OT: The Walking Dead

[Philly85*]

Anything but The Walking Dead. I do not understand this zombie craze in the slightest. I watched season 1 of the Walking Dead (forcibly) and that was it. Couldn't even get into Breaking Bad to be honest. Watched about 3 seasons to try and keep up with banter amongst friends and co workers/associates but gave up.

Still nothing will ever compare to the HBO glory days for me. Best show I've ever seen is The Wire. I'm on my second re watch right now after a couple year break and like a good movie you still find and see things from a new perspective/sheds new light on stuff...

The Wire
Sopranos
Oz
Six Feet Under
Rescue Me

for dramas.

I forced myself to watch BE even though it sucks after that stuff with Jimmy D... I'm not going past season 4 now that it's done. Getting rid of Jimmy D was a plain ol bad call! Masters of Sex is pretty decent on Showtime and The Newsroom is very up and down for me personally. Looking forward to True Detectives on HBO, comes in January. Looks like it could be their next big hit.

 

[McOilers97]

Anything but The Walking Dead. I do not understand this zombie craze in the slightest. I watched season 1 of the Walking Dead (forcibly) and that was it. Couldn't even get into Breaking Bad to be honest. Watched about 3 seasons to try and keep up with banter amongst friends and co workers/associates but gave up.

Still nothing will ever compare to the HBO glory days for me. Best show I've ever seen is The Wire. I'm on my second re watch right now after a couple year break and like a good movie you still find and see things from a new perspective/sheds new light on stuff...

The Wire
Sopranos
Oz
Six Feet Under
Rescue Me

for dramas.

I forced myself to watch BE even though it sucks after that stuff with Jimmy D... I'm not going past season 4 now that it's done. Getting rid of Jimmy D was a plain ol bad call! Masters of Sex is pretty decent on Showtime and The Newsroom is very up and down for me personally. Looking forward to True Detectives on HBO, comes in January. Looks like it could be their next big hit.

I haven't seen many shows from the HBO glory days, but I love Boardwalk Empire. Jimmy was obviously a big loss, but it hasn't stopped me from loving the show. I'm getting The Wire for Christmas so I'm pumped to watch that, also very interested in Oz, Sopranos and Six Feet Under.

Also excited to tune into True Detective on January 12.

 

[Soliloquy of a Dogge]

Dramas I've watched; Breaking Bad, LOST, The Wire, The Sopranos.

Dramas I'm watching; The Walking Dead, The Newsroom, Game of Thrones, Person of Interest, American Horror Story, Hell on Wheels.

The Wire is a masterpiece but Breaking Bad edges it out for greatest television drama ever in my opinion. Breaking Bad, The Wire, LOST and The Sopranos are all really interchangeable for me though.

Luck was also good. Justified is pretty good. Homeland is good but the quality has dipped since season 1.

 

[McOilers97]

Dramas I've watched; Breaking Bad, LOST, The Wire, The Sopranos.

Dramas I'm watching; The Walking Dead, The Newsroom, Game of Thrones, Person of Interest, American Horror Story, Hell on Wheels.

The Wire is a masterpiece but Breaking Bad edges it out for greatest television drama ever in my opinion. Breaking Bad, The Wire, LOST and The Sopranos are all really interchangeable for me though.

Luck was also good. Justified is pretty good. Homeland is good but the quality has dipped since season 1.

Agree that Homeland has dipped a bit since S1, but I am encourged that it seems to building up all over again.

I think Justified is one tv's best relatively unknown shows. Tim Olyphant and Walton Goggins are such wicked actors.

 

[Nielson81]

Agree that Homeland has dipped a bit since S1, but I am encourged that it seems to building up all over again.

I think Justified is one tv's best relatively unknown shows. Tim Olyphant and Walton Goggins are such wicked actors.

Just had to chime in on this...Walton Goggins is brilliant. He was awesome in The Shield and is even better in Justified.

 

[McOilers97]

Just had to chime in on this...Walton Goggins is brilliant. He was awesome in The Shield and is even better in Justified.

I can't wait to watch The Shield. I burned through Justified's 4 seasons in July and August and man I have to say Boyd Crowder is one of my favorite tv characters.

 

[Supermassive]

Just had to chime in on this...Walton Goggins is brilliant. He was awesome in The Shield and is even better in Justified.

But very awkward in Sons of Anarchy. Still a great villain though.

 

[Philly85*]

Oh ya Homeland season 1 was great and definitely Deadwood was fantastic as well. Also check out Rome.

 

[harpoon]

Anything but The Walking Dead. I do not understand this zombie craze in the slightest. I watched season 1 of the Walking Dead (forcibly) and that was it.

