51 replies to this topic

[Arrogant Bastard]

Came across this article ranking all of the past and present HBO dramas.

http://www.nerve.com...-to-best?page=2

Anyone agree, disagree, or want to post their own ranking? Just thought it was interesting, as I think HBO is responsible for three of the best TV dramas ever and a lot of really good shows.

I have it ranked, out of the HBO dramas that I've seen:

1. The Wire (by an inch over Deadwood, mainly just because it finished on its own terms)
2. Deadwood
3. The Sopranos

4. Game of Thrones
5. Boardwalk Empire
6. Rome
7. Six Feet Under
8. Oz (had to quit watching in the middle of season 4)
9. True Blood (seen the first two seasons and then quit)

Really don't know how they have Boardwalk Empire or Oz ahead of Deadwood. I think The Wire, Deadwood, and The Sopranos are clearly the cream of the crop when it comes to HBO dramas.

[WuTangWesteros]

IMO

The Wire
Game of Thrones
Rome
Boardwalk Empire
The Sopranos
Deadwood
Six Feet Under
OZ
True Blood

Edited by WuTangWesteros, 03 February 2012 - 10:58 PM.

[Trebla]

10. Oz- First few season were great but it got silly by the last season .
9. Six Feet Under- Uneven at times but had one of the best finales I've ever seen
8. Dream On- First "adult" comedy I had ever seen.
7. Larry Sanders Show Starring Gary Shandling- I really miss this one. A scathing look at Hollywood, much better than Entourage
6. Game of Thrones- The geek in me is much more critical of it than I would be otherwise. It's great, though.
5. Boardwalk Empire- GoT is better in many ways but I was floored by the second season finale that it just overtakes it.
4. Rome- The characters were so well developed that the rushed second season didn't bother me. It was briliant.
3. Deadwood- I didn't get to watch this during it's original run. I'm kind of glad because I would have been heartbroken that this brilliant show didn't get to end properly I came in knowing and had prepared myself. You guess who I thought was the breakout character
2. The Wire- This was hard to place second. Another show I didn't get to see during it's run but I had seen it talked up endlessly on this forum. It was all it was said to be. Brutal. Cynical. Refreshing. I almost ended in a tie but...
1. The Sopranos- But there can be only ONE. I'm a sucker for character studies and playing amateur psychologist and this show had it all for me. Plus at times it was truly hysterical.

eta: I guess I should pay more attention that you asked for DRAMAS!

Edited by Trebla, 03 February 2012 - 11:04 PM.

[The Dude]

True Blood is drama?

I know it's not a real category but I think of it as a "soapedy"

[Durckad]

1. The Wire
2. Game of Thrones
3. Rome
4. Deadwood
5. Boardwalk Empire
6. True Blood
7. John From Cincinnati

I didn't watch enough of Treme to accurately rank it, but what I watched would place it pretty low on the list.

[Calibandar]

I'd put it like this:

1. The Wire. It tops most people's lists because it's just an awesome show. I'm someone whose usually not very drawn to cop shows of any kind, but there are exceptions. I'm not even very fond of a highly rated show like The Shield. But this is just great writing, great characters, very involving stuff. Overarching storylines also tend to appeal to me ( see Babylon 5 for instance).

2. The Sopranos. I'm in something of a minority in that I think the last couple of seasons are at least as good as the first two. I loved every season of this show, it's got a superb cast of characters coupled to a great story and setting.

3. Game of Thrones. Might even be number one if I hadn't read the books. Might still be number one when it's added another season to it's tally. I found the first season extremely strong in pretty much all aspects.

4. Carnivale. Fantastic show, loved the first season, loved the second season even more. Such atmosphere, the classic battle between light and darkness in a carnival setting, in the 30's dustbowl. It also scores points for being such a unique show and experience. Yes it has slower pacing, but I liked that.

