Agreed. I'm not much of a TV person, but I'll watch West Wing all day long... it's the whole package, the writing, the acting, the production, etc. They got it right.
I haven't been able to really get into NCIS, though I'll watch it if it's on. I'm odd about TV - if the dialogue doesn't hit my ear just right, the illusion is utterly shattered and I can't focus on what's going on. That's not a dig at NCIS, btw - NCIS doesn't do that to me. But that is why I don't have many shows on my "must watch" list... West Wing, RTD-era Doctor Who (I'll watch now and enjoy it very much if Neil Gaiman did the script, and Mark Gatiss' stuff is usually pretty good dialogue wise, even if his plots can be a little thin. Moffat did great under RTD and is *godawful* without him, dialogue wise.) I'm a big Torchwood fan too, of course. Law and Order:UK is masterful, although I miss Ben Daniels, Jamie Bamber and Freema Agyeman terribly.... the actual writing still holds up. Broadchurch was a tour de force... since you like crime/mystery shows, check that out if you can - it's an eight part UK series that ran on BBC America, but you can find it online - David Tennant plays the lead detective. The screenplay was done by Chris Chibnall, of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and Law and Order:UK. Fox picked it up and is doing an "American" version, and they just cast Tennant, so I'll watch that too, but I suspect that, as with most "American" adaptations of British TV, the UK version will remain superior.) But that's pretty much my list of "must watch" tv.... West Wing, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Law and Order:UK and Broadchurch. Oh, and Downton Abbey, I confess.
Michael J. Fox's new sitcom is good, too. I, of course, have a vested interest in the idea of disabled characters played by actual disabled actors, which happens almost never... don't get me wrong, Daniel Day Lewis was great in My Left Foot and I loved Hugh Laurie in House, but if they put a white actor in blackface, the world is rightfully outraged... disabled characters played by ablebodied actors is the last place in TV where no one even *questions* whether they might, you know, hire an actor who actually deals with the disability the character is supposed to have. In the rare instance there's a disabled character played by a disabled actor, the difference *always* shows in the writing (see: anything with Marlee Matlin or Robert David Hall, who are, along with Fox, about the only disabled actors who can find any kind of regular work. It ain't cause gimps/Deaf folks/blind folks can't act! (/rant)
I haven't seen Leverage yet, but you're not the first person to tell me it's worth a watch, so maybe I'll try that.
Just bought tickets for the Doctor Who theater showing... or rather, I was going to, and was informed by my mother that I already have some coming to me... so at this point, I have *utterly* ruined any birthday surprises. Oh well. Seeing Tennant on the big screen is likely to be the closest I'll get to seeing him do theatre, so hopefully the massive screen and surround sound will be enough distraction from the fact that Moffat is a hack. (I am deeply bitter about Stephen Moffat. I was excited when he took over, and then he decided that ridiculously convoluted plots, no respect whatsoever for continuity, and scenery chewing dialogue were the order of the day.... ugh. RTD was far from perfect, but his writing was always comfortable to listen to and believably put. Any latter-day Who fans out there should read The Writer's Tale, a book of emails between him and one of the writers for Doctor Who magazine. They email from about midway through Season 3 all the way through to the end of S3 Torchwood, and it really shows how much work RTD put into every word sounding realistic and genuine. He didn't get it right on the first try, but he knew where it felt wrong, and he usually fixed it. When he didn't, he knew where the huge handwaves were, and he knew that they *were* handwaves (The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, I'm looking at you!) Moffat seems to believe that handwaves are the entire order of the day, and that "Because I say so" is the only reason necessary for a patently ridiculous plot point. (Weeping Angels don't kill you, they just zap you back in time. Except when they kill you, except when they don't, except when they do. Whatever bad thing they do happens as soon as they touch you, except when it doesn't, except when it does, oh shut up audience, Uncle Steve is talking... out his you know what.)
Apparently I'm ranty today, sorry.
Back on topic - rebuilt a coil today, kind of by accident. I'm out of spare premade coils for my AROs and trying to wait till Black Friday to grab some more, so I pulled them all apart for an overnight soak, and when I went to reassemble them this morning, I realized that in pulling the post off, I'd accidentally snapped the coil on one... nothing to lose, so I attempted to redo it. Efforts successful, although that's *way* too small of a work area for me to do that on a regular basis! So, time to try it on some actual rebuildables, I spose.
