Your Top 10 Dramatic Series | Page 3 | The Boneyard

Your Top 10 Dramatic Series

nelsonmuntz said:
Bumping this thread. Game of Thrones stumbled across the finish line, Westworld's season 2 felt like a calculus exam. Has anyone changed their opinion?
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I'm finally watching The Wire - I'm on season 4. I really enjoy it, it is really good for unflinching realism, but not finding it epic. I suspect that is my own fault for waiting too long to watch it - it suffers a little bit dated nowadays both in terms of style and technology maneuvers by police & gangs that was once cutting edge is now ho-hum.

Mostly though it is really hard for anything to live up to 15yrs of hype. One of the reason's Mad Men is my favorite is I was literally flicking around channels, saw Peggy sitting at her desk and was sucked in to the premier episode. Within a month I was hooked, ultimately it became event viewing in my house. Impossible to recreate that type of experience re-watching a show, cultural timeliness and reactions are lost and the 'desire' for the next one is overwhelmed by the burden of great expectations. You could write a novel about those negative effects.
 
Kolumbo said:
I don't see 24 on here, thank God. I watched 1 season and regretted it.
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Funny. Definitely doesn't belong on this list, but was a fun show. First season was possibly the weakest overall, though I'm not sure we ever finished 7 or 8. Even the reboot season was better than the first.
 
I loved 24. Would I call it "best" anything? Probably not. But it was appointment TV for me at the time. I remember being hugely concerned that I would miss 5 episodes while doing work in Bulgaria (I could not convince the US Embassy to hook me up with Fox).

I'm pretty sure I answered something the last time this thread was done, but my criteria is pretty much "stuff needs to be plausible". So no dragons providing a deus ex machina.

Solid all the way through: Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire (although Jimmy got comically bad), Hill St. Blues, Deadwood, Orange Is the New Black
Still going strong: Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror
Brain Candy: 24, any GoT episode with no dragons and lots of Peter Dinklage.
 
J187Money said:
My barometer for a dramatic series is whether I would re-watch it:

1) The Wire - must have watched it 4-5 times all the way through
2) The West Wing - have been through it all 3 times
3) Boss - with Kelsey Grammar - sadly only 2 seasons
4) Banshee - Cinemax - going through it now for the 3rd time
5) Strike Back - Cinemax - have watched it twice
6) Person of Interest - twice
7) Prison Break - the first iteration - twice
8) Murder One - the first season - have watched multiple times - one of the best seasons of TV ever IMHO
9) Fringe - huge fan - haven't watched again but on my list to start over from the beginning
10) Homeland - especially the early seasons

Lots of other great stuff in progress:

1) Better Call Saul
2) GoT
3) Ray Donovan
4) Billions

and more...

But as much as I enjoy Walking Dead, and feel invested enough that I'll watch every episode for as long as it runs, I don't find it a top show, because a lot of it would be unwatchable a 2nd time.
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I don't know about this standard as I think about it some more. Turn and Halt and Catch Fire were both great shows, but they are cerebral and the plot twists are really important, so they are not that rewatchable. Marco Polo was just an above average show, but it has great scenes and some big battles to make it entertaining, and it is simple enough that I don't have to think too much about it. I often have it on in the background while I am doing something else.
 
In no particular order ...
The Sopranos
The Wire
Breaking Bad
Homeland – early seasons
Game of Thrones
Homicide – Life on the Street
Happy Valley
West Wing
Twilight Zone
Band of Brothers
 
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- Star Trek - most imaginative and intelligent sci-fi ever on the small screen
- Deadwood - half Shakespeare, half Marx Brothers, the writing was brilliant
- The X-Files - Mulder's insatiable curiosity was a thing of beauty
- Dexter - wicked black comedy about a serial killer, so insane it made sense
- The Sopranos - best gangster series ever, the gabigool did it
- The Shield - completely morally ambigious, no other cop show like it
 
Waquoit said:
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like a show about a dirty cop anymore now than then.
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The point of it was they didn't think of themselves as dirty even though they were filthy. Vince saw himself as a good family man who loved his kids and was trying to save his marriage while cheating all the time. A big part of the show was the rationalizations of the dirty cops. And even the mostly good ones had plenty of flaws. The show would suck you into rooting for Vince. I found it fascinating.
 
