Quote:
| Originally Posted by RathBandu Also, “The Wire” has Jimmy McNulty, who after his successive successes in fucking over his old bosses at CID in the first two episodes of season two, is probally one of the all time great TV cops. |
Watching someone send a fax has never been so entertaining. He and Moreland are two of my favorite cops in TV history.
Hell yeah, Moreland’s awesome, too. Loved the way he told the harbor cop “He’s dead to us” when she asked him about Jimmy.
My list is:
The Wire - Anyone who doesn’t find this show great is an idiot - consider it a standardized test. Plus, they had an entire crime scene investigation where the officers communicated using only different intonations of the word “fuck”.
The Sopranos - There’s backlash now since it’s a mainstream hit ("Join our anti-sheep! We’re better than those sheep! Baa!"
, but it will be remembered as one of the greatest works of fiction produced, even if it is only the 2nd best show on its own network.
Rome - Starts a bit slow (like many HBO shows), but builds steadily until a final string of episodes that are better than any film I’ve seen about that era. Plus, they build a RAFT OF CORPSES! Any show that does that, gets bonus points from me.
Band of Brothers - The miniseries was as long as a season of an HBO show, so I say it counts. Plus, they’re working on a sequel (pacific theater), which is going to have to be near-perfect to not be a disappointment after the original.
Deadwood - Makes it hard to watch most westerns, in comparison they suck cock by choice.
Larry Sanders - Off the air for a while now, but still the measuring bar for comedy not in cartoon form. It should get a DVD release next year, at which point my friends will start thanking me for making them watch it - like everything else in this list.
Season 1 of The Larry Sanders Show is already out on DVD.
That scene with “fuck” from ‘The Wire’ is what sold me on the series for the rest of the first season, and beyond.
Honestly, I know I’m only on the third episode of Season Two, but the greatness of this show, and the ideas Simon has for the fifth and final season–about the media and the decline of the newspaper industry–has me already waiting in near-breathless anticipation. My dad’s a reporter/critic, he’s worked for papers most of his adult life, and as a result of being raised by a single father, I’ve spent a lot of time in newsrooms and surrounded by journalistic issues. Portrayals of the media in television, especially the print media, frequently get it wrong or ‘drama’ it up. I know that’s not going to be the case with ‘The Wire.’
Sorry, it’s fucking late and I’ve had too much caffeinee.
Lucky Louie was pure garbage, an eyesore for HBO.
I read that the guys who did Six Feet Under are coming up with a show about Vampires. Anyone else hear this?
Yeah, it’s an Alan Ball show and it’s called “True Blood.” Based on a series of novels that are sort of a Southern Gothic Romance style in a world where vampires are “out of the closet.” Interminable stuff, but a lot of interesting ideas.
Rome, Deadwood, Big Love
Arli$$ lots and lots of Arli$$.
When I was away about a month ago, some CW affiliate was showing reruns at 11:30 pm. Someone actually paid syndication fees for Arli$$? So some station decided that they needed them some Robert Wuhl? Amazing, just amazing.
I know they’re not the type of shows being discussed here but HBO’s non-fiction programs are damn good.
“Real Sports with Bryant Gumble” always has interesting stories. Forget what you think about Gumble, he doesn’t do all that much beside host and an occasional story to justify having his name in the title. They did a story a few months back about 2 guys trying to prove a Honus Wagner baseball card they owned was legit. Good stuff.
Bill Maher’s show is generally good. They stack the deck and they need to stop having a celebrity on the panel every week but other than that it’s worth watching.
I also like that show where they follow the hookers around Atlantic City, and they have that guy who does the voice-over and says things like “Now we meet Lola, she walks the street hoping to not get beat. Giving fake hollers for tricks’ dollars.”
Whatever you do. Avoid REAL SEX, viewing said show will cause a disinterest in sex and possible impotency.
But everything said about The Wire is on the money and Rath you aren’t the only one looking forward to the final season ESPECIALLY because it’s on the media and the gutting of the newspaper which has been an issue over here in LA (LA Times parent owned the Baltimore Sun when they were bought out by Tribune in the late 90s) and it’s being only a slow death ever since (Despite rumors of local billionaires wanting to buy it which doesn’t even gurantee any quality. See Santa Barbara and McCaw’s ex-wife)
Aside from the Wire which is the second show on television in over 13 years to have me tear up a little bit (When the Levees Broke being the first). I will go the non-drama rout as well since it has been done as well as it can be earlier in this thread. Larry Sanders, Curb your Enthusiasm, Real Time With Bill Maher, Real Sports with BG, Cathouse (just interesting), America Undercover (particularly the Hookers on the Point & Autopsy episodes).
If you can live with the excessive amount of penis shots, Oz is a great prison show.
Six Feet Under sort was a great show but it dipped a little bit at the start of the last season. The last several episodes, however more than made up for it and the very last episode is my favorite series finales.
