Best TV Shows of the Decade

When I think about the best TV shows, my mind just flashes over the neighborhood of Harper's Woods. Yes I am talking about the "Wonder Years". Kevin, Winnie and Paul; with them the world witnessed a journey of growing up. Parents actually learned that growing up is as difficult and scary as getting married, going to work everyday and getting old. Wonder Years will always remain in my heart as one of the best TV shows that I saw. But that was a long time ago, since then television has witnessed the birth of modern prime time. Sitcoms that have skyrocketed TV ratings, brought in loads of cash. They were not only successful commercially but also critically. In this article we talk about the best TV shows of the decade that gave us moments of happiness, sorrow, excitement and fear.

Top Ten Best TV Shows of the Decade

It's been a great decade for television and its million viewers. In these ten years we witnessed a renaissance of dramas, brilliant comedies and path breaking reality TV. Listing out the greatest TV shows of the decade is not going to be an easy task. Still after hours of hard work I have listed out some of the best TV shows of my liking.

The Wire, HBO (2002-2008)
A path breaking cop series with a story focused on drug war in interior America. In this sitcom the tension is focused on Baltimore. With over five seasons it was insanely ambitious, in detail documented. It shows the failed system and its players which include cops, criminals, politicians and the media. Painful, twisted, novelistic, painful, real and funny at the same time. The Wire comes at #1 on the top 10 best TV shows of the decade.

Mad Men, AMC (2007-Present)
Critics call it as one of the best TV shows of all time. Mad Men is an original. This series is about the existential anxiety of an ad man in the early 60's. Don Draper is a man with amazing writing and acting that is intimate, funny and shaded. The series has a look like the 60's which makes it more original. It still carries the torch of greatness on prime time TV.

Sex and the City, HBO (1998-2004)
This half hour show made Sunday nights worthwhile. Sex and the City was a show for the modern woman of the US. It's often called a love letter for female relationships. It shed light on the modern woman's struggle to balance life, work, money, friendship, sex, family and most important of all love, while hanging on to each other.

Breaking Bad, AMC (2008-Present)
The name alone could have made it a hit. Breaking Bad is a story of a chemistry teacher with a baby. The teacher finds out that he is dying of lung cancer, so he joins hands with a drug peddler to pay all his bills. The interesting part is the drug peddler is his former student. Amazing performances by everyone in the show, Breaking Bad is violent, heartbreaking and incredibly dark.

The Sopranos, HBO (1999-2007)
Probably the best gangster series on TV. I still remember a critic saying, "The Sopranos is the most important television series ever". It cemented HBO's image as a must have pay channel. The Sopranos made people believe that they were witnessing a violent story about a mob, what they were actually watching was a married couple dealing with each others extended families. The writing, acting and directing set benchmarks on the small screen that are yet to be achieved.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central (1996-Present)
Amidst the madness and sadness that gripped the US after 9/11, the television lost many of its great anchors, new channel hosts. Young American audience was searching for its new Cronkite or Jennings. Enter comedian Jon Stewart and his group of brilliant deadpan correspondents. While the Daily Show was never more than an average faux-news sitcom, it became much better with Jon Stewart stepping in.

The West Wing, NBC (1999-2006)
This series was the best political drama there ever was. Aaron Sorkin made people believe in their power and the power of presidency. He made an intellectually stimulating, fast-paced series about politics where everyone's favorite line was "It couldn't be done". It also had some low ratings, but when it was at its finest the West Wing was spectacular.

Deadwood, HBO (2003-2006)
The classic old styled sitcom which was considered as a violent version of Shakespeare in mud. Deadwood proved that television is for talented writers and Hollywood is for directors. David Milch had an original take on old class American people and it was supported by spectacular performances by Ian McShane, who made every word sound like a rough brilliant poetry. Deadwood will also be remembered as the biggest screw up in the history of HBO as it decided to end the series after 3 seasons.

Ideas for a Reality TV Show

Reality TV shows are selling like hot cakes. All you have to do is huddle up a handful of average people or small time starlets, create a dramatic situation and whoa, your reality TV show is ready to go on air! The best part about reality TV shows is that they give quick fame and recognition even to average people like you and me. Besides, the viewers get a kick out of all the emotional drama (which is scripted in most cases) that happens on sets. There is really no dearth of reality TV show ideas, but most revolve around similar concepts. So, in case you wish to air your own TV show some day, then you may have to come up with really good ideas for TV shows. Given below are some interesting ideas for a reality TV show.

Ideas for a Reality TV Show

The word 'reality TV' show often conjures images of emotion packed, high voltage drama. Even talent based shows such as American Idol and America's Got Talent are occasionally laced with emotional performances either by contestants or judges. Some other reality TV shows such as Big Brother reap their popularity by playing around serious social issues. Amidst this chaos, one can also get to see some good reality shows such as Bands on the Run, The Apprentice etc. If you are interested in starting a reality TV show of your own, you may derive inspiration from any of the popular TV shows. You may then attempt to present them differently. In this article, we have not provided actual ideas, but we have certainly listed some areas which offer a scope for developing a reality show.

