Buried by reality

Reality -- the enhanced, expertly produced, TV version -- ruled the air in 2003. Having been granted unprecedented, courtside access to the action in Iraq early this year, the television news media furnished us with the most Bruckheimeresque image of the year: GI George, top-gun fighter pilot, strutting onto the deck of the USS Photo Op. (Ironically, the Fox drama “Skin,” which was actually produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, was sloughed off the schedule after just three episodes.) That action movie moment was ultimately one-upped at the last minute by the most riveting footage ever shot of a deposed tyrant emerging from a dank hole.

Whether embedded war coverage set the tone for the year or not, reality and bogusness seemed to twist into an ever more seamless Mobius strip as the war, the 24-hour celebrity scandals, the California recall starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and sleazier-than-ever reality show premises competed for attention.

Here’s how it broke down in 2003: A naked Paris Hilton vamping for the camera in her boyfriend’s apartment? News. A nearly naked Paris Hilton vamping for the camera on an Arkansas farm with her friend, Nicole Richie? Entertainment. Martha Stewart and Dennis Kozlowski and Kobe Bryant’s legal problems? Entertaining news. Michael Jackson’s legal problems? Newsy entertainment. Michael Jackson’s face/Ferris wheel/monkey? I give up.

Fearing viewers might be unable to distinguish fact from miniseries, CBS pulled “The Reagans” off the air, setting off another controversy that nonetheless failed to attract sizable numbers of viewers when the presidential biopic aired on Showtime. And while the sight of “Newlywed” Jessica Simpson puzzling over canned tuna was truly a thing of beauty, “Trista and Ryan’s Wedding” felt specious enough to turn us off to marriage for good.

On the other hand, it was a banner year for rampant displays of obscene wealth and televised elective surgery. ABC handed out one “Extreme Makeover” after another as we watched Michael Jackson’s face disintegrate before our eyes. “Nip/Tuck,” FX’s mordant prime-time drama about plastic surgeons, struck an impressive balance between soap and satire in its first season. For a show prominently featuring scalpels, it was refreshingly free of forensic pathologists. Those severed heads on a tray? Rhinoplasty practice.

Worth the price of cable alone were HBO’s “Six Feet Under” and “The Wire.” Even with a mostly absent Brenda (Rachel Griffiths), the former offered some of the year’s most wrenching performances. As the suffocatingly unhappy Lisa, Lili Taylor sucked the air out of every room she entered, leaving the rage- and guilt-ridden Nate (Peter Krause) gasping for air. The characters are so well-drawn it’s impossible not to become submerged in their world. Similarly, “The Wire” digs into the underworld of the Baltimore drug scene and unearths a secret, complex society. Like the best things on HBO, “The Wire” allows us to peer into a marginal universe and see pitch-perfect, recognizable human behavior.

Just when it seemed like nothing could top David Brent’s (Ricky Gervais) pathetic office bonhomie for pure cringe-inducing power, the boss of BBC’s “The Office” was “made redundant” and was forced to beg for his job. Like “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” its American counterpart in comedic discomfort, “The Office” proves that unlikable characters can drive great shows. Fox’s “Arrested Development,” which centers on a wealthy Orange County clan -- the lazy, larcenous Bluths -- has lagged in the ratings but nevertheless boasts some of the best physical comedy and cleverest writing of the season. David Cross and Jeffrey Tambor stand out as a failed psychiatrist turned doomed wannabe actor and the happily incarcerated head of the family, respectively.

One of several new dramas based on a poor-boy-meets-rich-girl premise, “The O.C.” was by far the best of the bunch. Peter Gallagher is sublime as the do-gooding Cohen paterfamilias, but the show belongs to the poor little hot kids -- motor-mouthed recovering nerd Seth (Adam Brody), brooding foundling Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and tragic girl next door Marissa (Mischa Barton) -- struggling on the verge of adulthood (and country club membership).

The surprisingly deft “Joan of Arcadia” -- itself one of the several new shows about teens with direct lines to the beyond -- might have veered into “Touched By an Angel” territory if the writing were less clever and the acting less agile. In the wrong hands, a cute and quirky small-town drama like “Everwood” -- which has mellowed into a low-key, yet pleasantly engrossing soap -- could wind up feeling as bloated and neurotic as “The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire.”

While Katie Couric raised her hemlines to match her salary and Diane Sawyer chatted with Michael Jackson’s parents, “The Daily Show,” Comedy Central’s fake news show, won its first Emmy for lampooning real news, which increasingly resembles entertainment. Real or fake, there’s more incisive analysis in one of Jon Stewart’s raised eyebrows than in a typical hour of “Dateline.” But the sleeper hit of the season, Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” turned out to be not only the most genuinely warmhearted and well-intentioned reality makeover show around, it finally allowed TV to catch up with the culture. When Carson Kressley tucks in an urban lumberjack’s shirt for him, it’s like Nixon in China all over again.

On the other end, it was a disastrous year for shameless big-budget rip-offs such as NBC’s “Kingpin” and “Coupling,” both of which proved that just because the little tub says it’s butter doesn’t mean it’s not full of hydrogenated vegetable oil. Guess what? We can believe it’s not butter. Or “The Sopranos.” Or “Friends.”

Reality TV’s Joe trilogy -- “Schmo,” “Millionaire,” “Average” -- gleefully copped to their false premises and temporarily refreshed the musty genre until the miscast “Next Joe Millionaire” stunk up the joint again.

Sadly, HBO’s ambitious but utterly confounding “K Street” and “Carnivale” both foundered on their inventiveness. Casting real political figures alongside actors, “K Street” set out to expose behind-the-scenes Washington and only succeeded in confusing us further. “Carnivale,” meanwhile, went searching for meaning and came back with a handful of mixed metaphors, disjointed themes and dust.

Chocano is The Times’ TV critic.