‘What to watch’ discussion thread

the Wire should be moved up that list. Phenominal show. Overall that list is pretty good, I’ve seen and enjoyed all of them

Spartacus! Gods of the Arena

Er… I meant to delete the Andromeda reference. :))

also, FX has put out some great shows, specifically Sons of Anarchy & The Shield (the first season of which is maybe my favorite season of TV ever)

and if anyone needs a comedy added to the list, watch Archer! hands down, the best new show i saw last year

I cannot BELIEVE no one has mentioned Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles yet, starring our own Cersei Lannister as Sarah Connor! I love that show. It’ll blow your mind all over your face! And I was not a big “Terminator” fangirl until that show happened.

It sounds like you have a lot of TV watching to do though.

Maybe check out the Peter Dinklage episode of 30 Rock?

The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire.

It has George Kennedy. How could it be any sweeter?

Your list of shows to watch is pretty spot on. If you want to start with the ones most pertinent to the themes and scale of Game of Thrones, I would go in this order:

1) Deadwood (cannot be overstated how great the writing is)
2) Rome
3) The Wire
4) Carnivale
5) The Sopranos (not on your list, but pertinent)
6) Battlestar Galactica
7) Lost
8) Firefly

Mad Men and Breaking Bad should also fall somewhere on the list. In terms of quality, I’d put both above Battlestar. I absolutely think you should start with Deadwood/Rome/The Wire, though. If you’re going to be comparing Game of Thrones to other TV Series, those are much closer in scope than Firefly, which is fun and whimsical and geeky but not on the same level by any means.

KINGS with Ian McShane. It only lasted 1 season but its a brilliant overlooked series that shares a lot similar themes with Martin’s books. I’d strongly recommend any fans of Martin’s to check it out.

Leofric: If you want a good dose of Sean Bean, you could watch the Richard Sharpe series about a group of riflemen during the Napoleanic War, and then read the books by Bernard Cornwell to see how well Bean did bringing the character from the books to the screen.But for totally unrelated stuff – Firefly, Deadwood, Rome, and Lostare all great choices.I’ll also throw in Fringe.    

If you want an even GOODer (XD) dose of Sean Bean, I suggest the old BBC miniseries of Lady Chatterly’s Lover. I’m sure everyone can enjoy watching a young Bean run around naked in a field, lol

And Emilia Clarke’s SyFy movie, Triassic Attack, is a silly good time, as well. She gets quite a bit of screen time, and she really lights it up! (pun intended)

since i know there are a lot of Europeans on here, can i get some recommendations for BBC series (past and present) that i should check out? i’ve heard great things about the new Sherlock Holmes that came out last year…

OneTooFree,

Sherlock is indeed awesome, and at just three episodes, you can watch it in a single sitting. Clever, fast-paced writing, many nods to the source material (some of which play like inside jokes), great chemistry between the two leads, definitely worth watching.

And, of course, the two best shows on British TV ever: Life on Mars and the still-on-air Being Human, both of which have some very unfortunate US remakes.

Specific to GoT, you can catch Harry Lloyd in the BBC’s most recent version of Robin Hood, an execrably bad show made better only by the quality of the acting and the eye candy, lol.

Well, I saw all the shows menioned Lost and Battlestar Galactica are not bad but I’d save the time and would watch The Wire three times. It will blow your mind.

Winter,

Remember to watch the movie Serenity after Firefly. It continues from the TV show and wraps up one of the story lines that was left unexplained when the show was cancelled (Damn you Fox Broadcasting!)

I would also recommend Fringe and Mad Men. Neither relates to the themes of GoT, but they are good TV (although Fringe is with Fox, and it has recently been moved to the “Friday Night Death Slot.” They had better not cancel that show before it reaches any kind of satisfying conclusion).

Just my two cents! :)

I rank Breaking Bad among the Sopranos and the Wire, and thus above the more praised Mad Men. Every episode has you by the throat. Everytime you think that the show is lightening up, they have another very dark episode. It shows over and over again how Meth has such a destroying effect on every addict, just when you start to sympathize with the cookers. The acting of the two main characters is superior, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are doing amazing jobs with their roles.

I also want to add Dead Like Me. For the short two seasons it ran, it was a very fun ride. Great balance between dark comedy, witty comedy and drama.

Sadly, I saw all of them… So I don’t know what to watch now, but I am sure I’ll find something! :)

Seconding Ticklemetyrion‘s recommendation of Kings. The show was cancelled too soon because the network didn’t really know what to do with it, but its cast (Ian McShane, Eamonn Walker, Susanna Thompson, Christopher Egan, Sebastian Stan) is absolutely wonderful and Kings has the same sort of shades of grey morality and power play dynamics as ASoIaF. It’s such a brilliant show.

I have seen The Sopranos, The Wire, Rome, True Blood, Dexter, Ill Capei di Capo (Italian), Penoza (Dutch) and now i start watching Heroes.

Kind of astounded you haven’t seen Firefly or Battlestar Galactica yet. Turn in your geek badge!

This is a bit of an outside recommendation, and I have to admit right up front that it’s a seriously flawed show, but if you enjoy those two SF shows you might want to check out Dollhouse. It’s by many of the same people who made Firefly, and it’s got a lot of the same cast and, oddly enough, the same themes as BSG. Now, it’s a problematic show, as it’s built around the limited acting ability of Eliza Dushku, and the first few episodes in particular are pretty weak, but once it gets going it becomes an honestly thought-provoking and intense SF show, and it becomes willing to push its concept waaaaay further than most shows would dream of.

Carnivale is another one I’d recommend in spite of its flaws. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric, beautiful show, and it shows how HBO can do far more immersive and imaginative fantasy stuff than the major networks. It does have a problem in that it takes almost the entire first season for the plot to start moving, though. And by the end it sort of collapses into, for me, a surprisingly predictable good-vs-evil storyline, the kind we’re all hoping GoT will avoid. But if they can capture this kind of look and feel with GoT, we’ll be doing very well.

Another genre show you probably need to fulfill your geek scorecard, but should approach with caution (sensing a theme here?) is the new Doctor Who. When the show came back under showrunner Russell T. Davies, it became a fun, zany SF kid’s show, but I have to admit I found it pretty bad for long stretches. The plots were often repetitive and nonsensical–most of them ended with some variation on “I know, let’s reverse the polarity, and that will magically fix everything”–and the story was based around an annoying, Twilight-ish emo romance between the Doctor and his companion. However, the new version, with Matt Smith and new showrunner Stephen Moffat, has been a LOT better. Unfortunately it keeps some of the continuity of the previous version, which might make it a little confusing to someone who just wanted to start watching at that point. My usual recommendation to people is to watch the David Tennant-era episodes “Blink”, “Silence in the Library” and “The Forest of the Dead”, and then skip ahead to Matt Smith. If you’re willing to slog through some really dumb bits, though, you could try watching the show from the beginning. (The new show, I mean. Can’t say much about the old show, because I never watched it.)

One show that I sadly can’t recommend, though it’s a big water-cooler show at the moment, is The Walking Dead. The first episode is pretty amazing, but after that it goes pretty far off the rails. There’s potential for it to still rally and become a great show next season, but for right now it’s a very awkwardly written show with thin characters that wastes a terrific premise. Of course, there’s only 6 episodes, so it’s not a huge struggle to check it out for yourself, but I’d say wait until you’ve seen more of the recommendations people are giving you.

I’ve probably started a million fights already just by posting this, so I’ll just finish by recommending Breaking Bad, which–with the caveat that I haven’t seen much of Mad Men–is probably the best show on TV right now, and maybe one of the best shows of all time. It should be on your list. Near the top.

Spartacus is absolute crap IMO, and most AGoT fans probably will hate it because its everything AGoT isn’t. Its got plenty of pointless sex scenes, no story whatsover, a superhero kind of hero who can’t be defeated, too much CGI blood which looks like ketchup splurting out and the dialogue is very poorily written.

Oh yeah, another you probably shouldn’t waste your time with is Heroes. It’s sort of entertaining in a brain-dead way for part of the first season, but it ditches the “entertaining” long before the first finale. And then it goes on for three more seasons. You’ll get the same experience, vastly improved, by reading Watchmen and a bunch of X-Men comics.

switch deadwood’s spot with lost and watch those shows in that order.
oh yeah, you REALLY missed the boat on firefly, get with the program dude.

*GoT, ofc

Lots of good suggestions above. I will also promote Life on Mars (and the sequel Ashes to Ashes) along with Being Human.

Another Sci-Fi one that I feel gets over looked some times is Farscape. I really enjoyed that show. It got a bit messy near the end as it was cancelled and then brought back to finish off the story but I loved the characters. Ben and Claudia were frelling fantastic in it. ;)

Actually I could see Claudia in Thrones, perhaps as Melisandre (with hair colouring).

Mathijs,

Nip/Tuck, like a lot of shows, started off so strong. but starting in season 4 it just went downhill fast. seasons 1-3 are great though.

and thanks for the rec on Hotel Babylon. will check it out

Screw TV shows, I’m going all out on ASoIaF, I’ll be regularly playing aGoT board game :)

Lost and BSG are very similar in terms of the way the chapters are written in ASOIF. BSG’s and especially Lost’s episodes are usually centered on one character, much like each chapter in the books.

Both are pretty polarizing with the way each show ends. I didn’t mind BSG’s ending but I wasn’t a fan of Lost’s. Lost is a great ride though.

