When you think of the best television drama of all time, what is your immediate reaction? The Wire or Breaking Bad, right? Maybe give the slight edge to The Wire, at least until we see how Breaking Bad finishes out the series? Well, why don’t you sit there for a few minutes and think really, really hard on it.
…
Still Breaking Bad and The Wire, right? Yep. Me too.
However, those brilliant three-celled organisms over at People Magazine have teamed up with the network responsible for EIGHT seasons of According to Jim to rank the best television shows, best television comedies, and best television dramas of all time. In the television drama category, neither The Wire nor Breaking Bad even placed in the top five. So, naturally, my first thought was: Oh, well, it’s only network shows then, right? Nope. Here’s the 5 Best Dramas.
5) Mad Men
4) The West Wing
3) The Sopranos
2) The Twilight Zone
1) E.R.
I’d place Breaking Bad and The Wire ahead of all five of those, but strangely enough, the only one I really have a problem with is E.R., the hospital drama that ran for a decade and, in the process, exhausted every single plotline in the Plotlines for Dummies handbook. I’d consider The West Wing, if seasons five and six were not included, but when you’re looking at the best all-around drama, one actually needs to consider the entire series as a whole, and not just its best years (The Sopranos had some lethargic middle seasons, as well).
But what do you expect from a gossip magazine and a television news rag? The fact that they even decided to rank the Best Reality Shows of All Time nullifies their entire premise. If you’re curious:
Best Reality TV Show
5) Deadliest Catch
4) The Amazing Race
3) Survivor
2) American Idol
1) Dancing With the Stars
(Note, the number one show is also on the ABC network).
But wait, surely they’ll recognize The Wire among the Best Cop Shows, right? Along with The Shield? Nope.
Best Cop or Legal Show
5) Hill Street Blues
4) 24
3) Columbo
2) Law & Order
1) Law & Order: SVU
Woah? If you’re going to put legal dramas on there, and you’re going to include Law & Order: SVU, then where the hell is The Practice? Hell, it was an ABC show.
Well, at least they got the best comedy of all time right, right? Yay for Arrested Development! Wait, what?
Best Comedy of All Time
5. All in the Family
4. The Cosby Show
3. M*A*S*H
2. Seinfeld
1. I Love Lucy
Ugh. Old people, right? They ruin everything.
(Source: Huffpo)
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That’s some shameful shit right there.
INORITE?
Taking this list even remotely seriously is like giving credence to what a crazy person writes in his feces on the walls of the insane asylum.
And I love the Twilight Zone like whoa but I wouldn’t exactly call it a “drama.” Six Feet Under, just off the top of my head, is also better than any of those.
at least the Twilight Zone was unique for its time and opened up the sci-fi genre to the public. But E.R.? All that did was make Grey’s Anatomy feasible.
And George Clooney, ostensibly.
no wire or shield or homicide? good god that is awful.
Where the FUCK is Manimal?
Fucking Larry Sanders, man
Fucking Larry Sanders, indeed.
Amen.
Answering The Wire vs. Breaking Bad question would keep me up nights
This is a debate with no winner. I love them both SO much.
It’s a debate with no loser really. Except Walt, because he’ll totally die in the end.
The Wire vs. Breaking Bad should be the next Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe video game. Just the thought of Mike fighting Snoop gives me nerd chills.
The one thing Breaking Bad clearly has on The Wire:
Saul Goodman >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Maurice Levy.
Those lists were so bad even the Golden Globes selection committee called bullshit.
hi o!
I think The Sopranos deserves a ton of credit for basically ushering in this golden era of high-quality TV. Being first counts for alot in my book.
This.
ER was pretty fucking awesome when it first came out, tough to argue not at least including it in the top 5. West Wing would get my vote, followed closely by the Wire.
I don’t know whats wrong with me but I have 0 interest in breaking bad.
It really is like drugs. I resisted for a long time, but then caved and now my fiancee and I are like crack-heads, watching 5 episodes in a row
Finals week(s) of my Fall 2011 Semester in Law School I ran through the first three seasons and made the Dean’s List. I credit that to Vince Gillian’s brilliant story telling putting me in the mood to kick ass and tell a coherent narrative on my finals.
The Wire is an outlier. It’s Jerry Rice. It’s Wayne Gretzky. Every best television drama ever list has to come with the “excluding The Wire” caveat or it loses all credibility. Ergo, fuck this guy.
