The Best TV Series ... EVER! (Trees And Things)

UkraineNotWeak: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:52:53 EST

Some of my favorite past shows:

First season of 24, before it became torture porn.
Star Trek Next Generation.
Sledgehammer
Seinfeld
Cheers
Arrested Development

Some of my favorite current

thefadd: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:01:03 EST

This is the problem I have with improv in general. You think "improvisation" -- oh, new random crap that's guaranteed to come out of no where. And yet in practice, it's become possibly the most formulaic art form there is.

3fingerspointback: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:49:27 EST

The main reason Arrested Development didn't make my best-ever show is that, watching it back-to-back on the DVD, I was struck by how formulaic it was. Granted, the formula they used was time-tested and proven by Shakespeare in about half of hi

thefadd: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:20:28 EST

Malcolm in the Middle is very entertaining. But for sheer entertainment value, I don't think it compares to the Jack Van Impe news hour. I'll take that over the Daily Show any day.

Tbola: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:27:48 EST

Speaking of guilty pleasures, Malcolm in the Middle often delights me.

Guilty?
That show was awesome.
Had some of the Larry Sanders Show team working on it, if I'm not mistaken.

Speaking of The Larry Sanders Show - c

teaweed: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:23:58 EST

You may be right about the multi-season test. Farscape was so cool the first few seasons, but sure stank towards the end. Or was it always bad and I didn't notice for years?

As a kid, McGyver was the first series I reme

Tbola: Re: The Best

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:56:51 EST

I could never fully appreciate futurama because I always felt like it sucked the creative life blood out of the simpsons.

I think I have a solution.
"The Critic" was really the first drain on the Simpsons key creative talen

permazorch: The Wire is The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:40:32 EST

Fuck. Yes.

rombuu: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 02:38:34 EST

We have all made a horrible mistake.

(One of the few shows I own on DVD, along with the aforementioned Prisoner, some Monte Python, and some Dr. Who)

uncarved block: Oh, Sorry

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:35:28 EST

That was supposed to be a comment and not a reply. If it doesn't connect to your comment about Soul Train in the slightest, well, there's the reason :)

uncarved block: Honorable Mention

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 22:47:55 EST

I was cleaning house the next day after posting for the first time, and was reminded of one of the best shows that PBS's Mystery ever brought to the US: Sherlock Holmes, as portrayed by J

teaweed: Re: The Wire reruns

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 20:38:25 EST

The show isn't episodic in the way that say, Homicide: Life in the Streets or Law and Order is. Each season could be considered one episode, while individual shows are more like a couple of pages from a chapter. One might

pO157: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:13:25 EST

Jeez! I forgot Arrested Development! Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Now, Gobias some coffee.

Like a guy in a $1600 suit is gonna forget Arrested Development as part of his favorite TV show list, COME ON!

thefadd: let's get it on, it's time to get down

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:21:47 EST

I know we like to be intellectualist and all but for sheer entertainment value, I have to mention Soul Train. If you measure "great" by how many times I show has managed to get me to turn on the television, then it's gotta be in my top 5. And I watch TV so

thefadd: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 17:05:37 EST

I appreciated the effort on Six Feet Under but it couldn't hook me for the same reasons Arrest Development couldn't. It just seemed over-produced, too slick and trying to hard to be clever.

pO157: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:44:47 EST

The Wire? Never watched it. But I'll have to look for it on reruns.

As far as HBO, usually I don't get premium cable but I have still seen a few of the shows you mention and I wasn't a big fan.

Six Feet Under? Yeah, let's take a trashy sitcom family

Tbola: Re: Twin Peaks

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:21:06 EST

I would certainly say that the first season of Peaks (which wasn't even a full season) was a masterpiece.
It was like Lynch's quirkiness and Frost's storytelling came together into something magical.
And the film-caliber musical score was outstandi

jwb: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:29:43 EST

18 posts so far and nobody has mentioned The Wire? That is the best show ever aired. I also loved Homicide: Life on the Streets, and The Wire has the same creator. The Wire has everything that was good about Homicide ten times over.

thefadd: Re: The Best

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:52:51 EST

I could never fully appreciate futurama because I always felt like it sucked the creative life blood out of the simpsons. the simpsons had its worst episodes while groening was distracted by futurama and some of their best after futurama went away. then ag

3fingerspointback: The Best

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:54:53 EST

must....not...make...list....must....not...make....list....

