Up ­ As much as I’ve loved other animated features, this is the first one
that made me laugh, sob, and wish (and momentarily believe) that the chubby
little cubscout was a real, live boy so I could adopt him. Extra points for
bringing back the wonderful Ed Asner.

Up in the Air ­ It’s pure coincidence that my two favorite films of the year
both involve the word Up. This is the kind of movie they just don’t make
any more: good, solid, simple grown-up story telling. George Clooney has
never seemed so real. (Can I adopt him, too, but in a different way?)

30 Rock ­ I cherish my twenty-four-ish minutes each week with the folks at
TGS. Tina Fey recently told Entertainment Weekly that, other than her
choice to have a child, asking Alec Baldwin to take the role of Jack Donaghy
was her best decision. I’ve never met her kid, but I have to think she’s at
best at close second. Incidentally, I want to adopt Tina Fey, too, to be my
BFF. In my dreams, we write a TV pilot together.

Glee The dry humor of Jane Lynch and the earnestness of high school
chorus geeks, wrapped together in one big snarky, happy bundle. It’s as if
the TV gods came together to create a show specifically for me. Now if only
there were a mystery arc.

Battlestar Galactica ­ I was slow to come to this series because I still
tell myself I don’t like sci-fi. Well, if loving this is wrong, I don’t
want to be right. We watched the entire series in a matter of months and
now wish we could lobotomize the BSG-parts of our brains so we could
experience it all over again.

Alafair Burke is the author of the Ellie Hatcher and Samantha Kincaid series
of novels. A former deputy district attorney in Portland, Oregon, she now
teaches criminal law at Hofstra Law School and lives in New York City. Her
newest Ellie Hatcher novel, 212, will be published by Harper Collins in
March.

Check out the rest of the 5 Favorites of 2009 entries.