The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time

TarfHead · 12-01-2010 10:32AM #1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jan/12/guardian-50-television-dramas

Basq · 12-01-2010 10:36AM

8 of the top 10 television dramas of all time are British? Utter b*llocks! to be honest!

Fairly ridiculous listing IMO..

Mr E · 12-01-2010 10:45AM

basquille wrote: »

Utter b*llocks! to be honest!

Let it all out, basquille. There, there.

Eh, yeah... crap list. Being a British newspaper, they had to pander to their audience I suppose.

Sopranos :rolleyes: ... Its good, but #1?

Basq · 12-01-2010 10:49AM

Mr E wrote: »

Let it all out, basquille. There, there.

800 years.. and all that!

The Sopranos was absolutely superb, but don't think it's deserving of the top spot.

rjb80 · 12-01-2010 10:51AM

Terrible list, and did I miss something? Buffy in the top 30 dramas of all time? Does this mean I'm gonna have to borrow all the boxsets from my gf and watch them over the weekend?

Mr. E, what would you put ahead of The Sopranos? Just cos its the obvious choice doesn't mean its the wrong choice.

Mossy Monk · 12-01-2010 10:55AM

Coronation Street finishes ahead of 24, The Shield, Band of Brothers and Oz? The Wire at number 14?

LOL is all I say to this list.

Riskymove · 12-01-2010 10:56AM

they were also british TV critics so obvioulsy watch a lot of British TV

to be fair I dont see too many turkeys

"Our friends in the North" was a great series, wouldnt be No. 3 for me but great all the same

Riskymove · 12-01-2010 10:59AM

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Coronation Street finishes ahead of 24, The Shield, Band of Brothers and Oz? The Wire at number 14?

LOL is all I say to this list.

in fairness the list is diverse, Corrie and The Wire cant really be compared against eachother

as I say i think its inevitable it would be biased, I;m sure Irish TV Critics would have some Irish shows

rovert · 12-01-2010 11:04AM

Trolling list, disregard

AnonoBoy · 12-01-2010 11:05AM

The Singing Detective is better than The Wire?

Okaaayyyy.... I have to go now, Guardian Critics, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.

alastair · 12-01-2010 11:11AM

If 'Our Friends...' is justified (and tbh, I think it is) then the Italian 'The Best of Youth' should be in there too (Heimat too now that I think of it).

No 'Edge of Darkness' either? It doesn't stand the test of time, but nor does 'This Life'.

The Sparrow · 12-01-2010 11:29AM

Ridiculous enough list all right. How does the L Word make it anywhere near the list let alone 36th. Band of Brothers should be much higher though. How is Coronation St higher than Band of Brothers??

Glad to see House of Cards at 18. That was a great drama that is very under appreciated.

Footoo · 12-01-2010 11:35AM

rjb80 wrote: »

Terrible list, and did I miss something? Buffy in the top 30 dramas of all time? Does this mean I'm gonna have to borrow all the boxsets from my gf and watch them over the weekend?

Mr. E, what would you put ahead of The Sopranos? Just cos its the obvious choice doesn't mean its the wrong choice.

Surely the obvious (and correct) choice would have been The Wire.

AnonoBoy · 12-01-2010 11:38AM

I've watched some Buffy.

It's a program about a teenage girl who kills vampires and whatnot. It's not high art, it's not great drama. I still don't quite understand grown men who watch it.

To have it in a serious list of the greatest TV dramas all time is ridiculous.

Basq · 12-01-2010 11:46AM

To be fair.. you've "watched some Buffy".

They've had some absolutely magnificent dark and dramatic episodes in there - "The Body" to name just one.

It is a drama.. it's written with comedic flair and plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour but it's a drama all the same.

The Sparrow · 12-01-2010 11:49AM

Footoo wrote: »

Surely the obvious (and correct) choice would have been The Wire.

The only saving grace of this list imho is that Wire is not first or even in the top ten. So many people blindly pronounce it as the best thing since sliced bread and it just isn't.

At least The Guardian had the balls to say something different and move away from the crowd with some controversial choices.

Basq · 12-01-2010 11:53AM

The Sparrow wrote: »

The only saving grace of this list imho is that Wire is not first or even in the top ten. So many people blindly pronounce it as the best thing since sliced bread and it just isn't.

At least The Guardian had the balls to say something different and move away from the crowd with some controversial choices.

Mr E · 12-01-2010 11:53AM

rjb80 wrote: »

Mr. E, what would you put ahead of The Sopranos? Just cos its the obvious choice doesn't mean its the wrong choice.

I'm not going to comment on a show that I've only seen one series of (its on my to-watch list, honest!)

Where is Breaking Bad? Deadwood? Dexter? Life on Mars? Underbelly?

A top 50 list that has Eastenders, Coronation Street, Brookside and Grange Hill on it ahead of the ones I've listed is just .... wrong.

Sorry.

Basq · 12-01-2010 11:57AM

Mr E wrote: »

I'm not going to comment on a show that I've only seen one series of (its on my to-watch list, honest!)

Where is Breaking Bad? Deadwood? Dexter? Life on Mars? Underbelly?

