Man, what is it about my postings on the Internet that make it so impossible for people to understand what I'm saying? I wasn't talking about The Wire. Note how the post I responded to had two segments--one about Amazon and one about HBO. Note that my reply ALSO had two paragraphs, one to respond to each part (oh, and note I'm going to do the same with the reply to you). I was quite clearly speaking of the examples from Amazon--Hand of God, Bosch, and Alpha Dogs.
Well, this is a cluttered thread with a lot of tangents and it's hard to keep track of direct replies if you don't quote what you're responding to and it would have been much more clearer if you named those shows.
A lack of interest isn't equivalent to hate. Like I said before, comments of judgment without legitimate explanation behind them are useless, so what you're saying ("watch something other than sci-fi") without any other substance (the rest of the statement basically just says "new sci-fi is lame") just has nothing to really take away.
It's not terribly easy to coherently say something of substance by trying to recommend basically everything good that's come out in the last 10 years unless I know you want to read an essay about the merits of writing, character development, cinematography, acting, etc. and that's if I was interested in writing it (I'm not). But yes, like I said, most new sci-fi is absolutely inferior to the
experiences the best have to offer. Heroes Reborn was a retread abortion of a show. Almost Human had entertaining leads, but it was a dragged down by being a typical crime procedural and no amount of cool future stuff could have elevated it beyond that. Terra Nova was okay but unremarkable. Under The Dome was wall to wall idiocy.
I'm not going to inundate myself with stuff I hate until I like it to be cool. ... I think that the only show I watch still running is The Big Bang Theory, since Falling Skies and Defiance both ended last year and The League just did the same.
It's not about being cool. It's about having an open mind. You won't know you hate something unless you actually watch it. I watched all of Falling Skies and while it had its moments, it wasn't really worth the time investment. But my favorite sci-fi shows of recent years--12 Monkeys, Chuck, Person of Interest, Fringe, Eureka, The 100, Agent Carter, Orphan Black, Futurama, Venture Bros, Rick & Morty--they aren't limited by their unique premises. They use sci-fi elements and/or settings, but aside from humor, action, mystery, romance and any number of other "borrowed" elements, what they all boil down to is human interaction drama that tells a story that evolves over time, opposed to a cast that stays static and does the same thing every week, occasionally hooking up, getting married and crapping out a baby or two. And that's basically what any good show does. I don't need the major crimes unit to investigate the Barksdale organization in jet packs and I don't need Walter White's product to be made of robot space flowers. Star Trek The Next Generation wasn't great because it was in space and there were aliens and pew pew laser weapons; it was great because the characters were worth exploring.
