Most Believable TV Show

User45701

Out of everything you all watch, what would you think most likley to happen, i mean i think its ER or Grays atanomy or something one of those medical shows and the episode a friend was telling me about (i dont watch either of them he was telling me because his mis's loves it) and he was telling me it had the most unrealastic season clifhanger i have seen (dont want to say incase it was a US spoiler)

anyway out of all the TV shows i like i have to admit they are very funny/exciting but which one has the most realism? I cant decide so i was looking for some help.

When i was younger i would have said star trek because when i was a child i always belived in my lifetime mankind would just see what a moronic species we are and embrace a better view of the world, no war, poverty, hunger, homelessness ect but then i realised that when people grow up they dont actually mature...

Anyway back to the point, Id say in recent memory Kidnapped would be quite realastic but i cant seem to think of anything else...

anyone have any suggestions?

chalkitdown1

The Wire.

Hands down.

chalkitdown1

chalkitdown1 wrote:

The Wire.

Hands down.

+1

User45701

just read about it there, im not ready for that show yet, i think ill do a sopranos on it, just wait till every single season/episode is finished then blast though every single episode in a very short space of time. did sopranos, all 6 seasons in 2 sittings (needed a 3 week gap to recover)

I will watch the wire tho, can one of you wire fans tell me how many seaosns they plan to go for?

Thanks

The fifth series next year will be the last. Only 3 series out on DVD at the moment though.

ixoy

As soon as I saw the thread title, "The Wire" came into my mind. Very very easy answer for me.

As for saying "Star Trek" - heh

DarkJager

The Shield

tampopo

yeah, er is not that believable. I like it a lot and don't watch Gray's A because I prefer er but just not believable.

Most believable was Beauty and the Geek*. Ah that was hilariously funny.

quiz. Q. How many brains has a monkey?
Beauty: A. Two

Q. What's the chemical symbol of water.
Geek: A. H2O.
Beauty's incredulous response to partner's answer. "How did you know that?"

It was SO believable that people are that stupid.




*UK version

Paolo_M

Match of the Day is usually pretty believable

Dodge

Anything bar Sky News

having never been to Baltimore I can't say whether the wire is true to life or not. Good TV though

Most realistic TV show I've seen was probably the Royle Family

Trippie

macgyver ftw

Hitch-Hiker

chalkitdown1 wrote:

The Wire.

Hands down.

You're probably right. I was talking recently enough to a New York cop who was over here on holidays, and she said The Wire was the most true to life cop show she had ever seen.

dulpit

Heroes? (lol)

I really don't know... I've never seen the wire so i can't comment on that...


Let me think about it, i'll get back to ye...

Auvers

chalkitdown1 wrote:

The Wire.

Hands down.

QFT

not only the most realistic but one of the best tv shows ever.

homah_7ft

I think The Wire is the best thing on tv but I'm not so sure whether it's the most believable. The dialogue amongst the drug dealers in particular is wonderful but perhaps not realistic.

chalkitdown1

homah_7ft wrote:

I think The Wire is the best thing on tv but I'm not so sure whether it's the most believable. The dialogue amongst the drug dealers in particular is wonderful but perhaps not realistic.

It probably is. Most of the secondary cast in it are actual Baltimore residents, speaking in their natural accents. Snoop, for instance, talks exactly like she does in the show.

Which is kinda scary. I understand about 40% of what she says.

ixoy

homah_7ft wrote:

I think The Wire is the best thing on tv but I'm not so sure whether it's the most believable. The dialogue amongst the drug dealers in particular is wonderful but perhaps not realistic.

Apparently it is. A lot of the smaller drug players are ex-cons themselves, often with convictions that relate to the characters they're playing. The writer also spent a year working in these areas with these people - it's pretty much as authentic as it gets.

homah_7ft

I see where both of you are coming from but I think ye are missing my point. My argument is not that the characters don't use authentic words or phrases but rather that the points they make are clearly written by highly educated authors.

qwertplaywert

Dexter

duridian

How about The Mighty Boosh, a simple show dealing with everyday issues that could affect any one of us...
... as long as we happen to be high on crack at the time.

rejkin

the storylines in er might not be always believable but the medical side of it is all done right,they use all the right methods in treating the patients unlike greys anatomy which is basically a full on drama with no believability

User45701

Dexter being real? i dont know...
Its an amazing tv show alright but i think that well i was going to say that many people disappearing but then again allot of people do dissapear in maimi.

Home and away.

lostexpectation

curb your enthusiam

he's a survivor no im a survivor....

kowloon

Deleted User wrote:

Home and away.

damn right! something needs to be done about the shortage of biological parents over there.

kowloon

kowloon wrote:

damn right! something needs to be done about the shortage of biological parents over there.

Their adoption agencies are crazy! Runaway kid turns up in town and within two weeks they are living with Irene or at the caravan place,amazing.

tvnutz

The Wire no question!

Revelation Joe

Dodge wrote:

Most realistic TV show I've seen was probably the Royle Family

+1!
Early Doors and The Office as well.

User45701

Deleted User wrote:

Home and away.