Incidentally, people keep pointing at Deadwood, Rome, The Wire, Carnivale and The Sopranos as exemplars of HBO quality. But I think it’s important to remember that there’s been some creative shakeups at HBO since then, and it’s not necessarily the same network that put those shows on the air. That’s why I’m interested in hearing some thoughts on their *current* programming, like Treme, Boardwalk Empire, and True Blood, all of which may provide a better window into what to expect. Who’s seen these? I know True Blood has a reputation for being a somewhat campy show, but people seem to think Treme and Boardwalk are quality. Don’t know if they measure up to the “classic” HBO shows, though.

Alexander Dubrovsky: Lost – I hated the finale so much I don’t recommend this show to anyone (or if anyone insists on watching it – watch the first 5 seasons and ignore the sixth). It’s clear from the finale that the writers never had any idea about what the hell happened on the island, so the only answer they gave is “It’s magic, don’t bother to understand it” and told that the show was about characters anyway.    

Totally agree, to many serious plot holes and never left answered.

Alwyn Joseph: Spartacus is absolute crap IMO, and most AGoT fans probably will hate it because its everything AGoT isn’t. Its got plenty of pointless sex scenes, no story whatsover, a superhero kind of hero who can’t be defeated, too much CGI blood which looks like ketchup splurting out and the dialogue is very poorily written.    

Glad I’m not the only one. As I said, my friends think I’m crazy that I do not like this show.

drokka: The problem with Rome that a few have mentioned is a result of planning a series one way but executing it in another. Rome was meant to be 5 series as originally planned out. For some reason it shifted to 2 series – so they had to stuff all the salient bits meant for that last 4 series into one, chasing some confusion and the reduction of character development. While, I think it’s a good option in terms of how this groups writes/films for HBO I don’t think I’d use it as an example of how series developments work.    

I may be wrong but I think that season 5 was meant to take place in the holy land (which is why they had that plot line of the jew Timon that worked for Atia and his struggle with being a jew under roman rule). But yes the makers of Rome found out just before they started season two that since BBC backed out that HBO would only do one more 10 episode season, so they condensed what would have been 30-36 episodes into 10, mostly skipping a lot of things that happened in Egypt.

Still I strongly agree with other who have said this is a must see and is about the closest thing on TV to GOT. Deadwood is also amazing and the complex characters and politics in it seem very GOT’s to me. Deadwood also was abruptly stopped short and unlike Rome it doesn’t even really have a series ending, but it is three full fantastic season of the best entertainment on TV.

Something I still have to see before April is The Wire, I’ve heard nothing but great things about it and I want to see our Little Finger in action.

Firefly I’m not so sure if I want to watch. I’m sure I’d love it, but the fact that it got cut short after one season would probably just make me angry and sad after having seen it.

Prankster,

first off, yes, the last decade has provided us with some incredible TV series.

second, Treme is brilliant. it’s David Simon (co-creator of The Wire, The Corner, & Homicide: Life on the Street) so you know it’s going to be quality. the characters are so well developed early on, the storylines are gripping & real, & the music… my god the music is just perfect. my grade: A

True Blood is a fun show. it knows exactly what it is: campy & light-hearted, while dealing with dark themes. it’s not a work of art like Deadwood & The Wire are, but it’s not trying to be. my grade: B+

Boardwalk Empire, for me, was actually a bit disappointing in its first season. with Terrence Winter at the helm, i expected a bit more. it was slow & took 12 episodes to tell what could’ve been done in 9. the finale picked up a little but i felt like there was a lot more that could’ve been done in the first season. i am hopeful for the future of the show, though. my grade: B-

Prankster,

I loved Treme and BE, High quality great writing. True Blood is campy but still fun. Also the Pacific which is more of a mini series was fantastic.

I’m a little torn on recommending Lost. If you only watched it for “the answers”, yes, the resolution was lame. But there’s more to a show than the ending. As someone pointed out, Lost is a great ride. And the first and fourth seasons remain great television, with lots of moments of brilliance scattered throughout.

I actually liked the ending of BSG–I just thought the season leading up to it was a bit of a misfire. They seemed to lose track of the plot, and the characters were being written inconsistently.

I know this is not a tv show BUT, if I had to recommend something that excites me like ASOIAF, I would have to recommend the book The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco – I will read it again before the series starts for sure – medieval intrigue at it’s finest. The movie is only ok but doesn’t do the book justice. It would be an incredible tv show if they expanded the themes.

Off-Topic: Is that pic of Sansa new??? Havn’t noticed it before. If so where did it come from?

Alwyn Joseph: Spartacus is absolute crap IMO, and most AGoT fans probably will hate it because its everything AGoT isn’t. Its got plenty of pointless sex scenes, no story whatsover, a superhero kind of hero who can’t be defeated, too much CGI blood which looks like ketchup splurting out and the dialogue is very poorily written.  Quote  Reply

I couldn’t agree with this more. I tried to give it a chance and watched the first 7 episodes, and I found it nothing but a ‘Rome-Gladiator-300′ wannabe.

Also, I think ‘The Tudors’ is a good benchmark. Though I fear it’ll pale in comparison to GoT.

Btw, am I the only one here who thinks Jonathan Rhys Meyers cannot act? :P

Totally forgot about Treme, Boardwalk Empire, Justified and Terriers. All great newcomers this year. Of those 4 shows BE is the least good (that says a lot about the other 3). Terriers is canceled, a big shame, but it has a satisfying last episode.

Alwyn Joseph: Spartacus is absolute crap IMO, and most AGoT fans probably will hate it because its everything AGoT isn’t. Its got plenty of pointless sex scenes, no story whatsover, a superhero kind of hero who can’t be defeated, too much CGI blood which looks like ketchup splurting out and the dialogue is very poorily written.

I was waiting for someone to make a post like this. I am guessing that you only saw the first episode because your comment is way off the mark. There is far more to Spartacus than just pointless sex and gore. One of the reasons I liked Spartacus because there actually was a reason for the sex scenes in the show. It was either to show a relationship or to provide a commentary on the society. It was far different from the gratuitous sex I saw in Rome or The Tudors.

Spartacus has a lot in common with AGOT in that, the characters are neither black as night or pure as the driven snow. The characters are actually very multi-layered. Like Thrones the show in any way predictable. There’s a lot of skull duggery and people working their own agendas. Another thing I love about the show is that it doesn’t have a ‘this is being made up as it goes along’, feel to it. Each episode actually flows into the other. I don’t watch a lot of tv (besides cable news) but Spartacus is one of the few shows that I hook into. I strongly recommend that fans of AGOT check it out.

I strongly recommend Spartacus season 1, and the prequel , Gods of the Arena which starts on January 21st, to GOT fans.

Prankster: Alexander Dubrovsky,
I’m a bit “meh” on Dexter. It’s a terrific concept for a show, and Michael C. Hall is excellent, but as a few people have pointed out, all the other characters on that show are basically nonentities. Whenever you get a non-Dexter storyline, it always lands with a thud. And the season-long arcs also tend to peter out into nothing, unfortunately.

Are you kidding me? My husband and I LOVE Deb. She is our favorite character and we hang on every minute of her arcs. I also don’t get the season-arc petering out criticism…? I mean, each season is about a new person (guest star) creating tension in Dexter’s life… Indeed, each season actually reaches a resolution (unlike practically any other show in existence). I guess you’d prefer cliffhangers?

Howland Reed,

The thing is, though, there’s a certain “American-ness” to American shows even when they’re set in a fantasy world or outer space or whatever. Whereas British shows–especially in the past–had their own distinct feel. I think it’s worth comparing I, Claudius to Rome (yeah, I know Rome is partly financed by the British, but it’s clearly American in spirit).

I actually think this divide shows up strongly in fantasy novels, too–the British style of fantasy is marked by people like Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, the American by people like Robert E. Howard or Fritz Lieber. There’s a whole other spirit to them. The waters get muddied a bit after a while as the two countries influence each other, and a lot of American fantasy writers were basically trying to rip off Tolkien, but I’d still say there’s a divide–American fantasy is more about a ripping yarn with plot twists and badass characters, British fantasy is often more about the atmosphere, the language, and the world-building. In that respect I think ASoIaF is very much in the American idiom, and the show will be as well.

I’m from Baltimore sooooo The Wire is a must!!!! I loved Rome and as far as current shows I would say The Walking Dead. I’ve also heard good things about Dexter.

Prankster,

I haven’t seen Treme but my friends in New Orleans rave about the show and say it definitely is the real thing as far as describing NOLA.
Boardwalk Empire is remarkable in its quality, whwther it is the settings, acting, direction. It’s near perfect. The only problem I had was that it could be slow going and some of the characters seem somewhat bland.
True Blood IS campy as hell but tons of fun, and manages to be seriously scary a times. Like Boardwalk Empire, the setup, direction and acting is great. Also, imho, it is one of those rare occurences were the adaptation is actually tons better than the original work. The book (at least the first one, I couldn’t go beyond that) is really limited in character development, cliche’d as hell and rather poor in style. The show is tons more edgy, better developped and original.
In my opinion.

Definitely watch Rome, Deadwood, The Wire, Carnivale, even the Sopranos. HBO is must-see TV! But ALL of those shows need about three episodes before you start to get hooked, so be patient.

But keep Lost at the bottom of your list. I was a huge fan, and recommended it to everyone, but the final season was SO disappointing and poorly written that it has ruined the entire show for me. It shows that the writers never had a good plan, and makes the entire journey of six seasons basically pointless. One of my biggest letdowns ever.

