Any suggestions for DVD dramas to watch?

[Winston001]

I've decided to catch up on television series which I've either missed or enjoyed enough to see again without adverts.

My first, and favourite of all times is The Sopranos. 86 episodes which I've now finished. The Noo Joisey accents can be difficult to decipher and I missed a lot of dialogue when it was on tv so it was an absolute pleasure to take time and figure out all the minor characters and little pieces of the whole story. Recommended.

Then I turned to The Shield which I'd only seen bits of. Another excellent police drama which I'm working my way through.

Couldn't get The Shield when I wanted it so tried The Wire which has marvellous critical reviews although it didn't win awards. Yep, The Wire is the business. The first series is gripping with the result the second series gets a bit overshadowed. I'm nearly finished the second season.

So - any other dramas or comedies, anything (Simon Sharma's Britain is excellent) you'd recommend?

[rustyrobot]

Stick at it with The Wire, it just gets better! I can't believe it hasn't been shown on TV here. (Season 2 isn't the best).
Also try Generation Kill. It's only a 5 episode mini-series, but a really good look into the life of marines during the Iraq invasion.
Have been watching The Survivors, which is a british drama about a virus that wipes out 90% of the world's population. I'm a big fan of post-apocalyptica so I really like it. Have lots of friends who really enjoy Dollhouse, but I couldn't get into it, might be worth a look though.

[mashman]

Outnumbered... only watched 2 or 3 so far... A family, 3 kids, slice of real life bloody funny..

[BuzzardNZ]

Highly recommend 'Lost'. Watched all 5 seasons so far and am bummed out this is the last season currently airing.

[FlangMasterJ]

Underbelly

[Ronin]

Spooks. The english just don't pull punches in the way they do drama.

[Milts]

Band of Brothers is excellent, much better than The Pacific. It includes exerts from interviews with the soldiers portrayed in the show, is based off soldier's diaries, and is brilliantly directed. Hands down winner for military drama/historical portrayal. I would highly recommend it.

If you want something a bit more lighthearted, you could try Boston Legal, Black Books or Firefly, all pretty funny.

I enjoyed The Wire too, but not as much as many other drama shows and I felt that it didn't live up to the reviews.

You could also try watching Prison Break, but I found that they stretched the story out too much, and each season could probably have been compressed into about five episodes without much loss. Try it if that's your cup of tea, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

[EJK]

If you are after easy comedy (not a killer laugh but shits and giggles), I highly recommend The Office (U.S Version). But this is an acquired taste. Lovers will love it, haters will hate it.

If you want day-by-day thrill, watch Prison Break. It's quite well made. Recommended.

If you want some fun, very little romance with touch of scientific education, watch Bones (My personal fav). However many might disagree. This is also an acquired taste.

If you want B.S. psychological kick-ass awesomeness, watch The Mentalist.




If you are lonely, lame and lack enthusiasm in bed, watch Sex and the City

[Oakie]

'Spooks'. Well crafted stories in which the good guys don't always come out on top. Watching series three at present and it just gets better. Individual stories but with a continuing storyline through the series.

[Quasievil]

there is only one it is called

DEADWOOD

[pete376403]

Canivale - HBO pulled the pin after only two seasons of the planned six, so it doesn't wrap up the way it should. However those two seasons were amazing quality storytelling. Not for everyone. Set in the '20s dustbowl folowing a travelling carny.
Daniel Knauf was the genius behind this - he has also been responsible for some of the later Spartacus epsodes.

Also someone mentioned Firefly* - if you like this get the movie Serenity, but watch the series first, the movie is a sort-of finale.




*
Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) - "which of these men is the most evil; Stalin, Rupert Murdoch, Dr Leonard Hoffstetter?"

Leonard "Rupert Murdoch???"

Sheldon "he owns Fox, they cancelled Firefly"

[Winston001]

Great stuff everyone, I appreciate all the ideas. What I tend to do is use my laptop with headphones which doesn't disturb anybody else and allows me to get engrossed with whatever I'm watching.

RustyRobot - I remember The Survivors from the 1970s and it was so good I thought they'd remake it.

Ronin and Oakie - Spooks is top shelf and on my list. Grim British spy stuff.

