American TV Drama: is there anything left?

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All the following TV series have either gone down the tubes or are pale rehashes of earlier glories: 24, 6 feet under, angel/buffy, west wing (especially west wing), sopranos, etc. which means: are there any decent american one hour tv dramas left? i demand my decent american one hour tv dramas. And by good, I mean quality, not just watchable (so no OC, hah!)

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

LAW AND ORDER NUMBNUTS!

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

LAW, AND ORDER NUMBNUTS!

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the comma goes after ORDER since it's a direct address.

― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

LAW AND ORDER: NUMBNUTS! (Starring Vincent D'Onofrio)

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Is it, bnw? Is it really?

― NA (Nick A.), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

the gilmore girls

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

AL Bundy:Hard-Nosed Cop!!!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

(oh, I missed the joke) The sad thing about the West Wing is watching the actors try to wring the same drama from lesser scripts. Maybe once reality tv exhausts itself, things will be better.

― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:30 (twenty-two years ago)

also, there is nothing wrong with six feet under or angel! but everything else sucks.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Where is the love for The Shield? It is better than both of the last two series' of The Sopranos put together!

Rockists!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

adaml = fool. And should try the ketchup with the relish.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

crazily enough i just got handed series 2 on dvd! want me to send it in the post, @d@m?

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Of the Shield, that is.

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Alias: Resurrected!

― Leee Majors (Leee), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I will plump for Sydney Bristow any time of the day. (But mostly on Sundays.)

― Leee Majors (Leee), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

ALIAS!

Ricky Gervais is supposed to be a villain on the show, I can't wait for that.

I kind of disagree about Angel -- the first few episodes were kind of lame, but it's gotten good in the past 3 weeks and last night's episode had such a great ending.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

adaml = fool. And should try the ketchup with the relish.

Dom- what the hell does this mean, exactly?

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

want me to send it in the post, @d@m?

I will love you even more than I do already, if such a thing were possible!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:58 (twenty-two years ago)

"Try it with the relish" = finest moment of The Sopranos ("The Pine Barrens")

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Can you believe this shit, though?

http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2002/09-27/photos/chiklis.jpg = http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/18/emmy02.emmy.nominations/shield.jpg

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

directed by Clark Johnson too!

I actually haven't seen the Shield, but have lusted after it for so long that it will definitely fall short of what I desire.
However, I completely enjoyed SWAT, since I expected it to stink.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.dollymania.net/cspan.jpg

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 20 November 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Dead Like Me

― sgs, Thursday, 20 November 2003 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The Wire was good albeit completely confusing.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 20 November 2003 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

the wire is fantastic!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 21 November 2003 00:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Do you like basketball? Maybe you should give One Tree Hill a try. Tuesdays at 9, conveniently after Gilmore Girls.

― Chad Michael Murray (Mary), Friday, 21 November 2003 09:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Smallville, fools!

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Friday, 21 November 2003 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

A third vote for Alias, of course.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Friday, 21 November 2003 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, the Wire is my most recent favorite.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Friday, 21 November 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I really am the only person on ILE who still likes Carnivale, I think :)

(A benefit-of-the-doubt vote goes to Six Feet Under when it starts up again, and the rest go to ... actually, that might be all I watch. Oh, Angel, the last couple episodes have gotten me interested again; and Smallville. I saw the opener of Alias and it looks good. Is Boomtown still on?)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Youse guys are all wacked out on goofballs, since no one else voted for L&O. Where is Rosemary when I need her?

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

(Why is there no love for CSI?)

― Citizen Kate (kate), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

LAS VEGAS! James Caan, hot chicks, gambling. Fab show.

And CSI!

― Chris B. Sure (Chris V), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never even seen an episode of Law and Order, I don't think, which is weird. Well, I've seen an episode of the one with Vincent D'Onofrio, I guess that's an L&O. And I saw a couple episodes of the Richard Belzer one, but I think that was Homicide. I just hardly ever watch cop shows -- I was a huge fan of Hill Street Blues, but for some reason barely anything since has nudged my noodle.

(I'm the same way with medical shows, s/Hill Street/St Elsewhere.)

