Do you agree that TV dramas are the best they have ever been today?

pqdvdplayer

No Television show prior to the 00's had the power to completely blow people away. We are now in an era where Tv shows have intricate storylines and each episode leaves people unable to wait for the next. A perfect example is Breaking Bad. We have never met such high standards in television with shows like breaking bad, dexter, the wire, game of thrones.

People always complain that Television is getting worse and worse, and I agree with this statement when it comes to traditional tv channels. But the idea that TV channels are the only way to measure standards is absurd, streaming is the future. Trust me, if you haven't watched Breaking Bad, watch it. You may think that "back in your day" there was actually decent stuff on tv but trust me on this... The best tv shows right now are better than anything we have ever witnessed in human history.

Frosty McSnowballs

Drugs are baaaad m'kay

Panthro

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

No Television show prior to the 00's had the power to completely blow people away.

Dallas.

dxhound2005

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

No Television show prior to the 00's had the power to completely blow people away. We are now in an era where Tv shows have intricate storylines and each episode leaves people unable to wait for the next. A perfect example is Breaking Bad. We have never met such high standards in television with shows like breaking bad, dexter, the wire, game of thrones.

People always complain that Television is getting worse and worse, and I agree with this statement when it comes to traditional tv channels. But the idea that TV channels are the only way to measure standards is absurd, streaming is the future. Trust me, if you haven't watched Breaking Bad, watch it. You may think that "back in your day" there was actually decent stuff on tv but trust me on this... The best tv shows right now are better than anything we have ever witnessed in human history.

I never watched any of those. But every highly praised programme from the past like Hill St Blues and now Downton Abbey eventually turns into a glorified soap opera.

Muise...

Twin Peaks

where I come from the birds sing a pretty song.

/thread

JustAddWater

Panthro wrote: »

Dallas.

I shot jr

irishfeen

We are in a golden age of television no doubt - The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad will forever be the benchmark for television series into the future.

pqdvdplayer

Panthro wrote: »

Dallas.

Cheesy as f**k compared to todays best . If you missed 10 episodes in a row of it you wouldnt be lost. Dallas is a soap opera

fergiesfolly

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

No Television show prior to the 00's had the power to completely blow people away. We are now in an era where Tv shows have intricate storylines and each episode leaves people unable to wait for the next. A perfect example is Breaking Bad. We have never met such high standards in television with shows like breaking bad, dexter, the wire, game of thrones.

People always complain that Television is getting worse and worse, and I agree with this statement when it comes to traditional tv channels. But the idea that TV channels are the only way to measure standards is absurd, streaming is the future. Trust me, if you haven't watched Breaking Bad, watch it. You may think that "back in your day" there was actually decent stuff on tv but trust me on this... The best tv shows right now are better than anything we have ever witnessed in human history.

All of Human History...You do know, TV's only being going, less than a century, right?
I mean technically correct and all, but Jesus, hold back the dramatics a bit

Fr_Dougal

Star Trek, Dallas, Twin peaks, V etc etc. Tastes have changed, but the impact that tv series like these had on society was just as big as tv series from the '00's.

The Backwards Man

I was going to write a lengthy articulate critique of your assertion, but instead I will just say this;


Balls.

King George VI

I know its not a drama and I was only 4 when it was on TV, Who Shot Mr. Burns blew me off my feet. Who the hell would have thought it was

the baby

:pac:

But yes OP I think they are better these days. Most television, minus reality television which wad always ****, has come a long way. Comedy TV has gotten worse though.

bur

irishfeen wrote: »

We are in a golden age of television no doubt - The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad will forever be the benchmark for television series into the future.

The Sopranos and the Wire started production over twelve years ago and ended quite a while ago by now too. I don't see many shows that are hitting that high ceiling at the moment tbh.

Lonesome Dove is still the finest four episodes of TV ever made.

Difference now is that these shows are worldwide events due to the internet, so they feel bigger than shows used to.

G_R

The golden age began with The West Wing

Westernyelp

Just finished House of cards (US) great show too

Mint Aero

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

The best tv shows right now are better than anything we have ever witnessed in human history.

