The Good, the bad, and the ugly It was not a year you’d want to capture on TiVo. The Sopranos went missing in action, ever cheesier reality shows flooded the tube, and the networks churned out one of the lamest fall seasons on record. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly for the TV year almost past. BY JOYCE MILLMAN

THE GOOD

Angels in America (HBO)

HBO’s six-hour presentation did justice to Tony Kushner’s landmark "gay fantasia" about fragile hearts and resilient souls in the AIDS-ravaged Reagan ’80s. Director Mike Nichols, screenwriter Kushner, and a sublime cast captured the play’s rage and tenderness, stinging humor and supple grace. Meryl Streep gave the performance of the year in any medium with her flawless disappearing act into (among others) a tenacious Mormon matron, a wily (male) rabbi, and the wry and vengeful specter of Ethel Rosenberg.

Kushner’s play was subtitled "Millennium Approaches," and the future he envisioned of an America gripped by bottomless dread yet united by the unexpected kindness of strangers has indeed come to pass. Yet HBO’s gorgeous production (strengthened by his revisions and subtle allusions to September 11) never felt like a nostalgia trip or a museum piece. The play remains piercingly relevant. Angels was the TV event of the year — of several years, actually.

The Office (BBC America)

This British import reigned in 2003 as the funniest, scariest comedy on television. Co-written and co-directed by Ricky Gervais, who also played the lead, The Office was a mock reality show about depressed and depressing workers toiling in a dreary suburban London sales branch of a papermaking company.

Wait, did I say "depressing"? I meant horrifyingly, convulsively, tragically funny. Gervais’s clueless, politically incorrect middle manager, David Brent, deserves a place beside Basil Fawlty and the AbFab girls in the British-sit-com-character hall of fame. A frustrated comedian/rocker, David just wants to be loved. Squarely of the "Be my pal, please" school of bad management, he makes inappropriate jokes at the worst possible moments and stubbornly mistakes stunned silence for awe. In the brilliant second season, which ran in October and November, he was demoted to work under a competent and truly popular boss. These six episodes became a fascinating study in self-destruction, as David, jaw frozen in a desperate smile, terrified eyes darting toward the camera as if pleading for help, saw his delusions crumble. The squirmingly funny and the truly pathetic merged as he struggled to hold onto his shredding self-esteem. When he finally made his last stand wearing an emu costume, I think I was laughing so hard I was crying, but then, it might have been the other way around.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Bravo)

The Fab Five make the world safe for metrosexuals. A seminal (Carson Kressley Homage Pun intended) moment in pop culture.

THE BAD

Strange embeddedfellows

Bush II marched the media off to war in Iraq, and never was heard a discouraging word. Because in the brave new world of Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft, discouraging words are unpatriotic. Meanwhile, Jay Leno let the Terminator announce his candidacy for the governorship of California on The Tonight Show, in effect becoming the official Schwarzenegger campaign mouthpiece. But that’s okay, he gave Gary Coleman equal time.

Checking in at the Paris Hilton

Just when you thought reality was dead, it comes crawling back with some of its most shameless offerings yet. The Z-list exhibitionists of the year: idle rich person Paris Hilton and her friend, Lionel Richie’s daughter, milking cows on Fox; monumentally stupid Jessica Simpson and metrosexual spouse Nick Lachey — they’re both singers, allegedly — starring in a VH1 reality series about their newlywed bliss; bachelorette Trista and her prey, fireman Ryan, getting married on ABC. We can only hope that there are nasty divorce proceedings ahead and that Court TV is there.

AND THE UGLY

Living with Michael Jackson (ABC)

When it aired in February, this British-made documentary stunned viewers with its depiction of a man damaged beyond repair, both physically and psychically. The show, which contained disturbing scenes of Jackson cuddling and holding hands with an underage boy and ingenuously boasting of sharing his bed with children, is, it’s reported, going to be a key piece of evidence in the child-molestation case against the King of Pop. Jackson’s defenders appear to be gearing up for the second coming of O.J.’s race-card defense. And TV is itching for a piece of the action; the wall-to-wall coverage of Jackson’s arrest was only a taste of what TV will look like if this case goes to trial. The difference between Simpson and Jackson: Jackson might have had witnesses. Millions of them.