Thursday, July 29, 2010

Boardwalk Empire

A good reason to get Sky this autumn - it's just bought up the rights to all HBO programmes, including Martin  Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire which, without a scrap of evidence, I am willing to be will be one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
 
Most of my favourite shows of the past few years have originated from across the Atlantic - True Blood, Lost, 24, Fringe, Band of Brothers and The Wire amongst them. And that's discounting The Sopranos, which I own on DVD but have yet to watch.
 
What is it has made the past few years a golden period for US television, especially when compared to output from the UK? The only home-grown drama series that I can think of that have been up with the best of US programmes are Spooks (on its good days) and The Take. I also like the Australian drama Underbelly, recently shown on STV.
 
Am I missing any? And can anyone give me an answer? I suppose it comes down to budget constraints, but is there more to it than that?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

... did you, by any chance, catch 'The Pacific' series from HBO?

Eric

Groanin' Jock said...

No, by the time I knew it was on, I'd missed too many to start. Hoping to catch it on repeats or DVD.