sciencegeek, I agree about the UK shows with "cogent writing that is often witty and tongue in cheek".

Sorry to go off-topic here:

One of my favourite scenes ever is in Death in Paradise where a one-off character is played by one of the regular actors from the long-running TV show Spooks (aka MI5). I don't think it was Keeley Hawes, but it was a blonde female actor whose name escapes me.

In Death in P, they throw in a straight-faced one-liner with the detective saying something like "she would have to work for MI5 to make a shot in the dark like that". It's a UK in-joke about the actor's other work. How the detective kept a straight face saying that line is beyond me, but I'm guessing there were a lot of out-takes because the whole cast and crew would have cracked up laughing.

SRS, Ursula Le Guin's books are fairly short, but the plots and characters are so well thought out, and well written and there are good plot twists. They really are thought provoking but a good read.

One of the books I wrote the dissertation on was The Left Hand of Darkness, and the other one might have been The Dispossessed. (It was a lo-o-ong time ago.) I also loved the children's Earthsea trilogy beginning with The Wizard of Earthsea.

One of my recent discoveries on TV is a US action/crime series called The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah. Each episode is self-contained, the characters are well written and well played, the story lines are excellent and interesting, the actors and acting are excellent. It is on at midnight twice a week and I only discovered it by accident.