I'd hardly call the past 50 to 60 years human history.

Adamantium

New series of Cosmos presented by Neil De Grasse Tyson coming 9th March on FOX, YEAH THAT FOX.

Writer of original Cosmos is involved and Carl Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan is producing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFF2ECZ8m1A

The Backwards Man

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

Cheesy as f**k compared to todays best . If you missed 10 episodes in a row of it you wouldnt be lost. Dallas is a soap opera

Without Dallas, Breaking Bad et al would never have been made.

Dramas in the 60s were live, try that nowadays for a laugh.

pqdvdplayer

bur wrote: »

The Sopranos and the Wire started production over twelve years ago and ended quite a while ago by now too. I don't see many shows that are hitting that high ceiling at the moment tbh.

Lonesome Dove is still the finest four episodes of TV ever made.

The single best season of TV was produced last year with Breaking Bad season 5. Therefore your statement is inaccurate. Also, check out True Detective which just began this year. I've a feeling that its gonna be a major show.

irishfeen

bur wrote: »

The Sopranos and the Wire started production over twelve years ago and ended quite a while ago by now too. I don't see many shows that are hitting that high ceiling at the moment tbh.

The Sopranos only ended in 2007 and the Wire in 2008 - hardly an age ago... two exceptional series in their own right. I think Breaking Bad has and Game of Thrones is on par with the quality of both though.

Donkey Oaty

For TV series, you are probably right. But there are very few good one-off dramas now, like Abigail's Party (1977) or Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected (1979-1988).

IvaBigWun

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I was going to write a lengthy articulate critique of your assertion, but instead I will just say this;


Balls.

A HBO drama about two tennis pros in 50s who are secretly CIA agents?


How did I miss this?

D1stant

Total BS

ygolometsipe

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

Cheesy as f**k compared to todays best . If you missed 10 episodes in a row of it you wouldnt be lost. Dallas is a soap opera

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCEjeTb1rrs

killing off a main character (Bobby) only for the ratings to dive and then.
oh! it was all just a dream Bobby's back funny stuff

IvaBigWun

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Dramas in the 80s were live, try that nowadays for a laugh.

No.

No they weren't.

irishfeen

bur wrote: »

Lonesome Dove is still the finest four episodes of TV ever made.

For me the 13 episodes of Season 5 in The Sopranos is television perfection.

bur

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

The single best season of TV was produced last year with Breaking Bad season 5. Therefore your statement is inaccurate. Also, check out True Detective which just began this year. I've a feeling that its gonna be a major show.

Season Five wasn't even the best season of Breaking Bad imo. And yes, True Detective is pretty good too, fairly overrated though.

ygolometsipe

I think TV is great these days compared to Cinema.

The vast majority of 00+ movies are sh1t compared to movies of the 80's and 90's.

e_e

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

The single best season of TV was produced last year with Breaking Bad season 5. Therefore your statement is inaccurate.

Pfft, I'll still take The Wire's worst seasons (2 and 5) over Breaking Bad's best seasons.

pqdvdplayer

ygolometsipe wrote: »

I think TV is great these days compared to Cinema.

The vast majority of 00+ movies are sh1t compared to movies of the 80's and 90's.

Yeah I agree its been blown up too much with all these sequels. A lot of promising actors used to begin with TV shows in the 80's and 90's then move up to Movies. Nowadays the best actors and producers tend to stick with TV Shows throughout their careers and we are left with nothing but sh1t in the cinemas.

e_e

ygolometsipe wrote: »

The vast majority of 00+ movies are sh1t compared to movies of the 80's and 90's.

What movies are you basing this on? I see at least 50 new films every year and I can say it's as good as it has ever been. You just need to know where to look, hell even in the multiplex right now there's some very good variety.

Whenever anyone complains of modern movies I get a whiff of "I haven't seen it, but......" which isn't a good start for making any sort of case for or against something.

pqdvdplayer

bur wrote: »

Season Five wasn't even the best season of Breaking Bad imo. And yes, True Detective is pretty good too, fairly overrated though.

