BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ.
The Robert Altman episodes of COMBAT! are superb (too superb as a matter of fact since he was fired for being too good). His last episode "Survival" is an extraordinary piece of work.
Also, many episodes Joseph H. Lewis' television work (especially THE RIFLEMAN), are full of complex visual pleasure. Also notable is the television work (like Lewis mostly in the Western genre) of Sam Fuller and Sam Peckinpah. John Cassavetes also did some fine work.
I find most television visually execrable, so I am often at a loss to understand what people are responding to. The stories? The writing? The performances? Is there some type of identification thing going on?
The editing and framing on the episode I watched last night were bad. There was neither rhythm nor visual logic present in the editing, and the framing was absurd. Chase has no sense of visual space or its articulation.
Maybe the visual doesn't count for anything in television, but if it doesn't, then what does?
Brian