Thanks. I did not know this. All I go by is what I see on the screen when I bring Netflix up.
And I’ll go on record as saying that TV is now in it’s Platinum Age. Not only has it never been better, it’s never been anywhere NEAR this good. Today’s good-and-up TV kicks todays’ good-and-up film around the block. Several times. Then stomps films balls and spits in its face.
TV rocks.
These are the good-to-great shows that I’ve watched in the last five years. Some are older than that, but none older than 2000.
(Alphabetical…if it was quality and brilliance, breaking bad would be spots 1-5)
Amber
American Horror Story
Bates Motel
Being Human UK
Being Human US
Big Love
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Broadchurch
Call the Midwife
Colbert Report
Daily Show
Damages
Deadwood
Dexter
Downton Abbey
Enlightened
Entourage
Flipping Out
Friday Night Lights
Game of Thrones
Getting On
Girls
Grey’s Anatomy
Hannibal
Hell on Wheels
Hemlock Grove
Hit & Miss
Homeland
House of Cards
In the Flesh
In Treatment
Inside Men
Jimmy Fallon
Justified
Kidnapped
Law & Order Criminal Minds
Les Revenants
Lost
Louie
Luck
Luther
Mad Men
Masters of Sex
Nashville (silly trash, but very entertaining)
Nurse Jackie
Orange is the New Black
Orphan Black
Parade’s End
Person of Interest
Pillars of the Earth
Prisoner’s Wives
Rectify
Resurrection
Ripper Street
Saving Grace
Scandal (downright insane, but again, very entertaining)
Seth Meyers
Sherlock
Sons of Anarchy (Another slice of crazy entertaining insanity)
The Americans
The Big C
The Blacklist (Spader RULES!)
The Bridge
The Fall
The Good Wife
The Hour
The Killing (Original Danish)
The Killing (remake)
The Newsroom (second season, first was intolerable)
The River
The Shield
The Wire (right behind Breaking Bad)
Top of the Lake
True Blood (Fun as hell at first)
True Detective
United States of Tara
Vice
Walking Dead
Web Therapy
@Stoid, i agree with your list, except for Sons of Anarchy, which is now trashed, and a mere shadow of its former greatness.
I dunno (referring to the main point of the pitting), I hear all these stories about HBO GO crashes every single time a massively anticipated episode of a show comes on and contrast that with rock solid performance when House of Cards Season 2 was released and think Netflix is doing quite well.
I’ve never had a problem with Netflix, it’s products or services. Well, except for my supposedly smart TV that can’t seem to play Netflix titles without constant buffering, despite it’s proximity to a wireless router that’s spitting out about 50-60MB in download speeds. For some reason it just won’t work right, which isn’t a big deal as my Playstation streams it just fine.
Wow… I’m surprised that anyone would even be able to say they had watched them all….some are kinda obscure, you gotta work to get your hands on 'em. But apropos to the OP, the more obscure can mostly be found on Netflix by now.
And “Sons” is still entertaining, if ridiculous. As I pointed out, much the same can be said of a number of others. Hardly any show of any length can sustain quality over many seasons. (One of the reasons Breaking Bad sits atop them all as the Supreme Leader of All Television Ever. ) But what I appreciate is how even the batshit insane shows jumping bigger and bigger sharks every week are still damned good entertainment in their own crazy shark-jumping ways. (cough scandal cough) These days some even start out from there… hello The Following.
Anyway, yeah, TV rocks. A lot. And Netflix rocks for ushering in the Age of the Binge Watch.
I recall reading in one thread that Netflix, Hulu, and the like don’t count as “Watching TV”.
So the good news is, you can still watch all those shows the lowly TV watchers watch, but at the same time you can feel superior to the TV watchers. And be quite smug in the process.
Win!!
I’d never even heard of Feedflix, and now when I go there it’s all broken. Wah.
Ah, yes, MOL proves again her inability to read for context. Or comprehension.
Go re-read all those threads and come back with an essay on the difference between *television *and selective viewing of content on ad-free streams. Or not. But I haven’t been particularly cryptic about it.
I had this problem and the solution was simple, if bizarre. Check the time on your TV. If it is out by more than a minute or two, reset it.
God fucking damnit you’re a retard fucking durp. If you watch television shows on something other than live television you’re still watching fucking television.
You smug baby-raping goat felcher.
“Hurpy-durp I don’t watch television because I am a better human being than you lowely trash. I watch Game of Thrones on Netflix.”
IT FUCKING AIRED ON HBO!!! WHICH IS ON TELEVISION!!!
Seriously, are you that stupid? Seriously? If you honestly think watchin GoT on Netflix constitutes you not watching television then you have no right to be posting on the smartest website on the internet populated by the smartest internetters.
You never fail to entertain with your ridiculous snarks.
And if you can’t differentiate “television” from “anything on a video screen, any time anywhere” then you’re simply too stupid to be attempting anything but one-line snarks. Now stop watching television and go felch some goats or something.
He’s not watching television, he’s streaming Honey Boo Boo on his iPad. Totally different.
Selective viewing of content on ad-free streams… can I still do that while eating Cheetos on my couch?
[QUOTE=Amateur Barbarian]
Go re-read all those threads and come back with an essay on the difference between television and selective viewing of content on ad-free streams. Or not. But I haven’t been particularly cryptic about it.
[/QUOTE]
Without knowing any of the background, I thought your phrasing here was kinda weaselly and I was ready to break it down with you. But I started where I always must, which is by gathering more information. I did the search. AB + television, 3 years. 50 posts.
