Entertainment For Lively Minds
Where do you go after The West Wing?
I've just finished watching all seven series of The West Wing. It's taken me a little over three and a half years. I have watched them on odd Sundays when I'm alone in the house, partly because if my wife's here she'll want to know everything that's happened since the last episode she saw a year ago, and partly because it has the power to make me produce loud involuntary blubbing sounds which would shame an eight year old.
Of course it's ridiculous that these brilliant, committed, good-looking, wisecracking, fast-talking, fast-walking people could exist in the world, let alone serve together under the best President the US never had, and sure, it's schmaltzy as hell, but it's simply the best-written, best acted TV ever made, and I'm already feeling the void where my weekly fix should be.
Everything you need to know about TWW is in the clip below. It's the first 3 minutes 50 seconds of a 2nd season episode called Galileo. Aaron Sorkin was brilliant at these pre-title sequences and I could have picked several. The steadicam tracking shot and the by-play between the President and CJ are typically high standard, but I love Sorkin's shameless grandstanding with Sam the speechwriter. No one's that good off the cuff, except maybe Sorkin himself, who wrote 20-odd 45-minute shows a year for four years. It's a scene so brimming in confidence that you could easily dislike everyone involved if you weren't so completey in awe of it.
So now I'm done with the West Wing. I've got an unopened box set of The Wire in a cupboard somewhere, and I've never seen an episode of The Sopranos or Mad Men. Any advice on where to go next would be appreciated. I could start on one of those next Sunday. But then it's three and a half years since I saw Episode One, Season One...
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I had an identical
West Wing experience to you, right down to the time scale, viewing patterns, and wife avoidance.
I finished about 18 months ago and am yet to be convinced I'll watch anything better.
I've been filling the hole with The Sopranos, and it's the second best thing I've seen. The Wire's good, but go Tony is my advice.
Sopranos
first, then The Wire and finish off with Spiral.
Listen to this man !!
"Spiral" (all three seasons) is fantastic
Also:-
"The Killing"
"Wallander"
"Romanzo Criminale"
"Braquo"
I'd say Sopranos too
The Wire is good, but I preferred the adventures of Tony and the boys. Mad Men, I'm a bit unconvinced by...but other parishioners will tell you different!
Sons of Anarchy
For a quick fix while you think where to go next.
IMHO
Go for Six Feet Under....sublime dark humour and wonderful drama. I lost patience with the Sopranos after the 2nd season
I too
gave up on the Sopranos after Season 2. I've seen most of The Wire more than once (Season 5 just once) and I don't need to see it very soon.
The Good Wife is excellent, and Boston Legal is fun.
But it's The West Wing that I always come back to - I'm in Season 2 on my fourth traversal and I still have to force myself not to watch more than 2 episodes at a time.
All the above
Are great, and can I give a shout out for our very own Spooks, which, being as I am non-UK based, had quite passed me by till I got the iplayer app. Took me an episode or 3 to get into but it's got me gripped now, despite undeniable silliness in places.
If it's the Sorkin you want
The you go to Sports Night - which is patchy, and contains many of the conceits he uses in TWW. But I loved it.
You also look at Studio 60 - they killed it off, and I think it could have gone on to be good.
Further endorsement for Sopranos.
Sons of Anarchy has two great seasons and then... well, it became a bit 'samey' for me.
I don't know if "Justified" has made it over to the UK yet, but that is hugely enjoyable - and something that you can dip in and out of.
Justified
Season 1 is available here and S2 was shown on FX earlier this year so won't be far behind.
Take a chance
and try Battlestar Galactica.
It's the sci-fi series for people who don't like sci-fi which has a thoughtful political and moral depth as well as action and hot chicks.
Don Patterson
the renowned poet and jazz musician sid that there are two kinds of people in this world; those who think that Battlestar Gallactica is the best tv programme of all time, andd those that will. I've never seen a second of it so I've no idea.
Any BSG fans that watched Countryfile tonight
Would have enjoyed the liberal use of the word 'frakkin'
It's certainly NOT the best tv programme of all time
but when it poses the question - If the human race faced total obliteration would it deserve to survive? - you realise that there's more going on than shoot 'em up sc-fi, especially when the "goodies"
start suicide bombing.
