As the spring television seasons wound to a close in May, I finally took the advice of many friends and joined Netflix, the super-fast DVD service that gets film and television favorites to your door in the blink of an eye. While at first overwhelmed with the possibilities, I narrowed my priorities to a top-three television series list of shows I’ve been wanting to watch forever but never actually caught on the air:

1. “Smallville“: Four entire seasons already available on DVD about the boy Clark Kent (aka Superman) who struggles “to come to grips with his emerging superpowers–and the effects of various forms of kryptonite–while battling the strange things that have plagued this idyllic Midwest hamlet since the meteor shower.” Season One so far has that same “Monster of the Week” theme of Buffy’s Season One, which brings back fond memories.

2. “Joan of Arcadia“: Though the show stopped after only two seasons, which I still can’t believe I missed, “Joan of Arcadia” follows the life of a teenage girl who is a bit quirkier than average because of “the unusual way various people keep popping up, introducing themselves as God and then giving her specific directions to do things, such as get a job, join the debate team or volunteer with children. ” Is she a contemporary mystic? Conversations with God are a promising place to begin in that category.

3. “Firefly“: I couldn’t overlook Joss Whedon’s 13-episode one-season wonder about life in outer space with a Western twist. It’s your basic good vs. evil with a lot of moral ambiguity about who is really doing the good, since the heroes are outlaws.

I’m counting on Netflix to fill the summer series void and hope I picked some winners. More later…..