Most consistently good tv series

Frank Black

Given that we’ve had two threads on the “most dramatic drop in quality of a tv series” and “standout seasons of tv series” I’m wondering what people would consider to be the tv series that have avoided any major drops in quality over their entirety.
I’d have to go for the Wire – although Season 5 with the whole McNulty/serial killer story arc was a (slight) let down and possibly The Sopranos.

Richard Dower

Nikita!!!....consistenly cracking from episode to episode!!
By far the best new network show of the 2010-11 season!

Plentyofice

Sopranos- every series, every episode was deadly to watch...

The shield and grey's anatomy both started great then levelled off

Killinascully :D:D:D:p

evil_seed

Breaking Bad
/thread

Frank Black

Honorable mentions for BSG up until the last episode.
This Life – only lasted 2 seasons but still.

xalot

I'd say Mad Men, Sopranos (with the exception of the season where tony was in the coma - a bit too surreal for my taste), Breaking Bad and The Wire.

JBnaglfar

Have to agree with most of the choices here, particularly The Wire, The Sopranos, and Breaking Bad.

The West Wing was an amazingly well written show. Although it dipped a little bit after a while, it was not a major drop in quality imo.

aliocroc

evil_seed wrote: »

Breaking Bad
/thread

Defo the best! Cant wait for the new season!!!

Mindkiller

xalot wrote: »

I'd say Mad Men, Sopranos (with the exception of the season where tony was in the coma - a bit too surreal for my taste), Breaking Bad and The Wire.

I thought that was a superb episode. Interpretation of dreams and Freudian analysis of the subconsicous has always been a major theme with Sopranos.

pickarooney

I'm ignoring series which are still running.

The Shield was probably the most consistently good series I've watched. Six Feet Under and Lost were very close to being consistently great but there were a couple of sub-par episodes in the third season of SFU and the final season of Lost just did not live up to expectation at all. The Sopranos likewise had a couple of dodgy moments in the third and fourth season but was overall of a very high quality.

I can't think of any more off hand but there are bound to be a lot more from a few years back I've overlooked.

The King of Moo

I'm going for BSG as well (and I even liked the last episode!). I understand why many didn't like seasons 3 and 4, but I felt that they were just as good as the first two and the changes in them were organic developments of the story.

Brussels Sprout

Mad Men-Just gets better and better

South Park-Some of the episodes are duds but judged on a series by series basis I think it's been amazingly consistent for such a simple format

The Wire-I think the fact that each series was themed enabled them to use the same basic formula within each series whilst also building on the themes from the previous series

Father Ted-Only 3 Series but no loss in quality over them

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

deadwood

while it was cancelled after 3 seasons, there wasn't a bad episode or moment.

malcolm in the middle stayed consistently hilarious throughout its run.

D'Agger

For me The Wire & Californication have been consistently brilliant from start to finish/present...Californication has never waned in it's ability to provide hilarious storylines with a main underlying one being pulled out over the course of the season - and the use of the English language in the way it's written is just brilliant.

Breaking Bad is fantastic too must be said.

May get slated for this but South Park deserves a mention for being consistently funny for 15 seasons - the Simpsons has dropped way off and Family guy dropped after season 3 before picking it back up again with the latest season.

It takes the píss out of everything and I love it for that!

hidinginthebush

Breaking Bad has been phenomenal since the beginning, I cannot wait for the new series! I think the Wire and Sopranos were also incredible (Eventhough I did have to watch the Wire twice to see what all the fuss was about :eek:). You can't forget Band of Brothers either (though I'd class it as more of a big film than a series... whatever it is, it's the best thing I've ever seen on telly). The IT Crowd has also been consistently excellent during it's existence, so was the UK Office and Extras now that I think of it. The US Office has sort of lost the run of itself in the current season.

Family Guy has really gone downhill for me, shame really as it used to be excellent. Same goes for South Park.

I'm going to give Deadwood and The Shield a go based on what I've seen here.

Daith

Fawlty Towers: Not a bad episode.

The Wire: I'm still unsure about the last season though but still pretty good.

petes

The Wire, BSG and The Shield.

