The fourty-ninth TV show: #740 Eureka
Eureka has already been on my list of shows to watch, but at the same time I wasn't expecting anything too amazing. This show is listed as a drama rather than a science fiction show, even though geniuses inventing supernatural seeming things tends to fit in with the latter. Even then, it feels more like a comedy/drama, as the tone is usually quite light hearted and the B stories certainly always are. SARAH alone, the AI of Jack Carter's house, is voiced by the actor of another character putting on a feminine voice because Fargo, that character, is the one who installed her. It's a bit cheap, but they stick with it and it feels right all the way through.
Despite the comedy, the (sometimes cheap looking) CGI and many action scenes, the show manages to create a group of characters that form strong bonds and feel incredibly real even when they're doing ridiculous things like chasing invisble cats. You do get attached to them and start to enjoy them.
That made the fourth season even more interesting. Because of time travel shenanigans, they end up in a changed version of their reality, with the five main characters who are aware of the change having changed jobs, gained or lost relationships and with the rest of the actors gaining slightly or greatly different roles. Loads of shows would do this for an episode before going back to the original cast, or would water down the changes and have them settle in soon, but Eureka sticks with it and makes it difficult for the characters. It's that change that seems to define the show, which really made for the sort of change where things made a difference.