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Best dramatic series of all time (1 Viewer)

jdoggydogg

jdoggydogg

Footballguy
In the Boardwalk Empire thread, I asserted that BE is already poised to be one of the best shows ever. kupcho1 pointed out my hyperbole and asked if it wasn't too soon to make that call. Since I am a guy that often types without thinking, I'm glad he asked it. I'll post a list based on categories - since it's hard to compare comedies with dramas.

Best dramatic series of all time:

1. The Wire

2. The Sopranos

3. Deadwood

4. Breaking Bad

5. Mad Men

6. Six Feet Under

7. Homicide: Life on the Streets

8. Hill Street Blues

9. Boardwalk Empire

10. Twin Peaks

Honorable mentions:

NYPD Blue

Oz

Rome

Thirtysomething

Law and Order

All in the Family*

* I know that All in the Family was sold as a comedy, but that show did drama better than most drama series

 
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Ok, The Shield may not exactly be high brow entertainment, but it is a ton better than Oz, and has one of the best closing seasons of any show on record.

And I love watching Oz and it doesn't always get the credit it deserves for being the "first".

Luke Perry's ghost is 1,000x cornier than anything in The Shield.

 
jdoggydogg said:
Law and Order
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The quality of that franchise is sort of all over the place. I watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order: SVU (or, as Chris Moltisanti would put it, Law and Order: SUV) last night, and I couldn't get over how bad that particular spin-off is compared to the "main" franchise.
 
Boardwalk isn't there yet.

Compare it to the first four episodes of Deadwood, which may have been the best consecutive four hours of television in 30 years. Absolutely blows Boardwalk out of the water.

The West Wing deserves an honorable.

 
good list. Mad Men is just as strong as ever after 4 seasons, I have it a notch below The Wire at #2.

Boardwalk Empire has started off good, but I don't see the greatness.

 
IvanKaramazov said:
jdoggydogg said:
Law and Order
Click to expand...
The quality of that franchise is sort of all over the place. I watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order: SVU (or, as Chris Moltisanti would put it, Law and Order: SUV) last night, and I couldn't get over how bad that particular spin-off is compared to the "main" franchise.
Click to expand...
SVU is also the creppiest, sleaziest thing ever put on network television.I detect a serious anti-genre bias in the original list.
 
Although it suffered greatly in later seasons, 24 would be on my list.

Also, Dead Like Me, Freaks & Geeks and Carnivale.

 
1. The Wire

2. The Sopranos

3. Six Feet Under

4. The Shield (I dont care how corny it was at times... this show was edge of your seat entertainment)

5. Dexter (Potential to move up)

6. Breaking Bad

7. Deadwood

8. ROME

9. The Tudors

10. Homicide

 
Sopranos

Wire

Breaking Bad

Six Feet Under

X-Files

Carnivale

Rescue Me

Dexter

Miami Vice

The Shield (jdoggy, hai)

Lost had potential in its early seasons to be here, but overall, no.

House -- same. started out awesome. meh these days.

 
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1. West Wing

2. Hill Street Blues

3. Mad Men

4. Twin Peaks

5. LA Law

6. ER

7. LOST

8. X-Files

9. Battlestar Galactia

10. Band of Brothers

that is all I got. I haven't seen the Wire or seen enough of the Sopranos to put it on the list

edited to add last three listed

 
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1. Northern Exposure

2. Deadwood

3. Six Feet Under

4. The Waltons

5. Dead Like Me

6. Brothers & Sisters

7. Carnivale

8. Dexter

9. Rescue Me

10. Angels in America

Honorable mention:

Men of a Certain Age, Weeds, Sopranos, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, My So Called Life, Hill Street Blues

 
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I love Boardwalk Empire, but I wouldn't include a series that hasn't even finished one season yet.

My list starts

1a. The Wire

1b. The Shield

1c. Mad Men

 
1. The Wire

2. Mad Men

3. Battlestar Galactica

4. X-Files

5. Buffy

6. Band of Brothers

7. NYPD Blue

8. Northern Exposure

9. Deadwood

10. My So Called Life (too short)

11. House

Also an honorable mention to John from Cincinnati. I know everyone else hated it, but I really wanted it to continue. I thought it was really intriguing and I wanted to see it develop. Oh well.

