Am I the only one not really 'wowed' by these? Take Arrested Development, one of the most acclaimed of this breed and host to a dedicated cult following. I have seen one whole episode and several snippets of others. I got the jokes and they are funny; I even chuckled a couple of times but there weren't any full belly laughs. Most of the time the characters' foibles and idiocies that the show focuses on were more irritating than comical. It left me with no hook, no itch to wait for next week's episode

Or Malcolm in the Middle, an earlier entry in this format. I watched for most of the first season and trailed off, forgetting about it until I saw a current episode a couple of weeks ago. Again, funny but no big laughs, no hook. I feel like I'm missing something here.