It very quickly became clear that you have participated in a significant number of discussions about television, from many different perspectives. What was also crystal clear, expressed multiple times, in multiple ways, for varying reasons, is that you have a deep dislike for advertising and very strong preference for viewing television programs (a term often shortened to simply “television”: from Wiki - ““Television” may also refer specifically to a television set, television program, or television transmission.”) in ways that give you control and prevent you having to deal with advertising.
I did not see anywhere anything from you which suggested that you want people to believe that don’t watch professionally produced programming designed as “television” at all, much less because you feel it is beneath you. You have a keen interest in television, so to try and pull that off would be strange, to say the least.
Therefore, it’s clear that MOL was just looking for something to be mean about, stumbled upon some vague, incomplete memories of past threads, and without making any effort to verify her perceptions, just ran with it. Which makes sense, after all, she’s a mean old lady.
Making the final score AB +1 MOL -1
(But since there’s a contingent of folk around here who only hang around here looking for openings to be snarky, you can anticipate some continuing snipes.)
**Stoid **- absolutely correct (if necessarily incomplete) and much appreciated.
“Television” is one of those monolithic terms like “middle class” and “disposable income” and “[insert your chosen political label here]” that anyone can use in general conversation and everyone will nod knowingly at… but if any two people in the discussion actually have the same interpretation of the term, the Vatican needs to be notified that there’s been another miracle. It’s a term that’s nearly useless without a firm and mutually-shared definition.
Those that are arguing that watching a daytime reality show on a broadcast network and watching an Oscar-winning movie on disc are both “television” are hereby awarded a new lollipop and excused. Those that are arguing that watching “Mad Men” on AMC and watching it on disc are both “television” are invited to stay but listen long enough to grasp the point. Oh, and those that think I mean “television” to mean OTA realtime broadcasts are simply not paying attention.
“Television” is:
[ol]
[li]Any publicly-accessible video stream that is primarily funded by advertising revenue, whether it nominally charges for viewing or not, and is populated by programming intended to focus attention on the advertising via its content, segmentation, timing and other features. This includes OTA, most cable & sat, YouTube, most TiVoing/DVR rewatching/on-demand replays, and a scattering of other minor options.[/li][li]An advertising medium that occasionally shows less overtly commercial content.[/li][/ol]
“Content” is material created for television - created to draw advertising eyes and dollars above all else.
It is important to distinguish “content” (another general, yeah-I-know-what-you-mean word) from *commodity *- video works produced outside of the demands of television and not driven primarily by a need to drive advertising. Theatrical movies are commodity. Most quality documentaries are commodity. Most programs HBO and like channels produce for themselves are commodity. Netflix productions are commodity. Commodity “content” is paid for in ways other than ad revenue, and is usually easily distinguishable from even the best “content” productions as a result.
Watching a commodity program during a time of mass transmission could be called “watching television” - I disagree but wouldn’t argue the point. Watching any commodity program in offline, viewer-controlled form is not “watching television” any more than going to a movie is.
Watching a content program in a totally ad-free, viewer-controlled form (disc, pay streaming) is not “watching television” either - but again I’d agree to disagree on the basis that because it’s created for and around advertising, removing the ads doesn’t necessarily make it a commodity.
If anyone cares to go back through my tv-related posts, they’ll find it conforms entirely to this taxonomy (the odd snark aside). Having posted it, I will probably ignore all further posts from those who want to argue that “television is television” because they’ve never thought through the obvious categories rolled up in that term. I’ll also ignore those who keep bundling me up in the “I hate/don’t watch TV and am thus better than you” crowd - that’s so far off the beam for my viewpoint it’s not even on the same floor of the library.
But we were talking about goat anuses. Go ahead, Drunky.
Totally agree, for the record, even though I have some different tastes.
eta: and some of the same
I’ve never heard of contemporary TV referred to as ‘the Platinum age’ but I agree, TV quality (especially dramas and series) has gone up dramatically. I sometimes find myself watching Friends or Seinfeld and realizing that that was considered top quality programming just 20 years ago. Quality has really gone up. Seinfeld is still good and by today’s standards it would still be a high quality show, but not exceptional. It would get lost in the pack.
I haven’t see most of the shows you list, but there are several that deserve to be added which are recent (except maybe OZ).
The Sopranos
Rome
House MD
Arrested Development
OZ
Curb your enthusiasm
The Office
Modern family
Always sunny in Philadelphia
Big bang theory
Personally there are several others show I personally consider quite good (Bobs burgers, Rick & Morty, etc) but I don’t know if they have large scale appeal. And this leaves out a variety of shows I haven’t even watched much of that are highly rated (walking dead, firefly, etc).
This thread has sure taken some odd twists for a pitting. 
I have no idea what you do for a living, Amateur Barbarian, but you are missing your calling as a writer for The Onion. The only thing missing from your post is an “Area Man” headline, such as Area Man Pauses “Game of Thrones” For Twenty Minutes To Explain That He Is Not, Per Se, “Watching Television.”
Actually, you do, but that’s neither here nor there.
Who says I don’t?
I’ve never once said I didn’t watch TV programs. I don’t watch them in the context of “television” (handy definition above) and I think I’ve made the case that the term has something other than one all-encompassing meaning.
And when a “TV program” leaves me as baffled as to its popularity as GOT, I’m going to ask… and when the answer is “You just don’t get it, do you?” I’m going to roll my eyes quite loudly.
Anything else? Here’s your lollipop now.