Top 10 TV Shows

Here in Belgium a magazine made a special issue with a sort of top 100 of series.
1 The Wire
2 The Shield
3 The Soprano's

I think they are very close to one another.
I don't remember how i expressed myself, but when i say "good" what i really want to say is: " i like it".

In the end it's all very subjective. I became attached to a couple of characters in the Wire (the junkie and the gay robber, can't believe that i don't remember their name...) and i got hooked by the series. Later on some "bad" characters became "good" ones (the cop whop became a teacher after having done stupid things with weapons).
I only saw a couple of episodes from the Shield and nevedr took the time to bond with one of the characters. I will watch it again and i'm pretty sure that i will like it if i take the time and am in to it.

To give another example, in my personal top 10 The Wire is number one, but Friday Night Lights is a close second, i'm pretty sure most of you will think it's not bad, but nothing special.

I see Friday Night Lights as a series about the other America. In the Wire we saw urban America in Baltimore.
FNL is about suburban America in Texas. Although it is more dramatized as The Wire, you can also see it as some kind of documentary about a particular part of the American society.

I watched FNL with my kids and they liked it. I would never watch The Wire with my 9 year old son and i would hesitate to do it with my 12 year old daughter (who likes hiphop maybe that aspect would attract her to the Wire).

For people who like good indie rock: FLN has fantastic music...there is som Texas Country music that most people will not like, but there is also some fantastic indie rock music...there are sites about the music of FNL.
 
The big three to me is this one: The wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood. The rest is on another level.

Watch Deadwood as well if you can. To me it's as good as The Wire and The Sopranos. In fact, you could argue it's like The wire set in the western era. A pitty it only had 3 seasons, but it's totally worth it.

On a second level I would put The company, Rome and Game of Thrones. And then the rest.

PD: Carcetti for president!
 
I watched the first season of Deadwood and still have to watch the following 2...Liked it very much.
Alex, did you saw Hell On Wheels, that is also supposed to be good and a western series.

I just read that season 2 of Treme is out in Belgium. Still have to watch season 1. But as Treme is also by David Simon (The Wire), it can't be bad....
 
I'd agree with that, over time Ive decided Wire just edges Soprano's but that doesn't take away how good that is either.

Breaking Bad seems to continue to get shouted from the roof tops but I'll hold of until Ive seen The Shield probably.
 
gerd said:
Alex, did you saw Hell On Wheels, that is also supposed to be good and a western series.

I just read that season 2 of Treme is out in Belgium. Still have to watch season 1. But as Treme is also by David Simon (The Wire), it can't be bad....
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Not yet!

Treme is very good at what it does, but it's a show devoted to music and you must like that kind of music in order to appreciate it. Personally, I'm not enjoying it as much as The Wire, but it doesn't take away the fact that it's well constructed, well told and vastly superior to 90% of shows out there.
 
By quite some distance!

The Wire
Boardwalk Empire
Walking Dead
Game of Thrones
Lost
Sopranos
The Shield
Homeland
24
Dexter
 
Breaking Bad is very good TV (I've watched up until the start of the latest series) and I enjoy it, but again I'd put it in another category to The Wire.

It's exaggerated and unrealistic, and there's too many coincidences there for the sole purpose of entertainment value.

A teddy bear landing in Walt's own pool due to a plane crash that he caused indirectly by letting Jane (Jesse's girlfriend) die, as her father was an air traffic controller who screwed up because he was upset.

Also how Walt's brother in law Hank is in the DEA, a very convenient plot device.

There's probably more but I can't remember off the top of my head.

I'm actually interested in hearing why someone would regard any other show as better than The Wire, because I will be looking for something new to watch soon after The Sopranos and pretty much anything else I've tried to watch now (Dexter for example) has been a bit of a disappointment after the standards set by those two.
 
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How good is Lost then? Never watched it but I remember it constantly being ridiculous with constant cliff hangers and people were pissed because their wasn't a conclusion.
 
YoungGun_UK said:
How good is Lost then? Never watched it but I remember it constantly being ridiculous with constant cliff hangers and people were pissed because their wasn't a conclusion.
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I enjoyed it a lot - it had many distinctive characters.

Yeah a lot of the mysteries weren't answered, but for me the show was never about that, it was about the characters who had been thrown into an unfamiliar place, almost to reflect on their previous lives.

People these days seem to get pissed off about any ending that doesn't tie up every single loose end or question - be it in film, TV or gaming.
Sometimes a bit of mystery is a good thing in my opinion, although the ending of Lost did seem a little rushed.
 
YoungGun_UK said:
How good is Lost then? Never watched it but I remember it constantly being ridiculous with constant cliff hangers and people were pissed because their wasn't a conclusion.
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Started off strong, but like most t.v. series the later seasons let the viewers down.
 
