Has McMafia made it to Oz yet? I binged Season 1 flying back to London from Melbourne. Wasn’t bad but I’m wondering if it was because I was at 40000 ft for 17 hours with nothing else to do. Might check it again as the long winter nights set in here.
After 3 years I’ve finally finished the Tom Fontana double of his 2 critically acclaimed series Homicide: Life on the Street and Oz - IMDB has its issues, but both are rated in the top 250 TV shows there - Oz at 61.
I wasn’t aware before I started Homicide that it was based on a non-fiction book by David Simon (who later created The Wire, Generation Kill, Treme, Show Me A Hero and The Deuce). Homicide has plenty of good moments in early seasons before turning into more of a contemporary (and photogenic) police drama due to network pressure post season 3.
If you’ve never seen Oz and love high quality drama in general and prison dramas in particular, you should do your best to track it down as it is fantastic. It started before the Sopranos and it is genuinely surprising it was only nominated for 2 Emmys during its run and didn’t receive any Globe nominations, particularly for writing and acting.
Plenty of familiar faces on both shows on Homicide you’ll find Andre Braugher’s (Brooklyn 99) breakout and Emmy winning role, the beginning of Richard Melzer’s Munch which then carried over to SVU, character actor Melissa Leo, Zeljko Ivanek (also in Oz and currently Madam Secretary) and in later seasons Callie Thorne (Rescue Me), Jon Seda (Chicago PD), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) and Michele Michele (ER).
Of the more familiar faces in Oz there is J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, Counterpart), a pre-Sopranos Edie Falco, Harold Perrineau & Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost), Chris Meloni & BD Wong (L&O SVU), Lauren Velez & David Zayas (Dexter), Eamonn Walker (Chicago Fire), Kirk Acevedo (Fringe/Arrow), Dean Winters (Vulture on Brooklyn 99, Liz’s ex on 30 Rock), Kathryn Erbe (L&O Criminal Intent), Lance Reddick (Fringe/Bosch) and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters).
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Just wound up the 2nd Season of Atypical.
Really good show, … and is itself, exactly as it’s title reads for a TV show. Haven’t had as many really good laughs from a show in years.
S2 not quite on par with S1, but not far behind. Highly recommended.
Only discovered this a couple of months ago.
Watch it as a family with teenage kids. Enjoyable and enough laughs to keep you interested.
Deadwood - All time favourite TV show.
Actually, was watching Santa Clarita Diet the other day (don’t judge me but Drew Barrymore is in my top 5 celebs I would…). for those unaware Timothy Olyphant is in this show and the cameo guest was Gerald McRaney (who played George Hearst) on one of the episodes.
Anyway, spoiler alert, but Gerald ended up being undead and Timothy got to kill him.
So after all these years, Seth finally got to exact his revenge on that c@ck sucka Hearst. Happy days!
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Four episodes into this and really enjoying it. Be interesting to see where it goes.
Good call on the subtitle call, although sometimes you need to be a state champion speed reader. Oh well, I guess that’s what the rewind button’s for.
Just finished this last night.
Enjoyed it.
Reminds me a bit of the old Les Norton books by Robert G Barrett actually.
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Yes. He is a bit Les like actually.
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For some reason I’ve tried 3-4 times but have never got through the first episode of The Wire… should I persist?
Also, Better Call Saul - should I give it a crack?
(My top 2 all time are GoT and Breaking Bad)
Yes, persist. I remember not being able to understand them at the start.
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Definitely. IMO the show has everything Breaking Bad had. Also it’s great to get the back stories on how things got to where they were in BB. The evolution of Jimmy into Saul is told so well.
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My GOAT list of tv shows.
Sopranos
The wire
Six feet under
Breaking bad
GOT
True detectives (season one)
Deadwood
Mind hunter
Taboo
Madmen
The missing
Boardwalk empire
The night of
Hand maids take
The expanse
Seven seconds
Love my way
Fargo
Black mirror
Narcos
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I agree, but would say it’s more story based as opposed to action based. More slow burn, but still rewarding.
I’m hanging in there too but only just. Hoping it folds after this season. I had high hopes for Fear but gave it away halfway through season 3.
No love for Battlestar Galactica (2004-09 version) in that list?
Greatest Sci-fi/drama ever made imho.
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Late but this season of Always Sunny was very underwhelming.
Solidified that Dennis is the MVP of the show. All the eps without him were pedestrian at best. Best couple were focused on him.
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Yes. Persist with it. It’s slow, especially in the first half of the first season. But you need to persist. If you’re not totally addicted after watching the entire first season then give it away.
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I don’t say lightly that it’s the best show ever made, but it is the best show ever made.
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Yeah, still some funny eps but time to lay it to rest. It’s pretty interesting that only Charlie has gone on to bigger things as far as I know.
Agree fam, show badly needs Dennis and every scene with him is gold, and the others bounce off him with great hilarity. Without Dennis is feels like they’re just 4 stupid idiots doing things, Dennis’ smarts makes the show better due to his interactions with them.
I think the first half of the season was almost back to it’s best, the sex doll episode with the jacket was gold and Mac having random outbursts against Dee… but yesterday I watched eps 6-9 (missed 7 due to forgetting to download) and I agree. Needs more Dennis and less recurring characters from 6 seasons ago. I don’t think they realise the fun was how they became Cricket and and all that, not what they’re like now.