I’ll second that, with the caveat that about a half dozen of my friends gave up on it by episode 3, saying that the story dragged and they didn’t care about the characters. Three of us who stuck with it found it got a lot more interesting starting with episode 4. Perhaps not coincidentally, the IMDB says that the first three episodes were scripted by the show’s creator Graeme Manson, and other writers scripted the episodes that followed.
Based on early returns, here’s my take-aways. (I’m going to be travelling for work alone all next week, so I’ll probably start Sunday)
Next up: House of Cards
I’m liking that it’s relatively current and on-going. Feels like a spiritual successor to The Wire season 4/5.
Other contenders: Six Feet Under, Battlestar Galactica
As mentioned above, I watched and loved: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, True Detective, The League
I’ve watched early episodes of these shows, but they didn’t grab me at the time: Sons of Anarchy, The Shield, Person of Interest, Oz, Walking Dead.
I may go back and give them another try, binge watch style, but new stuff probably gets first preference unless you convince me that I owe it to myself to try again.
I probably won’t watch a show that was prematurely canceled, again unless it’s truly must-see. Firefly was totally worth the trip, thus far Deadwood hasn’t earned that perception yet.
Saving Grace
Flash Forward
New Amsterdam
Journeyman
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (stop after season 3)
Dollhouse
Prime Suspect
Haven’t seen Breaking Bad. Is it any good?
Things to add to your new list:
Another vote for - Orange is the new black - first season was very good, second season starting soon.
A new one for the list - Lost Girl- Canadian series, 4 seasons have aired, season 5 up this fall.
I’ll add a third vote - Life
Person of Interest got much better as it progressed. It’s moved from meh to must watch for us.
Six Feet Under was also very good and gritty.
I’d recommend The Shield, especially since you liked Breaking Bad. Very similar arc, though even more intense than BB, IMO.
Also second Orphan Black and Veronica Mars. And definitely Deadwood (not sure from your OP why you decided to exclude that one).
I came late to The Good Wife, and I think I still haven’t seen the earliest episodes. But it’s great. I was put off by the idea that it was a domestic drama about a cheated-upon politician’s wife, but it’s so much more than that. And it has a great cast. It’s mostly episodic, but there are some storylines that take a season or two to play out.
Starting with the final episode of season 1, and especially in the current season 3, the show has been getting deeper into science fiction territory, as the Machine becomes more self-aware–and self-motivated.
Then I’d suggest crossing off–
–and possibly–
–although Joss Whedon did a marvelous job of bringing everything to a conclusion rather than leaving us hanging.
And the Showtime version of Shameless is good, but I absolutely loved the original UK program. Oddly for a UK program, it was long-lived, with eleven seasons/series of 7-22 episodes each. There were a lot of cast changes, though, over that time.
Someone else recommended the UK original program Being Human, which was great. (Tag line (paraphrased): A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost share a house and try to live like normal people.) There is a US version, which is currently airing.
Another UK program I liked was Skins, which was about teenagers at a sixth-form college (think high school, more or less). There were seven series/seasons; the first two focused on one group of kids, and then the cast changed entirely for the next two and the two after that. I think the seventh series/season features one or two kids from each of the generations.
Beware that Flash Forward ends after a single season and nothing is resolved, very disapointing because it was promising. It’s based on a novel with the same name, but the plot is very different.
Unless the show is just not your thing, I think the problem you are having and are going to have is high expectations. No show could possibly live up to how people talk about Breaking Bad. I also loved it. But then again, I started watching it without any expectations. Try to adjust and watch it with that in mind. If that is possible. Expectations is key. Yes, it’s a great show. But because it’s so loved and so hyped, it may be hard for it to live up to that.
Justified
This is up there with Jackie Brown as the best on screen depiction of Elmore Leonard. His expertise at creating memorable characters with interesting dialog is not lessened by the change in formats. Really fun show with fantastic acting, both the main cast and some guest stars.
Plus, it’s current. It’s last season will be next year.
