Be Excellent To Each Other

There seems to be a wealth of pap on TV these days, to my 'old fart' brain so much of it is incredibly formulaic, predictable and poorly written.

Can anyone recommend any TV shows that involve the use of the old grey matter please? Doesn't need to be any particular genre. I particularly like stories that involve the characters solving problems and using THEIR brains.

Perhaps that's not much to go on, but the general requirements are: smart, non-formulaic, thought provoking, perhaps some problem solving, well written.

Any recommendations please?

Ta

The wire
West wing
The shield
Britains got talent

Here's a short list that should help you...

The Wire
The Wire
The Wire
The Wire
The Wire
The Wire
The Wire
The Wire
etc.

Is that a case of "spot the odd one out?"

Have watched The Wire (three times!), couldn't really get into 'The Shield', haven't tried The West Wing' properly.

The less said about BGT, the better ..........

Tried Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on DVD? It's an amazing TV series, hugely atmospheric and a real chin-stroker. Alec Guiness at his best, and a compelling soundtrack too. Plus Ian Richardson!

In which case, watch that properly. It's ace.

The Sopranos
Battlestar Galactica
edge of darkness
house of cards
yes, minister
yes, prime minister

321.

Fun House.

Also, body.

Brotherhood.

Only Connect.

Deadwood.

The Lost Room (mini-mini series)

Some good suggestions there folks, many thanks, keep 'em coming.

BTW, seen Deadwood and The Lost Room.

Must try Mad Men sometime too ...........

Generation kill
Breaking bad

I, Claudius is something of a classic, as is Edge of Darkness.

Ah yes, Generation Kill was very good.

The thick of it.

I'll agree with you re Edge of Darkness (stunningly brilliant), but when I watched 'I, Claudius' a few years ago it bored me silly (as did another 'classic; drama, 'Brideshead Revisited').

The original Survivors. The 3 series box set is now quite cheap. Although series 2 is abit crap.

Edge of Darkness has already been mentioned.

+ the final 3 stories of the original Doctor Who. i.e Curse of Fenric, Ghostlight and Survival. Although now dated they show a much more mature approach to writing on the series. Certainly more subtle. Survival has a lesbian/feminist subtext which lies just under the surface where as Russell T Davies would have been ramming it down your throat.

Yes Minister
Yes, Prime Minister
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Seinfeld

Baywatch

Series that make you think:

The Ascent of Man - looks dated, but isn't.
Cosmos - The exceptional Carl Sagan.
In Search of the Trojan War/In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great - Michael Woods on top form.

None of them are fictional, but all are worth watching.

I watch that mostly for masturbation purposes.

Hgnmmmphictoriaaaaaaaaah.

Just watched the first episode - does the lovely Victoria Coren flash her cleavage on every episode?

*queues for download*

I think you need to get into some of the HBO cop and crime dramas.

Homicide, The Wire, Breaking Bad.

Also, Wallander, Swedish version.

Loved that. Such a shame it was so brief, felt a little rushed to wrap up.

Well worth checking out.

As did I. Really really fun and good.

There's a community of people on the internet who try and collect "the objects" which is a) really geeky and b) I want to do it.

The original Swedish version of Wallander on BBC4. Quirky and very Swedish. The English version seems to lose a lot of this in translation and is just a bit boring and slow.

Babylon 5. Seriously. The philosophical side was excellent. Mostly the stuff spouted by G'kar. But the whole thing is a great show with power corrupting people, noble intentions leading to horrible mistakes, internal power struggles and racial misunderstandings. Far better than anything I ever saw ST DS9 or TNG do.

I think the episode with the Drazi killing each after dividing into two sects was interesting. They divide simply by random selection of a coloured scarf so the humans try to convince them it's pointless as they are all the same. Evanova tries to show this by putting a different colour scarf on one but instead of the understanding she expects, the drazi gets attacked by the people to which he had previously belonged. To me it represented that you can't necessarily change people's cultural beliefs according to your own.

I watched Babylon 5 recently, it really hasn't stood the test of time well.

Add that to the abysmal acting and writing throughout most of it, and sure the ideas may be good, but JMS just was too poor a writer to do them justice.

IMO obviously

The acting is usually a considerable amount better than a certain show which features a guy with a mars bar stuck to his head so there.