Cable Series

I just got into Orphan Black, which is still producing new episodes on BBC America.  I watched season 1 thanks to Amazon and then caught up with TiVo and a well time marathon on BBC.  It's so good, in fact, that I totally forgot about Scandal. 

I just realized that isn't really cable - or is it?  BBC?  Either way, I like it.

I didn't think it was as good as Breaking Bad, but it was quite good.   We watched it last year.

The Wire was excellent as was Breaking Bad in different ways. Hard for me to pick a favorite between the two there.

True Detective was amazing the first 5 or 6 episodes. Just once I'd like to see a great show with a complex mythology end as strong as it starts (Lost, X-Files). Still, very worth watching. Hoping they can be more consistent with the next True Detective anthology.

House of Cards is pretty good.

Band of Brothers if you haven't ever seen it is as good as it gets.

Black Sails - yeah was kind of hit and miss. Serious pacing issues in the last 3rd of the season.

I'd recommend Penny Dreadful, pretty good start through the first 4 episodes.

Not as good as the others, but Generation Kill was worth watching.

Homeland, Rome, Deadwood - all worth watching

My son and I liked watching Copper, BBC America I think

Guilty pleasure material - Banshee on Cinemax, Sparticus on Stars, Justified

I have all those sitting on my DVR for a slow weekend...

Many of those I watched already.  The wife and I were disappointed with the sudden end to Rome.  We wanted that to continue.

I forgot about HOMELAND!  I can grab all of those from on Demand.  I like the previous seasons but didn't record it because it conflicted with other things.  I forgot that it's out there.

I did a quick Google search to substantiate that and found nothing.  Basically said that it was one of the biggest sets ever and cost $100 million per season to produce, but didn't get good enough ratings to keep it up.  I couldn't find anything about a fire - I take that back.  Found a story the Italian set DID partially burn, but after it was already cancelled.

Maybe just a fraction before it's time?  Spartacus and GoT seem to be doing really well now.  Can't believe that show ended almost 7 years ago...

Between the morning/evening train commute to work and the trainer rides over the winter, I went through most of these series and can recommend a few others:

• Damages - some complained that the series started to go downhill in the last season
• Sherlock - each season is only 3 episodes but they are 90 minutes long; season 3 just finished earlier this year
• Luther - lasted only 3 seasons and ranged from 4 to 6 episodes per season; Idris Elba (from The Wire) plays the lead.

 I find it hard to watch any network TV series now.  I tried to give Person of Interest a chance, but lost interest in the middle of this season. 

ETA - forgot about The Newsroom.  Season 3 starts up again this fall.

Not really cable, but I loved Quick Draw on Hulu.

Also not cable, but Orange is the New Black on Netflix is really good, and season 2 comes out tomorrow.

I really enjoyed The Blacklist.  James Spader's character is awesome.  The first season was this past winter/spring and is done for now.  It's definitely one you need to watch from the start, don't jump in part way through the season.