The Wire has to take the top spot for me too. What's to say that hasn't been said a million times? The show makes you confront the harsh reality of the war on drugs and delivered everything...
The Wire has to take the top spot for me too. What's to say that hasn't been said a million times? The show makes you confront the harsh reality of the war on drugs and delivered everything through phenominal storytelling. Excitement, rage, fear, depression, heartbreak, anxiety, hope - sheeeiiiiiiiiiiit, this show had it all. After The Wire, it's...
Seinfeld - The best sitcom ever. Unfortunately, it's starting to become dated, and I feel like people under 30 don't appreciate it like they should. I consider myself lucky to be old enough and neglected enough to have seen every episode dozens of times while in syndication. I just started watching when I was in sixth grade, yadda yadda yadda, I knew every episode inside and out.
Breaking Bad - Everyone knows this one, but have to take this opportunity to jerk myself off for being on board from day one. I begged people to watch it for three years until it popped up on Netflix. Then all the same people started asking if I'd seen it. Fuckers. Did they listen to me when I said the same thing about Fargo a few years later? Of course not. Are they listening to me now when I talk about Succession? Nope. Don't let Netflix dictate what you see, bitch! Hey, speaking of Succession...
Succession - No, it's not recency bias. Yes, my post history is like 40% related to Succession. It's that fucking good. I have watched an absurd amount of TV in my life. I love TV. There are only a few shows, however, that I've loved enough to watch the same episode over again immediately after I finish it. Succession is one of those. If you liked The Big Short, you'll enjoy this show. Don't be like my silly friends that didn't listen to me about BB. Succession is gonna win tons of Emmys for the next few years. Get on board, or fuck off.
Peep Show - Seinfeld is the best sitcom, Peep Show is the best comedy. You can see every episode three times and on the fourth you'll catch a subtle joke that you either missed or forgot about. There are fewer than 50 episodes, whereas Seinfeld and The Office each have around 200, yet there are more quotable moments from Peep Show than the other two combined. There's no better show to watch after a rough day. Have a coke, a tuna sandwich, just mong out to some Peep Show.
Use whatever words you like, but just in case you're the kind of person who cares the word "mong" is a slur that refers to people with learning disability, from "mongoloid" which is an outdated...
just mong out
Use whatever words you like, but just in case you're the kind of person who cares the word "mong" is a slur that refers to people with learning disability, from "mongoloid" which is an outdated term for Down's Syndrome.
I have a lot of stuff that I like right now (Bojack, Good Place), did like until I didn't (Heroes, Walking Dead, Friendship is Magic), comfort food TV (MST3K, Mythbusters) and Anime that's hard to...
I have a lot of stuff that I like right now (Bojack, Good Place), did like until I didn't (Heroes, Walking Dead, Friendship is Magic), comfort food TV (MST3K, Mythbusters) and Anime that's hard to recommend (ask me, it's a lot) but the one show that hits a lot of my buttons and has staying power is Over the Garden Wall.
When I started this post, I had every intention of going with Avatar the Last Airbender, but Over the Garden Wall is a short run series that is exceptionally well developed and mature, and as much as I could recommend Avatar to the right person, I can recommend Over the Garden Wall to anybody, and more people are going to get more out of it, and I only wasted enough time as a short feature.
For me, it's a toss between The Wire and Treme. The Wire is probably objectively better, but Treme has a direct access to my heart. The Wire is a tour de force exploration of a city, a society and...
For me, it's a toss between The Wire and Treme. The Wire is probably objectively better, but Treme has a direct access to my heart.
The Wire is a tour de force exploration of a city, a society and a social problem, on a level that no other show has accomplished. It is Literature, with a capital L, delivered through the small screen format. My advice to anyone new to the series: you need to give it a handful of episodes, not because the show will change, but because it may need to change you first. It took me a few episodes (and actually a couple of separate attempts) to get sucked into its vortex. But it may be easier these days, as The Wire was one of those shows that so fundamentally influenced how television is made today, so its narrative style is no longer such an outlier.
Treme is also very much grounded on social problems, but it is also the most uplifting show that I have ever watched. Watching Treme just makes me happy, even when terrible things happen. I suppose it radiates a certain type of a spirit and approach to life that I can only admire and try to embrace. There is something about that piece of television, about its characters, its music, sounds and tastes that just make me feel home, happy and relaxed. Even if I have never been to New Orleans in my life.
The bottom line, I suppose, is that David Simon creates worlds and characters that beat with the same rhythm as I do. Not all of his shows have been quite as dear to me as these two, but I have found them all interesting. And these two, I treasure immensely.
