Wednesday, June 5, 2019

My Top 15 Video Series

Lucius Verenus, Centurion, HBO Series ROME

I watch video series more than any other kind of video entertainment. I was talking with a friend and made a list of my favorites. I just started watch the Handmaid's Tale, Season 3. When I read the book thirty years ago, I thought it was crazy.  Now it's scary.

Here's my list based on no criteria other than how much I like the show:


1.     The Wire, HBO—Best TV I ever watched. So hooked I watched entire series 3 times, once with my sons.
2.     Band of Brothers, HBO—watched 3 times, once with my sons.
3.     Sopranos, HBO—entire series once, some episodes again.
4.     The Americans, FX—I may watch it again.
5.     Justified, FX—I watched because the lead actor is so good, Timothy Olyphant.
6.     Blacklist, NBC—weird but as with Justified, the lead actor makes the show endlessly entertaining: James Spader.
7.     Mad Men—Uneven, but overall very good.
8.     The West Wing, NBC—I watched it when it was new and watched it again after Trump was elected as a total fantasy: a brilliant, mature, thoughtful President.
9.     The Shield, FX—so dark, so good.
10. Breaking Bad, AMC
11. 24, Fox, good for three of seven seasons, really good. Different WMD each season.
12. Alias, ABC Jennifer Garner, Camp,, lots of fun.
13. Rome, HBO—wish it lasted longer.
14. Deadwood, HBO—so dark. Timothy Olyphant is amazing.
15. The Pacific, HBO--not as coherent as Band of Brothers. At its best it is excellent.

"Blindness" by Jose Saramago--terrifying look at society falling apart

  Blindness  reached out and grabbed me from the first page.  A very ordinary scene of cars waiting for a traffic introduces the horror to c...