These top 4 stand on their own tier of excellence. After that:

4. Oz. Surprisingly high rating perhaps, but this was just a break-out drama as far as I'm concerned, so visceral and harsh.
5. Rome. What detracted from it was that I never connected much with the two main characters, and the rest of the characters were a mix to me. The setting was fantastic, the story was ok, but it was certainly enjoyable to watch.
6. Deadwood. Great setting, but never enjoyed the characters or the stories. Didn't like the much-vaunted Al Swearengen, at all.
7. Six Feet Under. Some episodes were quite compelling, and I have a feeling that this is the sort of show, like Carnivale, that some people are just going to love to pieces, while perhaps most viewers find it a bit on and off. Ultimately I never cared enough to watch the seasons consecutively.
8. True Blood. This just isn't my thing. If you like this sort of show, that other networks also have, then I can see how HBO is probably once again the pinnacle of television in this genre. I admit I haven't given it many chances.

Absent from the list: Boardwalk Empire, I will be seeing its first season this year. I've seen one epsiode, which I liked.

And of course a major shout-out to Band of Brothers and John Adams for being just about the best two miniseries ever. Not to mention the excellent Pacific series, which I rank just below those.

[TheEvilKing]

1. The Wire (best evar)
2. Rome (awesome and epic, just wish we'd had another season)
3. The Sopranos (generally great, though too slow-moving at times and any episodes revolving around AJ sucked)
4. Game of Thrones (love it because of the books, but it can also never live up to the books, which will probably stop it ever breaking the top 3)
5. True Blood (fuck the haters, it's still fun)
6. Deadwood (good but overrated)

Edited by TheEvilKing, 04 February 2012 - 06:57 AM.

[BaelorBreakspear]

1. The Wire
2. Game of Thrones - yeah we've only seen one season, but we know where it's going.
3. Rome - season one is an all-time great

4. Treme
5. Deadwood These two are close, and while season 2 of Treme wasn't great, I like where it's going heading into next season

6. Boardwalk Empire - not as great as many make it out to be.

7. The Sporanos - Have not seen all of this, but what I've seen, was kinda awful

[Revan Baratheon]

From wat ive seen:
1)GOT-never wouldve known the books existed without this series,not even the lotr movies convinced me to read the books,but game of thrones did
2)Six feet under-really amazing for the first 2 seasons,and watchable for the other three..

Yea thats it..

[Myrddin]

I love GoT, but Deadwood and Rome easily rank above it. Too much greatness in both those shows. Thirteen!

Boardwalk Empire is good, but since I didn't bother to watch season 2, well, I guess my interest didn't carry past season one.

I enjoy True Blood (and look forward to each each June), but acknowledge it as a guilty pleasure and wouldn't rank it very high.

[Ser Greguh]

1: The Wire
2: The Sopranos
3: Rome
4: Deadwood
5: Six Feet Under
6: Game of Thrones
7: Treme
8: Big Love
9: Carnivale
10: Boardwalk Empire

[Francis Buck]

My personal list out of the ones I've actually seen:

The Sopranos: Unparalleled in my opinion - the perfect merger of realism and stylization, drama and humor.
The Wire: Speaks for itself: simply the best cop drama ever put on TV, and possibly the best cop-drama story ever.
Deadwood: Just ridiculously well-written. Also, Al Swerengen and E.B. Farnum. 'Nuff said.

The up-and-comers for me are Boardwalk Empire, Luck, and of course Game of Thrones. I never finished Oz, it was very good but simply didn't compare to the greats. I've only seen bits and pieces of Rome. Someday I'll get around to watching both that and Six Feet Under.

They're not HBO, but Mad Men and Breaking Bad deserve to be up there with the top three in my opinion.

[peterbound]

1-5: The Wire
6-8: The Sopranos
9: Rome
10: GOT

Done.

[Lord Ashford]

Of the ones I've seen.

1. The Sopranos. Watched it while I was going through my whole Mafia adoration phase, reading books and such on the subject. Stuck with me. Powerful scenes, hilarious lines, fascinating characters. I liked it only slightly more than...

2. The Wire. A novel in television form with an extraordinary set of characters. I'd spend whole mornings and afternoons ploughing through 3-4 episodes at a time. Sign of an amazing show.

