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The best drama in television history (2 Viewers)

I think this is the best drama of all time...

  • The Sopranos

    Votes: 24 9.8%

  • Breaking Bad

    Votes: 90 36.6%

  • The Wire

    Votes: 53 21.5%

  • Game of Thrones

    Votes: 39 15.9%

  • Mad Men

    Votes: 10 4.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 30 12.2%
  • Total voters
    246
I just started S6 of GoT (first watch) so I can't put it at the top but it's VERY good. IMO to say the best show, it has to be The Wire.   BB was awesome and probably my #2.  Sopranos was phenomenal as well, probably #3.  Haven't seen Mad Men so maybe I'm missing out but from everything I've heard I don't see how it can top The Wire.  

Now an entirely different conversation is which show is your favorite.....and my vote goes to Justified.  Wasn't the best show by any means but damn I loved that one. 

 
McJose said:
Very tough choice

But I took Mad Men by a hair over Breaking Bad.

Might not have anything to do with quality...just personal preference.
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If Mad Men ended after Season 5, I would put it near the top. But Season 6 was a letdown and Season 7 wasn't that good. I really disliked the ending

 
NewlyRetired said:
I ignored GOT because it is not done yet.  Out of the remaining, Breaking Bad barely nipped The Wire.  Breaking Bad also gets a side benefit of some great back story via Better Call Saul.

If GOT has a killer last season, it would likely be number 1 for me.
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this

 
Pole likely created by a 30-40 year old male.   I agree the newer stuff is more relevant to most people on this board though.  So I chose Breaking Bad.

Older ones...  House, ER, Law and Order,  Dallas,  CSI, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, 24, Hill Street Blues.   All of these were absolutely enormous in their time.

Also, I loved Ozark.

 
Brunell4MVP said:
Pole likely created by a 30-40 year old male.   I agree the newer stuff is more relevant to most people on this board though.  So I chose Breaking Bad.

Older ones...  House, ER, Law and Order,  Dallas,  CSI, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, 24, Hill Street Blues.   All of these were absolutely enormous in their time.

Also, I loved Ozark.
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Eh, I'm 51 and loved a lot of those shows growing up. But cable has allowed more recent shows to go places most of those shows didn't contemplate going. I'm comfortable saying none of the shows you cite would crack the OP's list.

 
Dismayed to see no Six Feet Under option, but oh well. 

For me, it is aways a photo finish between Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.  I will go with BB simply because it ended better (taking the final seasons of both in totality). 

None of those others in the poll are close to BB or Sopranos.  

 
Just finished watching BB a 3rd time as my wife never watched it.

She doesnt watch any shows and only cares for reality crap. Its been 3 days and she is still saying BB has left her feeling sad and empty. 

I think i go the wire, BB and six feet under.

Wire was real and raw. Never seen a show where i cared for so many characters. 

Six feet under just felt like you were watching a normal life drama of what people go through in ones life.

BB was gut wrenching but a lot of convenient things happened. Thankfully the writing and acting were top notch and didn't allow for that to distract. 

 
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badmojo1006 said:
If Mad Men ended after Season 5, I would put it near the top. But Season 6 was a letdown and Season 7 wasn't that good. I really disliked the ending
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All of these shows had slow points, seasons that dragged or went nowhere, extended periods where the writers seemed to get lazy or bored.  Most every big television show the past decade or two seems to have been drawn out way too long.  The only exception I know of is Deadwood.  People complained it ended too soon, but it was one show that was hard-charging balls-out drama/action from beginning to end.

 
Christo said:
Eh, I'm 51 and loved a lot of those shows growing up. But cable has allowed more recent shows to go places most of those shows didn't contemplate going. I'm comfortable saying none of the shows you cite would crack the OP's list.
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Yeah, T.V. has gone through some pretty big changes programming wise over time. I have a soft spot for The White Shadow and The Rockford Files, but I know they don't hold up against the stuff that's been put out over the last 10, 15 years.

Someone should really do an update of The White Shadow.

Tangentially, the other day I saw my copy of Shogun in the bookcase and thought that would be an awesome one to be redone by Netflix or such. Much as I love the 80's Richard Chamberlain/Toshiru Mifune mini-series, I think a modern day production (I mean its been over 35 years) could be fantastic. Similarly with I Claudius - the acting in the original was superb, but the production quality was horrific.

 
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Agree on all The West Wing talk. Probably my favorite. 

Had some merely really good couple seasons towards the end but the last one with Alan Alda was super good. Matched up with some top notch early on seasons.

 
Tin Cup said:
For me, it’s a toss up between The West Wing and Homicide: Life On The Street
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I loved Homicide Life On The Streets. Also throwing out Rescue Me. Probably not as consistently good as some of these series but some definitely memorable moments.

 
The Sopranos and The Wire are more rewatchable then BB and Mad Men.

Six Feet Under and West Wing should be ahead of GoT.

Last season of GoT was not that good.

 
I went Breaking Bad (and it’s not close in my opinion) with Mash as #2. I suppose Mash is considered a comedy by most but I’m comfortable calling it a drama 

 
Ilov80s said:
Real tough call between Mad Men and The Wire. I gave the slight edge to Mad Men because the last season of the Wire was a bit disappointing. Thrones fell off once they got past the books. It has turned into all style and no substance- like a medieval superhero movie. The Sopranos were fantastic and deserve credit for creating the environment where all these other shows could flourish but the Sopranos had some stretches where it struggled a bit. Breaking Bad was really fun "page turner" but some of the dialogue and acting was laughably bad (looking at you Tuco) and Ididn't think it was very deep. 
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All of this stuff is correct.