I was completley gripped all the way through The Shield. Cracking show.

smuckers

Have to disagree about Mad Men think it may have reached its peak, S1 and 2were fantastic, 3 was ok, but 4 was very lagged, found it very boring.

Shows which are still on I'm going to go for:

Curb Your Enthusiasm, maybe S4 was a bit hit and miss but bar that season, its been wonderful, and David keeps on coming up with the goods.
Entourage was very good for the first 5 seasons but there be been a massive decline.

Have to agree about Family G, not finding S10 as funny.

bogmanfan

Seinfeld

smuckers

Of course Bogman didn't put in there as I was only choosing present tv shows.

liah

Trailer Park Boys. Genius and stayed consistent the whole way through.

petes

liah wrote: »

Trailer Park Boys. Genius and stayed consistent the whole way through.

Oh and Trailer Park Boys..almost forgot about that.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

trailer park boys was definitely consistent.

stonybroke

Entourage

D'Agger

stonybroke wrote: »

Entourage

Love Entourage but it's gone down since season 5 - The last season was absolutely useless imo

The Wire is the obvious example. I think season 5 does get somewhat farcical but that was the point of it.

Babylon 5 is another which for 4 seasons was the best thing on TV. Every episode played into the overall story and small lines of dialgue from season 1 could have serious implications later on. While season 5 did take a dip in quality it was never less than entertaining and intelligent sci fi.

ReacherCreature

hidinginthebush wrote: »

You can't forget Band of Brothers either (though I'd class it as more of a big film than a series... whatever it is, it's the best thing I've ever seen on telly).


I'm going to give Deadwood and The Shield a go based on what I've seen here.

Although Band of Brothers is spectacularly good, it's not really a consistently good series as there was only one. Other shows mentioned, The Wire, Breaking Bad had multiple series.

Go for The Shield. It's excellent entertainment and highly recommended. I've finished the first two and moving on to The Shield as soon as I get through The Wire!

mike65

Hill Street Blues
Cheers

pablomakaveli

The Wire was consistently strong every season. Never really dipped in quality.

The Shield was another very consistent show. It felt like a rollercoaster with an excellent ending.

I'm glad to see people saying Breaking Bad has been consistent. I watched the first series and loved it and im about to get stuck into the second.

KeanSeenan

Arrested Development.
Always Sunny in Philly wasn't consistent, after the first or second season it got brilliant though and the quality hasn't dropped since.

Teyla Emmagan

I'm going with Mad Men. It's changed alright over the series, but it's still consistently good.

Californication has become very tedious IMO.

Shane10

Curb Your Enthusiam
every episode is genius...(suicide email, suicide blackberry...classic)!:D

don ramo

Lost, i thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finnish, loving every thing the island threw at me, and i thought the finale was brilliant, its was a story that could have been told over two decades, but all the little hints in the finale gave us the chance to fill in a few blanks, all the island wanted was to give people a chnace to live there lives in peace, unfourtunatley eden had to been torn apart before you could have peace there

The West Wing, even when it was bad it was miles ahead of everything else, right from the very start we stared to get to know the caracters, sam just after sleeping with cuddy, and the president falling off his bike, they were already few months into there first term so we had to catch up quick, 6 great season of bartlett and one great season of santos and vinick battleing for bartletts chair,

Star Trek Deep Space Nine, my favourite of the franchise, i loved it from the start with sisko being at wolf, and having to report to picard before taking command of the station, even with its slow start it was engaging, and very original for TV (and my young mind), the quiality jumped from one season to the next, when worf transferred to the station things really started to heat up, with the kingons and cardasians fightin and eventually before we knew it we had a full blown was with the dominion,

Stargate SG-1, the O'Neilll years:D, with this and DS9 airing simulataniously for 2 or 3 years i now feel sorry i couldnt have enjoyed the expieriance as much as i would have as an adult, seasons 1-8 of SG-1 were great, it was consistently good, it was an episodic series so it was expected to have the ocasional bad episode and on original viewing they were few and far between, and even now when i rewatch i find i skip very few episodes,

Friends, honestly i can watch it anytime anywhere, and still laugh at it, for me personally it was consistantly funny for 10 seasons,

i would also add, breaking bad and californiaction, though there still airing the are consistantly excellent shows,

busyliving

Only one person said Seinfeld...Seriously, one of the funniest shows ever to be shown on TV and I know there may have been 2 poor episodes out of like 180

And Frasier, an absolute classic with one of the most emotional endings, when his reading that Tennyson poem gets me every time

Cyndaquil

busyliving wrote: »

And Frasier, an absolute classic with one of the most emotional endings, when his reading that Tennyson poem gets me every time

+1.

