The 4 Best Dramas Of The Last 25 Years

At this point, Breaking Bad just ahead of The Wire. I've still only seen the first episode of Mad Men.

(Vulture's next four, ftr: Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Buffy, The Shield ... never realized the latter was so well-regarded.)

sopranos 4ever

They are all very good, though BB is by far the most fun (though also the trashiest, but who cares).

The Wire
Mad Men
The Sopranos

in that order

lol at Mad Men making this list. Also last 25 years? I guess nothing good happened before 1999?

The X-Files doesn't hold up/together. I enjoy it, but people who call it one of the greatest of anything haven't watched it since the '90s. I'd swap it out in favor of Deadwood or (controversial) Six Feet Under. Otherwise, I'm okay with that top 8 (again, haven't seen The Shield yet either but heard lots of good stuff).

last time i voted in one of these i voted for the wire, so this time i'm going to spread the love around and vote for sopranos

The poll I probably SHOULD have done is which of these four shows' fan bases are the most unreasonable. (In which case, I def would've swapped out Mad Men for Friday Night Lights or Buffy.)

Also last 25 years? I guess nothing good happened before 1999?

That's the way it shook out at Vulture, but tbf to CK, he was only talking about shows from the last 10 years.

I have never seen a single minute of any of these shows. And it's not like I skimp on the TV watching. ¯\(°_o)/¯

I really don't like "The Sopranos," and the first season of "Mad Man" was not enticing enough to get me to watch future seasons (though people swear it gets better!). Also, these four are weird finalists, given that two of them have yet to run their course, and wrapping things up plays an important role in how a lot of TV shows are perceived. That said, I think "Deadwood," "Buffy" and "The Shield" are more than adequate contenders. Though "Buffy," "X-Files" and "Sopranos" are notable breakthroughs for reasons beyond their narratives.

I don't know. Of this list, I'd say "The Wire."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sNZ7ulO1RQ

NSFW, I guess^^

baywatch

lol at Mad Men making this list. Also last 25 years? I guess nothing good happened before 1999?

― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Friday, March 23, 2012 9:30 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this

The fanboy angle on Buffy has ensured I will never watch it, unfor.

It's really good, though, for the first four or five seasons. Why would Buffy fanboys turn you off, but not Wire, Sopranos, Mad Men or whatever stans?

I mean, it's not like X-Files, which at its best was rarely consistent and hard to defend at its (prolonged) worst.

xxpost

That would be a shame. There are a couple of Buffy seasons that are among the best television series ever. Don't allow the tastes of others dictate or restrict your own!

Why would Buffy fanboys turn you off, but not Wire, Sopranos, Mad Men or whatever stans?

Fanboys vs. fanmen

I dunno, something about Buffy just made it look like a slightly more sophisticated Kevin Williamson joint.

(Then again, I dug Dawson's Creek for a couple episodes.)

Pretty sure that's most people's initial reaction (including my own and that of the people I got hooked). Watch seasons 1 and 2 and then just try to stop watching.

I think the show is ultimately worth watching but if you have fan issues, just watch "The Body" and discard the rest.

I'll try, but I've still got all of The Wire to get through.

buffy, x-files, twin peaks all better than the top three, never seen the shield, also there really should be a totally proceduralist crime show up there, monk or something, destroy our new realist tv overlords

I can't believe all of you haven't seen The Shield.

The best episodes of Buffy work, well, best if you have the emotional context down, which makes The Body and the musical ep sort of weird introductions. I'd say watch Hush, which is fun, scary and smart.

X-Files had great episodes, but the overall conspiracy arc made for some really dodgy moments.

i think if your idea of what constitutes a good tv show is consistency you're denying yourself much of the fun of tv

'some'. xp

Horror seems more a singles genre, I guess. I'd rather just watch a handful of good Tales from the Crypt episodes.

lol at Mad Men making this list.

my thoughts exactly.

I may have noted this before, but fwiw the vast majority of Mad Men fans I know are women, who readily concede what attracts them to the series are the fashions, the period details, the hunky men, the bad boy behavior and all that sort of stuff. I've never heard anyone discuss the story. Don't know what to make of that. When I watched Downton Abbey, another show with I presume a larger than usual female audience, I kept thinking of Mad Men.