The Wire is my all-time favorite. Treme (and also Show Me a Hero) don't get as much love or attention, which is a shame. Often when people talk about David Simon's work, they start with the Wire...
The Wire is my all-time favorite.
Treme (and also Show Me a Hero) don't get as much love or attention, which is a shame. Often when people talk about David Simon's work, they start with the Wire and maybe end with Generation Kill (not as much these days.) Treme was such a beautiful series with outstanding performances across the board.
I love how David Simon really utilizes the community for his stories. Anyway, Treme is solid gold and, if I had my way, it would be required watching.
Show Me A Hero was actually a difficult one for me, as I think I went in with far too high expectations. I felt that the mini-series format didn't do the story full justice, with the characters...
Show Me A Hero was actually a difficult one for me, as I think I went in with far too high expectations. I felt that the mini-series format didn't do the story full justice, with the characters not having as much space to breathe as they would perhaps have needed. But I still enjoyed it hugely, and definitely need to watch it again now that I know what to expect.
Similarly, I'm a bit divided about The Deuce. On the one hand, I absolutely love it, but on the other... I guess the long chronological jumps between the seasons didn't quite work for me, to be honest. The characters feel more distant, or something. But I actually haven't finished the last season yet, as HBO's streaming app had issues where I live and although they have fixed them now, we had already jumped into the second season of Mindhunter, so will see that to the end before returning to The Deuce.
Yeah, I don't think The Deuce or Show Me a Hero did a great job at aging the characters. The seven years for Show Me a Hero isn't too bad, but the fourteen for The Deuce needed something a little...
Yeah, I don't think The Deuce or Show Me a Hero did a great job at aging the characters. The seven years for Show Me a Hero isn't too bad, but the fourteen for The Deuce needed something a little more. Not wrinkles or anything, but it's like nobody aged a day unless they were sick.
For me, the thing with the Deuce is that it's a difficult series. One thing with Simon's work is that I never feel like I'm cheering or siding with a character as much as I'm simply an observer of that place in time, if that makes sense.
Overall, I'm grateful that HBO pretty much accepts anything David Simon wants to put out.
Mindhunter is fantastic. I liked Holt McCallany from Lights Out, even when the series wasn't as good as it could have been, his performance was always strong. He's fantastic in this role.
That's a good point. Even if some of the characters may look a little older and the style of their clothing has changed, the between-seasons time doesn't really make them grow or change in any...
I don't think The Deuce or Show Me a Hero did a great job at aging the characters.
That's a good point. Even if some of the characters may look a little older and the style of their clothing has changed, the between-seasons time doesn't really make them grow or change in any meaningful sense.
You also mentioned community as the core element in both The Wire and Treme. Now that I think about it, while The Deuce certainly has its communities, they feel much more alienating, with characters not existing so much in relation to their peers, but rather as individuals responsible mainly for themselves. They all seem quite lonely, detached, and unable to find meaningful human connections, even while being constantly surrounded by each other. This may well be intentional, but it's a big contrast to the previous shows and something that I hadn't really thought about until now.
And yes, Holt McCallany is absolutely brilliant in Mindhunter. The show also has one of the most interesting sound designs that I have come across. It's subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, and it works really well to underline and contrast with the visuals whenever needed.
I really liked how the Deuce ended. Initially, they were going to start the series with the bar scene but decided against it, which was a good call. One thing I really loved about The Deuce is how...
I really liked how the Deuce ended. Initially, they were going to start the series with the bar scene but decided against it, which was a good call.
One thing I really loved about The Deuce is how Leon was basically the protector at his diner. That's not the best word for it — maybe shepherd. He knew what was going on and stepped in when nobody else would. It is a compilation of somewhat mundane things like knowing what the girls ordered, giving them a free meal, etc; it seemed like he created a sort of sanctuary.
Anwan Glover (Leon, Slim Charles) has a natural wisdom and strength about him and it shows in his performances. He had two minor roles in Treme, but I'm hoping he'll remain a fixture in David Simon's stories.
I really loved how people just lost touch with other characters in The Deuce. It worked well with the timing but it needed something more to signify the passage of time. Fourteen years isn't really that much, and we did see a shift in music and style, but it felt so gradual (which is really a credit to the series.)
I also liked, as tough as it was, to see Candy not really know wtf happened with Lori.
I'm so happy to see series like The Deuce, Mindhunter, etc to be able to take their time with the stories. It's been like this for a while, but I think we're really entering the next phase of cinematic episodic storytelling. Some series have dropped the conventional duration for episodes and are using the time needed for that episode (e.g. Too Old to Die Young.) I think the Deuce would have benefited from this, but running week-to-week, its not really fair to the audience, even if its better for the overall, final product.
