Best piece of recent US televisual programming

[i_hate_beckham]

Lost!!

 

[Flashman]

Watch it, in order, from the beginning, you have to.

2, 3 and 4 are up on TV Links but no 1 yet (or 5 but hey).

Guess I'll have to torrent it or even (gadzooks!) buy the boxset.

 

[fear-n-loathing]

CSI all the way. just started watching heroes but don't think its that great. Lost was pretty good in the first season now its just annoying.

Never seen the Wire, will download it when I get in

 

[Idaho]

Spooks is the only decent UK thing in recent years I can think of, other than Life on Mars.

Spooks is so shit. I watch it, and enjoyed it. But it is shit. Adam knows everyone, speaks every language, is a specialist in everything. Stretches credulity to the point where it becomes funny.

 

[half_eaten_arm]

most of six feet under was pretty darn good!

 

[maya]

most of them seem to be given far more credit than they deserve but which comes closest to deserving the praise?

What I liked with series such as Six Feet Under, was that it's was an american show which didn't look or feel "american" at all- If you know what I mean...

It avoided the usual clichés and the acting actually felt like they were acting and not just wriggling their brows/making two different grimaces to suggest facial expressions when presented with a line...
(Or, rather, in SFU they were so good you forgot they were acting and entered their world like it was real life)

I've tried to find more recent shows on the same level but there's always something lacking- Most annoyingly with US TV is that everyone looks so fake and glossy, like they need plastic surgery to get a role...

But it seems like TV is where it's happening in the US at the moment... Scriptwriters for TV are much better than in the film industry

 

[Genghis Cohen]

The Wire.

 

[kyser_soze]

I actually found SFU to be little more than Goth mopnig dressed up in adult clothes. Really couldn't stand it by mid S2.

Worth pointing out that we're talking about the pinnacles of a huge TV market the production of which is 99% shite, at least 2 shows that are only going thanks to DVD sales and critical acclaim (BSG) or the subscription funding model that HBO enjoys - and heroes may well soon be going down the low quality route since Tom Kring (producer, and also, bizarrely, scritpwriter on Teen Wolf 2) signed up for a guaranteed 2 years of sucking NBCs money teat.

So given the amount of money and talent available to US producers and networks WTF isn't ALL US tv this good?

 

[maya]

I actually found SFU to be little more than Goth mopnig dressed up in adult clothes. Really couldn't stand it by mid S2.

In the beginning I didn't find it special at all and pretty standard fare... Then when you got to know the characters a bit better and I returned to it later on (don't remember which season), I though it was quite good actually... It was very up and down, quality-wise... But some episodes were great

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Trailer Park boys! .......


....... Ummmmmm I think it may be Canadian though

It is.

 

[stavros]

Curb Your Enthusiasm has to be mentioned.

Maya, I think what you're talking about with some not feeling too "American" is because they're made by HBO and so not under the thumb of advertisers. See The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Curb.

 

[sumimasen]

No-one's mentioned the very under-rated Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - great characters, sharp dialogue. Satirical show behind the scenes of a Sat Nite Live show.

And Reno 911! is just fucking hilarious - a complete and utter piss-take of those Cops/America's Wildest Videos kind of shows.

 

[Dubversion]

It's between the Wire and Deadwood and i can't call it.

Honorable mention to Northern Exposure, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Oz, Twin Peaks and Bakersfield PD

 

[Detroit City]

I think I can be arsed now. So, with The Sopranos finished and everyone singing its praises let us discuss the next essential matter, which is the best recent US made TV program?

Some of the best shows on US tele are on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).....unfortunately one needs a brain and some intellect to understand these shows. Thats why few americans watch them and instead gobble up worthless shows like 24, American Idol and Lost...

 

[Genghis Cohen]

No-one's mentioned the very under-rated Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - great characters, sharp dialogue. Satirical show behind the scenes of a Sat Nite Live show.

Yeah, but, you know, cancelled, allegedly because of 'poor ratings' nevermind the fact it drew a higher income group that were more likely to tivo or whatever, nevermind the fact plenty of shows that went on to be huge had shit ratings in the first season (MASH, for example) nevermind a company like GE should be able to support loss leaders now and then.

The episodes you're seeing now are just ones that were already made and are unfortunately the last, which is a shame, because it is very good, not Soprano's/Deadwood/Huff/Wire good, but good nonetheless.

