Thirty second review of top modern TV shows

This is a short review of about a dozen top TV shows that have appeared in the last decade or so.   I advise you purchase the DVD TV sets and watch them based on your own schedule.

These aren't sorted in any particular order but the better shows will normally appear at the top.


  1. The Wire (10/10) - (Urban gang land violence) So far the best TV show I have seen.  It was getting predictable and dry towards the end of the series but I don't think there is any better show that feels "real".  It is dark and gritty and highly watchable.
  2. Dexter (9.9/10) - (Almost comical look at a serial killer do-gooder) Dexter is the show about the serial killer that also happens to be a blood splatter analyst in the police department.  Normally he finds another bad guy or serial killer and does away with him.  It is also a dark series with lots of gore and sometimes it can be serious.  But I tend to find some of it comical.  The Wire is not comical at all, Dexter can be.  It is comical in its sense of irony.  The top serial killer just happens to work for the police.  And it is a really good show, probably one of the best ever created.
  3. Breaking Bad (9.5/10) - (Chemist turned drug dealer) - Breaking Bad is the more serious version of Weeds.  Walter White, the main character, is an obsessive, neurotic, family-loving middle-aged smart guy that is using his genius to sell drugs.  He gets away with it most of the time, the other time everyone is out to kill him or screw him over.  It is good maybe a little bit too stylized.  There are too many moments of someone or something just sitting out in the dessert and we are supposed to appreciate the moment. 
  4. The Mentalist (9.1/10) - (Really observant showman solves crimes) - You may disagree but I think this is the most complex show I have watched.  Each episode is like a puzzle you have to figure.  It is a smart program if you are into smart programs.  Some of the characters are a bit dry and the later episodes are becoming too easy to figure out.
  5. The Shield (9.3/10) - (Bad but also Good cops try to get away mayhem) - If you google "The Shield", some consider it the "Cops version of the Wire" or the "White version of the Wire".  That is basically what it is, a different look at urban warfare through the eyes of the cops.  And also appears on network TV so it is less gritty than the Wire.
  6. Star Trek TNG (10/10) - Still the best sci-fi TV series out there.
  7. Numb3rs - (8.5/10) - Standard TV fare, predictable  crime drama where they throw in math problems in solving the crime. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On Unit Testing, Java TDD for developers to write

It has been a while, let's kick off 2017 with a blog entry. I have read and I am reading about four or five posts a day about unit testing. It really has been a long time obsession for me. I have moved past the technical and practical considerations on unit testing frameworks and done with the debates with "should you use Junit or Mockito or Karma?" I am more interested in the psychology of unit testing, who does it, likes it, hates it? It really is one of those easy to learn, hard to master concepts. For example, many many may play chess when they are young and can end up being horribly chess players most of their life, I am part of that majority. Unfortunately, I have never played chess and sat down for hours and tried to master it. I never see the common patterns or have a developed end game. I mostly just play with a knowledge of the basic rules. Following good unit testing practices within your software development shop is a lot like playing chess. It is easy to le...
Read more

Is Java the new COBOL? Yes. What does that mean, exactly? (Part 1)

Image
"If you want to know the past, look at your present. If you want to know the future, look at your present." -- Gautama Buddha Java is the new COBOL, whaaaat?     If you are software developer that mainly writes applications for the web; even if you aren't a Java/J2EE developer, you have probably heard the new meme circulating the web and blogosphere. "Java is the new COBOL" . Most blogs and technical writers regurgitate that statement and follow-up by saying that EJBs suck, and some companies are considering Ruby on Rails. I didn't really think much of these posts. I get the impression that a lot of these "managers" don't write any Java or COBOL code. They are really not highlighting the seriousness of the problem. COBOL development has remained stagnant for decades. Java may see the same problem in the future. The Pentagon/DOD has a trillion dollar COBOL problem because it is so difficult to change their ancient infrastructure. Anyon...
Read more

JVM Notebook: Basic Clojure, Java and JVM Language performance

Image
"Measure, don't guess. The primary goal of all performance tuning exercises should be maximize the end user experience given the resource constraints." [1] "It isn't so much a "farewell to the J" as an expansion of the platform opportunities Java provides. Sun's investment to power ongoing development of JRuby and Jython broadens the range and reach of Java, as a whole." -- Rick Ross Overview and JVM Languages    One of the exciting trends to recently emerge from the Java community is the concept of the JVM language. These technologies are all that you would expect them to be. They are implementations of languages that run on the Java Virtual Machine. Some are newly created and some are based on existing, more mature languages. JRuby, Jython are two JVM languages based on CRuby and CPython. Groovy, Scala, Clojure are three completely new JVM languages that were created to add new language features that weren't supported by the core Ja...
Read more