Other contenders:

Father Ted

Fawlty Towers (well we don't have much to measure it by)

How I Met Your Mother

Flashfoward - just kidding


Despite being a big Lost fan it's hard for me to justify me saying it was consistingly good when I think of season 3, or 5 for that matter.

aidan_walsh

Agree with a lot of the choices in the thread so far.

Been spending the day watching the first two seasons of The Venture Brothers, and every minute of it has been fantastic.

smuckers

busyliving wrote: »

Only one person said Seinfeld...Seriously, one of the funniest shows ever to be shown on TV and I know there may have been 2 poor episodes out of like 180

And Frasier, an absolute classic with one of the most emotional endings, when his reading that Tennyson poem gets me every time

100% spot on could watch Sein over and over, and the cast loved every minute of it.
There was a dip in form in Frasier when N and D got together but still was better than most things on TV at the time.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i dunno if frasier could be considered consistently good, the last 2 seasons in particular were pretty bad. It lost alot of the genius after daphne and niles got together.

Pauleta

I still havnt seen the last series but 24 was great all throughout.

eh i dunno

24
Father Ted
Friends
Game On

As a big fan of 24 and Prison Break can anyone recommend a new show for me to start buying box sets of. Not Soprano's as i tried and failed to get into it

D'Agger

Pauleta wrote: »

I still havnt seen the last series but 24 was great all throughout.

Thought the 2nd last series was god awful myself!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I'm also ignoring shows that are still on the go, as they could still go sour...

The Wire
The Sopranos
Oz
Freaks and Geeks (short lived, but every episode was excellent)
Father Ted
Black Books
Firefly (also short lived, but a cracking tv show all the same)
Arrested Development
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Angel
Dark Angel
24
Stargate SG1
Friends
Seinfeld

evil_seed

Forgot about Deadwood. And also Studio 54. I didn't mention the wire or sopranos earlier cos I figured there was no point as plenty others would

tommmy

The O.C.
Lost
Entourage
Gavin & Stacey
Scrubs
Extras
Only fools and Horses
The OFFICE

OpenYourEyes

Firefly
Black Books
The IT Crowd
Father Ted
Modern Family
Party Down

busyliving

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

i dunno if frasier could be considered consistently good, the last 2 seasons in particular were pretty bad. It lost alot of the genius after daphne and niles got together.

I thought the last 2 season's were great mate

DoBhrionn

I'm going with BSG, loved every episode.
Another series would be Bones, just simply amazing with the quality of the props (decaying corpses)

gazzer

For shows that are no longer running I would have to say

Lost
Alias
Buffy
Angel
BSG
Arrested Development (genius show)
Seinfeld
The IT Crowd
Father Ted
Pulling
24

decskelligs

ENTOURAGE

omahaid

Life on Mars, love every episode, great ending

with Sam jumping off the building and choosing to return to the 70s

Morgans

busyliving wrote: »

Only one person said Seinfeld...Seriously, one of the funniest shows ever to be shown on TV and I know there may have been 2 poor episodes out of like 180

Dont know many bigger Seinfeld fans than me. Love em, but the first two series arent nearly as good as when they hit their stride. Even the team who made the program said that. I dont mind the later Larry-less episodes but some do think the fall off. It was consistently brilliant for 5-6 series, arguably more but not throughout.

The Wire is the only TV show that I've watched where Im convinced Bubbs etc are still walking the streets of Baltimore now, just that they arent being televised. There is a slight dip in the 5th series (wasnt it shorter also) but rightly, or wrongly, I assume those who dont mention it somewhere in their posts havent seen it yet.