The animated clash of the producers at the end of each episode (just a few seconds each one) is an added bonus (with a punchline at the end of the final episode of the final series).
Battlestar Galactica is basically "West Wing in space."
Which obviously makes it better than The West Wing.
There is almost nothing which can't be improved with the inclusion of space ships.
Watch The West Wing again?
I first watched the West Wing by myself back when I was married, my then wife being unwilling to give it a try despite my praise. Most nights I'd leave her to watch her soaps and watch a couple of episodes in the other room. I did get my parents hooked on it though.
Two years ago after my wife left and my grandfather had passed away, I started visiting my gran each week as company for us both. For the first many months we'd have some dinner then watch a film. One day I happened to mention the West Wing and she said she'd always fancied watching it. So it became our weekly viewing pleasure and she absolutely loved it.
Every week we'd watch 2 episodes, some weeks 3. Second time around I was finding it even more enjoyable, partly from the quality and depth in the show, partly from being able to enjoy it in company that was appreciating it as much as me.
Sadly she had a stroke in the summer and we've been unable since then to resume our West Wing viewings. We were mid-way through the fifth season. My brave gran is still battling on but it seems her days are nearly at an end.
I've held off carrying on on my own again with the West Wing but will do when she passes.
And with every episode I'll think of her and the wonderful nights we spent in the last couple of years of her life watching the West Wing. And if there's one way I'll remember her it'll be the satisfied smile she always wore as the end credits rolled before she'd remark every week on how brilliant it was. 'It's so sharp', she'd always say.
That's very touching, Andrew
I agree that watching TV which brings generations together is a wonderful thing. Every Tuesday my girlfriend and her daughter come over to my place, and after working our way through all my Carry On films and the Jonathan Creek box-set we moved on to The Avengers.
I have all the Diana Rigg series and started with the colour ones as I thought they would be more likely to entertain a 14 year old. Last Tuesday we watched the last of the colour episodes and moved on to the first of the B+Ws. We all love them, and I treasure those hours when the three of us are cuddled up on the sofa, watching Steed and Emma do battle with diabolical criminal masterminds.
Thanks
I'm only in my 30s now but I loved the Avengers back when it was re-run on Bravo and Channel 4 in the 90s.
So the Complete Avengers box set is high on my wishlist, just waiting for it to drop to a more affordable price price then will get it and enjoy all those again myself.
Nice post
Nice post Andrew - it's interesting because my constent viewing companion was (and will be again - we have watched it in full twice!)my daughter - She 17, me somewaht older!. It transends the age boundries.
no mention of mad men?
If you like super cool , character driven, amazingly scripted, beautiful tv shows - THIS is the one.
It genuinely, honestly, seriously isn't.
I can't adequately describe how shite I think Mad Men is, but I'll use your template, stickboy, if you don't mind:
Trying way too hard to be cool, populated by 2-D cardboard ciphers, lazily and showboatily scripted, much too reliant on being quite nice-looking.
That'll do me. ;-)
I'll confess to only having watched series 1, because I think if a show is still shit by the end of one series, there's absolutely no reason it should expect me to tune in for a second, third or fourth unless it radically reinvents itself and sacks everyone involved. Mad Men is the absolute apotheosis of style over substance, for me.
OOAA, of course. And not wanting to piss on your chips, stickboy, it's just that the popularity of Mad Men makes me a bit annoyed. Annoyed enough to break my rule* of avoiding "it's not good, it's shit" statements, at any rate.
*guideline
In the interest of balance...
Mad Men is probably the greatest TV that I have watched. As someone with absolutely no concept of style, I feel I'm well qualified to say I wasn't sucked in by it looking good. Bob's description above sounds more like Pan Am than the show I've seen.
Mad Men is all about the underlying stuff - the things that go unsaid, the subtleties in a look, the ramifications of actions that slowly come together over episodes or even series. I've never watched anything so utterly involving, with characters who you believe in even when they do things you might otherwise find unlikely. The 'cool' or style that people talk about is just the surface sheen; beneath that is an inherent grubbiness and willingness to expose the realities of relationships and say something about the America of the time (and perhaps today too).
