# Best TV series for someone who loved The Wire, Treme, Mad Men and the Sopranos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 20, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359 "2010-09-20T02:21:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/21 "2010-09-21T18:02:57Z")
On Netflix streaming, check out \*\*“Intelligence.” \*\*it’s a Canadian series somewhat like “The Wire” but more serious in tone and a little less fun. but still very well done and engrossing ---
**Author:** ![czarcaztic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@czarcaztic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/czarcaztic)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/22 "2010-09-21T19:01:39Z")
> [@Queen\_Bruin](#): > > Deadwood. FTW!! ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2010, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/23 "2010-09-21T19:04:54Z")
Damages Rome Breaking Bad Sons of Anarchy Deadwood ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/24 "2010-09-23T16:37:33Z")
In order: The Shield Deadwood Damages After this, Dexter is fun, but I’d put it in with stuff for someone who liked Dead Like Me (series, NOT the movie). ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2010, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/25 "2010-09-23T17:16:36Z")
To add to the echo chamber: The Shield Breaking Bad Deadwood I thought _Justified_ was hugely disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/26 "2010-09-25T12:21:40Z")
Justified is as good as a weekly crime procedural is going to get, which is nowhere near good enough to compete with the list from the OP, IMO. My recommendations are unoriginal: Deadwood Breaking Bad Rome Dexter Spartacus Damages The spaces are to denote a drop in quality from one group to the next. Rome and Dexter are two of my favorite shows of all time, so I think I tend to artificially elevate their quality in my mind. Spartacus starts off very weak, bordering on downright terrible. By the end of the first season, though, it has crossed over into real quality, bordering on great. Damages is very good but a bit frenetic. The first season was the best. My original contribution to the thread is to tally up all the responses so far. I tallied votes against as -1, (eg: Deadwood was overblown,) and lukewarm votes as a half a vote, (eg: Dexter is good if you don’t take it seriously.) 9 Breaking Bad 9 Deadwood 4 Rome 4 The Shield 3 Dexter 3 Damages 2 Six Feet Under 2 Spartacus: Blood and Sand 2 Rescue Me 2 Sons of Anarchy 1 Nip/Tuck 1 Intelligence 1 The Corner 0 Justified (Justfied got 2 for and 2 against.) ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/27 "2010-09-25T14:34:09Z")
I loved **Breaking Bad** , **Sons Of Anarchy** , **Rome** and to a lesser degree, **Dexter**. I did not care for **Deadwood**. The dialog wore me out. I watched season 1&2, did not like it enough to watch the last season. ---
**Author:** ![Juggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/juggler/32/3194_2.png) [@Juggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juggler)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/28 "2010-09-25T14:55:38Z")
How about Battlestar Galactica? Netflix will stream them. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/29 "2010-09-25T15:47:54Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Justified is as good as a weekly crime procedural is going to get, which is nowhere near good enough to compete with the list from the OP, IMO. I don’t think of _Justified_ as a crime procedural. In my mind, _CSI_ and _Law and Order_ are procedurals. There’s some crime in _Justified_ and the lead character is a cop, but the focus isn’t on solving crime so much as on the relationships. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/30 "2010-09-25T18:13:35Z")
It is most definitely a crime procedural, with a criminal-of-the-week “A” plot that gets solved/resolved every week. There was definitely a season-long arc, but not much more than there is on, say, Bones. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/31 "2010-09-25T20:49:05Z")
**Ellis Dee** , I disagree, but only sorta. With shows like _CSI_ and _Law and Order_, you can watch individual episodes without feeling like you’ve missed anything. Shows like **Justified** focus just as much (or more) on back stories and relationships. There can be episodes with no crime to solve and they’re still interesting. On the other hand, it could just be the gritty, non-glossy look that makes those shows seem so different. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/32 "2010-09-26T01:59:44Z")
A repeat of Friday’s first episode of [Blue Bloods](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1595859/combined) is almost over and it looks promising. The day-to-day lives of a five-generation family of NYC cops wrapped around a police procedural and a Serpico-style story. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2010, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/33 "2010-09-26T02:40:46Z")
Make that a four-generation family. Sometimes I can’t count. ---
**Author:** ![Dorothea\_Book](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dorothea\_Book](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorothea_Book)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/34 "2010-09-27T00:19:05Z")
> [@Lethal\_Babydoll](#): > > On Netflix streaming, check out \*\*“Intelligence.” \*\*it’s a Canadian series somewhat like “The Wire” but more serious in tone and a little less fun. but still very well done and engrossing Intelligence is indeed wonderful (though I wouldn’t compare it to the Wire since the range of topics is much more limited). But it is well worth it. Brotherhood is also terrific. ---
**Author:** ![PetW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@PetW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PetW)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/35 "2010-09-27T08:38:21Z")
I watched the first season of **Breaking Bad** , and I really don’t get why there’s so much love for it. **The Shield** all the way. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/36 "2010-09-27T12:19:14Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > _Deadwood_ seems unnecessarily florid and overblown to me now, but that’s after watching _The Wire_ several times. We found that watching with closed-captioning turned on helped enormously, without any diminishing effects. It really is brilliant dialog and you don’t want to miss a word of it. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359/37 "2010-09-27T14:27:45Z")
Although it was canceled after two seasons, I thought **The Riches** was a high quality show worthy of this list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-tv-series-for-someone-who-loved-the-wire-treme-mad-men-and-the-sopranos/554359.md?page=1)