Am I the only one that felt like Deadwood started to get sort of… weighed down by itself towards the end? I loved the dialogue and the characters, but it almost felt like the writer took what was good about the show and just kept ramping it up until it started feeling heavy and pretentious towards the end.

It does have some of the best characters you still find an ANY TV show, namely Swearengen and E.B.

Dexter is great for entertainment purposes, though some season were better than others.

Arrested Development should be on ANY list. IMO, the best, and most overlooked comedy show I can think of.

You can’t go wrong with anything else on your list, except for maybe BSG, Firefly and Lost. BSG and Firefly require a bit of appreciation for the genre I think to really be blown away.

And Lost just wasn’t very good. :)

Brad Villane,

I sort of defended Lost above. I think people are letting their disappointment in the ending skew their perception of the show. Have at it!

Like many others before me, I am also torn about recommending Lost. The first three(?) seasons were fantastic and I enjoyed everything right until the very end. That’s where it went horribly wrong, in my opinion, and it was an almost instant ‘cure’ from Lost-mania for me. I think that it worked really well in the early seasons, but not so much in the latter ones. If you go into it without many expectations, though, I think you’re in for some occasionally brilliant television finds.

I also really enjoy miniseries like The 10th Kingdom, Children of Dune, Tin Man and many others. Some may seem a bit campy/tacky at first, but there are some great scenes and interesting dynamics in them. They make for enjoyable television. Children of Dune also translated well from the atmosphere in the book, in my opinion, and I think it is a pretty strong miniseries as a result. (I take to miniseries in particular because they’re less of a daunting watch-project than multiple-seasoned series are.) Also worth a mention is Pillars of the Earth, which is also a book adaptation and was really enjoyable to watch. Perhaps not reminiscent of GoT, but still worth a mention.

Also.. Buffy is one of the series that remains really enjoyable no matter how many times you watch. It has outstanding episodes like “Hush”, “The Body”, “Innocence” and “Becoming”.. also some weaker ones in every season, but they’re easily skipped if you really hate ‘em. Whedon’s other work is good, too, but the combination of monsters and humanity is what makes Buffy so great. I think that the dynamic of GoT is very similar in that regard — it is about people, first and foremost, and there is a major story that impacts these people. GoT has its battles and its violence and sex, sure, but beyond that it is all about the game of thrones and how this huge event affects the people in that world. The humanity in it is what makes the story work.

(Also, I have plans to watch Battlestar and The Wire and lots of other shows while I’m at it.. I have a feeling that they’re good, also, so this is a hesitant rec for those as well. The Tudors seems fantastic, also.)

As I mentioned on another thread I’ve got Deadwood and Carnivale ready to watch on DVD and just finished watching Boardwalk Empire. I thought I’d catch up on some HBO shows before GoT starts.

The only other HBO shows I’ve seen are The Sopranos and the first 2 seasons of True Blood (well Seen is a bit of a stretch, heard would be more accurate as it airs here on TG4 and the picture quality is terrible).

As to seeing the actors in other roles.

I watched The Station Agent (good film) and Death at a Funeral (UK version) (Ok film that also has Maester Aemon in it) last year just because Dinklage was in them.

Aiden Gillen was recently in an Irish Drama about Dublin Criminals, didn’t catch much of it though.

Chris,

Deadwood did start to get a bit ponderous by the end. One of the big issues with the show was the way Milch and the writers had a weird tendency to move the most interesting characters offstage. Doc Cockrum was one of the best characters in the first season, I believe Brad Dourif was nominated for an Emmy, and then he practically vanished from the show. Even Swearingen was bizarrely sidelined at the beginning of Season 2.

But on the other hand, that is part of the show’s theme–the idea of civilization creeping in and weighing down even this group of people who considered themselves amoral and almost anarchic. The fact that Swearingen, over the course of the show, goes from a badass force of nature to a somewhat disillusioned man, weighed down with responsibility, is not an accident.

Spartacus anyone? I’d like to recommend that one. You could also call it “Blood and Body Parts.” The first episode may not hook you but it gets a lot better so you have to give it a chance. The last two episodes of season 1 are absolutely thrilling. It can be streamed on Netflix. Sadly, the actor Andy Whitfield who plays Spartacus is ill and not able to stay in the role though.

Another huge favorite is Breaking Bad about a normal chemistry teacher who decides to cook meth to make money for his family because he’s been diagnosed with cancer. It’s brilliant and so intense. I promise there are scenes that will make your jaw drop. :D

Ah, Supernatural. There’s a problematic show. I’m working my way through it, and while it definitely becomes an entertaining and innovative show, it takes an unfortunately long time to get there. Almost the entire first season is disposable, and the second is redeemed only by a couple of episodes written by Ben Edlund. However, by S3 it starts to become pretty interesting. It’s always had snappy dialogue and charming performances by the leads, but there’s not much more to it than that until S3, when the mythology gets richer and they bring in a better villain. And S4, so far, is quite excellent.

I’ll put my vote forward for Spartacus as well.

Just to give people an idea of what my tastes in TV are, I’ll say that I own the DVD sets of Rome, Deadwood, BSG, The Tudors and Band of brothers (this last one in Blu-Ray). So I love all those shows.

I watched the first season of Heroes (Yesss!), the second (noooo!), and started the third one giving up midway through.

I watched True Blood first two seasons, and currently I’m watching the third one. I’m following Dexter first season too. So far, I liked what I’ve seen of all those.

I never had the chance to follow The Sopranos, and I plan to get The Wire DVD sets once they get priced mor reasonably.

So coming back to Spartacus…
Sure the sex most of times is gratuitous, the sets fantastical,the violence cartoonish, but that was obvious from the very second the trailers hit the Net.

If you ease your mind and set yourself to watch a 300-styled TV series, then you’d be surprised how rewarding Spartacus is.

As many people has commented, the first episode was really weak, second one wasn’t much better, but the series keep improving and the second part of the season was phenomenal, specially since “Whore!” till the closing chapter.

Besides, the series had the second most quotable TV character in the last decade in the person of Batiatus. (The number 1 is, of course, Al Swearengen).

Battlestar is overrated crap. It was great for a season and a half until they went to longer seasons then it all went to shit.

The Wire for sure (though I admit to some prejudice here, being a Baltimore girl). Stringer Bell and Omar Little are both very George Martin-esque anti-heroes and the interweaving plots and the many shades of gray among the characters remind me a lot of the whole vibe of Game of Thrones. And Aiden Gillen does a nice turn as the Martin O’Malley-esque young mayor in it.

Also recommend John Adams for the awesome production values and acting. Terrific miniseries.

As a native New Orleanian, I find Treme cringe inducing, sorry. The dialogue either panders to “big easy” stereotypes or pompous speachifying. The plots are ripped off from the local newspaper’s headlines, but with no insight added. And I loved The Wire, so I don’t know what went wrong. None of my other local friends feel it has that ring of truth to it either.

The only currently ongoing series I find consistently jaw-dropping is Breaking Bad on AMC. And I really didn’t want to like a show about meth either. I’ll give a shout-out to Firefly/Serenity too since we’re on a scifi/fantasy nerd forum here.

The Pillars of the Earth miniseries was excellent, and feels thematically pretty similar to GoT. Though it focuses more on the common man than the royals, it’s set in a similar time period, and deals with lineage issues. Also it’s another pretty good example of how to adapt a novel. (There were some things I didn’t like, but on the whole it felt right)

Lost is worth watching if you don’t expect too much. While the island was kind of a character, it was always very enigmatic. The show really was mostly about the characters – it is fun trying to figure out what all of the stuff means, but that doesn’t mean that the show is about the answers to those questions, but people (showrunners included) got caught up and distracted by them. First season at least is one of the best seasons of a show on tv, and it’s hard to stop watching after that. If you watch, watch for the ride and the characters, and don’t get too hung up on the explanations.

BSG on the other hand… You could probably watch the first 2 seasons and take that as the ending. The ending to season 2 is fairly satisfying, and season 3 is the worst one. And you could finish those 2 seasons before april a lot faster than the 6 for lost!

Why are there four shows above The Wire?

You need to fix that. :P

Prankster: I know True Blood has a reputation for being a somewhat campy show, but people seem to think Treme and Boardwalk are quality.

True Blood had a great first season, strong casting, but has gone downhill ever since. Season 4 promises more of the same unless the show runner wakes up and realizes his highly touted Hollywood “genius” can’t improve on—or even sustain— the world created by a modest housewife in Arkansas. He’s following his record with Six Feet Under—start strong, lose interest after a couple of seasons.
Treme is all character and no plot development. Deeply uninteresting.
Boardwalk Empire: Nikki Finke calls this a “well-written snoozefest” and she should know.
HBO is the haven for all the directors who don’t want to make “slacker/nerdboy gets knock-out girl” movies starring Seth Rogen and Vince Vaughn so is in its glory days, but Michael Hirst, writer for The Tudors, and Matthew Weiner, writer/showrunner for Mad Men, are the two best writers on TV. I’d stick with them.

I loved BSG. Even when it was bad, it was great! And the eye-candy couldn’t be topped. The actress who played Laura Roslyn should have won an award (did she?). The “leave ‘em guessing” factor was pretty impressive.

Man that’s a lot of TV to fit in. Rome is a definitely the one to go with. The others are good as well. I’m not so high on BSG or Lost (I’m sorry the end of Lost sucked big time IMO)

Eddie Kimbrough: switch deadwood’s spot with lost and watch those shows in that order.
oh yeah, you REALLY missed the boat on firefly, get with the program dude.    

