TV Shows That Work Well Without Commercials
The following list is a personal one of TV shows that work particularly well without the interruption of commercials.
Favorite TV Shows Originally Produced With Commercials
Boomtown
- Developed by Graham Yost, son of Elwy Yost, who hosted Saturday Night at the Movies (in Ontario) for decades, this show is an
LA police show. Yawn, you might think, but the twist here is the show shifts perspective from character to character like
a Kurasowa movies.
Due South
- A quirky Canadian show about an innocent Mountie, his deaf but lip reading wolf Diefenbaker, a rule breaking Chicago detective, and a dead father
who keeps giving advice the the hero, played by Paul Gross. Amusing, shamelessly targeted at the US market and camp.
Firefly
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer was one of the most creative TV shows of all time. Angel was the series spun out of it.
Firefly came next. Space opera combined with cowboy style action.
Unfortunately it died after one season. There was a movie, Serenity, that summarized the series. Classic cult sci-fi.
House
- Think of House as Sherlock Homes does medicine. Hugh Laurie who plays House previously played the English twit, Bertie Wooster
in the marvellous series Jeeves. Much better without the interruption of commercials.
MI5 (known as Spooks in the UK)
- Think of MI5 as 24 hours done with English style and perspective. Fast paced intelligent plots that consider moral and ethical issues,
it's highly addictive. And the writers keep killing off your favorite characters. Think of this as fast John LeCarre done for television.
Miami Vice
- Although the cell phones are as big as bricks, the show stands up surprisingly well.
Monk
- While the plots may be simpled minded and the murderer is often telegraphed, Tony Shaloub is marvellous in this role. Though from time
to time, I find myself tearing my hair out at his many neuroses.
Prime Suspect
- The show that made Helen Mirren a household name. Gritty UK police drama with our heroine facing sexism in the police force.
Slings and Arrows
- A charming, funny and almost unknown series about a Shakespeare festival. It's marvellous and if you get your teenagers to watch it, they
will accidentally learn a huge amount about Shakespeare. Strangely, Paul Gross who plays the somewhat mentally unbalanced artistic
director is haunted by the previous artistic director, as he was by his father in Due South. Nonetheless, this series is a winner.
Studio 60 Sunset Strip
- I am a huge fan of Aaron Sorkin. I think the problem with this series is that making a comedy show is intrinsically less interesting and
relevant than making a show about the Presidency as he did in The West Wing. Great TV that got killed too early.
The Prisoner
- The classic and beautiful TV show from the 1960s, a project of Patrick McGoohan, who had previously starred in Secret Agent. It seems
more relevant in its themes today - Big Brother, people being locked up in camps for extended periods of time, paranoia, issues of identity.
If you haven't seen it, do.
The West Wing
- I always resisted watching the show on regular TV. But on DVD it's a winner. It flows wonderfully and the great acting and dialogue shine.
What is amazing about this show is that it is enthralling, well written, considered and deals with important issues in American society
without being preachy. It's great education that entertains while it teaches about American politics.
Favorite TV Shows Produced Without Commercials
Carnevale
- A strange and bizarre show. Great first season.
Dead Like Me
- Our heroine is killed by a toilet seat that falls out of the sky from a space station. She is enlisted as a Grim Reaper, whose job it is to find
people just as they die and free their souls from their body. It's quirky and amusing. Much liked by teenagers, who appreciate the growing up
pains of our heroine as she struggles with her identity and her relationship to her parents whom she can observe as a Reaper.
Entourage
- Not HBO's best, but amusing and of high quality. Can't comment on Season 2.
Sex in the City
- For a while it was hard to have a girlfriend whose schedule was not determined by when Sex in the City was on. But fortunately it's now late in
product life cycle and in syndication. And you can get it on DVD. It clearly spawned ABC's entire strategy of developing programming for women
(Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, Men in Trees, etc.)
Six Feet Under
- This may have the most expensive TV of all time, at least for me personally. I think I took off about two weeks to watch all seven seasons.
The early seasons are the best, unfortunately, it is so well plotted, you will get addicted. The series is about a family that owns a funeral home.
And their relationships make soap opera plots look straightforward. You know things are confusing when the gay son has the traditional marriage
in the family.
The Sopranos
- A marvellous series with the wonderful twist that the main protagonist, Tony Soprano, heads up a crime family and goes to see a psychiatrist
to deal with anxiety problems; this twist provides a wonderful mirror on his life, and symbolically on American society. Its brilliance is that the plot
alternates between family problems and the "business problems" of running the New Jersey mafia. Selfishness is portrayed as well
as one could imagine.
The Wire
- Some critics have called this the best show on TV today. It addresses issues that are rarely tackled on American television - Baltimore, the inner city, drugs
and drug policy, politics and corruption. Sometimes heartbraking, sometimes a Greek tragedy, it's always compelling, well written and well acted.