OK... Heroes, BSG, The Dresden Files and Veronica Mars are all over, permanently in the case of Veronica Mars. Blood Ties is on hiatus until later in the year. I'm watching Dr. Who as it airs, of course, is there anything else I should be looking out for?

Someone suggested Painkiller Jane, and I've looked at the episodes they've shown, but haven't been very impressed - looks like a cross between Captain Scarlet and NCIS with vaguely defined "evil mutants" (who mostly seem to be very small scale evil) as the bad guys.

Any other recommendations?

To be perfectly honest, I really don't like much of anything on TV these days. I had been watching "My Name is Earl" during it's first season, but haven't checked it out this season. It is a good show though so I could suggest it. BSG has bored me this season so I haven't really followed it consistantly and "Smallville" just doesn't have the zing it used to, but I still watch it every Thursday (or I did until the end of the season) like a good little rabid fan.

My answer, of course, is boxed DVD sets. My recommendations there would be:

Hogan's Heroes
M*A*S*H
WKRP in Cincinnati
Remington Steele
Hill Street Blues
Third Rock from the Sun
Addams Family
Happy Days

I'm having a second childhood here.

Over the years I've bought plenty of boxed sets (e.g. all of Highlander, Lois and Clark, and West Wing) but if possible I want to see the show first and decide if I like it. For example, I watched Battlestar Galactica and Veronica Mars then bought the DVDs, I probably won't buy Painkiller Jane unless it gets considerably better. Of course if the DVDs are really cheap I'll skip that step - Dead Like Me is a good example there, for some reason it was about half the price of other comparable series, so I bought S1 and liked it enough to buy S2.

Eureka is starting its 2nd season on SciFi soon, and The 4400 is starting it's 4th? SciFi will probably air a Eureka marathon sometime between now and the premiere. I can't think of any other summer shows to recommend.

The shows I won't miss right now are Supernatural, House and Criminal Minds.

I have a ton of DVDs on my must buy list but my budget doesn't run to buying DVDs on spec. I like to make sure I'm not wasting my money and actually like the show, first.

I've been diligently collecting X Files boxed sets over the last few months because Amazon has been selling them fairly cheaply and they're bound to rocket beyond my pocket again soon (Amazon wants around £15 for them, and two other stores want £30 and £50 respectively!).

And, last week, Stuart surprised me by telling me to go ahead and buy the remaining four boxed sets I needed to complete my collection. (I knew there was a reason I keep him around ).

So I've been having a bit of a wallow, there. I still have S7 to get through - which I haven't really seen before, other than in odd bits and pieces here and there, because I'd given up on the show by then, so I'm looking forward to catching up there. (I recently caught up with most of S8 on TV and surprised myself by really enjoying it, sans Mulder and all.)

LabRat

I have to truly love a show (or a movie) before I buy it. So far the only one I've actually purchased is L&C, and in that case it's more as background for the fic. I have seriously considering buying ST:TNG and West Wing, though, and at some point I may actually cave in and do it.

I'll add a ditto to Michael; I don't think there's really anything stellar on these days. I guess I have kind of a hectic schedule <g>, but even so, there is no longer that one show that makes me drop what I'm doing. If anything, I would say some favorites that I try and keep an eye on are NCIS and How I Met Your Mother.

I miss that time when I was a kid when there was at least *one* show each night that was worth watching. Television nowadays is covered with "reality" shows, which is ridiculous in that what's *real* about a group of people trying to survive on some island with a camera crew and a medical team watching them. The moment you get writers, producers and film editors involved reality goes out the window and all we're left with is non-professional actors and bad storylines.

That said, there are a few interesting "reality" shows on cable on occasion. They may even stick to a regular schedule, but in this day and age of channel surfing I only encounter them once in awhile. "Mythbustes" springs to mind.

Well, I just noticed that Eureka S1 and Dexter S1 are coming out on DVD this summer, so I've ordered them - of course I'd watched them as downloads first. I'll certainly be watching Eureka S2. Usually I buy the DVDs because the quality of the boxed sets (and to a lesser extent the extras) is enough improvement to make buying them worthwhile.

The exceptions, as I said, are shows that have turned up cheaply and which others have recommended - for example, one of my friends is a film and TV reviewer for most of the bigger British papers, and I can usually rely on her judgement. Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls fell into that category, the DVDs went on sale just after I'd heard of them. At the moment US DVDs are VERY cheap by British standards, which makes this sort of thing less of a gamble, and if I end up really hating something I'll sell it on eBay.

A really overlooked show I have found is Scrubs. It is hilarious and actually usually has a moral of some sort.

I often time find myself laughing my butt off and then right at the end they sucker punch you with something that actually make you think.

You can catch it in reruns on Comedy Central.

*Major Geek Moment*

I just got the complete Buck Rogers series at Wal-Mart for $19.96! Ahhhh...1980's TV Sci-Fi at it's best.

I'm also quite sad that Heroes is over, and all of my ABC shows (LOST, Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives), but starting next month marks the return of Kyle XY (on ABC Family), starting it's second season. The first season is out on DVD if you're interested in giving it a try. Next month is also the return of The 4400 (on USA Network), it's fourth season, and the previous three seasons are also out on DVD.

I'd recommend those if you like Heroes.

Does anyone watch Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis? They'll both be on for several more weeks... I don't know about anyone else, but I've been hooked for years.

Oh, there are more than a few Stargate fans here on the mbs. For us in the UK, the series ended some time back though. And I have to say that I'd lost interest entirely long before it did. Still a huge fan of 'Classic Gold Team SG1' though (that's seasons 1-8. )

LabRat

I used to watch Stargate SG-1 when it first came out a very long time ago... I stopped watching because either it switched networks or switched times... something along those lines. Just couldn't get back into it.


Does anyone remember Poltergeist: The Legacy?
I used to be obsessed with that show and I found the 1st season on blockbuster.com. Somehow it seems like it's not as good as I remember it being...

I recommend Kyle XY - new season starts next month, I believe.

I do. I enjoyed it, though I'd not have called it great tv. I like the earlier eps better, I think.

When the show Survivor first came out, a friend of mine said that what they needed to do was to drop a group in Northern Canada during the winter and whoever walks out alive is the Survivor. I figure they would lose viewers when the contestants become cannibals

As for shows... There is nothing on at the moment that for me is Must See TV. Sorry I can't be of more help.

ML

Just found a possible recommendation. "Burn Notice" on the USA network. I watched the pilot and thought it was great. It reminded me of those old 80's shows, but with the twist of his trying to find out why he was blacklisted from spying while helping people with their problems. (it actually made me miss "Stingray", anyone remember that show?)

Also Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless were great in their supporting roles. So far 2 thumbs up and I'm definitely back for the next episode.

I saw that too - not sure I'll stick with the series, but I'll definitely check out the next episode.

Looking forward to the second season of Eureka on Scifi. It's a fun show.

Tank (who is just disappointed that the Scifi channel thinks that seasons are only 10 or 11 shows long)

I know what you mean. I dropped out of watching BSG because it was too frustrating to miss a couple of episodes only to tune back in to catch up and find that the season was over and it would be several months before it started up again.