 
I like Boardwalk Empire, but its a little premature to crown it so highly so soon.

My top 10 is very similar to the J-Dogg's top-10 though.

1. Breaking Bad

2. Deadwood

3. Mad Men

4. Six Feet Under...best finale ever.

5. The Sopranos

6. The Wire

7. 24...It would have been #1 if the it could have maintained the early seasons quality.

8. Dexter...like Carver said, it could move up.

9. Rescue Me...probably would have been higher 2 years ago.

10. The Shield

ETA: It wouldn't shock me if in a year or two, I was ready to move Boardwalk Empire and Justified into this group.

Also, about 2 years ago Weeds would have made the list for me, but, while I still enjoy it, its not up to this level.

 
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IvanKaramazov said:
jdoggydogg said:
Law and Order
Click to expand...
The quality of that franchise is sort of all over the place. I watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order: SVU (or, as Chris Moltisanti would put it, Law and Order: SUV) last night, and I couldn't get over how bad that particular spin-off is compared to the "main" franchise.
Click to expand...
Thoughts on L&O:UK? Strange. They're remaking the original scripts from the original franchise, just set in England. The episodes seem familiar & different at the same time.
 
Carver said:
Officer Pete Malloy said:
Can I just list 10 of the best ABC Afterschool Specials?
Click to expand...
If you could actually pull that off without googling... id be impressed greatly.
Click to expand...
The Boy Who Drank Too Much (Scott Baio)The Girl Who Played on the Boys Baseball Team (Jodie Foster)The Day My Kid Turned PunkI Was a HS NarcThe Girl With The Giant Boobs (I made that one up but they should have done one like that)Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack (Wendi Jo Sperber)MY Parents are Deaf (Rosanne Arquette)My Mom's Having a BabyPinball Orphans (Kristi McNichol)Something Something Duffy Moon
 
"ER" (up to the point where Dr. Romano is attacked by a helicopter)

"The West Wing" (up to the point where Sorkin left and all the characters turned into pod people)

"The Practice" (up to the point where the assistant DA was gunned down by an old lady)

"Star Trek: The Next Generation"

 
mon said:
1. Northern Exposure

2. Deadwood

3. Six Feet Under

4. The Waltons

5. Dead Like Me

6. Brothers & Sisters

7. Carnivale

8. Dexter

9. Rescue Me

10. Angels in America

Honorable mention:

Men of a Certain Age, Weeds, Sopranos, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, My So Called Life, Hill Street Blues
Click to expand...
Holy hell I can't believe you even like this show, let alone put it in a favorites list.I hear the working title was "Drama queen brothers and whiny #####ey sisters". I can't even believe this thing lasted past the pilot. Probably because it's an ABC production.

BTW, I'm sure this thread is just a ploy to drag out "The Wire - best show in the history of television" crowd.

 
In not particular order...

MadMen

Sopranos

NYPD Blue (the last couple of seasons really stank though)

Hill Street Blues

Rome (2 seasons only)

Lou Grant

Law and Order (original)

Twin Peaks (first season only)

ER

Adam-12

 
imo, it's impossible to compare network dramas to cable dramas.

Network drama's do not have anywhere near the artistic freedom of cable drama's. A cable drama is often a mini movie with a much better story arc, better sets, better production. TV dramas need to be formulatic (is this even a word, probably not) due to the networks needs to finish them in a certain time span, play over certain months, and first and foremost, be popular to a much wider audience so that it can sell advertising. That's just the way it is. Sopranos could take 2-3 years between 12 episode seasons. Grey's Anatomy does not have that luxury.