People are different. If you tried it for a full season and didn't like it, at least you are making an informed judgement and nobody can fault you for that. I watch because I'm a sucker for anything apocalyptic, not because I like zombies. I watched some pretty lame shows just because I'm interested in the way the industry portrays the human approach to a calamity of massive scale. So much so that I watched Terra Nova, Falling Skies, Under the Dome and Defiance.

Still nothing will ever compare to the HBO glory days for me.

Sopranos

The measuring stick for our generation. RIP James Gandolfini.

But very awkward in Sons of Anarchy. Still a great villain though.

Is he playing the transvestite from Jimmy Smits past on SOA? If so, pretty well done there I would say. No?

I love the way SOA has used major long time TV stars in roles that make you think "huh, I never expected that kind of performance from him/her". Ron Perlman (excuse me for not having seen any of the Hellboy stuff) is a guy I had totally written off after watching Beauty and the Beast way back. I watched the entire first season of SOA over a week or so on DVD without realizing that Gemma was Katey Sagal from Married With Children. Talk about a blown away moment when I looked at the cast list. But the best for me is Jimmy Smits. A long time favorite of mine stretching all the way back to LA Law. Nobody can do a seedy pimp and pornographer with a heart of gold like Jimmy Smits.

I sure look at all of those actors with a new respect after watching SOA. Would definitely recommend the show to anyone who hasn't seen it.

 

[Master Lok]

People are different. If you tried it for a full season and didn't like it, at least you are making an informed judgement and nobody can fault you for that. I watch because I'm a sucker for anything apocalyptic, not because I like zombies. I watched some pretty lame shows just because I'm interested in the way the industry portrays the human approach to a calamity of massive scale. So much so that I watched Terra Nova, Falling Skies, Under the Dome and Defiance.

I'm the same, I'm fascinated by the Apocalypse.

I'm a fan of Falling Skies as well. I tried Defiance, but I found the writing to be not as good and dropped it.

Regarding the other dramas, I tried Boardwalk Empire, but I found the story to be mindnumbingly slow I had to drop it. I found Homeland to be too much of a soap opera for my liking.

I do like Justified. I know its not quite the same class, but my guilty pleasure is Sleepy Hollow. Quite amusing.

 

[Replacement*]

Anything but The Walking Dead. I do not understand this zombie craze in the slightest. I watched season 1 of the Walking Dead (forcibly) and that was it. Couldn't even get into Breaking Bad to be honest. Watched about 3 seasons to try and keep up with banter amongst friends and co workers/associates but gave up.

Still nothing will ever compare to the HBO glory days for me. Best show I've ever seen is The Wire. I'm on my second re watch right now after a couple year break and like a good movie you still find and see things from a new perspective/sheds new light on stuff...

The Wire
Sopranos
Oz
Six Feet Under
Rescue Me

for dramas.

I forced myself to watch BE even though it sucks after that stuff with Jimmy D... I'm not going past season 4 now that it's done. Getting rid of Jimmy D was a plain ol bad call! Masters of Sex is pretty decent on Showtime and The Newsroom is very up and down for me personally. Looking forward to True Detectives on HBO, comes in January. Looks like it could be their next big hit.

I find this post interesting because it kind of captures how far the bar has been dropped from former great shows. Breaking, SOA, Boardwalk are considered good I think only in the context of the times. Put them up against better shows from 10 or more years ago and I don't know theres even a comparison.

For one thing shows like the Sopranos, SFU were almost like movie level of production or better. The first episode in either series blowing you away with production and writing value. The script in the current show is horrendous in comparison and with level of plot development one would expect in comic books. When I watch SOA, or Breaking I don't see it rising above the scripted level of the young and the restless except with badder badass characters, more crime, and maleovelence. Its not likes theres any great play going on or any novel type development. The reason you can't get into the latter programs is you got used to far better.

Nice to see SFU still getting some love. Really liked that show and the psychological development of the characters. Of course the Sopranos, I liked Oz as well.

Far as The Walking Dead I watched all the seasons but never quite knew why. I didn't particularly like the characters, didn't identify, but for some reason watched. I think like Harpoon mentioned just because I like depictions of apocalpse. Unlike Master Lok I actually want the humans to succeed, take on a new life, and rebuild. I find the show almost annoying in that a disease with virtually limited stock of new hosts would somehow persist. Or that zombies would persist with limited food available. All the humans are virtually gone but somehow this plague just persists. Wouldn't play out that way.
For reasons I can't figure out anymore than why I started watching I just never restarted watching this season. I was going to, but haven't watched a single episode of the current season.

 

[SeriousBusiness]

I find this post interesting because it kind of captures how far the bar has been dropped from former great shows. Breaking, SOA, Boardwalk are considered good I think only in the context of the times. Put them up against better shows from 10 or more years ago and I don't know theres even a comparison.

