Top 5 Shows of all Time?

[Werthead]

1. The Wire

2. Rome

3. Edge of Darkness

4. State of Play

5. Father Ted

Ask me tomorrow and you'll probably get three or four of those switched around with other things. Father Ted would likely swap places with Spaced, Red Dwarf or Black Books depending on the day of the week, and State of Play would probably do rounds with Ultraviolet.

Babylon 5 -- first show with a 5-season arc, first show with CGI in every episode. Without it there would not be:

The Sopranos

The Wire

Breaking Bad

Game of Thrones

I love B5, but no, other shows had arcs earlier on: Blake's 7, Hill Street Blues, a few others. B5 simply was the first with a pre-planned arc (which was changed massively as the show went on). It's viewership and influence were also not great enough to influence those other shows you mention, which evolved much more from the Hill Street Blues-NYPD Blue-LA Law-X-Files-Murder One chain of progressively more serialised television.

B5 was a much bigger influence on things like Buffy and Angel (probably Firefly, Farscape and the Stargate shows as well), and to some extent on DS9.

[Azzanadra]

I swear we have this topic quite literally every month xD

In no particular order...

Breaking Bad

True Detective

The Wire

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Firefly

Though my responses change quite a bit, just depends on what I'm feeling.

[nastydream]

1.The Wire

2.BB(from what I'm hearing i'm only in season 2 though)

3.Game of Thrones

4.Stargate SG1/SGA lulz

5.Sopranos

[Martini Sigil]

1- Game of Thrones

2- the Wire

3- Walking Dead

4- Breaking Bad

5- Spartacus

[Black Wolf Smith]

I love B5, but no, other shows had arcs earlier on: Blake's 7, Hill Street Blues, a few others. B5 simply was the first with a pre-planned arc (which was changed massively as the show went on). It's viewership and influence were also not great enough to influence those other shows you mention, which evolved much more from the Hill Street Blues!^*-NYPD Blue-LA Law-X-Files-Murder One chain of progressively more serialised television.

B5 was a much bigger influence on things like Buffy and Angel (probably Firefly, Farscape² and the Stargate shows as well), and to some extent on DS9³.

1. HSB was great for a lot of reasons, and in many different ways. It broke all the rules of TV in states, and had a very mixed cast.

2. IIRC wasn't Farscape was in the works long before B5 aired? I think there was a different (stupid) title, and the younger Henson was working in the planning stages which went back 10 years before it made on air. Not that I don't think they didn't learn from what B5 was doing.

3. Well if stealing his idea for a show, and making it in Star Trek's world, then yes, but DS9 got onto the air first and kind of sort of stayed on air longer.

I read some where that someone is working on a Farscape movie, but that it was really early in the process.

[horizon]

Somehow it never clicked between me and Babylon 5. I disliked the CGI, the story, the acting.

But I loved Deep Space Nine.

And with the mention of Farscape: loved that serie:.

And yes movie in script stage (april 2014):

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/22/farscape-creator-confirms-movie-sequel

[nastydream]

1- Game of Thrones

2- the Wire

3- Walking Dead

4- Breaking Bad

5- Spartacus

Walking Dead?

For real?

[jaimereborn]

Game Of Thrones

Twin Peaks

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Breaking Bad

Six Feet Under

[daskool]

So the greatest TV of all time mostly consist of American cable shows from the past 5 years? We are indeed living through a golden age of television.

Walking Dead?

For real?

I like The Walking Dead way more than A Game Of Thrones. The acting on the latter, with a few exceptions, is awful.

[horizon]

So the greatest TV of all time mostly consist of American cable shows from the past 5 years? We are indeed living through a golden age of television.

:cheers:

Seems so. Not for me (as you could see on my list).

The past had more "fun" series like the A-Team, Knight RIder, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galacitca (originals), Airwolf, MacGyver. These kind of series aren't made anymore.

[Veltigar]

I like The Walking Dead way more than A Game Of Thrones. The acting on the latter, with a few exceptions, is awful.

What? tWD is terribly acted. GoT, with the exceptions of people like Kit Harrington and Sibel Kikeli is extremely well acted.

[daskool]

What? tWD is terribly acted. GoT, with the exceptions of people like Kit Harrington and Sibel Kikeli is extremely well acted.

I was watching Peter Dinklage ham it up in the trial scene in the last season, appalling British accent and all, and I was crawling with embarrassment. However the reaction more generally was he was a cross between Lawrence Olivier and Marlon Brando...only shorter. I guess I'm just not a good judge of acting.

tWD has some fine acting, the supporting actors are sometimes terrible but the main leads are pretty good.

:cheers:

Seems so. Not for me (as you could see on my list).

The past had more "fun" series like the A-Team, Knight RIder, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galacitca (originals), Airwolf, MacGyver. These kind of series aren't made anymore.

Salems Lot, Hill Street Blues, Married with Children....I'm showing my age.

[nastydream]

So the greatest TV of all time mostly consist of American cable shows from the past 5 years? We are indeed living through a golden age of television.

I like The Walking Dead way more than A Game Of Thrones. The acting on the latter, with a few exceptions, is awful.

Good acting or no TWD is terrible.

I wouldn't even call it a good show not ot mention putting it into top 5 shows of all time...

Only season 1 was good.

[Disputatious]

So the greatest TV of all time mostly consist of American cable shows from the past 5 years? We are indeed living through a golden age of television.

I suggested "The Defenders" (early sixties) and "The Prisoner" (late sixties). :)

[Disputatious]

One's choices probably depend on age. A sixty something (me) is likely to make different selections than a twenty something would.

[DaveSumm]

The Simpsons

The Wire

The Sopranos

The Office (UK)

Breaking Bad

I tend to think comedy is harder to pull off, so I have a lot of respect for what The Simpsons pulled off between Season 3 and 8 (the longest, most sustained period of great comedy I think there's ever been, possibly ever will be) and The Office is just a perfect 14 episodes. The others have had plenty said about them.

[Fat Mac]

I was watching Peter Dinklage ham it up in the trial scene in the last season, appalling British accent and all, and I was crawling with embarrassment. However the reaction more generally was he was a cross between Lawrence Olivier and Marlon Brando...only shorter. I guess I'm just not a good judge of acting.

While I don't agree that tWD is anything special, I agree with you on this. Whatever accent Dinklage is trying to pull off makes him sound ridiculous, and while I enjoy his acting overall I thought that confession scene was horrifically overacted.

[Jojen Pasta]

Game of Thrones

Breaking Bad

Battlestar Galactica (the new one)

Hannibal (holy crap that second season)

Dragonball Freaking Z

[Nox Irradiata]

Rome

Star Trek: Voyager (I don't care! I love it! :D)

The Sopranos

Breaking Bad

The Walking Dead

I also really liked Deadwood, The Tudors, and The X-Files.

[denstorebog]

In no particular order:

Battlestar Galactica (the new one)

I say ffffuuuuck yeah, I'm on board with that. BSG is one of those series where the good stuff is so good that even with the bad stuff, it still goes straight into the list.

2. Using the same rationale, you cannot omit The Simpsons from the list.

3. Twin Peaks. I can see that a lot of people don't bother to think back more than 10 years, but come on. Twin Peaks.

4. I would say The X-Files, both for its artistic vision, its longevity and its contribution to the dramatic TV series format.

5. The last one I can't defend rationally, so call it my personal submission to the list: I'm giving up a spot for Orphan Black. It doesn't have the same scope and ambition as stuff like The Wire, but damn if I don't look forward to new episodes of OB a lot more.