...add Generation Kill for the third punch. Great short series.
It won't take the OP anytime to knock those out and then concentrate on one of the longer running shows.
Thrones would be my pick for a longer one, which will dovetail nicely with the new season.

Rome and Game of Thrones. The two shows are thematically quite similar (epic power struggles set in ancient/fantasy settings with a sprawling cast and a huge budget). To join the zeitgeist, you should probably watch Game of Thrones first. Marathon your way through the 30 episodes that have already aired and you should be good to go by the time Season 4 premieres in about three months.

Curb Your Enthusiasm. But if voting strictly from your list, then wathc Deadwood, but be sure to turn on the subtitles/cc as it written almost like Shakespeare.

A few years ago, my wife and I caught a couple episodes of Big Love while staying in a hotel room that had HBO and she really liked it. It was somewhere in the middle of the series. I was thinking about surprising her with a blind buy of the complete series but first I wanted to ask here: is it worth a blind buy? Does it have a satisfactory ending? Even a used price is going to be around $50 so basically I want to know if it's good. Thoughts?

Yes, it does have a satisfactory ending. Not sure it's worth buying though, can't say I have ever had the urge to watch it again.

That's a pretty solid ranking...although I'd move Treme off the list. Too disjointed, too preachy, too much focused on the jazz (although I love most of the entertainers).

Then replace it with The Wire and move it close to the top.

GoT is outstanding but the jury's still out considering the saga is unfinished. I've not been that impressed with the newly-created scenes, so I'm not sure what direction the show will take if GRRM doesn't come through on schedule. Still, I'm hoping that the producers will improve the pacing of the last too books and straighten out the narrative through editing.

Big Love is a great watch, and we'll be up to seeing it again down the road (we own the complete set). I know where you can get the complete series box set brand-new for around $65 (). But, yes, it does have a pretty satisfactory ending (it definitely concludes, just as Six Feet Under did). Whether you like the ending or not is debatable (we did), but they didn't pull a Sopranos or end on a cliffhanger.

I think a lot of the top-ranked series tend to be the "action" stories or "costume epics" because they seem like bigger-budget productions (similar to the allure of 'blockbuster' movies for theater audiences who want to see something they won't get with standard tv fare). Big Love doesn't have big set pieces and tons of action, but it does have an engrossing story line, sparkling characterizations and dialogue, and outstanding performances.

I thought about starting a new thread, but this will do.

I just finished True Detective. Dug it. Now looking to start another HBO show.

Every show I have watched from HBO I've liked, and those shows are as follows:
Band of Brothers
The Pacific
Game of Thrones
The Sopranos
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Rome
Deadwood
Boardwalk Empire
Eastbound & Down
Oz
True Detective

These are the shows I'm considering:
The Wire
Six Feet Under
True Blood
Entourage

Which one should I watch first? Or should I try one another show I haven't listed?

As much as I think the SFU finale is one of the best finales ever, you have to watch The Wire next.

I read that the True Detective creator even had the stars watch the Wire has homework.

He had them watch both Deadwood and The Wire.

I'm going to go out of the box and suggest you try the following:

Silicon Valley - Aired this past Spring. 8 episode season, so you could breeze through it pretty fast. It takes a few episodes to really get going, but it's a really funny 30 minute comedy. Deals with the geek/Silicon Valley culture.

Vice - Just finished it's 2nd season. 22 episodes total are in the can and they run 30 minutes each. It's basically an edgier version of 60 minutes. The reporters sometimes even curse when out on assignment. They tackle alot of really compelling issues that will really make you think.

It got cancelled after only three seasons but Bored to Death is a fun watch. I know I'll be in the minority saying this but I find Game of Thrones sort of overrated. I tried getting into it and watched the first two seasons but it just didn't live up to the hype for me.

These are all solid suggestions, but I can't see any of them getting preference over not only HBO's best dramatic series to date IMO, but the arguably the best crime drama ever on TV.

There's only one correct answer.

The Wire.

Trying to decide which HBO series to watch on my own next via the Amazon Prime HBO Collection.

When I had HBO back in the day, I watched and enjoyed (and now own) Band of Brothers, Oz, and Six Feet Under. I've seen Carnivale and think it would be fun to revisit it, even if it lacks a satisfactory ending, to my recollection. Just finished blasting through all of Deadwood for the first time and liked it, though there were long stretches of treading water in season 2 and the permanent cliffhanger ending is a bummer. I'd given this a shot for the first 2-3 episodes when it first aired and it didn't hold my attention, though it did this time. The Wire never held my attention when it aired though I should give it a second chance sometime (not right now, though).

Was thinking of Rome. Does it have a satisfactory ending for a two-season show? Will probably save The Pacific to watch with my wife, maybe save a revisit of Carnivale to be with her, too, as I think she'd dig it. I'm not really up on vampires; is True Blood any good? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Amazon Prime doesn't have Game of Thrones, yes? Never seen it. Also never seen The Sopranos but the shorter shows like Deadwood and Rome are more appealing right now than to get engrossed in something so sprawling in terms of time commitment.

Thoughts?

Rome has an extremely satisfying conclusion. And it actually is the whole five season arc that the showrunners originally planned.....just condensed. Needless to say, the second half of season two runs quite fast.

True Blood is also a great, if campy and uneven watch. However, binge watching it will eliminate a majority of the complaints the TV forum, including myself, had with the show towards its 6th and 7th seasons.

You can't go wrong with either.

The Comeback

You are correct. GOT is a huge cash cow for them so they won't put it on streaming. I've watched it numerous times, and the bonus features are excellent, so it's worth it for me to have on BD.

I have yet to watch most of the HBO original series so the Prime streaming is a good option for me, even though I own most of the big ones on optical media already.

Based on what you said, yes I would suggest seeing Rome (which does indeed have a satisfying conclusion, but the second season did feel rushed) and then Deadwood.

The interesting thing was that David Milch wanted to create a show based on Ancient Rome, but was told one was already in development. So he came up with the setting and concept of Deadwood (which ended up coming out 2 years before Rome).

Yeah, ROME has such a great conclusion that the whole thing seems more like a 22-hour long miniseries than a tv series that was canceled before its time.

Eastbound & Down

Just finished season one of Rome, thanks for the suggestion. I really liked it and I'll dive into season two next week. I never realized how vulnerable my neck is to short sword attack until watching this show. Someone should make a video compilation of all the sword-to-neck kills.

This may seem strange, but I was left wanting to know


And then I was left wondering why it seemed like they dropped the whole side story about

I saw a couple of episodes of Rome when I had HBO free for a weekend or something. I don't remember much besides high production values, sword fighting, and lots and lots of naked people .

You can Wiki all the historical figures on Rome. I believe the only notable character divergences and their fates are Atia and Servilia.