Rules are meant to be broken... especially for these ten television characters. For them, the rest of the world has one standard to live by and they have another. It makes them interesting and fun to watch... you just wouldn't necessarily want to be the person having to deal with them because they could drive you to distraction. Here's my ten pack of characters who live in a world of their own, according to no rules except their own. From the not-too-bad to the really bad.

10. Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
You would think that as a consultant to the CBI -- California Bureau of Investigation -- Patrick Jane would be compelled to uphold the rules and regulations of the department. However, Jane is a free spirit when it comes to office protocol. He does his own thing. For instance, bugging the office of a CBI higher-up is definitely not kosher. Jane doesn't care; he did it anyway and will probably get away with it.

Before pondering the meaning of identity on Dollhouse, Joss Whedon gave us some great shows featuring iconic heroes and some really nasty but unforgettable villains.

Unlike Dollhouse, most of Whedon's earlier shows featured a "big bad," a major villain who caused trouble throughout an entire season, or series, for the heroes and their friends. Luckily, Whedon's heroes always managed to outwit these evildoers, but they couldn't stop them from stealing scenes and making the Whedonverse a very, very dangerous place to live.

Let's take a look back at some of Whedon's best "big bads" that made life a living hell for Buffy, Angel and Captain Mal.

The TV is a weird beast. Your show can have ridiculously high ratings, receive greater critical claim than the Mona Lisa and achieve a cult following not seen since the People's Temple, and the network can still pull the plug on you.

TV Land doesn't work like Reality Land, if the Reality Land is in fact reality and not some bizarre reality land where meat-hungry producers are the gods of fate. TV has a different equation for success.

Here are the ten telltale signs that your new show will spend eternity shining in the pantheon of the cosmos and the rest of its life on Best Buy's DVD shelves.

If we all lived in the box -- you know, the TV box -- life would be a hell of a lot easier. Taxes would be paid with ease. Mortgages would be managed. And even the lowliest job would be more than enough to maintain a respectable lifestyle, one that looks quite comfortable in fact.

Despite the grim economic news we hear every day, the characters on television have been able to survive -- indeed, thrive -- in some of the crappiest jobs in the universe.

An editorial assistant at a fashion mag, like Ugly Betty, finds a way to keep a Manhattan studio apartment, and commute home to Papi in Queens. Running a gym is a breeze for Old Christine, because she doesn't really work. And even without an income, Samantha Who? is never without her Jimmy Choos.

Bromances have been around, well, forever really, but you'd never use the term for say, Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte (48 Hours) or Paul Newman and Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). That just wouldn't be right! And besides that, when do "buddies" turn into "bromantic pals"? Would love to hear your thoughts on that.

At any rate, "bromance" is part of our language now, and it's even the title of an MTV show starring Brody Jenner and his buds.

I'm not ashamed to say I have girl-crushes on a few TV babes (True Blood's Sookie Stackhouse springs to mind), so it's not unfeasible for a guy to have a man-crush on another guy. I don't know if that's true for all these pairings, but since I'm writing this, we'll say it is. Take a look at my top ten bromances on TV right now:

What is cool? Can you define that thing, that quality that makes certain characters seem like they're more with it than everyone around them? Maybe cool is a state of being, not a thing you can pick up by wearing Armani or drinking Grey Goose or driving a BMW.

As I was looking around the current crop of television shows, I found ten characters who seem to capture the essence of cool -- whether they know it or not. After the jump, we count them down.

Is this season of American Idol everything you dreamed it would be? Or are you thinking it's the same-old-same-old we've all seen before? I fall into both camps, so decided to put together my list of ten reasons you should be watching American Idol this season. Feel free to add your own in the comments section!

10. Ryan Seacrest and Girls in Bikinis. Despite all the flak he gets, Ryan is still great with the contestants and either genuinely cares about them or does a good job of pretending he cares. And I thought he handled the awkward kiss from Bikini Girl with as much grace as possible under the circumstances. Did she take her five minutes of fame and make the most of it or what? Hey, use what you've got, right?