Best drama currently airing

What about this Davinci's Demons... starts tonight.
Shows Davinci invented the future, there never having been any until Davinci.
Voodoo and vampireism in 15th century Italy via a set in Wales?

Quote: Fleastiff

What about this Davinci's Demons... starts tonight.

In a world where thought and faith are controlled, one man fights to set knowledge free.
Free premiere episode.

Starz is one of the better deals for pay TV. It only cost us $2/month to add it.

DaVinci's Demons is is fairly manic, and seems to borrow little bits of plot from nearly every movie you've seen in the last few years. The characters are oversized, often buffoons (Lorenzo the magnificent is reduced to an overbearing idiot), and there is a peculiar supernatural element added. Lots of nudity as is typical in most pay-TV series. The rich and powerful are all attracted to young men or boys, and the cruelty is casual. DaVinci is the only character who has heterosexual sex.

The Pazzi family is introduced. In history on 26 April 1478 they conspired to murder Lorenzo, so the first episode of series would appear to be set sometimes in the early 1470's.

But I would call it good television. I don't expect television to be historically accurate or even subtle. It just has to be entertaining.

Quote: Pacomartin

It breaks most of the rule of a TV series. The stories are very complex so that you must pay attention. The episodes are interrelated so that watching a random episode out of order is mostly confusing. There are lots of characters.

It breaks a lot of taboos for network tv, both in language and visually. It uses a lot of pornographic inspired setups (although it is not pornographic). The concept is to have seasons be individual mini-series that are unrelated. Some of the actors are in the 2nd season, but they have no relationship to the roles they played in the 1st season.

It can also be genuinely frightening.

I was genuinely excited about this series, American Horror Story, for the first season. The second season made me squirm more, but I eventually watched all the episodes. I lost it in the third season, and could no longer stomach the sadism. I didn't see any of the 4th season. I only made it through a few minutes of the pilot of the 5th season, in time to catch a 3 minute male rape. I turned it off before Lady Gaga came on, so I didn't see her bloodbath.

I know that Netflix is airing the first four seasons, and that the show continues to attract some top name actors and actresses.

Has anyone been watching this show faithfully?

Getting into Breaking Bad - up to the middle of season 4
Due to BB, now watching Better Caul Saul, watched 1st few episiodes
Still watching Dexter, just finished season 3
Just started watching MR Robot. Have to watch it on the USA network website. Its pretty good, up to EP 4

I just voted for Breaking Bad (even though it's no longer currently airing).

What a great show that was. The best writing on TV by far.

Better Call Saul is also great. Different from BB, but still superbly written and acted.

Quote: ams288

Better Call Saul is also great. Different from BB, but still superbly written and acted.

I've been wondering if I picked up a spot of brilliance, or if I'm just weirding out.

The intro, you ever notice it? It's going along, the music's playing, and then it abruptly cuts. And it cuts at such a weird point, as if the tail end of the music is chopped off. Anyone else notice that?

I find that it messes with my head. It's got me thinking that the creator knows this and had the forethought to use our new streaming society to his advantage. After all, what does an odd cut like that do to you? Me, it makes me snap to attention. It creates the aura of an error; perhaps my PC is slow and is buffering, or I've been watching too long and now must take action to press "Still Watching" to continue. Either way, that abrupt stop forces me to divert my attention from whatever thought or task I was currently on, and now I'm completely focused on the show. Which just so happens to be starting right now.

Purposeful brilliance? Or am I just weirding?

Quote: sodawater

Game of Thrones is my personal favorite... but Homeland has got to be the most addicting to watch.

Edit: If you vote Other please leave a comment with your choice.

People are obsessed with "Game of Thrones"

David Benioff (wife is actress Amanda Peet) and DB Weiss (wife Andrea Troyer) are the co-creators. Amanda and Andrea watch the series together, but their husbands don't give them any advance notice of what will happen. As narrated on Conan, when the co-creators killed a handsome star of the show, the wives “said you better find a way to bring him back, I don’t care what it takes, or else you can be gay with each other!”.

John Snow - Amanda Peet


People are so crazy about the show that the single series was largely responsible for HBO introducing a streaming version of HBO. My brother tells me it is excellent.

I still have never seen it.

I love Game of Thrones.

It's a show that has gotten better as it's gone on - something that is rare for a TV show.

As it increased in popularity, HBO upped the budget for each season. Now we are basically treated to a mini-movie every week.