I watch a LOT of television, or to be more accurate, I watch an awful lot of television series but I watch them mostly on dvd so I don't catch any of those pesky advert things. Generally I watch the American stuff although I've recently picked up a few more UK series which seem to be adopting the similar production values. I'll watch pretty much anything that doesn't involve members of the public or celebrities, although I tend not to watch sitcoms either at the moment.

Stargate: Atlantis

A spin off series from a spin off series from a film which manages to both be true to the series and be its own thing. And be good. Astounding.

Stargate: Atlantis: Season 1

Atlantis manages to succeed in all the ways SG1 did, while also occasionally falling into the same holes. At it's heart this is an episodic sf series with a group of great characters and an abundance of sarcasm. The plots are usually interesting and fun, occasionally suffering from large holes or hammering home the ''shades of grey'' moral issues a bit much. The arc storylines focus on exploring and setting up the new Atlantis base and the threat from the vampirey Wraith. The former allowed for some budget episodes and the chance to distinguish themselves from the more military feel of SG1. The latter plot was well handled through the first season and made a refreshing change from the complex political situation that the Gould became in SG1.
What sells this series for me though are the great characters and their interactions. Frankly all of the characters are at least faintly annoying, but that only makes them more interesting. The ''snarking'' between characters is hilarious and feels very natural, they feel like real people not just The Doctor, The Soldier. The Jack-Daniel double act is replaced here with Shepherd-McKay, but here the Soldier also happens to be a bit of a geek and The Geek is something of a force of nature. The alien (Teyla) and the sidekick (Ford) get a bit of a slim deal in the first season but they manage to be more than their stereotypes even with only a few lines each episode. Probably the weakest link is Weir who never quite manages to have the gravitas that's required from the leader, always coming across as rather defering and wet.
Atlantis plays to its target audience with the Geeks saving the day half the time and with characters referencing Star Trek and Back to the Future enthusiastically. It's not the best science fiction out there, but it's a very entertaining watch each week.

Special Features: The Region 1 dvd is truly a thing of beauty, from the nice slim line box, to the huge amounts of special features to the great quality video. There are commentaries on about 1/2 the episodes including contributions from all the main actors, the writers, directors and even a couple of SG1 people that seemed to wonder in and feel like chatting. They are all as crazy and dedicated as each other and the commentaries are hilarious and interesting. The featurettes cover the usual stuff like set tours, make-up and behind the scenes on a couple of the episodes. The season 1 review is actually a showcase of everyone messing about and failing to take anything seriously. This show is either amazing fun to work on or everyone is a great actor.

Stargate: Atlantis: Season 2

Season 2 shows a noticable shift in both the plot of the show and the characters, surprising as it's so early in the show's run. From the first episode of the new season Atlantis has regained contact with earth and obtained the marvelous plot device of a space ship with a transporter which is immediately put into use to save the day whenever necessary. I wish they'd actually been out of contact with Earth for longer, to establish both the base and the show as distinct entities. The ability to get help gave the writers the opportunity to become a little lazy at times and the show suffers for it.
The character changes are also a bit strange so early on. While Ford had suffered from poor character development in the first season it seemed a strange choice to just give up on him and start afresh. That said Ronan (and to a certain extent the recurring Major Lorne) made interesting additions, forming relationships a with the other leads a lot faster. Colonel Caldwell also helped to bolster both Weir and Shepherd's characters by giving them someone to play against. Meanwhile making Dr Beckett a regular was certainly well deserved. Of the returning cast a lot more focus seemed to be placed on relationships, both the developing of them and the occasional breaking, a very important element that SG1 didn't always manage to protray - I think the Atlantis characters have probably developed more in 2 seasons than the SG1 team did in 6.
The plots themselves are generally pretty standard sf fair that's been told in half a dozen star trek and sg1 shows before to be honest. Some are rejigged well (e.g. Coup d'Etat and Inferno) and some just get rather sloppy (Epiphany and Trinity for example). But frankly I don't watch the show for innovative plots, I watch it 'cos it's fun and the dialogue makes me laugh. It's got twice as much life in it as SG1 does these days and even poor episodes manage to make me laugh.

Stargate: Atlantis: Season 5

The final series of Atlantis, that trundled on much the same as the previous seasons, with some wonderful character driven episodes, surrounded with some okish un-memorable regular episodes and a couple of action packed set pieces. Atlantis never really seemed to settle in, 3 commanding officers in 5 years and team relationships that never really seemed on solid ground, everyone edging round each other. It never really felt like there was a bond between the characters or much acknowledgement of their shared history - each episode felt a bit like a clean slate. Don't get me wrong, it's an enjoyable show to watch while eating dinner or on a lazy evening, and I'm sorry it's gone. But I don't think I'd ever list it (or SG1) as one of my favourite shows.

Television Series