OT Best NON-Scifi Series Ever?

[dogscoff]

OK, we've got yet another trek is better than farscape is better than bab5 is better than trek thread going on over there, but what about non-scifi? Anyone ever watch any of that?

So come on, drama, sitcoms, soaps... anything with regular characters and some kind of story, past and present. Let's hear it...

Here's some stuff that springs into my mind:

-American gothic. I believe they cut it dead at the end of the first series but that first series was utterly awesome. The way sherriff Buck manipulated people- for me he is about the most sinister character in anything I have ever read, watched or heard. The blurred boundaries between good and evil, the creepily undefined supernatural stuff ... breathtaking. I loved that series.

-Spaced. Cult, late-night comedy series about a bunch of wierdos in London. Laugh? I nearly shat myself when I first saw the one with the imaginary gunfights.

-Black books. Strange, dark, strange comedy about a bunch of misfits in a bookshop. Again, late-night channel4 stuff. If you live somewhere where they don't show it (ie anywhere but here in the UK) then i pity you.

-The Young Ones. Four incredibly violent and stupid students sharing a house in the 80s with anarchic action to make the Cantina look like a tea-room. Vyvian has been my role-model since I was about 15.

-The Sopranos. It's got good plot, good characters and the whole thing is frighteningly convincing. It is pervaded by a kind of dark humour that makes you shiver rather than laugh.