Are We Living In A Golden Age Of Tv Drama And A Bronze Age Of Tv Comedy

[sp1814]

This was put to me by a friend (who works in telly) at a bar last night, and I think he has a point.

I can't remember a time when there was so many excellent dramas on tv, and so few good comedies.

Personal opinion (obviously), in the past few years, we've had:

Dr Foster
The Fall
House of Cards
Damages
Missing
Endeavour
Downton Abbey
Deutschland 83
The Bridge
The Killing
Spin
Borgen
Wallander
Mr Robot
Breaking Bad
Empire
The Wire
Mad Men
Peaky Blinders
Sherlock
The Returned
Humans
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Narcos
Fargo (second series, NOT the first)
True Detective (first series, NOT the second)

And comedies?

Modern Family

Err...that's it.

Do you agree or disagree? I literally can't think of any decent sitcoms on TV apart from MF!

[sp1814]

I agree that The Big Bang Theory was well liked in our house, but we stopped watching it some time ago. It seemed to have 'jumped the shark' about four years back.

But the really odd thing is sitcoms.

Okay...I forgot to include W1A, Twenty Twelve, Hunderby and Getting On, but right now the biggest sitcom we have is Miranda, which to me is just a tall woman falling in to cardboard boxes every eight minutes.

What happened???

[hc4361]

I used to be a huge fan of sitcom, but watching the repeat of some of the ancient ones, I can't understand why I ever watched them. Some are excruciatingly bad

[MallyJ]

I find it really hard to find anything on tv that I want to watch....most of it is unchallenging pap... or just an update on old programmes. I am convinced daytime tv is simply a government plot to dull the senses of the population and am rapidly coming to the conclusion that most of the rest of it is too.

[webbo3]

You missed .

The Walking Dead.
Dexter.



Dave.

[shaneystar2]

Line of Duty
The Sopranos.
The only sitcoms I've really liked in recent years are Lead Balloon and Black Books and I loved Miranda.

[hc4361]

I'm enjoying The Night Manager at the moment

[shaneystar2]

Trapped is good on BBC 4 Saturdays atm .Nordic Noir .

[hc4361]

River was a superb drama series last year.
Luther is unmissable

[shaneystar2]

I also liked
Dickensian
Cuffs
Poldark
The Trials of Jimmy Rose
Ordinary Lies
Wolf Hall
And those three adaptations of novels ..Lady Chatterley,The Go Between and Cider with Rosie .
There's loads of good stuff on TV lately and some really good history documentaries which I like.

[shaneystar2]

Mustn't forget Midsommer Murders.It's totally daft and the body count is horrendous but I never miss it.I love the Sykes the little dog.

[webbo3]

Midsommer Murders Shaneystar2, John nettles is so bad he could have been in the wooden tops.



Dave.

[pixie374]

I think the only sitcom I like is Not Going Out, although I'm not a fan of Lee Mack, Tim vine and I hate puns :-). Can't beat Blackadder really, or House though.

[tonyav]

The only sitcom I watch is on BBC 3 ( I watch on bbc iplayer ) is Cuckoo.

[Cloverjo]

15 Storeys High was also very good, as was The League of Gentlemen. Mind you, they're at least ten years old now.
Nurse Jackie was also brilliant, although it's finished now. Girls is brilliant, too. So was This is Jinsy.

[CrapAtCryptics]

Limitless ( the series ) has had a pretty good start

[Cloverjo]

Parks and Recreation

[sp1814]

Ah yes Cloverjo - Parks & Recreation. I would also add Curb Your Enthusiasm...but it seems that with sitcoms, we are growing ever more dependent on the US, whereas with drama, we have more than enough home-grown output to compete with shows from across the pond.