OT: Golden Age of TV

7/23/2015 1:40:21 PM

We are (supposedly) in a new golden age of TV. With lots of great series primarily on cable, which are better than most movies. Rivaling the old golden age of TV. These new series have clever plots, great scripts and sets, and can rival big ticket special effects. To me this is somewhat BS. The new series start out with a great first season, but if they do well and are renewed, the subsequent seasons have episode after episode with tiny usually very tiny additional plot / character development and God forbid you blink during the key line during the hour revealing that tiny little additional plot point. Series I would put in this category:

Mad Men
Orange is the New Black
Scandal
30 Rock
Boardwalk Empire (puts me to sleep now)
Game of Thrones (best first season ever, and so soo sooo sllooowww after that. endless walking through mountains, deserts, snow, depending on the character)
Breaking Bad (even though last season it finally got decent again)
Downton Abbey (for you high brows)

Versus "The Sopranos" which never had a bad episode or season in my book and was not part of the original golden age of TV. And for you old school fanatics "Dragnet" never ceases to entertain me some 50 years later! How many folks are going to be watching "Breaking Bad" 50 years from now?

Give me my good stuff back on TV, and not these shows that develop at a glacial crawl.

35 comments

Latest

shadowcat

•

9 years ago

I have no TV service. I do have Netflix and I get my news etc off of the internet. If/when the cable/satellite companies offer me my choice of want I want to watch and pay for, I might consider going back.

jester214

•

9 years ago

After the second season "The Sopranos" was not nearly as good a show. After the third it went even further downhill.

"The Wire" is one of the best shows ever and even it had a bad season or two.

Your last question will be interesting to see answered. I think there are some shows from the last 10-15 years that will really stand the test of time better than shows before that period. Some of that is because of technology.

mikeya02

•

9 years ago

Breaking Bad was pretty good, it had a great ending
Walking Dead is a freaking soap opera I quit on. Is there a plot? An ending in sight? Probably will end up as bad as Lost
Sons of Anarchy had some great scenes, but Jax, the pointless story and the ending all sucked

seaboardrr

•

9 years ago

Only one out of all those listed I even watch is Game of Thrones and that's only because I'm still trying to figure out what in the world is going on. I prefer sci-fi, comedy, action, mystery. TV is about entertainment for me. There's enough drama in everyday life if that's what you really want.

There are a wide range of shows I can think of but the first one that pops into my head as an all time great is Columbo. Even though I know whodunit I'm still enthralled watching Columbo play with the killer like a cat playing with a string.

motorhead

•

9 years ago

It's really a "strange age" of TV. On one hand, you do have some of the best shows of all time. But the television landscape is still dominated by those dreadful reality shows.

The Kardashians, Duck Dynasty, American Idol, DWTS, Big Brother. And on and on. Sewage.

And the comedies....trash. With the exception of The Big Bang Theory, it's like watching paint dry.

motorhead

•

9 years ago

I don't have HBO or Showtime so I've missed many of those shows.

Last year I heard "True Detective" was possibly the best show of all time. So I purchased it. It was ok, but far from the greatest.

rockstar666

•

9 years ago

I'd love to chime in but I no longer watch much TV outside of sports, Dr. Who and Kung Fu reruns.

mikeya02

•

9 years ago

The 70's sure had a lot of entertaining TV comedies....

Mash
All In The Family
Sanford and Sons
The Jeffersons
Taxi
Happy Days
Alice
Wkrp
Soap
Barny Miller
Three's Company
Are You Being Served?--PBS

Corvus

•

9 years ago

Most TV is crap but some shows I've enjoyed include Rescue Me, Spartacus, Sports Night, and there was a short lived British comedy named Coupling that was leaps and bounds better than Friends ever was.

Papi_Chulo

•

9 years ago

Yes – I believe the phenomenon is called “GTS” (Golden Television Syndrome).

Get it – instead of GPS (Golden Pussy Syndrome); GTS …

Fuck you if you don't that funny

:)

But yeah; pretty lame joke

Papi_Chulo

•

9 years ago

"... Fuck you if you don't that funny ..."

Meant " Fuck you if you don't think that's funny"

I try to type too fast.

