BFTB...this is the most important piece of tv this country has seen since Cathy Come Home. The stories told within are a reflection of how society was for millions throughout the UK.....there's nothing since that has resonated the way this did in the way that it showed the beginning of the decline of working class people in a society that was at war.
Other than the aforementioned Cathy and possibly The Naked Civil Servant there's not another drama series that is close to how good Boys is...and....only six episodes..... never mind the width feel the quality.
I've watched BFTBS every year or so since it first aired because of the writing, the acting and because the underlying message is (sadly) still relevant today.
The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire are all incredible television but for someone living in Britain they are essentially voyeuristic. As this cartoon points out, Breaking Bad would be meaningless in Britain:
I'd argue that some of those series (certainly the more recent ones) are better described as 'long-form' cinema'. They are filmed in 16:9 on high-res cameras for viewing on enormous plasma TVs. Game of Thrones is a soap opera with dragons based on sub-Tolkein novels that steal their story-lines from the Wars of the Roses. It has amazing production values but is pretty vacuous.
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