The Mentalist Psych Sherlock Holmes Artoghrol (Turkey) -kinda like the game of thrones with out porn & fiction- and didn't watch all of it. as you can see it's not my fav type of TV series. I...
The Mentalist
Psych
Sherlock Holmes
Artoghrol (Turkey) -kinda like the game of thrones with out porn & fiction- and didn't watch all of it. as you can see it's not my fav type of TV series.
I watch "the prodigal son" these days, and it's soo good. but not sure if it should be in my top 5,
Finally, I don't watch tv series regularly. so there is A LOT of them that basically I know NOTHING about
My top five: Breaking Bad (Netflix) Six Feet Under (Has one of the greatest TV series finales. HBO) The West Wing (I've rewatched the first four seasons, aka the Sorkin years, at least a dozen...
My top five:
Breaking Bad (Netflix)
Six Feet Under (Has one of the greatest TV series finales. HBO)
The West Wing (I've rewatched the first four seasons, aka the Sorkin years, at least a dozen times. Netflix)
Fleabag (Short but excellent comedy-drama. Prime Video)
There's one show I never see mentioned, that got cancelled despite the plot only getting thicker by the end of season 1 and having so much still left to explore: Intelligence, the US one. It had a...
There's one show I never see mentioned, that got cancelled despite the plot only getting thicker by the end of season 1 and having so much still left to explore: Intelligence, the US one.
It had a mature, intelligent male protagonist, and a capable, smart female deuteragonist.
It had the exploration of a world in which man-machine interface was a reality (in a form of a chip in one's brain) – and the challenges it presented.
It had a decent mystery all the way through the first season – and a plot that had the potential to go far beyond a single season.
It had interesting supporting characters that went beyond two dimensions.
It was a serious, character-driven exploration mission into the area of what it means to be human, especially when pitted against technology, with a potential to bloom fully – from an interesting flower that it was already – within three or four seasons.
Nope. "Bad ratings, show cancelled". :/
It's on my backup HDD. I rewatch it every couple of years.
A lot of TV shows came to my mind when I read this question, and what's funny to me is that there are some TV shows that I would LIKE to call favorites but can't because of some obvious issues (a...
A lot of TV shows came to my mind when I read this question, and what's funny to me is that there are some TV shows that I would LIKE to call favorites but can't because of some obvious issues (a good amount of anime come to mind).
However, there are some I unequivocally call my favorites, here are 5 in no particular order:
Courage the Cowardly Dog, a weird and creepy cartoon that first aired in 1999 (I think). It's about a dog named Courage living in the middle of nowhere in Kansas with his human owners and encountering all sorts of supernatural and otherworldly forces.
What's New, Scooby Doo?, a Scooby Doo cartoon that aired from the early to mid 2000s. Pretty much just an updated version of the 1960s TV show, but it's really good.
The first 3 seasons of Spongebob Squarepants. Everything after the third season isn't as good, in my opinion.
The Powerpuff Girls, THE ORIGINAL, NOT THE REMAKES. A fun superhero show about 3 little girls with superpowers protecting the city of Townsville. It had some pretty memorable characters (Him and Mojo Jojo are the first to come to mind) but also some good morals sprinkled throughout. The theme song and end credits songs are both iconic.
King of the Hill, the best slice of life TV show I think I've ever seen. I watched it when I was younger but didn't understand why I found it to be so compelling until I was older. It's got wonderful dry humor and it's so much better to watch once you've been to Texas.
Stargate SG-1. It had its highs and its lows, but it is still my overall favorite. It doesn't take itself too seriously and has a lot of fun moments, but can still build suspense despite you...
Stargate SG-1. It had its highs and its lows, but it is still my overall favorite. It doesn't take itself too seriously and has a lot of fun moments, but can still build suspense despite you knowing things will work out in the end.
The X-Files The 90s where my decade and The X-Files was one of its greatest hits! I don't think I'll ever love another character as I love Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Futurama Saw it since the...
The X-Files
The 90s where my decade and The X-Files was one of its greatest hits! I don't think I'll ever love another character as I love Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Futurama
Saw it since the start. Took ages to download the crappy RealVideo file, but it was totally worth it. Futurama seemed, at the time, the perfect animated comedy, with clever (sometimes brilliant) stories, perfect rhythm, and just enough references to please science fiction fans without alienating everyone else. It has a strong presence in popular culture up to this day, and every time I re-watch it I notice little details.
If I were to choose just one show, it would probably be The Big O. It's basically a giant robot anime with a heavy influence from the visuals of the Batman animated series with a nod to midcentury...
