Recommendations

My wonderful wife got me the first two seasons of The West Wing for Christmas, and it was quite a revelation to go back and see how good it was then. I remembered watching the premiere and telling my wife that it was too good to last, but it did. Later on, after Sorkin and Schlamme left, I thought it was too bad to last, but it did. But going back and seeing the first ones I'm amazed at how many things they did - hints, characters neatly introduced to come back and play roles later, lots of stuff I missed the first time around. It's not quite as good as Babylon 5 was at introducing things to play a role later (the kind of stuff you remember and go, "Wow! That's what that meant!") but it certainly was better than most shows.

Speaking of Babylon 5, I finally got the whole set and the movies as well on DVD. This is one of the best TV series ever, in my opinion, and the DVDs give you some extras as well - but I probably would have gotten the set even without the extras.

I know most people already know about this graphic novel - I never claim to be cutting edge - but Watchmen is a classic. If you've never read it, go and do so. It's got a great story, some of the images are unforgettable, and when you go back and read it again you'll find so many things you missed the first time around.