Quote Originally Posted by echappist View Post
The same could be said for any one of the top rated IMDB shows.

The Wire, at least to an American audience, might be an exception, for it has an ensemble cast, and the story told extend beyond the characters themselves. The personal motivations and actions are of interest, but one gets the dinstinct sense that the story is larger than just the lives of the characters.

But in general, I find shows centered on an antihero very difficult to stomach, and at one point or another, it just felt indulgent, to the point of, oh great, the schmuck has reverted to form with his/her latest dastardly act. At least for a movie/ miniseries, the denouement is swift, but it feels like groundhog day watching some of the series from the so-called golden era of American TV.

I’ll confess that the only reason why i got through all of it was because I am a trained chemist, and that was an angle that compelled me to stay with it at the beginning. The audacity of the plot kept me interested through the middle seasons, and the shakespearean tragedy conclusion, with its allusions to other great works of the past, held my interest to the end. But all these factors are personal.
Even among the antihero dramas, I'd still put it below Homeland (early seasons), Peaky Blinders, Oz, Homicide: Life on the Streets (not really antihero but very dark), by a wide margin. And probably a handful of others that aren't popping into my head right now. Bryan Cranston is awesome in the show and kudos to him for the transformation from Malcolm in the Middle's dad to Walter White. But man is most of the acting and filming mediocre and the plot line mostly feels rehashed from season to season other than the final.