The 4 Best Dramas Of The Last 25 Years

I think you guys think I'm hatin' on Oz, but I'm not.

I don't think you are -- what you are saying is that at least 3 items in this poll are better. That's fine, I don't care, but I am struggling at the reasoning being applied.

At the end of the day, it's largely about subjective judgment based on a number of criteria that are probably discrepant with the criteria being used by someone else who is also judging subjectively. I think people get wound up about stuff like this when they start taking it at all seriously or thinking that it actually means anything (which I have to refrain from myself, given that I could easily get wound up about The Vulture eliminating Six Feet Under in the first round by matching it against The Sopranos...I mean, A-DOY, I WONDER WHICH ONE YOU WANTED TO WIN, THE VULTURE).

Yeah, its all subjective, why bother :-)

Not wound up, haven't even read the article and not going to either.

fwiw, Vulture (via MZS) calls The Wire the winner: http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/drama-derby-finals-the-wire-vs-the-sopranos.html

whiney otm about buffy tbf

Yeah, The Wire over The Sopranos is a pretty easy choice for me (their uneven final seasons more or less cancel each other out).

Yeah, Whiney otm about something he won't lower himself to even watch. Sure.

Is it just the 5th season of The Wire that pales? I thought the 4th looked interesting, at least.

The fourth season is my favorite, one one of my favorite seasons of any show period. The fifth is okay, but a lot of it hinges on a plot point which is knda ridiculous and OTT (but which isn't exactly out of character for the person who sets the events in motion and is at least resolved in a satisfactory fashion).

I think Sopranos will edge out the Wire for me, just because Sopranos was able to maintain their tone/humor/quality for so long before any noticeable drop-off. Wire had a shorter run, same level of quality IMO, just the misstep in that last season really jars with me, compared to those first 4 seasons that were SOOOO great.

Whiney did you have a bad run-in with a vampire during a childhood halloween or something? Let's get to the root of these ISSUES, man.

I should get around to the Wire one of these days, huh.

I started with Breaking Bad over the summer but the like ever-building "and now this bad thing happens, bwahaha" sort of arc structure got sort of grating in a sort of P.G. Wodehouse way but with meth.

Breaking Bad is fun, and has fantastic twists and turns, but I guess I just feel I resonate more with Silv and Bunk than Jesse.

silby so otm, i find Breaking Bad and a lot of shows of its ilk really tiresome and not very rewarding for that reason

Maybe half-seriously, I would nominate the second season of Veronica Mars as one of the best (dramas) of the last 25 years. To continue the book analogy, It isn't Serious High Literature but it's a lovely tongue-in-cheek potboiler.

I wrote "sort of" three times in eleven words up there. I could use an editor.

yeah Veronica Mars is one of my favorites but it's never gonna be in the big consensus discussions (and of course very few people will rep for the show's whole run)

total # eps of the four series I've seen: 3

What are you watching then? Movies?

My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks sadly overlooked. ;_;

I'm not watching a story that takes 90+ hours to tell, that's for sure.

xp

Get one attention span, whippersnapper.

what makes a 2-hour story so much better than a 90-hour one?

cf: Berlin Alexanderplatz

the deafening metronome of mortality

the deafening metronome of mortality

I've never "gotten" Breaking Bad. The bleakness/meanness/dry humor in the initial five or six episodes was, to my tastes, toxic. It felt like self-consciously Important Television, and I've resisted going back... although I know I'd probably find things to like in it. Is it worth it? Are the episodes (as discrete units, and not strictly as they contribute to the season drama) enjoyable? At least as of the halfway point of the first season, didn't like any of the characters, I don't get off on suburban nihilism (or whatever the tone was), and I wasn't really concerned or hopeful about the outcome. If I re-tried the show, would I find more in it to like?

Probably lot. I, like many others here, absolutely love it, but your tolerance for the bleak and nihilistic has to be fairly high. The first season is a shining beacon of happiness and ease compared to a lot of later eps. I rewatched the very first three epsiodes recently and was surprised by how light and goofy it all was in retrospect.

Probably not, sorry.

Breaking Bad is absolutely worth it. Arguably the best show (sort of) currently on television. And as I said elsewhere, I never would've imagined saying that during the first season (which I thought was fine but nothing mindblowing).

what makes a 2-hour story so much better than a 90-hour one?

Leaves more time for baseball and fucking.

I agree with you Deric, but even as a massive fan you have to concede it's not for everyone.

And I'd argue that it isn't all bleak nihilism. There are actually a number of episodes where not a lot "happens". People sitting around and having long conversations in the living room and whatnot. Plus the show definitely has a sense of humor throughout.

Oh, yeah, chap. Not for everyone. You pretty much need to have the stomach to watch a relatively sympathetic character become increasingly evil and the collateral damage caused by that transformation along the way.

what makes a 2-hour story so much better than a 90-hour one?

also, concision aka narrative economy; usually yields better results than sprawl.

Sopranos hands down

Yeah, I'll take the narrative economy of Norbit over the sprawl of The Wire anyday.

Tell it to dickens. Wait, bad example. Tell it to Eliot. Scratch that. Tell it to, uh, Proust or, well...

I've only seen a couple of episodes of the Sopranos and it seemed kinda corny to me. Is it actually kinda corny, or is that quality something that goes away if you watch more of it and get immersed in it?

whenever I feel like I might vote for The Wire, I remember this episode of the Sopranos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7vBbEG0zH0

Sopranos always reminded me of a Barry levinson film

the only recent show I can think of that left me as cold as Mad Men is How I Met Your Mother

I've never watched The Wire or Breaking Bad, so out of this list I have to vote The Sopranos by default

Two of the shows on this list I obstinately refuse to watch because their fans are so offputting.

my biggest impediment to being interested in Buffy is that it just LOOKS terrible/stupid/goofy

xp

remy - i hadn't thought of it before, but yes, that's what it reminded me of - and i'm not a levinson fan.

The Sopranos also has a sense of humor about itself that I could see coming off as corniness if you just saw bits and pieces of it (particularly if you just tuned in when Little Stevie was onscreen). It's something of a heightened reality, but it's also dead serious when it needs to be.

Buffy is decent enough while it's on but I can count on one hand the number of episodes that made me want to actively seek it out to watch.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc287/colmprunty/angel5.jpg

seriously can't see myself watching anything involving this as a character

I'd replace Mad Men w/ Deadwood and then vote for it. As it stands now, The Wire.

Another point in its favor. xp