Waquoit said:
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like a show about a dirty cop anymore now than then.
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Palatine said:
The point of it was they didn't think of themselves as dirty even though they were filthy. Vince saw himself as a good family man who loved his kids and was trying to save his marriage while cheating all the time. A big part of the show was the rationalizations of the dirty cops. And even the mostly good ones had plenty of flaws. The show would suck you into rooting for Vince. I found it fascinating.
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I haven't seen The Shield, but we just finished The Wire for the first time and thought it was still incredibly relevant and insightful with respect to cops, almost all of whom were dirty in one respect or another, despite the fact that most of them thought they were doing the right thing most of the time.
 
nelsonmuntz said:
There was a thread about this a year ago, but I am game.

1) Mad Men - if you don't have it at in your top 5, I recommend you watch it.
2) Sopranos - inconsistent, but it's best was better than any other show's best.
3) Hill Street Blues - gets extra credit because of how crappy TV dramas were when HSB went on the air.
4) Better Call Saul
5) Game of Thrones
6) The Wire
7) Breaking Bad
8) Homeland - needs to wrap it up soon or it will drop off the list. Running out of plots.
9) Westworld - huge potential
10) Narcos

Not making the list:

Doesn't qualify:
Band of Brothers - Awesome, but not a dramatic series. It is a miniseries

One hit wonders:

True Detective
Bloodline

Both crushed it in season one, and face-planted in season two.

Don't qualify (haven't seen them):

The Americans
Sherlock
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The post above was from April 2017. My re-ranking:

1) Mad Men - if you don't have it at in your top 5, I recommend you watch it.
2) Sopranos - inconsistent, but it's best was better than any other show's best.
3) Hill Street Blues - gets extra credit because of how crappy TV dramas were when HSB went on the air.
4) Better Call Saul
5) Narcos - It is amazing that a true story is presented in such a great dramatic fashion. The writing is so strong that they can swap out key characters, move locations, and the story is still compelling, even in subtitles.
6) The Wire - great show, a little preachy and inconsistent.
7) Homeland - Knew when to wrap it up, and ended really strong.
8) Game of Thrones - I re-watched start to finish, probably for the last time. The peak of the show was the beginning of Episode 10 of Season 6, and then the show goes on a gradual decline. I really noticed it when I watched all the episodes back to back. Season 7 and especially Season 8 have great moments, but the story seems thin and incomplete. Those should have both been 10 episode seasons.
9) Breaking Bad
10) Fargo - This show doesn't try to be the greatest show in the history of television, but it is just really well written and Season 2 was particularly good.


off the list:

Westworld - just too complicated and weird.

Just misses:

West Wing - Sorkin literally changed how TV was written because of this show. Great characters, great stories, great ending. Some Sorkin issues like sexist portrayals of female characters keep it out of the top 10.

Big Love - With Harry Dean Stanton it was one of the Top 10 shows of all time. Big drop when he left.

Boardwalk Empire - same here with William Pitt. Drop off wasn't as dramatic, but it definitely missed something without him.

ER - very good show, well written, but it has a lot of issues that network shows have such as the characters look kind of crazy if you watch reruns of the show a lot for a few weeks. Every single doctor should have been fired multiple times.

Peaky Blinders - Really, really good. Just misses Top 10

Halt and Catch Fire - small show that was excellent, entertaining and thoughtful

Turn - one of best period pieces I have ever seen. Small budget can be distracting at times.


What happened?

True Detective and Bloodline - great first season, then face plant.

Boss - incredible first season, solid second season, then random cancellation.
 
