The greatness of this show is elusive until you've seen the whole season. The writing is complex and rewards the attentive audience. Each season is better than the last. The show was created and largely written by David Simon whose journalism was the basis for the earlier Baltimore crime drama Homicide. David plans to create a series about jazz musicians in New Orleans next.

If you think NX was just a fish-out-of-water comedy about a New Yorker in Alaska, you missed the real soul of the show. It's an intellectual and spiritual tour de force masquerading as a novelty show about a quirky town. The show was created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey of St. Elsewhere fame. NX's team of producers and writers lead by David Chase went on to work on The Sopranos.

The Shield is a dark police drama about Vic Mackey, a semi-corrupt detective who leads the Strike Team in Los Angeles. His angels and demons are at war with each other, and the outcome is never certain. Creator and showrunner Shawn Ryan uses the souls and streets of our violent world as a canvas to explore the big questions while lighting fires in our minds as no show has ever done before.

Twin Peaks changed the television landscape permanently. For all its flaws and weak points, its strong points and powerful visions remain unparalleled by any other work of art. David Lynch is the ultimate American auteur and Hollywood renegade. He is known for films such as Eraserhead, Mullholland Drive, and most recently, Inland Empire.

The power of seasons 1-4 (the Sorkin years) is not in its politics or even the issues it deals with, but in the beauty of the dialogue. The love of language is matched only by the love of the American democratic process--they are the true stars of this series. Aaron Sorkin wrote a play that later became the movie A Few Good Men. Sorkin also worked on the ill-fated Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Joss Whedon and Tim Minear were only allowed one season of brilliance before this show was misguidedly cancelled executives who had no business tampering with the work of true storytellers. The follow-up movie Serenity has received mixed reviews. I enjoyed it, but not as much as any of the episodes.

Life and death, beauty and absurdity. What else is there?