Recently I have been enjoying True Blood the latest TV venture from Alan Ball and HBO. So far the series if very good and is playing around with its hokey conventions whilst building an array of fascination characters.
It feels like someone crossed Buffy with Six Feet Under, which considering these are two of my favourite series ever is a very good thing if you ask me. The echoes of Six Feet Under have also got my thinking about the old question of which american drama series I think are the best ones out there (and lets face it they american's having been outdoing us for quite some time with ongoing drama)I feel quick rundown is in order (and I'm looking at those series that don't fall into 'genre' territory here) .
Kicking off my top five is Law & Order. Now admittedly I've not watched this for quite a while but for a period I really did get into it (back when Benjamin Bratt was on it). Firstly I really like the structure of the thing, one half police procedural and one half legal drama, giving you a view of each case for two different points of view.
It's also primarily about the case of the week and only rarely do the characters personally lives inturde on proceedings, as such it works really well as a kind of anthology show for a wide range of human dramas from week to week as the cases are often more complicated than they first appear. It short its like The Bill used to be and excellent with it, but I've not tried any of the spin off series.
Nect up at number four is Band Of Brothers. Okay it's only a mini-series but in it's thirteen odd hours it covers so much ground so well that it has to be included. Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston head an excellent cast in a thoughtful, exciting, terrorfying and understanding portrayal of men at war and that goes with it.
Episode 6 "Bastogne" is for me one of the most compelling hours of television I've seen, the tightening of the feeling of unease and tension (in almost etheral winter landscape) leading to a gut wrenching conclusion making you realise just how hard life was for these men. The upcoming compainon piece Pacific should be one to look out for
E.R. comes next. During it's first few years ER was outstanding televison as it threw you into the chaotic world of the Emergency Room in a busy inner city hospital. (It really did put Casualty to shame) Each week the ever complicated lives of the teams of doctors was counter balanced by the drama coming in through the doors for treatment.
Making a star of George Clooney the show had energy and passion to burn and was frequently moving. As the years went by we watched the nervous medical student John Carter grow and slowly but surely become a renowned doctor and a fine man has he lernt from Clooney's impassioned Dr. Ross and Anthony Edwards's Dr Greene.
Dr Greene was arguable the heart of the show and this made it all the more devestatingly when the character suffers from terminal cancer, after along road back to confidence after a devestating attack in the hospital bathroom. In fact the episode in which Dr Greene's death occurs(as seen from the E.R.'s point of view) is a masterclass in understatement and just how effective that can be.
..and from there its business as usual for the episode, occasionally we see others reading the letter on the notice board in the background at episode's end the pages blow up in the wind as the doors open and the faded cork underneath tells us how long they have been pinned up there. Simple, effective, devestating.
Whilst the series was best for it's first few years (the will they, won't they of Dr Ross and nurse Hathaway, Carter's tutalge with Dr Benten, Dr Greene's assult, the shocking attack on Lucy, Ewan Mcgregor guest starring and Tarantino directing) it was never anything other than very good the rest of the time and considering it ran for fifteen years that is some achievement. And the final shot of the series is a stroke of genius. For all those years the audience never saw the hospital building, we were always in looking out and the final episode the final frames are for the first time a shot of the hospital from down the street as the amubulances rush in and life continues.
Coming in second is The Wire, the chronicling if life on both sides of the law in Baltimore. On paper it's a crime drama but it takes in so much more and is quite possiblly the closest thing to a novel on televison as characters, stories and lives interweave over the course of five years.
A clip I've used before but it captures the feel of the series so well.
Rightly championed as the smartest series on televison by many it shows what can be done and it is immaclualty staged and crafted. There's not much more I can say beyond what has been said many places before but only that you should watch it By why is it only number two I hear you ask?
Well, it's because I consider the show that tops the list to be head and shoulders still above all else I've seen. And this is because it melds tremendous craftmenship (each episode looks and feels like it's been made with a film's budget) with brillant performances (from Peter Krause, Micheal C Hall, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, Rachel Griffiths and well the whole damn cast) and superb writing that picks at and highlights all aspects of life from the dark and destressing to the joyous and to the down right surreal and it comes together to tap into my emotions in a way no other TV show has.
I even adore the titles.
Yes, it is the aforementioned Six Feet Under, the story of the Fisher family and their loves and lives. Once again we have a format that allows a wide range of stories in alongside the continuing characters as the feature funerals often bring to the fore questions for the family and an array of themes for the audience.
From hiding a severed foot in a school locker to starting a new family to surving through the greif of losing a loved one to finding out who you want to be the seires pretty much covered it all. It remains the only thing on TV that has actually reduced me to (manly) tears. I understand it is not for everyone but I for one put it top of the pile.
So that is it, no room for the likes of 24, The Shield, Hill Street Blues, House, The West Wing, The Sopranos. But hey it's my list and if anyone wants to try and convince me they belong in the list above those I've choose they are welcome to try.
2 comments:
I can recommend Law and Order UK for no other reason than it's fantastically odd to see almost the entire script repeated with UK accents.
Gooder, you physically need to watch the entirety of Deadwood. It is nothing but awesome.
And so it doesn't have a proper conclusion. So what; it's essentially about the journey, and that is well worth taking.
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