Milts - agree entirely about how good Band of Brothers is and I have it already. As a result of flat reviews I've avoided The Pacific.

EJK - Bones is based on the books by Kathy Reichs which are set in Toronto, not the USA. So that's a kind of betrayal of the author but I agree from what I've seen, its a good series.

Quasi - yes you aren't the only person to passionately recommend Deadwood so it goes on the list. :D

[Drunken Monkey]

If you liked Sopranos that much, you might enjoy Mad Men as well. It's produced by Matthew Weiner (who wrote for Sopranos and produced seasons 5 and 6). Very much a show about superficial style and the dark side of ordinary peoples' character.

[HenryDorsetCase]

I've decided to catch up on television series which I've either missed or enjoyed enough to see again without adverts.

My first, and favourite of all times is The Sopranos. 86 episodes which I've now finished. The Noo Joisey accents can be difficult to decipher and I missed a lot of dialogue when it was on tv so it was an absolute pleasure to take time and figure out all the minor characters and little pieces of the whole story. Recommended.

Then I turned to The Shield which I'd only seen bits of. Another excellent police drama which I'm working my way through.

Couldn't get The Shield when I wanted it so tried The Wire which has marvellous critical reviews although it didn't win awards. Yep, The Wire is the business. The first series is gripping with the result the second series gets a bit overshadowed. I'm nearly finished the second season.

So - any other dramas or comedies, anything (Simon Sharma's Britain is excellent) you'd recommend?

Breaking BAd is really really good. Season three is (I'm told) airing on US TV presently. the first two series have been shown here, but utterly ghettoised to C4 where people think its for kids. Its really not. I would put it equal with The Wire. Its that good.

Brutally funny, but not for all tastes: Trailer Park Boys. Its Canadian.

The guy who was a writer on The Shield has a show called Sons of Anarchy. Its really really really good. Shown in NZ? You'd be joking. Season 1 is out on DVD (I would lend it to you but Ive lent it to a friend who is in love with Jax Teller and wont give it back...) Season 2 is on DVD in a couple of months and season 3 is shooting for an airdate round September this year.

I bought "The Prisoner" boxset a while ago (Patrick McGoohan original, not the dreadful remake).

If you are a sci fi fan the BEST sci fi TV show since the original Star Trek ( which is still good, in a "i remember when" way)... nah its still good.) is Firefly. Made by Joss Whedon, cancelled by morons after 14 episodes. Get the boxset, then get "Serenity" the movie which followed. George Lucas needs a kick in the balls: he released the phantom menace (easily the WORST SCI FI MOVIE EVER MADE) a week after Serenity, and it got drowned.

The seasons of theShield with Forrest Whitaker and Glenn Close are very good, and the seventh, and last, is incredibly good.

[HenryDorsetCase]

Deadwood (three series from a few years ago) was excellent

Get the Father Ted boxset if you dont have it. Also Black Books

I have really enjoyed "Weeds" also: comedy/drama.

True Blood is pretty good too, stars our very own Anna Paquin. (who gets naked a lot, also)

[HenryDorsetCase]

If you liked Sopranos that much, you might enjoy Mad Men as well. It's produced by Matthew Weiner (who wrote for Sopranos and produced seasons 5 and 6). Very much a show about superficial style and the dark side of ordinary peoples' character.

Indeed, plus they have BITCHIN' suits and hats. and drink hard liquor at the drop of a hat.

[NighthawkNZ]

Television... boring... crap and all that much more fun living it... and the riding away from it :)

[MaxB]

You might want to give the 'reimagined' series of Battlestar Galactica a spin. Much better than you'd think and picked up a couple of awards on the way.

House is good too.

If you like the Wire and the Shield then Homicide Life on the Streets might be worth a go. It was the forerunner of the Wire and made by the same people. Probably in the bargain bins by now!

[HenryDorsetCase]

The successor to The Wire (David Simon etc) is Treme. Its airing season 1 in the US at present. Up to about E6 I think. Its very good: Its New Orleans three months after Katrina, ensemble cast. The music tracks alone make it worth watching.

[Usarka]

+1 Breaking Bad

[NighthawkNZ]

You might want to give the 'reimagined' series of Battlestar Galactica a spin. Much better than you'd think and picked up a couple of awards on the way.!