Prison Break comes to mind, Season 1 is as good as most shows mentioned here, Season 2 drops in quality but still OK, it just died a death after that and became crappy unoriginal crap.
 
PU6HY said:
Are you on a wind up by saying that?

God forbid a TV show putting things in for sole purpose of entertainment value. They should do the opposite so we aren't entertained and don't bother watching anything.
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No wind up.

I think it's more entertaining when a TV drama doesn't have unrealistic coincidences that are only there to serve the plot.

When you have so many obvious plot devices, you lose the suspension of disbelief. I can't get fully immersed in a lot of TV shows in the same way as The Wire because of this.

If you read and understand the definitions of these, you will know that I'm not on a wind up;
Plot device - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Suspension of disbelief - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although I do understand that some people find plot devices easier to accept or simply don't notice them that often.
 
Nah, I enjoyed The Wire, would highly recommend it, but for me Shield is far better.

I guess it can be far fetched a bit, but then a gay guy robbing drug sellers by using a couple of woman to goto the door? But for me I'm wanting to be entertained and by god Shield provided that. Also for me I felt The Wire got into too many lulls and a bit flat at times, probably once Stringer and Barksdale left the show I kinda lost a bit of love for it. Idris Elba was brilliant in the show.

Also a good shout from Drekkard with Deadwood, it had more life in it and if it got another couple of seasons would've been my favourite without doubt. Absolutely immense beyond belief and for me Ian McShane as Al Swearengen (great surname going by his use of words) is the greatest tv character ever by a country mile. Phenomenal viewing.

Gerd - Come on how can you forget Bubbles and Omar (fav character from The Wire).

I loved Lost too, it did get a bit mental at points, but all in all I really enjoyed it, there was a lot of unanswered questions left behind, but for me it was excellent and something new, and I can never get enough Evangeline Lily!

Breaking Bad is a bit far fetched at times too, but another thoroughly entertaining show with great twists.


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The Wire may be more realistically gritty but for me The Shield is far more psychological which is the kind of stuff I love, Mackey is clearly the devil corrupting all around him, see especially how this plays out with Wimms and Dutch who know what he is but either can't or won't expose the dark side of him, as well obviously as the characters played by Forrest Whittaker and Glenn Close.
 
The wife and i just finished watching Homeland: very good. Not as memorable as some of the shows in this thread, but it sure is a must see...
 
I miss Deadwood massively, I need closure on that series, HBO leaving it like they did is unacceptable.

At least with Firefly we got Serenity to tie up the lose ends.
 
Yeah I would have liked some sort of mini-series to get things concluded, although based loosely on real life characters guess there are conclusions as such for each of them.

There was a kinda ending as such with obviously the season 3 finale, but obviously there was still a lot that could have been done.

It was a while I finished up watching it, but I thought everything was kinda tied up and if there was a season 4 it would've been a new plot that would have had to come on to get things started again, so could be seen as a kind of conclusion anyway with not much loose ends to answer.


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In specific order

1. Person of Interest
2. Dexter
3. Family Guy
4. The Walking Dead
5. Boardwalk Empire
6. Chicago Fire
7. The Mentalist
8. American Dad
9. Modern Family
10. Homeland

Recent episodes of Homeland havent' been great imo. Enjoyed the end to Season 1. Also, if we're discussing english TV shows, I would definitely recommend Fresh Meat. Its hilarious, especially Jack Whitehall as JP.
 
My top shows have to be:

Six Feet Under
Game of Thrones
Lost
The Walking Dead
Battlestar Galactica
Dexter
Mad Men
The Simpsons (before it went shite)
The Office (UK version)

I still haven't watched Homeland, Breaking Bad or Broadwalk Empire though.

But Six Feet Under seems conspicuous by its absence in here, I'd totally recommend it especially as it'll be dirt cheap on DVD these days. Simply the best, most though provoking, darkly funny show I've ever seen.. And it has the best final episode to a show ever. I dare anyone not to sit through the whole five seasons and not well up when the final scene plays out.
 
It was an excellent series, I wouldn't put it in the top5-10 of drama shows but it was excellent. I remember watching the finale on a bus from Mnisek-Prague commuting to work and I had to hide tears!
 
Just finished I believe the 8th episode of season 1 of Homeland.

It's been pretty slow and not much happening, but hopefully now it seems to be picking up and with gather a bit of momentum now.


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Anyone watch The Good Wife? Surprisingly good show, don't think there's been a single episode the wife and I didn't think was excellent, on paper it's a show that really shouldn't be my kind of thing but the acting and writing is first class.
 
I've seen the first season Paul and i also really liked it.
I bought it for my wife, but she did not really like it.
 
You haven't met Gerd have you?


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:p


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1) Sopranos
2) Band of brothers
3) Seinfeld/Cosby show (oldies goldies)

Then i agree with most of you, the wire, breaking bad, the good wife and deadwood are all excellent shows.
 
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