[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 30 November 2010 - 01:39 PM, said:

... Genre shows that coast a lot of money are always done well on HBO.

It's this that gives me hope for GoT.

BAND OF BROTHERS is legendary for all the right reasons and even some of the wrong ones.

Liked but didn't love ROME. GENERATION KILL wasn't as clever as it thought it was.

[Ulrik]

For Generation Kill lovers I recommend original book, IMO its much more...expressive.

[Slow Ben]

Toss up between Band of Brothers and Rome.

Deadwood would be in the mix if they'd stopped after 2 seasons.

[McLovin]

Miniseries: Band of Brothers wins hands down. I also liked From the Earth to the Moon, though that kinda dragged in places. I really wanted to like The Pacific, but it only about 50% worked for me.

Series: The Sopranos, though the last 2 seasons kinda aimlessly wandered a bit. I never watched The Wire. I started to watch Treme but got bored with it. Curb Your Enthusiasm is basically variations on the same joke every episode, so I got bored with that too.

I usually only get HBO when I think a good miniseries/original movie is coming, then I drop it once it's over. The Sopranos seasons 1-4, for example, I actually watched on DVD, then got HBO once I was hooked.

[foolio]

band of brothers. Personally i thought it was the greatest telivision series ever....
flight of the concords had its momments...
I love East bound down and out.
I was insanely dissapointed with Rome.

This post has been edited by foolio: 30 November 2010 - 05:38 PM

[Slow Ben]

Also...East Bound and Down!


"You wanna know about relationships? I know all there is to know. Just ask my second wife, Tina. Yeah, she was a stripper. And if Montel Williams wants to talk shit some more then he can go fuck himself, 'cause those charges were dropped. "

[Bulwyf]

Band of Brothers, Rome, Boardwalk Empire.

heh, easy because those are the only 3 HBO series I've watched
Going to check out GoT thou so it'll be 4 soon!

[Raj Ahten]

1. Wire
2. Deadwood
3. Entourage

[HoosierDaddy]

Band of Brothers is by far my favorite thing HBO has ever done, and that is speaking volumes.

Followed by:

Rome
1st and 10 (fuck yeah I'm old and had cable as a child)

Dream On, Entourage, Real Time with Bill Maher, Eastbound and Down, and True Blood are runners up. Followed by Generation Kill, Sopranos, and Big Love. Who are barely above Flight of the Concords,From Earth to the Moon, and every single stand-up special by Lewis Black.

This post has been edited by HoosierDaddy: 04 December 2010 - 06:44 AM

[Slow Ben]

HoosierDaddy, on 04 December 2010 - 06:39 AM, said:

1st and 10 (fuck yeah I'm old and had cable as a child)

Yes!

[Ceda Cicero]

Man that's a tough question, I'm such a diehard fan of so many HBO series. Six Feet Under is probably my all time favorite show (I bow to Alan Ball for creating it and American Beauty, but True Blood I could give two shits about.) The Sopranos, the Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Deadwood are up there as well though. I loved Rome but I also feel like they were pretty harsh in their portrayal of Cicero as a spineless, vapid aristocrat. The Wire may, among other accolades, simply the most intelligent series I've ever watched.

[MTS]

Ciceronian, on 08 December 2010 - 04:13 PM, said:

Man that's a tough question, I'm such a diehard fan of so many HBO series. Six Feet Under is probably my all time favorite show (I bow to Alan Ball for creating it and American Beauty, but True Blood I could give two shits about.) The Sopranos, the Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Deadwood are up there as well though. I loved Rome but I also feel like they were pretty harsh in their portrayal of Cicero as a spineless, vapid aristocrat. The Wire may, among other accolades, simply the most intelligent series I've ever watched.

Yeah, their portrayal of Cicero was pretty dodgy, but it was a very pro-Caesarean series so that was inevitable, I guess.

Sounds like I need to watch Deadwood though.

[ansible]

You can't beat The Wire.

Curb is pretty, pretty good.