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I really loved OZ, literally anything that could possibly happen in a prison system does. Just love the characters and the interactions with each other. Brutal show. Homeland I fell off toward the final seasons, Walking Dead i've stopped watching as well. American Horror Story's first 2 seasons were amazing and then it's consistently put out mediocre season after season after.
 
not even close to knowing much about fiction on the small or big screens, other than cartoons, but some shows i do like, in no order, are
party of 5, rockford, law and order, dragnet, 90210, 6 feet under, jeeves and wooster, cowboy bebop, twilight zone, gunsmoke.

that perry mason show is also pretty good. very atmospheric for old timey LA.
bonanza, (pauses to look back at other posts, also hitting 'search,' - not finding much on stacker and imdb lists, most i've never heard of much less seen...)
streets of frisco, alfred hitchcock, friday night lights, psych, scrubs,
i claudius, freeks and geeks, this is us, blue bloods, mtv had some good ones, too.
apparently, that old hbo show arliss is considered a sitcom.
 
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of course, NCIS Los Angeles, absolutely rules. needed to be mentioned in it's own post.
99613_D0818b.jpg

now, that's an A team.
 
aaacccckkkk! forgot an all time fave!


the original. accept no substitutes. i like saying 'whoh, fat.' lol.
sometimes, when annoyed by the question, i like to say that my name is kam fong.
 
storrsroars said:
Solid all the way through: Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire (although Jimmy got comically bad), Hill St. Blues, Deadwood, Orange Is the New Black
Still going strong: Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror
Brain Candy: 24, any GoT episode with no dragons and lots of Peter Dinklage.
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After 5 years, I think the only 2 shows I'd add to my tier 1 would be Better Call Saul and Ozark.

Peaky Blinders just misses as it started straining credulity in later seasons, but the acting remains top-notch. Tom Hardy remains brilliant in this. Homeland suffered the same fate regarding credulity. I'd like to add Mindhunter, but with only 2 seasons, it doesn't speak to sustained excellence (albeit an arbitrary cutoff as Deadwood only had 3). And as far as individual seasons go, S1 of Brockmire would be a top 10. Unfortunately the first episode was so damned good it could only go down from there. And it mostly stopped being funny and became just weird in later seasons.

There are a bunch of others I watched all the way through: GoT, Ms. Maisel, Narcos, Stranger Things, House of Cards, The Crown, among them, where I wouldn't do a rewatch. I probably should go back and restart Justified. I don't even recall why I dropped it the first time as I recall thinking it was solid.
 
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I really liked Better Call Saul, but I cannot fathom ranking it ahead of Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad created both the universe and the 'juice' that allowed the producers/writers/showrunners to make Better Call Saul. The latter had much fuller character development and considered the world in a deeper way - great!
Breaking Bad though was non-stop riveting entertainment and brought the cliffhanger/escape to an all-time high. I don't need to evaluate based on liking Kim Wexler & Jimmy McGill better than Walter White & Jessie Pinkman or the complexities of the character arc. There may never be a prequel as good as Better Call Saul, its the best in my opinion, yet like any prequel it simply doesn't exist without the original.
 
Band of Brothers - by a wide margin. It was excellent television.

Reacher - True (er) to the books than the movies this was a breath of fresh air for fans of the novels. Fast paced and exciting with strong supporting characters.

Game of Thrones - Plot twists and unexpected character deaths made this water cooler tv.

Burn Notice - It was unique in its approach of a burned spy. Michael’s competence and matter of fact voice overs explaining the how’s and why’s have it a vaguely documentary feel. I recently watched it and it still holds up great. It faded a bit at the end as it searched for new conspiracies but the series finale was excellent.
 
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Dogdeacon said:
I really liked Better Call Saul, but I cannot fathom ranking it ahead of Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad created both the universe and the 'juice' that allowed the producers/writers/showrunners to make Better Call Saul. The latter had much fuller character development and considered the world in a deeper way - great!
Breaking Bad though was non-stop riveting entertainment and brought the cliffhanger/escape to an all-time high. I don't need to evaluate based on liking Kim Wexler & Jimmy McGill better than Walter White & Jessie Pinkman or the complexities of the character arc. There may never be a prequel as good as Better Call Saul, its the best in my opinion, yet like any prequel it simply doesn't exist without the original.
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Isn't the original dependent upon the prequel?
 
