I’m a huge fan of great movies, but recently I’ve found myself almost completely ignoring all those DVD movies I have in my book shelf. Yet, I’ve been spending more time in front of the screen than before. I also rarely buy new movies these days - only the new and really amazingly great movies get me to fork over some of that hard earned cash.

The reason for this is that there’s so much good TV out there these days. The American networks are poring more and more money into producing quality TV-shows. Some TV-shows have such huge budgets that the production quality and the quality of the actors rival that which you find in great Hollywood blockbusters. This also means that more money is invested in writing good scripts too. TV is getting better and better because of this.

This has had an affect on the other side of the coin as well. The bad shows with poor production quality, mediocre actors and poor scripts are getting even worse. Probably because there’s less money left for them. That’s great - maybe we’ll see the end of all these recent TV-shows made possible only because advances in technology have lowered the cost of producing pictures/effects of decent quality (but not, of course, enabled better script-writing).

A good TV-series is like a very, very long book that keeps you turning page after page until you absolutely must do something else, or wait for the sequel. You get to know the characters much better in a TV-series than in a movie, and there’s room for a much more complex plot and longer story time-line. Of course, one shouldn’t stop reading books - as they are much better for stimulating your own imagination.

Here’s a list of my favorite TV-shows (that I either watch regularly, or have watched regularly, or plan to start watching soon):

• Stargate SG-1
• Stargate Atlantis
• Smallville
• Criminal Minds
• Alias
• Firefly (cancelled too soon)
• Battlestar Galactica
• 24
• Lost Season 1 (they lost me halfway through season two)
• 30 Rock
• Heroes
• Saturday Night Live
• The Simpsons
• Prison Break
• Point Pleasant (prematurely canceled)
• Revelations
• Friends
• Seinfeld
• Myth Busters

I may have left out a few, as there are quite a few shows on that list… Feel free to recommend other TV-shows.

Now where’s that…? Ah, there. PLAY!

Popularity: 31% [?]