[Werthead]

1. The Wire
2. Rome
3. Band of Brothers
4. The Larry Sanders Show
5. John Adams
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm
7. True Blood
8. Extras (although a coproduction with the BBC, so may not count)

I haven't seen DEADWOOD, TREME, BOARDWALK EMPIRE, HUNG, ENTOURAGE, BIG LOVE, OZ, THE CORNER, CARNIVALE, THE PACIFIC, IN TREATMENT or GENERATION KILL (yet). Being in the UK these are all shown on different stations and at different times. Was never really interested in THE SOPRANOS. Saw a few episodes and wasn't that impressed, same with SEX AND THE CITY and SIX FEET UNDER.

HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET was an NBC show, not a HBO one, although many behind-the-scenes personnel and several actors went on to THE WIRE (in different roles.

Gothos, on 30 November 2010 - 01:19 PM, said:

While I'll certainly agree that seasons 4 and 5 derive in theme from the first three, I wouldn't call them weaker, and I don't think they slipped in any way, shape or form. Sure, the drug trade takes a back seat there, but as I see it the series evolved and expanded to encompass a whole city's life, from bottom to top. While politics and newspapers aren't neccesarily as 'cool' as cops and dealers, the creators of the show made an outstanding job of bringing these areas home without any bullshit to make it look cooler. Bubbles setting his life straight is quite possibly my favourite theme of the whole series.

I'd go further and say that Season 4 is the best season of the series (a very widely-held opinion, it appears). It has the roughest start where you don't quite know what they're doing but the final episode of the season is an absolute heart-breaker. S5 also gets a tough rep, but its problems come from not having enough time to fully explore its themes (David Simon's own fault, he admits; he asked HBO for 22 episodes for the last two seasons, then forgot about that when he needed an extra episode for S4 to tell the political storyline after the planned spin-off was cancelled). Otherwise I really liked it, and the last episode is awesome.

[flea]

1. The Wire
2. The Sopranos
3. Deadwood
4. Band of Brothers

The Wire is a great 19th century novel. It shows rather than tells throughout and, even though it is the gritiest of shows, and contains the most wonderful of unsentimental pathos of any series I have ever seen. The first season does not compare favorably to the Sopranos, but the series builds each season.

One of the writers, Richard Price, has written GREAT books. Check them out, especially Clockers, which reads like the first season of the series.

The first season of the Sopranos is simply the greatest thing I have even seen on television. Tony Soprano saying “Cunnilingus and psychiatry brought us to this” is, imnsho, one of the greatest lines ever. After season three, however, there was a large drop-off.

I have never experienced better and more complex writing than what Deadwood offered.

Larry Sanders was a great show. It is apparently coming to IFC and I can't wait.

I have not seen Six Feet Under. I should rent it this summer. People I trust rave about it.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is so great I often can't watch it -- "Don't do it Larry. Don't say it Larry. Shit. He said it. I can't watch this."

Rome was damn fun. I LOVED at how well it evoked the ancient world. A bit too much of a soap opera for me. And, of course, I knew what going to happen. Telling it large from the perspective of the two soldiers was, however, brilliant. This series needed at least four seasons. It also made me want to go back to I, Claudius.

I hate to think that we might be able to look back at a golden age for HBO. I enjoy True Blood, but this and anything currently on do not come close to the older shows.

[Vengeance]

The wire
Deadwood
Rome
The band of Brotherhood
The soprano's
True Blood
Six feet under
Carnival
John Adams

[hmqb]

Definitely Flight of the Conchords.

Since the "s" in conchords is in bold, according to the official rules it pretty much places it above everything else forever, so... this discussion kind of became useless.

[Aptorian]

I watched some Boardwalk Episodes over christmas.

Man that show is pornographic. Like shockingly so for an American show. One of the last episodes I watched had like a 5 min scene with one of the female characters having some kind of lesbian affair. It just went on and on. That was a slightly awkward 5 minutes sitting and watching 30s soft core porn with the parents.

Still a good show. When it gets awesome it gets awesome fast. I really like the nods to various characters of the 20s and 30s.

Steve Buschemi is awesome in every scene.

[RodeoRanch]

Band of Brothers and Rome stand out for me.