 
JaxBill said:
Also throwing out Rescue Me. Probably not as consistently good as some of these series but some definitely memorable moments.
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Agghh. Rescue Me's first 3-4 seasons would've had it in contention here. So, so good. But it took a steeper nosedive than anything I've ever watched. The last couple seasons were so crappy even Leary seemed to be making fun of how bad it was at times.

Voted Wire, have only seen it once and am looking forward to rewatching it at some point. Sopranos was great, but really went downhill after season 3. BB and MM were both brilliant all the way through. GoT has been spectacular and thinking the final season could potentially put it on top of my list.

Friday Night Lights, Six Feet Under, MASH and West Wing all fantastic also-rans. 

Cool thread, absolutely no qualms with the choices.

 
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Shout out to Better Call Saul...in the conversation IMHO

Mr Robot is another excellent series...we need to see if they can stick the landing

 
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Will echo @Uruk-Hai here that an under the radar great series was Rectify.

Voted Breaking Bad over The Wire and will watch Mad Men soon.

 
The General said:
Can’t go wrong with any of those.

Best writing is probably Mad Men.

Most fun to watch GoT.

Most captivating: Breaking Bad.

Coolest: The Wire.

The one that paved the way for all these great series: Sopranos.
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 Very :goodposting:

Back when BB and Mad Men were pretty much the best things on TV I got into a discussion/debate with some friends on FB on which one was better.  A few of us concluded that it was almost unfair to compare the two.  

I finally came up with a so-so analogy using music 

Breaking Bad is “Satisfaction”  by The Rolling Stones.  It is exciting and gritty and gutsy and controversial.  It’s all up in your face and impossible to ignore.  It is also flawed but that is part of its charm.  If you don’t like this song you don’t like rock.  Period. 

Mad Men is “Yesterday” by The Beatles.  It’s slow but expertly paced.  It’s honest and beautiful and perfectly produced.  It’s not going to raise your pulse rate but you will feel something.   If you’re looking for something to pump your fist to look elsewhere.  But if it doesn’t speak to you on some level, you’re soulless.

 
If I had to throw in something that wasn't nominated:

- Boardwalk Empire: had flaws for sure but I thought the whole of the show and the look of the show and the acting was really really good. 

- Deadwood: Obviously great, only knock 1 but it is a very legit knock.

- The Shield: Fun and ahead of it's time

 
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two already mentioned in the thread that i'd think would be in the top 5 for me are mr robot and friday night lights. too bad friday night lights is probably much bigger for football fans, cause as a drama it's hands down the best i ever watched. the music and directing on that show was top notch. breaking bad easily better than both of these though (my vote).

parts of the wire towards the end was just awful to me compared to the first three seasons, so that ruined it for me in terms of best rating.

in that sense, the first season of true detectives would also make the list if we were cherry picking.

 
While I like the list I feel like Dexter deserves a mention.  My ranking

1.  Breaking Bad

2. The Wire

3 GOT but this could jump to #1

Haven’t seen Mad Men or West Wing.  Sopranos was decent but a bit overrated imo.

 
Someone asked if Band of Brothers qualifies. If so, that's it IMO, and the Pacific would also be up there.

Of the choices given, I would vote for the Sopranos, but like most great TV dramas, it started out super strong and then faded over time. Sopranos season 1 was amazingly good, in part because of the novelty of the main characters being criminals (but also because of great writing and casting).

24 was mentioned a couple times. Season 1 of 24 was amazing, again because it was very different. But after the first season, it became formulaic. 24 season 1 also had 2 completely unexpected twists late in the season, among the best twists I can recall in a TV series.

NYPD Blue sustained its success a bit better after season 1, but season 1 was still clearly superior and was great TV drama. It did eventually fade.

The Practice was great, especially the season with the nun killer. Like most of the others, it eventually faded.

Loved Hill Street Blues but agree it is dated now.

Friday Night Lights was great but also similar. In that case, the fade had to do with being forced to turn over all of the main characters who were supposedly high school age in the early seasons. They still cast it reasonably well, and I enjoyed it, but it also faded.

ER was another one that was great at the beginning and then eventually just became a soap opera.

One I haven't seen mentioned that I enjoyed is Southland. The way that series ended was pretty grisly for network television.

Lastly, my favorite one not listed in the poll is Law and Order. There is a reason it ran for 20 seasons, tied with Gun Smoke and Law and Order SVU for the longest primetime (non news) series.

 
The West Wing at it's peak was the best television I've ever seen, but it wasn't sustained. As whole it's bypassed by other series. Voted Breaking Bad.

 
Pipes said:
While I like the list I feel like Dexter deserves a mention.  
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I loved Dexter, and had it ended after Season 4, I think a lot more people would rate it a lot higher, but the severe drop-off in the later seasons really brings the overall greatness of the show down.  Seasons 1, 2 and 4 are still some of the best TV for sure, though. 

 
Ilov80s said:
- The Shield: Fun and ahead of it's time
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This was the first one I thought of.  The shield and The Wire are the only two shows that held my interest from the first episode to the last. 

Breaking Bad, GoT, Walking Dead, Dexter and Sons of Anarchy all had awesome stretches.  They just didn't hold up for the whole run. 

 
sports_fan said:
The West Wing at it's peak was the best television I've ever seen, but it wasn't sustained. As whole it's bypassed by other series. Voted Breaking Bad.
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The first four seasons of TWW was as good as it got, but agree it didn’t finish on top.

 
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