One thing I like about Tom Selleck's Jesse Stone series (one of many things I like about it) is the pacing. He takes his time to develop his character and the story. Also, apart from the tarty wives of the Paradise Cove council members, he uses actors that look like real people. I'm not against using actors who are young and attractive, but I wonder if we sometimes go down that road to the point where the characters become interchangeably attractive. There were three 20-something actors in an industrial I worked on last fall who were all about the same height, all with angular jaws, dark spikey hair, and two-day stubble. Two appear in one scene and as the camera cuts from one to the other you think you're looking at the same guy who keeps inexplicably changing his shirt!

British directors often take the view that average-looking people of any age can have riveting life issues, have others fall in love with them, and be generally interesting to watch. I like that. People are like furniture. You get a new cherrywood table and you're happy with its lovely perfection until someone leaves a wet glass on it and you get a foggy ring on the surface. Then the table is spoiled because all you see is the flaw. But give that same table 30 or 40 or 50 years, and many stains, scratches and dents and it develops this lovely patina. It becomes an old friend. It's beautiful even with the flaws (maybe even because of them)and when you touch it you feel the many hands that went before you over its whole existence.

I think Selleck himself is more interesting to look at and listen to today than he was 30 years ago. He now has this wonderful craggy face. He has more breadth and depth; his characters have more vulnerability. You can touch them and feel all the life experiences that went before. I wish there were more films and television series that appreciated that.