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There is excellent, entertaining drama and comedy on TV right now. On Dexter , the combination of Michael C. Hall as the avenging serial killer and John Lithgow as the Trinity Killer is outstanding.

There's Mad Men , slowly drawing together the strands of this season. Even Flash Forward , which seemed to stall, has moved into another gear, intensifying the mystery of the show. There have been several superb set-pieces. In comedy, Modern Family (ABC, 9 p.m., CITY-TV, 10 p.m.) and Community (Thursday at 8 p.m. on NBC) are first-rate. Both are droll, clever and tease the comedy from true absurdity, never going for the cheap laugh.

And then, as many of you complain, there's an awful lot of reality TV. There is a tendency to dismiss it as one big mess of garbage. It isn't.

Reality TV has all sorts of sub-genres. There is the hellish train wreck that developed from Jon & Kate Plus 8 . (By the way, it seems this column was the first to suggest an inevitable new reality series featuring Jon Gosselin and Octomom. Last week , the idea took flight, briefly. You can't make up this stuff, literally, because somebody takes your joke and makes it into a show.) There are other examples of awfulness, too.

And yet, a case can be made – and has to be made, regularly – for the pleasure and benefits of watching certain reality TV series. Battle of the Blades is reality TV. A lot of Canadians love it. They are gripped by the sheer unadulterated, corny Canadian-ness of it. Me, I can't stand it. I think Battle of the Blades represents what we are. But So You Think You Can Dance Canada represents what we aspire to be. Good luck to you if you like Battle , though, I don't begrudge you a minute of pleasure or begrudge CBC its success with it.

The most interesting subgenre of reality TV, mind you, is the fly-on-the-wall series that documents areas of life we wouldn't normally consider worthy of attention or interesting. It has to be pointed out, I think, that a good deal of the genre which documents ordinary life is anchored in Britain, where the BBC saw as its mandate a representation of all aspects of life. People who lived in cities saw the farm-life documented, for instance.

Now I'm not saying all fly-on-the-way reality TV is worthy or represents the best of the medium. I'm just saying here that sometimes one is gripped by the glance into places one never knew anything about. There have been times when I've watched Say Yes to the Dress (TLC, 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.), gripped by what I'm seeing. The show follows customers and staff at Kleinfeld Bridal in Manhattan. Women arrive to buy their wedding dress. The sales associates, managers and alteration staff endeavour to satisfy them and sell them the most suitable ensemble.

Sounds ridiculous on paper, but it's strangely compelling. There are the young women who are overwhelmed. There are the women who have been married before and offer a history of their tangled love lives. And then there are families, who wait and wait and pass judgment on the possible bridal gowns. Family feuds erupt, hostilities come to the surface. A fraught mother-and-daughter relationship becomes all too clear. It's a snapshot of the ordinary lives of all sorts of people. Oh sure, often you can spend your time sneering at the appalling taste of some brides-to-be. But you're also getting a vital insight into economics, family dynamics and even the nature of love itself.

Some people feel the same about Cake Boss , a hit reality show on TLC (tonight at 8). It's about Carlo's Bakery in Hoboken, N.J., and the “cake artists” who work there. It's a show about food, family and keeping the customer happy. And there are times when even ABC's Wife Swap became outstanding pop-anthropology. That show transcended its roots as a gimmicky reality series and offered sharp insight into the various Americas that co-exist. Truth is, there is much to be gleaned from the vastly different world we see on various reality TV series.

Fictional drama and comedy thrive, but you can find authentic drama and comedy in some those reality TV genres too. Just watch.

Check local listings.

Also airing Wednesday night:

Bill Cosby: The Mark Twain Prize 2009 (PBS, 8 p.m.) is what it promises. Cosby gets the Mark Twain award for humour. Taped at the Kennedy Center in Washington, just days ago, the special features tributes and comic testimonials from Cosby's friends and colleagues including Carl Reiner, Chris Rock, Dick Gregory, James DePreist, Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Heath, Len Chandler, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Phylicia Rashad, Rita Moreno, Sinbad, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis. And yes, there are many clips of Cosby doing his thing, on stage, on TV and in film.

Hunting the Last Hamilton Tiger (Documentary Channel, 8 p.m.) is a lovely little documentary about a mostly forgotten part of the history of Canadian sport. I did not know that in 1925, the Hamilton Tigers were in first place in the NHL, but just before the playoffs, the players went on strike. A year later, the team was sold and moved to New York. This program, made by David Wesley, is about the search for a Hamilton Tigers NHL sweater, considered one of the great finds in sports memorabilia. It's about obsession, about Hamilton, Ont., and about hockey.

J.D.