I've not seen anything like it, and I'm ridiculously annoyed at Sky having snatched it from BBC4.
Bob, you and I have disagreed on this before, and I can see you're unmovable. Just as I shall never be able to see the Hold Steady as anything more than a bloke trying to fit all the words he knows into one song, over and over again.
Very well said
Mad Men is the absolute apotheosis of both style and substance, for me.
Loved the West Wing
But now you mention it don't think I got to the end of it. I'll go back to it again now.
Recommend the Sopranos as superb TV. Got through the whole of that.
If you haven't already seen it (or even if you have) take a look at the BBC's Our Friends in the North. Not as long as the USA box sets but superb writing, acting and direction.
Start again
The FPO and I are on our third viewing, just started season one again last week and it's as good as ever. That said, with each viewing I find Bartlett grates on me a little more.
Studio 60 is also very good, if you can tolerate the conceited characters and the endless banging on about religion.
Favourite West Wing moments? I'm a big fan of the scene where Josh thinks Leo wants a hug.
"but I've been down here before and I know the way out."
Is, of course the right answer
Start again ...
... but this time with the subtitles on.
There's so much sparkling dialogue I realise I missed the first time around, often in the asides. It's a joy to discover a whole new layer.
Fave line:
"...like a ninja with a Prada clutch"
THIS
I have the full West Wing
I have the full West Wing box but am somewhere in series 2 and haven't watched any for a few months, but I'd also recommend Battlestar Galactica (its now down to £49 at HMV), Deadwood, The Wire (its a bit of a struggle at first and you may have to watch with subtitles, you feel me?), Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Lakes, and the older but probably still wonderful Hill St Blues, St Elsewhere and personal favourite NYPD Blue. Mad Men is OK too. If you like things a bit raunchier, I recommend Californaication. And The Killng. Our Friends in the North was great too.
That reminds me, I have a box of The Shield that remains unopened after about 10 years...
Boxset buyers market just now
In the run-up to Christmas lots of bargains around at the moment, especially for the Season 1-X type boxes that'll soon be obsolete when season X+1 finishes (e.g. House).
Of those catching my eye just now, the Complete Deadwood box is just £17.99 at a couple of the bigger online retailers just now. Never seen it but very tempted.
I'm a frustrated NYPD Blue fan, in that I could only go as far as the fourth season as no further seasons have been released.
NYPD Blue
Andrew,
It's a disgrace only 4 series are on DVD. If you want to spend the money your thirst can be quenched...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NYPD-BLUE-DVDS-ALL-SEASONS-AVAILABLE-/17073621...
I "have" the remaining seasons
but they're low-quality rips from tv. Plus, though it wasn't nearly as impenetrable as the Wire, I did find I often needed subtitles to keep up with the dialogue.
So I'm still faintly hopeful of a change of mind on the official DVD front or that one day a UK channel will give it another complete rerun.
If ever I exhaust my DVDs of other shows and am still waiting for the DVD/rerun option to happen, will try the downloaded versions.
With you on NYPD Blue
Andy Sipowicz is one the greatest characters of all time. Captain, Sopranos would be next for me. Cracking scripts, great acting, sharp plots. Just be aware that nothing will ever come close to The West Wing. My wife and I are proper addicts, 5 times through and gearing up for 6th over Christmas.
The West Wing
is bloody marvellous, jaw-droppingly good. The episode , from season 2, where Pres Bartlett goes toe-to -toe , in Latin, with the Almighty is stunning, absolutely stunning.
I'd vote for Nurse Jackie, funny and riveting and has Anna Deavere Smith who played Nancy McNally in the WW
Where To Indeed
The Wire is brilliant. The first series is hard to get into as there are so many different characters and the investigation is slow to get off the mark. But stick with it. I was very sceptical in the beginning but I was won over by its realism, great dialogue, sense of humour and revealing portrayal of an American city via its underclass.
I can't make my mind up whether the Wire is better than the Sopranos. Both are excellent. The characters are possibly better developed in the Sopranos but I would have to put them both at first equal.
Mad Men is also well worth watching. Again character, plot and dialogue are top notch. A superb drama of an era undergoing major changes.
