Myself, I never watch shows randomly, so it takes someone whose tastes I respect to basically bludgeon me into starting, and then I get hooked and watch the whole series straight through. That's what happened with House - my RL beta just handed me the first season DVDs and ordered me to try them. And I've done the same for a lot of folks with my favorite shows.

Somewhat off topic, have you ever seen Firefly? Because that's another series that could easily fly under one's radar but is just extremely enjoyable and quirky and funny and dark and has inspired no end of fanaticism.