey in the holiday spirit, so he started his countdown of the top 10 shows of 2007 with a look at why he loves 30 Rock so much. If anyone out there has a copy of the Who Dat Ninga? poster, it’s all he really wants for Christmas.

Pop Vultures: This week, Marcia continued her obsession with TV’s opening titles by naming the 5 best opening credits sequences, although she’s fairly certain no one will agree with her choices. She then managed to gather her thoughts about the Dexter season finale. Also, guest poster Tracey checked in with a woman-on-the-scene report from Monday’s strike lines.

RTVW: This week our TV Advent Calendar featured a bonus Bones scene under the mistletoe and we sounded off about our favorite holiday TV. Plus, Rae wondered how an episode of Scarecrow & Mrs King could still be considered “promotional.”

Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green: As the television season winds to a grinding halt, you can always reminisce the past year by going through Scooter’s 57 Channels and Only This Is On archives to relive the highs and lows of the season (or if only to check out the previous Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week). Still need something to get that annoying cousin for Christmas who thinks he’s ghetto despite living in suburbia? Try the new Lupe Fiasco album. And a Christmas movie with Olive Snook, Maeby Fünke, and Hurley has to be good, right?

Tapeworthy: Merry Ludachristmas! Vance went to “30 Rock” in New York and saw Christmas marathon of stage shows, including the Rockettes, Wintuk and The Grinch Musical (and the White Christmas The Musical back in Toronto). Also back in Toronto, Project Runway Canada had its finale with host Iman getting her regal final word in.

Televisionary: This week, Jace was blown away by the sheer genius of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s series-ender special of Extras, enraptured by the extended trailer for Season Four of Lost, and felt justified with his picks for the best TV of 2007.

TiFaux: This week, we ended up watching more TV on the internet than on the actual tube. That is, shows produced exclusively for the internet. First, there’s the indie rock/comedy duo of Carrie Brownstein (of Sleater-Kinney) and Fred Armisen (of SNL) who produce the pretty darn funny Thunderant series. Then, there’s hipster comedians Gabe and Jenny, who created an awesome clip spoofing The Hills. Rounding out the week, Kyle noticed a weird similarity between Pushing Daisies and Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day.

The TV Addict: offered up an early review of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, interviewed SMALLVILLE’s Allison Mack and Krisin Kreuk and wrote an Ode to JOURNEYMAN.

Tube Talk: Jennifer overdosed on Christmas movies, Ashley shared her favorite TV holiday episodes and readers chimed in with their choices, too, (Chrismukkah and Happy Festivus anyone?) and we rejoiced at the news that Pete Ross was returning to Smallville. Merry Christmas everyone!

TV Filter: Raoul interviewed Todd from Survivor. Kate discovered, much to her dismay, that she liked Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants and counted down her favorite not-too-Christmassy Christmas episodes of the past.

TV With MeeVee: We talked to Donald Trump and Gene Simmons - yup - about the upcoming “Celebrity Apprentice.” We rocked the news that “Gossip Girl” star Ed Westwick has a rock band. And we taught you how to identify Cylons without having sex with them.

Looks like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are coming back. But, well, it’ll be just them and a camera.

According to TV Guide, the boys will be start making new episodes on Jan. 7 without writers. The two released a statement saying the following: “We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence — but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence.”

I can’t imagine what these shows are going to be like. Well, actually, yes I can. I’m guessing interviews that are twice as long. I’m guessing Jon sitting there making reference to how awkward the situation is. I’m guessing Jon reading the paper at his desk, trying to come up with off-the-cuff remarks and then looking embarrassed.

I don’t know — I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work.

I need a Christmas haircut — my hair is just this amorphous pile on my head.

• Zach Braff will be making a dramatic pilot for FOX.
• Sundance Channel is doing a Nimrod Nation marathon tomorrow (if that means anything to you).
• House’s Kal Penn updates everyone from Obama’s campaign trail.
• E-Kristin has a Christmas video.
• The SAG nominees are very cable-y too.
• Ruben Studdard has been dropped from his record label. In other news, he just finished a stage play called “Heaven, I Need a Hug.”  It co-starred Robin Givens.  No joke.