Orchid --
I also loved that series but don't have HBO so I watched it entirely on DVD. Though I agree with what you say about the family trying to stay together, I still see it as materialistic. The relationships the characters were involved in were physical, mostly. The patriarch was all about his own pleasure. The mom, the daughter and the homosexual brother were all about finding themselves as sexual beings, not spiritual beings, dealing with their various fears and insecurities. And though Nate met the Quaker woman and started going to services with her, he also was about "finding himself" and not caring what that did to his wife and daughter. So while it was a relatively thoughtful series, it wasn't one that was interested in spiritual truth, for example.

I recently did a study about Sex and the City, comparing the views of that show in the US with how they perceive it in China. The show is called (in Chinese) "So Want to Be in Love" The scripts have been entirely redone in Chinese, but using the original plots. I'm not saying that Chinese culture is less materialistic than ours, but it's interesting to see how they perceive the women in ways that would be unfamiliar to us in the US. For example, some of the respondents there say they put men on a pedestal. I don't think we do that here!

If you look at any sitcom, you will find archetype characters and plots that always end up maintaining the status quo of power relations, for example.

Shows like "Saved by the Bell" and "Family Matters" end with a moral, but they are in the mainstream belief community and not much more probing that an Aesop's fable.

Are there shows that "think outside the box"? It's a tough question.