I gave up cable about 18 months ago, which means that I've been able to "hone in" on certain shows that peak my interest. Here's a somewhat complete list of all the shows I try and keep up with on a regular basis, that are still on the air: Game of Thrones - Simply the best show on television, bar none. I'll admit that this third season has been slower paced, but that's due to splitting book 3 into 2 seasons. It's still the measuring stick. The Walking Dead - Despite the turnover at the top from a creative standpoint, this show manages to march (walk?) on. If anything, it simply continually raises the stakes. Like GoT, you can count on being surprised. Archer - The smartest and wittiest comedy on television today. One of my favorites. Breaking Bad - Who knew that Brian Cranston was capable of this level of acting? The train sequence from last season remains one of the most intense pieces of television that I've ever watched. Dr. Who - While I still miss Tennant, I've enjoyed Matt Smith's take on the Doctor, and I'm really curious as to where they take things after this season. Vikings - Suffers a bit from some plodding pacing, but the action is top-notch and in some ways this is a more realistic take on medieval action. Mad Men - Mad Men has been sort of bonkers this season. Mrs. VO is a huge fan of Don Draper (what woman isn't?), so I've reluctantly accepted I'm going to have to watch this show. It helps that it's very well acted and maybe the best written show on TV. Sons of Anarchy - Biker Shakespeare. Louie - Probably the most creative comedy on television. Arrested Develpment - May slide higher at some point. Right now I'm in the middle of a binge. Modern Family - This is where my list starts to fall off a little bit. This, like several other shows below, were once great shows that have now fallen into the "very good" category. Dexter - See above. I still have a soft spot for the Dark Defender, but I'm about two seasons behind. The John Lithgow season remains a highlight in my opinion. Wilfred - I still don't know if this show is brilliant or stupid. Maybe some of both. Californication - It's slipped a little bit, and I really feel that like the other Showtime shows, it's a little long in the tooth. I'm ready for them to wrap things up. Hell on Wheels - Not a bad little show. It's nice to have a Western to watch on a regular basis. The League - If you haven't checked this out and you play fantasy football, it's certainly worth your time. Community - Really fell off a bit after Harmon left. I've loved some of the more adventurous episodes. Parks and Rec - Ron Swanson. It's Always Sunny - This show has gotten a little bit out of control. It started relatively serious but it's devolved quite a bit over the years. Still a fun show to turn to when drinking. New Girl - Yep. I watch New Girl. Castle - Nathan Fillion is still the man, and although Castle doesn't stray much from the procedural format, it's still entertaining in small doses. Your mileage will vary, however. Weeds - Should have ended years ago. I'm just watching to watch at this point. There's a few shows I've left off my list. I owe it to myself to finish 30 Rock. Veep has been somewhat entertaining after Game of Thrones on HBO. You'll also notice that these are shows that are all still currently in production. Let's talk about my list of historically great television shows: The X-Files - The standard bearer. Both of the next two shows on my list are more technically savvy, but this was a show that I was a huge fan of, and despite the missteps of later seasons remains a personal favorite. I'm really looking forward to the remastered Blu Ray later this year. The Wire - Arguably the best television show in history. Literally no weak links in this one. The Sopranos - Really tough for me to slot this one after the wire, because I believe this show is responsible for the current television renaissance. Firefly - I hate Fox. Battlestar Galactica - Yes, this show got a little bit messy at the end. But that's the case with a lot of shows like this. So say we all. Deadwood - Best television western ever. Rome The Tudors - Here's where things start to fray a bit. I liked the Tudors, but it's not a show that I'm going to go out of my way to watch again. Big Love - Interesting show. Seinfeld - I'm sad to say that this show just doesn't hold up 15 to 20 years later. The laugh tracks are just obnoxious. Jericho - Such a great concept. Pretty poor execution. Smallville - The first 3 or 4 seasons are really good. Then they keep Lana around for way too long. Transformers - A trifecta of childhood shows. They aren't great but it was the 80s. A-Team Knight Rider Lost - I found this one a little bit confusing. I couldn't get into it. Lois & Clark - Oh Dean Cain. There's a bunch of shows that I haven't mentioned. Newsroom, West Wing, The Office (both versions), The Shield, Roswell, Kroll Show, Freaks & Geeks, Homeland, Justified, Party Down, Friday Night Lights, Revolution, The Clone Wars ... I've got a pretty big backlog of stuff I'd like to watch. Oh, I almost forgot. Mini Series. There's 4 really good ones that I've seen. Band of Brothers, Taken, The Stand, and John Adams. I want to see The Pacific and Generation Kill, but again I've got a pretty big backlog to get through.
