For the last 5 years or so, we've been hearing about how we were in Televisions golden age, especially as it pertained to dramas.

Going back to the Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad. Television has, in a lot of ways, surpassed movies in story telling, and especially in character development. especially given that most "popular" movies were based on already established characters (batman, hunger games, etc).

Along with shows I never watched like The Sheild, Sons of Anarchy, Deadwood, Dexter and such. And the next tier down with the likes of Treme, Boardwalk Empire, Luther, Big Love and others.

Most of those shows I mentioned above are already gone or about to be done. And even the ones still on are approaching their 5th season (or more) Game of Thrones, Justified, Mad Men, or straight up jumped the shark 2 seasons in like House of Cards. The current wave of new shows and failed shows has me concerned. OITNB is fun, but they have already tried to reestablish themselves as a comedy. Newsroom feels like it is only watched out of hate. This isn't even counting the instant flops like Terriers, Copper, Detroit 187, the Killing, Low Winter Sun.

The Strain feels silly, Leftovers is decent at best. I tried to get into The Bridge to no avail. True Detective is the obvious exception here. Hannibal is well liked, but is it as good as any of the shows mentioned? I can't imagine Turn, or Better Call Saul are going to be the answer.


Is the Golden Age over?

Terriers was perfect. I have high hopes for the Marvel shows that are coming to Netflix. Its hard to say without knowing what will replace all those shows that you mentioned are near the end of their runs. Too soon to call.

We're probably off the peak, but we still might be high up there enough that the golden age might not be over yet.

it's going to be okay, guys.

I think The Bridge and The Killing are both excellent.

You've never watched Deadwood?

Nothing lasts forever.

Mad Men aside, which I only started watching last year, I've never seen a single episode of any of those shows.

Something to look forward to one day, perhaps.

Do people still even have cable?

Yes. I'm a sucker for live sports.




And.... The Killing is a good show.

Give it a shot. I put it off for ages, mostly because it is on NBC, but it is a really great show.

Yes. That was the point. To name a couple shows you like.

Good things can only go on for so long. Is it ending? it's definately slowing down for sure. I remember a few years back when AMC was killing HBO, now HBO has pretty much put AMC on life support. ABC moved away from making compelling shows when LOST went off the air. CBS has never made anything good as they good for people aged from 45 to 85 and NBC is a mess. I would say there are still some good shows out there. The Killing and The Bridge and Hannibal, I can't say it enough, but Hannibal is simply amazing.

I thought the killing was done?

Not enough dog slaughtering.

The Killing is excellent, jerk.

And The Americans and American Horror Story.

A pet peeve of mine is the greatness of HBO. It's not. Who the fuck would have watched True Blood if it aired on SyFy (less the nudity) instead? Or Newsroom on A&E? HBO die hards are absolutely obnoxious in my opinion. An HBO show is automatically great, anything else is not given a chance.

Like others have said, we may be passed the peak but there are still some great shows out there.

We were spoiled by the likes of The Sopranos, The Wire, The West Wing etc.

Mad Men has remained consistently great in my opinion, but that's practically over. Breaking Bad was stellar and improved as the seasons progressed.

I think people tend to overrate HBO, simply because they earned so much goodwill with Sopranos/Wire etc. Sex & The City, despite the horrible movies, was a phenomenon at the time. We can't forget Curb Your Enthusiasm either; despite the overly long gaps between seasons it sounds like Season 9 is still to be done. Curb is another show that has retained its high quality despite running for so long. I thought season 5 was the lesser of the seasons, but then 6, 7, and 8 were fantastic so I know Larry still has it in him.

True Detective was unreal, and I can't wait for the second season. Everyone seems to adore Game Of Thrones, but I've not seen that. And Hannibal....well, Hannibal is easily my favourite show on TV these days. It's on NBC but it feels like a cable show. Season 2 built and improved on season 1, and the finale was the best episode they've done yet. I can't remember the last time an episode of television was reviewed so favourably. And with good reason, too. It was brilliant.

So, yeah. There are still great shows out there amongst all the trash.

The Walkind Dead deserves to be mentioned even if it isn't liked at RM. It's by far the best produced show on TV.

Hell on Wheels is good and coming back this week.

I enjoy Longmire for what it is - solve a crime an episode show.

Last Ship is meh. It's going to be BSG at sea.

Falling Skies is the biggest disappointment on TV. But this season is promising (but I said that before).

Copper was below average and cancelled.

Low Winter Sun is only on TV because The Killing producers and AMC execs didn't get along very well. The producers lied about Season 1.