Recommend a new show?

Brwned

Downloaded a few ones recently but not sure which one to start, so feel free to chip in with recommendations from the list lads:

Alexanderplatz
American Gothic
Boss
Brideshead Revisited
Cidade Dos Homens
Our Friends in the North
Oz
Riget
Sons of Anarchy
Supernatural
The Singing Detective
Twin Peaks
Underbelly
West Wing

I'd be pretty amazed if I ever get through all of them. Still yet to watch either of the Sopranos or the Wire but that's not for now. Watched the first series of Six Feet Under and it was very good, and I'll certainly finish it but at the same time I'm not really in any hurry to get through it.

duffer

The West Wing is fantastic, can't recommend it highly enough.

Also, your list is missing Deadwood.

kps88

Yep I'd go with West Wing from that list. Halfway through season five right now. First two seasons were right up there with Wire and Sopranos for me. Fantastic rapid fire dialogue.

I'd put The Shield in there as well.

duffer

Season's 6 and 7 of The West Wing are a real improvemnt on 5 for me, I really envy you watching them for the 1st time!

The Shield is also a very good show.

kps88

That's good to know. So far, 5 has been the weakest by quite some distance for me. The humour and witty dialogue has disappeared completely, I suppose that was all Sorkin's doing.

evra

Brideshead Revisited is wonderful, television doesn't get much more worthwhile than this.

R_Kelly

The West Wing, without any shadow of doubt, I'm going to rewatch it again soon, it's fantastic.

Guy Incognito

West Wing is excellent.

I would definitely Forbrydelsen. Except no imitations. It's Danish and probably the best crime drama I've seen in years.

Wowi

My girlfriend watches both. Think Bones is a decent series (although I haven't watched much of it), but as far as I know One Tree Hill is considered a chick-series. The one guy I know who watches it has "PS I Love You" as his favourite film and generally loves chick flicks.

gambit28

Luck!

VeevaVee

Isn't West Wing hospitally? Don't think I'd be down with that.
I need to choose from continuing with 24 (I'm upto season 3), The Wire or The Shield? Are they all quite similar?

R_Kelly

You're thinking of Green Wing.

West Wing is The White House.

jveezy

24 will continue to be good through season 5. They laid an egg in season 6 and the last two are pretty good with a few lull periods.

The Shield is probably the only cop show that stands close to The Wire, but it's a cop drama and not a docudrama like The Wire is.

All three are worth your time IMO.

Cina

I was the same with Six Feet Under. Really liked the show but it's not the sort that I will revel in watching an episode every night.

Regarding the above, quite a few there I haven't seen. I hear Boss is great. West Wing and Oz are brilliant, 2 of the best you'll watch, and obviously Twin Peaks is too. Other than that, meh, dunno.


What? The Wire isn't a docu drama in any way. The characters for the most part aren't based on real life characters in Baltimore city, they're there to depict the sort of people in the city, but the likes of Mc Nulty, Stringer, Bulk are all built for the show itself. There's also nothing in it at all to suggest it has a documentary style to it. Very weird way to describe the show.

Zen

Currently airing - Homeland, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Killing(original obviously), Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire all stand up. British ones too like This is England, Sherlock and Luther are all up there too, but obviously shorter and watching all 3 will take up less time than a full season than any of the others mentioned clearly. Thought American Horror Story was something, not exactly amazing or anything, but a unique in it's own way TV show.

Going into the past theres fucking gazillions, so many so that I'll just name some hidden gems or well not so hidden but stuff that isn't The Wire etc - Freaks and Geeks, My So-Called Life, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me, SportsNight, The Tick...all short lived.

Actually heres a list of British stuff y'all should watch:
Brass Eye
Boys from the Blackstuff
Nathan Barley
The Thick of It
Smileys People/Tinker Tailor
State of Play
Spaced
GBH
Cracker
Prime Suspect
Alan Patridge
Our Friends In The North
Talking Heads
Queer As Folk
This Life
Teachers
Cathy Come Home

British TV is so criminally underrated in the grand scheme of things, most of these dared to go places American TV wouldn't even go near prior to HBO. Clearly we were an influence on HBOs thinking to taking Drama on TV to the next level with the added bonus of far bigger budgets. Parkinson also destroys all the American talk show hosts.

Mr Anderson

Just about to finish Arrested Development, only got 2 episodes left to watch. Started watching "Suits" on Dave. first 3 episodes are good anyways. Worth checking out imo. Overview robbed from wiki is in the spoiler below.



Next one I'll stream online will probably be Homeland

Randall Flagg

You really have a hard on for UK TV. ITs not that good... Yes the yanks have an advantage due to cash etc... but they do and there is nothing you can do about that. American TV is a million miles ahead of UK.