A top 50 list that has Eastenders, Coronation Street, Brookside and Grange Hill on it ahead of the ones I've listed is just .... wrong.

Sorry.

Agree with Mr E.. there's far too many superb shows that didn't make the list ahead of some of the dregs of British TV. Might be putting in harshly.. but far too many soaps instead of good honest drama.

I'm honestly suprised Hollyoaks isn't in there..

Scorpion Sting · 12-01-2010 11:59AM

Stupid list.

Footoo · 12-01-2010 12:27PM

The Sparrow wrote: »

The only saving grace of this list imho is that Wire is not first or even in the top ten. So many people blindly pronounce it as the best thing since sliced bread and it just isn't.

At least The Guardian had the balls to say something different and move away from the crowd with some controversial choices.

Would this be The Guardian whose writers up to now, had almost unanimously proclaimed The Wire as the greatest TV show of all time and then gave it unprecedented coverage which led to them publishing a book about the show?

Them not putting it in the top3 or so is a direct attempt to be controversial and create traffic to their blogs imo.

Mossy Monk · 12-01-2010 12:35PM

A clever ruse from the Guardian. There is no way that list is serious.

Aidric · 12-01-2010 12:36PM

I have no objections to The Sopranos being number 1, I'd nominate the same myself. The rest of the list is all over the place and plain wrong in places. Good to see Mad Men scoring high.

The Sparrow · 12-01-2010 12:38PM

Footoo wrote: »

Would this be The Guardian whose writers up to now, had almost unanimously proclaimed The Wire as the greatest TV show of all time and then gave it unprecedented coverage which led to them publishing a book about the show?

Them not putting it in the top3 or so is a direct attempt to be controversial and create traffic to their blogs imo.

Probably spot on. But I still rejoice nonetheless and applaud The Guardian for finally finding some perspective about The Wire.

alastair · 12-01-2010 12:40PM

Footoo wrote: »

Would this be The Guardian whose writers up to now, had almost unanimously proclaimed The Wire as the greatest TV show of all time and then gave it unprecedented coverage which led to them publishing a book about the show?

Them not putting it in the top3 or so is a direct attempt to be controversial and create traffic to their blogs imo.

Richard Vine, TV editor of the Guide, still feels that The Wire was "richer". Mark Lawson thought The Sopranos "exceptionally well written" but considers both The Wire and The West Wing more radical and daring. Grace Dent however thought The Wire "a slog" in parts and said the acclaim had made it "socially *painful" for people to admit they weren't wild fans. "It's incomprehensible to lots of people."

Footoo · 12-01-2010 12:45PM

alastair wrote: »

Richard Vine, TV editor of the Guide, still feels that The Wire was "richer". Mark Lawson thought The Sopranos "exceptionally well written" but considers both The Wire and The West Wing more radical and daring. Grace Dent however thought The Wire "a slog" in parts and said the acclaim had made it "socially *painful" for people to admit they weren't wild fans. "It's incomprehensible to lots of people."

Doesn't Grace Dent predominantly write about soap operas and reality TV?

Her opinion is meaningless

Elmo · 12-01-2010 12:47PM

26. Coronation Street
38. Brookside
48. EastEnders
50. Grange Hill

No. :rolleyes:

Elmo · 12-01-2010 12:48PM

basquille wrote: »

Agree with Mr E.. there's far too many superb shows that didn't make the list ahead of some of the dregs of British TV. Might be putting in harshly.. but far too many soaps instead of good honest drama.

I'm honestly suprised Hollyoaks isn't in there..

There is even better British drama that didn't get in over those British soaps. Why not put down the Young and the Restless.

humanji · 12-01-2010 12:54PM

In fairness, it's not that bad a list. Everyone keeps complaining about all these lists that pop up because thier own opinions are different. Instead of complaining, think of the lists as 50 great dramas and check out the ones you haven't seen. There's some absolute gems on there from the BBC's back catelogue, like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and House of Cards that most people won't of heard of, let alone seen. Makes me want to pick them up, actually.

ixoy · 12-01-2010 01:02PM

The Sparrow wrote: »

The only saving grace of this list imho is that Wire is not first or even in the top ten. So many people blindly pronounce it as the best thing since sliced bread and it just isn't.

'The Guardian' were the biggest champions of 'The Wire' in the British press for ages so I'm surprised it didn't feature higher. I think it'd deserve the #1 spot as well and I'm not blinding saying that - I was watching since the first airing of the first episode here and built up my own opinion rather than be told it was good.

The exact same argument could also of course be made for 'The Sopranos' always ranking so high. I think it's over rated - it's good, but there's many shows I've liked more.

Stupid list anyway.

Elmo · 12-01-2010 01:03PM

humanji wrote: »

In fairness, it's not that bad a list. Everyone keeps complaining about all these lists that pop up because thier own opinions are different. Instead of complaining, think of the lists as 50 great dramas and check out the ones you haven't seen. There's some absolute gems on there from the BBC's back catelogue, like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and House of Cards that most people won't of heard of, let alone seen. Makes me want to pick them up, actually.

Yeah but to ad the soaps is a bit ridiculous. When those space could have been filled with other DRAMAS that people haven't heard of.

The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time

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