re: Are series on movie channels that much better because they lack commercials?

There are hundreds of shows running on regular cable at any given time, yet 99% of them are terrible. HBO is just one channel, yet has produced roughly half of the shows that I would call great television. I give credit to HBO and to a lesser extent Showtime for having great management and picking winners.

Cable television can show pretty brutal violence nowadays, and almost everything can be streamed which evens the playing field. Certain channels have chose to produce good television instead of what polls the best to the average idiot and are reaping the rewards.