Unsung and Unseen

Joe and I spent most of the car ride to Jersey discussing television, and last night I saw my first episode of one of the shows he recommended, Boston Legal. Blessedly, it completely lived up to my expectations! I wanted to take everything James Spader said and frame it. And it was good to see Shatner at his bloated best – somehow managing to mix gravitas with outrageousness.

Anyway, I wanted to elicit a few more sterling suggestions for underappreciated TV shows that I should catch up with. I’ll start off with a few of my own.

Boomtown – another show tragically cancelled after just a season and a half. It’s a police procedural set in L.A., but the gimmick is that it shows you one case from several different perspectives. So you don’t get the whole story until you see it from the point of view of the D.A., detectives, beat cops, EMT, etc. More cinematic than your average Law & Order spinoff.

Life – cop goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Twelve years later he gets exonerated and is given a multimillion-dollar settlement. He rejoins the police force that put him away, in part because he wants to go back to being a cop, but also because he wants to find out who framed him. Best part: While in jail, he studied up on zen philosophy, which he now spouts while working cases. His terse, I’ve-got-a-dark-secret female partner treats him like the weird little brother she’s stuck babysitting. And the fact that he’s the weird cop (instead of tough-as-nails or world-weary) is refreshing. Also, the soundtrack is definitely worth downloading.

Burn Notice – Remember before all those Pierce Brosnan-era Bond movies, when spies were fun? So this spy gets mysteriously blacklisted. While he’s trying to figure out who blacklisted (burned) him, he makes money by helping people who’ve somehow gotten on the wrong side of gun-runners/kidnappers/drug dealers/etc. Each ep includes handy spy-on-a-budget instructions on how to, say, make a surveillance device out of a cell phone, or where to shoot the car behind you during a car chase. Best part: It never takes itself too seriously.

Joe, I know you mentioned Jericho and Nowhere Man. (See, I was listening!) Any others to recommend … in the comment box or perhaps a separate post?