Overal the whole series is Pretty Damn good... and the New Series Caprica isn't to bad either...

But you have to watch it as a whole... not as individual eposides

[Tank]

Desperate housewives FTW!

[HenryDorsetCase]

Television... boring... crap and all that much more fun living it... and the riding away from it :)

broadcast TV in this country, absolutely agree. The shaved chimps that program the dreck that is fed to the masses all need to be chained up and made to watch the shit they inflict on the proles until they gouge their own eyes out and use their eyeballs to plug their ears. But in terms of TV SHOWS, there are some absolute gems being made at present, most of the good ones are mentioned in this thread. Thank goodness there are options for those who cannot stomach what is broadcast. That and the 25% advertising content in broadcast tv. Fuck that. I pay for tv shows every time I purchase a product, I dont need or want to see commercials. The reason TV is so good is that it is VERY hard to get a film made, and hugely expensive. Even a cheap film is millions of dollars and takes a lot of time, so a lot of talented people now do TV.

In fact, have a read of Kurt Sutter's blog entry about it: insiders view and all that.

http://sutterink.blogspot.com/2010/04/star-bucks-and-death-of-creative-middle.html

[Winston001]

Here is quite a good list from The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jan/12/guardian-50-television-dramas

I've also tried House and Outrageous Fortune, both of which were enjoyable but somehow didn't grab me enough. House was positively formulaic and written for advert breaks plus after a few episodes the plot outline became predictable. Interestingly The Shield is becoming a bit like that too but I'll persevere for the moment.

Might add Shameless to the list - its amusing and nasty from the couple of episodes I glimpsed. Boys From the Black Stuff is as dark and compelling as British drama can get.

[Fatt Max]

Sharpe - Sean Bean at his best and some good old fashioned aggro

Spooks series 1 & 2, classic stiff upper lip British dirty tricks dept at it again

House of Cards - If you can find it, this is a great series about the chief Wip in the British Government and all the skull diggery that goes on. As I said, hard to find but worth the effort

Space 1999 - just been re=released, classic moon caper

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - say no more

[Winston001]

Time for an update methinks.

I rate The Sopranos and The Wire as supreme.

Deadwood is excellent, it sort of exhausted me and I had to put it down for a while. Seeing Lovejoy become Al Swearengen is simply disturbing. Pure nasty.

So...I'm wondering about Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire. Whaddya reckon? I watched a Boardwalk episode recently but didn't get it. However I'm acutely conscious of seeing one Sopranos episode out of context and didn't get that either.

Haven't read the book(s) but I imagine Game Of Thrones could be good too.

[EJK]

Spartacus - Blood and Sand.

Spartacus - Gods of the arena.


GO!

[pete376403]

Boardwalk Empire is really good but you need to 1, watch it from the first episode and 2, watch it from DVD or (dare I say) download because the adverts in the broadcast version completely destroy the continuity.

Game of Thrones been mentioned yet?

Also another very good, but short, English series was The Fixer - IIRC only 12 eps over two seasons

A follow up of sorts to The Wire is "The Corner" - more of a mini series

[EJK]

Who says Game of Thrones have too much explicit scenes? Shit son, you havn't seen Spartacus yet!!!

[Nova.]

Outrageous fortune you cunts!!

[Tigadee]

Wife and I are watching The Mentalist. Light-hearted police detective entertainment. For more cerebral stuff: Sherlock.

Fringe is absolute gold!

[pete376403]

I thought the writers of Fringe were running out of ideas toward the midlle of the 4th season: some of the episodes seem to be just filler.

Warehouse 13 for lighthearted sci-fi that kids can watch along with adults

[HenryDorsetCase]

Metalocalypse

[Tigadee]

I thought the writers of Fringe were running out of ideas toward the midlle of the 4th season: some of the episodes seem to be just filler.

Warehouse 13 for lighthearted sci-fi that kids can watch along with adults

Thumbs up to Warehouse 13 too!

Yeah, that's true of mid-season 4 of Fringe. Like that invisible man episode... Nothing new there, so tired and old.

[IdunBrokdItAgin]

Who says Game of Thrones have too much explicit scenes? Shit son, you havn't seen Spartacus yet!!!

