In case anyone's interested I've found two:
1) Carnivàle. Don't let the pseudo-French name fool you (and no, I've no idea why they chose it). This is your classic good-vs.-evil show, set in the dust bowl post-Depression and pre-World War II. Our candidates for Child of God and Spawn of the Devil: a taciturn escaped convict, holing up with the traveling show of the title, who seems to be able to heal a whole slew of ailments, including death; and a devout minister who seems to sincerely want to help the poor, but lusts after his sister and causes poor people to cough up coins. Guess who's who? (Although, you know, if I were dirt-poor, I don't think I'd mind regurgitating a little cash once in a while.)
It all sounds rather clichéd and unoriginal when written out like that, but it's not. The atmosphere is quiet, but weird; the characters are intriguingly off-kilter; and the acting is fabulous. It's also worth mentioning that Adrienne Barbeau looks really, really good.
2) Weeds. A young widow in a wealthy suburban town has turned to selling marijuana to pay the bills. This one got good ratings on Amazon, but I wasn't sure how they'd pull it off in any credible way. But they do. It's crisp and funny; and although I've no idea if this is how the pot trade really works, I buy how it's set up. Mary-Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins are just two of a really, really talented cast. Made me laugh AND cry, all in nicely-paced little half-hour episodes.
Weeds I may just up and buy; Amazon has it for less than $30. Carnivàle, being an hour-long show, is pricier. Of course, Amazon is having a TV sale right now, so it might be worth coughing up the bucks. Hm...
And while I'm on the subject of TV, an old one: Inferno, an episode of Doctor Who that originally aired in 1970. I remember it as my first episode of the show, which I'd have seen around 1973 (I think US public TV got the rights to it around that time).
A quick plot summary: The Doctor is "consulting" on a power project - drilling through the earth's crust to tap gas for energy - where a number of people start turning green, going nuts, and dropping dead. The Doctor, being somewhat single-minded about some things, is spending most of his time trying to fix his crippled TARDIS, ends up slipping sideways into an alternate universe where the drilling project is much further advanced, and things have gone much more badly wrong. Oh, and they're also all fascists.
It actually holds up remarkably well. The special effects are dated, of course - not that they put that much money into them at any time - but there aren't many used in this episode. It appears to have been filmed on a warehouse lot somewhere, which accentuates the atmosphere perfectly. Our usual cast gets to play against type a bit - Nicholas Courtney, in particular, gets to play a power-hungry Brigadier who has a breakdown to which our universe's stiff-upper-lipped officer would never succumb. But in addition to that, it works as a creepy psychological drama. From the arrogant, doomed - in both universes - Professor Stahlman, to the alternate Liz Shaw, watching the world come to an end around her, the characters still draw me in.
It was released on DVD on September 5, and I'd been waiting a long time. I still have my VHS tapes; but as with all of Doctor Who on VHS, the quality was spotty (something about converting PAL to NTSC). This is not only a lovely transfer, but it has subtitles - critical in a household where the TV has to be quiet after 8:00!