Generally agree, but two shows that I'm enjoying at the moment from your mainstream channels are Person of Interest and Grimm. Neither are anywhere near the same level as Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy or The Wire (four of my favourites), but I still find them fun viewing and look forward to the next episode most weeks.
I think you took my post too serious... Ill simply have to disagree with your assessment on type casting. Sean Bean is the closest you can come to that argument, in that he has played a lot of knights... And as I said, the character Ned Stark is nothing like the other knights he has played. To that end, they're all different. I don't care if you don't like GOT either... I'll go right along enjoying the **** out of it.
I'm upgrading Raketo 9/10. Roxburgh's lead character, Cleaver Greene, reminds me of Hank Moody (Californiation)..... in a good way. Just discovered American TV (FOX) will be remaking it with Greg Kinnear in the lead role. I'm saying prematurely that there's no friggin' way this will match the original and that Kinnear will pale sadly in comparison to Richard Roxburgh who was phenomenal and worth watching for him alone. Watching Dead Set now. British R rated zombie mini-series about a zombie outbreak, focused on a fictitious Big Brother cast trying to cope with it at the Big Brother compound. Quality short show, and this is from a horror fan. Gotta google "watch Dead Set online free" and sift through the links till you find the appropriate one since ProjectFreeTV doesn't carry it. This is a quick watch at roughly 2.5 hours total.
I am a huge tv show watcher. Currently with 1.2TB's of shows on my drives. If your looking for the latest in very good shows there are 2 that are just wrapping up their short first seasons now that have been phenominal. Orphan Black: [video=youtube;ZrOYfbdOEbU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrOYfbdOEbU[/video] Bates Motel: [video=youtube;7lCWKKNGiKs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lCWKKNGiKs[/video]
2 shows that should be awesome come fall: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: [video=youtube;T3T-evQZiQo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3T-evQZiQo[/video] Almost Human: [video=youtube;ykwxg534yAw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwxg534yAw[/video]
I rarely get into new shows, typically no more than 1 per year at max. mostly because I either watch sports or annoying kids shows with my daughters. -Game of Thrones (10/10) -Battlestar Galactica (10/10) -Firefly -Big Bang Theory reaching way back -Buffy the Vampire Slayer -X-files trying to watch the new show Defiance, but the actors are pretty weak at best, storyline hasn't really improved either
I don't watch too much television outside of sports honestly however my favorite shows currently running would be the Walking Dead, How I Met Your Mother, The League, Californication, and The Big Bang Theory. I also really enjoy Breaking Bad but I'm about a season and a half behind. Shows that aren't currently running that I enjoy would be Blue Mountain State (fantastic if you enjoy football and raunchy comedies), The Office, Friends, and Prison Break (excellent during season one and two but declines in season three and four). I'm probably forgetting a few but those are what come to mind.
Revolution, The Walking Dead, Mad Men, The Americans, American Horror Story, Veep, The Office (farewell), Parks & Recreation, Mindy Project, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, The Middle, The Simpsons. They still manage to crank out some great episodes sometimes. And at this point its as if their family, so even mediocre ones are enjoyable.
List your favorite shows & mini series suits ( best of them all right now) breaking bad the newsroom castle body of proof (although season 3 sucks so far, but 1-2 have been great) the following (great so far only 4 episodes in though) Life men at work new girl boss the glades modern family Big Bang Theory Gesendet von meinem iPad 4 mit Tapatalk HD
yup, on par with Breaking Bad for overall quality, although I might put my enjoyment factor for Suits ahead of recent Breaking Bad. .... and it's back July 16th woot woot.
I only watch a few things regularly Breaking Bad Walking Dead Dexter Game of Thrones Bates Motel Suits (although I'm way behind)
Nice to see Top of the Lake nominated for 5 Emmys.... including Outstanding Miniseries and Outstanding Writing, Directing, Lead Actress, and Supporting Actor for Miniseries.
SyFy's Being Human is a new one my list. Its a remake of a BBC show, that I haven't seen. Its about vampire and a werewolf trying to live a normal life, and rent a house that ends up being haunted by female ghost. Its often funny but also a thriller too. Its well acted. Its really hard to describe it, because i've never seen another show that has this kind of feel. The vampires aren't sparkly ******* either. There's a lot of killing. The werewolf doesn't turn into a pretty wolf so teen girls get all aflutter. In fact, its not a show for teens at all. The cast is not filled with models, most of the people are just normal looking, so it looks like a realistically populated world. Caught it on Netflix, I recommend it.
I saw it on Netflix and was intrigued but thought it might be another dumb teen drama. I might give it a go. Probably do the BBC version though.
Anyone else watch The Lost Room? Creatively interesting mini series/long movie. Got an 8.2 IMDb rating by 15k users. About a detective who investigates a mysterious motel room that acts as a portal to an alternate universe of which he loses his young daughter to. He exhausts himself searching for powerful objects from the room owned by its "occupant" that all have unique special abilities which he uses to try and find her.