For one thing shows like the Sopranos, SFU were almost like movie level of production or better. The first episode in either series blowing you away with production and writing value. The script in the current show is horrendous in comparison and with level of plot development one would expect in comic books. When I watch SOA, or Breaking I don't see it rising above the scripted level of the young and the restless except with badder badass characters, more crime, and maleovelence. Its not likes theres any great play going on or any novel type development. The reason you can't get into the latter programs is you got used to far better.

Nice to see SFU still getting some love. Really liked that show and the psychological development of the characters. Of course the Sopranos, I liked Oz as well.

Far as The Walking Dead I watched all the seasons but never quite knew why. I didn't particularly like the characters, didn't identify, but for some reason watched. I think like Harpoon mentioned just because I like depictions of apocalpse. Unlike Master Lok I actually want the humans to succeed, take on a new life, and rebuild. I find the show almost annoying in that a disease with virtually limited stock of new hosts would somehow persist. Or that zombies would persist with limited food available. All the humans are virtually gone but somehow this plague just persists. Wouldn't play out that way.
For reasons I can't figure out anymore than why I started watching I just never restarted watching this season. I was going to, but haven't watched a single episode of the current season.

I'd agree with this, I don't know that I'd put Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, etc in with The Wire or OZ.

 

[Halibut]

I'd agree with this, I don't know that I'd put Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, etc in with The Wire or OZ.

I disagree, it's a matter of taste. As much as I love The Wire I think Breaking Bad and Mad Men are of comparable quality and in many ways better, they're all different types of shows though so it's really hard to rate one over the other.

 

[CupofOil]

I find this post interesting because it kind of captures how far the bar has been dropped from former great shows. Breaking, SOA, Boardwalk are considered good I think only in the context of the times. Put them up against better shows from 10 or more years ago and I don't know theres even a comparison.

For one thing shows like the Sopranos, SFU were almost like movie level of production or better. The first episode in either series blowing you away with production and writing value. The script in the current show is horrendous in comparison and with level of plot development one would expect in comic books. When I watch SOA, or Breaking I don't see it rising above the scripted level of the young and the restless except with badder badass characters, more crime, and maleovelence. Its not likes theres any great play going on or any novel type development. The reason you can't get into the latter programs is you got used to far better.

Nice to see SFU still getting some love. Really liked that show and the psychological development of the characters. Of course the Sopranos, I liked Oz as well.

Far as The Walking Dead I watched all the seasons but never quite knew why. I didn't particularly like the characters, didn't identify, but for some reason watched. I think like Harpoon mentioned just because I like depictions of apocalpse. Unlike Master Lok I actually want the humans to succeed, take on a new life, and rebuild. I find the show almost annoying in that a disease with virtually limited stock of new hosts would somehow persist. Or that zombies would persist with limited food available. All the humans are virtually gone but somehow this plague just persists. Wouldn't play out that way.
For reasons I can't figure out anymore than why I started watching I just never restarted watching this season. I was going to, but haven't watched a single episode of the current season.

I agree that Six Feet Under is an underappreciated show. I just started to get into it. I'm now in the beginning of Season 2 and it's getting better and better every episode. The Pilot episode was how shall i say it, unique, but it got me hooked right away and for somebody who is a big Dexter fan (Seasons 1-4 Dexter mainly), i think Michael C. Hall's work as "David Fisher" outshines his work as "Dexter Morgan".

I disagree about Breaking Bad. I think that it's a timeless classic compared to any era of show. Definitely in my top 3 series of all time along with Sopranos and Game of Thrones. The Wire is my next must see show, i'll either watch it on Netflix or order the full DVD box set since there is so much hype surrounding it as perhaps the best series of all time.

I take The Walking Dead for what it is. It's a very entertaining show with really flawed writing and acting (which was really apparent in the Season Finale) but that is to be expected in this type of genre. I love the show despite the flaws because i'm a sucker for any post-Apocalyptic series/movies.

 

[MoneyGuy]

You have to suspend reality when you watch The Walking Dead. First, it's science fiction so it can't happen. Then you have to understand that the writers have to really alter reality for the sake entertainment. Why were there no walkers around when the Gov showed up last episode. If zombies existed, they'd probably be around, but the writers decided that wouldn't make for the best entertainment so they weren't there. I love the show despite the fact that sometimes it doesn't make sense when you think of it logically.

I'm watching The Wire now as my PVR records the episodes as I didn't watch it before. At first I didn't really like it and considered stop watching. It's getting more and more awesome. With the language, sex and violence, it's not for everyone - my wife, for example.

Dexter was either very awesome or lousy, depending on...I'm not sure what, actually.

 

[McShogun99]

First thing I think about when people complain about things being unrealistic is that there's zombies in the show. Just sit back and be entertained, try not to think about how a single grenade down the barrel of a tank can blow it up.

