Picket Fences

After reading some of the other reviews posted on this page, I can see where Picket Fences could come off as convoluted or stupid. I think they forget that Picket Fences was pure satire in the strickest sense of the word. Rome, Wisconsin is almost like the Land Of Oz of the 1990's...completely smothered in fantasy, while maintaining a real feel.
But the two main elements of Picket Fences that I fell in love with were the Emmy winning performances by the late Ray Walston as Judge Henry Bone and Fyvish Finkle as Attorney Joseph Wambaugh. I love Judge Bone's favorite line, "Get out!", and you never knew what was going to come out of the mouth of Attorney Wambaugh...simply hilarious!
I will concede however, that by the middle of season 2, the stories were getting extremely contrived and hard to watch. I'm not sure what happened to make the show suddenly lose it's edge, but it's like it happened overnight.
So, if you really want to enjoy Picket Fences, just watch the first season and a half...and then FREEZE!!!! DROP THE REMOTE, AND BACK AWAY FROM THE TELEVISION.... SLOWLY!!!!Welcome to Rome, Wisconsin! :-)

These are characters you want to like and sympathize with but they just won't let you. The acting is great but the writing is some of the worst I've ever had inflicted on me. There is little continuity from one episode to the next. One minute Max is a calm take charge self-confident woman and the next she's a hysterical freak. The Sheriff and his wife are supposed to be these upstanding open-minded honest people with a strong streak of integrity but every time you turn around one or both of them are jumping to conclusions based on some of the worst bigotry I've ever witnessed (such as the treatment of Frank the Potato Man). If they were any kind of parents at all, you would think by at least the middle of the first season those boys would have learned not to rely so heavily on revenge and physical violence. Many of the situations are simply unbelievable - the idea that a town the size of Rome would have a transplant center is little short of ludicrous.The actors do everything they can to make these people engaging and likable but they ultimately fail simply because they're handed such awful scripts. And the show only got worse as it went along- by the end it was a chore just to finish watching the last few episodes. In the hands of better writers and more caring producers this show could have been great. Unfortunately it had neither and died the death its lousy plotting and inconsistent story lines earned for it.

it's great to be able to watch at least some of the episodes again. I can remember watching all of them the first time, it's like a great time-warp to be able to watch them again. Truly, one of the very best shows that's ever been on TV. I wish they were still making new episodes!Thanks hulu for posting these episoeds and please try to post as many more of them as you can. What an awesome show/cast this was.