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OrnotBitwise
09-06-2006, 09:12 AM
This is not a poll. I am dispensing wisdom. Pray attend lest you remain unenlightened.

This Sunday night, if the local dungeon is closed and your spouse/sig-ot isn't in the mood, the fourth season of the Best TV Series Ever begins. This will be a good opportunity to take a chance and find out just how good television can really be when someone actually tries.

This is television for thinking people. It is not short attention span friendly. In fact, it's so dense and tightly edited that I advise pinning your eyelids open: an inopportune blink can cause you to miss something crucial.

Don't believe me? Fair enough. Here's another opinion . . . .

Yes, HBO's 'Wire' is challenging. It's also a masterpiece.

Over the course of its first three seasons, "The Wire" on HBO has been one of the great achievements in television artistry, a novelistic approach to storytelling in a medium that rewards quick, decisive and clear storytelling. It has never flinched from ambition -- dissecting a troubled American city, Baltimore, as well as and certainly more truly than any history book could have. It has tackled the drug war in this country as it simultaneously explores race, poverty and "the death of the American working class," the failure of political systems to help the people they serve and the tyranny of lost hope. Few series in the history of television have explored the plight of inner-city African Americans and none -- not one -- has done it as well.

On the off chance that you need to be reminded, this is not "Desperate Housewives."

. . .

And yet here are the hard truths about "The Wire," not all of them the kind of accolades that might sit well with a producer hoping for a big turnout come Sunday. First, it is, in fact, a difficult series. Viewers would benefit greatly from having seen the first three seasons, currently available on DVD or waiting like little orphans at Netflix. (That said, you can slide into Season 4 on Sunday with less effort than it took to hook yourself on Season 3, in part because "The Wire" is essentially starting from scratch, and new viewers could check out the immensely helpful HBO Web site to familiarize themselves with the characters, and also come to Jesus on the issue of great art taking a little more effort than, say, watching a sudsy hospital drama.)

Second, the argument over whether "The Wire" is the best show on television needs only two other participants -- also from HBO -- in the form of "The Sopranos" and "Deadwood." Rather than split hairs, let's just say that the breadth and ambition of "The Wire" are unrivaled and that taken cumulatively over the course of a season -- any season -- it's an astonishing display of writing, acting and storytelling that must be considered alongside the best literature and filmmaking in the modern era.

Full Article Here (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/06/DDG7BKV7HK26.DTL)
Seriously, do yourselves a favor and try it if you haven't already.

uscitizen
09-06-2006, 09:17 AM
I don't purchase HBO.

TRGLDTE
09-06-2006, 09:18 AM
Homicide - Life on the Streets (best ever)

uscitizen
09-06-2006, 09:30 AM
The Andy Griffith show , my nomination for best tv series ever.

OrnotBitwise
09-06-2006, 09:54 AM
The Andy Griffith show , my nomination for best tv series ever.Heathen! :p

Damocles
09-06-2006, 09:57 AM
Night Rider!

OrnotBitwise
09-06-2006, 10:02 AM
Night Rider!
You're going to burn for that one. :shock:

Dixie - In Memoriam
09-06-2006, 10:05 AM
The Andy Griffith Show is the best series ever to grace our T.V.
All other shows are simply on a different level.

uscitizen
09-06-2006, 10:07 AM
Wow ! called a heathen and Dixie agreeing with me. Might as well go see a shrink I suppose......

Jarod
09-06-2006, 12:24 PM
While I do like the Andy Griffith Show, I cant agree its the best ever. What about The Cosby Show?

uscitizen
09-06-2006, 01:10 PM
While I do like the Andy Griffith Show, I cant agree its the best ever. What about The Cosby Show?

Not even in the same league. Andy griffith is smooth and subtle, cosby was not.

OrnotBitwise
09-06-2006, 01:13 PM
I think I'm going to be physically ill. I'm talking about Beethoven and these yahoos want the Bee Gees.
:dunno:

uscitizen
09-06-2006, 01:19 PM
All a matter of taste or lack thereof Ornot :)
You like tomato, I hate tomato. Actually not though.
I grow my culture in a petri dish ;)

uscitizen
09-06-2006, 01:20 PM
Beethoven ? A big slobbery dog ????

