A L S O_.T O D A Y Blue Glow "Melrose Place": Jane and Michael get a holiday surprise; encore for "Buffy" Xmas episode   Y E S T E R D A Y "You've Got Mail" Reviewed by Laura Miller Nora Ephron's update of "The Shop Around the Corner" rails against corporate chain stores to predictably bland effect (12/18/98) "The General" Reviewed by Charles Taylor With a mixture of humor and brutality, John Boorman's extraordinary film paints a dark portrait of Irish outlaw Martin Cahill (12/18/98) "The Prince of Egypt" Reviewed by Charles Taylor A kitschy cartoon epic that's not for kids -- or adults (12/18/98)   R E C E N T_. T E L E V I S I O N Fu fighter By Joyce Millman Hong Kong action film vet Sammo Hung kicks some life into prime time in "Martial Law" (12/07/98) Heart of "Blue" By Joyce Millman Can the best cop show on television survive without Jimmy Smits? (11/23/98) Dancing with the Television On By Joyce Millman Forget MTV -- Beck, Elvis Costello, Sugar Ray and the Dylans find their place on TV soundtracks (11/09/98) Praise the Lord and pass the remote By Joyce Millman Christian values collide with big money on Fox Family Channel and PAX TV (10/26/98) The kids are alright By Joyce Millman Teen spirit: TV's wise kids and puerile adults (10/12/98)   BROWSE THE TV ARCHIVES COLUMNS FEATURES       S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

[ J O Y C E_.M I L L M A N__O N_.T E L E V I S I O N ] SMITS WALKS, "FELICITY" STALKS, SAMMO ROCKS. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Television's old ways died hard this year. The Big 4 broadcast networks found out that viewers would rather watch anything, anything, other than Bo Derek on a horse or Nathan Lane acting with his eyebrows. News departments, both broadcast and cable, learned that the American public is a lot smarter than the collective condescending sneer known as TV political pundits. Network programmers made one schedule shuffle too many and found out that viewers just didn't care enough to figure out where some mediocre time-killer of a sitcom went. It's the end of the world as the networks know it -- and the WB feels fine. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Best Show of 1998 "NYPD Blue" (ABC) This year, "Blue" finally found the right tone -- gravely lyrical with a shudder of humility -- to express its simple yet profound theme: Our childhoods make us who we are. Some people can rise above family dysfunction, violence or poverty, some can't. As relentlessly downbeat as many of the show's story lines were (murdered child after murdered child), the writers held out glimmers of hope: We spent last winter and spring watching Bobby and Diane deal with damaged individuals and families, yet remain determined to make a happy home of their own. In November, we watched Bobby die of heart failure in a haunting sequence of episodes that pondered the fragile divides between life and death, faith and medicine, body and soul. At the end, the trajectory of Bobby's life, from a tough street kid to a man of integrity and compassion, was recounted in extraordinary deathbed reveries; you were left with the sense, rare on TV, that you'd just taken the full measure of a person from cradle to grave. Which was why Bobby's death hit viewers so hard and felt so real. Jimmy Smits' replacement, Rick Schroder, is off to a fine start, though. With eyes too wary for his years, Schroder's Danny Sorenson compulsively hoards office supplies when he gets upset and, recently, he jumped in to separate a brawling Sipowicz and Lt. Fancy so quickly, and with such practiced efficiency, you knew in a flash he'd spent most of his life prying adults away from each other's throats. Another product of a bad childhood, trying to rise above it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Honorable Mentions "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (WB) Still the best coming-of-age drama-comedy-vampire thriller on TV. "The X-Files" (Fox) Moving production to Los Angeles -- and having Mulder and Scully demoted from the Bureau's official spook chasers to grunt-work nobodys -- was just the creative boost Chris Carter needed. The 1998-99 season so far has been a gas, with playful, inspired episodes featuring doppelgängers and time warps that dovetail perfectly with Mulder and Scully's professional identity crises. Extra points for finally letting us see what's behind Mulder's bedroom door: a lunatic/workaholic/nerd nest of files, boxes and porn magazines. Opening that door, guest star Michael McKean (as a scheming Man in Black) marveled, "This guy hasn't been laid in 10 years." "Everybody Loves Raymond" (CBS) TV's funniest, smartest comedy grows from cult fave to surprise Top 20 show, despite time-slot competition from "Ally McBeal" (which it has consistently beaten in the ratings lately) and "Monday Night Football" -- all without sweetening its deliciously sour view of family ties. OK, "Raymond" fans, you can exhale now -- the show's going to be around for a long time. N E X T_P A G E _| More of the best -- plus the worst -- of '98