It's only in its early days and it's already looking very promising. I don't think Tv series should be rated until they have finished completely. You wouldn't stop halfway through a movie and write a review, something great could happen after that which could change your view completely

pqdvdplayer

e_e wrote: »

What movies are you basing this on? I see at least 50 new films every year and I can say it's as good as it has ever been. You just need to know where to look, hell even in the multiplex right now there's some very good variety.

Whenever anyone complains of modern movies I get a whiff of "I haven't seen it, but......" which isn't a good start for making any sort of case for or against something.

I feel this way about some people talking about TV shows. People go on talking about how tv used to be better "back in the day", but all they watch it bloody RTE and SKY 1 etc etc. There's hardly anything noteworthy on traditional tv.

SEPT 23 1989

The Backwards Man

IvaBigWun wrote: »

No.

No they weren't.

Sixties I meant, sorry.

I was frothing at the mouth typing that, didn't realise my mistake.

Muahahaha

I think tv really upped its game in the early 2000's. It happened as Hollywood scripts and production values were brought to cable tv. Also it was the beginning of Hollywood actors and directors popping up on tv series, Donald Sutherland, Martin Sheen, etc later followed by Kevin Spacey. West Wing and Sopranoes were leading in that regard, the series Lost had Hollywood epic stamped all over it.

I think the early 2000s and the success of the above shows displayed to networks like HBO that producing high drama series with Hollywood writing and distributing it for sale to foreign markets could be a huge money spinner. The series Friends also blazed the way in that regard, I think it was sold to over 120 countries worldwide, earning the tv network the type of earnings that were previously only seen in Hollywood.

Muise...

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

I feel this way about some people talking about TV shows. People go on talking about how tv used to be better "back in the day", but all they watch it bloody RTE and SKY 1 etc etc. There's hardly anything noteworthy on traditional tv.

Maybe among this group are people who were alive and tv-literate "back in the day" and prefer to let the hype settle down before judging the quality of any tv drama?

In your OP your cut-off point is the 00s - is that because you only started watching then? The media in the late 90s were full of grand "best of the milennium" polls and oddly enough, all of the best stuff had happened in the previous decade.

The_Valeyard

Some programming quality in the past was very high quality, granted special effects were no where as good as today, but great for their time.

I agree shows like Breaking Bad, House of Cards, The Wire, BSG, etc are all amazing and give TV a much higher standard, there are equally, many, many other shows that really grabbed peoples attention or are still worth watching (ER, Law & Order, Star Trek, Quantum Leap,

Sure im now half way through season 2 of Columbo! Just love that show.

Other notable classics: X-Files, West Wing, Firefly, Life on Mars, Band of Brothers, Fraiser, Blackadder, Doctor Who

e_e

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

I feel this way about some people talking about TV shows. People go on talking about how tv used to be better "back in the day", but all they watch it bloody RTE and SKY 1 etc etc. There's hardly anything noteworthy on traditional tv.

I am curious about what's out there. At any given time it just seems as if there's only a handful of shows of note whereas if I'm planning on what movies to see I'll have so much interesting looking stuff to pick from (from before the 00s and all around the world too). There's so much more variety in film and there's a "made by committee" feel to too much television to me. I kinda think that the great shows are only occasional exceptions to the rule.

Mardy Bum

Twin Peaks, Oz, Deadwood, The Sopranos, The West Wing, The Wire and True Detective are the stand outs. Each have brought something new to television.
The most revolutionary of all got cancelled this year; Treme.

EoghanIRL

Breaking bad .

Duggy747

True Detective is an excellent show, just great TV with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConnaughy 2.0 in top form.

R P McMurphy

Starsky and Hutch was the golden age. Everything else has basically been a remake

Muise...

R P McMurphy wrote: »

Starsky and Hutch was the golden age. Everything else has basically been a remake

True for you. Even Sarah Lund's geansaí in The Killing couldn't top those cardigans.

thegreatgonzo

pqdvdplayer wrote: »

No Television show prior to the 00's had the power to completely blow people away..

