Top 5 TV series

Blue wrote:I may give Lost another another run, I remember watching in High School. The show was way too slow, dropped it at some point.

My experience may be different this time with all of the episodes available in its entirety.  

I always hesitated to start it because of many reasons but i am glad i watched it. It instantly became one of my favourite shows of all time. It's so difficult to invest in few characters over the many seasons but Lost makes you like most of them which is its strongest part. I didn't like the direction it took towards the end but the journey makes it up for it.

There is no show like Lost even after 10 years.

the backstories were really done well in Lost

I can't start Lost again even if I wanted to. That ending still has me fuming.

McLewis wrote:I can't start Lost again even if I wanted to. That ending still has me fuming.

Yep. Lost's first seasons thrive massively on mystery, they have the mystery factor nailed on.

I can only reiterate, think I wrote it before, me and my then gf were camped outside the fucking videotheque waiting for it to open at 8 in the morning because we had finished our DVDs in the middle of the night and needed the rest of the season NOW.
If I think what utter SHOCK the season 1 finale was, with the other boat.

But, with hindsight, it's like they shat in the jar that said "mystery". And then they named their turd "Jacob".

need to fucking stop thinking about it before I get aggravated AGAIN

can only name a top 7

Sopranos
Mad Men
Twin Peaks (haven't seen the new series yet though...)
Riget
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Tremé
Heimat

for the sake of the top 5, I'll exclude the German stuuf so then it's

Sopranos
Mad Men
Twin Peaks
Riget
Tremé


obviously, could have also said THE WIRE because it's amazing but I said Tremé because it's gorgeous, even if not as consequential

Haven not seen many of the mentions on here, I have to admit. For example, have not seen Breaking Bad which I decided to leave alone. Have not seen Friday Night Lights which I absolutely want to watch and which I think I will absolutely love.
Have only seen Fargo S01, and I can anticipate it's great but haven't fully clicked
Have not seen Battlestar Galactica past the first couple of episodes but liked it very much.
Then, there's classics like Simpsons, Seinfeld, or also Curb Your Enthusiasm. They're up there of course.
Lost, I said enough


Some further stuff I enjoyed:

UnReal (wouldn't have guessed it with the name, plot, and setting along with the fact it was developed on the LIFETIME channel, but this is one excellent, acidic feminist discourse machine dark comedy, and I've got a crush on the protagonist)
The Americans (sadly have only watched S01 so far so can't include it)
Southland (great realist cop drama, with great LA light)
The Killing (moody, dark crime with an enjoyable couple of leads)
Magicians (also only watched S01, but found it intriguing)
Im Angesicht des Verbrechens (Russian mob in Berlin, it's over the top and mannerist, but also great; by German fiim and TV idiosyncrate Dominik Graf)
The Expanse (season 1 was intriguing, satisfying, and really nice, it become worse after, sadly)
The Fall (Gillian Anderson at her hottest, chasing a serial killer in Belfast)
BrainDead, Search Party, People Of Earth (nice, likeable, yet short lived comedies, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead is another crush)
Barry was another of those (didn't finish it though)
The Newsroom I found interesting
Condor (excellent, hard hitting spy thriller stuff)
Seal Team (mainstream war propaganda TV at its very best, guilty pleasure of mine)
Nashville (another guilty pleasure of mine as I have a soft spot for country music)
Atlanta looked good but I didn't get past 2 episodes so far

British stuff that was good:
Clique, Paranoid (ITV, weirdly excellent!), Bancroft, Capture, The Halcyon, Deep Water (+ lots more, British stuff is usually pretty good) Press (BBC, Guardian vs DailyMail like journalist soap opera)

The Terror (I liked season 1 very much as I found the whole polar expeditions stuff intriguing, S02 I stopped watching)
Deadly Class (fun comic book adaptation)
Sweetbitter (cute chick works as waitress in NYC, decent, hit pretty close to home with me in terms of lifestyle)
Impulse (decent stuff with a hipster teen girl who can teleport)
...
...
...
theres lots more I watched that was alright or that I forgot

looking forward to Chernobyl, and The Plot Against America (can recommend the book very, very much, I'd say read it before you watch the adaptation, if you want it as epub hit me up in PM)

The Terror Season 1 was phenomenal. Binged the entire thing inside of a day (I will never do this again). Incredible performances from Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, and many others.

