Yep, you hit all my favorites as well although I have not seen The Wire… yet. Mad Men is another show extremely well done. Its definitely a soap opera but that's not meant to be an insult. Only 7 episodes remaining in that one.

Anyone who has not seen the video RobT posted above please do yourself a favor.

If you liked the others I mentioned, you will definitely like The Wire. Great show for binge watching, too. Very similar to Breaking Bad in many ways (e.g., excellent writers, very deep character development, complicated story arcs).

Another great show that ended far too early, IMO, was Deadwood (HBO). I teared up when I first learned that it was not being renewed after only three seasons. Al Swearengen is one of the most memorable characters on cable television.

C**KSUCKER!!

If you haven't seen The Wire yet, you may want to wait a little longer. Word on the street is that HBO is remastering all the episodes in HD ...

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/09/the-wire-marathon-on-hbo?mbid=social_twitter

Next up. Game of Thrones and House of Cards (?)
Then, Boardwalk Empire. Then True Detective.

Game of Thrones is phenomenal. You will be hooked instantly.

I saw 2 episodes and never went back. I hear so many good things about it, I will probably go back sometime in the future. I might have just been the wrong mood when I watched it. But it definitely didn't hook me instantly. Quite the opposite.

Jaz

Ya see....different strokes...

WINTER IS COMING !!!

You know nothing, Jon Snow!

Masterpiece is indeed the correct word to describe this series. I'd have a hard time saying that any TV series has ever been better.

Good luck trying to find something to compete. I haven't. I was in to Dexter and the first few seasons were great, but that last two were not good, and the finale was terrible.

After having a few days to reflect I am NOW sure this is the best TV series I have ever watched. Maybe the best thing I've ever watched PERIOD! The show had no weaknesses IMO and I've never been so emotionally connected to characters. The characters in BB are not just extremely interesting and different but also endearing and they had me empathizing and caring deeply about them… Weird? Crazy?

Right now I'm watching The Wire so I will report back later on that one.

Wire = Breaking Bad. Both masterpieces.

Dexter should not even be discussed here except for season 1.

And it goes even further than that. As I indicated earlier in the thread, the cinematography in Breaking Bad is excellent. That's not often the case with TV series.

Can Deadwood be streamed via Netflix?

No, but it is on Amazon Prime and HBO GO.

Deadwood is great. Not breaking bad great. But good none the less. Shame they canceled it. It's going to be a long time before something rivals BB. Boardwalk Empire started strong and has cinematography on par or better than BB but I lost interest in season 3. I enjoyed Rome but again, cut short. I tried the wire twice and oz as well. It just didn't click for me. I have been searching for a BB replacement to binge on but for me, sadly, there's nothing out there. The only thing close to BB is Game of Thrones.

Amazon Prime is awesome… worth it for their instant video alone although the free shipping really comes in handy as well.

How do you use Amazon Prime on a TV?

My Oppo Blu-ray player has several apps on it including Vudu and Netflix but nothing for Amazon Prime.

Amazon prime sells an wifi adapter ala roku called fire tv. It was $79 with a year of prime included. Not sure if they're still running the promo. I have widgets on my tv's so I don't need it.

**edit: nope no more promo. $99

That blows.

Won't even consider paying that for one.

I will just rent the physical discs from Netflix.

Smart TV

What's that?

I watch in my mancave/HT on a 9 foot wide screen that uses front projection.

9 foot wide?? You kids are crazy these days. My Smart TV is 4 feet wide and I thought I was a bad ass…

You haven't seen The Wire and you're wondering what you're going to watch now?

You have chosen wisely. BB is practically perfect. The Wire is even better.

Yep. Crazy!

Theater4.jpg

Stern should do a Better Call Saul game

Amazon prime is phenomenal. My house conservatively watches 200 hrs of free content with the prime membership. My kids wouldn't know what to do without it. What's a $100 when you have a multi-thousand dollar home theater.

I have Amazon Prime and love it.

I'm just not paying $100 to add yet another device to my setup. I'll just rent the discs via Netflix.

