Best of the Box

Since the discovery of the new, eh, time shifting capabilities of certain digital TV channels, I've gradually worked my way through various TV series that I otherwise wouldn't have had the attention span to see. Here are my top-5:

1. The West Wing - pure magic, crisp writing, wonderful story lines, and a window into what the world might look like with an educated Renaissance man in the White House instead of the current moron.
2. House MD - proper medical drama, that is a drama about medicine, rather than about relationships between medics. It's said that all real doctors secretly want to be Greg House, a genius that hates patients but loves medicine. Brit comedian Hugh Laurie in his finest role to date. Oh, the put-downs..
3. Scrubs - a somewhat lighter take on the hospital drama. Recent series sprinkled with references to House for the eagle-eyed. Very funny, with the occasional more serious moment. And Dr Cox's put-downs are almost as acerbic as Greg House's..
   
4. Gray's Anatomy - yet another medical drama. A more grown-up version of Scrubs, perhaps. Less medicine, more bonking.
   
5. Boston Legal - has some of the best characters ever in a TV series. The first two series were magic, but later ones are starting to suffer from the Ally McBeal syndrome - it's just getting too weird.
   

Honorary mentions go to The Unit, Spooks and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

On a similar note, got given both series of This Life on DVD for Christmas. It's brilliant. A great snapshot of the hedonistic excesses of the 90s.