The Wire (2002)

The Wire is like great literature. It is epic, profound, prophetic, realistic, verisimilar, edifying, enthralling, stylish, visceral, gritty, edgy, shocking, revealing and pleasantly addictive (and I haven’t even opened my thesaurus yet!). The show explores the Baltimore city drug scene in its five seasons and on the surface plays like a police procedural. However, it may more aptly be described as an exposition of the decadence of modern society and the failure of our institutions. The themes of the show are truly universal and yet the show creates such a thoroughly rich portrayal of Baltimore city that you could almost feel the tarmac when a pool of blood from a gunshot victim reflects a flickering neon sign. The show has amazing style with its sometimes indecipherable ghetto slang, cool gangsta talk and idiosyncratic police humor. The Wire is great art and certainly the greatest thing on TV ever. Period!

Next in Greatest Cult TV Shows Ever: Freaks and Geeks!

Here is the second part of the list of great TV shows I wrote about earlier.

Rome is a dirty history lesson. Even with enough sex and violence to satisfy the most debauched mind, the show convincingly recreates the lost civilization with all its glorious battles and senate debates. This is a unique way of looking at history – through the eyes of a handful of richly created complex characters rather than a series of events between great battles. It’s very down to earth, like an episode of The Sopranos and is also full of human drama, an element normally missing from most history textbooks. There can be no more entertaining a way to learn history. The show’s production is singularly impressive, as can be expected from any HBO production. The detailed and intricate costumes and the exceptional acting free of the usual costume-drama pompousness is simply wonderful. Rome is smart, bold and stunning. History lessons have never been more sexy. Read more »

Mad Men
One word comes to my mind when I think of Mad Men – style. Mad Men is so stylish that you almost forget that all of its substance doesn’t really add up to a conventional story arc.

The show, in its second season seems to be going nowhere, and you couldn’t care less.
The show painstakingly recreates the American workplace of the 60′s, with all the political incorrectness and the sexual innuendos and the reckless smoking. The show’s central character is Don Draper, an advertising executive in Madison Avenue (mad men?), New York – a mysterious man with a dark past. The acting on the show is superlative and you could keep drooling at the beautifully recreated period details such as the interiors, the clothing and the mannerisms. The show’s atmosphere is almost film noir despite the color and everybody smokes like there is no tomorrow. Don Draper would say “I’m living like there’s no tomorrow, because there isn’t one.” Read more »