Many viewers use filesharing to save time, and it's tacitly accepted by some like Jon Stewart. The commercials are removed, and the more appreciative filesharers buy over iTunes or the season DVD. TV studios even use filesharing stats as ratings.
I consider TV a great art medium. It's almost certainly better than before, overall. The Wire was already mentioned...
* The reimagined Battlestar Galactica. Commonly considered the best high-level political drama on TV, and I agree. I recommend starting from the beginning, since the recent transition from 13 to 20 puts strain on show's creators. Check out show's free weekly podcasts; and co-creator's wife who chats on forums is an avowed socialist.
* BBC's fairly recent The Office depicts the soul-crushing life of office workers. Cringe comedy. I haven't seen the American translation, but I heard it's actually very good.
* Entertaining shows with good writers: House, Supernatural, and How I Met Your Mother.
* City of Men was a wonderful show from Brazil, in my view as wonderful as The Wire and The Prisoner. And the upside is it's about innocence, in contrast to the anger and alienation of the other two.
* Brotherhood is centered around a lower-middleclass Irish-American family in Rhode Island. One brother is an ambitious politician; the other an equally ambitious crime figure.
* Lucky Louie is a great comedy. Breaks sitcom conventions.
* Gordon Ramsay is a 19th century capitalist in a 20th century man's body. His reality TV shows are interesting. Particularly the US's "Hell's Kitchen," and the UK's "Kitchen Nightmares". Also, Anthony Bourdain's "Decoding Ferran Adria" is wonderful, and I liked his show "No Reservations." Of course, Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" is almost required reading.
> Then there's the occasional masterpiece like the BBC comedy series
> Black Books. Repeats of which are still showing.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Books
Yeah, I love the show. Always wanted to own a bookstore.
Tayssir