Lol, Lost doesn’t even come close to deadwood. Al Swearengen could take on the entire Lost cast in a fight :P

Big +1 on The Wire, if you like realism.

I’ll be watching Deadwood.

Even it isn’t fantasy or set in a medieval setting I highly recommend anyone to watch the bbc adaption of Bleak House (2005), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0442632/

Fantastic acting and its not too long of a series, 15 episodes I think. Why should you watch it? Well most importantly for us fans of GOT it has Charles Dance in a role similar to Tywin and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Watching it all the way through made me realise how such a smart casting choice Dance was for GOT.

Tom Hilton,

Strangely enough, I haven’t watched A2A yet, but the Gene genie might be able to convince me, lol.

You should start with the best show ever:
1. The Shield
Starts with one of the biggest shocks in TV history and it only get’s better. Unlike other great shows it also had a perfect ending.

Now you know how excirting TV can be and still your newfound hunger with:

Deadwood (Best. Dialogues. EVER. and some of the greatest characters (Al “fucking” Swearengen) of all time. It also has a very ambitious story that doesn’t fall short on entertainment factor..like The Wire or Mad Men. Which are great too but a little dry and I didn’t love a single character in those shows. Be warned that the anticlimatic series finale isn’t only disappointing ..it almost destroys an otherwise great 3rd season)
Rome (second season had to rush through the story because of the cancellation but the wrtiters did a good job. Most probably the biggest similarities with GOT. Like some already suggested you should also try Spartacus. It’s trashier and the first episodes kind of suck, but in the second half of it’s first season it had a lot in common with Rome and there is no show in TV right now that delivers better twists)
Sons of Anarchy (if you loved The Shield you will also love Hamlet on Harleys from one of the Shield main writers.)
Carnivale (like Deadwood not a good ending and it had seriou pacing problems, but it’s origional and atmospheric as hell)
Breaking Bad (second best show on the air right now after Sons)
The Sopranos (without Sopranos none of these shows would exist in this form. It not just the mother of all crime-related series. It gave birth to the wave of quality tv in the last decade. Actually Oz preceded it on HBO, but it didn’t have the cultural impact and there where some awful storylines in it’s later seasons.)
Lost (proofed that originality and quality can exist outside Pay TV and cable. Even if you hate the ending it’s one hell of a ride)
Battlestar Galactica Remake (did for TV sci-fi what GOT hopefully will do for fantasy)
The Walking Dead (not only a great postapocalyptic zombie show. It has a lot in common with Battlestar and Lost. Next to Boardwalk Empire and Lights Out the most promising new drama in the last 12 months.)
True Blood (the most entertaining one hour drama next to Spartacus.)
Dexter (shares some DNA with Shield and Breaking Bad. Fascinating main character and a great sens of black humor. )

and I mst mention one of my alltime favorites that you probably already know:

Star Trek DS9 – in a time when epic story-arcs where still the exception of the rule DS9 proofed how powerful this kind of storytelling is. Babylon 5 already did a similar thing and some fanboys calim that DS9 just copied it, but DS9 has the best bunch of characters that ever graced a Tv-series and the cast and dialogue are a lot better. The show has it all. Tragedy, love, war, action, betrayal and humor.

Brad Villane,

Agreed, the viewers misled, Advertisement to the sixth season “The answers are coming ” What answers ??

I forgot to mention Six Feet Under, excellent show.
Hear Me Roar,

The Wire is well plotted, so is Carnivale. Spartacus seems like it was written by a kid, don’t get me wrong, I liked the sex scenes, but if thats the function the show serves, why not create a porno ?? Experly plotted, hardly.

Yeah, the Lost thing is really kind of sad… If Season 6 had been good, the series would probably have had a LONG lasting legacy. People would have continued recommending and re-watching it forever.

But, as others have said, the final season didn’t just suck, it managed to ruin the entire show retro-actively! Because, like someone above said, it renders all the previous plot set ups meaningless. There are dozens of major issues left unresolved, and the answers that are given feel very cheap. It’s really a shame, and I’m honestly surprised they were able to screw it up so badly. I was a huge fan, right up through Season 5.

Alexander Dubrovsky,

I agree with a lot on your list, but Dexter the best thing currently on TV?

Not after that horrible fifth season it isn’t. It had more holes in it’s plot than a block of Swiss cheese. In one season, the new showrunner has run that show into the ground.

IMO, Breaking Bad is the best show currently on television.

Alwyn Joseph,

@Alwyn Joseph
your comment about the fake looking blood fontaines makes clear that you just don’t “get” the show. After all it’s a 300 rip-off meets Rome filmed almsot entirely in front of a green screen …. the violence is supposed to look like in a comic and of course the storytelling is over the top. I think we all just should leave it at that and continue to praise shows we love. I didn’t say a word about the unfair Lost an Galactica bashing either. ;)

The Wire is excellent. I’ve only seen the first three seasons so far, but it’s pretty much the best thing ever…

…with the possible exception of Rome. Season 1 is amazing. As has already been mentioned, season 2 is very rushed and suffers as a result.

BSG is a tough one. I watched the miniseries and was very impressed. I haven’t watched any more due to rumours of serious story breakdowns in later seasons, and “frak” being the stupidest piece of crap word ever said on television.

The Sopranos is one I always meant to watch but only ever caught the odd episode. I still intend to watch it all properly.

Spartacus is underrated. I only watched it because my flatmate was an extra in it. The first episode was quite bad, but the series picks up and becomes extremely compelling. John Hannah as Batiatus is a standout.

I never understood why anyone watched Lost. It always looked dumb to me. I gave up quite early on.

I haven’t seen Deadwood or Carnivale, though I will watch them at some point. John Adams and Boardwalk Empire seem cool too.

This discussion has got me thinking…can anyone name a dramatic television series with a satisfying ending?

The only one I can think of is “The Wire”

cletus van damme: Alwyn Joseph,
@Alwyn Joseph
your comment about the fake looking blood fontaines makes clear that you just don’t “get” the show. After all it’s a 300 rip-off meets Rome filmed almsot entirely in front of a green screen …. the violence is supposed to look like in a comic and of course the storytelling is over the top. I think we all just should leave it at that and continue to praise shows we love. I didn’t say a word about the unfair Lost an Galactica bashing either.     

I liked Galactica, and used to be a fan of Lost, well until the 5th season atleast :P

OneTooFree: Prankster,
first off, yes, the last decade has provided us with some incredible TV series.
second, Treme is brilliant. it’s David Simon (co-creator of The Wire, The Corner, & Homicide: Life on the Street) so you know it’s going to be quality. the characters are so well developed early on, the storylines are gripping & real, & the music… my god the music is just perfect. my grade: ATrue Blood is a fun show. it knows exactly what it is: campy & light-hearted, while dealing with dark themes. it’s not a work of art like Deadwood & The Wire are, but it’s not trying to be. my grade: B+Boardwalk Empire, for me, was actually a bit disappointing in its first season. with Terrence Winter at the helm, i expected a bit more. it was slow & took 12 episodes to tell what could’ve been done in 9. the finale picked up a little but i felt like there was a lot more that could’ve been done in the first season. i am hopeful for the future of the show, though. my grade: B-    

I totally resemble this comment, haha. I agree with everything you said about it, and the music is the icing on the cake. Treme is brilliant, I LOVED the first season, and can’t wait for the second one.

I love True Blood also-yes, it’s campy, but that’s what I like about it! Another new campy show that just started is THE CAPE, and so far, I really like it also.

I also agree with your BE comments. It started strong, lagged a bit, and ended strong, but for all the hype, I was a bit disappointed. Definitely worth watching, beats a lot of other crap on TV, but I have to say as for what I am currently watching on TV, it ranks around 5 th or 6th down the list. I enjoyed Treme much more.

I’ve never seen The Wire, so I can’t comment on it. Someone close to me has the full seasons box set, so eventutally I will get to it.

As for Rome, I thought the writing was brilliant. Some of the best one liners I’ve ever heard. The look of it was gorgeous of course, but that isn’t what keeps me coming back, it’s the storyline, the dialog, and Pullo and Vorenus.

Deadwood was excellent, but the hung ending sure did suck! I preferred Rome over Deadwood, but only by a hair.

and WiC, I’m also surprised you’ve never seen BSG or Firefly! Loved both. Must see for all Scifi geeks (which I am a PROUD to be member of).

Cletus-totally agree about DS9.

and Justified and SOA are totally high quality, I would recommend both.

As for LOST, here’s a little story for you all. I watched faithfully, religiously, the first 5 seasons. I was right there, right at airtime, for each new episode. I was so freaked about watching it immediately, I couldn’t even bring myself to record it and watch it later-I never went anywhere on Wednesday nights except straight to my couch. Bt damn that started annoying the hell out of me by the fourth season. I would tell people, I can’t believe I watch this show every week, and all it ever does is make me angry, and I still don’t know what the hell going on! But there I was again for the final season…and again it took a turn that pissed me off. so 3 episodes in of the 6th season The Olympics started, and I decided to watch those instead, and I figured I’d catch up On Demand when the Olympics were over. Two weeks later I picked up where I had left off-watched one episode (maybe the 4th of the season), and then just stopped. gave up. never finished season 6. Still haven’t seen it. Who does that? gives up a show they’ve watched for 5 seasons? haha, me.

Brad Villane,

I know not everyone agrees, but I rather enjoyed the finale for BSG. I thought it struck just the right note, and tied together all the loose threads from the miniseries in a neat little package, just as finales are meant to.

