The second season finale of "Downton Abbey" aired on PBS this Sunday to impressive ratings (or, at least, impressive by PBS standards). Around 5.4 million viewers tuned into the two-hour broadcast, making it the network's most watched single draw since the first episode of Ken Burns' "National Parks" in 2009.

In the genus of things that improve with age—wine, women, leftover Indian takeout—TV shows are not usually included. This is because it is nigh impossible to balance the demands of continuous creativity with predictability. For a series to seem fresh, we can't guess what the jokes will be or which characters will kill each other. We need change, but not too much of it. In short, the show that viewers keep watching is the show that fulfills their emotional expectations, while the show they become bored with is too familiar. It's a very delicate distinction.

When it comes to Hollywood, Brad and Angelina just don't do it for me. Give me hilarious and adorable instead of untouchable and elegant any day—my "couple crush," if you will, is on comic geniuses (and married couple) Amy Poehler (former "Saturday Night Live" darling) and Will Arnett, best known for his role as Gob in "Arrested Development."

When it first aired in 2009, "Parks and Recreation" suffered both poor reception and little acclaim in its first season; many critics failed to see how the show was any different from "The Office."

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert in science fiction trivia. I do not know the names of ships, minor characters, or even major characters from "Star Trek." I am also not particularly good at math, and would never make it as a theoretical physicist. What I am telling you, essentially, is that I have very little insight into the world inhabited by the characters of CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," a show currently in its fifth season.