Favorite shows

Jav and I have a short list of dramatic TV that we like.  Three shows, and one of them has been cancelled.  The funny thing is, all three started with pretty crazy concepts. 

Life on Mars was about a police detective living in our present time who gets hit by a car while chasing a suspect and wakes up in the 70's.  Every episode he gets little clues about why this might be happening.  It had great acting, pretty realistic story lines, and awesome 70's music (some really deep cuts, some mainstream, but always fitting to the story line).  I can't believe more people didn't watch it and it got sacked.  We still have 3 episodes to go, and are happy that the producers at least saw this coming and wrapped up all the questions in the final episode.  (Which I hear from a little bird is fantastic!)

Saving Grace is about another police detective (this time the miniscule Holly Hunter-in a role so suited for her it's spooky sometimes), who has been living life in the fast lane for long time, and has many demons chasing her around.  So God decides to send her an angel to try and help her see the error of her ways.  Before it's too late.  But this isn't your typical all-white-clad glowing heavenly angel.  His name is Earl, he looks like a truck driver, and he loves to get wonderful things to eat and drink wherever in the world he happens to be visiting.  And he also is starting to admire (and be a bit jealous of?) Grace for her humanity and passion for life.  There's a mystery connection between Grace and a death-row inmate that we are trying to figure out (Earl is also his angel), but the acting, writing and directing is top-notch in this one too.  I especially like the female characters, including Laura San Giacomo as Grace's best (and good-girl Catholic) friend and medical examiner.

But Big Love would have to be my top choice for best drama this year.  We watched the final episode of this season last week, and now have to wait a year and a half (or some ridiculously long time for HBO shows), to continue this saga of a polygamist family living in Utah suburbia.  Who would have thought a show with this subject matter would be the most riveting and suspenseful I've seen in years?  I can't figure out why no cast member as of yet has been nominated for an Emmy, but I better see some names next time.  Everyone on the show is great, but Jeanne Tripplehorn (the First Wife of Bill Paxton) rose above this year, in my opinion.  The episode when she is facing excommunication from the Mormon church after her sister exposes her to the Bishop is still haunting me because of her desperate acting.

You have to look hard, but you can still find some good stuff on TV.  Just not on the major networks.  There they cancel anything good before giving it a real chance.