Despite its inarguable status as the biggest streaming service in the business, Netflix hasn’t exactly created a huge number of TV shows that can justifiably enter the “greatest of all-time” debate. Fortunately, HBO has, with the company reaping the rewards of its latest licensing agreement. 5rf73

Sure, Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers doesn’t fit the bill either, but an episodic series starring one of the most famous faces on the planet being added to a platform with upwards of 200 million subscribers was always going to be a winner, while the seminal duo of Band of Brothers and The Pacific also enjoyed the benefits of finding a brand new audience when they were added to the library.

Continuing on in that vein, Netflix is more than happy to remind everyone that yet another small screen classic is now available to watch in its entirety, with Six Feet Under looking to pick up the baton and carry on from where its spiritual predecessors left off.

A winner of three Golden Globes and a trio of Primetime Emmys, the funeral home drama was positively drowning in acclaim across all five of its seasons and cumulative total of 63 episodes, and by this time tomorrow there’s a distinctly high chance it’ll be one of the Top 10 most-watched shows Netflix has to offer.

If you haven’t seen it for a while or have never laid eyes on it before, then what better time to discover for yourself that it really is worthy of such a lofty status?

You can only hope that Netflix is paying HBO a pretty penny for licensing a litany of its most high-profile originals, because one streaming service’s loss is proving to be another’s game.

In the first week that Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers appeared on the former platform, its viewing figures jumped by a not-inconsiderable 41,000 percent, and the sports-centric dramedy isn’t even regarded as one of the last decade’s best TV shows, never mind an all time great.

Speaking of undisputed classics, though, World War II extravaganzas Band of Brothers and The Pacific both cracked Netflix’s Top 10 in short order after they premiered on the same day, while it would be reasonable to expect True Blood to make it three in a row when the bloodthirsty and lustful vampiric favorite debuts imminently.

The company isn’t done there, and not by a long shot either, after What’s on Netflix revealed that all five seasons and 63 episodes of Six Feet Under – an all-timer with an all-timer of a finale to boot – will land on multiple regions including the United States on the first day of November.

The winner of three Golden Globes, three Primetime Emmys, and widespread critical acclaim during its run, the trials and tribulations of the Fisher family and their funeral business is destined to make a significant splash when it arrives on Netflix, based entirely on recent history.

If HBO is making a pretty penny on the back end, then it’s a win/win situation for both streamers and subscribers alike, who get another one of the true classics to binge at their leisure.

George R.R. Martin, the mastermind behind the novels adapted into the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Game of Thrones, has named his favorite television series finale in a new blog. The famous novelist penned an insightful post on Aug. 29 to appreciate Vanity Fair‘s recent editorial naming the “25 perfect TV episodes from the last 25 years” and named an 18-year-old series finale the best of all time.

The “A Song of Ice and Fire” writer revealed that he scripted only four episodes of Game of Thrones, among which the episode “Blackwater” was ranked by Vanity Fair on its list. To this, Martin wrote an elaborate blog reviewing the entries and shared his personal favorites from the list too. “I haven’t seen all of the other episodes on the list… but I have to say, the ones that I have watched were by and large extraordinary,” the 74-year-old writer wrote.

While most of his blog applauded Vanity Fair’s selections, highlighting the aspects of those episodes he ired, the famed author took the time to “pick one episode that was even more perfect than all the others on the list.” The episode that Martin called “the best finale in the entire history of television” is none other than the finale of HBO’s 2001 drama Six Feet Under.

Though Martin pointed out that he did not love Six Feet Under more than some of the other series like Rome (2005), Deadwood (2004), or Fargo (2014), he itted that the last episode of the ensemble drama series was far and away the best. “I cannot imagine how anyone could possibly do better,” he added.

The series finale, titled “Everyone’s Waiting,” was written and directed by creator Alan Ball and aired on Aug. 21, 2005. It is often cited as one of the finest series finales in television history by critics worldwide. The episode was also ranked in multiple “best-of” lists and received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations at the 58th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Martin also praised other entries on the list, such as 1999’s The Sopranos episode “The Pine Barrens,” which he called “special,” and the 2003 series The Wire, which he claims came “close to perfection pretty frequently.” He also had elaborate praises for the 2011 anthology series Black Mirror:

“BLACK MIRROR is an extraordinary series in so many ways, but “San Junipero” is the episode I love to watch over and over and tell my friends to watch.”

As for the controversial finale of his show Game of Thrones, Martin has previously expressed his dissatisfaction with how the show went past his books. “The show was ahead of me, and the show was going in somewhat different directions,” he said in an interview with PBS in Chicago (via IndieWire). Martin confirmed that his books will follow a different ending, though the sixth installment, titled “The Winds of Winter,” still has no release date.

When Variety said that their exclusive sources had revealed a follow-up to Six Feet Under was in the works, the internet was not happy. Nevertheless, the show was a massive hit for all of its 63 episodes across five seasons in the early aughts. It followed the lives of the Fisher family and their associates in the running of a funeral home in Los Angeles.

After receiving over 50 Emmy nominations — winning nine of them — and picking up multiple Golden Globe wins, most fans may reasonably think it’s a perfectly good show as-is with a solid start, middle, and finish. So while the rumors from Variety didn’t say if the show was a full-on reboot, sequel, or even prequel, fans were up in arms saying it absolutely shouldn’t happen.

Podcast host Dave Schilling may have put it best, discussing how a revival of any kind goes against some of the show’s central themes.

Another pointed out how if HBO Max wants to change the ending to any show, it should be Game of Thrones after its disastrous final season.

Another pointed out that it’s incredibly likely that the show might simply ruin an otherwise beloved series.

So many fans were commenting on how the ending to Six Feet Under was perfect that it even began to trend on Twitter. “Breathe Me” is widely considered one of the greatest series finales of all time and even helped launch Sia’s career after her song soundtracked the episode’s closing sequence.

Fingers crossed, a Six Feet Under reboot doesn’t kill the series’ magic.

If the 20th century belonged to the movies, then television could be the medium of choice in the 21st century. It is not that quality television did not exist before the year 2000 or that films have become more subpar over the last 15 years. It’s just that just as breaking away from the Production Code in the late 1960s ushered in a new wave of exciting filmmakers whose influence on cinema will remain permanent – Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman, for instance – the rise of original cable programming in the early 21st century has turned television into the true writers’ medium. Television had started to step away from the shadow of film. The fascinating anti-heroes, the political allegory and the explicit content that many modern classics thrive on have allowed TV showrunners the chance to create enriching stories with sometimes-experimental structures. However, some could argue that the television is as much of an “idiot box” as it always has been. The onslaught of brainless reality shows and dull weekly procedurals remain popular, while niche programs like the ones on HBO, the BBC or AMC only cater to small audiences. As this century of television began, one of the main signatures of television programming – the theme song – started to fade away. Viewers nostalgically reminisce about the first minutes of The Flintstones or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as their colorful openings welcomed viewers into these shows’ worlds. Meanwhile, with more time devoted to character development and plot, there was little room leftover for minute-long themes every week. Some shows eschewed them entirely, while many others devoted iconic theme music over the actors’ names. A few even used beloved rock staples, such as the three iterations of CSI digging into The Who’s discography. On cable, though, where many series had close to a full hour or half-hour each week, a formidable title sequence was essential to bring audiences into the tone and themes of the program. To encounter drama that was weightier or more emotionally raw than anything else on television, these openers had to resonate with viewers and prepare them for the intense episode ahead. In the 21st century, there has been no shortage of outstanding TV title sequences – some even have their own theme songs, too. us as we take a look at 10 of the very best television title sequences of this modern era.