What did you watch? My fave's list for '09

As the year winds down, we look back on the best television of 2009.

Every TV critic is making a list and checking it twice.

Most seem to agree that "Mad Men," "30 Rock" and "True Blood" belong on it.

After those three hits there are about two dozen or more possibilities for "best of" lists.

As much as we moan about how awful TV can be, there are more good series than bad (if you don't count reality shows).

I will just have to go with what I enjoyed watching the most in 2009.

Let's start with the fun new stuff, which includes, in no particular order:

•"Drop Dead Diva" on Lifetime was a surprisingly charming feel-good show about a slim, beautiful air-headed model that died and came back in the body of a brilliant plus-sized lawyer. Actress Brooke Elliot brilliantly pulls off this romantic comedy in which underdogs triumph and we learn lessons about body image.

•"Glee" on Fox turned out to be a subversive, fun-filled, musical comedy that trumps all previous high school movies. The offbeat soap opera plots follow a stressed-out faculty of weirdo adults and talented geeks on the glee club. Veteran character actor Jane Lynch, as the vicious cheerleading coach, and newcomer Lea Michele, as glee club diva, are scene stealers.

•"Modern Family" on ABC offers a wry, satirical take on the family sitcom with a lovable clan of dysfunctional relatives. Ed O'Neill is now forgiven for all those "Married ... With Children" episodes.

•"The Good Wife" on CBS is yet another feel-good series. I must be a sucker for underdogs and misfits. Julianna Margulies stars as a quiet, crusading lawyer. She's a wronged wife who seeks justice. If only she weren't such a mope.

STILL GOT IT: Returning favorites that I tried not to miss:

•"Mad Men" on AMC continues to be the best crafted and most compelling drama on TV. This moody, stylistic, symbolism-laden look at American culture in the 1960s is part mystery, part melodrama and part history. And Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is the coolest anti-hero on TV.

•"True Blood" on HBO can be creepy and repulsive. It also can be funny, sexy, silly, scary and intense. The adventures of mind-reading, backwoods Louisiana waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) involve vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, witches and most frightening of all - rednecks.

•"30 Rock," "The Office" and "Parks & Recreation" on NBC make for a night of satire that is hard to beat.

•"Bones" on Fox is your typical cute, romantic bloody forensics drama with a likeable cast. You don't care who done it. It's just fun to watch them solve it.

•"House" on Fox remains a favorite even though it's piling up the mileage. Those who think it's just about the implausible medical mystery of the week are missing the real drama about House's search for meaning in his life.

Other favorites that I try to watch for fun but don't have room to elaborate on here include "The Closer" on TNT; "24" and "Lie to Me" on Fox; "Burn Notice" and "In Plain Sight" on USA; "Desperate Housewives" (still wickedly funny) on ABC; "Torchwood" and "Being Human" on BBC America; "The Mentalist" on CBS (even though he's getting too smug); "Castle" on ABC; "Chuck" on NBC; "Eureka" on Syfy; "How I Met Your Mother" and "Big Bang Theory" on CBS.