Performance Based
This is on similar lines as American Idol, Dancing with the Stars and likes. However, you can develop your own show by introducing a little variation. For instance, you can have a reality show based on a particular dance or singing form only. You can also add variation by making a show only for elder people above 60 or so on. Talent shows for children are rampant, but there are only a handful shows which explore the talent of elderly people. You can also explore the talent of kids with special needs or handicapped people.

Profession Based
There are numerous shows which showcase the drama behind exciting and dangerous professions. But, there are very few shows which deal with seemingly ordinary occupations of that of teachers, firefighters, secretaries etc. You can devote every episode to one such average occupation and uncover the challenges faced by average people like the one's mentioned above.

Adventure Based
Fear Factor indeed brings a gush of adrenaline with it. You can invoke similar feelings by airing an adventure based reality show. This could be anything from living in extremely undesirable living conditions or battling wildlife in rain forests or facing the fury of nature in extreme climatic zones.

Game Based
Game shows, quizzes are the most primitive forms of reality TV shows. With time, one can find a lot of new features and variation in them. The prize money has also increased manifold. So, starting a game show can be one sure shot way of making your show successful.

Ancient Greek Theater

My interest in the arts and theater very intimately connects me with the ancient Romans and Greeks. Nearly every noteworthy Roman and Greek city had an open-air theater in those days, with the seats neatly arranged in tiers overlooking a lovely view of the nearby landscape. Here is where the ancient Greeks sat and watched the plays of Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes, Sophocles and Menander.

The ancient Greek theaters developed through the ceremonial worship of the then God Dionysus and were always communal in nature. The Greek drama or theater is a tradition that flourished greatly between in c. 600 and c. 200 BC in ancient Greece. Athens, the political and military pover city of Greece was the epicenter of the ancient Greek theatrical tradition. Athenian comedy, tragedy and satyrs have been recorded as some of the earliest forms of theater to emerge in the world. Yes, Greek plays and theater have indeed had a strong impact on the Western culture and drama.

Early tradition claims that theater in Athens evolved from various festivals that were related to the cult of Dionysus who is the Greek God of fertility and wine. This is probably accurate information, since drama in Athens occurred during the Dionysia, which is the annual festival that honors Dionysus.

These ancient theaters mainly consisted of the orchestra, the flat floor for dancing and the theatron, which was the actual structure of the building. Since those ancient theaters were frequently rebuilt and modified, the remains that survive today offer very little evidence as to the nature of the space available to those classical dramatists and actors back in the fifth and sixth centuries BC.

However, there is no clear physical evidence showing that orchestras were circular in shape earlier than that of the great theater at Epidaurus, which dates back to the year 330 BC. It is more likely that the fifth century BC Athens audience was seated closer to the stage in a more rectilinear arrangement, like the evidence shown in the ruins of the theater at Thorikos in Attica. During this early period in Greek theater and drama, the stage and the stage building or Skene were made up of wood. Many ancient vases have been found with paintings on them depicting the Greek comedy from the fifth and fourth centuries BC, and these suggest that the stage was a bout a meter high and had a flight of steps towards the center.

The actors would enter from either side of the stage or from the central door situated in the Skene. The Skene also housed the ekkyklema, which is a wheeled platforms having different sets of scenes. A crane or mechane, located towards the right side of the stage was generally used to hoist heroes and Gods through the air and onto the stage. Greek actors and dramatists surely made the most of the contrasts between the men on stage and the gods up high, and between the bright daylight and the dark interiors of the Skene.

DirecTV Internet Connection Service

DirecTV - an entity which boasts of having a customer base of around 18 million in the United States of America, has added yet another feather to its cap by introducing its high speed Internet service. Now it's possible for you to get high speed Internet access along with your DirecTV satellite television. Experts in the field claim that the DirecTV Internet connection service is 30 times faster than its traditional counterpart. A similar opinion is shared by a large number of people who have subscribed to this service. The growing number of subscribers of DirecTV Internet connection itself speaks in volumes about it. Let's get into the details of the matter starting from the scratch.

What is DirecTV Internet Connection Service?

On subscribing to DirecTV Internet connection bundle, you can get access to high speed Internet by means of DSL, Broadband cable or a Satellite. After you subscribe for DirecTV Internet, the company will check whether your area has DSL or Broadband cable network, and if it is feasible for them to provide this service in your neighborhood. If you are staying in some urban neighborhood, you don't really have to worry about this issue as DirecTV has also got into partnership with some of the major Internet service providers in the country.

In the worst case, if there are no provisions for DSL or Broadband service in your neighborhood, you can resort to DirecTV's high speed satellite Internet for surfing. This is an ideal option, especially for people staying in rural areas wherein DSL and Broadband are yet to make their presence felt. In order to access this service you will require DirecTV Internet connection kit, including a satellite dish. Among the various benefits of DirecTV Internet, one of the most important benefit is the efficient customer service that it tends to boast of. The popularity of this concept can also be attributed to the fact that it is an apt replacement for the various problems that a person is likely to face with Cable TV Internet.