Thank you for your reply. I actually think you might be pleasantly surprised if you gave The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings a try (meaning the novels). On the TV front, the new version of Battlestar Galactica (ie the version that ran from 2003 - 8) is an extraordinary work of science fiction, in that the entire thing is incredibly dark, complex, and grown-up in it's allegory of Bush's America and much more. If you do ever decide to take the plunge with either fantasy or science fiction, those would both be great choices.