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Lindsey's really, really into CSI -- she wanted to go into forensics before discovering dead languages -- so I'll use my vote on her behalf or something.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

HSA's ex-missus is an ACTUAL forensic investigator, and she says CSI is totally unlike what it's like in real life, and glamourises and simplifies the whole process, but I stuck my fingers in my ears and pretended I couldn't hear her, la la la la laaaa.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Richard Belzer is a jackass.

― Allyzay, Friday, 21 November 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I do like CSI, but now Sarah is annoying me to the point where I want to smack her by end of each episode.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Richard Belzer was great in the Brady Bunch Sequel, though, and come to think of it I wonder if I didn't see Homicide at all but only saw the BBS eleven thousand times.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Smack her right in her giant teeth.

― Chris B. Sure (Chris V), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

CSI is dumb, and I don't like L&O:CI (because I hate D'Onofrio) and L&O:SVU (because it's creepy), but the original L&O is like my favorite show.

― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 21 November 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

L&O is sooo bad lately but I still love it! And all its spinoffs.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 21 November 2003 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

The Belz is the man...though actually, his comedy was never even close to being as good as Dee-Teck-Tive Munch (as his first partner on Homicide used to call him).

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 21 November 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

No one watches Las Vegas?

― Chris B. Sure (Chris V), Friday, 21 November 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

slaw and larder

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 November 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

the problem with dramas is that there are these pesky actors you have to actually pay

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 November 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I am *severely* addicted to Law & Order. Special Victim's Unit reruns every single night on USA. Regular L&O on TNT. I am fixated with the show. And CSI, too. Though CSI is laughable most of the time.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Friday, 21 November 2003 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

L&O rocks. I am also in love with the tawdry trashiness of ER.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 21 November 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Boomtown is on permanent hiatus. It had its moments, but way too many plot oversights. Also, not a whit like Rashomon.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Friday, 21 November 2003 20:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn. And yeah, it was one of those where it never quite lived up to what it seemed like it could be -- but there were some great moments.

― Tep (ktepi), Friday, 21 November 2003 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Am I the only person that got into ESPN's Playmakers? Probably. It was really shitty. But I couldn't help myself.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 21 November 2003 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, the first episode of B-town was clearly its best moment. Smart, affecting and tragic, but every episode after turned into a bloated mess.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Friday, 21 November 2003 22:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I ought to watch Law and Order. But I *love* Dead Like Me.

― Markelby (Mark C), Saturday, 22 November 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The West Wing is now good as trashy ER-like fun.

WTF was up with the President walking to the Speaker's office, and then walking out like a sad old man? Would Sorkin have ever allowed something that shameless and weak?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 22 November 2003 00:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know, I liked the Boomtown episode where the ... DA? ADA? the guy who was in Ravenous and Minority Report ... wakes up after a drunk night with blood on his car and tries to reconstruct the night before. That was pretty cool.

And Donnie Wahlberg in general was good.

― Tep (ktepi), Saturday, 22 November 2003 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Ya, Donnie consistently surprised me pleasantly, since all I could remember of his acting was his sullen oafery in Ransom. I didn't see the ep you're talking about, though.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Saturday, 22 November 2003 00:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, WTF happened with ER? I mean, it seems like a friggin soap opera now (not to say that it wasn't before, but now it's like the bastard child of General Hospital and 24).

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 22 November 2003 02:17 (twenty-two years ago)

LAS FUCKING VEGAS FAGTOGS.

― Chris B. Sure (Chris V), Saturday, 22 November 2003 02:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Say, I hear there's a show about a major American city on NBC. I can't think of its name right now...

― Leee Majors (Leee), Saturday, 22 November 2003 05:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh wait, I was thinking Boomtown.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Saturday, 22 November 2003 05:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Boomtown was great in its fist season. I'm almost thankful it was canceled after seeing what the nbc exec's did to it for the 2nd season. Vanessa Wiliams? Ugh. She's even worse then that sexy mexican maid they seem to be pushing into the West Wing.

― bnw (bnw), Saturday, 22 November 2003 05:58 (twenty-two years ago)

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