Ten key channel HBO series

Historical or fantasy, full of black humor, or reliable parts, but always intelligent. These are the TV channel HBO series, which goes to the Russian market.

Until the end of the year in the Russian TV market will be a new player - the American HBO channel, known for its sports broadcasts, comedy shows, and most importantly - intelligent television series. HBO will be the partner of the company "Amedia", and it will be distributed through cable and satellite networks. HBO series play an important role in the US (and hence global) popular culture. This is the territory of daring experiments - with serious budgets, reputations (on HBO is not considered shameful to work by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese), social taboos and prepared audience. On the eve of an important event in the domestic television Forbes decided to make a brief guide to the most iconic show HBO. The list did not get "Boardwalk Empire", "Stallion," "Deadwood," "How to Make It in America," "Entourage" and "John Adams," about which we wrote in the series ranking for entrepreneurs, and the well-known "Sex the big city. "

"Game of Thrones"

The loudest and successful premiere of HBO in recent years: quite grand in scale fantasy film adaptation of the novel, which turned in a respectable fantasy genre. In this series there are dragons, and the living dead, and magic, but its still indifferent to the millions of people watching the same tales: "Game of Thrones" - the most dramatic television show about the struggle for power. For the kingdom is fighting half a dozen factions, each - for the same amount of charismatic heroes. The script written by the conflict is not worse than in the "Dune" by Frank Herbert. A juicy details of political intrigue, strategic decisions, tactical maneuvers, feats of arms and human tragedies of the fifth book of the saga accumulated no less than in any of the chronicles of these medieval wars.

"Newsroom"

The author Aaron Sorkin project, showered with awards startaperskogo screenwriter of the film "The Social Network" and the political series "The West Wing." In the center of the plot - the New York channel, selflessly trying to improve the quality of business journalism in the whole country. Newsroom - classic American TV series about the people involved in serious business. Heroes shoot each other confusing terms, constantly solve very specific problems (to expose a political party; redeem from Egypt correspondent; get stitches pair changes in the employment contract) and, in principle, think and act so quickly that the audience migraine should have started . But instead of a headache the viewer experiences the pleasure of another's professionalism: Newsroom - very inspiring ode to competence, skill and diligence.

"True Blood"

The most commercially successful and concurrently the most critically acclaimed HBO series swears: popular saga about the hard life of vampires, werewolves, witches, fairies and sexual minorities in modern Louisiana. There are a lot of magic, blood, sex, logical inconsistencies and unpleasant characters, fools, and even more - the intelligentsia guile. True Blood seems opportunistic pop in the spirit of "Twilight", but if you give the series a second chance, it is impossible not to notice the subtlest irony with which he treats his characters. Under the guise of the fight vampire minorities for equal rights with men, snobs-writers laugh throughout America right: over Gopnik-Southerners, their superficial religiosity, dissolute tabloid culture, militant xenophobia and double standards in politics. True Blood - show with intelligence, but without conscience. Curiously, the more sophisticated channel TV series to its rating - as the moon.

"Six Feet Under"

Another example of what HBO law does not apply, - mocking show that death is always nearby. In the case of characters of the show is not even a metaphor: from the underworld they are separated only by a thin wall of the mansion in which they live and work. On the ground floor - office premises undertaker "Fisher & Sons", the second and third - rooms accidents Fisher. The family is going through hard times. His father died, leaving the family ostochertevshie all business. One of his sons - a gloomy haunted gay (funny as Michael C. Hall, best known for the TV series "Dexter"). The second brother - their psychological trauma. With their sister and mother issues are also missing. Screenwriter Alan Ball, the author of the Oscar-winning "American Beauty", was covered serials format for five years to arrange a shock for the whole country family therapy. It turned out well.