Don't think of Buffy as horror, because it's really not (X-Files is more straight horror) and please don't think of it in terms of Tales from the Crypt. Buffy's really quite intelligent and perceptive about the adolescent experience, with the supernatural stuff both metaphor and vector for emotional development.

i think if your idea of what constitutes a good tv show is consistency you're denying yourself much of the fun of tv

Why should we set the bar low when plenty of shows have been plenty consistent? Reminds me of this person once who asked me if I liked a particular book. I said no, so she asked why. I said it was poorly written, and she didn't argue, but then claimed something like "there's more to a book than the quality of the writing." I guess, but good writing is a pretty good place to start.

write in vote for - THE I LOVE CRICKET: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX: THE CHINATOWN OF ILX THREAD FOR THE MENTALIST

sopranos
sopranos
sopranos
sopranos

The best episodes of Buffy work, well, best if you have the emotional context down, which makes The Body and the musical ep sort of weird introductions.

OTMFM. I've long cited the gut punch of "The Body" as a prime example of one of the things television/serialized narrative is uniquely qualified to do well. It wouldn't be a fraction as effective if you didn't have five seasons of investment in the characters.

so, basically the Sopranos and then three TV shows that Tumblr whites used to comfort themselves into thinking TV was "important" since there wasn't a show like the Sopranos on TV anymore

may have noted this before, but fwiw the vast majority of Mad Men fans I know are women, who readily concede what attracts them to the series are the fashions, the period details, the hunky men, the bad boy behavior and all that sort of stuff. I've never heard anyone discuss the story. Don't know what to make of that. When I watched Downton Abbey, another show with I presume a larger than usual female audience, I kept thinking of Mad Men.

Don't think of Buffy as horror, because it's really not (X-Files is more straight horror) and please don't think of it in terms of Tales from the Crypt. Buffy's really quite intelligent and perceptive about the adolescent experience, with the supernatural stuff both metaphor and vector for emotional development.

i think if your idea of what constitutes a good tv show is consistency you're denying yourself much of the fun of tv
Why should we set the bar low when plenty of shows have been plenty consistent? Reminds me of this person once who asked me if I liked a particular book. I said no, so she asked why. I said it was poorly written, and she didn't argue, but then claimed something like "there's more to a book than the quality of the writing." I guess, but good writing is a pretty good place to start.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 March 2012 14:22 (4 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow, you sure have problems with women

I do! That's exactly right!

"oh no mad men's on hiatus! quick what show can we pretend is john updike so we can still comment on onion episode recaps. whew thank you based breaking bad"

i think if your idea of what constitutes a good tv show is consistency you're denying yourself much of the fun of tv

I would counter by saying: there is good TV, and there is enjoyable TV.

Voting Breaking Bad btw.

Whiney helped me make up my mind.

"oh no mad men's on hiatus! quick what show can we pretend is john updike so we can still comment on onion episode recaps. whew thank you based breaking bad"

john updike basically is the middlebrow tv of literature, though?

I would counter by saying: there is good TV, and there is enjoyable TV.

why would i want to watch good tv when i could be watching enjoyable tv??

why BB wins, again

The fanboy angle on Buffy has ensured I will never watch it, unfor.

― Eric H., Friday, March 23, 2012 9:48 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the fact that it;s like quippy proto-Twilight dramaclub vampire brony trash has ensured I will never go near it in a thousand years. i couldn't imagine what would make a grown man think it's ok to even watch a Teen Dracula Can't Lose show called "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" let alone rally around its creator to the point where he think it was acceptable to release something called "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."

The whole cult around all of this makes me sicker to my stomach than furry conventions

I didn't say it was a dichotomy, thomp. There's a ton of overlap, but there's also a lot of "just enjoyable but not particularly good" overhang.

tbf Whedon's new horror movie is pretty awesome

i think part (most) of what makes good tv enjoyable and interesting is how the all-hands-on-deck nature of making it is something that any auteurist version of it (or just any single sense of it) has to work with or against in productive ways

i think mad men is a terrible example of an aesthetic getting totally emptied out and flattened for the sake of 'consistency' and 'quality'

It would make for the first derail in this thread, afaict.........

Huh, I was confusing "decoupage" with "decolletage."

VegGrrl has used both words in the last two days! No joke: Yesterday I saw her post about "decolletage" on the Mad Men thread and asked my wife what it meant. When I found out, I said, "Huh. Why did I think it had to do with interior decoration?" Then, this afternoon, I saw her post upthread and was like "Oh, that's why!"

I like french words starting with "de" I guess

or boobs + collage

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admit it, you're excited

jeepers i love all these shows. impossible choice!!!

Can't believe it's taken someone this long to admit it.

thinking omar little should vote for the show that gave him his dn

yeah i loved little omar van zandt on the sopranos

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

good results

I think I'm the only person on the planet that couldn't get into The Wire.

like...The Wire is exactly twice as good as Breaking Bad, 2.4 times as good as The Sopranos and 6 times better than Mad Men? yeah, that sounds right.

does The Wire improve significantly after season 1?

