Homeland, House of Cards or Breaking Bad?

Haven't seen the other two, but Breaking Bad was the best series I've ever seen. EVER.

When Game of Thrones ended it's season a year or so ago, I was trying to decide between Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. The votes were overwhelmingly in favor of Breaking Bad, so I bought the first couple seasons on Blu-ray and immediately got hooked.

Binge watched it until the next season started, and like with Game of Thrones, I HAD to be home to watch it when a new episode ran. I recorded it on DVR, too, just in case, but I made sure I was home on time when a new episode started.

Definitely give it a try.
 
DW says just do Orange Is the New Black


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Breaking Bad was solidly engaging throughout. In fact, the main problem for me is it makes it hard to put up,with the far inferior products broadcast. Homeland started out engaging and descended into nonsense. House of Cards was similar but took longer to get into the silly. The problem with these shows and others (Walking Dead) is that they can start out really well, but it seems the writers really cannot maintain the interest without resorting to ever more unbelievable plot lines with characters behaving in ways that mostly just keep the show going rather than behaving in a way consistent with the character or with any human behavior.


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I have not watched Homeland. Breaking Bad was spectacular and House of Cards is very good, but BB for us was really in a league of its own. I never thought I'd like a show about a meth dealer but it was really well done.
 
Breaking Bad is the only one of the 3 that I have seen. I binge-watched it all the way through, and had difficulty preventing myself from watching "just one more episode" in order to see what happened next. However, I can't say that I enjoyed the experience. In most series' that I enjoy, immoral or unethical behavior is usually counter-balanced by characters who rise above the depravity and give the viewer some sense of transcendence. Although there were a few quite likable characters in Breaking Bad, they weren't a strong enough influence to make up for the large degree of moral bankruptcy. Like one or two others who have said so in this thread, I found the series depressing. However, I did watch it through to the end, so perhaps that says something - about my inability to control myself, if nothing else :LOL:

Go ahead and give Breaking Bad a shot. If you're like most people here, you'll love it.
 
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I have seen the all and like them all but Breaking Bad is the winner. Binge watch the whole series.
 
Breaking Bad is the Vanguard of TV shows these days, I think. Fans of it insist there could never be anything better out there. :)
 
all three are top notch in my opinion, BB a cut above the others IMHO...

+1 for Orange Is The New Black

also, very funny underrated series on Netflix (I believe it was their first venture into original content) is Lilyhammer... definitely one of my favs. Scored 83% on Rotten Tomatos...here's link to plot on IMDB
 
chilkoot said:
Never seen Homeland. House of Cards is excellent. Mine may be the dissenting view here, but I watched the first season of Breaking Bad and had the same reaction as I had after seeing all of The Sopranos: both shows are exceptionally well-written, well-acted and generally well-made. But at the end of the day I couldn't shake the feeling that I had just spent a lot of time with people I really didn't like.
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And you didn't have that reaction after watching House of Cards?
Ok - that makes me laugh. They both have complex and sometimes evil characters at the protagonists. I'm not sure if Walt is any worse than Frank... I'm not sure if the transactional politics is any "better" than cooking meth. The attraction of both shows is that the characters are not black/white or stereotypical.... they have good sides and bad sides, they make choices that are horrible, and yet they still have a likeable side....
 
Major Tom said:
Breaking Bad is the only one of the 3 that I have seen. I binge-watched it all the way through, and had difficulty preventing myself from watching "just one more episode" in order to see what happened next. However, I can't say that I enjoyed the experience. In most series' that I enjoy, immoral or unethical behavior is usually counter-balanced by characters who rise above the depravity and give the viewer some sense of transcendence. Although there were a few quite likable characters in Breaking Bad, they weren't a strong enough influence to make up for the large degree of moral bankruptcy. Like one or two others who have said so in this thread, I found the series depressing. However, I did watch it through to the end, so perhaps that says something - about my inability to control myself, if nothing else :LOL:

Go ahead and give Breaking Bad a shot. If you're like most people here, you'll love it.
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I'll echo this post 100%. I'm only through season 2, but find the show depressing. I don't really like anybody, so no balance between likable and hateable. And sometimes it seems like there are long filler scenes. The flash forward is a bit distracting to me.
 
