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The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time

Personally I would have included Lars Von Trier's original version of The Kingdom.

Spooky, dark,funny and weird. Stephen King's remake was ok - but didn't have the same bleak atmosphere of Von Trier's show.

Come to think of it, where's Heimat?
 
Great idea! Though I don't care for "Rosemary and Thyme" myself. However Insp. Barnaby is a hero :D
I love Midsomer Murders. Barnaby's so completely useless as a detective, he just stands around looking bewildered while people are offed in ever more baroque ways... :)

Also: Buffy the Vampire Slayer made the list, but Doctor Who didn't? Fuck. Off.
 
Great idea! Though I don't care for "Rosemary and Thyme" myself. However Insp. Barnaby is a hero :D

And that reminds me I still have one of the Christmas "Poirot"s on the digibox. W00t!

I have to confess that I haven't watched that stuff for years. I did used to like Poirot though.
 
These "of all time" lists are always pretty lame really, as they always have a modern angle as that is what people remember and know about.

If it aint on TV and the nerds writing the article are just off their mama's tit, they wont know about it.
 
It is a pretty good list.
Can't think of any that are missing for me.

As for 'Mad Men trumping The Wire' I am still undecided.
Mad Men has been excellent, really good but I am only just into season 2 and told it gets better.

Can see why Sopranos is number one.
It is recent, universally appealing and I was into it from the first 10 minutes.
 
Buffy should have been higher up that list.

Those of you that doubt it almost certainly haven't watched it. It's a series with numerous awards -- in particular there is one episode broadcast entirely without dialogue and another musical episode that Channel 4 voted the "13th best musical of all time", sitting just below Oliver! and just ahead of the Lion King.
 
I tried emailing that list on, but it got quarantined for breaking the rules. Specifically "lexical rule: profanity."

"The message contained words or phrases that breached the configured policy."

So now I'm trying to figure out what phrase it could possibly be?
 
that really was a fucking stupid vote, much as I love Buffy & that episode. Better than any Sinatra musical? Fuck off!
Either way, shows how high quality it was as a drama series. Even to get anywhere near the Top 50 musicals of all time is pretty incredible for a one-off show in a non-musical series!

Buffy was incredibly funny, very smart, brilliantly acted by the ensemble cast, had a series of superb overarching plotlines as well as wonderful one-off shows and was generally one of the most incredibly series ever to have been on telly. Those who really experienced it don't tend to be the ones who put it down.
 
Either way, shows how high quality it was as a drama series. Even to get anywhere near the Top 50 musicals of all time is pretty incredible for a one-off show in a non-musical series!

actually it showsw far moer how stupid the voters were.
 
I had ruled Buffy out for a long time but eventually wifey won me over and started watching it. I do really like it :oops:

Prefer X-Files though (scarpers)
X-Files was good for a couple of series but it SERIOUSLY lost its way by pretending it had an overarching plot whereas actually Chris Thingy was just making it up as he went along (something he later admitted, leading to the whole thing crashing and burning). It was better when it was just some one-off episodes about freaky people.
 
actually it showsw far moer how stupid the voters were.

No, the episode they were voting for really was an incredibly good musical in its own right. Great song and dance numbers. And a plot that was taken forward via its musical numbers.

Whether it should have been 13th, lower than 13th or higher than 13th I don't know. But it definitely deserved its place on the list.
 
X-Files was good for a couple of series but it SERIOUSLY lost its way by pretending it had an overarching plot whereas actually Chris Thingy was just making it up as he went along (something he later admitted, leading to the whole thing crashing and burning). It was better when it was just some one-off episodes about freaky people.

Agreed, the first couple of series were better than Buffy for me and I forgive Chris Carter a lot as a result. Buffy was more consistent but I can re-watch episodes like Tooms over and over. Maybe if I had got into Buffy when it was really hyped I would have liked it more? Dunno....
 
Buffy could be really in-the-bones funny in a way that few other series could match, though. That alone gives it a lot of kudos above shows like the X-Files.
 
Agreed, the first couple of series were better than Buffy for me and I forgive Chris Carter a lot as a result. Buffy was more consistent but I can re-watch episodes like Tooms over and over. Maybe if I had got into Buffy when it was really hyped I would have liked it more? Dunno....

I definitely prefer to watch one-off episodes of X-Files (mainly because the overarcing plot does my head in).

WRT Buffy, it caught me at exactly the right time and I grew up with it, but still can rewatch the entire thing and love it.

Although I tend to lean towards Angel as the more interesting series now (which I wouldn't expect to feature on this list, I should add).
 
Buffy should have been higher up that list.

Those of you that doubt it almost certainly haven't watched it. It's a series with numerous awards -- in particular there is one episode broadcast entirely without dialogue and another musical episode that Channel 4 voted the "13th best musical of all time", sitting just below Oliver! and just ahead of the Lion King.

Was this the same poll in which Grease was voted best musical? Ahead of all Sondheim, all Rogers and Hammerstein, all Gene Kelly, and all Fred Astaire films?
 
I've been rewatching the whole of Buffy from Series 1 through to Series 7 in recent months and I was surprised by just how brilliant it still is. I'd kind of thought it might be a bit rubbish in retrospect but no -- it really is that damned good.
 
Was this the same poll in which Grease was voted best musical? Ahead of all Sondheim, all Rogers and Hammerstein, all Gene Kelly, and all Fred Astaire films?
Er, yes. What'cha gonna do?

Besides, I hate to say it, but actually all Sondheim, all Rogers and Hammerstein, all Gene Kelly, and all Fred Astaire films are actually all just a little bit turgid, awkward and, well, dull.
 
Surely nobody has actually sat down and watched all the way through Singing in the Rain since aboput 1973? I've never managed more than an hour of it.

Singin' in the Rain is practically flawless. I mean that without the merest suggestion of irony or flippancy. It's a staggering achievement.
 
Buffy the Vampire Slayer made the list, but Doctor Who didn't? Fuck. Off.

You're wrong on so many levels. Buffy is streets ahead of Who as a whole. Who's best moments - Blink for example - are on a par, but for consistency of plotting, character development etc, BTVS is way ahead. And that's before you get onto the posh critical stuff about feminism.
 
Singin' in the Rain is practically flawless. I mean that without the merest suggestion of irony or flippancy. It's a staggering achievement.
As well as been just a little bit turgid, awkward and dull.
 
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