With the new seasons all about to start, I would like to adopt a new drama series or two to follow and am looking for recommendations. Here are some of my favorites from the past:
Hill Street Blues
The Practice (early series)
The West Wing
NYPD Blue
ER (early series)
L.A. Law
Current shows I quite like but am getting tired of:
CSIs except Miami (Caruso can ruin anything). Favorite is NY
Law & Order and L&O SVU (prefer the latter)
So-so: House; Cold Case.
Hated: Gray’s Anatomy (I only watched 2 minutes).
And that’s about it - I have not really tried anything else new. So what do you recommend? I don’t have premium channels, so nothing from HBO etc. please.
Given your parameters, you might like the following:
Criminal Minds
Saving Grace*
In Plain Sight
Life
The Closer
…just off the top of my head. I’ll look through my collection and post more later.
(* Saving Grace has a supernatural element. Don’t know if that’s a turn off for you, but if you can get past that, it’s still a good cop drama.)
There are some good premium channel shows that you can view “on demand” or get on DVD from Netflix (that’s how I watch most of them), so if you get Netflix and want suggestions along those lines, I can recommend a few.
Did you dislike Gray’s Anatomy because of all the sexy silliness? 'Cause that kinda turned me off, too. Buncha girlie girls, blech.
I live for strong female characters who aren’t primarily boy-crazy.
Thanks - that’s interesting - I just spoke to my wife who is away on business and she said she was watching Criminal Minds, which neither of us have seen before, and she was enjoying it. So that looks well worth exploring further.
It may well be.
I do have Netflix and have previously watched (and enjoyed) The Sopranos and Oz. But I now only have the one-at-a-time option and do not want to tie that up with a DVD of TV shows - I prefer to have a movie on hand.
I don’t remember the exact details, but I do recall that the bit I saw was a bunch of young women interacting in a way that turned me off, so I suspect that you nailed the reason.
The only dramas I watch in real time are Breaking Bad and Mad Men on AMC. Not sure when the new season of BB starts – we just saw episode 6 of MM.
I’m seeing good reviews for The Good Wife, a new drama with Julianna Margulies (an ER veteran) whose politician husband (Chris Noth) has publicly confessed to an affair. She’s an attorney, and she goes back to work. The preview makes it look more subtle than might be expected.
I didn’t watch the first season of Fringe but I might start with the new season. There was a long article in this week’s Entertainment Weekly that sorta brought me up to date and it sounds really interesting.
I wouldn’t call Saving Grace supernatural as much as spiritual. I’m definitely agnostic but the spiritual component doesn’t phase me a bit, I even like it.
I also concur on The Closer. I’ve gotten really really tired of police procedurals and don’t really watch them any more, but I watch this, even if it does get on my nerves from time to time.
Rescue Me. I LOVE the first two seasons. After that, it gets more drama-y, but since that’s what you’re after, maybe you’ll actually prefer later seasons. All available on Netflix.
Based on what you said (liked E.R. and L&O, hated Grey’s Anatomy, don’t mind some comedy, a dash of the supernatural is okay if it illuminates a character’s psychology…), you’ll love it. Usually well-written and well-acted. Hope you don’t mind the hypermasculine banter (sometimes misogynistic, homophobic, or borderline racist), though I could see that being a deal-breaker for some viewers.
Watch Mad Men online (every week at a set time, if you must). Nothing else touches it. And the fall drama line-up looks as interesting as it did last year (as in, not).
I struck out on that one - for an odd reason: I couldn’t understand her. The other characters were fine, but whenever she spoke it sounded like her teeth were glued together.