I picked up the entire series of Carnivale on Amazon for just under $40 last week. The entire friggin' series. (Only two seasons, but still.) Highly recommended!
Though DS9 was mentioned already, I have to put in my two cents for Star Trek: the Next Generation, and probably Voyager as well. I feel as though DS9 eventually got too bogged down with itself, the same affliction I feel dragged down Babylon 5 (unsurprisingly). The premise of the starship-based ones is "let's run into weird shit and see how we react with human grace and superego", as opposed to, "o shit o shit CARDASSIANS". There were so many episodes of TNG that reflected important literary themes like racial prejudice, sexual minorities, political duty, personal honor, parenting and relationship difficulties, identity crisis, etc. Same with Voyager, except weirder, and then they fell into the self-referential trap around Season 5.
In terms of stuff that's currently on, I couldn't tell you. The only thing I watch is Heroes, which only partially fits your bill, and probably not enough.
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Date: 2009-04-07 08:52 pm (UTC)Though DS9 was mentioned already, I have to put in my two cents for Star Trek: the Next Generation, and probably Voyager as well. I feel as though DS9 eventually got too bogged down with itself, the same affliction I feel dragged down Babylon 5 (unsurprisingly). The premise of the starship-based ones is "let's run into weird shit and see how we react with human grace and superego", as opposed to, "o shit o shit CARDASSIANS". There were so many episodes of TNG that reflected important literary themes like racial prejudice, sexual minorities, political duty, personal honor, parenting and relationship difficulties, identity crisis, etc. Same with Voyager, except weirder, and then they fell into the self-referential trap around Season 5.
In terms of stuff that's currently on, I couldn't tell you. The only thing I watch is Heroes, which only partially fits your bill, and probably not enough.