If where going down that road then im going to have to nominate Sunset Beach

Attractive Nun

Whether or not The Wire is the most believable show I've ever seen, I'm not entirely sure. It might be. Certainly, for any show with such scope and ambition (not just portraying a family, or a hospital, or a police unit, but an entire city - police departments, city hall, unions, the home, the schools, crime, the streets, the workplace etc.), it is the most successful at maintaining its realism. I've certainly never seen a show produced on that scale which pays so little heed to happy endings, episodic storytelling, neat plotlines or other such televisual strategies that distort reality, and on that basis it's certainly up there with the most believable TV shows I've ever seen.

I do accept the point, though, that there are certain moments, and certain characters, that seem 'unbelievable'. Omar Little, for example, although I think he is one of the most compelling, complex and entertaining characters on television stretches reality a little. It is conceivable that a man with such coolness could exist and survive on the street, but I think the writers go too far with him sometimes (Like the time

he broke into a Barksdale stashhouse dressed as an old man in a wheelchar

). I read that David Simon initially planned to kill him off in the first season, but decided not to because Michael K Williams' portrayal of him was so compelling. I do think it strains the imagination a bit that

he's still alive at the end of season 4, but I'm certainly not complaining given that it has left us with scenes like this, this and indeed this.

The entire character of Brother Mouzone, too, is one I find to be a bit far-fetched. And, likewise, there are moments where the show's dialogue is so -intelligent, quick-witted and insightful that - upon reflection - it's perhaps not entirely believable given where it comes from. But television must be a balance between realism and entertainment, and whatever the case, The Wire is a show that exceeds any other that I've seen on both counts - by some distance, too.

ixoy

Excellent critique there Attractive Nun and I'll give you Brother Mouzone - he's the one character that never felt "real" in the same way the others did. This is knowing, of course, that there's much greater nutjobs than him in the world but... it somehow didn't gel for me. From reading Wire forums elsewhere, Mouzone is generally regarded as the weakest character in the show in terms of believability.
However, the balance is so far in the shows favour that this apparent aberration is easily over looked.

pickarooney

Bodies. I'm not an Ob-gyn, but I reckon the writer must have been.

adox

The Simpsons.

homah_7ft

Excellent post Mr Nun. To use a concrete example

the showdown between Omar and Brother Mouzone. I think this might have more to do with George Pelecanos wanting to add a western styling rather than realism.

. I wouldn't have it any other way since ultimately putting total reality on the screen would be boring.

User45701

I dont know if reality wouldbe boring, i mean big brother is crap but thats not a storyline with actors. And i was thinking of getting the wire season 1 on dvd because several of you AH AH!!! I just thought a show that is the most plausible/believable show, Six Degrees. A US show aired last year - it got cancelled but it was quite good, it was about the lives of several different people living in new york and they have the odd random encounters with one another not knowing who each are like pasing on the street or at a bar then 2 of the become freidns and then anotother two ect, and it followed each of there own lives though a very good story line.

cailinoBAC

Freaks and Geeks
How do you want me?
Peep Show (one of my friends says he can't watch it, it's too close to the bone)

Rollo Tamasi

lostexpectation wrote:

curb your enthusiam

he's a survivor no im a survivor....

We didn't even have flip flops
- FLIP FLOPS!??@!!

Do you see what it says here? It says Michael Drago. You see, if these were your tickets, they'd say F*CKING DUCHEBAG.

---

Yup, +1 The Wire.

Mrs. MacGyver

My so - called life was definately the most beleivable show ever. Currently i'd probably go with ros na run (on TG4)

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Big Brother - apparently they don't even have scripts.

uncle ernie

a 2nd vote for Peepshow. scarily accurate

godtabh

Dodge wrote:

having never been to Baltimore I can't say whether the wire is true to life or not. Good TV though

Whether its the most realistic or not the Wire would put you off going to Baltimore for sure!

I've been to Baltimore (well passed through it) but I wouldn't have a clue of the areas I was in.

The Wire I think is fantastically real. They dont go for the happy ending which I think makes it a lot more realistic.

One scene that does stand out for me is the "Fcuk" scene in season 1 when every word is just fcuk when they are having another look at a murder scene but I reckon that could happen.

tvnutz

kearnsr wrote:

One scene that does stand out for me is the "Fcuk" scene in season 1 when every word is just fcuk when they are having another look at a murder scene but I reckon that could happen.

Love that scene, have it as my bebo flash box

godtabh

tvnutz wrote:

Love that scene, have it as my bebo flash box

Its one of my favourite as well

Pigman II

CaptainNegative wrote:

Big Brother - apparently they don't even have scripts.

I agree. The contestants on BB are just average everyday people being themselves and the administration/presentation of the show isn't biased or engineered in any way whatsoever.

User45701

but it vcant be described as realastic, to me that means out of how many people there are in the world, how many get locked on a house with others on some reality TV show? not that many so its not realastic because that is the life if a VERY VERY VERY small minority of our population,

Im sticking with six degrees

Nick_oliveri

Trailer Park Boys? [propane propane]