The Best TV Series

[McNasara]

1. Breaking Bad - is the best series ever made ​​for me.
2. The Sopranos - less dynamic show, but right there in second place.
3. Only Fools and Horses - a classic comedy.
Then two animated series:
5. The Simpsons,
6. South Park,
and two other comedies:
7. That's 70s Show,
8. Two and a Half Men (only with Charlie Sheen).

[jinxy lilywhite]

1. The Wire
2. The Sopranos Close second
3. Only Fools and Horses -
4. south Park- consistently so much better and funnier than the simpsons, Simpsons seem dated now
6. Fawlty Towers
7. Father Ted

I would put game of thrones in there.

[Eminence Grise]

In no order...

Band of Brothers
Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister
Dexter (not the last two seasons!)
Blackadder

Ted and Fawlty Towers - classics!

[bennocelt]

Fr Ted, Fawlty Towers, Cracker, Rab C Nesbit, Simpsons and Family Guy (off the top of my head)

[BonnieShels]

Arrested Development
The Simpsons (pre-2002)
Father Ted
The Office (UK)
Breaking Bad
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Archer
The West Wing (before the mad VP thing)

[McNasara]

Fr Ted, Fawlty Towers

I didn't watched these two, but I've heard that Love & Hate is very good too. When I get some time I'll have to take a look.;)

[BonnieShels]

Father Ted is a must. Greatest Irish (or British produced) comedy ever.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Anyone else think Breaking Bad is overrated? Still a great show but far from perfect.

I think The Sopranos is better than Breaking Bad or The Wire.

Seinfeld is probably the best comedy show. It took a little while to get going but it maintained its quality up until The Finale episode, which was crap.

Curb Your Enthusiasm, while still good, started gradually declining in Season 4.

As far as the cartoons, The Simpsons only really had about 7 or 8 good seasons. The first season was crap and so is every season since the late 90s.

South Park has gone downhill as well. Too pop culture.

Family Guy is unwatchable these days.

American Dad probably outlasts all of them in terms of longevity. Never thought I'd say that. Roger the alien gives them a lot of leverage in terms of writing.

[BonnieShels]

The Finale of Seinfeld is actually a lot better as the years wore on. I restarted watching all of Seinfeld and it's pretty terrible for the first couple of seasons. I think the episode that introduces Newman is where it kicks off.

[Macy]

The Wire
The Sopranos
The West Wing
The Thick of It
Deadwood
Generation Kill
Band of Brothers
Fr Ted

[Eminence Grise]

Anyone else think Breaking Bad is overrated? Still a great show but far from perfect.

Me! I really enjoyed BB - the acting was some of the best I've ever seen in a TV drama - but there was an awful lot of hype surrounding it.

[BonnieShels]

The Wire
The Sopranos
The West Wing
The Thick of It
Deadwood
Generation Kill
Band of Brothers
Fr Ted

Totally forgot about The Thick of It. Glorious.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Anyone else think Better Call Saul is a bad idea?

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

My favourite season of The Wire was Season 2.

Frank Sobotka was a great character.

[bennocelt]

Surprised no one has mentioned Mrs Browns Boys!

[nigel-harps1954]

Surprised no one has mentioned Mrs Browns Boys!

I'm certainly glad nobody mentioned it. Pure drivel.

[Jofspring]

In no particular order and only series I have actually finished or that I am completely up to date on.

Breaking Bad, Entourage, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Game Of Thrones, Suits, Fr.Ted, Friends, Band of Brothers

[geysir]

In order of my preferred.
The Wire
Homicide, Life on the Streets series 1-6
Spiral

big gap to the rest,

in no order.
Dexter, series 1-6,
The Killing, series 1 Danish, the USA version was good.
Deadwood,
Prisoner cell block H (Australian) near 700 episodes, though needs a remote control close at hand to FF through the soapy bits.
Band of Brothers

I really liked Sopranos series 1. and liked Breaking Bad series 1-3

[Eminence Grise]

A few others that came to mind over the weekend:

Prime Suspect
Taggart (until Mark McManus died)
Black Books
MASH
Hustle
Spooks (though a bit patchy in places; Seasons 1 and 2 were consistently good)

[Neish]

Drama
The Wire
Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
Game Of thrones
OZ

Comedy
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Devlopment
Alan Partridge
Fr Ted
Only fools & Horses

[McNasara]

I watched the Fawlty Towers, follows Father Ted, thanks for the recommendation lads.

Meanwhile, I downloaded three episodes of the new series True Detective.

[SkStu]

Good call on Black Books, EG.

Most have been mentioned, just going to throw Spaced in there into the comedy category.

[peadar1987]

Firefly, we hardly knew you.

[geysir]

I watched the Fawlty Towers, follows Father Ted, thanks for the recommendation lads.

Meanwhile, I downloaded three episodes of the new series True Detective.
True Detective, even after just 3 episodes, deserves a mention in the best ever thread.
No doubt it will become a best ever TV series, possibly even a landmark tv drama of sorts, vastly superior to what you'd probably get in a squashed 90 minutes cinema treatment of the same storyline.

[Neish]

Yeah have True Detective on my to watch list

[CraftyToePoke]

Anybody watch and of the Scandinavian dramas of the last few years ? Borgen (Denmark) and in particular The Bridge (Sweden / Denmark) really impressed me, the second series of The Bridge just finished on BBC4 and I thought it really excellent, but I would advise seeking out the first series before watching.