The Roku 3 is on sale right now for $85 ...

http://www.amazon.com/Roku-3-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B00BGGDVOO/ref=sr_1_1

Another option would be the Roku Streaming Stick for $49 ...

http://www.amazon.com/Roku-3500R-Streaming-Stick-HDMI/dp/B00INNP5VU/ref=pd_rhf_ee_s_cp_7_P394

If you have a laptop with an HDMI out, you can run that into your TV for free. It would allow you to watch Amazon Prime, HBO GO, and any other streaming service on your TV.

Just not worth the hassle or money vs renting the discs via Netflix.

Hooking up a single HDMI cable from your computer to your TV seems like a lot less hassle to me than sending discs back and forth in the mail. That being said, one benefits of going with the blu-rays is better picture quality. When you're dealing with a 9' screen, that's a factor that shouldn't be ignored.

Disagree.

HTPC can be a pain in the ass. By contrast, nothing is easier than opening the Netflix flyer, throwing the disc in my BD player, watching the disc, and throwing it back in my mailbox. Been a Netflix member for well over a decade.

Wow, that's a pretty incredible dedicated room. You have much more disposable income than I sir and I salute you.

However, as a message to the more common man, you can have pretty kick-ass front-screen projection system for not much more money than a quality 65" TV if you have a basement or other room with the ability to control the ambient light. I've got a 100" diagonal screen in my basement and it totally rocks. The total price for the screen, projector, and cabling was around $2500. You can go cheaper but black level was an important consideration for me and that was about $1000 more for a better projector.

Jaz

That's about the same amount of time since I last bought or rented a movie. If I can't stream I'm not watching it.

I could never even consider having that attitude. I'm a movie buff, and there is simply far too much great content out there that can't be streamed.

One thing I noticed right away from the first couple episodes of The Wire was the two actors currently in TWD... One legged Bob and Gabrielle the Reverend.

Almost done with the first season already. Wasn't planning on binging it... it just happened!

Pretty awesome so far...

Yeah I'm loving this -- seems like TWD has a rule, every time they bump off an actor from The Wire, they bring in two more! Come to think of it, since you're still on Season 1, there are at least two more The Wire actors currently on TWD that you won't recognize since they don't show up until Season 3 or 4 of The Wire.

It will be interesting to see how the remasters come out, and what they do with the aspect ratio. I remember reading once that David Simon intentionally shot the show in 4x3 so it would "look like TV". Hopefully they'll honor that.

I would hope that it will still be in 4:3, but who knows. The networks have been known to do stupid things. I've never seen The Wire, and I've been purposely holding off until the HD versions are out. I've been watching the remastered HD versions of Star Trek: TOS and Star Trek: TNG. They both look amazing!

The 1st season of The Wire was really good! No doubt this series is going to be stellar! Its gonna take a lot to unseat BB but The Wire looks to have an outside chance...

Is anyone else getting tired of TWD? I am a fan but you can tell that the writers are trying to extend this out as long as they can. Can't blame them since its so popular and making them tons of cash but its getting slow and repetitive... getting bored with it. Anyone else?

I know several people who think The Wire is not only the best television show ever written, but the best piece of fiction ever written.

love the art!!! that was the best series i have ever watched.

Yep. My daughter and I are huge fans and watch it together. She said to me before the start of last weeks episode "I know that this weeks episode is going to have a lot more action and more drama because the last few episodes have been slow". Didn't really work out that way though.

Sad thing is that we only have 1 more episode before we have another couple months before we get another one.

I found it much more enjoyable to be able to watch episodes back to back when I first started watching, which was after the 3rd season. I hate being caught up and having to wait a week or more between episodes.

I wonder if Better Call Saul will be any good?

if it is the same writers and director it will probably be just as good as breaking bad if not better.

lots of different folks to defend, a lot more openings for some comic relief to likely all very bad situations by obviously??? guilty people. and was he always a good lawyer? was he always shady? was he always a snazzy dresser?

That might be a bit of a stretch but its damn good nonetheless and is filling my BB void nicely! It sounds like it gets even better season by season...

After completing BB and watching the 1st season of The Wire all of a sudden TWD seems a lot less interesting... I'll stick with it (for a while longer) cuz I want to see how it ends but I heard they are talking about 10-12 seasons. I just can't see it lasting that long!