Jared Harris also turned around and wowed me in Chernobyl as well. Just a banner couple of years for him after I got first true glimpse of his ability in Mad Men.

So Hapless haven't you seen the most hyped German series abroad, Dark ? Or just don't you rate this ?

Robespierre wrote:So Hapless haven't you seen the most hyped German series abroad, Dark ? Or just don't you rate this ?

Have not seen it.
I am generally prejudiced, but based on experience, against German productions, they're usually cringe (with exceptions proving the rule), but I've heard good things from many people including yourself about Dark and I will watch it at some point. Hope it really is one of those exceptions.

McLewis wrote:The Terror Season 1 was phenomenal. Binged the entire thing inside of a day (I will never do this again). Incredible performances from Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, and many others.

Jared Harris also turned around and wowed me in Chernobyl as well. Just a banner couple of years for him after I got first true glimpse of his ability in Mad Men.

I spend somethhing like 10 hours on wikipedia reading about all North West passage, and also North East passage, expeditions in human history, after I'd watched the pilot
Loved the atmosphere, loved the topic. The monster plot was bit mediocre but the rest was great.
What won me over immediately though was the music.
Season 2 I couldn't get into emotionally, I found it laboured and the characters a bit unconvincing

UnReal (wouldn't have guessed it with the name, plot, and setting along with the fact it was developed on the LIFETIME channel, but this is one excellent, acidic feminist discourse machine dark comedy, and I've got a crush on the protagonist)

I really enjoyed the first season, but after that I felt like it became just like the shows it critiqued.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

UnReal (wouldn't have guessed it with the name, plot, and setting along with the fact it was developed on the LIFETIME channel, but this is one excellent, acidic feminist discourse machine dark comedy, and I've got a crush on the protagonist)

I really enjoyed the first season, but after that I felt like it became just like the shows it critiqued.

I've seen seasons 1 and 2, the second still had it IMO even if it became more telenovelaesque
"Hot Rachel"

Planning to watch further at some point but as you can notice THERES SO MUCH STUFF TO WATCH AND CATCH UP ON

Like, Dietland... liked the pilot, haven't watched further

glad to see the Mad Men love Hans

Hapless_Hans wrote:

McLewis wrote:The Terror Season 1 was phenomenal. Binged the entire thing inside of a day (I will never do this again). Incredible performances from Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies, and many others.

Jared Harris also turned around and wowed me in Chernobyl as well. Just a banner couple of years for him after I got first true glimpse of his ability in Mad Men.

I spend somethhing like 10 hours on wikipedia reading about all North West passage, and also North East passage, expeditions in human history, after I'd watched the pilot
Loved the atmosphere, loved the topic. The monster plot was bit mediocre but the rest was great.
What won me over immediately though was the music.
Season 2 I couldn't get into emotionally, I found it laboured and the characters a bit unconvincing

The music was indeed good. I didn't even try Season 2 as the topic didn't interest me all that much. I'd love to see a more conventional take on the Japanese internment camps, but just wasn't feeling the terror angle for this show.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

McLewis wrote:I can't start Lost again even if I wanted to. That ending still has me fuming.

Yep. Lost's first seasons thrive massively on mystery, they have the mystery factor nailed on.

I can only reiterate, think I wrote it before, me and my then gf were camped outside the fucking videotheque waiting for it to open at 8 in the morning because we had finished our DVDs in the middle of the night and needed the rest of the season NOW.
If I think what utter SHOCK the season 1 finale was, with the other boat.

But, with hindsight, it's like they shat in the jar that said "mystery". And then they named their turd "Jacob".

Everything was going so well. Even the past, present and future thing was fine. I think a lot of authors suffer from setting up unbelievable expectations in the form of mystery but not many are able to deliver (this is why GRRM is a GOAT author who does this incredibly well).