Soooooooo, in short, if you need to separate comedies from dramas, I think you need to further separate free television to pay television

 
PatsFanCT said:
mon said:
1. Northern Exposure

2. Deadwood

3. Six Feet Under

4. The Waltons

5. Dead Like Me

6. Brothers & Sisters

7. Carnivale

8. Dexter

9. Rescue Me

10. Angels in America

Honorable mention:

Men of a Certain Age, Weeds, Sopranos, Moonlighting, Twin Peaks, My So Called Life, Hill Street Blues
Click to expand...
Holy hell I can't believe you even like this show, let alone put it in a favorites list.I hear the working title was "Drama queen brothers and whiny #####ey sisters". I can't even believe this thing lasted past the pilot. Probably because it's an ABC production.

BTW, I'm sure this thread is just a ploy to drag out "The Wire - best show in the history of television" crowd.
Click to expand...
Great acting and great drama. Love Sally Field as the mom, who won an Emmy for her role. It has a lot of tenderness that many dramas lack these days. Big fan.
 
guru_007 said:
imo, it's impossible to compare network dramas to cable dramas. Network drama's do not have anywhere near the artistic freedom of cable drama's. A cable drama is often a mini movie with a much better story arc, better sets, better production. TV dramas need to be formulatic (is this even a word, probably not) due to the networks needs to finish them in a certain time span, play over certain months, and first and foremost, be popular to a much wider audience so that it can sell advertising. That's just the way it is. Sopranos could take 2-3 years between 12 episode seasons. Grey's Anatomy does not have that luxury.Soooooooo, in short, if you need to separate comedies from dramas, I think you need to further separate free television to pay television
Click to expand...
This is true.This is also the reason why every single network drama (AMC not withstanding) is just putrid, imo.
 
Looking at some of these lists, I've missed out on some really good television. There's not a single network or cable program being broadcast right now that I watch with any regularity. I loved The Sopranos, but I watched the whole thing on DVD -- never saw a regularly-broadcast episode. And I just now finished Season 1 of The Wire on Directv.

The point about cable dramas being completely different from network dramas makes a lot of sense. A lot of the stuff that makes what I've seen so good would never fly on network television.

 
fasteddie_21 said:
This is also the reason why every single network drama (AMC not withstanding) is just putrid, imo.
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putrid is a little strong. CSI, the original one, was very well done, imo. ER was good, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, hell even Law and Order at first.....it just over time, these things are overplayed, and fall into a huge rut. Another reason cable dramas have a huge edge, how many total episodes of Deadwood were made? Deadwood for my money was probably the best drama I've seen in the past decade, but even that show had a clunker here or there (like whenever they tried to get going on the widow story line).
 
Although many probably haven't seen it, Wire in the Blood should be on - if not at the top of - the list.

 
IvanKaramazov said:
jdoggydogg said:
Law and Order
Click to expand...
The quality of that franchise is sort of all over the place. I watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order: SVU (or, as Chris Moltisanti would put it, Law and Order: SUV) last night, and I couldn't get over how bad that particular spin-off is compared to the "main" franchise.
Click to expand...
Certainly. My entry would just cover the golden years of the show - like the first 5 to 10 years.
 
videoguy505 said:
Boardwalk isn't there yet.

Compare it to the first four episodes of Deadwood, which may have been the best consecutive four hours of television in 30 years. Absolutely blows Boardwalk out of the water.

The West Wing deserves an honorable.
Click to expand...
I love Deadwood, so I can't argue with that. Although part of my nomination goes to this fact: Boardwalk is setting up a franchise that, unless they really blow it, will probably create two or three years of great television.I loved The West Wing before it jumped the shark.

 
scoobygang said:
IvanKaramazov said:
jdoggydogg said:
Law and Order
Click to expand...
The quality of that franchise is sort of all over the place. I watched a couple of episodes of Law and Order: SVU (or, as Chris Moltisanti would put it, Law and Order: SUV) last night, and I couldn't get over how bad that particular spin-off is compared to the "main" franchise.
Click to expand...
SVU is also the creppiest, sleaziest thing ever put on network television.I detect a serious anti-genre bias in the original list.
Click to expand...
Which genre am I biased against? To clarify, I said: "I'll post a list based on categories - since it's hard to compare comedies with dramas." Meaning, I don't think dramas are better than comedies. I think to be fair, you need to have separate lists based on categories.

 
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