In a year that saw the writers strike bring forth more reality TV than we ever thought possible and reduce quality drama to a war of attrition, the boob tube still managed to deliver quality drama series at an impressive clip.

"Homicide: Life on the Street" is one of the least-watched long-running police dramas that ever aired. It is superior in every way to its contemporaries "Law & Order" and "NYPD Blue" and the modern "CSI". Picking up the mantle of realism left bare by the departure of "Hill Street Blues", "Homicide" detailed the everyday happenings in Baltimore's Homicide Division.

In the first true blow-away episode of its final season, "The Wire" examined a group ignored heretofore by the show and currently by the media: the government and simple everyday people.