ROLL CALL’s Most Underrated Of 2010!

Your Year End Roundup Of The Pop Culture Cold Shoulder!

It’s easy to celebrate the best of 2010 with a Top 10 rundown, but what about those gems that never make the year-end lists? The entertainment underdogs need a little year-end love too!

In Defense Of “Burlesque”: Let’s just get this out of the way… We loved “Burlesque” and we’re not afraid to admit it! After less-than-stellar reviews came out for the Cher and Christina Aguilera musical epic, we thought “Showgirls” — or even worse, Britney’s “Crossroads” — but we left the theater singing and Googling where to buy our own giant set of feathers. With three Golden Globe nominations, we’re glad to see the Hollywood Foreign Press Association agrees with us (because they never get anything wrong!… well, except for maybe those Globe nominations for “The Tourist”)… Did we mention there’s singing, scantily clad stars (Cam Gigandet is half naked the whole time) and a surly Kristen Bell? After checking out the ballerina breakdown of “Black Swan,” why not enjoy the amuse bouche that is “Burlesque”!

The Show That Everyone Should Be Watching: After the dismal mess that was “Dirt” and perpetual “Friends” repeats, we were slow to buy a ticket to Courteney Cox’s “Cougar Town,” but we’ve decided to plant some roots for this always-hilarious ABC series. Busy Philipps as the lovable, dingy and a tad bit trampy Laurie sold us instantly, making us wonder why we waited so long to tune in. Check out what you’re missing, HERE!

‘Full Hearts’ For ‘FNL’: As for the serious TV department, we never thought we’d care so much about a Texas football TV show, but we’ve been sucked in to “Friday Night Lights” since the first season. The final season has already aired on DirecTV’s 101 Network, but fear not, you can still catch it when it premiers on NBC this spring! Will stars Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton be honored with Emmy nominations for a second time on their final season? We can only hope! Catch up on TV’s best drama, HERE!

The Girl With The Biggest Twitter Chops: A day doesn’t go by when Mindy Kaling, cast member/writer/producer on NBC’s “The Office,” doesn’t make us LOL with a genius Tweet. She might also be the best part about the trailer for Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher’s upcoming “No Strings Attached.” If you’re not doing so already, follow her on Twitter. And could somebody please get this lady her own movie, TV series or maybe a show on Oprah’s OWN network!?

The Forgotten Brangelina Child: It must be hard to be in the middle of the six most famous kids in the world. He’s not the oldest, one half of the twins or the one that makes headlines for wearing boys clothes, but we salute Pax Jolie-Pitt for flying under the radar and keeping his cool… even when getting smacked in the face by his older brother earlier this year! We think 2011 will be Pax’s year to shine!

Those Tears Aren’t CGI!: Besides the women of “Sex and The City 2,” our favorite CGI big screen character of the year had to be “Harry Potter’s” Dobby the house-elf, who reduced us to a puddle of real life tears in “Deathly Hallows, Part I.” RIP little guy! J.K. Rowling has hinted about writing more books in the “Potter” world… might we suggest something with house-elves?

Not Your Granny’s Home & Garden Channel: Speaking of houses, we became obsessed with going into your house in 2010 — in the form of HGTV! A channel devoted to home and design might sound like a snooze fest, but with shows like “House Hunters,” “Property Virgins,” “Color Splash,” “Curb Appeal” and “Dear Genevieve,” we’ve found room in our trashy reality TV hearts right next to Snooki and “The Real Housewives” for something a little classier.

Wine In The A.M.? Why Not!: Just how do you fill four hours of morning news? Kathie Lee Gifford, Hota Kotb and free-flowing wine certainly helps! Sure, it’s not the hard-hitting first three hours of the “Today” show with Meredith, Matt, Al, Ann and Natalie, but this off-the-wall last hour of NBC’s morning chat fest is certainly usually the most entertaining. Did you see when Justin Long co-hosted? Possibly our favorite odd/awkward/racy 11 minutes of morning chat this year! Who knew Justin did such a good Kathie Lee impersonation?

We’re Watching What Happens, Are You?: And when it comes to nighttime chat fests, we’re loving this week’s five nights of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen! Why can’t “WWHL” be on every night of the week, every week? Where else can you find “Real Housewife” NeNe Leakes and Anderson Cooper dishing over drinks or funnylady Amy Sedaris feeding “Top Chef” judge Tom Colicchio while blindfolded? But we can’t mention “WWHL” without revisiting “Real Housewives” star Kim Zolciak’s first performance of her song, “Google Me” – it never gets old!

“SNL’s” New Kids On The Block: Try carving out a niche and getting a laugh next to comedy geniuses like Kristen Wiig, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen. Hats off to “Saturday Night Live’s” featured players, Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam, Nasim Pedrad and Jay Pharoah for their great work this fall. Vanessa’s Miley Cyrus impression always kills us and we’re pretty sure we like Nasim’s Kim Kardashian more than the real Kim Kardashain. “SNL” is experiencing a renaissance this season. Please keep the laughs coming!

Roll Call will be back in 2011, watch out for the celebrities and all of their shenanigans while we’re away!

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