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
― Number None, Friday, 6 April 2012 01:05 (twelve years ago) link
the wire is the best of the lot. but breaking bad is not better than the sopranos, end of story.
― kurwa mać (Polish for "long life") (Eisbaer), Friday, 6 April 2012 02:08 (twelve years ago) link
100 votes exactly. Nice.
― get me bloodied (Eric H.), Friday, 6 April 2012 02:09 (twelve years ago) link
when come back bring pie chart
― some dude, Friday, 6 April 2012 02:11 (twelve years ago) link
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.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 20:18 (ten years ago) link
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.)"
― Geoffrey Schweppes (jaymc), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 20:27 (ten years ago) link
Let's let this one marinate a bit.
― LinkedIn Beef (Eazy), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:16 (ten years ago) link
I guess your friend really was let down by the ending of Lost, huh
― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:17 (ten years ago) link
xp The other is Baretta.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:19 (ten years ago) link
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.
― LinkedIn Beef (Eazy), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:23 (ten years ago) link
Smaller dataset worth considering that movies or novels.
― Jeff, Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:24 (ten years ago) link
Novels and films have been around too long to be grist for generational self-congratulation.
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:36 (ten years ago) link
i.e. if there's anything up to The Singing Detective, The Prisoner or the Rockford Files, LMK
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:37 (ten years ago) link
the idea that the 5 best television shows are all dramas from the last decade or so is ridiculous.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 21:47 (ten years ago) link
It's exactly like when ESPN throws up a prodigious sports feat chart for context "since 1990."
― Miss Arlington twirls for the Coal Heavers (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 22:05 (ten years ago) link
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
― marky markers & the blinky bunch (some dude), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 22:37 (ten years ago) link
Singing Detective was crucial viewing in my family's house growing up. amazing show, needs more love
― Old Boy In Network (Michael B), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:18 (ten years ago) link
I have figured out I really only like comedies when they're full of horrible people
― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:23 (ten years ago) link
http://epguides.com/GoldenGirls/cast.jpg
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:43 (ten years ago) link
http://25.media.tumblr.com/582f8cf858f875be32960db690ca119e/tumblr_mpzy7xQEhK1rn1jnoo1_400.jpg
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:49 (ten years ago) link
http://www.patspapers.com/images/uploads/gumby_flickr.jpg
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:53 (ten years ago) link
http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/12/04/119651577_wide-a14a2e7454bbeb28c06f579a58899ea934273cc6-s6-c30.jpg
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:55 (ten years ago) link
http://epguides.com/GoldenGirls/cast.jpg.
― midnight outdoor nude frolic up north goes south (Eric H.), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:56 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Coke Opus (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:56 (ten years ago) link
*PICTURE OF ILXOR.COM*
― polyphonic, Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:57 (ten years ago) link
what are the 4 best ilxor.com dramas of the last 25 years?
― Mordy , Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:58 (ten years ago) link
- threads with Geir- threads with ethan- threads with Mordy- threads about an "ism"
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 October 2013 23:59 (ten years ago) link
instoppable sex machine
― hey racists can be joyless too yknow (darraghmac), Wednesday, 2 October 2013 00:01 (ten years ago) link
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
― cardamon, Wednesday, 2 October 2013 02:48 (ten years ago) link
Morbs otm about The Prisoner tho
― i too went to college (silby), Sunday, 20 October 2013 16:28 (ten years ago) link
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/10/simpsonized-characters/?cid=co13400554
― obie stompin' moby (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 21 October 2013 17:07 (ten years ago) link
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.
― polyphonic, Monday, 21 October 2013 17:41 (ten years ago) link
whatever the prisoner is, "trifle" is... not the right word
― socki (s1ocki), Monday, 21 October 2013 17:43 (ten years ago) link
ok, if we're eliminating "trifles," I'm proud to announce that the greatest TV show of all time is
Fawlty Towers
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 13:53 (nine years ago) link
that's probably about right
― What Is It Like To Be A HOOS? (silby), Thursday, 12 June 2014 05:23 (nine years ago) link