The early TV series longform narrative arc that I think of first is the Dominion War in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which began in 1997. The seasons before then did build towards the conflict, but were more episodic in nature, much like TNG. Shocking, I know, that I think of Star Trek first when thinking serial drama. But yes, for sure The Sopranos took this format and ran with it, sparking the "Golden Age of Television." I watched Deadwood before Sopranos, and it completely blew my mind.
Yeah, Dominion timeline was good. I always forget about Oz on HBO, which predated Sopranos by a few years. Crazy good show. And disturbing long before disturbing was popular. I highly recommend if you haven't seen it.
Oh, that's right! Forgot about Oz for a sec. I watched the first few seasons but I found that it got more and more far-fetched to the point that I switched off. Spoiler It was the episode where they experiment with some drug that rapidly ages prisoners as an alternative to actual prison time. It was so fucking stupid, I don't even want to discuss it lol.
AlRawabi School for Girls - Season 2 Netflix The second season is also beautiful. And a series that talks about Bullying. I am "A little old", but I have found myself in many situations described, even if I experienced them in the past, and in Europe. Highly recommended. Solar Opposites, fun League Call the Midwife Season 10, I love it La Brea
I started watching the new Fallout show. I'm three episodes in, and I'm loving it. They've got the tone and vibes of the game series just right - it's dark, dreary, and violent, but it's also very fun and amusing. This would not work for me if it were presented as a serious spec-fic drama. I'm not exactly surprised at how well it works, as the trailer properly captured the essence of the show, though I'm quite pleased. Historically, video game adaptations have been terrible, but it's nice to see that changing. The Last of Us is another good example of an adaptation done right, but even with 5 more episodes to enjoy, I feel confident that this will end up being my favourite video game adaptation of all time. Oh - the Cyberpunk show was also really good, but it was animated, which is a lot easier to pull off.
I watched the first 2 episodes last night, about to start on #3 now. A pretty enjoyable show. I knew nothing about the game going in, but I've heard people who like the game generally like the show too. I'm really digging the musical choices.
Babylon 5 was there a couple of years before, with the Shadow War. One of two series I'm working through at the moment. The other being Doctor Who. Finally up to Peter Capaldi's stint in the TARDIS. Less said about the Robin Hood episode, the better...
Oh that's right, I finally got around to Babylon 5 maybe seven or eight years ago and it had the overarching plot fairly early on, if I recall correctly. Deep Space Nine didn't go serial til the latter half of the series, though it wasn't entirely episodic in the beginning. The B5 arc concluded but then they got renewed for one more season, and I decided not to watch that one. I liked B5 and several of the characters, but they're just not as memorable as the DS9 crew. The effects really didn't age well, either. It's absolutely worth watching once, whereas I have watched DS9 through many times over the years. These days if I ever felt the urge to revisit, I'd consult an episode guide. 176 episodes, good gravy.
Yeah Fallout show is good. I like the way they captured the rinky-dinky Cold War retrofuturism and over-the-top sci-fi. It's not too self-serious. But it can still deliver serious drama too. Very twisty. Lots of secrets and mysteries and revelations.
Babylon 5 was the first show to use CGI like that and was absolutely groundbreaking; DS9 used models and the advantages that brought show today. It has visually aged better. Not that it affects the quality of the writing. Babylon 5 really benefits from being the vision of just one man, who wrote the majority of episodes. DS9 had to be episodic because of the writing pool, although it does leave us with more individually memorable episodes. Far Beyond the Stars is just classic Trek, an all-round brilliant episode of television that doesn't quite fit into the bigger, over-arching plot but raises more important issues.
Somewhere in season 2 of The Good Place, didn't dislike the first season, don't know what to make of season 2.
Stick with it. It's four (?) seasons long and the payoff is at the end. I've watched the whole series three and a half times (paused in the middle of round 4 because I was busy)
Ope, I forgot about this thread for a lil bit. I've almost finished the new Shōgun series. It kicks so much ass. It's the best show I've seen in a while. Great production values, intriguing characters and plot(s). I'm really enjoying it and I can't wait to see how it ends.
Nah, I know I will have to now, though. My mom read it back in the day and says it rules (and she has great taste).
Clavell is the shit. Read them in order: Shogun, Tai Pan, Noble House. The shortest one might be 1000 pages, but well worth it. Fascinating story for the author. He was captured by the Japanese in WWII and survived the Bataan Death March, somehow falling in love with Asian culture and writing about it for the rest of his life.
Oh shit, didn't even realize it was the same dude. My mom gave me her copy of King Rat when I moved away a decade ago. It was an awesome read.
Clavell is criminally underrated for some reason. He sold zillions of books but there's a lot of people who don't know about him.
Anyone who's watching Dune Prophecy? I'm going to give it a go when all episodes have been released at the end of December.
This is priceless. I've never seen this episode before, but now I can't stop listening to it. I wonder why that is? (And yes, Rob Paulsen and Maurice Lamarche are excellent together).
I've been binging on the old Saint TV show with Roger Moore. I've noticed that a lot of the plots are like the westerns on around the same time, with only minor detail differences.
