The Greatest TV Show of All Time

[Tegis]

 

[Mark Albrighton]

So where do the likes of Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and Law & Order fair in all this? 

I’ve seen a fair few episodes of Law & Order, Jerry Orbach, S. Epath Merkerson and Sam Waterston were/are brilliant and you discover a few quirks of the US legal system (my number one finding is that the Assistant District Attorney is always an attractive woman). I’m not sure if it’s top ten material but I sense it’s a significant show.

Haven’t seen the other two, but from reading about it I kinda get the impression that Hill Street Blues had a huge impact on tv shows in general, kinda similar to how the sopranos did.

[Xela]

1 minute ago, Shropshire Lad said:

So where do the likes of Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue and Law & Order fair in all this? 

In Law and Order's case, I think its claim to be great may be diluted by the sheer volume of episodes and spin offs. It kinds of waters it down. You can add CSI to that as well. Good shows but simply too many episodes and new characters.

 

[Xela]

@Shropshire Lad

Have you see The Shield? 

Outstanding cop show. 

[Mark Albrighton]

1 minute ago, Xela said:

In Law and Order's case, I think its claim to be great may be diluted by the sheer volume of episodes and spin offs. It kinds of waters it down. You can add CSI to that as well. Good shows but simply too many episodes and new characters.

 

Yes I suppose if it was just that core cast of the three actors I mentioned plus a few others and it had only run for half the amount it ultimately did, then maybe it would be held in that group. I think procedural shows aren’t considered to be quite as great, there needs to be an overarching storyline through it all. Still as procedural shows go, it must be up there. 

I did watch an episode of CSI Miami I think? The one with David Caruso. I honestly thought it was terrible, couldn’t see why people liked it.

Regarding the shield, no that’s another one that I nearly included when asking about these shows. They kinda all merge into one for me. But again, I hear very good things about it.

[VILLAMARV]

6 hours ago, BOF said:

Star Trek : The Next Generation says Hi.

Best of Both Worlds and All Good Things are absolutely some of the best episodes of TV ever made.

The only reason I left it off my list was there really isn't a bad episode in BoB, BB or the Sopranos imo. Whereas the holodeck can get a bit boring at times.

Easily in any top 10 though for me. Good shout.

[Xela]

Worth watching The Shield mate. I'd put it right up there... not quite at the Wire level but close. While the the Wire takes a few episodes to get into it properly, the Shield grabs you by the bollards straight away!

[sharkyvilla]

56 minutes ago, Shropshire Lad said:

Yes I suppose if it was just that core cast of the three actors I mentioned plus a few others and it had only run for half the amount it ultimately did, then maybe it would be held in that group. I think procedural shows aren’t considered to be quite as great, there needs to be an overarching storyline through it all. Still as procedural shows go, it must be up there. 

I did watch an episode of CSI Miami I think? The one with David Caruso. I honestly thought it was terrible, couldn’t see why people liked it.

Regarding the shield, no that’s another one that I nearly included when asking about these shows. They kinda all merge into one for me. But again, I hear very good things about it.

My Mum bless her watched CSI Miami because of David Caruso, as well as NYPD Blue.  Any programme that had someone my Mum fancied in was always on the 'will avoid at all cost' list.  The original CSI in Vegas was alright, mind you.

[Mark Albrighton]

11 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

My Mum bless her watched CSI Miami because of David Caruso, as well as NYPD Blue.  Any programme that had someone my Mum fancied in was always on the 'will avoid at all cost' list.  The original CSI in Vegas was alright, mind you.

Having not watched any of them (my parents liked them), I was under the impression that the Miami one was the most popular and by chance I just happened to catch it once. I couldn’t get through it, all style and no substance (and not particularly good style at that).

I don’t know much about Caruso, just that show and the film “jade”, but only because of the reference of it in the 40 year old virgin.

[sharkyvilla]

5 minutes ago, Shropshire Lad said:

Having not watched any of them (my parents liked them), I was under the impression that the Miami one was the most popular and by chance I just happened to catch it once. I couldn’t get through it, all style and no substance (and not particularly good style at that).

I don’t know much about Caruso, just that show and the film “jade”, but only because of the reference of it in the 40 year old virgin.

Yep my Mum had Jade on DVD as well.  To me he looked like a lump of ginger that had been rubbed against a cheese grater but then I've always been really bad at judging good looking men.  

[Stevo985]

13 hours ago, Xela said:

Moments of genuine awe inspiring TV. 

Mixed in with moments of shit as well. 

Yep.

If you're talking about how good shows were at their peak, then Lost is in the conversation.

But if you're talking about shows as a whole, Lost had far too much shite in there to make the list, imo.

[Stevo985]

13 hours ago, Xela said:

You'd never get away with Friends now. Even though its not that old, it is very white!

I always though Frasier was far funnier. 

I never got Frasier at all. 

And I watched a fair amount of it. It used to be on before I went to work so watched it with breakfast for about 2 months.

Just never clicked with me.

 

Friends and Seinfeld are the kings of that style of sitcom, imo.

[villa4europe]

10 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

Yep.

If you're talking about how good shows were at their peak, then Lost is in the conversation.

But if you're talking about shows as a whole, Lost had far too much shite in there to make the list, imo.

