I think it might be


Granted, Ive never seen Freaks and Geeks or Veronica Mars

Second only to NFL on Fox.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Cmon Jorr, it's Monday Night Football if anything

Holding it to just dramas

The Wire
Homicide
Mash (dramedy right?)
The Sopranos

The Shield was pretty great.
Like the Wire, never got to amazing levels for me
24 had a few holy shit seasons, but every season didn't build towards an crescendo.
Really enjoyed Rescue Me.

Edit:
Lost was up there too, but the last season and a half or so really soured things for me



Yea, it's the best ever.

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Team Cutler.

Second to Earth-2.

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The Sopranos was the greatest show I had ever seen, but that doesn't even hold a candle to Breaking Bad. Absolutely #1 in my book.

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-- source

Tough to pick the greatest show. I never watched Breaking Bad and maybe have seen about 3 episodes of the Sorpranos. So I have to go with King of Queens.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Maybe this thread is a few years too early.


Needs time to breathe

Lost was the first real show where I got hooked to the point of listening to podcasts and delving into the minutiae of the show.

Breaking Bad was the only other one.

And unlike Lost, BB played out to it's logical conclusion.

As far as best ever, I don't know. The Shield and The Wire are up there as well. Definitely top 5.

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I watched seasons one and two of the Wire on DVD and gave up. Just didn't do anything for me.

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-- source

It's in there with Sopranos, Wire, and Mad Men.

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Couple interesting tidbits. Gus and Mike were two of my favorite characters. Especially Gus. He was the only one who was close to Walt's equal. He killed the CARTEL man!

I just watched it recently and fwiw, season 3 was my favorite and brought a lot of things together

breaking bad is one of the best... but it has plenty of 'meh' moments and most of the time you know youre watching a tv show.

the wire, you just get lost. you get so wrapped up in the story you think its real. you forget your watching tv. its a whole different experience.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Well as I never seen the show I can only say what I think are the greatest

Hill Street Blues
NYPD Blues
St Elsewhere
Rescue Me

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

The Sopranos and The Wire both reached BB levels of greatness but not as consistently. I think The Sopranos just went on a little too long. The Wire was just a little uneven from season to season and the last season shouldn't have happened.

Mad Men is right there with BB as far as consistent quality.

Lost just sucked the last few seasons with their inability to payoff any of their mysteries in any satisfying way.

24 suffered from inconsistency. A couple of those seasons were great though.

Battlestar Galactica blew the ending but it was nearly a top 5 all-time show.

Homeland is off to a pretty good start but you can see signs of it starting to fall apart. This season should tell the tale on that one.

I'd probably go -

1. Breaking Bad
2. Mad Men
3. The Sopranos
4. The Wire
5. Band of Brothers

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You know me like that.

The last two episodes of Homeland were brutal. I still have a bad taste in my mouth. Debating whether I want to subscribe to Showtime to watch season three, though the GF pays the cable bill, which means we will have Showtime. She loves Homeland.

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-- source

I had not watched any of it. But I have heard enough people on here and at my work talking about it that I decided to give it a shot. Watched the first episode last night on Netflix. Pretty good. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

The Wire is still in a class by itself for me.

Just keeps getting better and better. Keep watching.

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-- source

Glad someone gave Homicide its due. Amazing cast, stellar writing--from the guy who developed the Wire (David Simon, who wrote Homicide before the Wire). 'Homicide' was relegated to a 10 pm Friday time slot back during the hay-day of 'Must See TV' sit coms. Several top movie-film directors took turns directing eps of Homicide, iirc.

Did the Sopranos launch the Sunday night hour long drama series thing? If Homicide had run Sunday nights, it might've done better. but the climate at the time wasn't favorable to what is essentially cinema caliber writing and acting on the small screen (the size of the screens and quality of broadcasts might've also played into it).

Does Breaking Bad do as well pre-almost-everyone has a 36-inch plus HDTV ? The Wire's B'more and the Sopranos Jersey were less picturesque than Breaking Bad's New Mexico.

Im not sure if Sopranos or Sex in the City came first on Sunday nights

I would say Sopranos and The Wire are the top 2. Depending on how the next few seasons go, Boardwalk Empire and SOA might be in the team picture.

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Fuck Edwards and Zobrist

Breaking Bad is the best. Period.

"Rescue Me"? Are you fucking kidding me? It was great until season three, started sliding badly, and the last (another "two halves") season was absolutely brutal. I was wondering whether Leary and his team was doing acid while they were writing that crap.

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Not a mult.

This may be heresy around here, but I really tried on a few occasions to sit down and get into this show. I love the show concept, but I could never get into the show.

Sons of Anarchy is another in the same vein. I've tried to watch it, but it too always leaves me flat.

But then again I've probably seen every episode of The Wire 2-3X, even the newspaper season(which had it's underappreciated moments).

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Red Shoe Diaries.

Interesting how different the list would be if you asked asked for best seasons, since as a few have mentioned, there were some really great shows that got torpedoed by sub-par seasons. Shit like Twin Peaks that had one spectacular season and fell apart.

Never seen one episode of BB, but did try Sons of Anarchy, as I was told it is also some "cant miss TV", also couldnt get into the show at all. Characters are rehashed TV guys, almost always makes for a bad show when the characters are retreads. Unless you play David Puddy in every show you are in.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I forgot about BSG. Really good show. Ending was a little lame but still strong all around.
SOA is a good one but got to see if it finishes as strong.

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

Sons of Anarchy is a great show but it's a notch below the BB, Mad Men, Sopranos level. It does not match the craftsmanship of those shows in terms of dialogue, cinematography, direction, etc.

Justified is right on the edge of being at that level Seasons 2 and 3 were great. If Season 4 had kept it going, it might be there but I think they took a step back in 4. Still a great show, though.

The thing about Breaking Bad is that it continued to get better as it went along. It kept its momentum.

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You know me like that.

Haven't watched any of the series or the film, but no Friday Night Lights mentions.

Only people I've met IRL who liked it were chicks. Figured it was a One Tree Hill prime-time soap opera.

However, the Grantland guys put it up there among Wire/Breaking Bad/Mad Men/Sopranos.