And Parky hasnt been good for about 20 years. I would take at least 5 or 6 US hosts over his come back a few years ago

Zen

How many of them shows have you watched again? Like 3 episodes in total I assume?(Probably more, but by one of the posts in a previous thread, it clearly isn't much) Because you are in quite a small minority if you think most of them aren't good.

I have a hard on for quality is all, British, American, Danish, Spanish, Italian, I don't care, quality is quality and that's all I care about. But I don't have to mention American stuff, because most others will anyway, I'm glad to see Brwned taking an interest in British stuff though.

evra

Just finished watching Homeland and I thoroughly enjoyed it, of course it suffered from the same fault as most good shows: an incredibly annoying female lead (Carrie), but other than that it was great.

kps88

I forced myself through 5 episodes of Homeland and finally just stopped. Found it too cliched and full of unlikeable characters.

Girish II

The Shield is just too good. 7 seasons in all

jveezy

Hold the phone. I just now saw this, but you are dead wrong on that. Absolutely dead wrong. Jump into the Wire thread if you actually care to discuss this further.

Edit: Link for you The Wire

Edit II: Docudrama is definitely the wrong term, but I still don't understand how you can say that the characters aren't based on real life characters. They're almost entirely based on real life characters.

gooDevil

Deadwood's first two seasons are great, 3 was a bit odd but still good.

Twin Peaks is my favorite, the Wire is brilliant as well.

Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes too.

Randall Flagg

I downloaded the 1st 2 epsidoes from the following 3 shows -

Carnivale
Band of Brothers
Firefly


I have high hopes for all of them

Cina

They're all great, the problem is that Carnivale and Firefly were very prematurely cancelled. BoB is one of the greatest 10 episodes of television ever made.

I watched the first episode of Luck last night, it's confusing, lots of characters being thrown around, but it's directed by Michael Mann and as you'd expect it's very stylish and well made. Great cast too. I have high hopes for it.

Zen

Always takes a while to get to grips with HBO shows and their characters really...Game of Thrones was by far the worst for it though, when the second season starts, I still probably won't know everyone and who they are with.

Cina

GoT was fine for me because of the books. But yes, monstrous cast, and it'll only get bigger.

HBO do love making shows with big casts in them that are slow burners at first, but you also know they'll probably end up being great after a few episodes. I feel that Luck has big potential.

Smores

Band of Brothers is by far the best series I've watched, it gets better with every viewing as well as you slowly come to grips with every character. Powerful stuff.

Watched first episode of the John Adams series last night, never heard of it before which isn't a good sign but I thought it was excellent

King_Eric

First episodes of Carnivale are a bit slow though but don't be put off by that, it's a great series which was cancelled way too soon in my opinion.

mboRa ndomHer0723

Just started watching Portlandia which has been pretty funny so far. Anyone watch that show?

Mr Anderson

Watched all the first series of Suits. Very good show tbh.

Brwned

Have to thank you for this suggestion, such high praise was what swung it for me and it truly is a majestic piece of work. Never thought I'd like a period drama but it's just brilliant - poetic, poignant, picturesque...perfect. 2 episodes away from finishing it and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Randall Flagg

Update - Band of Brothers was outstanding.

I have watched the 1st 5 episodes of Canivale. I think I like it...it is interesting anyways.

I use a lot of public transport so that explains how I get through these shows quite fast. I still keep up with Walking Dead, Fringe and Family guy at the same time

Snow

Carnivale is on my list after Deadwood. Walking Dead is easy enough to keep up with. It's not been that many shit episodes in the grand scheme of things and the comics are promising so I'm still hopeful it will bounce back.

Fringe is a weird one. I like it but I don't keep up with it. I don't watch it for months then I see 10 episodes in a row.

Family Guy I've lost hope with but still cling to it hoping to get something that might become a classic moment.

I'm going to recommend Archer. Great show.
Eastbound and Down has just started a new season. That's a fun one.
Suits has been good. Seen 3 episodes. These types of shows usually don't appeal to me.

Has anyone been watching Napoleon Dynamite? I like the movie but I had little expectations towards the show. It's been fine so far. First two episodes at least.

James Parkin

Gold Rush Alaska season 2

They just got proper dicked over in episode 1

Mr Anderson

I forgot about that, think I watched some of series 2, possibly the first 2-3 episodes. It's good stuff.

Makki

Just watched the pilot of Breaking Bad. Was good, interesting premise to build the show on.

R.Nilsson7

FCBarca

Such an awesome series, wow...I really miss that series, cancelled far too soon...So much of it is fantastic, from the casting, the story, the performances, the cinematography, lighting, etc...I mean, you could go on & on, it was David Lynch good

I have to say, I've gotten into this new US series Awake with Jason Isaacs...Excellent cast and for a US series, it's had strong writing and performances...I just hope Jason is still coming back to the UK to continue with Case Histories

Cold_Boy

Supernatural
Supernatural
Supernatural