Unopened Boxsets that I liked the look of from the Pilot: The ILX Television 51 Show Countdown Extravaganza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dexter also has this coming-of-age subtext intertwined with the killing/police work.

Oz was one of the best things ever made about prison, so it had that going for it. It was framed by Harold Perrineau in a wheelchair, narrating things almost as spoken-word performance, though that seemed to fit. I tuned out after a few seasons, maybe because its fiction seemed a little too beholden to plots keeping things in a holding pattern, but Oz is often cited as setting the template for The Sopranos and everything that came after in terms of gritty HBO big-budget, cinema-like R-rated TV cable drama. The original HBO movie Against the Wall, about Attica, was a precursor.

Well pleased that GSS made the poll, I thought I'd be the only one voting for it.

35. Friday Night Lights (11 votes, 1 first place vote, 1630 points.)
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/cmediavi/images/fridaynightlights.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYN4jnA8fKs

favourite Linehan joke in Black Books is the fly buzzing around the shop and then the door closing after it exits. and "maybe I'll swing by the bakers" is a favourite quote of mine.

FNL maybe not the best show to reveal while Americans by and large are still caffiene deprived (if i've got my times right). Is it even on Britisher telly?

(And if it was, would any give a toss? American Football is wank.) /getting-a-sb

Think it was on Five or Five US a while back.

that clip is from the film.

ITV2 (or maybe ITV4) plays it sporadically.

oh, my bad! never knew there was a film either.

I guess the ranking for Oz and Dexter is about right. They both do what they're supposed to do and they're both a bit groundbreaking in their own way, but at the end of the day they're just pretty good soap operas geared more towards the testosterone set.

I would rant and start fights about how much I hate Friday Night Lights here but I already made my case on another thread: "BECAUSE I'M A CRIPPLE AND I WANT TO LISTEN TO NIRVANA NOW!" the Friday Night Lights TV series thread

FYI, It's quarter after nine in Chicago, Samuel. Barely even wrapped my lips around my triple-caff latte.

(Note: I am not actually drinking a triple-caff latte.)

American footballing cripples should be listening to that M0unta1n G0ats song, not Nirvana. :P

The rest of the weeks results will come later in the day to accommodate you bloody yanks. Maybe starting at 3 or 4 instead of midday.

but at the end of the day they're just pretty good soap operas geared more towards the testosterone set.

Oz gets progressively campier in later seasons. I only watched it in the past year, and kept wondering whether when it was airing it developed a significant gay audience.

If Friday Night Lights the series is anything like Friday Night Lights the book (a work of journalistic nonfiction, for those not in the know), I would probably like Friday Night Lights. I have no knowledge of or interest in sports for its own sake, but I seem to really like these things that use sports as a backdrop to comment on larger things (e.g. Hoop Dreams is one of my absolute favorite movies).

The rest of the weeks results will come later in the day to accommodate you bloody yanks. Maybe starting at 3 or 4 instead of midday.

can't imagine the merkins pandering to our needs in this manner if one of them had bothered to go to the effort, i say keep it between 9.30 and 5 with a break for lunch about 1 ish imo.

It's the midst of my workday, so it's all the same to me. Anytime is a fine time to chat about telly rather than working.

(it's more to do with the fact that the 'f' key is missing from my pc at home, so when seinfeld comes in that's gonna be an inconvenience)

FNL is great. The performances are excellent across the board, the characters are well drawn and interesting, it's beautifully shot and, once they toned it down after the first five or six episodes, well edited. Plus there's the ever-present whole small-town, post-industrial America depression. The canny Applebee's product placement works because that's the kind of place everyone congregates in places like Dillon (or the town I came from). Season 2 was full of shit storylines, but there were so many great scenes littered throughout that it was still compulsive and, sometimes, moving (wheel out the sports metaphor about the best teams are the ones that win when playing badly). Season 3 was excellent, tight, and respectful for the main characters that were graduating and moving on. Season 4, based on the first episode, is looking pretty good though obviously that remains to be seen (and really for the 2019 poll).

I'm already predicting a surprise win for Community in the 2019 poll. FNL will have to settle for second place.

this is the one i have:

http://media.monstersandcritics.com/articles2/1455546/article_images/yukon.jpg

christmas present from my mom a couple years ago because we used to watch due south together. don't know why i haven't opened it!

34. Jackass (14 votes, 1640 points.)
http://917thebounce.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/jackass.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMJgSuaEOPk

i love that clip so much.

Yeah, I'm sure FNL gets better after the first few episodes, most shows do. I just couldn't stomach it and gave up halfway through ep 3. I would probably enjoy the book, and can relate to the overall vibe a fair amount (I went to high school in the sticks, and in the fall my week revolved around the Friday night football game, even if it was just because I was a school band geek), but the combination of the shaky handheld camera work, the brisk editing that made everything feel like a montage, and the constant grand pronouncements about "THIS TOWN" and "FOOTBALL" how much "THIS TOWN CARES ABOUT FOOTBALL" with barely any interesting details or jargon or humorous humanizing touches just made it feel like a horrible pompous drag. (xpost)

ok, jackass. that's about right where i thought it'd be.

Okay, I'm pretty baffled by about half of the results on this poll so far. So...good job at upending my expectations, ILX...?

I mean, I saw and laughed uproariously at The Jackass Movie, but I would never put it in a best of anything list.

you didn't think britisher comedies, faux important american dramas and jackass would make it?

No TV show, incl. Gillette Soccer Saturday and the annual Royal Rumbles, was as fun as Jackass when it was originally on this decade, imo.

psyched to see if dirty sanchez beats it now

well us britishers are doing pretty well so far... dunno if this poll needs welsh testicles though.

gonna resist aaron ramsey joke tbh

33. Project Runway (15 votes, 1670 points.)
http://burslifechangingblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/project-runway.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUyDrYfIzRs

can't believe madtv made the list

I mean, I saw and laughed uproariously at The Jackass Movie, but I would never put it in a best of anything list.
― I HEART CREEPY MENS (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, November 3, 2009 9:35 AM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Jackass Number Two is one of my top movies of the last decade.

Us Americans were too busy eatin' Big Macs and denying the efficacy of vaccines to vote in some freedom-hatin' TV poll.

I'm beginning to realize that not everyone is as enamoured with scripted comedy and long-form narrative as I am.

still 32 shows to go d.

32. Family Guy (15 votes, 1735 points.)
http://style.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/family-guy-cast-poster-c11790610.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydVp-2B8qlw

I guess the ranking for Oz and Dexter is about right. They both do what they're supposed to do and they're both a bit groundbreaking in their own way, but at the end of the day they're just pretty good soap operas geared more towards the testosterone set.

Deric OTM

yeah i mean...this list is definitely going to be dominated by scripted shows, especially compared to how much reality programming dominated TV ratings throughout the decade

I;m putting my money on Lost being #1.

family guy is again placed about right where i expected, but project runway is my first real wtf so far.

WTF people.

Oh, Family Guy is a better show than Gilmore Girls? That explains why everyone at work suddenly has a goatee today.

as in it should have been higher? xpost

tons of people like Project Runway, many of them on this board (I can take it or leave it personally, but I'm not surprised at all to see it here)

Project Runway is one of the only reality shows I'll rep for, even though I haven't watched it much. Basically, I can get behind a show featuring people with talent trying to outdo one another rather than a bunch of unemployable douchebags trying to outdouche one another.