While maybe not up to the standard of something like The Sopranos or Breaking Bad, what about shows like Luther (with The Wire’s Idris Elba!), Shameless, or Skins?
(I’m an American, these are just a few I happen to be aware of that seem pretty well regarded, no?)
We are unquestionably in a golden age for TV in the US, especially for dramas. It started with The Sopranos essentially proving that TV drama can rival the depth, inventiveness, and production quality of movies.
Since then, there’s been a steady string of truly fantastic programming. There’s duds as well, of course, but I don’t think there’s ever been TV that can rival the best we have now.
Heh I loved your last paragraph. 
But seriously - the Brits have the lock on edgy comedy. I can’t think of any US series that could compete with (say) Spaced.
Surely, today’s bigger TV screens drove production values to increase, too. Who’d want to watch Three’s Company or The Love Boat on a seven-foot screen? I’ll gladly pay for the DVDs of Game of Thrones or *Breaking Bad *because they look so good in High Definition and on these huge screens (that I wish I had).
British TV has produced some good work. Given the scale of the US industry, I’m not sure I think the Brit’s hit-to-miss ratio is any worse than the US, it’s just a much smaller industry. I mean, how many channels does UK TV even have, including premiums? I don’t think I could name twenty. In the US, we have roughly as many TV channels as a tree has leaves.
25 posts and not a single mention of Arrested Development, the namesake of my username!? :eek:
Ellen, going off what you’ve said you enjoy, you will love AD. I’ve never meet an intelligent or nerdy person who watched it and didn’t find it amazingly funny.
And it’s so re-watchable – there are still blog articles popping up with dozens of jokes people didn’t catch the first few times watching the series.
Best of all, there’s a new season coming to Netflix soon!
I agree with all your points about it being amazing, but it does seem to be a love-it or hate-it type of thing. I think it’s one of the most tightly written and rewatchable sitcoms ever made, but there’s plenty of folks (especially here) who hate it. My own intelligent wife practically leaves the room whenever I put it on.
I think the two I mentioned (Louie and It’s Always Sunny…) are easily as edgy as Spaced, if not more. Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Veep would match it, too, depending on your definition of “edgy”.
Put me in the “Its just you” colum. I think it mostly sucks and gets worse every day.
Too many stupid contrived “reality” shows.
Sure and add in that most cable networks show several hours of informercials in any 24 hour period and you could say that as a whole TV is the worst it has ever been, compared to when there were two channels that signed off at 10pm.
No body is comparing TV as a whole, they are comparing highly rated shows from now to highly rated shows then, And most agree that the quality of the top shows now is miles ahead of then.
The shows I watch now are better than the shows I watched 15 years ago. The shows I don’t watch… who cares? I don’t watch them.
You’re right, no one has recommended this to me. I also never watched the Sopranos, though I certainly heard plenty about it and wonder if Ill be bored. Is it on Netflix? I also have The Wire on my list, based on someone here enthusing about it a few months ago.
And thanks for calling me intelligent and nerdy.
You too, lieu.
His work on Coupling (UK not the US version) was his best stuff IMHO…
In general British television is a lot cheaper than American shows, partly because the BBC produces some of our best stuff and they’re publicly funded. It’s a great system because they don’t have to do anything for advertisers. Someone pointed out that, for most channels, the advertisers are the real customers and the audience are just the product they’re selling. For the BBC, the British people are the customers and their job is to provide the best service possible for the money they have. That means they produce a lot of great things and don’t always have to make what is popular with the “average” person. It also means there is pressure on them to never “waste” money. As a result, sometimes the sets are a bit wobbly or the CGI looks a little dated. Doctor Who is never going to look as good as (reimagined) Battlestar Galactica but that’s not what you watch it for. Recently the production values have gone up but the same has happened in America as far as I can tell.
My opinion until fairly recently has been that British television is better than American. I don’t believe that any more. Since watching some great American shows I think the quality has really gone up and there’s real thought going into every aspect of production. Shows like Breaking Bad and House aren’t just great for their scripts or acting - other aspects like cinematography are done very well too.
I suspect a lot of this is down to a change in content delivery, be it home media, streaming, digital TV or hard disk recorders like Tivo. What time a show is on is now largely irrelevant to how popular it can be. It makes me wonder what could have happened if shows like Firefly came just a few years later. But I also suspect some kind of cultural shift. Would shows with serious moral ambiguity like Dexter or Breaking Bad have been possible 10 or 20 years ago? Perhaps shows like The Sopranos helped to make that possible. Moral ambiguity (or downright immorality) is somehow more acceptable when it’s gangsters. I mean, it’s murder, not drugs.
ETA: Life on Mars is another good BBC production if any of the fans of British TV in here are looking for more things to watch.
I have heard tale of these people. They also must be the gregarious food lovers who will enjoy pork belly quesadillas but dislike bacon wrapped quail eggs :p.
Psh, of course! All 3 seasons are currently are on Netflix, yes.
I will warn you though, you must give it your full attention. It’s something to watch when you’re not physically or emotionally exhausted or you won’t get the jokes. No half-watching, no bathroom break without a pause. I think knitting would be okay, only if its as natural as breathing (and you don’t have to look down!).
Ha! Brilliant series, fantastic story and characters, and the whole thing looked like a mock-up somebody threw together in order to sell the idea to a studio that would make the real show.
Hey, apropos to this thread, I have a question:
Are Kenneth Branagh’s Wallander movies (on BBC) any good?
I definitely agree. When I went to college in the late 90s I didn’t have a TV. I just fell out of the habit. I recently started watching recent TV on Netflix, and holy crap, I have been missing out. It is by and large incomparably better in all genres than even the most exciting television from fifteen years ago. I definitely have a few years of catching up to do.
I feel the need to point out that 15 years ago The X-Files was just beginning to hit its peak. There certainly was great television back then too!
Who’s seen A Touch of Cloth yet? 