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Originally Posted by GeoffRas22
damn, you are exactly the type of person i would expect to love that show. granted i only know your internet persona so it is very likely just a misread on my part.
"Pat and facile" were great words to describe it. I just found it so masturbatory and self-congratulating. It's for people who want to fantasize that a world exists where decisions are made by having people (specifically, middle-aged white men) who roughly agree with the viewer's politics making impassioned speeches that change the mind of their strawmen enemies. I just didn't find it compelling. I don't need my TV to flatter my intellect; I need it to tell me good stories.
I liked Sports Night, but I think one show in that style was enough for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chim17
Not enough Shield in these rankings.
Yeah, I've come to appreciate The Shield more and more with time. I'd say The Shield > Mad Men. Sustaining dramatic momentum for seven seasons is really hard, and The Shield did it as well as any show in history.
I wouldn't try to argue with someone who thinks Mad Men > The Shield, because they might prefer that immersive, anthological form over the momentum and action of real dramatic literature. (And it's not just about "Cops are cool" action, it's action in the real dramatic sense: a character has a tragic flaw, he takes an action based on that flaw, and that action begins the plot rolling and leads into more actions to deal with it, until it all piles up at the reversal/realization and the climax. The Shield and Breaking Bad are great at this. Mad Men has too many self-contained stories that don't really change the status quo for my taste.)