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The Greatest TV Show of All Time


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Greatest TV Show Ever  

123 members have voted

  1. 1. What is Your #1 TV Show of All Time?

    • The Wire
      32
    • Breaking Bad
      24
    • The Sopranos
      18
    • Game of Thrones
      7
    • Mad Men
      0
    • Doctor Who (Contemporary)
      1
    • Twin Peaks
      2
    • Deadwood
      0
    • Curb Your Enthusiasm
      0
    • The Office (UK)
      4
    • Other
      35

This poll is closed to new votes


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I have a thing approaching man love for Christopher Eccleston, I think he is excellent in that, as is the rest of the cast.

I have the exact opposite, he makes me turn off the TV in an instant. Can't explain it either, its totally irrational.

 

 

I can understand that, I have certain actors who I am that way about. Simon Pegg. 

 

 

Tom Cruise is mine.

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The sad thing about The Wire is that it will ultimately seem very dated, because it was so topical to the times on so many levels. The "realism" that made it so intense will be the very thing that sort of spoils it 15-20 years from now. Or maybe I'm just a cynical bastard.

 

Come to think of it, "Hamsterdam" was not realistic at all. A liberal wet dream maybe. 

 

 

They were still using typewriters and tipp ex in season 1, it looked dated before they had got to season 5.  I'm not sure it matters much, it's unclear when The Wire was actually set as far as I can tell.  There are references to contemporary stuff (9/11 is mentioned in passing when the FBI talk about budget stuff) but I don't think the timeline is a particular focus for the show. It was broadcast in the early to mid 00s but a lot of the source material and research was from the 1980s and 90s (David Simon was a reporter back then) so you just need to tell yourself it's a series of anecdotes cobbled together to give personality to an overall bigger picture.  Forget the fact it was filmed in the 2000s, it's the last great piece of 20th century television. 

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The Office (UK) for me.

When I watched Breaking Bad for the first time, I thought it had overtaken The Office in my favourites, but then I came to re-watch BB and the shock/cliff-hanger parts that made it great, has obviously lost all their effect on second viewing.

In my life, I've probably watched The Office series 1, 2 and specials about 10 times. It has genuine laugh-out-loud funny parts, cringe moments, drama and romance, all crammed into a really small series but written and performed brilliantly. It's still at the top of my list.

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The Office (UK) for me.

When I watched Breaking Bad for the first time, I thought it had overtaken The Office in my favourites, but then I came to re-watch BB and the shock/cliff-hanger parts that made it great, has obviously lost all their effect on second viewing.

In my life, I've probably watched The Office series 1, 2 and specials about 10 times. It has genuine laugh-out-loud funny parts, cringe moments, drama and romance, all crammed into a really small series but written and performed brilliantly. It's still at the top of my list.

 

Its my favourite comedy show of all time. The Christmas special is perfection. 

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for Re-Watching - Spaced

 

THE comedy show of the late 90s early 00s for me. 

 

Utterly hilarious, the foundation for all of Edgar Wrights, Pegg and Frost appearances on the big screen. 

 

It made them, moulded them and created who they are on TV. 

 

Homage references to films are hilarious too (and awesome). 

 

 

Banshee as a modern awesome popcorn fest. 

 

Utterly ridiculous and insane. More boobs, fanny and guns than a Modded Vice City game. Great characters too. 

 

 

 

Old school classic would be the West Wing. Great show. 

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Oz jumped the shark spectacularly.  Everything up to the Kareem Said vs Adebisi (S04E08) was great but after that it declined in quality in a fashion that even Leeds United would be proud of. 

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@mjmooney: Can I ask why you say this? If it is because you think Buffy isn't somehow intellectual enough, or if you think it is a shallow fluffy teen show then you are very mistaken. The scriptwriting, the complex story arcs, the uncompromising subject matter dealt with, the use of directorial techniques previously found only in the cinema... the show was absolutely revolutionary. It was one of the few shows that really respected the intelligence of its audience. An episode like 'The Body' is as raw and emotional and powerful a piece of television you will ever see. I could talk for a long time about the merits of Buffy and Angel, and anybody who hasn't watched them because of the fact that they are superficially 'teen' shows is really missing out on some amazing television (and also some of the greatest comedy moments going).

 

And as for Babylon 5 - well, it is a five-season long tightly plotted story of the politics, greed and corruption of war played out on the grandest scale. Just because it has spaceships doesn't mean it isn't a work of near-genius. This is not your Battlestar Galactica nonsense - this is heavyweight stuff. It was also a pioneer of CGI and realistic physics simulations. It also had some dodgy acting, budget constraints and the usual meddling from the networks that slightly took the sheen off what could have been something really impressive indeed.

