So, now that I'm all caught right up to the end of S4 of Sons of Anarchy, I've started in on the first season of Justified, which I am enjoying so much - the writing is making me laugh for all the *right* reasons.

So how come, when there are shows as well-written and well-characterised as SoA and Justified to watch, how come I've got myself all twisted up by a police procedural where the writers dropped the ball with the characterisation of one of the main leads (for the first third of the season, anyway) and completely failed to make a major new character anything other than completely two-dimensional and uninteresting?

I love H50, but I have to say that (for me, anyway) the quality of the character writing this season has been decidedly patchy to say the least, and when I watch shows that get it right it really hammers that home to me.