My theory is people like/binge watch Breaking Bad for the same reason people cause huge traffic jams rubbernecking at the scene of an accident. We know we shouldn't look but just can't help ourselves.
 
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Breaking Bad,

Then HoC.

Then season 1&2 of Homeland. Season 3 is only marginally worth your time.

If you like BB, and haven't seen the Wire, work that one in.
 
Haven't watch even one episode of any of the aforementioned series.

I watched a couple of seasons of Sopranos way back when, but found myself wishing they would all get sent to prison, or whacked. Just can't support the "bad guys"...
 
REWahoo said:
My theory is people like/binge watch Breaking Bad for the same reason people cause huge traffic jams rubbernecking at the scene of an accident. We know we shouldn't look but just can't help ourselves.
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That was my experience.

HFWR said:
I watched a couple of seasons of Sopranos way back when, but found myself wishing they would all get sent to prison, or whacked. Just can't support the "bad guys"...
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I enjoyed Sopranos more than I did Breaking Bad. I think one of the reasons was that with Tony and his cohorts, this was the life they were born into. Unlike Walt, they didn't know any better and to Tony's credit, he was seeing a shrink and aware at some level that things weren't right. There was a sweetness about his character and that, coupled with my belief that he was at least trying to improve himself, gave me hope for him.
 
On BB, it had very very few likeable characters, but by the end, I did like Hank. I never thought I would, but he was great at the end.

As for it's depravity and the sometimes icky feeling I had after an episode of BB, I alternated watching that and Lark Rise to Candleford (Amazon Prime). That is sort of a British Little House on the Prairie. I highly recommend that, too. Downtown Abbey is another good one that is lighter.
 
Crummy weather here today, cold & rainy so I checked out DVDs from our library and (not proud of it as I don't watch that much TV anymore, but) watched 3 episodes of House of Cards and 4 episodes of Homeland today, both season 1. A little more interesting but not dramatically better than some of the better network shows IMO, just more R rated (yawn). Not sure if I'll look for more, but I may.

I'll have to get ahold of some Breaking Bad based on the feedback on this thread.
 
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I've seen both Breaking Bad and House of Cards. Not Homeland.

Breaking Bad is the best written and acted show I've seen. Absolutely loved it. House of Cards is very good, but if only one choice then....BB!


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Ally said:
As for it's depravity and the sometimes icky feeling I had after an episode of BB, I alternated watching that and Lark Rise to Candleford (Amazon Prime).
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Thanks for the recommendation. I'm a fan of many British shows - Brideshead Revisited, Upstairs Downstairs, Downton Abbey, Inspector Morse, Life On Mars (the original British version) to name a few. Will keep this one on the shortlist.
 
Good thing you haven't seen either House of Cards or Homeland. That means you've got some seriously good future TV options!!!

I've also watched the British precursor to H of C (same name) and am currently into the Israeli version of Homeland (Prisoners of War). Interesting to compare disparate treatments. Sounds like I should put Breaking Bad on the watch list.
 
I just watched the entire Upstairs Downstairs last year. It was wonderful. There are so many great British shows.


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Ally said:
I just watched the entire Upstairs Downstairs last year. It was wonderful. There are so many great British shows.
Click to expand...

1971 or 2010 version?

I remember the 1971 version from my childhood and recently rewatched the first episode on Netflix. It was just as good as it was 43 years ago.
 
I've seen all three and BB is far and away the best of the three. I'm a huge Spacey fan, and BB is still the best series of the three by far.

Go get you some BB! :bat:
 
I've watched every episode to date of all 3 series. BB is definitely the best IMO. The other 2 are very good overall. Both shows can be a little slow moving, even boring, occasionally but it's worthwhile getting through those episodes to get to the really good episodes.
 
I will echo the sentiment that I don't feel better after watching HoC, the only one of these I've seen.
I found it made me more cynical and skeptical of the "real" political process, as if I really needed that!
I don't know, maybe I'm just more susceptible to that sort of thing, as I don't watch much tv anyway.
DH loved it.
 
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