Topic: The greatest single season in television history?

[Djozer]

Clicked on this thread just to check someone had named The Wire S4 as the best series. Proud of RAWK today.

Although The Simpsons S8 is second by a hair.

Think there's be a good bit of entertainment in finding out RAWK's fave ever telly show. Polls by genre and then a poll of the winners.

Sounds like a great idea, but it'll just end up being The Wire. It's always The Wire. Not that I have a problem with this, as The Wire is the best TV show ever.

Wouldn't mind knowing what RAWK's favourite comedy is though, wasn't there a big thread not too long ago that never made it to poll status?

[puroresu_kid]

Was that the final season? If so agreed - a great series throughout with an ending of very rare quality that worked so beautifully albeit so hugely distressing.

Yep the last season.  The last episode as well was off the charts.  Many shows have failed when it comes to the last episode to wrap it all up but the Shield's was very very good.

[Dench57]

Stumbled upon some (year old) Guardian articles I missed about overrated/underrated TV shows. Entertaining reads. Agree that Jerry Seinfeld is the worst part of Seinfeld but disagree with Battlestar Galactica being overrated!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/26/most-overrated-tv-shows-friends-seinfeld-west-wing-lost-mad-men-downton-abbey

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/27/tvs-most-underrated-shows-pulling-top-gear-time-trumpet

[Dench57]

Wouldn't mind knowing what RAWK's favourite comedy is though, wasn't there a big thread not too long ago that never made it to poll status?

Brass Eye
South Park
The Day Today
Monkey Dust
The Office
Tim and Eric Awesome Show
Big Train

all that sort of stuff

Recently discovered the Eric Andre show....incredibly funny

[Pistolero]

Stumbled upon some (year old) Guardian articles I missed about overrated/underrated TV shows. Entertaining reads. Agree that Jerry Seinfeld is the worst part of Seinfeld but disagree with Battlestar Galactica being overrated!

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/26/most-overrated-tv-shows-friends-seinfeld-west-wing-lost-mad-men-downton-abbey

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/27/tvs-most-underrated-shows-pulling-top-gear-time-trumpet

Re: the Seinfeld section...never read a bigger, stinkier, more fly-infested turd of an opinion...stupid twat should give up typing

[redan]

Might not be considered high brow enough or whatever but Only Fools and Horses Series 6 is an absolute gem of series without a single weak point,

A lot of these are now overplayed but think back to the time that all of these moments happened in a single season of TV comedy

Episode 1- Introduces Yuppie Del, Del Falling Through the Bar, Rodney meets Cassandra
Episode 2- Blow up dolls
Episode 3- Gold Chains
Episode 4- Rodney wins the u15's painting completion, wins holiday, poxy Lizard,
Episode 5- Séance, Rodney gets engaged
Episode 6- Rodney gets married, Del takes a beating for him,   

[Dim Glas]

The West Wing, any of it's first 4 sesaons really.

X Files, again likely any of it's first 3 or 4 seasons.

[McrRed]

Deadwood. Season two.

[red mongoose]

Deadwood. Season two.

Yes.

[Hendollama]

Sons Of Anarchy - Season 2.

I loved the whole series, even though season 5 got a little tedious. The final 3 episodes were pretty incredible too.

[Titi Camara]

Lots of great seasons here, real tough to choose from.

I loved Breaking bad, Blacklist and The Wire but for me, undoubtedly the best, well written and most exciting season (with amazing cliff hangers after each episode) is Prison break season 1

What's your favourite, Which is the greatest single season in television history?

This has to be up there with the worst polls ever conducted on RAWK!

[Jake]

Episode 1- Introduces Yuppie Del, Del Falling Through the Bar, Rodney meets Cassandra

And Trigger pulls a face.

[Crackerjack Sam]

Banshee season 3

Lost season 5

end of!

[CrasherKid79]

I really loved American Gods.

Besides that it's just the predictable Wire shout ..... can't really see past Seasons 3 or 4 for that.

[Anywhichwayicant]

Haven't seen it mentioned-

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 2.  Great TV.

[CrasherKid79]

Haven't seen it mentioned-

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 2.  Great TV.

Not a dry eye in the house when Angel becomes Angelus 

[red mongoose]

Not a dry eye in the house when Angel becomes Angelus 

Was the prom at the end of the third series? That's the one that gets me every time.

"... whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you or helped by you at one time or another. We're proud to say that the class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history, and we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class offers its thanks and gives you ... this. It's from all of us, and it has written here:

"'Buffy Summers, Class Protector.'"

[The G in Gerrard]

Sons Of Anarchy - Season 2.

The final 3 episodes were pretty incredible too.

The final episode was worst end to a show ever.

[Djozer]

And Trigger pulls a face.

 

I don't particularly mind Only Fools and Horses, though I also don't regard it with the reverence many do, but I now can't think of it without thinking of Stewart Lee.

[End Product]

True detective first series is a masterpiece. That shot on the drug deal 

[FaitAccompli]

Was the prom at the end of the third series? That's the one that gets me every time.

"... whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you or helped by you at one time or another. We're proud to say that the class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history, and we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class offers its thanks and gives you ... this. It's from all of us, and it has written here:

"'Buffy Summers, Class Protector.'"

Yep, episode 20 from Series 3. It also has a great quote from Giles a little later on in the episode:

I had no idea that children en masse could be gracious.

For me, in no particular order, it's:

Buffy series 3 or 5
Twin Peaks series 1  (I'm about 4 episodes away from finishing The Return)
True Detective series 1
Lost series 1
League of Gentlemen series 1 and 2

I love Game of Thrones, but, like Alias, Battlestar Galactica, South Park and ER, I think it's easier for me to pick great episodes out, rather than individual series.

