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Post by roverpup on Apr 2, 2017 13:03:18 GMT
Just though a thread like this would help fill in the gap between fresh BC news and people on the board might enjoy hearing about everyone's favourite.
I'll start the ball rolling...
Comedy -
Frasier Family Ties Fawlty Towers Barney Miller Cheers Curb Your Enthusiasm The Bob Newhart Show
... can't think of any more to fill out the list to 10 (never was one for comedies)
Variety/Sketch Shows -
Monty Python's Flying Circus The Colbert Report The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour The Kids in the Hall SCTV Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
Drama -
Sherlock The Sopranos Breaking Bad Madmen St. Elsewhere House of Cards Wallander The Wire The West Wing The Newsroom Battlestar Galactica (2003) Star Trek Voyager Downton Abbey Luther The Fall I Claudius Combat! The Tudors The Hollow Crown Band of Brothers
:-))
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Post by coolclearwaters on Apr 2, 2017 22:49:32 GMT
I'll play, but these are my favorites besides Sherlock. Sometimes I list more than 10. In no particular order:
Comedy Seinfeld The Dick Van Dyke Show I Love Lucy Absolutely Fabulous Cheers VEEP The Mary Tyler Moore Show Monty Python Louie The Colbert Report SNL the early years
Drama The Wire The Sopranos Prime Suspect (Helen Mirren) Madmen Treme Better Call Saul (I love BCS!) Breaking Bad The Rockford Files Damages (1st season) Homicide Colombo The X-Files Law & Order (the early years)
Special or Mini-Series (there are probably many of these, but I'm drawing a blank) The Hollow Crown Parade's End Olive Kitteredge Angels In America Lonesome Dove Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (BBC) Pride and Prejudice (Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth) Promise (James Garner & James Woods in the 1980s)
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Post by mllemass on Apr 3, 2017 0:23:43 GMT
I'll play, but these are my favorites besides Sherlock. Sometimes I list more than 10. In no particular order: I've been thinking about this and looking at my DVDs and videos, and I still can't decide! But reading your list, coolclearwaters, I can say that I agree with many of your choices! And I wouldn't even put Sherlock on the list because it belongs all by itself.
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Post by igs on May 6, 2017 10:40:27 GMT
I am just going to list some favorites, I don't watch/like enough comedy shows to be able to make a top 10. Also I freely admit that I don't think I've seen any pre-1990s TV apart from Classic Who.
Drama:
Breaking Bad (the best of all-time, plus Better Call Saul.) Game of Thrones Sherlock The Americans (my favorite at the moment.) The Wire Doctor Who Firefly LOST The Bridge (SWE/DEN) Broadchurch House of Cards Orange Is The New Black
Comedy:
Arrested Development Parks and Recreation 30 Rock Community Friends
At the moment I follow the aforementioned The Americans, Doctor Who and Better Call Saul and I'm obsessed with RuPaul's Drag Race although the queens in season 9 kind of blend in together for me (S6 was the latest really strong season imho, aside from All-Stars.)
What are y'all following at the moment?
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Post by MagdaFR on May 6, 2017 10:54:40 GMT
I never watched much television till the last few years. At the moment I'm following The Leftovers and The Handmaid's Tale.
I watched The Americans first season but I'm not watching it now (yet).
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Post by igs on May 6, 2017 11:10:49 GMT
I never watched much television till the last few years. At the moment I'm following The Leftovers and The Handmaid's Tale. I watched The Americans first season but I'm not watching it now (yet). I have heard good things about The Leftovers, I'm thinking about watching it soon. The Americans give me Breaking Bad vibes more than any show (except Better Call Saul, obviously.) They both have such solid character development and complex motivation, slow build but still tons of fast paced story. I love shows that manage to balance those elements (and a great soundtrack!) I loved that about Sherlock too, the characters had a solid arc but at the same time the plot advanced rapidly.
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Post by mllemass on May 6, 2017 13:03:50 GMT
I finally got around to watching The Office (UK) this week. It aired on tv here years ago, of course, and I had seen a couple of episodes, but you really have to watch all the episodes, in order, for it to make sense. The American version was one of my favourite tv shows ever, and Martin Freeman has even said that he thought it might be better than his. So I watched it without high expectations.
And it was wonderful! I knew the American version was a remake, but I had no idea that it had the exact storylines - and often dialogue - of the original. It was fascinating to see how much they did in only14 episodes and a Christmas special. I was telling my sister about it as I watched it, and I kept referring to the characters by their American names that are so familiar to me - Jim, Pam, Dwight. The UK version is much more graphic in what they were able to say and show, so that was a bit shocking to see! And really, everything about the UK Office is more intense than the milder American Office. Ricky Gervais is pretty amazing - he's even more painful to watch than Steve Carell was at being the boss - and I thought Steve was great!