I'd try House and Nurse Jackie too.
Good viewing!
Brotherhood
Go The Wire first, its utterly magnificent. Then the Sopranos. These will serve as an introductionary amuse bouche to Brotherhood, the bestest series you've never heard of - to get all reductionary, its the Irish-American Sopranos with a side salad of Wire-esque politics, all about a Rhode Island family whose twin scions are respectively the local toerag crim and t'other the local politico Representative (respectively played by 'Hello To' Jason Isaacs and Aussie Jason Clarke, not that you'd know as to their non-US origins such are their actorly chops; their old dear is the excellent Fionnula Flanagan who you might recall off that there Lost). I stumbled across this terrific series by sheer luck or, if you will, Providence ahahahah! Anyways, you can get all 3 series for 20 sovs all in and I reckons that's worth a punt nicht wahr.
Alternatively, the first 2 series of Sons Of Anarchy, which are just solid gold - got S3 on the old 'to watch' pile but I hear that its less than great - though frankly, I'd be happy if its Ron Perlman just looked straight down the camera and offered up the line he's delivered in every Fallout videogame ever : "War. War never changes".
BR
Mick
Yet to watch Brotherhood
but know two things about it:
1. Janel Moloney (Donna Moss) was in it
2. She wasn't wearing much in the one scene I have seen
Forgot to mention it
I'd agree about Brotherhood. Whilst it's not as good as the Wire or the Sopranos, it's still an excellent show and well worth watching. Somw great characters like Deco and Freddie Cork and their Irish cousin complete with authentic northern accent.
If you haven't seen it already
then I'd recommend Firefly. A 'Space Western', but wonderfully enjoyable and only 14 episodes, so you'll get through it in less than a year.
Criminally canned at the end of the first season, there is also a great film, Serenity, that ties up several loose ends.
Aside from that - The Wire and Treme are very rewarding if you have the patience.
FIREFLY was criminally canned halfway through the first season
i feel it would have gone on to something very special!
I know that "Word People" may not be the normal demographic but i would point you in the direction of all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it transcends its Teen Schoolgirl frippery of the film. and is very special, although you need to let yourself accept the premise( but isn't the same with all fiction!) and then when you get to Season Six, you enter a Dark world which I find epic, human, endlessly illuminating and achingly funny and tragic at the same time. Its what television was invented for.
seconded
Buffy is quite wonderful. It has the look of a show that one should hate - Valleyspeak, stoopid monsters and so on, but it's got heart, it's got intelligence, it's got fine acting and the dialogue really crackles.
Buffy has a few fans here - hopefully a few (Bob?) will chime in and back us up on this!
I loved Buffy
... though Willow had my heart (sigh).
It had some genuinely chilling and powerful moments, though I don't want to say too much if anyone is coming to it fresh. Not afraid to kill off major characters, and not resurrect them either.
I remember one of the lads saying
that Buffy's days were numbered as soon as Alyson Hannigan started to out-hot SMG!
Certainly Willow was the character who progressed the most (and how!) during the run of the show. Was Spike the best panto villain who never was?
Deadwood.....
if only for the premier league swearing.
Have an up
Al is my all time favourite TV character.
Incidentally I read an interview with the head of the Deadwood Historical Society and she was asked if the show were historically accurate and she said "Surprisingly...yes"
It is a great shame the show was cut off after three seasons, not long after the events depicted in the show the real life Deadwood burned to the ground and was rebuilt, this time in brick. You don't have to be a TV genius to see the potential drama in all of that.
Al
An absolutely terrifying character. An absolutely hysterically funny character.
And what a potty mouth.
"Swedgen!"
Legend.
Friday Night Lights
Just thought I'd add this to the mix
FNL
Definitely gets a vote from me. It may be set in and around College football in Texas, but it's not about that. It's well written, moving stuff that was massively underated by viewers in the U.S, and barely got a ripple here. I loved it, and wish there could have been more than the 5 series, but it ended perfectly...
Watch it and love it...
Just watch it again.
Me and Mrs Bob are on our 5th or 6th go-around. We always leave it a year or so between goes, but it never fails to reveal new delights (and the old ones are still great too).
