My very personal list of top twelve shows of 2011 (one for each day of Christmas). Be careful; spoilers included…

12) The Killing (AMC): OK, so I'm a contrarian: maybe I'm just touting this show because 99% of the free world screamed for the head of producer Veena Sud in the aftermath of the season finale, which not only didn't identity Rosie Larsen's killer, but ended with the controversial revelation that Seattle copper Stephen Holder was apparently duplicitous. For me, the twist reinforced the show's Northwest noir ethos: no one could be trusted. Imagine how delighted I was then to recently read this quote from Homeland producer Alex Gansa, in reference to The Killing: "The fact that some viewers were dissatisfied with their finale is a cautionary tale only insofar as a bold storytelling choice is sometimes unpopular."  

11) Bedlam (BBC America)/American Horror Story (FX): Nice to see the horror genre meaningfully transcend the pretty-young vampire/witches/werewolf thread that has so dominated since Buffy, thanks to these two haunted-house skeins (not that the British Bedlam—a weird amalgam of Melrose Place and Sixth Sense—doesn't have plenty of pretty young people of its own). I'm taken with Bedlam's Kate, a remarkably nasty iteration of her archetype—the comely young damsel in distress. American Horror Story —totally outrageous in just the way you'd expect from the makers of Nip/Tuck and Glee —likewise brims with unsavory characters (most of them, it turns out, dead), but it does have Connie Britton, and beyond that it's just freakin' scary.

10) Fringe (Fox): I've opined at length already about this soulful X-Files derivative (and I mean that in the most flattering way possible), which seems forever on the verge of cancellation, but what impresses me most about it now, in the midst of its fourth season, is how the writer/producers constantly reinvent it, introducing alternate realities and characters, at great risk but with great reward. Put another way: nobody's phoning it in.

9) Parks and Recreation (NBC): For Party Down obsessives like myself, any show that gainfully employs Adam Scott is celebration-worthy, but Parks and Rec's ensemble cast is so deep it's hard to find everyone the screen time they deserve (Aziz Ansari seems particularly underused , though, I don't know—maybe I just can't get enough).  Here is character comedy at its best, and new ones just keep popping up—first Ben Wyatt (Scott) and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe, in a career-redefining role), then the truly loopy Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz). Big creative challenge ahead: now that Ben and Leslie (Amy Poehler) are officially together, can they still be funny?  Speaking of funny, check out this P&R/Twin Peaks title-sequence mash-up.

8) Bored to Death (HBO): Season-three's final moments filled me with dread—not because Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman) was locking lips with a chick he knew to be his half-sister, but because of the sinking feeling that I may never again experience the joy of watching Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis incarnate Bored to Death's staggeringly infelicitous trio of protagonists, due to a precipitious ratings drop (which, alas, turns out to be true, now that HBO has canceled the show). Jonathan's absurd predicaments (remember when he showed up in George's office in a latex bondage suit, after the magazine had been purchased by religious fundamentalists?)…Ray's relentless suffering for his love of Leah…George's weed-fueled botched rescue operations…most of all, the truly poignant bond among three incorrigible man-children—somehow life always seemed a little less bleak after a dose of Bored to Death.

7) Justified (FX): Woo-hoo! Season three of Elmore Leonard's Kentucky lawman series is (finally) in sight (January 17), and while I'll miss the demented machinations of sinister (and now deceased) hillbilly mama Mags Bennett and her three-stooges sons, we still have those transcendent interactions between U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and his ever-erratic nemesis Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), to look forward to. Pass the moonshine! 

6) Parenthood (NBC): Is Jason Katims television's most underhyped producer? He's now transformed two theatrical films—first Friday Night Lights and then Parenthood —into thoughtful, artfully crafted TV series defined, above all, by emotional authenticity.  If I cared at all about awards, I'd wonder why Parenthood has never been nominated for an Emmy, why Peter Krause garnered three nominations for Six Feet Under but has none for Parenthood, and why Monica Potter—whose performance as Kristina Braverman seems utterly devoid of glamour, ego, or artifice to me—has never been rewarded, but really…who cares? Surely these people know they're doing exceptional work?  

5) Homeland (Showtime):  Everybody's got a secret, sonny.

Has there ever been a darker episodic TV "hero" than Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes), a brilliant yet utterly tortured CIA agent, whose emotional pain becomes so debilitating that she voluntarily undergoes shock treatment? Meanwhile, Marine Sergeant Nick Brody (erstwhile Band of Brother Damian Lewis) battles demons of his own, having been turned into an Al-Qaeda sleeper agent after eight-plus years as a prisoner of war in Iraq. Homeland is a mesmerizing brew of character drama and suspense, nailing the post-9/11 zeitgeist with its depiction of a complacent world where people have simply grown weary of the war on terror.

4) Archer (FX): "The funniest show currently on TV," the Paley Center's Arthur Smith wrote last year; no argument here, but Archer scaled new heights in March with a stunning two-episode cancer arc that somehow managed to be irreverent, hilarious, and poignant, all at the same time. Loved the Magnum, P.I. homage; who would have figured Delaney for a Regis guy?

3) The Walking Dead (AMC):  "How AMC can revive The Walking Dead from its season 2 slumber" denofgeek Tweeted. What slumber? Granted the action has been less fast and furious this season, and walker sightings fewer and far between, but the character development—particularly involving Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Shane (Jon Bernthal)—has been masterful.  Redneck Daryl's episode-four presentation of the Cherokee rose to Carol surely ranks among the iconic moments of the series, and the explosive final moments of the midseason finale—how many shows would have had the nerve to resolve the search for Sophia thusly—were particularly impressive in their assertion that no matter how dark and angry Shane has become, he was, in this case, one hundred percent correct. Now can we please find out what Dr. Jenner whispered in Rick's ear at the end of season one?

2) Game of Thrones (HBO): Read all about it.

1) Community (NBC): I don't want to overstate my case, but has any other network comedy ever been so committed to formal and conceptual innovation—anime, stop-motion animation, stealth homages to My Dinner with Andre and Hearts of Darkness, a faux clip show, the bottle episode devoted to who swiped Annie's pen (Troy's monkey), and on and on and on—while simultaneously—and unabashedly—embracing the most conventional of all sitcom maxims: you gotta have heart? Exhibit A: "Remedial Chaos Theory," in which Jeff (Joel McHale) inadvertently creates seven alternate timelines during a game of Yahtzee by throwing a die to determine who will go downstairs to let the pizza man in.  The episode, which I maintain ranks among the greatest in sitcom history, is hilarious, thought-provoking, character-incisive, and, ultimately, meaningful. All I want for Christmas is another season of Community.