I'm so happy I finally saw it!
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Post by igs on May 6, 2017 13:15:12 GMT
The American version was one of my favourite tv shows ever, and Martin Freeman has even said that he thought it might be better than his. So I watched it without high expectations. I haven't seen either version of The Office, but I normally try to watch the original first (or only) if possible. But I too have heard that the US version is really good, from personal experience the only remake I think is superior to the original is the Queer as Folk US version although it kind of went out on a whimper, season 5 was not good. So kudos to The Office people for that! I've also heard that the UK version of Humans might be better than the original Swedish one (of which I've only seen a few episodes.) It's funny how many American shows are remakes of British shows, and how many British shows are remakes of Scandinavian shows.
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Post by dreamsincolour on May 6, 2017 21:22:06 GMT
I don't watch a huge amount of television, but there are some things that have stood out.
I'm really, really not a fan of soaps and/or of the typical situation comedy type shows generally, with the odd exception. They keep repeating runs of certain American comedies over here in the early morning, to convenience, and those are "Frazier", "The King of Queens" and "Everybody Loves Raymond". And they couldn't be more different in that "Frazier" is just excellent and infinitely rewatchable. The other two are just awful, particularly "Everybody Loves Raymond" which is quite repellent.
So for comedy, I'm going for 10 with a couple of extra for good measure, and on top of everything has to be "Blackadder", but the others aren't in any particular order! So: Blackadder, And if anyone hasn't seen it, it is an absolute "must see", especially the last series. But skip the first series to start with. The Vicar of Dibley.............So funny and charming and it has a lovely ending! Porridge Frazier The Big Bang Theory Red Dwarf Only Fools and Horses Dad's Army Outnumbered Arrested Development The New Statesman Soap.....(haven't seen it since, but thought it was hysterical when I was a kid)
And anything and everything from the comedy geniuses that were Morecombe and Wise, the Two Ronnies and Monty Python. And although I'm not including the whole series of "Ripping Yarns", I do remember laughing myself nearly sick at the "Tomkinson's Schooldays" episode.
And because I'm thinking about favourites, I remember "Citizen Smith" with great fondness too, although haven't seen that since I was a kid either. The wonderful Robert Lindsay trying to ineffectually incite revolution and mayhem in Tooting. "Freedom for Tooting!", where Tooting is a very, very small part of South London.
And I've probably forgotten many but 10 other particular drama favourites over the years have included (in no particular order):
Firefly Doctor Who Sharpe Hornblower House Of Cards (Original British version with the extraordinary Ian Richardson - Haven't seen the American remake) A Very Peculiar Practice Pride and Prejudice Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People Blott on the Landscsape Being Human (Original British version) Blakes's 7 ...... Haven't seen it since, and I doubt it's aged well, but really liked it at the time. Had to have been the inspiration for Firefly too. Star Trek in its various forms (I liked the original series and Deep Space Nine best) Callan................They really ought to remake Callan, but Edward Woodward was an impossibly act to follow. The Prisoner Brideshead Revisited....Great stuff and the 1st episode is memorably one of highlights of all television
Liked Dexter and 6 Feet Under very much too, although both tailed off badly.
And obviously couldn't hold myself to 10 (lol).
Individual TV films: The Naked Civil Servant A Brilliant John Hurt as Quentin Crisp.......Genius stuff!
Out of curiosity too, irrespective of what you think of as a favourite or as "best", what have people actually actively chosen to REWATCH most?
I don't usually rewatch anything but there have been exceptions, and for me there are two way out in front. And those are Firefly and a documentary series by Michael Wood of "The Search For Troy". Sherlock, Blackadder, Being Human and Sharpe follow on.
But in terms of what I am most interested in watching now, top of the list is probably the new adaptation of Neil Gaiman's America Gods.
Lots and lots of American shows are remakes and not just re British shows. They don't even have the excuse of there being a different language involved re British shows, they seem to just think they have to Americanise everything, to effect. It's unhealthy, in my opinion, too, because it fosters the peculiar isolationist thinking that is so prevalent in America. The British remakes aren't coming from the same sort of thinking at all, and there are very few too. I can only think of two, and that's "Wallander" and "Humans". There was also a remake of the French series about people appearing back from the dead, but remakes like that are pretty rare and we do actually show original Scandanavian series with subtitles. We haven't had the original version of "Humans" (yet) as well, but we've had the original Wallander as well as Branagh's remake.
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Post by coolclearwaters on May 6, 2017 21:44:23 GMT
Monk. I forgot to list Monk as one of my favorite shows. Tony Shaloub is a god and Ted Levine is a master of the slow burn.
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