>Sopranos, Deadwood, Rome, The Sheild, Rescue Me, BSG ( and of course, Buffy ) - so many good examples as to why TV is better than movies ever were or ever could be. A writer's medium with room for story and dialogue and foreshadowing and subtlety. Characters have time to change...

This is only a recent phenomenon. TV networks have been deathly afraid of offending the public, and more importantly the advertisers. Movie studios imagined themselves to be in the realm of art and were and are probably on average willing to take more risks.

That said, there is a strong and easy to make case that were in the golden age of television as far as writing goes.