Honourable mention to The Killing series and also Spiral (France).

[DannyInvincible]

I enjoyed the character interactions in The Bridge and it showed great promise at the outset, but the unexplained diversions, plot leaps and red herrings to throw us off the scent began to irritate me by the end of the first season. It all became increasingly implausible. Does the second season tie up loose ends or does it embark on a completely new case?

Have been very impressed with True Detective so far.

[CraftyToePoke]

I enjoyed the character interactions in The Bridge and it showed great promise at the outset, but the unexplained diversions, plot leaps and red herrings to throw us off the scent began to irritate me by the end of the first season. It all became increasingly implausible. Does the second season tie up loose ends or does it embark on a completely new case?

The character interactions are even better this time round IMO. The second season does not tie up loose ends, it picks at old sores brilliantly though while the main thread of the series is a totally new case. It doesn't give that closure, a definitive outcome or settling point, no.

[Darklordsbane]

Can't wait for Game of Thrones to start again in April, the original house of cards, yes minister/prime minister, the wire,
I was getting into Luck when it was cancelled also The Boss but that's cancelled as well,
enjoyed House for a while but it went on too long, Sherlock and Luther both very good, Breaking bad should have just been a trilogy movie enjoyed it though, Black adder, GBH and the Irish RM

[bennocelt]

Can't wait for Game of Thrones to start again in April, the original house of cards, yes minister/prime minister, the wire,
I was getting into Luck when it was cancelled also The Boss but that's cancelled as well,
enjoyed House for a while but it went on too long, Sherlock and Luther both very good, Breaking bad should have just been a trilogy movie enjoyed it though, Black adder, GBH and the Irish RM

glad someone mentioned GBH, was thinking about lookin at it again, Palin is great in it, wonder was it loosely based on reality!!(on that Liverpool mp that was popular in the 80's, name escapes))

[stann]

Derek Hatton?

Some of my favourite ever shows already mentioned, not surprisingly - Sopranos, Band Of Brothers, Fawlty Towers, Curb, Seinfeld, any Partridge, Ted, Black Books, Office, Thick Of It, Simpsons, South Park.

Bit surprised none of these have yet though:
Boardwalk Empire
Das Boot
Rome
the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series
The Day Today
Brasseye
The IT Crowd
The Larry Sanders Show
Porridge,

and given the mention of Michael Palin in the excellent GBH above,
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Boys From The Black Stuff

[Eminence Grise]

I always think of Das Boot as a film first - good call, Stann.

Maybe it's just that everything seemed better as a kid, but F-Troop came into my head the other day. Anybody else remember it? Same era also produced The Virginian, which Mrs Grise procured as a box set a couple of years ago.

[strangeirish]

Maybe it's just that everything seemed better as a kid, but F-Troop came into my head the other day. Anybody else remember it? Same era also produced The Virginian, which Mrs Grise procured as a box set a couple of years ago.Used to really like F-Troop as a kid. Off to search YouTube now to see if there's any clips...And sure enough...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUolPUFEpZo

[CraftyToePoke]

A few from the memory banks of a rural Ireland childhood with only two stations till it's latter stages.

Nighthawks
NYPD Blue
Hill Street Blues


Also didn't Graham Linehan write Black Books & IT Crowd ? Which are dangerously close to each other in concept with the two fellas, (one Irish) and a woman nearby the mainstay of both. Fair play to him on getting away with a serious bit of coasting there.

[BonnieShels]

It was a Moran creation and Linehan only wrote the first season in conjunction with Moran.

That's my recollection of reading that before.

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

A few from the memory banks of a rural Ireland childhood with only two stations till it's latter stages.

Nighthawks
NYPD Blue
Hill Street Blues


Also didn't Graham Linehan write Black Books & IT Crowd ? Which are dangerously close to each other in concept with the two fellas, (one Irish) and a woman nearby the mainstay of both. Fair play to him on getting away with a serious bit of coasting there.

NYPD Blue is a good shout. Sipowicz was such a richly written character.

[bennocelt]

Derek Hatton?

the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series

Boys From The Black Stuff
Yeah thats his name
Brett is the best SH definitely
Talking about BFTBT, what about Auf Wiederson Pet?

[Neish]

I enjoyed the character interactions in The Bridge and it showed great promise at the outset, but the unexplained diversions, plot leaps and red herrings to throw us off the scent began to irritate me by the end of the first season. It all became increasingly implausible. Does the second season tie up loose ends or does it embark on a completely new case?


This is why I liked it though its very seldom that all lose ends get tied up in such cases and even in life in general. 2nd season is even better

[McNasara]

Meanwhile, I downloaded three episodes of the new series True Detective.
Finished the first season, not bad.

[geysir]

Anybody watch and of the Scandinavian dramas of the last few years ? Borgen (Denmark) and in particular The Bridge (Sweden / Denmark) really impressed me, the second series of The Bridge just finished on BBC4 and I thought it really excellent, but I would advise seeking out the first series before watching.

Honourable mention to The Killing series and also Spiral (France).
Spiral is untouchable and the Killing S1 is excellent.
Honourable mentions for the Bridge and Borgen :)