I have only seen the first four episodes of Treme but it is pretty promising so far.
Bored to Death was ok, but not quite good enough to hold me for an entire season. Might get back to it at some point though.
And Curb Your Enthusiasm IMO is the funniest show on television.
Seasons 5 and 6 of Entourage were poor but Season 7 redeemed it I thought. In any case there are only 6 more episodes to go and then that show's being turfed.
Other than that though, yeah HBO is lacking a little. Hopefully Boardwalk Empire and Luck (January premiere, Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte) are able to pick up the slack a little. Season 2 of Eastbound & Down also shows a little promise.
AMC is doing pretty well right now with Breaking Bad and Mad Men.
Showtime has Dexter, Weeds (which I don't particularly like but a lot of people do), and Californication.
Hell, even FX has Sons of Anarchy, Rescue Me, Justified, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Last edited by malcolmk14; 09-15-2010 at 02:16 PM.
With BB ineligible at next year's Emmy's, pretty much every award is Boardwalk Empire's... if they want it.
Mad Men might have something to say about that. They've won Best Drama three years in a row and this season has been nothing short of amazing. Some critics calling the episode two weeks ago one of the best hours in TV history.
BB not being eligible means that the actor and supporting actor categories will have different winners. But given what Jon Hamm has done this season on Mad Men, he's almost a shoe in for Best Actor.
The Sopranos almost ruined television for me. I don't know if I'll ever enjoy a tv show on so many levels as much as that one.
Entourage and Curb are pretty damn good though.
All those non HBO shows don't quite grab me.
I have high hopes for Boardwalk Empire.
__________________
A few weeks after crashing head-first into the boards (denting his helmet and being unable to move for a little while) following a hit from behind by Bob Errey, the Calgary Flames player explains:
"I was like Christ, lying on my back, with my arms outstretched, crucified"
-- Frank Musil - Early January 1994
Oddly enough my favourite show ever wasn't even on cable. Third Watch on NBC. No police drama has even come close to that brilliance. As of late I'm liking shows like Covert Affairs, Justified, etc... a sort of genre I was never previously interested in.
Oddly enough my favourite show ever wasn't even on cable. Third Watch on NBC. No police drama has even come close to that brilliance. As of late I'm liking shows like Covert Affairs, Justified, etc... a sort of genre I was never previously interested in.
I'll take The Wire and the Shield over Third Watch as top police drama in a heartbeat. Third Watch had its charm, but IMO, it was far from brilliant. Pretty formulaic and cliche.
This show looks amazing. Sunday Night is going to break my PVR. Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Mad Men, Bored to Death, Eastbound and Down, Family Guy, Cleveland Show.
There is also a new Sunday HBO show called Call Me Fitz which looks pretty good.
It appears that Call Me Fitz is a Canadian made show. I was going to say it looked like Jason Priestley's attempt at his own Californication, but I'll give it a shot to try and support some Canadian shows.
true, but they also haven't made well received shows the last few years
Hung is panned by critics, Entourage has been the last few years (even though I liked it during that time), I liked How to make it in America as well but I don't think it got a lot of press from critics
John from Cincinnati was very bad I thought
They used to be the network of the "best" shows on TV when it had the Sopranos, the Wire, Six Feet Under
now AMC has Mad Men, Breaking Bad (and Rubicon which has potential)
Showtime has Dexter
The best show they have in terms of quality is probably True Blood, but even that has almost as many detractors as it does people who like it
HBO has been struggling lately was the only point I was trying to make
I agree, HBO's hey days were 4-5 years ago when Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Curb etc were all on.
They've been without a great flagship Drama for a while now. Shows like Treme (disappointing) have really failed to carry that torch and they've been filling the gaps with quirky comedies like Flight of the Concords and the Ricky Gervais Show (both excellent). Of course, they still have Curb, which is my favourite comedy ever.
I'd say AMC is on the biggest roll right now with Mad Men and Breaking Bad - Rubicon is also quite good too.
