nelsonmuntz
Point Center
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Messages
- 46,773
- Reaction Score
- 39,987
My opinion. Comedies is a separate category for a later time. No news, variety or documentary shows, and anyone that puts a reality show on a list like this deserves a permanent banning.
1) Mad Men - brilliantly acted and written. Captures the industry and the era, and tells a great story.
2) Sopranos
3) West Wing - brilliantly written and very original. Sorkinesque, both good and bad. The good is that no one does dialogue better than Sorkin. The bad is that he loses interest and this show went through a lull until it closed incredibly strongly.
4) Hill Street Blues - this show is stunningly original for its era. TV went straight from Starsky and Hutch and Colombo to this. From the corruption to the brutality to the drug abuse to the inter office sexual escapades, there had not been a police department like this on TV before HSB. The Pilot is one of the best episodes of any show in TV history.
5) Game of Thrones - It is amazing that a show based on a hopelessly complex and unfinished series of novels, set in a fictional, medieval world, has become one of the greatest shows in the history of television.
6) ER - a little melodramatic and preachy at times, but one of the best broadcast television shows in history.
7) Breaking Bad - dark and unapologetic. Needed Gus Fring to achieve greatness.
8) The Wire
9) Homeland - No top show flirts with completely coming apart more than Homeland, but it is awesome and will go down in history as one of the best.
10) Boardwalk Empire - i would have rated it higher if it had a different star. I like Buscemi, but he wasn't the right guy for the role.
Honorable Mention
NYPD Blue - HSB with Dennis Franz's butt, although I thought the format with the bad guy always confessing was a bit contrived, and David Caruso chewed the scenery.
Law and Order - too many silly episodes to crack the top 10, but at times this show was incredible thoughtful.
Justified - I have heard good things. On my list for binge watching.
Big Love - fell apart when Harry Dean Stanton left the show.
Deadwood - Incredible first season, then kind of jumped the shark.
Miami Vice - Started so strong, and the guest stars were awesome (Phil Collins and Bruce Willis episodes stand out). Became a hot mess at the end.
Rockford Files - Garner carried one of the best anti-hero cop/PI shows. Leaned on a lot of clichés, but one of the few shows from the era that holds up.
I could not find anything else from the 70's that is in the same league as these shows. There were some good comedies from that era, but the dramas were either prime time soaps like Dallas or silly cop shows like Kojak. Baretta was nominated for Best Drama multiple times, which gives you an idea of how bad TV was in the 70's.
1) Mad Men - brilliantly acted and written. Captures the industry and the era, and tells a great story.
2) Sopranos
3) West Wing - brilliantly written and very original. Sorkinesque, both good and bad. The good is that no one does dialogue better than Sorkin. The bad is that he loses interest and this show went through a lull until it closed incredibly strongly.
4) Hill Street Blues - this show is stunningly original for its era. TV went straight from Starsky and Hutch and Colombo to this. From the corruption to the brutality to the drug abuse to the inter office sexual escapades, there had not been a police department like this on TV before HSB. The Pilot is one of the best episodes of any show in TV history.
5) Game of Thrones - It is amazing that a show based on a hopelessly complex and unfinished series of novels, set in a fictional, medieval world, has become one of the greatest shows in the history of television.
6) ER - a little melodramatic and preachy at times, but one of the best broadcast television shows in history.
7) Breaking Bad - dark and unapologetic. Needed Gus Fring to achieve greatness.
8) The Wire
9) Homeland - No top show flirts with completely coming apart more than Homeland, but it is awesome and will go down in history as one of the best.
10) Boardwalk Empire - i would have rated it higher if it had a different star. I like Buscemi, but he wasn't the right guy for the role.
Honorable Mention
NYPD Blue - HSB with Dennis Franz's butt, although I thought the format with the bad guy always confessing was a bit contrived, and David Caruso chewed the scenery.
Law and Order - too many silly episodes to crack the top 10, but at times this show was incredible thoughtful.
Justified - I have heard good things. On my list for binge watching.
Big Love - fell apart when Harry Dean Stanton left the show.
Deadwood - Incredible first season, then kind of jumped the shark.
Miami Vice - Started so strong, and the guest stars were awesome (Phil Collins and Bruce Willis episodes stand out). Became a hot mess at the end.
Rockford Files - Garner carried one of the best anti-hero cop/PI shows. Leaned on a lot of clichés, but one of the few shows from the era that holds up.
I could not find anything else from the 70's that is in the same league as these shows. There were some good comedies from that era, but the dramas were either prime time soaps like Dallas or silly cop shows like Kojak. Baretta was nominated for Best Drama multiple times, which gives you an idea of how bad TV was in the 70's.