And if you didn’t already know, Preacher is coming to HBO and if it’s even half as good as the comic it should be amazing.
And if you like quality television unrestricted by the BS censorship of the networks you should also check out Showtime. They’re doing a great job of catching up to HBO. Look into Sleeper Cell, Dexter, and Brotherhood for some great current shows. Dead Like Me was good too but it only lasted two seasons.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Moltisanti I know they’re not the type of shows being discussed here but HBO’s non-fiction programs are damn good. “Real Sports with Bryant Gumble” always has interesting stories. Forget what you think about Gumble, he doesn’t do all that much beside host and an occasional story to justify having his name in the title. They did a story a few months back about 2 guys trying to prove a Honus Wagner baseball card they owned was legit. Good stuff. Bill Maher’s show is generally good. They stack the deck and they need to stop having a celebrity on the panel every week but other than that it’s worth watching. I also like that show where they follow the hookers around Atlantic City, and they have that guy who does the voice-over and says things like “Now we meet Lola, she walks the street hoping to not get beat. Giving fake hollers for tricks’ dollars.” |
A classic Molisanti angled post.
The Honus Wagner thing was higly entertaining, and I agree the show is good. One of the finer comedic points to look for is when they come back to the studio after a piece they always show Bryant Gumble studiously writing notes at his desk and he acts like he’s surprisingly interupted by the camera being on him. I crack up every time, what the fuck could he possibly be writing, like it’s the first time he heard it.
The Maher show is great because he doesn’t have the slightest reservation about disagreeing with somebody regardless of who they are or “what team” they’re on. THat’s extremely rare. And he’s funny.
The Hookers on the Point/Hoes and Johns or whatever it’s called has to watched at least on time. You could not be anymore right about the voice over guy but I can’t believe you didn’t mention his ridiculous lisp. Whoever decided that they should narrate that show with lisping prostitution based poetry deserves an emmy.
I will add an even more random documentary that they probably don’t even show anymore but what the hell. Did you ever see BORN RICH? Some seriously entertaining unintentional comedy in that one.
Entourage is my favorite HBO show…that comes right after Sex & the City, which I am no longer coutning bc it is no longer on their air. Entourage has done a good job at taking its place!
Nothing against Entourage, but if that’s your favorite HBO show, you should really check out their dramas. I probably get the same amount of laughs out of an hour of the Sopranos or Deadwood as from Entourage, but with more dead whores (or hoo-a’s, depending on the show).
Entourage is fantastic (I even loved the third season), as are Da Ali G show and Extras - which was surprisingly for me a step up from The Office. Carnivale too was a fantastic show, with glacial pacing that was rivalled only by Lost, but the second season really started to reveal the creator’s longterm plan - at which point it was cancelled.
Also, I’m kind of confused as to why more people aren’t complaining about The Sopranos’ serious dip in quality. The first couple of seasons were killer, but then it started to get extremely tiresome (a lot of which I blame on the untimely death of the lady playing Tony’s mom. That was BY FAR the most interesting dynamic on the show).
I’m also pretty ashamed to say that I’ve never seen The Wire, in fact I keep switching channels when it comes on because for some reason it just looks like it might be boring. But from all the praise it’s been given here, I think I’m gonna go out and rent the first couple of seasons asap.
The Sopranos hasn’t dipped in quality, imo. Although, as a self-contained season, they’ve never matched the completeness of the first. The consensus seems to be that the 4th was the weakest, but I think it has some of the strongest individual episodes (Ralphie’s exit and the intervention, specifically). The 5th was the most hit-and-miss for me, with a couple of clunky ones, but the last 2 eps were nothing short of amazing. 6 has been kind of the same (did we really need 5 weeks of New Hampshire?), but I suspect they’ve pushed back what was going to be the spine of the season for the last batch in March or whenever it’s airing now.
Definitely start the Wire from the beginning. You can get into it at the beginning of any season, because despite the complete continuity, each is it’s own self-contained story, but catching a random mid-year episode is unlikely to do much for you. It took me a couple episodes just to straighten out who’s who, but it is far and away worth the investment. People don’t call it the best show on TV for nothing.
I guess my qualm with The Sopranos was that in the first season or 2, I felt like there was some sort of master arc planned behind it all - not in a Lost sort of way, but more as in we were being lead towards some sort of end-point like a big sprawling darkly comedic version of The Godfather. But by the third season, it started feeling like more of a soap opera, detailing the day-to-day mundanities of a mobster’s life. And while that was pretty cool for most of the viewers, it just slowly lost my interest.
Eh, fuck the Sopranos. It’s overrated. It started out a really good show but as time moved on it became slower as less and less happened and what did happen became progressively less interesting. There were many wasted episodes in there were nothing happening but an attempt to tease for the next episode, very annoying. In the Wire, thousands of things happen, there are no filler episodes, not even close. After every one you’re left thinking “wow, a lot of great stuff happened in that episode” not “what the fuck, that was a waste of time.”