So obviously The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, and Breaking Bad are out. What are the best TV dramas that aren’t (or weren’t) so grim and bloody?
Mad Men is the first that comes to mind, but I’ll give the matter some more thought later.
Some recent excellent non-violent dramas:
In Treatment
The US version is Gabriel Byrne as a psychologist talking to his patients during their sessions. Nothing violent happens, but it does get grim. The patients are in therapy for a reason, but those reasons are more likely to be familiar to an average person (marriage falling apart) than the situations in Breaking Bad (becoming a drug kingpin).
Mad Men
It’s not violent. It is grim.
Boston Legal is probably too much of a “dramedy” to count.
I can only speak for the UK version, but I don’t recall House of Cards as being particularly violent–a stray murder here or there, but generally F.U. did his dirty business in subtler ways.
L.A. Law was a pretty good show that ran for about 8 seasons or so. There are probably several law based dramas that we could all think of. * Matlock*, Perry Mason, etc., etc. were generally non-violent shows even if the defendants were sometimes charged with violent crimes.
E/R wasn’t a violent show generally speaking though it sometimes involved episodes dealing with the victims of violence. And as with lawyer shows, I bet we can come up with a lot of medical dramas including House MD, St. Elsewhere and Trapper John, MD.
There’s Northern Exposure but I don’t know if someone might want to call that a comedy. It seems like a drama to me even if it’s funny sometimes.
Why not The Wonder Years? Again, it had some comedy but it strikes me as a drama.
How about The Waltons?
L.A. Law was great, I loved that show.
St. Elsewhere was also a very good show,not sure if anyone remembers it.
Having given the matter more thought, I’ll nominate E.R., as long as we pretend it went off the airwhen Mark Green died.
I’ll also nominate Law & Order–the original. It started off excellent turned great during the McCoy years, and never descended to less than excellent. Someone may contest that it should count as violent, but it wasn’t really; shoot-outs and car chases were never more than incidental.
“Under One Roof”, the one with James Earl Jones as the grandfather. Deserved much better than just six episodes.
Just thought of another: I’ll Fly Away, a period piece from the early 90s about the civil rights movement. Made me love Sam Waterston. And also, now that I think on it, the Sorkin years of The West Wing.
Hill Street Blues. Not as violent as you’d think for a cop show.
And no one has mentioned West Wing?
Danger: UXB, while it was set during WWII, was remarkably nonviolent and butt-clenchingly intense at the same time. Since their task was defusing aerial bombs, when one detonated it was usually off-camera and there was no gore left behind; the two guys I remember being killed by smaller explosions (antipersonnel mine, butterfly bomb) died in a very understated manner.
I really like Foyle’s War too, and Midsomer Murders.
I can’t believe i forgot to mention that. I loved The West Wing.
House was also one of my favorites. God I do love Hugh Laurie.
:: coughs ::
it all depends on what is non-violent, grim and bloody.
Hill Street Blues is an example of you know something violent, grim and bloody might happen but it wasn’t on screen.
Some would consider Perry Mason (1957 to May 1966) a good drama often with something violent, grim and bloody preceding.
Twin Peaks had something violent, grim and bloody happen preceding.
Due South was another show that (in the first season, at least) was pretty intense with a minimum of run-of-the-mill cop violence.
Homicide: Life on the Street had very little violence in it, despite its subject. Most of the time, the police were dealing with the aftermath of violence. There were a couple of times during the run when guns were fired, but that was unusual (and it always had long-term repercussions).
There’s also the more recent Pushing Daisies, which is the opposite of grim and violent.
I have a hard time calling that one a drama. Similarly with the more or less same-pedigreed and uniformly entertaining Dead like Me and Wonderfalls. All three charming and worth watching ( excluding the IMHO dreadful DLM post-series movie ), but all three are dark comedy fantasy series, not dramas per se.
Quantum Leap was violent only occasionally.
I adored Orange is the New Black, and it wasn’t very violent. There was one scene, but by that standard a lot of these shows don’t count. It hasn’t been around long enough to position it as one of the greatest dramas ever, but if you’re looking for something good to watch I’d definitely try it.
Law and Order SVU
Rescue Me