Futurama. A great premise, and it never jumped the shark. The Simpsons has it beat in volume, but man there are some dog episodes out there. Unlike Whedon's stuf

Toby Flip: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 19:30:46 EST

Oi, Spaiku!

Cowboy Bebop is so cool it makes the otaku watching it cool! If just for a short time. I didn't like the movie so much though. My vote for best series is Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister. At times I have been literal

thefadd: Re: Twin Peaks

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:31:52 EST

Victorian Jackson has always been an underrated comedian

My mistake, I was thinking of the Saturday Night Live sketch. It's been awhile, ok?

thefadd: Twin Peaks

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:28:35 EST

From my perspective, that show consumed our culture with an intensity like no other in my life time until perhaps the ultra trashy American Idol. But in going back and watching old episodes, I only catch brief glimpses of the brilliance I used to se

thefadd: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:23:29 EST

By not actually explaining much of anything? Yeah, that was kind of a bummer....

I actually love the not explaining anything. I'm 100% cool with that. Maybe it was budgetary constraints but I feel like there could have been some richer detail

tomc: Re: Buffy

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:15:26 EST

Indeed. By far the best series I've ever seen on television. A great combination of action/mystery/romance/comedy/fantasy/thriller/...

rombuu: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:28:59 EST

I just felt like they left too much on the table

By not actually explaining much of anything? Yeah, that was kind of a bummer....

and became too entrenched in the monotony of 6's escape attempts

That seems worse when you watch

thefadd: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:02:04 EST

Every episode of The Prisoner makes the Sopranos finale look like it has the clarity of a See Spot Run book. I bought the DVDs after a discussion on plastic and found it to be the type of television that is right up my alley. I just felt like they left too

thefadd: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:56:38 EST

I had to rate you +5 obnoxious as an homage to Bart but I have to agree with you. That show has been on the air for over two decades. It's been on so long it's been through at least 4 different phases -- the early shock value, the middle seasons where they

rombuu: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:02:36 EST

The Prisoner. Thought provoking, stretches the capabilities of what TV can do, strong unity of vision, lots of cool "what the hell moments", and an ending that makes the Sopranos finale look like it has the clarity of a See Spot Run book.

skeptic: Buffy

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:51:39 EST

Seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with the additional five seasons of Angel (which were such an organic outgrowth of the original series that I think of it as part of the same series) are in my own (idiosyncratic) opinion, certainly the best TV se

wetkarma: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 11:10:18 EST

Ever? I don't really know..the first couple seasons of Family Guy were really good. I do agree with the internet folks that firefly was awesome, but it didn't really last very long. I think you need multi-season staying power to exhibit a strong sense of q

uncarved block: It Doesn't Count

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:01:53 EST

My favorite series wasn't dramatic, in either sense of the word: Booknotes on C-SPAN. Brian Lamb interviewing nonfiction authors against a black background may not do it for everyone, but for a long time, it was something I looked forwa

MayorBob: I'll admit I was a Sopranos fan.

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:50:35 EST

I watched the series from beginning to end (and I'm someone who kinda, sorta liked the ending). However, there is no way I'd consider the Sopranos the best series ever. It had a brilliant first season (maybe the best single season for a series

Lou: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:09:37 EST

In no particular order...

Family Guy
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Star Trek TNG
Stargate SG-1
MST-3000
Brother Cadfael
The Red Green Show
Bug Bunny/Road Runner Hour

pO157: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:38:41 EST

Homicide: Life on the Street.
Law & Order (But not that stupid Criminal Intent one).
Simpsons, The.

huxrules: Re: The Best TV Series ... EVER!

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 05:29:02 EST

" Do you watch Battlestar Galactica? No? Then you are an idiot."

A good show about a great show.

Best ever- I'll have to go with The Simpsons.