Listen, I love The Wire, but I felt like the last season brought it down a notch. The whole fake serial killer thing kind of ruined it for me. As long as Breaking Bad doesn’t fuck up the last eight episodes, I think it’s ahead of the Wire. There’s an actual story and arc in there. The Wire was more “look how fucked our system is and it won’t change”.
Back to the point, this twat who thinks ER is the best drama of all time probably writes Twilight fan fiction.
The Wire had several huge stories, each one of them managed to touch a nerve with a viewer. They didn’t need “What happens to the main character next?” to keep the audience watching.
Yea, well what do you expect from JEWS?!?!?
Well I’d at least expect Seinfeld to top Lucy.
And now I have this image of a Jerry Seinfeld and Lucille Ball porn parody. I’m not hating it.
Homicide not being on the top five cop shows while by the numbers cookie cutter procedurals have the top 2 spots? Fuck that noise. Let alone it’s in my top 5 dramas (with the Wire)
People Magazine has a demographic that includes housewives, older housewives, and really fucking dumbshits. No surprise the two best television shows of all time are left of the list.
MASH was fucking terrible.
You gotta remember context and era. I watched MASH in its first run when I was a kid, and we laughed at the first few seasons. But when it went bad, it went all the way bad, and it’s unwatchable today.
Breaking Bad is a great television show but The Wire is great art, it transcends the medium entirely. I don’t think they come close. The Wire has any number of things to say about the corrosive effect of institutions, society, culture, America, the goddamn human condition. All that on top of being at-times separately and sometimes-simultaneously a political thriller, a nail-biting police procedural, a gritty street series, a buddy comedy. It has humor, epic tragedy, suspense, action, romance, drama and pretty much anything else you could want in a TV show, except maybe lots of tits. Breaking Bad is an entertaining, well-acted character study. Art vs. Entertainment.
I’d agree. If we’re talking mere stories that shows told…I’d say Breaking Bad tells a better story, but if we’re talking TV shows? The Wire was a social criticism unlike any other I’ve ever seen. It had humor, good stories, and it had a point.
Part of the “problem” (one of them good problems according to Marlo) with the Wire is that it doesn’t really tell a singular story. Breaking Bad is about Walt who gets cancer, tries to save his family and eventually gets in too deep and goes off the rails. The show’s about him and the conquest of his enemies. What were the side plots? Marie’s stealing?
There were several major plotlines with The Wire, some of them didn’t even last the whole series but managed to be compelling nonetheless: Bubs, Carcetti, McNulty’s family life, the Docks, String/Avon, D’Angelo, Burrell’s rise to the top, and many many more. Not one of these were the typical “cops v. bad guys” story line that you get in cop shows.
When it it’s original run, MASH was also a social criticism, dealing with the dehumanizing effects of war, the things people do to deal with intolerable circumstances, the way the people back home see soldiers as faceless statistics, and other social issues. Some of those are still relevant. Some of them are not. And in later seasons, it lost much of its sense of humor, turning it into a different show, and one I didn’t enjoy much. Keep in mind that this show started to air during Vietnam. While they set it in the Korean War, the things it dealt with were very much on the minds of America
The Wire, as good as it was hardly the first TV show to be an indicting criticism of some aspect of American culture. Nor was MASH, for that matter.
I would not have any of those comedies in my top 5. Not one.
Dude, the COS. Cmon now.
Columbo? Were Cannon, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Francisco, and Rockford Files eliminated early on in that bracket?
And Kojak was eliminated on a technicality.
The West Wing is probably the only drama I’d leave in the top five, you might be able to talk me into Mad Men.
Any list that has SVU in it is by definition not credible. It’s pablum. It’s unflavored gruel.
I still gotta go with the Sorpanos. As noted earlier in the comments, it ushered in this whole era of breathtakingly good dramas. There is no point in comparing the student to the teacher. After that — Breaking Bad, the Wire, and Mad Men are all in the mix.
/ducks
My thoughts on their choices are probably best summed up by a quote from that great thespian, Jay Cutler:
DDOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN’TTTTTTTT CAAAAAARRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEE!
nice
DAMNIT. I was just coming here to post that exact same joke. DAMN YOU, SQUABBLER
Once Breaking Bad finishes give me a heads up before you write the inevitable Breaking Bad vs. The Wire post. I’ll need to take that week off of work to fully analyze everyone’s comments before I can go back to my life.
Speaking of Vince Gilligan, frickin X-Files should be on that list before ER. Last few seasons excluded of course.