Lost set up something which needed a satisfactory conclusion. The way I see it, it had 3 options

1) Go sci-fi route and explain the mystery of the Island in the form of either alien technology or AI gone wrong sort of thing.

2) Keep it as realistic as possible without any supernatural element. So they could have ended the show where they decided to escape, manage to escape but then realised they belong on the island as they have nothing to live for in the real world.

3) Good vs evil fight in the worst possible way.

They went with the worst option.

I mean i actually love the final episode. But the entire season was a huge mess.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Robespierre wrote:So Hapless haven't you seen the most hyped German series abroad, Dark ? Or just don't you rate this ?

Have not seen it.
I am generally prejudiced, but based on experience, against German productions, they're usually cringe (with exceptions proving the rule), but I've heard good things from many people including yourself about Dark and I will watch it at some point. Hope it really is one of those exceptions.

Wow, I understand exactly what you mean, it's same my thought about Italian tv series ( in fact I've never seen one, except for one called Boris - relevant exception) but yet Dark hype is real. You'll love it imo

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Robespierre wrote:So Hapless haven't you seen the most hyped German series abroad, Dark ? Or just don't you rate this ?

Have not seen it.
I am generally prejudiced, but based on experience, against German productions, they're usually cringe (with exceptions proving the rule), but I've heard good things from many people including yourself about Dark and I will watch it at some point. Hope it really is one of those exceptions.

Best show on TV right now

Whoever skips past it is a fool

goddamn, The Wire season 5 knocked the ball outta the park. Definitely and easily a top 5 series of all time. Just for how much the show was committed to realism - being that the core writers and creators of the show came from a background of the city of Baltimore's institutions that are explored in the show.

I loved the journalists that were introduced in season 5, just which they were brought out earlier. The docks/port arc in season 2 was the weakest for sure. But otherwise everything is just great. Amazing storytelling, brilliant acting.

Spoiler:

Someone said S4 of Sons of Anarchy is a drop in form iirc, but i can't disagree enough. It's probably the best season, up there with S1 ---- whereas S2 & S3 took a bit of a dip for me tbh, not that it was bad, just not the same as 1 and 4. Perhaps 4 was just let down by the ending, they hyped up so many potential things the whole season, only to give no climax and then extend it into the next season

Nah, look at page #1, I think S2, S3 and S4 are peak when it comes to SoA

Re-watching SoA ... uhhh.... soooooooooo good season 1, Jackie boyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ---- knowing things to come, i will be needing little more than regular drinks ....

speaking of SoA ... is Mayans good? i haven't watched it but im curious ...

I honestly like Mayans. It is not at the level of SOA, but a solid watch nonetheless with some very well written episodes that showcase trademark SOA moments.

Myesyats wrote:Nah, look at page #1, I think S2, S3 and S4 are peak when it comes to SoA

Exactly, I think everyone had said this
Involution is around 5th.
6th Is the worst imo, but last season presents good episodes anyway

Ah, yes , I remember 4th season was absoutely great

P.s. I don't t rate Mayans
Weak spin off imo

McLewis wrote:I honestly like Mayans. It is not at the level of SOA, but a solid watch nonetheless with some very well written episodes that showcase trademark SOA moments.

interesting ... yea i wouldn't put level of expectations to that of SoA so i will lower it down and give it a shot .. thanks man!
i want to see alvarez making comeback XD the way he talks is so ice cool

Robespierre wrote:

Myesyats wrote:Nah, look at page #1, I think S2, S3 and S4 are peak when it comes to SoA

Exactly, I think everyone had said this
Involution is around 5th.
6th Is the worst imo, but last season presents good episodes anyway

Ah, yes , I remember 4th season was absoutely great

P.s. I don't t rate Mayans
Weak spin off imo

i cant remember which was worst season but because SoA for me always kept the level of intensity high throughout, that i just don't recall lows ..
but i am rewatching it now so its slowly coming back XD


hmmm ... i guess because SoA was so damn good utimately ur not going to get same level of taste in spinoff XD
i will give it a shot thanks bro for feedback...