Its definitely not a teen drama. Lucky, said he liked the BBC version, so that's why I gave this US one a try.
I liked it, and have no idea why it wasn't picked up for a second or extended season, especially considering some of the crap shows that SyFy renew. It definitely had potential to carry on for a few seasons.
Love Louis Litt in Suits, him and Donna are probably the best characters in the show, plus it helps that Donna is hot...seriously hot.
I love a lot of American shows, and in many ways they're superior to a lot of what we get on British TV, but that's the one thing I dislike about a lot of US shows. When even the "ugly" girl/guy is good looking, it doesn't make for realistic TV. If you like Being Human, I can recommend another show that the same BBC channel did that's in the same supernatural mould. It's called The Fades, and was unfortunately not renewed after one season (mainly because the channel kept Being Human over it), but it's well worth a watch if you can find it. It won some awards, including after it was cancelled it won the biggest British TV one, and people over here still complain to the BBC about them now renewing it. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772379/
The only thing I don't like about the BBC is their seasons are too damn short and often inconsistent in when new seasons come out....I want my new Sherlock and Luther and I want it now!!!!!!!
I know, 3 episodes every 18 months or so is ridiculous, and often we don't know when it's going to restart a new season until a few months before. 13 episodes a season, and one season a year, has always been, to me, the perfect length for a TV show.
My two favorite things about BBC shows vs US shows, is that you guys aren't scared to not have exposition. You let your audience figure things out for themselves. The second thing is like on Sherlock, how you'll experiment with things like the words on the screen and how the cinematography is often stunning.
I agree mostly, but you've also got to remember that in Sherlock and Luther you're talking about two of our better shows...the majority of others are a long way off that quality. Some of the best recent shows that the BBC have aired were bought in from Scandanavia, and have influenced the likes of Luther, eg The Killing, The Bridge, Wallender. Those shows made the BBC take a chance on Sherlock and Luther, because before that they were pretty "safe" in their programming. The Scandanavian shows, as well as The Wire, Sopranos and the like, made them realise the audience would accept, and wanted, more challenging shows.
yeah, Donna's awesome. For me, Harvey has the most magnetic presence, with Donna & Louis accenting impressively.
What about Rake? That show is phenomenal. There's a lot of great BBC shows, and if it's between BBC or the American version I'll watch the BBC one every time. Mainstream American stuff is for s***. I won't even turn on ABC, NBC, CBS, or FOX anymore unless it's for sports or a swimsuit pageant. It's like it's all geared toward an audience with the equivalency of a GED education and sub 100 IQ. Where'd the goddam English language disappear to? Thank goodness for cable.
I thought I'd missed one there, I'd never heard of Rake...so I googled, it's Australian. Not something I've seen over here yet. Of the shows that have been re-made for American TV, I do prefer the BBC versions of Life on Mars, Being Human, Sherlock (c'mon CBS, just because you called it Elementary doesn't hide that it's a rip-off of Sherlock!), etc, but always thought that was because I was biased towards the original. Original American shows are every bit as good or bad as British ones. What you say about the main channels dumbing down of their shows is exactly what we complain about over here for the majority of shows shown on BBC, ITV, Channel 4, 5 and Sky.
Falling Skies, Defiance (season ended) & the finale of Burn Notice. -Sent from my TMO Samsung Galaxy S4
Shows I take the time to watch. In order of greatness... 1.Boardwalk Empire 2.Game of Thrones 3.Bates Motel 4.Small Town Security!
I've just started watching Justified, couple of episodes into the second season, and I'm enjoying it. Another one to add to my list of favourite shows.
I'll do a more thorough post later, but i have to add my "C'mon, man!" to the notion that Nedd Stark and Boromir have ANYTHING to do with each other. It's like saying Al Pacino is a one-note gangster all the time because is obviously the same as
Graceland has been pretty good so far IMO. Ditto for the psychological detective/serial killer thriller The Fall on BBC Two. Strong show right there. If you care about substance & realism I'd put this on the must watch list. Really enjoy how it features dual protagonists- one of the serial killer who doubles as a husband/father/grief counselor and the other of the sharp savvy female detective (Gillian Anderson) tracking him down. It does a fantastic job personalizing the serial killer with the viewer and submerses us into his daily life and world. Both lead characters have a strong stage presence. Show is well written, well acted, moves at a solid pace, and keeps the viewer's attention glued to the screen.
List your favorite shows & mini series Speaking of BBC drama, BROADCHURCH debuts on BBC America in a couple of weeks. I've heard VERY good things and have my DVR set for it.