You are probably right but I don't really want to be blown away by TV. I like my TV to be more soporific, I'm a bad sleeper. It's costume dramas or historical biopics all the way for me.
I do however really like The Sopranos but some scenes are a bit much for me. I wasn't always so sensitive to violence on TV but over the last few years I've started finding it more upsetting.

ygolometsipe

e_e wrote: »

What movies are you basing this on...

The 80's

Back to the future
Indiana Jones
Ghostbusters
Gremlins
The Empire Strikes Back
The Goonies
Blade Runner
The Terminator
Full Metal Jacket
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Aliens

The 90's
Forest Gump
Schindlers List
The Truman Show
Pulp Fiction
The Lion King
Terminator 2
The Silence of the Lambs
Goodfellas
Jurassic Park
Home Alone
The Shawshank Redemption
Saving Private Ryan
Seven

The 00
Pirates of the Caribbean ( did not like)
The Lord of the rings (which I really don't like)
The Lord of the rings - the other one
The Lord of the rings - and one more
Harry Potter - there's a couple of these ( seems very similar to LOTR, again did not like )
Batman - The Dark Night ( remake but it was ok I suppose)
No Country for old men ( was very boring)
The Departed (excellent movie but the original ->Infernal Affairs<- is better)
Avatar ( was very good in CGI terms but the story is average)
Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind ( was boring)
Gladiator ( was the best movie of the 00's)
There will be blood (it was a good movie)


The overall theme for me is that the 80 and 90 were mostly original
new movies with very little churned out sequels.
They explored cool si-fi ideas like Blade Runner and Jurassic Park with spooky ones like Alien.
It was repeated again in the 90 with Forest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas
The Shawshank redemption, so much original variety. It was great.

This is only my opinion, I can completely agree that all of this is subjective at best.
Still tho, its my opinion that the 80+90 was a better time for movies.

Setun

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Twin Peaks, Oz, Deadwood, The Sopranos, The West Wing, The Wire and True Detective are the stand outs. Each have brought something new to television.
The most revolutionary of all got cancelled this year; Treme.

True Detective is incredible - I'm on the second last episode and I'm wondering how they're going to wrap it all up though in the finale. Up until this point it's been very hard to fault.

I was following Treme too over the last few years, a show that went beyond entertainment and had a serious message about american folk culture, politics and corruption. It really gave plenty of space for the characters to develop and mature, and also was unprecedented in the respect it gave to the musical legends of Louisiana - the all-star jam sessions that cropped up were always a joy.

fatherted1969

Hill Street Blues was a great programme, bite your tongue

mark_jmc

The west wing...... makes me want to have amnesia just so I could watch it all over again for the first time 😊

irishfeen

mark_jmc wrote: »

The west wing...... makes me want to have amnesia just so I could watch it all over again for the first time 😊

Worth a watch so?? Its one thing I am meaning to watch.

e_e

ygolometsipe wrote: »

The overall theme for me is that the 80 and 90 were mostly original
new movies with very little churned out sequels.
They explored cool si-fi ideas like Blade Runner and Jurassic Park with spooky ones like Alien.
It was repeated again in the 90 with Forest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas
The Shawshank redemption, so much original variety. It was great.

This is only my opinion, I can completely agree that all of this is subjective at best.
Still tho, its my opinion that the 80+90 was a better time for movies.

You're basing it on Hollywood alone though, so there's your problem. It's bound to go through up and down stages and there's so much more to cinema than it in the first place. I'd argue too that Hollywood in the early 2000s was at a downpoint but it's completely on the up now. So much more great films on offer now than 10 years ago. We're barely into March and I've already seen upwards of 20-30 new movies that I really liked.

Also I do think you're looking back with rose-tinted glasses. Plenty of rubbish sequels back then (Jaws The Revenge and Batman & Robin anyone?) and so much of the crap has been forgotten about. I do think in 20 years time we'll all be looking back on the early 2010s as fantastic years for film.