What are most original and highly rated TV/Series you've ever seen?

jaybee said:
I guess "24" would have to get a mention because at the time it was unique and pretty groundbreaking. I wonder whether I should go back and watch them but I suspect they haven't aged well.

I think Breaking Bad was obviously fantastic as it built characters really well and allowed you to sympathise with a criminal life and all the baggage that comes with managing it and family.
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I was thinking Breaking Bad, then I realised that the drug-dealing anti-hero had already been done in Weeds :D

cheesyboy said:
More recently, Bojack Horseman has really pushed the envelope. The shallowness and loneliness of 'success', among other despairs of life (the ultimate lie of striving for a 'dream' and the emptiness of achieving it). That human connection is the real 'dream', but it's not what we're sold.
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Oh yes, Bojack is unique as hell in that respect!
 
Quite liked Wayward Pines - not the most original but did pull it off quite well for the most part but second series they could have been a lot more clever with and not something that has been done much in quite that way.

Travelers as someone mentioned was likewise something that hasn't been overly done/some original elements.

Sadly both cancelled at what was quite pivotal points.
 
Halt and catch fire is my top show.

Friday Night Lights TV show was surprisingly enjoyable.

Maniac on Netflix is a good miniseries.

Recently just finished Search Party with Alia Shawkat. Maybe from Arrested Development. Very funny and dark show.
 
Rroff said:
Quite liked Wayward Pines - not the most original but did pull it off quite well for the most part but second series they could have been a lot more clever with and not something that has been done much in quite that way.
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You remind me, I need to finish off the books, started on holiday 5 years back and never completed, was a very interesting story.
 
Intruders from 2014. James Frain, Mira Sorvino and an adult-acting 10 year old Millie Bobby Brown. Story about a secret society of people who reincarnate after death.
 
The West Wing - Sorkin writes (& often recycles his previous work) some of what I think are the best scripts for both film and TV and I think he peaked at West Wing. We'd seen some "behind the scenes" of various Presidents in many many movies but I think this was the first time a TV show delved so deeply into how the upper sections of the US government works "behind the scenes", well as much as Sorkin thinks it does/should anyway.
 
john_smith said:
The Wire
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As good as “The Wire” was, in my opinion “Homicide: Life on the Street”, also set in Baltimore, was better.
Where “The Wire” was gritty, “Homicide” came across as more street wise, with more intelligent cops.
Here is a piece in The Guardian about it;


The best cop show of recent times – one of the most innovative and influential dramas of all time – was set not in New York, Miami or LA, but in Baltimore. It featured a squad of embattled, super (street) smart, sardonic detectives fighting against the drug dealing and killing blitzing their beloved city. This series stemmed from the pen of the godlike David Simon and was as literate, funny and deep as television could be. But it was not The Wire. It was Homicide: Life On The Street.

Homicide: Life On The Street was even better than The Wire. Yeah – as Chris Rock likes to cry defiantly – I said it! The show ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, making the new box set a glorious 122 episodes; twice as many as The Wire. It is thus the perfect gear for any Wireheads jonesing for a fix of Simon-flavoured cop drama. The series was based on Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets, David Simon's astonishing record of his time "embedded" with the Baltimore police.
 
Jean-F said:
As good as “The Wire” was, in my opinion “Homicide: Life on the Street”, also set in Baltimore, was better.
Where “The Wire” was gritty, “Homicide” came across as more street wise, with more intelligent cops.
Here is a piece in The Guardian about it;


The best cop show of recent times – one of the most innovative and influential dramas of all time – was set not in New York, Miami or LA, but in Baltimore. It featured a squad of embattled, super (street) smart, sardonic detectives fighting against the drug dealing and killing blitzing their beloved city. This series stemmed from the pen of the godlike David Simon and was as literate, funny and deep as television could be. But it was not The Wire. It was Homicide: Life On The Street.

Homicide: Life On The Street was even better than The Wire. Yeah – as Chris Rock likes to cry defiantly – I said it! The show ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, making the new box set a glorious 122 episodes; twice as many as The Wire. It is thus the perfect gear for any Wireheads jonesing for a fix of Simon-flavoured cop drama. The series was based on Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets, David Simon's astonishing record of his time "embedded" with the Baltimore police.
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thank you. I’ll check it out.

112eps sounds amazing.
 
"Defying Gravity" from 2009. Slow burn but I loved where it was going. I was genuinely sad when it was cancelled but really pleased that the man behind it all posted a synopsis of what he has planned for the remaining, cancelled series. In my mind a truly kind thing to do for the fans.
 
A lot of good ones I agree with already, some older ones that were original to me.

The Rise and Fall of Reginal Perrin:

UK sitcom about a guy faking his death and coming back, pretty out there for a 1970's sitcom.
Didn't watch it till repeats in the 80s as a kid, always thought was original. Starring the always good Leonard Rossiter also appeared in Kubrick's 2001 and Rising Damp, another classic and also an original sitcom in its own right notable for an early, highly positive portrayal of a black character in a UK TV show.


Oz:

The original, pull no punches style HBO show that they later became so well known for, absolutely brutal prison drama with 4th wall breaking from the early 2000's. Some cast cross over with The Sopranos and a similar feel overall. Hard to watch but I liked it as much as the Sopranos when it was being shown. Don't know if I'd re-watch it though, some brutal scenes.
 
I think I'll also add The Office to the list, its success really allowed the "mockumentary" genre to flourish and in turn allowed the success of stuff like Reno911, What We Do In The Shadows, Parks and Recreation, Trailer Park Boys etc
 
South Park - it was "shocking" at the time it first started with kids swearing and doing immoral stuff to the point it's at now as a scarily accurate social commentary using said kids and the "lovable" characters to hold up the mirror.
 
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