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My Own Worst Enemy: The Complete Series
Once upon a time, Christian Slater mattered. In the early 90's, with Pump Up The Volume, Heathers and then True Romance under his belt, he developed a canny knack to channel Jack Nicholson via an angsty zeitgeist that perfectly typified the time to disillusioned grunge-youth.
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Law & Order Special Victims Unit: Season 9
With its portentous opening voiceover and a pre-credit sequence that attempts to squeeze a season worth of information into mere minutes, it would be pointless coming into Law & Order SVU without at least a working knowledge of the characters that have inhabited the previous eight seasons.
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Blue Dragon: Volumes 1 & 2
Blue Dragon, a 51 episode anime, is based on the role-playing game of the same name, although very loosely. The storyline is almost completely different and the character’s roles and relationships have changed.
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The Shield: Season 7
Alternatively subtitled "The Final Act", here we have another significant modern television series seeing out its tenure. Whilst Vic and his minions don't compare entirely favourably to the crew of The Wire, it's a solid programme that will be missed among the slew of pretenders.
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Boston Legal: Season 5
Anyone who has seen one of David E Kelley’s myriad other shows will be familiar with the Boston Legal format, as Mr Michelle Pfeiffer has made a lucrative career out of recycling characters and plots.
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The L Word: Season 5
The penultimate season of the prurient lesbian-themed show here continues apace.
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The Corner
The recent renaissance of The Wire, ironically just as it has ceased its tenure on HBO, is a testament to the fact that quality will eventually out.
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Secret Diary of a Call Girl: Season 2
Belle de Jour: The Diary of a London Call Girl began as an internet blog that exposed the seedier side of the Capital's prostitution clique that allowed readers to attain a prurient distance from the true face of the escort agencies that hold London's hotel nightlife in a seeming stranglehold.
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Midsomer Murders: Series 1 & 2
You would have thought the people of Oxford would have known that when Bergerac turns up on your doorstep (having single-handedly created a crime epidemic on Jersey - an island with a population of little more than 200,000 inhabitants but a seemingly spiraling murder rate) then the death toll of your sleepy village will sky-rocket.
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Sofia's Diary: Series 1 & 2
I guess it would be inevitable over time, but here we have the first internet based "webisode" transmission to make the transition from the laptop screen to the TV screen.