It is the best TV ever made. Nothing else comes close. Nothing else is like it. Give up. Revel in it for the rest of your life.
Not for the first time...
...I agree with, err, Bob! For us the West Wing is a winter ritual and it so transcends the insufferable shite that passes for 'prime time' TV at present, that we will watch 3 or 4 episodes at a sitting and still want more. Quite simply the best TV I have ever seen
(Other opinions are, of course, available and to be welcomed)
The Wire and then 24
Yep. WW was an absolute delight. Now work your way through "The Wire". Its another TV landmark. Then I recommend "24", all the way through. It will take you months but its such an orgy of killing, gizmos, suspense and glamorous women you'll find yourself watching episodes at night and instead of turning in because you've got work in the morning, you'll say "soddit, I'll watch one more, even if it takes me past 1.00 am"
Box sets are probably ruining my sleeping patterns these days and probably shortening my life. I've just started "Alias", with the gorgeous Jennifer Garner as an asskicking CIA agent. A box set of the old comedy series "Taxi" is sitting at the post office as I write. And "The Killing", "The Bionic Woman" and "The Six Million Dollar Man" are on my Amazon wish list. I'll be clicking "buy" at the end of the month.
Recently, I did the whole "Prime Suspect" series for the third time and the first series of "The Rockford Files" which I reserved for Saturday mornings.
Go back
To the beginning of box set TV - Twin Peaks.
If you've already paid money for The Wire...
...then watch it. It's an intelligent, thought-provoking drama, populated with well-observed characters, that tails-off slightly in the final season.
I've never watched The West Wing, however the dialogue in the clip has the same back and forth zing to it as The Gilmore Girls.
I would recommend Breaking Bad as best thing on TV at the moment by a long stretch. The story lines are constructed with incredible care, setting sequences of events in motion that are usually resolved by some unconscionable act of bastardry, marking the steady moral decline of chemistry teacher, turned Methamphetamine manufacturer, Walter White. The final few seconds of seasons three and four make for jaw-dropping television.
The complete box set of 'Allo 'Allo is now available..
I'll get me coat.
Dexter !!!
So glad I'm first to recommend. Watch each series in order for very obvious reasons. Dark, funny and highly suspenseful. Thoroughly addictive.
Also, love Diana Rigg 'Avengers'.
However, despite having watched every episode of 'Mad Men', I am left with the uncomfortable suspicion that there is less to it than meets the eye. It strikes me as the Emperor's new clothes, paint-dryingly dull and vastly implausible plotting. That being said, I have watched every episode without really knowing why. High-class soap?
Southland gets my vote for
Southland gets my vote for best thing on TV at the moment. The first two series (between them only about 13 episodes - very much a case of quality over quantity) are (finally) out on DVD. The third season's currently on More4.
It feels like a proper police drama rather than your standard a cop show, if that makes any sense. Like the West Wing it also has a brilliant ensemble cast, if not quite as star-studded. You have a range of patrolmen, including a rookie, and homicide detectives, gang investigators, etc all given an equal footing.
I like the way a few people here have taken years to watch these shows. When 24 finished, I was gutted as I'd followed it for the best part of 10 years on BBC and then Sky. It was a big highlight of my week, every week, every Spring. You also appreciate the cliffhangers and suspense of these shows a lot more if you aren't just jumping immediately to the next episode on DVD. I know it's possible to watch the entire run of 24 eg over a summer, but when you gorge on a show like that, it isn't becoming embedded in your life the way 24 or West Wing did for me ...
The Wire
Quite literally the best thing ever. Better than the wheel or a sliced loaf.
I like The Sopranos, I'm currently working my way through it and have seen the first 5 series. However, I feel that series 4 & 5 have been nowhere near as good as 1-3. Hope it picks up again.
Also working through Mad Men, just finished series 2.
Six Feet Under is great too, as mentioned above. Big thumbs up for The Killing too.
I'm doing the Wire now
and just did Breaking Bad. Best two series I have ever seen.
Going back a bit:
In the last couple of months I've watched, for the first time in many many moons, 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and 'Smiley's People' with the magnificent Sir Alec. Hardly fast moving, but that's kind of the point: the story rolls out at the pace of a novel, and is simply magnificent on every level.
