My Current Television Viewing (and how it all goes back to Buffy)

[butterfly]

So, I was thinking about all the television that I've currently watching and about how I'm looking for different things from all the different shows. And it made me remember how I felt when I was mostly just watching Buffy. Everything that I needed in a television show, I found in Buffy. I haven't found another show like that, so I watch many just to get the same feeling.

There are shows that I watch for the ensemble 'buzz', where there's a cast of characters who care and support each other, which include Numb3rs (with bonus Dana and Mr. Universe), Bones (with bonus Angel), the Stargates, and now Psych. House, Boston Legal, and Psych provide witty dialogue for me to enjoy. Torchwood, Prison Break, Supernatural, and Battlestar Galactica all give me that sense of epic horror pushing people towards and apart from each other. Smallville has a superhero learning how to grow up and place his powers in perspective with his life. And Doctor Who and Smallville both had/have a strong female character who is unashamed of both her strength and her femininity (I have to say that if SV didn't have Lois Lane then I probably wouldn't have picked it up again).

All of these elements that I now find (mostly) in completely separate shows were things that I could find in just one show. It's rather impressive how many shows it takes to cover the gap left by Buffy's absence.