There are few dramas that I would consider buying the box set of. The West Wing is one of those.

I may not have watched it, but that doesn't stop me reading about it. I was intrigued by the premise but put off by the camera work.

There are TV shows that have gone on for a lot longer with no resolution and a constantly mundane plot with ridiculous would-never-actually-happen stories...

Coronation Street
Eastenders
Brookside (is that still on?)
Emmerdale
the list goes on...

I really don't see any point in any of them.

I was about to say the exact same thing! The plot has meandered, granted. But there has definitely been one! And more than that lots and lots of detail on sub-plots and characters.

NYPD Blue, 24, Frasier - just 3 shows off the top of my head that have enjoyed longer runs than Lost and remained great for the majority of their tenure.

I'm not arguing Lost was not great. It just didn't grab me like others have done, and I'm not the only one to have been confused by it. Equally, Channel 4 also lost it, and I'd have been sorely put out if I'd been watching the show only for it to up sticks and shift behind the Great Murdoch Paywall.

I like Heroes, but it lost its way in season two. It never really recovered from the writers' strike, and I've not been back since. Frasier was a long-running offshoot of Cheers, and was never more than individual self-contained episodes under a broad banner, which seems to be able to withstand continuous reruns. The West Wing captured my imagination in a way I'd never have thought it could have, because it was character driven with a strong story, spread over the life of two presidential terms.

That bloody writers' strike … I think it did more harm than good. Grrr

Mark

Yeah the strike hit loads of shows in a negative way and actually destroyed several.

Frasier may have been a spin-off, but like Angel it was well written and superlative in many ways to the original. So it counts as a successful good long-runner. Friends can't claim the same thing.

The problem with Lost is for those not watching, you only hear the negatives in the press etc.

The West Wing is undoubtedly one of the best television shows ever made. But the level of investment and degree of immersion is similar to Lost and other cult shows. It still will have confused the hell out of Joe Schmo and especially your average TV watching Brit, with no knowledge of the US or its politics. But it's fashionable to like it, because it makes you look clever. It's just as fashionable to bash Lost...

Heh, I guess.

Then again, I'm not trying to be fashionable. I'm not really bashing Lost, either. Not having watched it, or been able to watch it since it went to Sky, I can only rely on reviewers and other sources to give me a clue what it might have been about. Call me slightly negative if you like.

TWW actually taught me more about US politics than I actually care about. I watched one episode part-way through season five, I think it was, and was hooked. I had to wait for More 4 to rerun the whole thing from the beginning to really understand what was going on!

Heather, I'm not calling you negative. And I know you're intelligent enough to grasp The West Wing. I meant that in "the media" it's fashionable to love The West Wing and bash Lost. This then carries over into the gen pop for the most part. As you haven't seen it you've had to go on that consensus and you have consequently bashed Lost in your initial post without having seen it.

The fact is, both shows require a similar level of commitment to be understood, appreciated and ultimately enjoyed. I knew a little about US politics before I started, but in the end I learnt because I wanted to. Because I wanted to be wrapped up in the show and go along for the ride. Plenty of shows can engage people like that, but few do it with subject matter as diverse as time travel/alternate timelines/universal good evil and love, or US politics. Most rely on the same old week in, week out.

I find it very strange how people can judge on the understanding of a point of view as there will always be another point of view.

It's in our nature to be subjective about everything and it's virtually impossible to be truly objective about anything, that's how. Explain yourself in context though please....

I was only suggesting a poll; I haven't even seen a whole episode of the show! It looked and sounded like b0llocks to me from the start, and even the original channel Four ad was a load of jazz too

This coming from a guy who doesn't like Alias. Your opinion is irrelevant

I said no, but I should have said yes. It was worth it, because I enjoyed almost every episode. However, I feel massively let down by the finale. Really let down to be honest.

I watched the first two seasons and quite enjoyed what I saw, I enjoyed the seemingly random twists and the inexplicable stuff, then I lost it (no pun intended) and then it became a thing I associated with my ex and I haven't got over that enough to be really interested in catching up.