What was it cancelled for ? What colossus of the broadcast medium took away the time slot of such a quality show ? 'the real wedding crashers,' a twatfaced reality cuntfest by cunts for cunts (yeah the black donnelly's came in between but that was poor and deserved to go) probably, like, I've never actually seen it.

 

[YouSir]

Some of the best shows on US tele are on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).....unfortunately one needs a brain and some intellect to understand these shows. Thats why few americans watch them and instead gobble up worthless shows like 24, American Idol and Lost...

Any highlights to recommend then? As far as I know PBS stuff never, ever makes it over here. Although I rarely watch TV so I may well be wrong.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Spooks is so shit. I watch it, and enjoyed it. But it is shit. Adam knows everyone, speaks every language, is a specialist in everything. Stretches credulity to the point where it becomes funny.

And that is different to most US programmes because...?

Why aren't we allowed to engage in mindless escapism? Why are only americans allowed to do so?

 

[Bandit57]

The Wire is the greatest TV show ever made, it’s ridiculously good.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

What's BSG?

Why do I get the impression it's mostly the boys who've answered this question so far? Sopranos

Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, House.

 

[May Kasahara]

BSG = Battlestar Galactica.

 

[Santino]

What's BSG?

Why do I get the impression it's mostly the boys who've answered this question so far? Sopranos

Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, House.

If you don't like the Sopranos please have the courtesy to tell us why rather than just make a feeble swipe at those who do.

 

[Belushi]

What's BSG?

Why do I get the impression it's mostly the boys who've answered this question so far? Sopranos

Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, House.

Why is somone stopping the girls posting on this thread

 

[Orang Utan]

In the beginning I didn't find it special at all and pretty standard fare... Then when you got to know the characters a bit better and I returned to it later on (don't remember which season), I though it was quite good actually... It was very up and down, quality-wise... But some episodes were great

The final episode of SFU is devastating - I cried my manly heart out

Another entirely superfluous big up for The Wire here!

 

[Orang Utan]

What's BSG?

Why do I get the impression it's mostly the boys who've answered this question so far? Sopranos

Sopranos isn't exclusively appealing to a male audience - far from it

 

[Idaho]

And that is different to most US programmes because...?

Why aren't we allowed to engage in mindless escapism? Why are only americans allowed to do so?

I love escapist fiction and escapist television - I nominated BSG and Heroes!

I think the story and mythology of Spooks is wafer thin and laughable.

 

[Idaho]

What's BSG?

Why do I get the impression it's mostly the boys who've answered this question so far? Sopranos

Lost, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, House.

I don't like the Sopranos. I tried an episode once - never took to it. I have a bit of an aversion to glamourising gangsters (I'm sure someone will come along and tell me that it doesn't).

As for Desperate Housewives.. come on. That is huge floating turd of a show. Complete shite. Lost is just about bearable - although it does try the patience.

 

[London_Calling]

With my new found 'mastery' of streaming and bit-torrent I'm about to begin The Sopranos and The Wire from Series1, episode 1 - maybe one episode each a day or summin.

Finding this a pretty good way forward with tv format programmes.

If that works out, I might even add Deadwood when I run out of The Wire.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

It's nothing like Watchmen

I'm told the end is.

 

[elevendayempire]

Hmm, I'd go for Heroes or BSG myself. But I haven't seen The Wire yet.

SG

 

[Reno]

I don't like the Sopranos. I tried an episode once - never took to it. I have a bit of an aversion to glamourising gangsters (I'm sure someone will come along and tell me that it doesn't).

It doesn't

The characters in The Sopranos were hardly glamourous, for the most part they were rather mundane. The series really was about the banality of evil. For a while you'd forget what they do for a living and really get involved in their lives and problems and then they'd do something truly horrific and you'd get a jolt, realising what you are actually watching. In a way characters like Tony's wife Carmela were among the most interesting for me. The way she could forever tell herself that she wasn't directly implicated and yet she'd directly profit from every horrific crime possible. It reminded my of Nazi Germany (which Tony was obsessed with, constantly watching docus on the History Channel) and any other oppressive regime that flourishes because of the peole who will turn a blind eye. It was a marally comlex and genuinely intelligent series.

...and IMO fluff like Lost, Heroes and Desperate Housewives is good fun for what it is, but really can't hold a candle to it. It's like comparing Stephen King to Dostoevsky.