Arrow
You might laugh and say you’re not a teenage girl. But, it’s a well done comic book TV show. They took a comic book character that I didn’t care that much about it and made a show that I really enjoyed watching. Unfortunately, I watched the first season on Netflix recently, so I can’t say if the quality has remained so high for the second season.
I’d advise against Scandal. I don’t think it is bad, but it’s not especially meaty. Perhaps it changes after the first season, but it seemed like a procedural with lawyers instead of cops to me.
I second these:
Veronica Mars
House of Cards
Orange is the New Black
The Good Wife
I recently finished Six Feet Under and would put it in my personal top tier, though the recommendation would have these caveats:
- It’s basically a well executed soap opera sprinkled with philosophy.
- What little humor exists is gallows or absurdist.
- Takes place in a mortuary, some people are grossed out by the embalming and restoration scenes. I didn’t think this was too bad overall, but there are a couple stomach churning ones.
- There’s a lot of intimacy between gay men and old people.
I excluded Deadwood primarily because I watched the first few episodes back in the day and wasn’t particularly engrossed by it. It fits the mold of what I should like, basically any HBO drama, but the frustration people have over it’s early ending is pretty discouraging for a newb. That said, I didn’t regret Firefly so we’ll see.
I go back and forth on The Shield. People love it and it’s basically The Wire crossed with Breaking Bad, so yay, but after watching the first couple episodes I found that the main actor kind of annoyed me. 5’4" “tough guys” are tough for me to swallow. I’ll probably give it another chance at some point.
Watched it in the post-Lost whirlwind. Started really strong and tailed off towards the end, found that I wasn’t very disappointed with it was canceled.
Come on! Clearly, Michael Chiklis proved his tough guy chops after the many episodes of cracking skulls as The Commish.
I’m sure the answer to this is a no-brainer, but have you ever seen Weeds?
Did anyone say Damages yet? I liked it at first, but I get annoyed by people being evil backstabbers all the time, so it got old for me. For people who can handle that, I think it’s well-done, if extremely unrealistic.
Another vote for Breaking Bad. It really does deserve the accolades.
I would also throw another vote in for Orphan Black. It’s not perfect, but it’s quite engaging. Just know that it gets weirder than you might expect from the first couple episodes.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a classic, but if it’s not your cup of tea no worries. If you’re willing to consider it, I would suggesting finding and watching the fourth season episode “Hush”. If you don’t enjoy that episode the series isn’t for you.
Battlestar Galactica is a tricky one. There is some really, really fantastic TV in there. BUT, I am of the ending is truly, truly awful camp. It’s clear Ron Moore did not plan out nearly as much of the series as he claimed, and the answers to the mysteries are not satisfying at all. If you can put that aside, though, a lot of the character work is really fantastic and enthralling.
**Sherlock **is a no brainer. It’s not perfect, I think there are frustratingly many plot holes, but the two leads are great and it has a flashy and imaginative style. The middle episodes of the first two seasons are weak, but the show is just consistently entertaining even when making mistakes.
To throw something else out there, I just binged watched and caught up on Arrow, which despite being full of CW style melodrama and groan inducingly bad TV science I found better than it has any right to be.
Another option might be Fringe. I seem to recall it was pretty popular on this board, sort of an X-Files successor.
Orange is the New Black is another recent good one.
When choosing a new TV show to watch, I like to go to the Onion AVClub and check the episode reviews. I don’t put a lot of stock in exactly what grade each episode gets, but I find it helps a lot to compare the grades of the first few episodes to the rest, so I have an idea of how long the show takes to reach its potential. Seeing that for example episodes 6 & 7 represent the show at it’s best gives me a lot more incentive to watch up to that point than vague assertions that it “starts slow, but give it time.”
I felt the same way at first, but from season 3 on I was hooked anyway.
Another vote for Orphan Black. It starts slow but becomes more interesting.
I also like Luther from BBC. In fact, John Luther and his psycho girlfriend would be just the people to investigate the “orphans”.
I’m watching Boardwalk Empire right now and it’s not bad.
I’ve just suggested this in another thread, so I feel like I should be getting a commision or something.
See if you can get hold of the original Swedish version of The Killing. There are three seasons anf they’re totally compelling.