OT: Golden Age of TV
VeryBigDawg
Georgia
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.
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
"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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
Get it – instead of GPS (Golden Pussy Syndrome); GTS …
Fuck you if you don't that funny
:)
But yeah; pretty lame joke
Meant " Fuck you if you don't think that's funny"
I try to type too fast.
"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.
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.
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.
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
"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!
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!
Speaking of whom . . . check out this clip of the aforementioned dark-haired, large-breasted Italian-American beauty:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rfpzk…
This bitch may make "Orange is New Black" watchable again:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2uhng1…
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.
Best Series ever: Sopranos
Favorite comics: Lewis Black, Lewis CK, Jarrod Carmichael
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.
Lynch did give us Eraserhead and Blue Velvet tho
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.
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.
"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.
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
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.
"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.
They should make a series about our very own Leisure Suit RickyBoy.