Also been through 'Brideshead Revisited'. As wonderful as I remember, although I occasionally find myself saying, "how could they afford all that?!"
Currently finishing 'I Claudius' (Clavdivs). The haircuts and production values date it badly, but the writing and acting are good enough to make up the difference.
All (obviously) highly recommended, and can probably be purchased for 9/10 of Bugger All. Up next: ‘Cracker’.
Talking of box sets
A 20-something musician type I'm working for who is laid up after a nasty accident mentioned yesterday that she'd just been given Curb Your Enthusiasm and Larry Sanders box sets.
"Not seen them before", she said. "Any good?"
Er......
I've recommended it before,
... and I'll recommend it again.
Heimat (1)
Edgar Reitz's profound, beautiful 15-hour history of life in a German village between 1919 and 1982. An unqualified masterpiece - it will stand.
*Applauds*
Have you seen Heimats 2 & 3 ?
If not I can highly recommend them.
Heimat is absolutely brilliant
Remember seeing it as the original film release as a student - two ten-hour days over a weekend. The boots!
It certainly is, have you see series 2&3 ?
"Heimat 2: Chronicle of a Generation"
"Heimat 3: A Chronicle of Endings and Beginnings"
Also, very very good.
The Shield
I watched most of the box sets discussed here. and there really isn't a bad recommendation anywhere on this thread. However, I would like to give a big up to 'The Shield' for anyone who enjoyed the Wire and Sopranos. I think a lot of people (myself included) caught one or 2 episodes when it was on TV and were put off but the fairly graphic violence and impenetrable story lines, but it is only when you watch it as a box set that you really get the labyrinthine plots - it is very ballsy stuff in the writing department, nothing to them to reference some small nuance from 2 series previous. Vastly under-rated.
I lived in a house
years ago, and one of the lads had seasons 1 and 2 of The Shield. One broke weekend, I sat in and went through both of them and they were great. I never caught up with it on the telly, but I've got the box set raring to go on the shelf and I'm really looking forward to tearing into it one of these days!
Another vote for starting WW again
The mere mention of the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary on the news last week marking the start of another presidential election year has set me itching for a large slice of cracking TV. You won't be disappointed.
The Sopranos...
...is simply the best TV series ever made.
Spiral is preposterous in places but incredibly entertaining, with superb characters and a rollercoaster script.
I just finished S1 of Breaking Bad and have S2 ready to go. It's terribly good thus far.
I'm loving The Slap, too.
Back to the question....
Sadly, there is nowhere to go after the West Wing - The best TV series ever - period. However, it is very closely followed by Twin Peaks - even this long after it was first screened it is light years ahead of most TV. Very different to TWW but very very watchable - recommended!
Twin Peaks...
...passed me by on first TX. I just started on S1 last week and it's superb.
And The Winner Is...
Opens envelope...
1. The Sopranos
2. The Wire
3. Dexter
4. Prison Break
5. Curb your Enthusiasm
6. Sons of Anarchy
7. 24
Nothing that different here, except this list has Fazackerly's exclusive seal of approval - the mark of quality. How about you lend me the West Wing (I haven't seen it) and I'll lend you my Sopranos?
Prison Break
Started well, but got progressively worse, I wondered if they were ad-libbing at times, regressed to Crossroads level at the end.
Prison Break
is a classic one of those 'works on the telly' but not as a box set. If you *like* that sort of thing, then the weekly fix of silliness, adrenaline, twists and so forth is great fun. Binging on a heap of episodes in one go doesn't work though! Nor, I think, does watching them in your own time, because you only start to analyse the stupidity of the whole ruddy thing!
I think Prison Break is one of the few things I watched in Real Time and I was glad I did. I'll never watch it again, but it was great fun while it lasted...
True
But I didn't mind suspending my disbelief. It was hugely entertaining. The standard slipped a little but some of the characters were great. Especially T-Bag and Bellick.
Anyone want the box-set?
Unopened, unwatched.
My sister got it for me for Xmas a couple of years back. Despite me telling her that I watch very little telly. And certainly not sodding great box sets of US series.
I'll stick it on the exchange table at the next Mingle.