For all its mediocrity and OTT-ness, The Tudors had a pretty good finale as well. Obviously, the end was predictable, but it was well played, and I enjoyed the cameo appearances by long-dead characters as well.

Personally I thought Ashes to Ashes was better than Life on Mars.

Lost was really good, very much like the Dark Tower, as in its more about the journey than the destination. I find a lot of people that turned against Lost these days are the ones that couldn’t understand a quite straightforward last episode.

Battlestar Galactica was decent to start with, the second season is some of the best TV I have ever watched. The next few seasons are some of the worst.

Babylon 5 is basically a book made into a multi season series. I envy anyone who is about to watch this for the first time.

Twin Peaks – goes without saying, especially since shockingly only one person mentioned it.

Downton Abbey is supposed to be excellent, its what I plan to watch next.

True Blood is a guilty pleasure, but what a guilty pleasure!

I have the Blu Ray BSG boxset so I’ve been watching that recently. Deadwood is brilliant as is Firefly, though they are very different. Rome is also worth watching. Never got into the Wire or Lost. One show I would recommend would be Sons of Anarchy. Its about a Motorcycle club but its a really entertaining show and the main family reminds me a lot of what I would imagine the Lannister’s would be like in that world.

Forgot to mention Justified thats a brilliant show as well and the Walking Dead is worth a watch.

rohwyn,

The Battlestar ending was soooooooooo bad.

The first half was alright when they blew an entire season’s worth of effect budget on an epic battle sequence, but when they got to earth…

So Kara was an angel? What was the use of having prehistoric humans on earth? What the hell was up angel Baltar and 6 in present day talking about God as a female? What the fuck was up with that dumb ass robot montage? Did they ever explain wasteland Earth that they got to halfway through season 4? Or why Kara’s fighter jet was there?

That being said, the show did have some great story arcs. The Pegasus, New Caprica, and Gaeta Insurrection were all awesome and can almost stand on there own as mini-movies.

Prankster: One show that I sadly can’t recommend, though it’s a big water-cooler show at the moment, is The Walking Dead. The first episode is pretty amazing, but after that it goes pretty far off the rails. There’s potential for it to still rally and become a great show next season, but for right now it’s a very awkwardly written show with thin characters that wastes a terrific premise. Of course, there’s only 6 episodes, so it’s not a huge struggle to check it out for yourself, but I’d say wait until you’ve seen more of the recommendations people are giving you.

It’s a fair comment. I believe Frank Darabont has fired the entire writing staff, so with new writers for season 2 I hope they can rescue the show by either making you care about these characters (which I currently don’t) or wiping them out and giving us a new bunch. I haven’t read the comic sorry graphic novel, but I understand they’ve already departed significantly from it, so that horse has bolted and they can do what they like to the source material.

Brad Villane,

I never understood the whole Kara Thrace arc through the entire series, so I have no idea what happened with her in the finale. “Wasteland Earth” is the real Earth, and the one find at the end is just another planet to start over on. I actually liked that as a metaphor for the entire show. Your world is destroyed? Well, then you do your best with what’s left to you and make a new world. I admit they went about it in the most convoluted way possible, lol.

Everything about the last series was TERRIBLE, except the finale. As for Baltar and 6, I think that’s just a convenient filter/metaphor for the audience, i.e. not “real”.

rohwyn,

No you’ve got it backward! Wasteland Earth was the 13th colony, where the cylons from Kobol went after their war with the humans. The Final Five are the only survivors from the holocaust there. (Which happened after the Kobol cylons made their own cylons, repeating the AI slaves, revolt, holocaust cycle just like the 12 Colonies did.) The untouched Earth is our earth 300 000 years in the past.

Looking forward to checking out the Borgias and I think there is a European one coming out (hopefully in English) about the Medicis. They ought to be good for intrigue, atmosphere and style.

I really enjoyed John Adams too.

I’ve tried to watch Twin Peaks again, but I went through the 2 seasons of it live the first time (awesome) then again in boxed set videos (nostalgia) and it’s playing on Foxtel here now, and I just can’t do it. It looks dated, the mystery is gone and the elements of the show that made it great have been inspiration to so many shows since that it just looks tired and uninspired. Same reason I don’t like Citizen Kane – I know I have it backwards, but there you go. I was blown away reading the Watchmen in the 80′s, but 30 years later sticking it on film when it was delivered in the perfect medium first time round? and the themes of it have been stolen and used over and over again in the intervening years? what a waste.

Carnivale is the best TV show that I’ve watched in the last 20 years. Simply amazing.

Rome is also very good, as is The Sopranos, Battlestar Galactica, Six Feet Under and Breaking Bad.

I watched the first season of The Wire and it was Excellent. I really need to get the DVDs for both next seasons and for Deadwood.

I’d give Lost a miss. The first two seasons are ok, but once you understand that they really have a plan to start with, it all really seems pointless.

FlayedandDisplayed,

Oh yeah, much love for John Adams. I thought Stephen Dillane was absolutely PERFECT as Thomas Jefferson. *fangirls*

Gotta watch Friday Night Lights. One of the best TV dramas of all time.

The first Sharpe movie is on youtube, you can see Bean’s command presence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOAWSU5_4t4

The Wire is my favourite show by a country mile.

Some other great shows not mentioned however

Oz
The West Wing
Band of Brothers

Jordan Healey: The Wire is my favourite show by a country mile.Some other great shows not mentioned howeverOz
The West Wing
Band of Brothers    

What I meant was not mentioned often

For the gruesome scenes in Season 2 onward, they really need to look at Oz (the only show/movie that I’ve watched in a long time (this year) that actually made me cringe / gave me goosebumps at some points during the violence) and possibly some horror movies too

oenone:
Your hardly the only one, didn’t just about everyone stop watching the X-Files at around the 5th or 6th series?    

yes, but I gave up on something that was so close to ending anyway, and I had the promise that I was “going to get all the answers” and still gave up!

If any New Zealanders were wondering if Sky NZ was going to be non-shit, then I have bad news:

Hello Gareth,

Thank you for your email.

There are no plans at this time to secure rights for that series however these plans are always under review. Please be on the lookout for any on air promos and continue checking our websites to confirm any changes and updates.

Please feel free to contact SKY Television Customer Services on 0800 759 759 for further information, alternatively please respond via return email and we will endeavour to reply within 24 hours.

With kind regards,

SKY Customer Services Team

I did reply, advising them that GoT is more awesome than their faces and that they should reconsider. We’ll see if they take my excellent advice.

I’m probably alone in this, but I’ve never found Torchwood particularly watchable. To each their own…

best written show ever to be aired on television:

THE WEST WING!!!

coltaine777,

haha cheers.

If Sky don’t show it then I’ll have no alternative to paying a little visit to Mr Bittorrent, which would be a shame because this is a thing I really want to support. I’ll buy the DVDs regardless of course, but still.

GaR,

You do what you have to do…seems to me they haven’t left you and my kiwis GOT brothers and sisters much choice…I actually am surprised it won’t be available down there…I wonder how many countries will broadcast the show at some point…

Ed,

1. The Wire
2. Sopranos
3. Deadwood
4. Twin Peaks
5. Damages
6. Carnivale
7. Southland
8. Boardwalk Empire
9. Extras
10. Sherlock Holmes (With Jeremy Brett)

The Key to watching Sparticus is not to exspect it to get better as a high drama, but that it starts fireing on all cylenders as trash TV. Get lost in the needless profanity gore and tits.

Also anybody who hasn’t seen the Wire should get on that right now.

Kings: Great premise, some really good acting and really nice production design, but the network just didn’t know what to do with it or how to promote it. On the one hand, it’s a bitchy-people-being-bitchy political melodrama soap, like Gossip Girls. On the other hand, it’s set in a made-up world where the supernatural plays a low-key but important rule. On the third, it’s a Bible story. But rather than promote the show to its logical audiences (science fiction fans and Christians who would like to see a Bible story), they downplayed the religion and promoted it as a soap with high-fallutin dialogue.

* The Wire. I’ve seen the first four seasons. It just keeps getting better.

* Babylon 5 and BSG are like mirror images: Babylon 5 had a relatively well-thought-through long-term story and the show looks better from a big picture perspective (appreciating the multi-season story). But the acting is uneven, the visual effects (while good for the time) are now extremely dated-looking, and the dialog writing is cringeworthy. BSG had (generally) better acting, better dialog writing, and some outstanding individual episodes. But from a big-picture perspective, the flaws are obvious.

* Deadwood kicked ass. Later seasons suffered because David Milch was more interested in developing “John from Cincinnati” (which itself showed some promise but also some huge flaws before being put out of its misery).

* Rome was wonderful.

* I’m surprised that Big Love doesn’t get more love. Interesting stories, excellent acting, and in many cases very cinematic.

Oh and I’ll probably watch Firefly on DVD. My fave episodes are the funny ones; Jaynestown and Our Mrs. Reynolds. Maybe some Avatar on blue ray for the visual effects, not for the well worn plot. Oh and one of the other things about Firefly that cracks me up; a space hooker! LOL Men……….

Dennis Brennan,

+1 to Big Love, great show and pretty much under the radar. i watched season 3 recently and it had some really great moments.

My biggest issue with Lost is that halfway through you could tell they had no clue what they were doing and then kept on adding mysteries, characters and twists instead of solving what they already had.

triffidfarmer: If anyone is interested in seeing something else with Mark Addy and Sean Bean as well as the new Peter Parker, there was a drama on a couple of years ago called Red Riding. It’s set in the North and dealt with police corruption and the hunt for the Yorkshire ripper. I thought it was excellent, but I don’t know if it would go down well for American audiences.    

