Honestly think that so far as gangster dramas go ‘Brotherhood’ is about as good as ‘The Sopranos’ (but probably wouldn’t have been made without it).
Also, in terms of slick period office-based dramas i like ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ as much as ‘Mad Men’ (but again, yeah, one clearly influenced by the other).
Shoot…
Bloodline is as good, if not better than I dunno, The Killing?
Oh come on!
Quantum Leap > Goodnight Sweetheart.
Outside, now…
Oz is better than most gritty HBO shows
top of the lake was better than true detective
Anyone been watching that Damned on c4 lately?
Think the comedy, politics, and overall writing/performances in it are genuinely stellar and will probably be looked upon extremely favourably in a few years but nobody seems to be watching it right now. Even Alan fucking Davies is convincing in it.
Oz was really good for a while, and obviously it’s very IMPORTANT in the rise of prestige TV golden age blah blah, but the actual show, watching it with modern TV eyes, is massively flawed and is often bailed out by how great the cast is.
Remember the bit where someone invents an aging pill, so that prisoners can take the pill, age ten years overnight, and then get released, having ‘served’ their ten years? Yeah…
all part of the fun, imo. breaking bad had loads of completely nonsensical plotlines but people still bought into it.
Nothing in the same vein as a show whose whole identity is gritty realism suddenly turning into sci-fi.
Aside from that, I just lost interest in the same group of dudes beating, raping and stabbing each other over and over again.
i dunno it was quite far-fetched even at the start. Lawyer who’s clearly not a hardened criminal? Let’s make him room-mates with the most psychotic inmate in the prison!
it’s much better if you view it as a slightly fantastical morality play (the fact it’s got a recurring narrator/Greek chorus is no coincidence).