 

Both shows are entirely worthy of consideration in this thread. As, of course, are documentaries like The Ascent Of Man, comedies like The Simpsons and Yes Minister, and drama like Edge Of Darkness. 

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Eurotrash... TV never got better than this

 

 

This was probably your best chance of seeing some tits on a screen if you were a teenager in the 1990s. You'd watch a bunch of weird shit for fifteen minutes, some adverts for crap you didn't want then another ten minutes of weirdness before they finally showed some tits; then it turned out to be that munter Lolo Ferarri and you realised you'd have to wait another week on the off chance something good would turn up.

 

Kids today don't even know they are born. 

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The sad thing about The Wire is that it will ultimately seem very dated, because it was so topical to the times on so many levels. The "realism" that made it so intense will be the very thing that sort of spoils it 15-20 years from now. Or maybe I'm just a cynical bastard.

 

Come to think of it, "Hamsterdam" was not realistic at all. A liberal wet dream maybe. 

 

 

They were still using typewriters and tipp ex in season 1, it looked dated before they had got to season 5.  I'm not sure it matters much, it's unclear when The Wire was actually set as far as I can tell.  There are references to contemporary stuff (9/11 is mentioned in passing when the FBI talk about budget stuff) but I don't think the timeline is a particular focus for the show. It was broadcast in the early to mid 00s but a lot of the source material and research was from the 1980s and 90s (David Simon was a reporter back then) so you just need to tell yourself it's a series of anecdotes cobbled together to give personality to an overall bigger picture.  Forget the fact it was filmed in the 2000s, it's the last great piece of 20th century television. 

 

You mean the first great piece of 21st century television  ;)

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I'm still crushed at the way they just shut down Deadwood. Deadwood was better than most HBO material. To this day, it's better. Real shame they pulled the plug, and I never really got a good explanation why they did it.

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@mjmooney: Can I ask why you say this? If it is because you think Buffy isn't somehow intellectual enough, or if you think it is a shallow fluffy teen show then you are very mistaken. The scriptwriting, the complex story arcs, the uncompromising subject matter dealt with, the use of directorial techniques previously found only in the cinema... the show was absolutely revolutionary. It was one of the few shows that really respected the intelligence of its audience. An episode like 'The Body' is as raw and emotional and powerful a piece of television you will ever see. I could talk for a long time about the merits of Buffy and Angel, and anybody who hasn't watched them because of the fact that they are superficially 'teen' shows is really missing out on some amazing television (and also some of the greatest comedy moments going).

And as for Babylon 5 - well, it is a five-season long tightly plotted story of the politics, greed and corruption of war played out on the grandest scale. Just because it has spaceships doesn't mean it isn't a work of near-genius. This is not your Battlestar Galactica nonsense - this is heavyweight stuff. It was also a pioneer of CGI and realistic physics simulations. It also had some dodgy acting, budget constraints and the usual meddling from the networks that slightly took the sheen off what could have been something really impressive indeed.

Both shows are entirely worthy of consideration in this thread. As, of course, are documentaries like The Ascent Of Man, comedies like The Simpsons and Yes Minister, and drama like Edge Of Darkness.

Columbo though.

Nobody seems to listening, I assume you're all just discussing the second greatest TV show of all time?

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The sad thing about The Wire is that it will ultimately seem very dated, because it was so topical to the times on so many levels. The "realism" that made it so intense will be the very thing that sort of spoils it 15-20 years from now. Or maybe I'm just a cynical bastard.

 

Come to think of it, "Hamsterdam" was not realistic at all. A liberal wet dream maybe. 

 

 

They were still using typewriters and tipp ex in season 1, it looked dated before they had got to season 5.  I'm not sure it matters much, it's unclear when The Wire was actually set as far as I can tell.  There are references to contemporary stuff (9/11 is mentioned in passing when the FBI talk about budget stuff) but I don't think the timeline is a particular focus for the show. It was broadcast in the early to mid 00s but a lot of the source material and research was from the 1980s and 90s (David Simon was a reporter back then) so you just need to tell yourself it's a series of anecdotes cobbled together to give personality to an overall bigger picture.  Forget the fact it was filmed in the 2000s, it's the last great piece of 20th century television. 

 

You mean the first great piece of 21st century television  ;)

 

 

No. I really dont.  It's a love letter to the 20th century. 

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@Lichfield Dean: I was just kidding - taking the piss out of myself as much as anything. My kids loved Buffy, and I agree it takes skill to make a good show, whatever the genre. It was never going to make the top thousand list for someone of my generation though! [emoji4]

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