VeryBigDawg

•

9 years ago

Forgot about "The Wire", that was best series ever!
"Lost" season 1 was good, then it went to hell. Worst ending ever.
"Taxi" was another good one.
"All In The Family" was too preachy for me.

Don't get me started on those dumb supposed 'reality' shows.

motorhead

•

9 years ago

I'm glad you mentioned LOST. it might just be my favorite show ever. Or maybe Breaking Bad.

Lost had a great first season but stumbled a bit in season 2. Then recovered in 3. Seasons 4 and 5 were great. I loved it. But the final season really lost its way. And like you say, the ending was terrible.

sharkhunter

•

9 years ago

I like science fiction and some shows on the history channel or learning channel plus some sports. Some science stuff too. I have watched shark tank but not a number of shows listed to start with. I have probably seen just about every episode of star trek and Stargate sg1 and the sister show Atlantis, plus almost every episode of doctor who played on the bbc network.

I generally do not care for drama on tv unless it's entertaining and mixed with fantasy. example BattleStar Galacta. even though I fell asleep on several shows because of a lack of action.

sharkhunter

•

9 years ago

based on the number of reruns I watch and how often I fall asleep watching tv, not the golden age in my mind.

shailynn

•

9 years ago

If it's not sports related I am rarely watching TV, and that's going on as 'background noise' while I'm working in my office.

Anyway I do watch a few things, Game of Thrones, and I'm shocked nobody mentioned Walking Dead. I am looking forward to the new Walking Dead spinoff starting next month on AMC. The only reality show (if you call it that) that I watch(ed) is Apprentice/Celebrity Apprentice.

I'd probably watch a little more TV if I wasn't addicted to the internet. I go there to read and article and then 2 hours have passed and I haven't gotten anything accomplished except downloaded some new music, browsed junk I don't need on eBay, and bought something off of Amazon! lol

Experimental

•

9 years ago

I wonder if Caitlynn is included in the golden age of tv?

VeryBigDawg

•

9 years ago

"Star Trek" the original series was very good.
"Walking Dead" is way over hyped. Season 1 very good. Then it got very thin.
" Game of Thrones" is worth watching when Kaelesi is naked. Loved that scene were she is naked in the fire when the dragons are hatched!

shailynn

•

9 years ago

^^^^ Walking Dead has me sucked in for some reason. I DVR it, and I find myself at times fast forwarding at times until a zombie shows up.

I thought this latest season of Game of Thrones was pretty weak until the last two episodes, but they left a thousand cliff hangers for next season!

MrDeuce

•

9 years ago

I tend to agree that we are in a golden age of television with the enormous exception of "reality TV", which I totally avoid. After 50+ years of watching TV, three of my all-time favorite sitcoms are on right now: Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and Goldbergs. Two of my favorite hour-long series were ST:TNG in the late 80s/early 90s and Battlestar Galactica a few years ago. Lost was great early on but *lost* my interest after a while; ditto for Game of Thrones (though I do enjoy seeing Emilia Clarke and, more recently, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers naked!).

Speaking of whom . . . check out this clip of the aforementioned dark-haired, large-breasted Italian-American beauty:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rfpzk…

tumblingdice

•

9 years ago

Fuck it.Give me Johny Carson,Dean Martin,Don Rickles,Rowan and Martin,Phylis Diller,Carol Burnett any day of the week.

former_stripper

•

9 years ago

Most of the best shows apparently are on cable but don't watch a lot if television. I did like Mad Men, I just finished Orange Is The New Black (Season 3)and absolutely love the Goldberg's (underrated in my opinion but am glad it's doing well). I mostly watch Simpsons reruns at night (I still watch Simpsons and South Park but aren't as fantastic as they were). I just got Netflix for Orange so will check out some shows that are supposed to be good. If not watching Simpsons am watching Antenna TV or Me-TV.

VeryBigDawg

•

9 years ago

Speaking of cartoons, does it get any better than "Family Guy"?
This bitch may make "Orange is New Black" watchable again:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2uhng1…

londonguy

•

9 years ago

Breaking Bad was excellent and agree it had a great ending. Do you think they left it with the possibility Walt didn't die, thus leaving it open for another series?

