I've started watching "The Wire". On paper, it shouldn't be quite my thing, but a few episodes in, I like it immensely.
There is something about the way dialogue is written. It's instantly recognisable, no line is a cliché, but the conversations are not forced to be witty. Badly handled, a show can come off like everyone is a snarky bastard that communicates in quips.
Here, however, an idiot is an idiot, a snarky bastard is a snarky bastard, a serious person is serious. Not everyone TALKS intelligently. But all dialogue IS intelligently written.
This is so well done in "The Wire", and so rare in anything across any medium, that I can't help but be pulled in by the quality of the writing.