What modern TV show (Post 2000) do you think has the best writing?

I really enjoyed the writing on Monk. It's hard to tell at times whether the comedic timing helps the scripts seem better, but I thought the show was great.
MM

 

Three shows, for different reasons:

Breaking Bad: Walter White is my favorite fictional character, and his story arc is as good as any. It is structured flawlessly; all his transitions, from his decision to cook meth to the final scene, come at the right times in the right order. Seasons 3-5, but especially 4, conclude perfectly. Concluding a story or a part of a story is an art of its own, and Breaking Bad is the lesson on how to do that.

The Wire: the city of Baltimore is a character itself. Each individual character, while interesting individually (and written and acted in a way that makes me care about him), affects many other characters around the city. When I watch The Wire, I feel like I am living on the streets of Baltimore and I am a member of the giant (dysfunctional) family that is the characters.

Arrested Development: there is a spectrum between "story with funny moments" and "funny story". Arrested Development is on the far end of "funny story". It is practically an academic treatise on humor. Every single element, while funny on its own, is tied to several other elements that are even funnier when the viewer understands the connection between them. Sometimes, it is almost too funny -- instead of laughing, I have to pause it to let the complexity of the humor sink in. And then watch the episode again to catch what I missed the previous time. And then again.

 

I see what you mean. The Wire has the best overall cast of any movie or TV show I have seen. Others have individual actors that outshine the cast (case in point, Bryan Cranston as Walter White), but The Wire's cast is consistently competent and involving. I would even say the acting/directing is the best thing about that show. And yet the writing is still better than all but one or two other shows.

 

if I can stretch it to 1999 Futurama, I would also like to add Simpson's but that really will stretch the friendship.

 

The first few seasons of Futurama are criminally underrated.

 

So did I. And as soon as that Lost spell was broken for me I began thinking it was all pretentious claptrap that wasn't going anywhere.

I second Futurama - which always has had at least good writing, though I don't care for some of the resent episodes. Dexter was alright - it's just a huge shame that for the last season they got in people for new characters who flat-out could not act. And the story got a little preposterous in places.

I've always been a fan of Bones too. The first few seasons were fantastic, very well written I thought.

I've not seen Breaking Bad - much to my apparent missing out. What's it even about?

 

Breaking Bad synopsis: A highly overqualified high school chemistry teacher begins cooking meth when he finds out he has lung cancer.

It doesn't sound that great on paper, but trust me, it's amazing. The first two seasons are good, but from the third on it is phenomenal. Absolute perfection, in my opinion.

 

Awesome. Good stuff.

 

It was great, but the ending was for me an anti-climax, and too hard to swallow. But it was bound to be after all that was set up. However, it proves that old adage of the journey being more enjoyable than the destination. I was hooked almost every episode.

 

Anti-climax? I'm surprised you think that. I thought it was very climatic. And everything that was set up was resolved. I absolutely loved the finale.

 

It was resolved but not too satisfactorily for me. Especially after such good storyline and drama.

 

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, The Sopranos takes some beating. Still my favourite TV series ever.

 

Definitely on my, "to watch," list. Probably right after I finish The Wire.

 

Make sure you do! It's a real shame James Gandolfini is no longer with us. There's now no chance of the proposed Sopranos movie ever being realised.

 

Just watched Season 1 of Luther, definitely up there.

True Detective was great.

Anyone's thoughts in Spartacus? I enjoyed it for what it was.

 

They explained the polar bear. It wasn't magical or anything, though it seemed that way at first.

I know a lot of people didn't like the Lost character additions, which is when the show began to get rid of them. They really tried to make it enjoyable. You don't even know how good it got. lol There were some moments that were strange, but it was still a very interesting show. The ending was a failure to me, but I still loved the show.

A little-known TV show that I enjoy (and this is for all you Lost fans) is Siberia. It was marketed as a reality show. All these contestants are thrown into Siberia, Russia, and have to live there as long as possible to get a million dollars or something. They had housing, a few tools, and some food, but they had to keep it going. And once a day or week or so, some goodies would be delivered to them via a big metal contraption.

Anyway. It was marketed as a reality show, but it was actually a scripted TV show. So when a "contestant" got injured in the second episode, viewers flipped shit because that rarely happens on a reality show. lol Eventually, shit goes wrong for the people living in Siberia. And the twists and whatnot greatly reminded me of Lost. I always recommend it to any Lost fan.

The show has a great group of characters, a lot of conflict, some interesting twists, and it's a pretty convincing reality show in the beginning. If you didn't realize it was scripted, you'd never know.

According to Neeko from Siberia, Season 2 is in the works. So yay! I'm stoked.

 

House of Cards has some really witty, intelligent writing. It deserves a mention as well.

 

I tried watching House of Cards, but the random moments where he'd stare into the camera and start talking took me out of it. I couldn't enjoy it because of it.

 

True, but I think the purpose of that was to make us (the audience) feel as we are on "his" side during the story, almost like we are a trusted side-kick that is experiencing his life with him.

 

I really enjoyed Spartacus. Well at first I wasn't a big fan of some of the special effects. But they grew on me. The dialogue does bug me at times.

But overall I definitely enjoyed it.

 

I liked the writing in a lot of the shows already mentioned like Six Feet Under, Orange is the New Black, and Futurama

Three I don't think I saw mentioned, that I enjoyed are: Oz (the HBO prison series), United States of Tara (mainly written by Diablo Cody), and The Walking Dead.

 

I'd have to say Psych.
It was a fun show! The writing was pretty good too.
Monk is pretty good too.

 

Family Guy and American Horror Story jump to mind.

 

This I second! Definitely Breaking Bad and Arrested Development, unfortunately I haven't seen The Wire yet but it's on my list to watch because I have heard amazing things! I have to say about Arrested Development though, I feel like the Netflix season didn't measure up to what came before. That doesn't mean I won't continue watching and loving it, we'll see what the next season brings!
I have a few more shows to add for different reasons as well.

First of all when talking about TV writing, what about Aaron Sorkin! He is my favourite TV writer by far, his ability to write engaging, complicated dialog astounds me. So my top two choices are The West Wing and Newsroom. Both are brilliant though completely different. Obviously The West Wing is quite old now but the characters are fascinating, it gives great insight into American politics and the dialog is amazing. Newsroom is quite different as it's a cable show, it's a bit more drama, more bad language and more intense. It also had a very satisfying ending, the three seasons were well thought out, brilliant arch of storytelling within the seasons and throughout the show, recommend it highly!

If you want to see something innovative, different and inspiring, look out for Bryan Fuller! I'm sure you'll have at least heard of some of his shows: Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls and his latest and most successful show to date: Hannibal.
Pushing Daisies is the most creative, inspiring TV I've ever seen and 6 years after its cancellation, I'm still not over it. If you haven't seen it, check it out, it's only two seasons.
I could talk for hours about these shows but I'll spare you

Some other shows with exceptional writing I can think of would be:
Fringe (probably my favourite TV show of all time, apart from maybe the final season...)
Lost (personally I didn't like the ending but doesn't change the fact the show was one of a kind)
House of Cards (only just started the third season but one of the best things I've seen in a long time!)
Game of Thrones (can't argue with it)
Critical (I love medical dramas but this is something else. Real time, 60 minutes to save a life, just brilliant!)

And a special shout out to Community. It's remarkable, we may have just seen the last season, if so, very satisfying final. Remains to be seen if there will be a 7th season or a movie (personally I believe it will be the film as "Six seasons and a movie" is a thing on the show!). The show challenges the medium, gives creative insight into it and is never not funny!