BRUTALITOPS
09-06-2006, 04:35 PM
arrested development.

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 04:40 PM
I can't believe no one mentioned Buffy. Or Angel.

But this series sounds very compelling Ornot.

IHateGovernment
09-06-2006, 04:45 PM
The Cosby show sucked. And I'm hoping Darla is just joking around.

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 04:47 PM
The Cosby show sucked. And I'm hoping Darla is just joking around.

No way! Have you seen the shows IHG? I know they sound stupid, but we are talking about some really great writing. I have them all on dvd.

Damocles
09-06-2006, 04:48 PM
Clearly I wasn't serious when I said "Night Rider"... What I really meant was "The A-Team!"

IHateGovernment
09-06-2006, 04:52 PM
I've never seen angel but I've seen one episode of Buffy. Perhaps I shouldn't judge from one episode.

My wife used to have a group of friends who loved the show. We had never seen it but from commercials it didn't look like our type of show. Frankly the episode was so cheesy I started to laugh the whole way through the show. I felt like I was watching an episode of MST3K. We were parodying the show the whole way home.

But I suppose I caught a really bad episode it has some goofy looking green monster or something.

I always laugh now whenever I hear anyone mention Buffy.

But to each his own there were some really bad episodes of Star Trek too but overall I liked that show.

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 04:53 PM
IHG, even though you didn't ask, I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. The writer and producer, Joss Whedon calls himself a feminist, and says that he got very tired of watching movie after movie where the "little blonde girl" is tortured and killed. So he decided to make a series about a little blonde girl who goes into the alley with the monster, but she's the one who comes out. And the first scene of the first show, he turns decades of horror movies on their head. In many ways, it is a feminist manifesto, but it is also very much filled with metaphors for the horror that is high school, and then beyond.

There really is so much going on there.

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 04:55 PM
I've never seen angel but I've seen one episode of Buffy. Perhaps I shouldn't judge from one episode.

My wife used to have a group of friends who loved the show. We had never seen it but from commercials it didn't look like our type of show. Frankly the episode was so cheesy I started to laugh the whole way through the show. I felt like I was watching an episode of MST3K. We were parodying the show the whole way home.

But I suppose I caught a really bad episode it has some goofy looking green monster or something.

I always laugh now whenever I hear anyone mention Buffy.

But to each his own there were some really bad episodes of Star Trek too but overall I liked that show.

Yeah, you might have caught a bad one. It would be like judging Star Trek from Turnabout Intruder. (see, you didn't know that I'm a total geek)

IHateGovernment
09-06-2006, 04:55 PM
Of course there is no such show. Now Knight Rider............:tongout:

IHateGovernment
09-06-2006, 04:58 PM
Well I guess I can give it a few points for trying to break stereotypes.

OrnotBitwise
09-06-2006, 05:19 PM
I can't believe no one mentioned Buffy. Or Angel.

But this series sounds very compelling Ornot.
It is, quite simply, the best drama overall -- writing, acting, editing and even direction, usually -- I've ever seen on television. Nothing else compares with it, except, possibly, the Sopranos in its heyday. Even the Sopranos wasn't as ambitious, though, nor were the characters so complex.



Buffy? :doh:

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 05:32 PM
You guys don't know buffy Ornot! You are making judgements based on the name of the show.

Even our old friend who has recently joined us here, admitted that it had a lot to say, and you know what an opinionated elitist he is.

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 05:33 PM
Intellectual elitist...I should clarify, I wouldn't want to insult him. ;)

Damocles
09-06-2006, 05:37 PM
Buffy was a fun show, but not something I'd ever nominate for the best ever...

Truly. I'd think of 24 or 4400 before I'd think of Buffy... I loved the movie, the comedic action genre bumped up a couple points in my estimation...

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 05:42 PM
Buffy was a fun show, but not something I'd ever nominate for the best ever...

Truly. I'd think of 24 or 4400 before I'd think of Buffy... I loved the movie, the comedic action genre bumped up a couple points in my estimation...

I don't know what 4400 is Damo, and I don't watch 24, and never would. Buffy, and Angel as well, had many layers, some incredible acting, and top rate writing. Both shows appealed to me. But there is very little tv that I like, so I suppose I'm a little weird.

