Boomtown was on hiatus for much of the winter when NBC ran the miniseries Kingpin. We just had two new episodes.

For all its alleged innovativeness, it can be a really hacky show.

Yeah, this is true. But I find when the hackiness gets too high, the acting and the relationships between the characters pull me through. And god knows there's not a lot of competition on TV these days for programs that actually require a little thought.

Oh yeah, I still like it. It's just that when it started we got this whole orgy of hyperbole about how it was the most innovative and brilliant TV show ever.

Cereal: Australian TV critics are strange. There seems to be a comfortable consensus that US TV is a priori not as good as British TV (which is quite wrong), but there are also a handful of US series that are routinely overpraised here: The West Wing, Frasier, Six Feet Under (well, that one's routinely overpraised everywhere, but you get the picture). Even The Practice was still getting good reviews here years after it had been consigned to joke status in the US.

In all honesty, I find Boomtown dull. Sure, it is taking a different look at how cop shows are structured but ultimately, it's still full of cliches and the same old same old.

I am looking forward to seeing The Shield, however.

I keep forgetting about The Shield, and now I'm so far behind I don't think I could understand the plot.

As for Boomtown, I'm like Dana, it's about the characters. David McNorris, Ray, and Joel are my favorite characters, especially Ray.

In fact, I think that in terms of character The Shield is the opposite for me - - I don't really like any of the characters whereas I have characters that I like as well as ones that I find creepy on Boomtown.

Fearless kept having hallucinations of this friend whose life he'd failed to save in (I presume) the Gulf War (the first one, obv.), who kept popping up to remind him that life was worth living, never put off until tomorrow what you can do today, etc. etc.

Yeah, I didn't really care for that one either. I know when Law and Order first started they tried to encorporate a lot of the character's home lives/personalities into the stories but found it didn't work. Hopefully Graham Yost will realize that most people are interested in the "cop" aspect, not the "cop at home" storylines.

from the article:

Of this year's crop, Good Morning, Miami, a comedy from the creators of Will & Grace, and Fastlane, a pacy drama about two undercover LA cops, are attracting most interest from UK buyers.

You guys are getting our crap shows too??

You guys are getting our crap shows too??

As if we didn't have enough of our own.