 

[McOilers97]

I agree that Six Feet Under is an underappreciated show. I just started to get into it. I'm now in the beginning of Season 2 and it's getting better and better every episode. The Pilot episode was how shall i say it, unique, but it got me hooked right away and for somebody who is a big Dexter fan (Seasons 1-4 Dexter mainly), i think Michael C. Hall's work as "David Fisher" outshines his work as "Dexter Morgan".

I disagree about Breaking Bad. I think that it's a timeless classic compared to any era of show. Definitely in my top 3 series of all time along with Sopranos and Game of Thrones. The Wire is my next must see show, i'll either watch it on Netflix or order the full DVD box set since there is so much hype surrounding it as perhaps the best series of all time.

I take The Walking Dead for what it is. It's a very entertaining show with really flawed writing and acting (which was really apparent in the Season Finale) but that is to be expected in this type of genre. I love the show despite the flaws because i'm a sucker for any post-Apocalyptic series/movies.

I think that this is key: The Walking dead is a show that provides a typically high-level of entertainment despite its flaws. It may not be a great SHOW, but it is pretty damn good TV- there is a difference.

Also: I may be in a minority here, but does anyone else find Game of Thrones to be a lot on the overrated side? I LIKE the show, but there's something about it that keeps me from LOVING it. Maybe it's just that I feel like the plot has absolutely no momentum. I like the cast and the acting, it just feels like something on the plot side is missing to me.

 

[SeriousBusiness]

I disagree, it's a matter of taste. As much as I love The Wire I think Breaking Bad and Mad Men are of comparable quality and in many ways better, they're all different types of shows though so it's really hard to rate one over the other.

Yeah they're very different shows.

The bottom line is there are so many great dramas on TV right now, it's impossible to keep up with them all.

Any love on the boards for Shameless?

 

[SeriousBusiness]

I take The Walking Dead for what it is. It's a very entertaining show with really flawed writing and acting (which was really apparent in the Season Finale) but that is to be expected in this type of genre. I love the show despite the flaws because i'm a sucker for any post-Apocalyptic series/movies.

Yep, TWD is what it is. I personally started re-watching it from the beginning a couple nights ago and have almost finished season two. It's a lot of fun to watch. It's not for everyone, but like you, I'm a huge fan of the post-apocalyptic/dystopian stories.

 

[Faelko]

Any love on the boards for Shameless?

Hell yeah, love that show!

Sons of Anarchy is awesome too, nearing the end of it though I'm thinking.

 

[Faelko]

Dramas I've watched; Breaking Bad, LOST, The Wire, The Sopranos.

Dramas I'm watching; The Walking Dead, The Newsroom, Game of Thrones, Person of Interest, American Horror Story, Hell on Wheels.

The Wire is a masterpiece but Breaking Bad edges it out for greatest television drama ever in my opinion. Breaking Bad, The Wire, LOST and The Sopranos are all really interchangeable for me though.

Luck was also good. Justified is pretty good. Homeland is good but the quality has dipped since season 1.

Newsroom, Justified, Shameless, SOA and Game of Thrones are my top picks.

Shows that are over, Breaking Bad, Sopranos and Deadwood were all time favourites.

 

[CupofOil]

Yeah they're very different shows.

The bottom line is there are so many great dramas on TV right now, it's impossible to keep up with them all.

Any love on the boards for Shameless?

I'm a shameless fan also. Just like i'm a sucker for apacolyptic stuff, i'm also a sucker for watching anything with beautiful women in it and Emmy Rossum does it for me but it's also a good family drama despite all the craziness.

Like you said, there are too many good series to count. I also forgot to mention in my faves, Homeland (Season 1 in particular), Fringe (despite a horrible final season), Spartacus, Deadwood, Rome etc. Too many great ones to count.
I'm really looking forward to watching The Wire to see how it stacks up with the greats.

 

[KenLinsemanFanClub]

No love for Hell on Wheels? It may not be as in your face as some of the other series but I like the fact it's filmed in Alberta and you get the big skies and ruggedness of the old west. The writing is pretty good and the Swede is an excellent villain. There is a noble aspect to the characters that shines through despite the hard scrabble backgrounds of most of them. It's not as cerebral a western as Deadwood but it is entertaining.

 

[Philly85*]

^^^just googled it, has pretty good reviews across the board, will keep a lookout for that

 

[Groucho]

I think that this is key: The Walking dead is a show that provides a typically high-level of entertainment despite its flaws. It may not be a great SHOW, but it is pretty damn good TV- there is a difference.

Also: I may be in a minority here, but does anyone else find Game of Thrones to be a lot on the overrated side? I LIKE the show, but there's something about it that keeps me from LOVING it. Maybe it's just that I feel like the plot has absolutely no momentum. I like the cast and the acting, it just feels like something on the plot side is missing to me.

Maybe I'm biased because I've read whats been published so far, but you are so far off base here. No plot momentum? You sure you've been paying attention?

CupOfOil I can't take your taste seriously if you think Spartacus is a great drama.