In 2002-2003, Jodi and I got seriously hooked on an intelligently-written and smartly-directed crime drama on NBC called Boomtown. Somehow, aliens managed to abduct the people at NBC smart enough to air this amazing bit of cinema, b/c the show was unceremoniously bludgeoned to death after 1 season and 4 episodes.

Luckily, the network managed to get a boxed DVD set of the first season out with uncharacteristic speed, and we recently acquired the coveted collection thanks to birthday money from my brother Bob and his wife, Suzy (you guys are the bomb).

We fired up the first episode last night with a bit of trepidation, hoping that our fond memories of the show would not be dashed by a poorer reality. Thankfully, the pilot was as powerful on repeated viewings as we remembered. The writing on the show, by Gary Yost ("Band of Brothers", also starring Donnie Wahlberg and Neal McDonough), is superb. Especially good are the episodes Fearless and Blackout. Sure, certain episodes are not as powerful as others, but overall the show was simply amazing.

I hope somewhere the aliens are planning on returning their NBC abductees, craniums intact. They can have the ones they left behind last time, though.