I was going to suggest this as well – thought I’d better check if anyone else had suggested it first (The Mark Addy / Sean Bean connection for one).

For me, it is probably the best TV show I’ve ever seen, very dark – and at times a tad confusing. I would agree that it is possibly not the best sell to an overseas viewer because it is very much anchored in 80′s Yorkshire. The acting was superb though, and anyone who thinks Mark Addy is a bit of a lightweight should definitely take a look.

State of Play – again UK based (the original series that the recent Russell Crowe film was based on) – Before Red Riding, it was my #1.

For more global shows, my favourites have probably been:

1 – The already oft-mentioned Sopranos
2 – Deadwood
3 – Spartacus (purely for the surprise factor – that it developed from a bit of cheese into a very watchable show that could have a few things in common with GoT)
4 – Band of Brothers – the filming and tension was spectacular

5 – Finally a bit of fluff – the new BBC adaptation of Sherlock Holmes – 3 episodes of a reworking into a contemporary setting with Benedict Cumberbatch in the title roll, and for me one of the best ever Holmes’

I just finished watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand and it was awesome. Very close to the atmospere represented in GOT. Lots of sex and violence, plus GREAT acting. I’ve seen Rome, very well done by HBO. Also great acting. I loved the first season of Deadwood (where I became a huge Ian McShane fan), but felt the show went down hill after that. Then I watched the abomination that was Pillars of the Earth. HORRIBLE…don’t waste your time. Was very disappointed by Ian McShane in that. Yet it was nominated for a Golden Globe. Didn’t get that at all. At least it didn’t win.
I would have to suggest Dexter as one of THE BEST shows out there. Not a period piece of course, but absolutely AMAZING. I also enjoy Nurse Jackie, United States of Tara, and True Blood. Someone suggested that I check out Breaking Bad so that’s what I’ll be watching up until April.

fraser: The lion in winter is a old movie but still packs a punch loads of family strife  

Here, here! A brilliant, modern, witty screenplay by James Goldman let Peter O’Toole, Katherine Hepburn, and a very young Anthony Hopkins play three giants of history using dialogue as weaponry. Cersei has nothing on Goldman’s Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was queen of both England and France, had eight children, and probably slept with not only Henry’s older brother but his father as well in pursuit of her goals.

FlayedandDisplayed,

You’re correct but I think some of the same writers are going to be hired as free-lance, one-script-per basis. FD did so much work on the 6 S1 eps (writing and rewriting) he apparently got into “might as well do it myself” mode, but with 12-22 eps, only a few writers have carried that workload in TV history, I believe.

Rome, Shmome…Watch I ,Claudius. ( I was pleased to see GRRM reccommend it )

Rome is fine for lavishness, otherwise..meh. Fine actors delivering cheesy soap opera..I, Claudius has lots of intrigue ,lots of characters ,great script. Fine actors delivering material worthy of their abilities. ( Great costumes)

The first two seasons of Deadwood are especially good , and I still resent that Carnivale was given up on so soon. The last part of the second season suffered from having the ends tied up too quickly.

The shows mentioned so far have been nearly exclusively from HBO or AMC. This is warranted, as those networks have been making quality TV shows for the better part of a decade, HBO slightly longer and better.

But I watch a lot of USA Network. All their dramas are really good. Psych, White Collar, Burn Notice, and Royal Pains are all fantastic bits of TV. Their new series Fairly Legal begins tomorrow and the previews look good to me.

burth,

Great list of recommendations.

I recommend watching Rome, then I, Claudius. I, Claudius picks up just a few short years after Rome ends.

Legend of the Seeker is all you really need.

Barring “Spartacus” and “the Tudors”, I’m enclined to agree with most of the above suggestions. Never really gave the former a chance, mainly because I can’t get past it’s visual style. It’s like someone’s taken 300 and turned it into a bloody pop-up book for horny teenagers. And all the slow motion. Jaysus.

I, Claudius is grand. Watched the whole thing on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4U02VnWs1A) a few months ago. A bit silly at times, and there’s this unashamed jingoism present throughout, though that’s all on the source material rather than the production.

Deadwood, Rome, and Firefly all kick arse. Never watched the Wire, alas. This despite people constantly suggesting it to me, and having never heard a word said against it. Going to have to get the whole series on DVD at some point.

Red Riding’s worth bearing with. If you can’t understand the Tyke – which isn’t all that strong, really – I suggest struggling through it. It’ll make it all the easier to understand Bean and Addy in GoT.

I am still finishing up season 1 of Spartacus. Some decent backstabbing, but its really all just the filler for the over-done fight scenes with blood overlays.

Firefly was a great ride. Unique feel, good characters, but not the same mood as GoT really.

If we are going to leave it open for films, Excalibur feels like a fantasy film more than what has come out in current markets. It is about the characters and their world and what marks they leave on it, very GoT. Plus you get a dynamite cast.

What a fun topic.

#1. Lost.

#2. Battlestar Galactica – Be sure to start with the mini-series prequel or you might feel lost. **If you like BSG, give the prequel, Caprica, a try. It goes even further in terms of humanity, religion, consciousness, etc. I’m currently rewatching.

#3. The Wire: I’ve never seen anything like it. It takes one city and then completely dissects it. Awesome show. Plus, OMAR!
BTW: How about Idris Elba & Dominic West in future seasons of Game of Thrones?

#4. Six Feet Under – my favorite family drama.

#5. Deadwood: I’m not going to pretend I understood even a 1/4 of what those characters were saying, but it was a joy to listen to them say it. Really colorful characters.

#6. Breaking Bad. AMC’s best TV show and Season 3 was the best in TV for 2010.

#7. Treme

#8. Rubicon. Forget the conspiracy theory. This one was all about the characters and the really great acting. I miss it still.

#9. Carnivale

#10. Oz – Damn, HBO has a lot of really excellent TV series! And it all started with a ground-breaking show called Oz. Really interesting show with almost as much murder and backstabbing as you’ll find in Game of Thrones! After the brutality on Oz, Dexter, Spartacus, True Blood, etc. don’t faze me in terms of blood and gore. Plus, an interesting look at the penal system of the US. You’ll probably recognize some very famous actors who got their start here.

I didn’t like Rome, but I’d like to recommend Indira Varma for a role in Game of Thrones.

By the way, anyone planning on checking out any new series? I’m interested in Mildred Pierce (HBO), The Killing (AMC), Camelot (Starz), & The Borgias (Showtime).

A lot of great shows mentioned. I agree completely with The Wire, Rubicon, Twin Peaks and Firefly. One show that hasn’t been mentioned yet is “Intelligence”. Great espionage/drama that takes place mainly north of the 49th. Only two seasons unfortunately (damn you CBC!!)

What picture of Sansa????

Winter Is Coming:
It was snuck onto HBO.com as a background photo. It has since been taken down, but not before the fans got a hold of it. The photo’s file name includes a date, 01/26/11, which leads me to believe it was put up early. We’ll know for sure if they release the hi-res version of the photo next Wed.    

Vohdre,

I agree with Justified on FX. It’s certainly not on the same level of The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, etc. but still a fun show. It really picked up at the end of the first season.

Looks like you have a lot of great discoveries ahead of yourself Winter. I only recently watched The Wire and was absolutely blown away. Just remember it’s a slow build and takes a while to really suck you in. I’m just starting the Sopranos and up to the third season of Mad Men. I also recently discovered Firefly (thanks netflix streaming) and it really is… shiny. My wife thought it sounded dumb until I started an episode (Our mrs. Reynolds) in the same room while she was reading. It took about 10 minutes before the book was gone and she was hooked.

Damyrn of Dorne,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

ooh hoo hoo hee… hee.. ahhh

I needed a good laugh

CAPRICA

I was remiss in not adding Treme, Spooks, Misfits, Kings and Fringe to my list, all advised by others in posts above. Fringe takes a while to find its feet (or so it seems) but the story threads are there from the beginning, and it’s a lot of fun trying to spot the Observer in every episode.

I did love Band of Brothers but I found it really interesting to consider it in light of The Pacific – one of them made pre 9/11 and the other after years of demoralising war, they have such a different attitude to war.

A few other shows not mentioned (or did I just not see them above?)- Jekyll, The Lost Room,The Unit, Strike Back, Paradox, Cadfael, Ultraviolet

And a shout out to Boston Legal.

nothing to do with the genre but… Archer. amazing.

Murphy’s Law is another good series I haven’t seen mentioned, but you really have to skip seasons 1-2 and head straight to the amazing seasons 3-5. Each “season” is very short, and consists of 3-6 chapters. James Nesbitt is amazing as the undercover cop, and this series is the reason I want him so much in GoT.

Amir Mishali,

I like me some James Nesbitt too; awesome in Jekyll, but who would you have him be? The Red Viper? The Onion Knight? Grey Worm? Mance Rayder?

Oh my, I’ll never manage to read the whole thread of comments, so I’ll get down to business immediately:

- Band of Brothers (HBO). It has my favourite Edmure, Damian Lewis, as the recently departed Major Dick Winters. Also another slew of Britons disguised as Americans, for example a very young James McAvoy in one episode (another nice Edmure in my mind).

- LOST. As Richard Straub said, it’s very uneven. Appreciating LOST is very much a personal thing, difficult to explain; I watched it for the mystery, surprise and Jeff Fahey (favourite Blackfish), not certainly for inner logic or the despised love triangle. My family hated it with a passion; a large group of my friends here in Italy loved it with equal passion, to the point that we had a Dharma Party for the ending.