I watched Breaking Bad all in one go in less than three weeks - I was addicted !!

I also loved Prison Break, watched that in less than a month.

pensionking

•

9 years ago

Best Mini Series ever: Band of Brothers
Best Series ever: Sopranos
Favorite comics: Lewis Black, Lewis CK, Jarrod Carmichael

chandler

•

9 years ago

Favorite ever: Deadwood
Favorite last year (& bound to let me down in the 2nd season): Fargo

I think the pattern for great first season/meh followup was established by the mother of all Neo-Golden Age shows, Twin Peaks.

mikeya02

•

9 years ago

Twin Peaks lost me when a military officer started talking about "signals from space"

Lynch did give us Eraserhead and Blue Velvet tho

farmerart

•

9 years ago

TV is information for me, not entertainment (apart from hockey).

Of all the TV shows listed above the only one that I know is Breaking Bad. I bought the series DVD package and watched a bit of it. The black humour was moderately enjoyable but the bad acting and the silly preposterous plot soon lost me.

Books do it for my entertainment needs. My current light fluffy reading is the Hieronymus Bosch series by Michael Connelly, The Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson, and the Rebus series by Ian Rankin. Every couple of years I re-read the 'Karla' trilogy of John Le Carre.

PhantomGeek

•

9 years ago

I really enjoyed the first couple seasons of Lost. They were a lot of great character pieces. But come season 3 and it became very apparent (at least in my opinion) that the creators and writers had absolutely no fricking clue what they were doing.

Star Trek: DS9 was great action, adventure, and drama with excellent meta-arcs.

Big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, too. Smart, fun, action.

The recent series of Battlestar Galactica started off great started falling apart when it had to resort to religion to guide the fleet to Earth (yeah, please keep contemporary religion out of my SF).

Big Bang Theory is just plain fun (and, as a geek, I can easily relate to the characters).

Not really into reality TV (talk about an oxymoron if ever I heard one), but on occasion, I do enjoy Bar Rescue, Food Fighters, and MythBusters.

VeryBigDawg

•

9 years ago

"Band of Brothers" was another great one.
"Lost" got lost IMHO when the others were introduced.
"Breaking Bad" bad acting, I have to agree. Even though folks gushed over them.
Read the 'Karla' trilogy of John Le Carre - PRICELESS! The master at his finest.
Speaking of John Le Carre, the "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" mini-series was outstanding.

farmerart

•

9 years ago

@VeryBigDawg,

I didn't know that there was a TV series based on Le Carre's work, I shall look for it.

The three books that comprised the 'Karla' trilogy are:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Honourable Schoolboy
Smiley's People

seaboardrr

•

9 years ago

Thinking of "reality" tv shows you know what is a huge gripe of mine? You've got 22 minutes to fill and they can't even do that with all the footage of people talking to each other acting like the world is ending. Instead, before a commercial break they have 15 seconds of "coming up" and then after the commercial break they have another 15 seconds doing a recap of what you already watched as if you somehow forgot what's going on. With 4-5 commercial breaks you basically have 2-2 ½ minutes of duplicate show so now you're down to under 20 minutes of ACTUAL show. You know there have hours upon hours of footage of these people standing around talking to each other. They can't actually come up with a full 22 minutes?

I'll admit I can get sucked in to watching when mrs sea has on some home renovation show because it gives us ideas but I still feel dirty.

VeryBigDawg

•

9 years ago

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" was BBC miniseries with incredible acting. The master Alec Guiness plays George Smiley. It is 30 years old now so may look aged or refined depending on your viewpoint.

"Reality" shows can not even fill 22 mins. You got that right. Even newshows like "Dateline" have teaser before the commercial break, then after commercial break rehash of last segment and answer teaser before going into another teaser for the next commercial break. An hour has 15 mins of real data at most. Total BS.

Dougster

•

9 years ago

Dexter had a couple of good seasons - despite the even more ridiculous premise than Breaking Bad.

They should make a series about our very own Leisure Suit RickyBoy.

VeryBigDawg

•

9 years ago

"Dexter" forgot about that one. It was good and loved his scrawny sister. What was her name?

You must be a member to leave a comment.Join Now

Got something to say?

Start your own discussion