[TepidT2O]

Fucking Buffy???

[red mongoose]

Fucking Buffy???

We're not fucking Buffy.

[Chakan]

Fucking Buffy???

Yes please! Season 2 wasn’t it?

[CrasherKid79]

Fucking Buffy???

Not a hipsters choice but yes

[puroresu_kid]

Gossip girl season 2

[Ziltoid]

Grange Hill season 9

[Peabee]

The 3rd series of Neighbours.

[dave 5516]

Fucking Buffy???

Buffy was, is fantastic tv.

The image below is from the episode, The Body.....it's a stunning piece of tv....up there with anything you can think of.

The moment buffy comes back and finds her mother lying on the couch unnresponsive......just sheer brilliance “Mom?… Mom?… Mommy? ” Buffy said with quiet, mounting horror. This is where “The Body” picks up. One of the most searing depictions of grief and loss ever, the episode observes all of the major characters’ varied reactions to the death of Joyce Summers: not only Buffy’s own journey from horror and it works so well that everyone involved including those watching are moved in a way that other lesser programmes could only hope to do.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer was special tv.

[Ziltoid]

Fuck off Dave, be honest you just had a few sneaky wanks over it. 

[dave 5516]

Fuck off Dave, be honest you just had a few sneaky wanks over it. 

Well......

[Chakan]

Well......

The "Hush" episode of Buffy is brilliant.

[dave 5516]

The "Hush" episode of Buffy is brilliant.

Easily one of the best episodes, with great, scary baddies. Those Gentlemen were genuinely scary.

I loved every episode and it's great tv...people look down their noses at it for what reason I don't know..teenagers, vampires, demons...fuckin boss tv.

[Chakan]

Easily one of the best episodes, with great, scary baddies. Those Gentlemen were genuinely scary.

I loved every episode and it's great tv...people look down their noses at it for what reason I don't know..teenagers, vampires, demons...fuckin boss tv.

Yup the Gentlemen were creepy as all hell! Whedon does seem to come up with genuinely scary monsters. Got a lot of time for him and his shows.

I have no idea why it's looked down on, it literally deals with every aspect of human behavior and life. Being awkward, death, love, life, growing up, getting older, woman empowerment, homosexuality, first love, broken hearts, moments of doubt.

The characters are engaging and relatable, everyone has their favorite. The monsters/demons/vampires (unless they're a main character) are all really secondary to the story.

[red mongoose]

Yup the Gentlemen were creepy as all hell! Whedon does seem to come up with genuinely scary monsters. Got a lot of time for him and his shows.

I have no idea why it's looked down on, it literally deals with every aspect of human behavior and life. Being awkward, death, love, life, growing up, getting older, woman empowerment, homosexuality, first love, broken hearts, moments of doubt.

The characters are engaging and relatable, everyone has their favorite. The monsters/demons/vampires (unless they're a main character) are all really secondary to the story.

"Entertainment Weekly" went out on a ledge (for the context of the times) in praising it and taking it seriously - they massively championed it, and that in a lot of ways changed the way populist TV shows were looked at. More serious reviewers started taking more shows seriously (and some they bigged up out of all proportion to their actual worth). I just think there has been a backlash in certain circles, or by certain people, ever since. They can't or don't want to see through the "Scooby" elements of it. I think the praise of it probably does go too far at times - like, it doesn't belong anywhere near "Deadwood" or "Gomorrah," to cite two examples - but even that inflated praise is a correction to the attempted correction to the initial praise it was getting ... if that makes any sense at all.

[Chakan]

"Entertainment Weekly" went out on a ledge (for the context of the times) in praising it and taking it seriously - they massively championed it, and that in a lot of ways changed the way populist TV shows were looked at. More serious reviewers started taking more shows seriously (and some they bigged up out of all proportion to their actual worth). I just think there has been a backlash in certain circles, or by certain people, ever since. They can't or don't want to see through the "Scooby" elements of it. I think the praise of it probably does go too far at times - like, it doesn't belong anywhere near "Deadwood" or "Gomorrah," to cite two examples - but even that inflated praise is a correction to the attempted correction to the initial praise it was getting ... if that makes any sense at all.

Makes sense.

I think there definitely should be a happy medium with the show. It's brilliant tv entertainment when I watched, I still watch it again these days. It deals with a lot of serious issues but somehow at the same time doesn't take itself too seriously. Whedon does that with most of his shows, using humor to deal with a serious situation has always been how he operates.

People dismissing the show as mere fluff and surface tv I don't pay attention to, and probably haven't seen more than a few episodes anyway.

[Djozer]

I loved Buffy personally, though I'm not sure I'd put it up with the greatest tv shows of all time, or individual seasons - I can't remember it well enough to know if I preferred any particular seasons over others. It was great entertainment though, but also managed to be emotionally affecting at times and I read somewhere that "Buffy Speak" has had one of the most profound effects on language patterns in recent times, and there's not many TV shows that have achieved that as far as I can tell.

Also, Buffy was gorgeous and Spike is a truly brilliant character - ridiculously cool.

[Chakan]

Also, Buffy was gorgeous and Spike is a truly brilliant character - ridiculously cool.

You know James Marsters is American. I actually never knew that till I heard him interviewed, shocked me.

Plus Willow > Buffy

[TepidT2O]

Buffy... fucking hell....

Fun, but the greatest tv series ever?  It’s a kids show..

[Chakan]

Buffy... fucking hell....

Fun, but the greatest tv series ever?  It’s a kids show..

Shut it, you know nothing Jon Snow.