It gets better but if you don't dig season 1 I don't think it's for you. Kinda weird results, i guess the Sopranos' stock has fallen as The Wire's has risen. It certainly doesn't deserve to be behind Breaking Bad, much as i love that show

the wire is the best of the lot. but breaking bad is not better than the sopranos, end of story.

100 votes exactly. Nice.

when come back bring pie chart

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bastard-machine/breaking-bad-legacy-does-stand-639177

I believe that The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad are all first-ballot hall of fame entrants. And all four are in my top five.

Jaymc's film-critic friend, who is also a TV critic, tweeted after Breaking Bad ended, "Beautiful. Only two shows in the conversation for Best Drama ever. One ended tonight. (The other ended a bit more controversially.)"

Let's let this one marinate a bit.

I guess your friend really was let down by the ending of Lost, huh

xp The other is Baretta.

It's interesting how there's so much canonical conversation about TV shows at the same time that talking about novels or films that way has mostly gone away.

Smaller dataset worth considering that movies or novels.

Novels and films have been around too long to be grist for generational self-congratulation.

i.e. if there's anything up to The Singing Detective, The Prisoner or the Rockford Files, LMK

the idea that the 5 best television shows are all dramas from the last decade or so is ridiculous.

It's exactly like when ESPN throws up a prodigious sports feat chart for context "since 1990."

even though a lot of my favorite shows are comedies, i'm ok with these 'greatest shows of the last decade' convos centering purely around dramas, because otherwise it'd be 4 dramas + Arrested fucking Development

i.e. if there's anything up to The Singing Detective, The Prisoner or the Rockford Files, LMK

Singing Detective was crucial viewing in my family's house growing up. amazing show, needs more love

I have figured out I really only like comedies when they're full of horrible people

http://epguides.com/GoldenGirls/cast.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/582f8cf858f875be32960db690ca119e/tumblr_mpzy7xQEhK1rn1jnoo1_400.jpg

http://www.patspapers.com/images/uploads/gumby_flickr.jpg

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/12/04/119651577_wide-a14a2e7454bbeb28c06f579a58899ea934273cc6-s6-c30.jpg

http://epguides.com/GoldenGirls/cast.jpg.

the idea that the 5 best television shows are all dramas from the last decade or so is ridiculous.

Not to say it's necessarily true, but the argument holds some water. The medium has changed a lot in the last decade or so and it's still evolving.

*PICTURE OF ILXOR.COM*

what are the 4 best ilxor.com dramas of the last 25 years?

- threads with Geir
- threads with ethan
- threads with Mordy
- threads about an "ism"

instoppable sex machine

I'll confess that as a UK resident, it feels like ever since The Sopranos was imported, I've been opening newspapers and conversations and being hit WHOOSH by a mighty wind of people talking with high speed and volume about good tv that you've got to watch.

Now I think I do believe that something called a good television program exists. I think Dennis Potter had the intention of making them and so did a bunch of people in the BBC/pre-Murdoch era. I think British television post-Murdoch Shift cared a lot less about making them and in fact probably didnt have much in mind apart from making something that sold a lot and assumed you got sales via lowest common denominator.

As far as I know there never really was a Reithian idealism in American television and you know if American ppl felt like there wasn't any good TV and then some came along and they wanted to celebrate that, well, fair enough, and in as much as the good tv you've got to watch rhetoric comes from that, fair enough.

But I also think that talk is a blatant marketing gimmick at the same time, used to get people to subscribe to the services offered by a company called Home Box Office and also get them watching TV generally, and it kind of pisses me off watching ppl who generally can see through this kind of thing getting dragged along with it.

I don't five a flying fuck about this 'good tv'. The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad are three exciting, enjoyable and particularly well done crime thrillers (a grand tragic one, a brutal realism one and a crazy fucked up one) that I really like, on their own merits.

Mad Men, on the other hand, is so blatantly trying to work on you by pressing the 'good tv' button installed in your head by the Sops and the Wire. The plot is not interesting, the period references are stupid and clumsy, its designed with the aim of getting people to talk about this new Good TV Show. It isn't actually a very good period drama at all.

Seeing those four titles in a box at top of this thread is really depressing because it suggests that our general what a good television show might be is now circumscribed by this 'good tv' concept that blew up in the wake of the sopranos

Morbs otm about The Prisoner tho

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/simpsonized-characters/?cid=co13400554

The Prisoner is cool but a bit of a trifle? MacG is great, of course, and Portmeirion is fun to look at.

If you like people saying random numbers to you for a half hour I recommend bingo.

whatever the prisoner is, "trifle" is... not the right word

ok, if we're eliminating "trifles," I'm proud to announce that the greatest TV show of all time is

Fawlty Towers

that's probably about right