BRUTALITOPS
09-06-2006, 06:44 PM
it is a feminist manifesto


Yeah I bet it was all about feminism and had nothing to do with a hot chick moving around and killing vampires.

Cancel7
09-06-2006, 06:47 PM
Yeah I bet it was all about feminism and had nothing to do with a hot chick moving around and killing vampires.


Feminists can be hot Grind.

It wasn't all about feminism, but the show was created and moulded, and often written, by a feminist. That's bound to reflect.

uscitizen
09-07-2006, 07:12 AM
We know you suffer from that Grind. This is about TV shows though.

Blackflag
09-07-2006, 07:25 AM
arrested development.

Grind wins.

Runners up would be the Office(british), Fawlty Towers.


Oh wait this isn't just comedies huh.

24, Sopranos before it sucked.



Anyone see the new Dr. Who? I thought that was some stupid shit when I was a kid but the new one is pretty cool.

Blackflag
09-07-2006, 07:28 AM
Hmm I forgot about Firefly.

Another great show that Fox cancelled.

Damocles
09-07-2006, 07:30 AM
Hmm I forgot about Firefly.

Another great show that Fox cancelled.
They wanted to make the movie money man!

That little redhead was a cutie...

OrnotBitwise
09-07-2006, 10:11 AM
arrested development.
A worthy contender . . . in the lightweight division. As good as it was, however, it wasn't even in the same class.

TRGLDTE
09-07-2006, 10:19 AM
Grind wins.

Runners up would be the Office(british), Fawlty Towers.

Oh wait this isn't just comedies huh.

24, Sopranos before it sucked.

Anyone see the new Dr. Who? I thought that was some stupid shit when I was a kid but the new one is pretty cool. I shall say this only once... You've left out 'Allo 'Allo. I think the multitude of interwoven plots centering on the stolen "Portrait of the Fallen Madonna (with big boobies) by Von Klomp" is brilliant.

klaatu
09-07-2006, 10:32 AM
If the first season of Rome was any indication, it will challange as the best ever. Its kind of tough to measure comedy against drama. Two different discussions. For Comedy you can go all the way back to the Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, Dick VanDyke, and the 70's with All in the Family, Taxi, Mary Tyler Moore and the Odd Couple, and then Cheers in 80's and Sienfeld in the 90's. The 2000's? Curb your Enthusiasm.
For drama .... Id go with The Twighlight Zone, Hill Street Blues, Dallas, X-Files, Soprano's, Six feet Under, 24 and now Rome are all in a class by themselves .. havent watched Wire ... but after that review ..may have to start .. because HBO has one hell of a track record.

OrnotBitwise
09-07-2006, 10:37 AM
If the first season of Rome was any indication, it will challange as the best ever. Its kind of tough to measure comedy against drama. Two different discussions. For Comedy you can go all the way back to the Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, Dick VanDyke, and the 70's with All in the Family, Taxi, Mary Tyler Moore and the Odd Couple, and then Cheers in 80's and Sienfeld in the 90's. The 2000's? Curb your Enthusiasm.
For drama .... Id go with The Twighlight Zone, Hill Street Blues, Dallas, X-Files, Soprano's, Six feet Under, 24 and now Rome are all in a class by themselves .. havent watched Wire ... but after that review ..may have to start .. because HBO has one hell of a track record.
Try it: you will be amazed. Sunday will be a good opportunity because they're starting a new story arc -- which is why I posted this in the first place.

Damocles
09-07-2006, 10:40 AM
because HBO has one hell of a track record.

Yeah... HBO's track record:


1 season of Superfantastic shows followed closely by a season of mediocre shows, next season partially sucky, then the full suck on for a season, followed by "Why the HELL am I watching this!"

Jarod
09-07-2006, 11:30 AM
"My So Called Life" was great, but I only discovered it after the Religous Right got it pulled from Network Television.

klaatu
09-08-2006, 07:21 AM
Yeah... HBO's track record:


1 season of Superfantastic shows followed closely by a season of mediocre shows, next season partially sucky, then the full suck on for a season, followed by "Why the HELL am I watching this!"

Sounds like last seasons Sopranos really got to you!

Damocles
09-08-2006, 07:25 AM
Sounds like last seasons Sopranos really got to you!
That and that last season of OZ.