- Life on Mars (UK version). All right, I cheated, I wanted a third item but I don’t watch much TV myself. I’ve never watched it, but my family says wonders of it, and Philip Glenister is a hunk. If I had time, it would be the first thing I’d pick up.

I am a TV junky and I can only agree with the choices of my fellow posters (Rome, Wire, Galactica, Firefly, Spartacus etc).
What I would like to add is:

Chuck:
1 hour long spy/comedy, absolutely hilarious and great cast.

Clone Wars:
If you like Star Wars (who doesn’t?) and were dissappointed by the prequels (who wasn’t?), you will find this series far superior to the latest movies. As with most series it gets better (and darker) from season to season.

Walking Dead:
If you like Zombies or have read the comics…

Castle: If you have seen Firefly and like the Captain Mel, this is a must.

Battlestar Galactica: as said by many, a great show of naturalistic science-fiction, dealing with survival, politics, ethics, destiny and faith. A polarizing ending, just like the best shows should have. And that’s the frakking truth!

Lost: IMHO, simply great. Yes, even the finale wich split the fanbase in half (see above), a couple of dropped plotlines, yes, but no real plot-hole (yeah, I’m on the I-loved-the-finale side). A must see, even just to say you hated it.

Rome: awesome first season, a meh-inducing second, but absolutely worth watching. What to say more? It’s HBO, baby!

Sherlock: short, witty and fascinating. Benedict just *is* Sherlock, in all his lack of modesty and “high-function sociopathy”. The chemistry between Sherlock and John will capture you, and if you read the books you’ll love the subtle-and-not-so-subtle references. The second episode is -IMHO – a little disappointing, but the first and third are wonderful, expecially the first, a big example on how a book adaption should be done.

FlayedandDisplayed,

I was thinking Davos, but James Nesbitt is a chameleon that can play very varied characters.

Amir Mishali: FlayedandDisplayed, I was thinking Davos, but James Nesbitt is a chameleon that can play very varied characters.  Quote  Reply

Nesbitt is in New Zealand for the next 18 months doing The Hobbit so no real chance of him playing Davos.
You’ll have to wait till Season 3 at the earliest to see him in GoT.

There is a six week break in filming at some point mainly to allow Martin Freeman to film the next series of Sherlock but the chances of that break corrosponding to the filming of the Davos scenes in Season 2 seems pretty slim .

I don’t think anyone has come up with NCW as John Amsterdam in the short-lived New Amsterdam (8 episodes). A copy show with the twist that he is 400 years old! Also stars Zuleika Robinson (Lost).

rohwyn,

Oh, I guess I read it wrong. Sorry!

A lot of good shows have been mentioned, as well as a few I would not rate as highly. I have no new ideas that would be not a reshuffle of one of the lists above.
But I will take the liberty of getting up on my soapbox and rant, for if you want three shows to watch, my recommendation would be The Wire, The Wire and , of course, The Wire.
It makes me feel like a Jehovas Witness, in that I feel tempted to knock on stranger´s doors and ask them to watch the show.
It is that good. Really.
Not “The Sopranos of Middle Earth” for me.
I would actually prefer “The Wire of Newhon”.
I stop now, before I start to embarrass myself, and/or coming with spoilers.
Just do yourself a favor, and watch it.

Gwenno,
I totally agree with Homicide, and The Corner is a small, more intimate version of The Wire in many ways.

Winter (and anyone else this might apply to), i have one last thing to say about The Wire:

to preface, this is a story about my brother & me. i have watched the entire series 3 times, once as it aired & then 2 re-watches since. my brother was enjoying his ability to do absolutely as little as possible in the time before he started up law school.

so about two weeks before my brother started law school last year, he came over to my place to hang out. he had never see The Wire but knew that i raved about it, knew that i had named my cats Bunk & Omar after the show, and knew that i had been telling him for years that he had to watch it. i loaded up the first disc of the first season and we sat & watched the first 2 episodes in succession.

i had to leave to meet up with some friends for a few hours, but despite the invitation to join us my brother said he’d stay at my place until i got back. when i did, he had worked his way into disc 3 (that’s 6+ episodes). when he left the next day, he took the entire box set with him.

i gave him a call the next weekend to see how he was doing in preperation for law school & to see how he was enjoying The Wire. his response: “i finished it 2 days ago.” he watched every episode over the course of 6 days.

now, i’m sure you have a lot more on your plate than my brother did, but i tell you this story not to entertain, but to warn. this show is television crack (ironic given the subject matter). while you might not have the ability to sit & watch ~9 hours of The Wire, you will want to.

ENJOY! ;-)

Prankster: One show that I sadly can’t recommend, though it’s a big water-cooler show at the moment, is The Walking Dead. The first episode is pretty amazing, but after that it goes pretty far off the rails. There’s potential for it to still rally and become a great show next season, but for right now it’s a very awkwardly written show with thin characters that wastes a terrific premise. Of course, there’s only 6 episodes, so it’s not a huge struggle to check it out for yourself, but I’d say wait until you’ve seen more of the recommendations people are giving you.

I have to agree with this assessment of The Walking Dead. The show started really strong, and then the writing went downhill really fast. The last couple of episodes were painful. I really hope they fire the writing staff and get together a much better group for Season 2, because I’m willing to give it another shot.

cletus van damme,

Yay DS9!!! :D Especially the final season(s?) about the Domionion, it still holds a special place in my heart. You can almost skip the middle seasons… :)

The Wire, Firefly, Deadwood would be my number 1 picks with the Sopranos and Rome just behind those. Boardwalk Empire is growing on me, but I’m going to have to wait and see how things progress.
Still, plenty to keep everyone busy until GoT!

Oh, and miniseries you MUST watch John Adams and Band of Brothers. Both are FANTASTIC.

thanks everyone for the thread so far. I’ve seen many of these shows, loved some, and found some others not to my liking. but there are shows I’ve not seen and I’m going to look into them now. most of all The Wire.

what I would recommend and I don’t know if anything really relates to GoT are the following:

Firefly – sad when it ends but not having seen it would be far worse. it’s only 13 EPs and a movie, everyone who hasn’t seen it, just go ahead and do it already. there’s nothign to lose and so much to gain. I hate westerns and still love Firefly. even if you hate westerns and hate scifi, there’s still a good chance that you will love Firefly. give it a chance, it deserves it.

Farscape – emotional, character driven, wild and still believable (muppeds are fine with me as long as they behave consistently and understandably), great drama in space mixed with lots of fun

Buffy – great drama with vampires, great characters, great continuity, great dialog, funny and sad. so much more than what one would expect.

Battlestar Galactica – but without the last season or at least the last half of the last season. don’t expect an end, it’s better to just stop and pretend it didn’t have an end. …’and they have a plan’ is the biggest lie of this otherwise great series. no one there had any kind of plan. doesn’t stop it from being dark and gritty and real and emotional and have great characters and great stories and great acting. Kara Thrace is my hero, she’s so damaged and so functional at the same time, just too real and much too lovable (I’m a hetero girl, so not that kind of love but love nonetheless).

I also liked Heroes first season only, the rest was crap. and the new Doctor Who also first season only. David Tennant didn’t work for me at all, but since the 2005 series I’m a big fan of Christopher Eccleston. he’s imho one of the best actors alive. I’ve hunted down most of his films and TV series and loved most of it (Jude, Our Friends in the North, Strumpet, Let Him Have It, The Invisible Circus, The Second Coming).
Torchwood was good as well, not great but good.

and a second voice for:
Veronica Mars if you like detective stories and are not allergic to teenagers :) it’s good, it’s fun, it’s NOT another soapy High School series.

and some that haven’t been mentioned yet:

something really old:
Star Trek The Next Generation – I’m not a big fan of DS9, I actually prefer Voyager (better characters imho), but Next Generation was simply the best Star Trek for me. good characters, good thought provoking stories

ReGenesis – the first season, after that if you want to watch more you can but it isn’t as good anymore. not bad just not really good either. it’s about very modern kinds of (fictional) problems. almost scifi but much more real as for example Fringe (I’m watching this at the moment). it’s on the edge of science, or just beyond what’s actually possible at the moment. sometimes a bit scary when you’re asking yourself “could this really happen? maybe in ten years?” but interesting and very good drama with good characters and a season long story arc that actually gets resolved and does make sense.

and now my story about Rome:
I read ASoIaF and talked endlessly to all my friends about this fantastic fantasy series I’m reading. and the Lord of the Rings movies were there and they said maybe it will be filmed like the Lord of The Rings. and I simply said: No, that’s not possible. you can’t make a movie or 3 of this, it’s too much story. It might be possible to make a TV series. but no, no one could do this justice. it’s just a dream. not possible at all. and then there was Rome and I watched this and it was good and fun and everything but what got me excited most was that now I saw a possibility of these books I loved to be converted to video. these guys can do it I said to my friends. if Rome is a reality then ASoIaF in video format is at least possible.
and now they are doing it and they don’t cut half of the characters and eighty percent of the story. they are doing it right. at least it looks like that to me.
for me they don’t need direwolfs (dogs are fine) and they can even leave out the dragons and the others, just show people’s reactions to them and talk about them but don’t show them on screen. would be fine with me, as long as they stay true to the story and the characters and the world I’m happy. and it looks like they really try hard to do just that.

