Great Productions: Despondent & Depressing

Dr. Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow) is fresh out of medical college, and fresh out of luck. Failing to read the fine print in his scholarship conditions, he finds he has no choice but to move to the remote and somewhat eccentric town of Cicely, Alaska. Once there, he is welcomed by the peculiar locals who are not keen to see him go, most especially Maurice J. Minnifield (Barry Corbin), the ex-N.A.S.A. astronaut. Despite Joel's adamant denials, one gets the impression that he enjoys life in Cicely more than he admits.

This popular television drama depicted life in a large Los Angeles law firm. The plots were strongly character-based and dealt with the personal lives and professional activities of the partners, associates, and staff. Scenes centered around the courtroom and the law offices. Often, an episode would open with a surprising twist, which would then be played out during the rest of the show.

A news team attempts to create a news show that reports the news in an ethical and reasonable way. They take real, newsworthy events from our world as they're happening (such as bin Laden's justified killing, NSA spying, etc) and report on them as if they were an actual news station that followed rational and moral guidelines, in a biting criticism of our popular press and a clever blurring of art and reality.

On 9/11 firefighter Tommy Gavin lost hundred of friends, including his cousin/best friend Jimmy as well as part of his soul and sanity. Three years later and his life is in shambles and an everyday struggle not to take a drink. Between spying on (& trying to get back with) his separated wife and 3 kids, the growing sexual tension between him and Jimmy's widow, his father and uncle's erratic behavior and the antics of his crew, Tommy's (Irish) anger and need to drink is at a tipping point - and now his survivor's guilt is making him see and talk to dead people, particularly his cousin Jimmy. All these personal demons are threatening what he holds most dear - the inherent courage and pride it means to be a member of the perpetual boy's club of the F.D.N.Y.

Cathy Jamison is a suburban Minneapolis high school teacher, wife and mother with less than a perfect life, despite it perhaps seeming so to much of the outside world. Her life is given a major shock when she is diagnosed with melanoma, the first news of such to her being when it is at advanced stage IV, meaning that she will most likely succumb to it within short order barring some extreme or radical intervention. Cathy goes through a myriad of emotions concerning the diagnosis, including how she will deal with it in relation to family, friends and people close to her in other ways. These people include: Paul Jamison, her college sweetheart husband, who is often just another big kid in their relationship, while Cathy has acted the responsible adult; Adam Jamison, Cathy and Paul's teenaged son who is going through typical issues of being a teenager and only child; Sean Tolkey, Cathy's hyper-environmental anti-establishment brother, who chooses to be homeless to live off the grid and who abhors what he sees as Cathy's bourgeois suburban lifestyle; her students, such as Andrea Jackson, who openly stands her ground on any issue, including her weight problem and her African-American background; and her elderly seemingly crotchety female long-time neighbor, who Cathy has not made the effort to know despite their close proximity for years.

An innovative look at the life of fictional Mafia Capo Tony Soprano, this serial is presented largely first person, but additional perspective is conveyed by the intimate conversations Tony has with his psychotherapist. We see Tony at work, at home, and in therapy. Moments of black comedy intersperse this aggressive, adult drama, with adult language, and extreme violence.

At once deeply observed and intriguingly elusive, The Affair explores the emotional effects of an extramarital relationship. Noah is a New York City schoolteacher and budding novelist with a wife of twenty years and four children. Alison is a young waitress and wife from Montauk at the end of Long Island, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy. The provocative drama unfolds separately from multiple perspectives, using the distinct memory biases of each character to tell the story. Created by Sarah Treem.

Wayne and Dahlia Malloy spent their youth pulling cons with a traveling band of modern Irish travelers roaming about the US. Now years later, Wayne hits a spiritual and midlife crisis and begins to question their lifestyle just as his wife, newly sprung from prison, rejoins the family. They decide to finally settle down in suburbia where they battle to live a normal life while trying to escape their former friends.

A look at a seemingly placid New England town that is actually wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, all told through the lens of Olive, whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but troubled heart and staunch moral center. The story spans 25 years and focuses on Olive's relationships with her husband, Henry, the good-hearted and kindly town pharmacist; their son, Christopher, who resents his mother's approach to parenting; and other members of their community.

Presidential advisers get their personal lives hopelessly tangled up with professional duties as they try to conduct the business of running a country. Fictional Democratic President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet suffers no fools, and that policy alienates many. He and his dedicated staffers struggle to balance the needs of the country with the political realities of Washington, D.C., working through two presidential terms that include countless scandals, threats and political scuffles, as well as the race to succeed Bartlet as the leader of the free world.

The story of the drama surrounding a family's adult siblings.

A family tree with Zeek (Craig T. Nelson) and Camille Braverman (Bonnie Bedelia) serving as the patriarch and matriarch. After forty-six years of marriage, they've managed to keep their foundation intact by burying their problems underneath the surface for the sake of their now-adult children. Adam (Peter Krause) is the first-born and the ripest apple the tree has to offer. He runs a shoe company, has a supportive wife, two children (boy and girl) and a beautiful home to share with them. He's a dog short of "The American Dream". Sarah (Lauren Graham), is the unstable daughter returning home at thirty-eight years of age with her rebellious daughter and sensitive son to live with Zeek and Camille. Crosby (Dax Shepard), is a happy-go-lucky bachelor living in the now, on a docked boat. He has no idea that his frivolous life is about to change tremendously. Then there is Julia (Erika Christensen). She is the bread-winning shot-calling lawyer, whose husband mans the stay-at-home-dad duties. Each family will face their own challenges, but how they propose to deal with them is what will keep them together or tear them apart.

Life after Hurricane Katrina as the residents of New Orleans try to rebuild their lives, their homes, and their unique culture in the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters in the USA.

The professional and personal lives of those who work in advertising on Madison Avenue - self-coined "mad men" - in the 1960s are presented. The stories focus on those at one of the avenue's smaller firms, Sterling Cooper, and its various incarnations over the decade. At the heart of these stories is Donald Draper, the creative genius of the company. That professional creative brilliance belies the fact of a troubled childhood, one that he would rather forget and not let anyone know about except for a select few, but one that shaped who he is as an adult and as an ad man in the need not only to sell products but sell himself to the outside world. His outward confidence also masks many insecurities as evidenced through his many vices, such as excessive smoking, drinking and womanizing - the latter despite being a family man - and how he deals with the aftermath of some of the negative aspects of his life.

A self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work.

Psychiatrist Craig Huffstodt is a good therapist and middle-aged family man. However his own family's private lives are full of crazy stuff in every sense, including a mentally incurable uncle Teddy, who however fascinates Craig's adolescent son Byrd.

The assorted humiliations, disasters and rare triumphs of four very different twenty-something girls: Hannah, an aspiring writer; Marnie, an art gallery assistant and cousins Jessa and Shoshanna.

A drug-addicted nurse struggles to find a balance between the demands of her frenetic job at a New York City hospital and an array of personal dramas.