"The Sopranos"

The main gangster TV series of all time, after which Martin Scorsese realized that TV can be a serious format and began producing of "Boardwalk Empire." "The Sopranos" - is extended to 75 hours of "The Godfather", which does not cause yawning minute. The secret charm of gangster drama - in the conversion of archetypal villains in cinematic ordinary people from next door. Gangsters of The Sopranos every evening to spend with their families and prepare for the family pasta, discuss politics, watching television with children, go to psychotherapists. Today it seems the usual law of the dramatic narrative, but in 1999 the TV was arranged quite differently. "The Sopranos" has changed the boundaries of the possible, and the cynical social realism, the fixation on sex and violence and black humor has become a calling card HBO.

"The Wire"

As in Russia after the success of "team" with poor Bezrukov was immediately launched the "plot" with good Bezrukov and in America after the furore "The Sopranos" began filming "wiretapping" - standard police drama. Tired of everyday heroism in "wiretapping" over the edge, but the ostentatious patriotism nary: the show is quite critical of the investigative and judicial system of the United States in particular and the internal politics of the country as a whole. The war on drug dealers and cops Baltimore streets reveals one problem after another society: abuse of power by means of surveillance of citizens, the newspapers and politicians use the human tragedy in their media to the working class degenerates, and juvenile delinquency is encouraged aggressive culture. American "Meeting Place Can not Be Changed", neither more nor less.

"Pacific Ocean"

to the US film about the Second World War there has always been a fair claim: it is adventurous and not humanistic. This choice is due to the genre even features Hollywood business, and banal geography: The Yankees did not fight on their own land, for them, the war was a "big walk". In 2001, the TV series "Band of Brothers" followed by Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" destroy this stereotype, showing the landing in Normandy campaign as a tragic and inefficient in many respects. A decade later released "Pacific Ocean" was an important act of moral support for the US Marine Corps, which when Obama became increasingly mixed with mud. Producers of both series were made by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (the latter, incidentally, also tried his hand as a director of one of the episodes of "Brothers in Arms").

"Generation Kill"

"Generation Kill" demonstrates the mechanics of the work of mass media in the country with a firm demand for freedom of speech. In 2003, Rolling Stone journalist Ivan Wright was assigned to the platoon of marines in Iraq and published three resonant articles about their experiences. Subsequently, his lyrics have grown in best-selling books. Military reports Wright shocked the public an honest description of command errors, procurement and logistics, which cost the lives of Marines. At the same time the attitude of the journalist to the ordinary soldiers made him a hero among veterans, and among readers. HBO has bought the film rights and directed the mini-series by the summer of 2008. The premiere took place in the midst of the election campaign, fueled a debate about the appropriateness of the wars in the Middle East.

"Carnival"

"Carnival" - is the beloved of LOST, only twice smarter with the US since the Great Depression, instead of a tropical island with a traveling circus instead of the passengers of the crashed plane. And so all the same: religious parable about the confrontation between good and evil; mixing in one plot all known myths and conspiracy theory; rogue group, each of which has some free, and so on. "Carnival" was written in the 1990s, and screens out in 2003, a year before of LOST, but wide acceptance is not received and was closed after the second season, and no thrill fans or a bunch of awards from the Emmy nor great press reviews management of the channel is not persuaded. "Carnival" was too expensive to produce, one only imitation sand storms, from which in 1930 suffered from the southern states of America, cost millions of dollars. A afford historical liberties channel I never dared.

"Rome"

The main historical drama HBO - an epic series about the civil war in the Roman Empire ended with the triumph of Caesar and Pompey decapitation. This is the first season and the second kill Caesar in the Senate, and the attention of writers switched to Anthony and Cleopatra. The third season, alas, have not removed: the show was too expensive even for HBO. Find "Rome" that is fantastic for its dramatic history of the empire is shown through the eyes of the viewer two simple legionnaires by chance found themselves embroiled in a public intrigue. This focus allows the series to be both scientific and curious about the transfer of customs and way of life of those times, and the tense political detective and colorful military epic, and kind of a family saga. Subsequently abandoned "Rome," the banner of the heroic realism tried to pick up the series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand"; It got worse.