If I were to choose just one show, it would probably be The Big O. It's basically a giant robot anime with a heavy influence from the visuals of the Batman animated series with a nod to midcentury American culture and aesthetic design (so much art deco!). The main characters are all interesting and memorable, especially R. Dorothy. But of course, the best thing about the show is the giant robots. Most of them have a steampunk industrial look to them, but some are like living art deco statues and there's one that looks like an old tin wind-up robot toy. But the animation always looks fantastic, and there isn't a hint of CGI to be found.
You may come for the robots, but you'll stay for the story and world-building. The show takes place in a place called Paradigm City, a place where everyone has lost their memory. There are giant domes over part of the city, where the rich live. Most episodes are reflections on memory; many of the bad guys are people who have managed to recover a memory, and ghosts are a common theme. By the end of the second season, things get really crazy and the world literally starts to fall apart. They didn't know if the show was going to get a renewal, so it has an ambiguous ending. It's perhaps one of the best endings of it's kind, but I'll always want more.
I like a hard-hitting well-written tense drama as much as anyone, but when I think about "my favourite tv shows" they're definitely all very unchallenging television. Pushing Daisies - this show...
I like a hard-hitting well-written tense drama as much as anyone, but when I think about "my favourite tv shows" they're definitely all very unchallenging television.
Pushing Daisies - this show was a dang delight. It's made by Bryan Fuller (dead like me, wonderfalls) and it's really beautiful visually, and also everyone is really beautiful and are nice people, the mysteries are interesting and disturbing without being evil, and it's funny. If you've never seen it, you should watch it. There's only two seasons because it was cancelled, which is terrible!
Arrested Development - "I mean, it's one banana, Michael. How much could it cost? 10 dollars?"
Cougar Town - before podcasts really became the thing that we all know and love, this show was the closest experience to what I think podcasts are like now - kind of like hanging out with some friends but you don't need to participate?
I always feel awkward about ranking things that I believe can be great for different, incomparable reasons, so I'll just pick a recent show that truly surprised me and which I think floats close...
I always feel awkward about ranking things that I believe can be great for different, incomparable reasons, so I'll just pick a recent show that truly surprised me and which I think floats close around "top" rank for me: The OA.
It's a Netflix show starring and co-written by Brit Marling who I knew from Another Earth, a film so beautifully weird in a quiet, smart way that it kept her on my radar for years (fun fact, that movie came out the same year as Melancholia, which makes it part of maybe the weirdest movie trend in decades).
The premise of The OA is quite bizarre: A young woman arrives in her home town, after having gone missing for 7 years, during which time she was apparently cured from her blindness. She refuses to talk to the police or her parents but befriends a group of high school students and a teacher, telling them in detail her experiences over the past 7 years and the more detail she goes into, the weirder things get. Discovering it at the pace the show intends to is IMO the best way to experience it, so I'll stop here to avoid spoilers but rest assured, things happen in that show. It's part thriller, part mystery. It's Stranger Things without the 80s nostalgia (and more believable teenagers) or Lost, but with an idea for an ending that ties it all together. Season 2 kicks it up a notch, there's not much I can say about it but it involves a giant octopus.
Now the thing is, however I try to pitch this show to people who might be into it, I believe I wouldn't have ever watched it based on these descriptions alone. Like, I hated Lost so much in the later seasons but it kinda does that, but better. I also know that this is a show that's easy to hate. I can imagine some people getting genuinely angry at some of the twists. All I can say is that I went in expecting a very unique kind of weirdness and wasn't disappointed. I'll admit, though, that I'm not quite sure about the season 2 finale.
I love the OA! And it's kind of amazing because it's so different from any other show out there and it doesn't have the same kind of intents or structure you would expect. You will regret reading...
I love the OA! And it's kind of amazing because it's so different from any other show out there and it doesn't have the same kind of intents or structure you would expect.
You will regret reading this before you have seen the show
When the second season came out, I was honestly really let down. The best part of the show was the ambiguity of weather OA was telling the truth or not. To make a sequel, they had to make a choice, and that kind of ruined everything. But at the same time, I really liked how it helped to flesh out the characters for the side characters from the first series and how it furthered the lore it was building. I especially love the concept of OA and Hap having a cosmic connection, and really want to know where the writers were going to go with that.
I am so upset that it was canceled. Especially since it was supposed to be five seasons long. But at least they didn't decide to stuff everything together in the last few episodes; there are so many shows and movies that have been ruined that way.