3. Rome. Ancient Rome nerd here. Julius Caesar one of my favourite historical figures, great cast. The unlikely comrades Pullo and Vorenus (how awesome was Kevin McKidd?). James Purefoy in season 2 . Great show, a shame it didn't last a little longer, giving us the chance to see Emperor Augustus is his prime.

4. Deadwood. Only ever finished season 1 before other things grabbed my attention. Started season 2 and it didn't sweep me up like 1 but it's something I need to get back to at some point.

5. Game of Thrones. Prompted me to go out and invest time/my life in a great series of books. Enough said.

6. Boardwalk Empire. Classy and very fun. The fact that I've yet to sit down to watch season 2 (other shows have taken priority) is probably why it features so low.


So many more I need to get around to...

[Triskele]

Part of what makes it tough for me is the different ways that you can cut it. For example, how much do I reward Rome for being finished yet punish it for being only two seasons? Here's my list, totally subject to change:

1. The Wire
2. Rome
3. Sopranos (mostly because it was 7 pretty awesome seasons, but I think a few others could overtake it).
4. Game of Thrones
5. Boardwalk Empire (this was not too high on my list at first, but I now have huge hopes for its future)
6. Deadwood (I do like this quite a bit, but I think not quite as much as many)

There's a big drop after this for me. I'm hopeful that Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire continue to kick ass and solidify their standings up here on the pantheon. I'm also crossing my fingers that Luck kicks ass. If both of those things happen, we could be looking at a new golden age on HBO where we have three incredible 1-hour Sunday night dramas in their prime at the same time. Very exciting stuff.

[RaceBannon42]

1. Deadwood
2. The Wire
3. Game of Thrones
4. Sopranos
5. Rome
6. Boardwalk Empire
7. Treme

[Grumpkin Ahai]

1. The Wire & Rome
2. AGOT
3. Deadwood
4. Boardwalk Empire
5. Sopranos
6. Oz

e.t.a even thou Angry Boys is really the best

Edited by Ndrew of Typhgarian, 06 February 2012 - 10:53 AM.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

1) Sopranos
2) The Wire
3) Rome
4) Game of thrones
5) Boardwalk Empire

Haven't seen the others, so can't comment. Sopranos is the greatest show of all time IMO.

Edited by Ser_not_appearing_yet, 06 February 2012 - 11:49 AM.

[iraen]

I guess the fact that no list here looks like the other, it's safe to say that basically everything HBO puts out is great, so how exactly you rank the series is more up to personal taste then objective reasons.

My personal first is and will always be Six Feet Under. It put me through adolescence.
I could have loved Rome, but alas, they messed it up quite a bit by just rushing through something like decades of history to give it a "clean" ending. I know, it's probably better than if it had been cancelled right out, but it's still a shame. It had a lot of greatness though, even in the few episodes ever made.
I'm now watching Boardwalk Empire and GoT (obviously...), but I think you shouldn't rate a show before it's really gone somewhere.
I have tried out both The Wire and Sopranos, but I never got into them. I tried several times, and feel totally barbaric everytime I hear people singing their praises, but I guess they both don't exactly cater to my interests. The whole mob/crime thing is not really enough for me. Also Deadwood. I just don't do western. Never.
And I watched one episode of True Blood, because it was by Alan Ball, but after a few minutes I had to realise with deep disturbment that by "vampires" they really actually mean "vampires", and stopped watching. Call me shallow, but I have this thing about not spending my time watching/reading/doing anything involving vampires. I think the only thing that could make me prematurely stop reading ASoIaF, I guess it would be a vampire. I make do with the zombies, because they're not called zombies, but wights, but at vampires, I draw the line.
... aaand, I think that's it. That's all I tried out so far. But like I said: I don't think that HBO can ever put out anything bad when it comes to the way it's crafted and executed (even if it's about vampires), but people have different interests "topic-wise".

[awesome possum]

Deadwood
Rome
Game of Thrones
Sopranos
Six Feet Under
Big Love
Oz
Treme

Everything else.

Edited by awesome possum, 06 February 2012 - 11:56 AM.