Ok....
Tracey and I are stay-at-homers, always have been. We took on Breaking Bad well into the 3rd season by downloading and watching EVERY EPISODE over a 3 day (or so) weekend. Nothing beats watching a series that follows a time-line where every episode is a cliff hanger, especially back to back in a mad-marathon where everything is always fresh in your mind.
Working now on Burn Notice catching up quickly - although it really doesn't FORCE a time-line and not the most serious story lines ever, we have watched earlier shows and newer ones WITHOUT missing much. I enjoyed Monk tremendously although the plotline always exposed the killer around minute 12 of the episode (just an observation) as does Psychic - both series had a storyboard that made solving them simple, but still enjoyable.
Still want to catch the Shield but it hasn't worked out so well for us yet - long story.
But, we enjoy serious stories, some sci-fi twists are okay, but no continual lust or love themes (nothing with the name Housewives in it), teen BS or mindless stuff - we enjoy shows that require thinking, learning the characters and honestly awaiting the next show. I've talked many series we've enjoyed: from shows that were thrown off a cliff like Millennium with Lance Hendericksen, now Flash Forward, and then there's the X-Files, to the gut-twisting series like OZ on HBO - likely my favorite series ever, the great Dexter and the first 3 seasons of Weeds - since then, toss it in the trash where it belongs.
I can't name all the great series, the first one I remember enjoying when relatively young was Family with the Oh-so-cute Christie McNicole (replaced in my heart by Ally Sheedy from Wargames) but so much for my youthful crushes.
Of course there was Columbo who ALWAYS showed you WHO did it, but then you watched Columbo figure it out - where Banacheck (sp) showed the crime take place, but it was almost impossible to figure out HOW it actually was done. There was Mission Impossible (I thought much better than Man from Uncle) and lots of great TV through the eighties and nineties although much was comical or at least very light in tone.
Just looking for series that have taken you to placed only books can. Gladly will love to hear about movies you enjoyed that never made it to my screen too.
SO, WHAT SERIES DO YOU SUGGEST and HOW ABOUT MOVIES THAT MAY HAVE NOT MADE A BIG DENT IN THE THEATERS?