Dennis Leary in Rescue Me

In a year that saw the return of the prime-time soap (Desperate Housewives), the birth of a Canadian comedy classic (Corner Gas) and the rise and fall of a quiz-show king (Jeopardy! star Ken Jennings), it was easy to find 10 good reasons to go back to the couch. Heck, we found a baker's dozen. Here, in no particular order, are the best in our book:

The Sopranos (HBO/Movie Central): Fans complained the series was light on action in the fourth season, but Tony and his crew came heavy in season five. Tony's cousin Tony (Steve Buscemi) got out of jail, got a straight job, got pulled back in to the Mob and got whacked. Uncle Junior lost his marbles; Johnny Sack lost his cool and Christopher lost his sobriety -- and his girlfriend after Adriana joined the hit parade, landing in Long Term Parking a week before the season finale.

Deadwood (HBO/Movie Central): My, what a foul mouth you have Mr. Hickok. Wild Bill, Calamity Jane and the rest of the gold rush gang made extravagant use of the f-word, the m-word, the c-word and the other c-word when they set up camp in Deadwood, S.D., but they lassoed repeat audiences with audacious performances -- Robin Weigert as Calamity, Brad Dourif as the good, opium-dispensing doctor, Ian McShane as the baddest saloon-keeper in the Badlands -- and a bold plot involving smallpox, murder, hookers with hearts of gold and romantic larceny.

Corner Gas (CTV): Comedian Brent Butt and the citizens of Dog River, Sask., only made their TV debut in January, but we feel like we've known curmudgeons Oscar and Emma, cops Karen and Davis, smartypants Wanda, math-challenged restaurateur Lacey, dumb-cluck Hank and sardonic gas station owner Brent for years. Top-notch writers, including Butt, treat the audience with respect -- a nice change from sitcoms that habitually dumb it down.

Desperate Housewives (ABC/CTV): Here's the moment we were hooked: In the pilot, Mrs. Huber finds neighbour Mary Alice dead from a gunshot wound and calls police. Then she takes Mary Alice's name tag off her blender and tucks it into a cupboard for safekeeping. It was a nice touch when Mary Alice's husband later buried the blender with Mrs. Huber's corpse. But all that death is a just a subplot. We really want to know what sexy plumber Mike is doing on Wisteria Lane and what punishment Stepford wife Bree has in store for philandering post-coital weeper Rex.

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (HBO/Movie Central): Geoffrey Rush pulled off an Oscar-calibre performance in an Emmy medium in HBO's highly stylized biopic. Charting the stellar career of comedic genius and social monster Sellers, Rush not only played the title role, he channeled some of Sellers' most famous characters and stepped into the roles of some of his own co-stars besides.

Rescue Me (FX/Showcase): Foul-mouthed, unrepentant boozer and smoker and politically incorrect social commentator Dennis Leary transplanted much of the cast of his ABC cop comedy The Job when he moved to cable F/X with new dramedy Rescue Me. He also took along more salty language and a big dose of outrageous attitude for the story about New York City firefighters who battle their demons, their wives and sometimes each other in the wake of 9/11.

Jeopardy! (Syndicated): He's the software engineer from Utah who won 74 games and $2,520,700 in prize money. Answer: Who is Ken Jennings? Alex Trebek and viewers spent hours of quality time with the brainy Mormon who was a fixture on the show from June to November, when Nancy Zerg unseated him by supplying the correct response (What is H&R Block?) to the Final Jeopardy! question: Most of this firm's 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year. The 2003-04 season was the first in which Jeopardy! contestants could continue playing beyond five winning games.

Arrested Development (Fox/Global): Forget the main plot, all the fun is in the extras: Michael singing karaoke duet Afternoon Delight with his teenage niece at the company Christmas party, Lindsay and Tobias's failed open marriage, mom Lucille's slick two-pronged self-defence plan -- first she'll blow 'em, then she'll poke 'em -- Tobias's obsession with becoming a Blue Man and emasculated Buster's sorry attempts at defying Lucille.

Lost (ABC/CTV): The pilot didn't grab us, but a few weeks after dozens of plane crash survivors were stranded on their desert island we were sucked in by the series mythology. What's the deal with former paraplegic Locke being able to walk? Who are the other inhabitants of the island and what have they done with Charlie and Claire? What is fugitive Kate hiding? Is the island really heaven? Purgatory? We've gotta know.

The Daily Show (CTV, TCN): Jon Stewart and crew delivered the best fake news in the biz -- and sometimes the best real news, without sacrificing the show's peculiar brand of outrageous comedy. Jon?

The Office Specials (BBC Canada/Showcase): Yes, David Brent's Slough office manager turned lounge act is a prat. But we hope he found his match at the office Christmas party -- the perfect finish to the faux BBC documentary.

The Shield (FX): After a sexual assault on the police captain and the Strike Team's brazen heist from the Armenian Mob, you'd think Vic and his posse would be fresh out of surprises. But no, the twists just kept on coming in season three. Too bad you needed a grey-market satellite or a sweet pal with a DVD burner to see it.

The Simpsons (Fox/Global): D'oh! Ned Flanders learns he's doo-diddely destined to kill Homer, creator Matt Groening finally makes a guest appearance, Bart discovers Playdude and the longest-running sitcom on TV is still appointment viewing in its 16th season.

AND THE WORST ...

* Every so-called reality show in which contestants mated for ratings.

* Kim Delaney in anything. The former NYPD Blue/CSI: Miami cop turned up as Dr. Samantha Hill -- as in what in Sam Hill is going on? -- in NBC earthquake disaster mini-series 10.5, which gave rise to ...

* Category 6: Day of Destruction. The made-in-Manitoba CBS mini-series that more than lived up to its disaster billing. A herd of wild tornadoes, a blizzard, a blackout, a pregnant lady in peril. It was so gawdawful we couldn't tear ourselves away.

* When Rob Lowe's shlocky new CBS medical-casino drama Dr. Vegas premiered, we said call 911 -- this show is DOA. We were wrong. It lingered on life support for weeks.

* Ditto for dumb cop drama Hawaii on NBC. Cancel 'em, Dano.