The United Kingdom is a great place. They gave us The Beatles. They gave us Monty Python. And Tolkien. James Bond. Penicillin. Eighty percent of the cast of Game of Thrones. They gave us William Shakespeare and modern democracy, which is almost enough to forgive them for Piers Morgan. But the notion that they believe there was a better show — no, four better shows — than Breaking Bad in 2013 is UNTHINKABLE. And the show they put at number one … ? I had to rub my eyes like Penny to make sure I read that right.
What’s better than Breaking Bad, which came in at number five according to UK viewers? Doctor Who? Sure, I’ll let that one — which came in at number three — slide, because, though it was an uneven season, Doctor Who is a homegrown product, and it was the 50th anniversary of the show. Likewise, their number four, Broadchurch was really good, and it had the best modern Doctor in it, David Tennant, who was fantastic, and the more exposure the British series gets before the American adaptation the better. I can’t really speak to their number two, Peaky Blinders with Cillian Murphy and Sam Neill because I haven’t seen it, although given how high it is, I kind of want to now.
But their number one? Ripper Street. WHAT? That show on BBC America that everyone here confuses with Copper? (Having seen some of both, I can at least attest that Ripper Street is marginally better). Like Copper, Ripper Street was also cancelled after two seasons, and apparently, viewers in the UK were so outraged by it, they protest-voted Ripper Street to number one with 35 percent of the vote, per a poll conducted by the British magazine Radio Times. I really didn’t think that show was worth protesting over.
Anyway, the rest of their top ten looked like this: 6) Game of Thrones, 7) The Walking Dead, 8) Last Tango in Halifax, 9) The Fall with Gillian Anderson and 10) An Adventure in Space and Time, a BBC look at the genesis of hit show Doctor Who.
(Source: THR)
