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9 The Newsroom Its final episodes were too bizarre, but for most of its run on PBS, this Canadian series about the news department of a TV station was balanced perfectly between reality and parody. Filmed in documentary style, it achieved some brilliant moments of deadpan humor, and Ken Finkleman, the show's creator, played the news director with a wicked combination of egotism, pettiness and desperation. Imagine Broadcast News meets Spinal Tap.
10 Buffy the Vampire Slayer More than just an action series about a 15-year-old superheroine, the WB's Buffy is a wry satire of suburban teenage life (the unhip are described as having discovered "the softer side of Sears") and a postfeminist parable on the challenge of balancing one's personal and work life. Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has vampires to kill, but she also has to find the time for boys and Ben & Jerry's.