The
Wire
The West Wing is ace
On my 3rd viewing now....nothing comes close to the characters and the dialogue.
Would recommend The Sopranos and Mad Men.
Started The Wire, but lost interest in Season 3.
If you are looking for comedies...start with Frasier (which has the same great traits as The West Wing - wonderful characters and snappy dialogue plus many laughs) and move on to Big Bang Theory & Modern Family
Dexter...
Followed by The Sopranos, The Wire, Spiral.
Also worth putting in a few good words for:
Southlands
Fringe (yeah, yeah, I know, but I enjoy it)
...and at some point I shall begin The Shield.
tbh, never watched a single episode of The West Wing. Must rectify this...
New Aaron Sorkin show:
A West Wing replacement might not be that far away: HBO have just announced Newsroom (or atleast the title), starring Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterson. Looks a decent pedigree - here's hoping.
http://hbowatch.com/aaron-sorkins-new-hbo-series-newsroom-2/
Just like starting over
The W channel here in 'Straya today just started replaying the whole West Wing, 5pm, every day, no messing around. Brilliant.
Where to next? Definitely Deadwood, Battlestar hugely underrated, Sopranos obviously, building to the ultimate, the Wire. (where subtitles are certainly desirable, but fundamentally cheating.)
Edit: just watched the first three episodes for the first time in five years or so. Some badly acted scenes (incredibly forced jollies between POTUS and Leo in S01e03 and the dread spectre of the awful, soon-to-be-thankfully-retired Mandy character) don't get in the way of what's still some brilliant TV.
Sopranos
I loved The Wire and in fact am one episode from the end of series 3 on my first rewatch, but it has to be The Sopranos. It is beyond doubt the greatest TV drama ever made. I watched it for a third time over the summer and am still finding new dimensions to it. Do it. If you like TV drama it is positively perverse not to have watched the Sopranos. It's that good. Then the Wire. Then Mad Men, both of which are excellent. Then the other stuff here which I haven't seen but sounds good too.
Stay British
One-offs but "State of Play" and this year's "The Shadow Line" are brilliant. I must also admit a penchant for "Waking the Dead" and there's a few boxes of that.
Thankfully...
Thankfully The Walking Dead is here.. this series just keeps getting better and better..
Carnivale
No votes so far for this, so can I be the first. Have only seen season 1 so far, but very enjoyable and underrated. Another vote for seasons 1 & 2 of Dexter - really tense and gripping in places; especially the Ice Truck Killer.
Carnivale
Endorsed!
carnivale
Absloutely the best thing I am currently watching.
Described as a cross between Twin Peaks and The Grapes of Wrath.
Sadly dropped by HBO after 2 seasons - the most expensive per episode series ever made.
Such original ideas and atmosphere.
I also am a west Wing Addict. One of the few series myself and Mrs Boptist were both hooked on.
Not to the same degree as others having only watched it in it's entirety twice.
Now that's a plan - telly looks crap for Christmas - maybe rewatch Pres Bartlett and Sam and CJ and Josh and Leo and Donna.
Carnivale
No votes so far for this, so can I be the first. Have only seen season 1 so far, but very enjoyable and underrated. Another vote for seasons 1 & 2 of Dexter - really tense and gripping in places; especially the Ice Truck Killer.
Homeland looks promising so far
It just started (third ep tomorrow in Sweden)so probably too soon to tell, but Claire Danes and Damian Lewis are relly good in the lead roles, it's tense and exciting and you can imagine it going in all kinds of directions.
Is he or isn't he a terrorist ? I'll probably stick around to find out, and I seldom get past episode one of new shows.
But if you are looking for box sets so you don't have to wait a whole week for each new episode, these are my usual suspects:
Six feet under (for intense family drama)
Dexter (for heartwarming serial killer)
Oz (for over the top prison politics)
Fringe (for nutty sci fi professor)
Freaks and geeks (for funny teen angst)
and
if the old Danish drama series "Matador" (Danish name for the boardgame Monopoly, so maybe translated to that title ?) has been made available to english speaking audiences, you should all go out and get the complete box set (for brilliant small town rivalry between old and new money through the decades).
