Thanks for reply, I came back here after spending a bit of time searching the episode descriptions for key words - no Greenpeace (not even green), few uses of nuclear (and none related), no Rainbows or Zealand's.
Guess they just skipped right over that face plant of DGSE history :/
The Wire - good for its time; one of the first 'good shows'; doesn't actually hold up today though... what subtext it attempts is too overt. Almost like a documentary, but who needed examples of organizations being corrupt to get it? Sopranos is about the same, but a bit better.
Succession - Entertaining but ultimately shallow; not enough meat on the bone. Straightforward, a page-turner, a Stephen King novel, compelling well written characters, but nothing to chew on or to get stuck in one's craw. Most shows people praise fall into this category actually.
Breaking Bad - Almost gets there, surpassed by BCS. It has its moments of art and pathos, but surfaces for air too frequently in its action scenes and 'badassery'.
That's how I feel anyway.
In my critical system 'entertainment' is not so much a consideration. Breaking Bad is fun, badass, shocking, gripping, and at times highly artistic, but it doesn't try to sustain the artistry throughout. Those former adjectives are not what I'm looking for. I want to read high literature, not genre fiction, regardless of how entertaining the book is. Most literature I love is hardly entertaining at all; who could say that they were on the edge of their seat reading Ivan's 'The Grand Inquisitor'? Yet it's one of my favorite passages in the book. That sort of feeling, of artistry, of greatness, of transcendence, is what I'm judging by in my OP.
(You mean just Patriot—The Patriot is a middling Mel Gibson movie)
Breaking Bad
Mr Inbetween
Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister
and Mr. Show
(am I the only one who can never remember my own favorites?)
I figured I would just wait for color TV, plus the good stuff was bound to come back for re-runs.
It was worth it :)
Wonder Man
The Penguin
Andor
Blue Eyed Samurai
The Patient
Say Nothing