Happy Sunday, b-rollers! It’s great to be back with some non-Idol thoughts (may it rest in peace until 2011). You’ll be happy to know that my work event went swimmingly, thank you for asking. And now that it’s over, I have time to focus on the important things in life. Like blogging.

This will be my first summer as a TV/movies/random entertainment blogger, and I’ve been contemplating how exactly this will work. After all, summertime is a bizarre stretch on the entertainment calendar. Most summer movies could best be described as “world goes kaboom!”, and of my list of personal television programming, there’s hardly anything left – Glee has only one episode to go, So You Think You Can Dance just started, and The Closer and Mad Men don’t premiere until July. (Fun fact: As I was surfing the AMC site to see when Mad Men would return, I got sucked into a “Which Mad Men character are you?” quiz. It turns out that I am Jane, a secretary who used a combo platter of pretty/young/stupid to break up the marriage of a Sterling Cooper partner, and subsequently became an alcoholic trophy wife. I think I may want a do-over.)

Anyway, with a barren TV season ahead of me and the gracious assistance of Netflix, I’ve decided to devote my summer to television phenomena that I have missed out on. This decision was brought on by the series finale of Lost, an event that – judging by entertainment sites, Twitter feeds and Facebook status updates – ranked slightly above the Obama inauguration for sheer grandeur and importance. Meanwhile, I identified strongly with this marvelous Twitter update: “Crap, I forgot to watch LOST. For six years.” And apparently, this wouldn’t do – as someone who blogs/tweets/Facebook updates about television, I felt overwhelmed by the shame that comes with watching the world become wrapped up in a HUGE CULTURAL EVENT as you stare blankly. And so, as everyone else dissects the series finale as if it were a Nostradamus text, I’ve gone back to the beginning. I’m seven episodes into Season 1 and feeling like a remedial student at summer school, but whatever. Hatches and island polar bears and utter bewilderment, here I come.

This isn’t the first time I’ve missed the boat; last summer’s project was Mad Men, which clearly went well, and I am ashamed to admit that I had to catch up on most of 30 Rock‘s debut season on DVD a few years back, as I thought the first episode was kinda “eh” at the time. There are plenty more shows that I let pass me by, some inexplicably, such as Friday Night Lights – liked the book, liked the movie, like the cast, no idea what the hell I’ve been waiting for. My only excuse is that I’m not paid to watch television (wouldn’t that be glorious?) and I can’t get to everything, hard as I try. So help me out, b-rollers: Which shows, recent past or present, should I catch up on? I’m talking critically acclaimed, fervent fan base, great characters and dialogue, something that I absolutely, positively should not have missed. To get you started, here’s a list of shows that I’ve heard good things about but never (regularly) watched: Dexter, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, Flight of the Conchords, True Blood, The United States of Tara, The Shield, Battlestar Galactica (the new one, obviously), Parks and Recreation, The Wire, The Sopranos, How I Met Your Mother, Rescue Me, Weeds, Party Down, Damages, The Big Bang Theory.

I’m sure there are others, and if you don’t see a show here or on my original list, holler back. Though I clearly cannot watch all of these, I’m open to your suggestions. Have at, b-rollers!