Recommend good HBO series?

Patiodog -- from your description, "Breaking Bad" sounds a bit like "Weeds", an HBO series about a California middle class woman who grows Marijuana. Have you seen the series? (I haven't, so can neither recommend it nor warn against it.) If you have, is it indeed similar?

Yep, I've seen most of Weeds. Breaking Bad is far more grisly.

Curb Your Enthusiasm , is a really good show! I love that show, but if you don't like Seinfeld then you probably wouldn't like it. I love Dexter too, but as stated it is on Showtime.

I know some people that like 'The Tudors', I've personally never watched it though, so I wouldn't know. Hah, just naming another show.

based on the sookie stackhouse novels it's about vampires and other supernatural creatures but tackles modern issues of all kinds... it's set in present day small town louisiana.

Blatham, whom I am currently staying with, spoke warmly of John from Cincinnati today. The series, written and produced by the same guy who made Deadwood, is set in a California surfer community. Those Bastards, as Blatham called HBO management while telling me about the series, canceled it after only one year. I cannot tell you any more about it because I have not seen it yet. But Iwill.

Cool, man!

I loved that show but had forgotten all about it. It was insane -- just the way I like it -- and I think the last thing I watched on HBO before canceling it. Again, that guy who did Deadwood knows how to create characters. You'll see some of the same actors too. He must especially like Garret Dillahunt, who I just had to look up because I never knew his name. He's so extremely versatile that he was in Deadwood twice as two different characters: first as the man who shot Wild Bill and then again later as Hearst's geologist with a psycho whore slashing streak. He's also in John From Cincinnati.

I've been tv less for years now, which hasn't been as trying as it might sound. I used to like various shows and cable channels that tended to show british series, seemingly obscure foreign films (Bravo, but especially Z channel), and so on, and when it became a push to afford cable, I only kept the tv for my niece to watch movies on video when she visited and once in a while for myself to watch videos, and the rare effort to catch tv news (ewwwww). But, I've a longish history of following writers and directors, so I have to look up the writer creator of Deadwood - that's David Milch, I see. (Meantime, I'm checking this thread, now that I have netflix, as I watch dvds on my computer.)

Which brings up other writers (not all tv associated) - ahhhhh. Just some names:

Dennis Potter, well, here's a list from his official biography site, and this is just re tv -

Title Date of first tx
Sufficient Carbohydrate 1983,
The Confidence Course 1965,
Alice 1965
Stand up, Nigel Barton 1965
Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton 1965
Emergency Ward 9 1966
Where the Buffalo Roam 1966
Message for Posterity 1967 /1994
The Bonegrinder 1968
Shaggy Dog 1968
A Beast with Two Backs 1968
Moonlight on the Highway 1969
Son of Man 1969
Lay Down Your Arms 1970
Angels Are So Few 1970
Paper Roses 1971
Traitor 1971
Casanova 1971
Follow the Yellow Brick Road 1972
Only Make Believe 1973
A Tragedy of Two Ambitions 1973
Joe's Ark 1974
Schmoedipus 1974
Late Call 1975
Brimstone and Treacle [1976] 1987
Double Dare 1976
Where Adam Stood 1976
The Mayor of Casterbridge 1978
Pennies From Heaven 1978
Blue Remembered Hills 1979
Blade on the Feather 1980
Rain on the Roof 1980
Cream in My Coffee 1980
Tender is the Night 1985
The Singing Detective 1986
Visitors 1987
Christabel 1988
Blackeyes 1989
Lipstick on Your Collar 1993
Karaoke 1996
Cold Lazarus 1996

OK, I'll stop with the credit lists...

Frederic Raphael - Two for the Road, Glittering Prizes - a BBC series),
William Goldman - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Princess Bride, much else

(http://www.filmmakers.com/artists/williamgoldman/biography/index.htm)
Michael Dobbs' book, adapted by Andrew Davies - House of Cards (BBC)
Larry Gelbart - writer creator of Mash, zillions of credits
David Chase - Sopranos
Alan Burns/James Brooks - writer creators Mary Tyler Moore Show

There are more, that's all whose names immediately come to mind.

Totally agree about Deadwood, and on the period piece thing sort of, Rome was fantastic in my opinion and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Deb -- judging by your lack of reaction to Bipolar Bears explication, he didn't get through to you. So let me just say: Go get the season 1 DVDs now. I am just discovering it. I think it's the best series since the Sopranos, and I don't use this comparison lightly. I'll pay your money back if the DVDs don't give you your money's worth. But I'm very, very confident that I won't have to pay up.

The full explanation merits a thread of its own. I'll see if I can start one that does it justice.

Sorry? Must have missed something.

WHAT DVDs?

Oh, I just figured that DVDs would be the most straightforward way to keep up with HBO series in Australia. If you have another way of watching True Blood, that'll work too.

In the meantime, I did start a thread about the series. You can read it here if you want.

Oh, thanks.

Missed any reference to True Blood.

We do get a bunch of HBO stuff on free to air, but it's patchy.

Well, the reference was very implicit, deeply buried by response to a response to a response praising True Blood. Such high amounts of subtlety are easy for a hare brain to miss.

Grrrrrrr.

I adore Potter.

I think people on this thread recommended


The Wire

Breaking Bad

That one about the lawless frontier town whose name I have forgotten.

Weeds

Rome (despite the awful historical inacuracies)

For which I thank them greatly.


I'll have a look through another time and see what else I have followed up which I have greatly enjoyed.

And complex and sad.

I mean...this poor ******* guy, doing skilled work for peanuts, doing an extra job...and feeling the financial future of his family is all on him.

Not taht I din't love Weeds, too.

Having downloaded the first three episodes of Weeds from Amazon, I decided I won't continue watching. The idea is clever. I probably would enjoy reading the script. But the way the series is shot, the characters don't really interest me.

Any reaction to True Blood, Deb? Your eerie silence reminds me of your reaction to Michelangeli's Chopin Mazurkas. Will I have to give you your money back?

The third season of Dexter is gonna be available next week on NETFLIX. Im gonna computer download episode after episode till I puke. I loved the DEXTER SHOW.