Chin Diesel said:
Isn't the original dependent upon the prequel?
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I remain surprised that they elected to give away a lot of the ending in BBad in the final season of BCS. Not much has been said about this, but Br Ba is nearly completely spoiled if future viewers watch every season of Saul first. I'm obviously personally fine with this having seen Br Ba first AND I think they would have had to majorly sacrifice the BCS narrative if they set out to assiduously avoid any spoilers to Br Ba, it would have been close to impossible. And that happens to further define why BCS can't trump Br Ba because it heavily relies on the ensuing narrative drama.

Maybe you could watch every season but the last of Saul (or more specifically you switch to Br Ba the moment the switch to Saul occurs as Kim dumps him?) and then all of Br Ba, El Camino and finish off with the last season of BCS. Could be an interesting project to try and splice together the two shows in a chronological & no major spoilers box set.
 
storrsroars said:
After 5 years, I think the only 2 shows I'd add to my tier 1 would be Better Call Saul and Ozark.

Peaky Blinders just misses as it started straining credulity in later seasons, but the acting remains top-notch. Tom Hardy remains brilliant in this. Homeland suffered the same fate regarding credulity. I'd like to add Mindhunter, but with only 2 seasons, it doesn't speak to sustained excellence (albeit an arbitrary cutoff as Deadwood only had 3). And as far as individual seasons go, S1 of Brockmire would be a top 10. Unfortunately the first episode was so damned good it could only go down from there. And it mostly stopped being funny and became just weird in later seasons.

There are a bunch of others I watched all the way through: GoT, Ms. Maisel, Narcos, Stranger Things, House of Cards, The Crown, among them, where I wouldn't do a rewatch. I probably should go back and restart Justified. I don't even recall why I dropped it the first time as I recall thinking it was solid.
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You should watch Halt and Catch Fire if you haven't already and Rectify, two of the best shows I've ever seen.

Succession and some other HBO shows not mentioned are really good but I find that not many people have seen the two above shows I named and that's a shame.

Watching Snowfall currently and it's pretty damn good.
 
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superjohn said:
You should watch Halt and Catch Fire if you haven't already and Rectify, two of the best shows I've ever seen.

Succession and some other HBO shows not mentioned are really good but I find that not many people have seen the two above shows I named and that's a shame.

Watching Snowfall currently and it's pretty damn good.
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I watched most of H&CF, mostly because of Mackenzie Davis. It was mostly good, but I didn't think great. I know I've seen at least one episode of Rectify. Can't recall why it didn't take, so I'll take another look. I don't sub to any premium channels, so anything there I'll wait until it hits Prime/Netflix/Hulu.
 
storrsroars said:
I watched most of H&CF, mostly because of Mackenzie Davis. It was mostly good, but I didn't think great. I know I've seen at least one episode of Rectify. Can't recall why it didn't take, so I'll take another look. I don't sub to any premium channels, so anything there I'll wait until it hits Prime/Netflix/Hulu.
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Might want to give Snowfall a try on Hulu. I'm on season 3 and it's a lot of fun.

Rectify is a real slow burn. I wasn't sure it was for me in the beginning but stuck with it and was blown away. It's unlike anything else I've seen on television.
 
Anyone remember "The Following" that was on Fox about 10 years ago for 3 seasons? Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy. It was about a crazy cult, I can't believe it was on network TV. Nuts, although it fell off in the last season. I love Breaking Bad and Ozark, but The Following was another level of depravity.

en.m.wikipedia.org

The Following - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
Sopranos
Breaking Bad
GoT
The Wire
6 Feet Under
Sons of Anarchy
Dexter
Mad Men
Deadwood
Tied: Fargo / Ozark
 
superjohn said:
You should watch Halt and Catch Fire if you haven't already and Rectify, two of the best shows I've ever seen.

Succession and some other HBO shows not mentioned are really good but I find that not many people have seen the two above shows I named and that's a shame.

Watching Snowfall currently and it's pretty damn good.
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I would second Halt and Catch Fire. Absolutely oustanding.
 
superjohn said:
You should watch Halt and Catch Fire if you haven't already and Rectify, two of the best shows I've ever seen.

Succession and some other HBO shows not mentioned are really good but I find that not many people have seen the two above shows I named and that's a shame.

Watching Snowfall currently and it's pretty damn good.
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Going to third this. I actually think I watched that show because of an earlier @nelsonmuntz suggestion in this thread.
 
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