Ediebalboa

The Sopranos to me, even after all these years, is an example of some of the best casting we've ever had in a TV show. Casting unknown Italian-Americans in dozens of roles and sending the "greatest" of them all, Gandolfini, to lead them may have seemed risky at first, but it was this decision that ultimately heralded the golden age of quality TV. Tony, Chris, Carmela, Paulie, Ralph... there simply wasn't a weak link and if you were intrigued during episode 1 or 2 at most, you were treated to the best mafia entertainment ever made. The pace set at the beginning of the series was maintained without fluctuation until the finale.

Amazingly shot series with the best take on the WWII that you can see. From the moment I met the cast of characters in Episode 1, I cared about all of them, and it stayed that way until the end. And on top of that a wonderful soundtrack, set design, effects, sound. This is how you properly use a generous budget.

A Spanish-language series, a South American production with no stars... not long ago, you would have laughed at the idea. Fortunately, miracles have been happening on TV in recent years, and Narcos is another one of them, and the boundary between film and series has been crossed even south of Hollywood. Just think of the best crime-drama series of recent years and enhance it with the fact that this time it’s not fiction but the ruthless Colombian history, and very objectively depicted at that. You won't see the glorification of the Americans or the Colombians who went for the narco-baron's throat. In short, José Padilha and co. have portrayed Escobar's life journey in a way that would make an expert on the ups and downs of great men – Martin Scorsese – proud.

A straightforward medieval ride where, contrary to current trends, there is no room for any filler with mythology, shallow stories of side characters from the tavern or dragons, undead and other monsters. Amen for that. The Last Kingdom sticks firmly to its protagonist Uhtred, leaving space for others only when their fates move the central plot, or even the whole story. A trivial strategy for today's filmmaking, perhaps, but one that is appropriate as the series progresses, avoiding blind or unfinished storylines, which actually would have been hard, given the excellent source material. The British creators pick the best from all the books and, apart from a rather cheesy introduction, they create their story in Hungarian studios flawlessly. Not so for Series 5, which takes only the bare minimum from the books and history, and its plot veers off in all sorts of directions. Still, this last phase of Uhtred manages to bring the series to a close with many times more grace than the geniuses Benioff & Weiss managed in their time with the messy ending of Game of Thrones.