Lost was huge when I was at school, it was the 1st TV series I can remember that became almost ingrained in daily conversation, for as good as the sopranos was nobody seemed to be talking about it, lost was seemingly every day, which pissed me off because I didn't watch it!

I stopped after 2 episodes, couldn't buy in to the cliff hanger stuff, thought it was taking the piss out of me because it was done quite cheaply and was almost forcing me to spend the week in anticipation of the next episode which I didn't enjoy

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

1 minute ago, villa4europe said:

cliff

In hindsight after watching it all,  I feel the simple addition of a "Cliff" (as in "Dover") to the first episode where the plane slammed into said cliff at approaching the speed of sound as oppose to the soft sandy beech which it did land on would have saved everyone a lot of time.

[Stevo985]

I thought the first couple of seasons of Lost were amazing.

Then it went rapidly downhill when it became obvious they had no idea where it was going and it was just ticking along. Whole epiosdes of filler (literally introducing entirely new characters and killing them off in the same episode!) were everywhere.

Once they decided it was ending and wrapped it up properly it got some quality back, but it's absolutely miles behind some of the other shows on this list

[lapal_fan]

Lost was good for 2 seasons then came the "DAFUQ!?" and I stopped watching.. That didn't deter my now wife spending £50 a series for the DVD's though 

Watched the last episode of Chernobyl last night and I can't wait to watch it again - probably the best TV I've ever watched.  As I mentioned previously, the weakest episode (for me) was episode 4 with the animals.  It just didn't quite grip me as much as the other 4 episodes, but I completely understand why they did it - it just seemed a bit too much of "sitting around with not much happening" to me.  But I recommend it to absolutely anyone, particularly if you are older than 30.  Brilliant stuff. 

I loved Fargo with Billy Bob.  That was amazing tv - couldn't watch the other seasons. 

Goliath season 1 is nearly as good as Chernobyl for keeping me glued and heavily anticipating the next episode.  Season 2 wasn't as good, but still very passable. 

Another good thing I've watched lately is Dead to Me, with Christina Applegate - very dark, very funny.  Reminded me a bit of After Life with Ricky Gervais, but in no way is it as jovial.  Defo worth a watch. 

As for American Sitcoms - I liked Friends.  I get the postmortem criticism of the racial thing, but it's not racist not having black people in the cast - is it?  Why shoe-horn genders/races into something where it's not required?  

I liked Fraiser and have watched that in my 30s as it was something I never understood when it was on Friday nights.  But that was a good show. 

Seinfeld just never appealed to me - I've watched parts of it and it just seemed too american to me, a bit like Two and a Half Men or that one with the two waitresses and one of them has big tits..  Over the top, canned laughter with jazzy music interspersed between scenes - ugh. 

Never watched Curb your Enthusiasm - I know I should though. 

I liked Big Bang Theory - I just liked the characters - Raj in particular.  The subject was interesting and it wasn't too over the top.  Plus Penny   

That's all I have for now. 

Go watch Chernobyl - go sit with people you hate for 5 hours if you have to. go go go. 

[Stevo985]

4 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

 

Seinfeld just never appealed to me - I've watched parts of it and it just seemed too american to me, a bit like Two and a Half Men or that one with the two waitresses and one of them has big tits..  Over the top, canned laughter with jazzy music interspersed between scenes - ugh. 

 

Without Seinfeld though I reckon we'd have never had Friends or Frasier. 

Maybe it hasn't stood the test of time but it was the sitcom that set out the blueprint for shows like that.

 

It is about a million times better and cleverer than 2 and a half men, which is garbage (imo of course)

[lapal_fan]

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

Without Seinfeld though I reckon we'd have never had Friends or Frasier. 

Maybe it hasn't stood the test of time but it was the sitcom that set out the blueprint for shows like that.

 

It is about a million times better and cleverer than 2 and a half men, which is garbage (imo of course)

Yea that's probably it mate, I just missed out on it because of my age.  I don't doubt its undoubtable influence though.  Jerry Seinfeld has done incredibly well out of it.  A lot of people reference it and it was incredibly popular.  I was just at the wrong age to appreciate it. 

Agree with 2 and a half men too, absolute toilet of a programme.  Surprised Ashton Kutcher touched that - he seemed to be doing ok career wise.  No doubt he made a lot of money doing that though. 

[Stevo985]

3 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Agree with 2 and a half men too, absolute toilet of a programme.  Surprised Ashton Kutcher touched that - he seemed to be doing ok career wise.  No doubt he made a lot of money doing that though. 

Yep. I bet he's making millions per episode. 

I think it's one of those shows that starts off ok, and seemingly the more popular it becomes, the worse it gets. And by the time you're onto like season 10 you've got a cast being paid millions every episode, tens of millions of americans watching it, and most of the UK going "this is shite!"  

See also: Big Bang Theory

[AVFCDAN]

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Yep. I bet he's making millions per episode. 

I think it's one of those shows that starts off ok, and seemingly the more popular it becomes, the worse it gets. And by the time you're onto like season 10 you've got a cast being paid millions every episode, tens of millions of americans watching it, and most of the UK going "this is shite!"  

See also: Big Bang Theory

He's actually in a show on Netflix called the Ranch which is actually a lot better tan I expected and he's pretty good in it. I think they have done 4-5 season by now so he's put a lot of time into that over the last 2-3 years. I could swear I'm the only person in the country watching it though.