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Television has long had the stigma of turning us all into indolent, stupid vegetables content to slump on the sofa and have entertainment spoon fed to us, opinions made for us and advice about what to buy given to us. Before television, we once had a life.

I, for one, don't watch a lot of television. Never have. I am, however, much more likely to turn it on now than at any other time that I can remember. There are so many quality productions being churned out at an incredible rate that there are more shows to tempt and more interest to be made and held. There has always been a huge amount more dross on TV than quality, but it seems to me of late that the quality to noise ratio has improved dramatically.

My prime candidate as evidence for this has now run its course (I believe it will continue playing repeats until the day I die), but THE WEST WING was the most challenging drama ever put on television. It tackled subjects big and small, simple and impossibly complex, global concerns and intimate issues all at its own high pace and with no thought to those who couldn't keep up. This was television to make you think and that is why it has commanded such respect from around the world. It helped make politics a bit more sexy and made us all uncomfortably aware of how our real leaders didn't match up to those on screen. Since then, the Geena Davis vehicle COMMANDER IN CHIEF has attempted to carry on the tradition.

Once, a cop show was a cop show was a cop show, but there are now a whole plethora of crime and detection series that not only show the reality of life in the modern world, but bring it vividly to life and show that the moral issues affecting those who dispense justice on our behalf should be issues that we are thinking about in our daily lives.

One of the shows recently singled out for extreme praise, to the point of being one of the few science fiction shows ever to be variously regarded as the best show on TV regardless of genre, is BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. With its gritty storylines reflecting the situation in Iraq and the so-called war on terror, it provides both entertainment and a new slant on the big questions that are all part of our daily lives now. How far would we all go to survive? To protect our rights? These concerns are reflected in the post-apocalyptic JERICHO.

Quality like this cannot be denied and there seems to be more quality drama around than ever before. As for it taking away our lives, the time I have spent debating some of these shows with my friends has made my life more social than it has ever been.

Learn more about this author, Darren Humphries.
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