+1 to Spartacus.

Watch gods of the arena first (I did by accident) - it is a prequel so it nicely segways into season 1 that way.

I'm half way through watching blood and sand - awesome series. It 50% 300 movie and 50% soft porn movie.

Vengence looks good too.

[curly]

+1 for Game of Thrones

+1 for Sons of Anarchy

also The Walking Dead I found to be pretty good as well.

[curly]

Oh yeah can't forget-The L Word:bleh:

[schrodingers cat]

there is only one it is called

DEADWOOD

Almost.

Justified

[Winston001]

Time for an update:

I'm hooked on Breaking Bad, a tale centred around a mild-mannered chemistry teacher in Albuquerque which just happens to be a few miles from Trinity Point = atom bomb country. I've been there so perhaps the show has an extra zing for me although it has nothing to do with the Manhattan Project. Just plain old lowlife drug dealing. Anyway I'm addicted and waiting to track down Season 3.

As well, Game of Thrones is incredibly good. Waiting until my son finishes the second book before we get the DVDs out. Rich masterful medieval swords and nubile wenches. Of course. :D

[jonbuoy]

I've decided to catch up on television series which I've either missed or enjoyed enough to see again without adverts.

My first, and favourite of all times is The Sopranos. 86 episodes which I've now finished. The Noo Joisey accents can be difficult to decipher and I missed a lot of dialogue when it was on tv so it was an absolute pleasure to take time and figure out all the minor characters and little pieces of the whole story. Recommended.

Then I turned to The Shield which I'd only seen bits of. Another excellent police drama which I'm working my way through.

Couldn't get The Shield when I wanted it so tried The Wire which has marvellous critical reviews although it didn't win awards. Yep, The Wire is the business. The first series is gripping with the result the second series gets a bit overshadowed. I'm nearly finished the second season.

So - any other dramas or comedies, anything (Simon Sharma's Britain is excellent) you'd recommend?

So do you believe Tony got clipped in the final episode?

[SVboy]

Try Green Wing. I didnt get it until I watched it from the start-very funny. Plus 1000 on the Sopranos and I really endorse Board walk Empire.

[SVboy]

There is a British series called Shameless. AWESOME! But start at the start-if you can find it.

[HenryDorsetCase]

So do you believe Tony got clipped in the final episode?

No question.

[pete376403]

There is a British series called Shameless. AWESOME! But start at the start-if you can find it.

The US version of Shameless is not too bad either. Both US and UK versions are on IPtorrents

Got "Alphas" last night, from the ScyFy Channel, plus "Warehouse 13 is halfway into the 4th season. Plenty to watch without having to put up with advertisments, reality shows, house fix-up shows and cooking shows.

[Winston001]

Try Green Wing. I didnt get it until I watched it from the start-very funny. Plus 1000 on the Sopranos and I really endorse Board walk Empire.


There is a British series called Shameless. AWESOME! But start at the start-if you can find it.

Yep Green Wing, Black Books, and Shameless are on the wish list.


Can't remember if I mentioned Dexter but that's a good series too, plus the books are worth reading for a dark chuckle.


Here's the IMDB list of good TV series: http://www.imdb.com/search/title?num_votes=5000,&sort=user_rating,desc&title_type=tv_series

[Usarka]

Time for an update:

I'm hooked on Breaking Bad, a tale centred around a mild-mannered chemistry teacher in Albuquerque which just happens to be a few miles from Trinity Point = atom bomb country. I've been there so perhaps the show has an extra zing for me although it has nothing to do with the Manhattan Project. Just plain old lowlife drug dealing. Anyway I'm addicted and waiting to track down Season 3.


Brilliant show - on occasions it's hard to watch but then wham it kicks you in the face and gives you a hand job at the same time.

Season three is even better than 2 (imho) so keep that addiction going!

[Brett]

Game of Thrones is one of my absolute favourites so far.

[pete376403]

Pillars of the Earth - ok and probably would have rated higher with me if it hadn't followed Game of Thrones. As it is it sort of comes off as GoT Lite

[Winston001]

Pillars of the Earth is an excellent book by Ken Follett. I'll put this on my viewing list too.