If you want to stay in the White House
try Commander in Chief with the (gorgeous) Geena Davis as the president. Good.
Back in time...
...to Callan. Ignore the wobbly sets. Revel in Edward Woodward and Russel Hunter.
Callan and Lonely in a cafe
Lonely drinks his tea noisily out of he saucer.
"Gawd" Callan says to him, "sounds like bathwater going down the plughole". Pause. "Not something you'd be familiar with."
The Inbetweeners
I forgot this in my previous list. Puerile, adolescent, crude, filthy, embarrassing and sweary. Also hilarious in places. It's not a serious worthy drama like all the other suggestions here but it is available as a very reasonably priced box set. I would bet that an american version (a la Office) will appear soon.
Being an fan of "The West Wing" ....
wouldn't necessarily qualify you to like 'Oz' but I've yet to speak to anyone who's seen it and didn't enjoy it.
Also
if you like a cop show invest some time in Homicide: Life on the Street. First class fare from the writer(s) of The Wire.
Oz
was startlingly good, though quite the grimmest, most realistic and honest US series I have ever watched.
UK six-parters
May just be the palate cleanser you need between the US heavyweights. As well as the aforementioned state of play the eighties eco-paranoia thriller Edge of Darkness (Eric Clapton soundtrack, Bob Peck looking royally pissed off all the way through, 80 million shades of beige - fab) stands up very well, we watched it a few months.
Again, The Wire
matchless story arc and characterisation. Edges the Sopranos on these alone; the characters in the Sopranos don't actually develop, they just get a little older, Tony and the family start the final ep much where they started. Hugely watchable though.
And Twin Peaks, S1 is extraordinary.
Breaking Bad!
I'm surprised this has not been mentioned more. Breaking Bad is one of the best TV shows ever, up there with The Wire & The Sopranos IMO. Although it's been poorly served by TV and DVD here. FX & C5 have both shown it at some point but at various graveyard slots and not bothered to continue after a season. The first 2 series are on DVD here hopefully all will be eventually or you could get them on import. Well worth tracking down.
For those who don't know anything about it, it's premise is a high school chemistry teacher discovers he has cancer and ends up being a crystal meth maker/dealer to support his family. And that's just the start of it!
Breaking Bad indeed!!!
Couldn't agree more -- tho' I'd actually put it above The Wire and even the Sopranos. Largely created by Vince Gilligan, who wrote all the best X-Files episodes, it features superb, clever writing, brilliant editing, and is actually LOL funny when it isn't being moving/horrifying/shocking/disgusting. The acting, particularly Bryan Cranston, is superb and the choice of music is brilliant. And it makes chemistry interesting.
The West Wing is ace!
Ploughed our way through the box set twice and just love the series. Also loved The Sopranos (watched that box set three times so far). Our absolute favourites though are 24, Alias, and Stargate SG-1. Alias is a lot of fun, action and cliffhanger spy stuff, with good plot twists. 24 has kept us up most of the night on occasion as the cliffhangers are so good - you just HAVE to watch the beginning of the next episode to find out what happens and then your hooked in for another hour or two. We also loved both series of Rome.
Boardwalk Empire
Two words: Steve. Buscemi.
And two thumbs up for Breaking Bad, Dexter and Californication.
Boardwalk Empire
Can we have two more words?
Michael Shannon.
A mesmerising performance.
Indeed you can, sir
Truly, and increasingly, psychotic.
Yes
Boardwalk Empire is wonderful. I had some reservations about Steve Buscemi playing that charcter, but my reservations are unfounded, he is great in that part. Michael Shannon's character gives me the chills, he's just such a presence...as one character said to him "I don't like the way you loom"
Luther
I don't believe the question was 'US box sets', but other than to second (third, thirtieth, whatever) the most excellent Wire one of the best series I've watched recently has to be Luther. Truly bonkers but strangely believable.
Or there is the Benedict Cumberbatch/Martin Freeman Sherlock Holmes which was brilliant.
Whatever Happened
To The Likely Lads
The film and the TV series. Some of the 70s embedded attitudes to women, foreigners and the like may grate a little but the characterization, dialogue and settings are intensely local but beautifully universal. Understated, quietly desperate, warm, poignant and funny