Leverage is a heist show, right? I've not seen it, but if it is, then I'd argue it's a procedural. Saving Grace is about a cop, procedural. Damages, also procedural. Hmm. Yes, they're on expanded basic cable, but that distinction is starting to matter less and less. Wasn't someone saying just the other day that she discontinued paying for cable and watches everything on her computer? I think it was beej in procedurals. Anyway. Food for thought.

The way we've traditionally defined procedurals, though, isn't just that there's cops or that there's a mystery someone's trying to solve. It has more to do with the episode structure, opening up a new mystery more or less every ep and wrapping it up at the end of the hour.

Leverage straddles that line. Saving Grace doesn't seem like it fits, but I don't watch so I could be wrong. I wouldn't put Damages in that category at all. Closer, Monk, Psych, like Leverage, could easily go in either thread, and will likely pop up from time to time in both (as well as Natter).

I'd argue against Leverage being a procedural. As for Saving Grace, it's a pretty awful example of the genre--their mysteries, when they have them, are weak as all hell. And we could fit it into Boxed Set too, couldn't we?

But what you're doing, JC, is ranking the Procedural thread over the Cable Drama thread, and that's subjective--I rank Boxed Set first, so supernatural procedurals fit very nicely there for me.

Leverage and Damages have no weekly mysteries to solve in the hour--problems, for Leverage, and nothing of the sort for Damages.

I'd add that part of the reason for separating out Cable Drama is to leave the Procedurals thread safer territory for people who don't have cable or prefer to wait for DVD. So there's that.

Overall, though, while I like making it easier to find where a show has landed, they're going to land one by one where they seem to fit for the people in those threads. I don't think we need a hard and fast rule here.

The current header for Procedurals says it's for shows where the primary objective is to figure out the case. Unless that is changed, I'd say it doesn't fit Leverage.

I have no idea what goes on in an episode of In Plain Sight, but I've developed a wee crush on Fred Weller (who's Paul Weller's cousin, and I can totally see the resemblance) from two disparate L&O:CI appearances--in one he plays a not too bright horse trainer, and in the other a severely entitled multi-millionaire.

Anyone watch the show? Worth pursuing a crush to watch it?

God, Leverage can't come back soon enough, and Life and T:SCC cannot be cancelled. The Mentalist and Grey's Anatomy are not going get me through the nights.

Cable Drama is all about it being CABLE drama of any stripe. IOW, not network television.

Mad Men also gets a good amount of discussion in here when it is airing.

Cable Drama has different seasons than network.

I really like In Plain Sight, ita. The characters...all of them, are multidimensional and compelling. I really like the writing.

Fred Weller is a joy to watch. And Leslie Ann Warren is both gorgeous and transfixing in a...how can she be so beautiful and yet so incredibly vexing...sort of way. You really feel what the characters are about.