PS: sorry for any bad English, I’m German.

idefix

I got the Wire complete series on DVD this christmas and had watched four seasons before the year was out. Then work interfered with season five but I finished it a couple of days later. The only other series that have drawn me in like this is Twin Peaks and BSG. The Wire could easily be the best series ever made but in fact there is one even better (IMHO), one that I suppose few of you have seen. It is a Danish series from the seventies called Matador. It’s set in a small town in the years before, during and after WWII. The story, the characters, the acting, the sets and costumes, everything is amazing. Well, it may have very little in common with GoT, but I still wanted to mention it. I might add that I’m a Swede who simply loves the Danish language, and subtitles aren’t really necessary for me in this instance. Would be interesting to know if anyone has seen Matador who aren’t from Scandinavia.

I have not seen:
Firefly
The Wire-husband keeps changing the channel
Carnivale-people keep telling me I need to see this one
Kings
Rubicon
Firday Night Lights-only saw an episode or two and liked it
Horatio Hornblower
BSG
Dexter-don’t want to root for a serial killer
Treme-husband changes channel (we have only 1 TV)

We have seen many of the other shows mentioned here. For us it all started with
Sopranos- this is why we got HBO in the first place
Deadwood-great show. I talked a co-worker into HBO for this one
Big Love-good show
Rome-not so impressed. kinda stopped watching
Six Feet Under-liked the first season or so

Damages-good show, underated
Justified-good show, will watch the second season
Terriers-loved it. WHY was it cancelled
Caprica-good show WHY was it cancelled
Lost-I liked it,but husband was lost in Lost. He would go to bed and read. I think I missed a couple of seasons, no matter the acting was like little excellent vignettes.
Spartacus-husband liked it, I would read
Tudors-OK entertaining. over the top costumes
Chuck-cute show
Castle-cute show
Weeds-surprisingly funny(do not try this at home)
“24″-good for the first coulple of seasons then got too repetitious and PC
Fringe-I like it. Husband goes and reads
True Blood-first couple of seasons good. not anymore
Board Walk Empire-OK
The Big C-surprisingly good/funny/sad
The Station Agent-excellent
John Adams-excellent

One HBO show that gets little respect is Oz. That show was brilliant and really set the standard for their shows going forward. Some aspects Oz shares with Thrones is the grey areas the characters operate in. There is no good or bad, just people trying to survive. There are also some highly unpredictable plot twists. It is one of the only shows to keep the same writer for the entire run in Tom Fontana. This allows a continuity you just don’t see when they pass the torch to other writers. Deadwood and The Wire are both great as well. Both Oz and The Wire have huge, intricate plots that mirror a lot of the complexity of GoT.

OneTooFree,

Amen to that! Unfortunately I worked when I watched The Wire, but to watch a season or two during a weekend was no problem.

I loved Firefly so much, my poodles are named Kaylee and Simon! (omg their personalities match too!)

As an aside: Thank you WiC for trying to keep us occupied while we wait for the premiere! Like preschoolers waiting for snack-time, we fans of this site are chomping at the bit, stomping, squealing, holding our breaths, shoving and jostling and warging our pants in anticipation. We can SMELL the show, and it smells a lot like apples and peanut-butter and we WANT it! And like good leaders, WiC is here to suggest stuff for us to do while we wait.

It’s a symbiotic relationship.

ATM my fav shows are Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Weeds, Dexter, United States of Tara. Past recommendations would be Carnivale, Firefly, Stargate Atlantis (if you want a little Jason Momoa action that is).

I apologize for multiple posts, phone internet is a pain, but I wanted to comment on other things.

I’m surprised only a couple of others have mentioned Breaking Bad, it really is such a great show. The first 2 seasons were a little slow but it picked up tremendously in season 3.

Dollhouse is one I forgot to mention, it finished after 2 seasons but Joss had a chance to wrap it up so season 2 is VERY story driven. Such a good show, quite complex actually.

Walking Dead, ugh let’s try and forget this piece of garbage ever existed, which is a shame because I was very hopeful with it being about zombies and all. The acting was terrible, next to no storyline and weak unlikeable characters.

Breaking Bad is the best show on television hands down, although I just finished watching the entire Deadwood series on netflix and it is amazing as well. I highly recommend both of those shows, although Deadwood is probably a little closer to how the feel of Thrones will be with its brutal violence, and simmering, dirty language.

Lost was good until the final 2 seasons, but I did not care for how they wrapped up the series, and left soooo many questions unanswered.

I’ve skimmed about halfway through this, something I might recommend that doesn’t seem to be discussed very much yet: Damages on FX. I find it’s character construction and interaction fascinating which is something that (to me) made George’s series one of the more entrancing things I’ve ever read.

And for slightly darker/more brutal sense of humor than HIMYM /Big Bang Theory, etc, etc, I’d recommend It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Not for everyone, though.

Jamie,

I can’t comment on Dexter because I don’t get the gist of the show. I’ve never seen it. The main reason is that my husband changes the channel, but if I really really wanted to see it, i could wrest the remote out of his hand. It just didn’t seem worth it to see a show glorifying premeditated murder. You say he just kills those who need killing. Like that guy who was raping and killing prostitutes? Like those guys who say they are pro-life, but kill the abortion doctor? Does Dexter set himself up as judge,jury and executioner?
I’m sure it is a well done show, but I don’t know,isn’t the premise kind of ick?

I am currently watching Beauty and the Beast and re-watching Firefly. I didn’t realise how involved GRRM was involved in this series (Beauty) – his name just keeps on popping up!

Suggestion from left field. Among all the procedural shows which frankly seem to me all identical to each other, I watch only one: NCIS. Mileage varies wildly, and so does, unfortunately, the quality of the writing from ep to ep. But I personally find that, within the formulaic stiffness of the plots, the humour, the acting and the interaction between the leads are generally superior to those in other shows.

To see what I mean, WiC, you can pick up any ep, or better yet the one called “Broken Bird” (6.13) Having already voiced my partiality for Mark Harmon as a US Blackfish, I suggest that you give a good look to Scottish legend David McCallum (Ducky, the pathologist), who would be stunning in the role of any intense old man in ASOIAF.

Hoster Tully is of course the first that comes to my mind (no matter that McCallum and Harmon do not look remotely like each other :D)

Trivia: McCallum is especially know as Ilya Kuryakin in “Man from Uncle” (when they reference UNCLE in NCIS it’s histerically funny), and as Steel in “Sapphire and Steel”, but to me he was unforgettable in a 1974 TV series called “Kidnapped”, from the Stevenson novel, where he played the dashing Scottish rebel Alan Breck Stewart. It’s just a few eps, but it’s hard to find nowadays, maybe on Amazon.

OldGran,

Hey Old Gran,

I really don’t agree the others who are essentialy saying “Dexter is OK because he only kills bad people!” Even Dexter himself wouldn’t agree with that statement! I don’t agree it glorifies serial killing, because indeed Dexter himself knows he is pretty evil at the core. What he does is definitely not morally OK: and this is mostly because of motive. He doesn’t kill evil people because they need to die – he kills evil people because he needs to kill.

So anyway that’s where the show is interesting – even though it’s super morally grey you still can’t help but root for him… because he’s really likable (and downright hilarious), despite this core darkness (pick your favorite Lannister as a rough analog).

I can’t recommend FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS highly enough. And I watch a lot of TV. It’s easily the best pure drama on right now. It’s a show that like GoT focuses on the characters more than anything and does so in a phenominal fashion. The cast while constantly rotating has someone managed to flow perfectly, stabalized by a few core characters. Sound familiar much?

I love many of the other shows mentioned, but this one rarely is and trumps them all even though it’s a non sci-fi/fantasy series.

Trust me, check it.

HBO’s shows are a given. I haven’t watched all of them. Never did get into True Blood or Big Love, and the early stuff (Oz and Sorpanos) is on my list to see. That said, Deadwood, Rome, Carnivale, Six Feet Under, Flight of the Conchords, Curb Your Enthusiasm…these are all really, really strong.

For stuff more recent, and non-HBO, I think Breaking Bad is probably the best current show, Dexter running a close second. I’ve received DVDs of the first two seasons of Mad Men but so far I’m only a few episodes in. I like what I’ve seen, though. Rescue Me is another one I’m behind on (I’m in the third season) but I love it so far.

Also, The West Wing has some brilliant dialogue.

I’ve also received Twin Peaks as a Christmas gift, and watched the pilot so far. Interesting show! I loved the atmosphere. What a great mood it evokes. Those should get you started.

Charis Bennie,

I was really amazed by some of the supporting performers on Dollhouse. Dushku has some descent moment and some really bad ones (see her attempt at an emotional scene in the finale). However, even at her best she was consistently outshined by more talented people in smaller roles.

There is a movie with Sean Bean called Black Death. It´s a medival horror, set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague in England. A young monk is tasked with learning the truth about reports of people being brought back to life in a small village. Sean Bean plays the leader of a group of warriors that will be lead there by the monk.

Thanks to Friday Night Lights I can actually sit and watch football with my family at thanksgiving and not want to puke. First thing that ever made me care about the sport, and that’s because it made me care about the characters. A lot of interesting politics involved too.

Rome, Firefly, Deadwood, Battlestar Galactica, The Wire and Lost,

Exclude BSG (though it had its moments) and Lost and you have a pretty good list.

If you are not prejudiced against so-called “kids” show see “Avatar: The Last Airbender”.

It’s definitely up there in terms of storytelling with aSoIaF and The Wire.

The IT Crowd. Really funny UK show. Just re-watched Season 1 in one night (6 episodes per season, about 3 hours total).