The Wire has to take the top spot for me too. What's to say that hasn't been said a million times? The show makes you confront the harsh reality of the war on drugs and delivered everything through phenominal storytelling. Excitement, rage, fear, depression, heartbreak, anxiety, hope - sheeeiiiiiiiiiiit, this show had it all. After The Wire, it's...
Seinfeld - The best sitcom ever. Unfortunately, it's starting to become dated, and I feel like people under 30 don't appreciate it like they should. I consider myself lucky to be old enough and neglected enough to have seen every episode dozens of times while in syndication. I just started watching when I was in sixth grade, yadda yadda yadda, I knew every episode inside and out.
Breaking Bad - Everyone knows this one, but have to take this opportunity to jerk myself off for being on board from day one. I begged people to watch it for three years until it popped up on Netflix. Then all the same people started asking if I'd seen it. Fuckers. Did they listen to me when I said the same thing about Fargo a few years later? Of course not. Are they listening to me now when I talk about Succession? Nope. Don't let Netflix dictate what you see, bitch! Hey, speaking of Succession...
Succession - No, it's not recency bias. Yes, my post history is like 40% related to Succession. It's that fucking good. I have watched an absurd amount of TV in my life. I love TV. There are only a few shows, however, that I've loved enough to watch the same episode over again immediately after I finish it. Succession is one of those. If you liked The Big Short, you'll enjoy this show. Don't be like my silly friends that didn't listen to me about BB. Succession is gonna win tons of Emmys for the next few years. Get on board, or fuck off.
Peep Show - Seinfeld is the best sitcom, Peep Show is the best comedy. You can see every episode three times and on the fourth you'll catch a subtle joke that you either missed or forgot about. There are fewer than 50 episodes, whereas Seinfeld and The Office each have around 200, yet there are more quotable moments from Peep Show than the other two combined. There's no better show to watch after a rough day. Have a coke, a tuna sandwich, just mong out to some Peep Show.
Use whatever words you like, but just in case you're the kind of person who cares the word "mong" is a slur that refers to people with learning disability, from "mongoloid" which is an outdated term for Down's Syndrome.
Just to be clear Succession is no way near as good as BB overall and this hurts your credibility among your friends :)
I have a lot of stuff that I like right now (Bojack, Good Place), did like until I didn't (Heroes, Walking Dead, Friendship is Magic), comfort food TV (MST3K, Mythbusters) and Anime that's hard to recommend (ask me, it's a lot) but the one show that hits a lot of my buttons and has staying power is Over the Garden Wall.
When I started this post, I had every intention of going with Avatar the Last Airbender, but Over the Garden Wall is a short run series that is exceptionally well developed and mature, and as much as I could recommend Avatar to the right person, I can recommend Over the Garden Wall to anybody, and more people are going to get more out of it, and I only wasted enough time as a short feature.
For me, it's a toss between The Wire and Treme. The Wire is probably objectively better, but Treme has a direct access to my heart.
The Wire is a tour de force exploration of a city, a society and a social problem, on a level that no other show has accomplished. It is Literature, with a capital L, delivered through the small screen format. My advice to anyone new to the series: you need to give it a handful of episodes, not because the show will change, but because it may need to change you first. It took me a few episodes (and actually a couple of separate attempts) to get sucked into its vortex. But it may be easier these days, as The Wire was one of those shows that so fundamentally influenced how television is made today, so its narrative style is no longer such an outlier.
Treme is also very much grounded on social problems, but it is also the most uplifting show that I have ever watched. Watching Treme just makes me happy, even when terrible things happen. I suppose it radiates a certain type of a spirit and approach to life that I can only admire and try to embrace. There is something about that piece of television, about its characters, its music, sounds and tastes that just make me feel home, happy and relaxed. Even if I have never been to New Orleans in my life.
The bottom line, I suppose, is that David Simon creates worlds and characters that beat with the same rhythm as I do. Not all of his shows have been quite as dear to me as these two, but I have found them all interesting. And these two, I treasure immensely.
The Wire is my all-time favorite.
Treme (and also Show Me a Hero) don't get as much love or attention, which is a shame. Often when people talk about David Simon's work, they start with the Wire and maybe end with Generation Kill (not as much these days.) Treme was such a beautiful series with outstanding performances across the board.
I love how David Simon really utilizes the community for his stories. Anyway, Treme is solid gold and, if I had my way, it would be required watching.
Show Me A Hero was actually a difficult one for me, as I think I went in with far too high expectations. I felt that the mini-series format didn't do the story full justice, with the characters not having as much space to breathe as they would perhaps have needed. But I still enjoyed it hugely, and definitely need to watch it again now that I know what to expect.
Similarly, I'm a bit divided about The Deuce. On the one hand, I absolutely love it, but on the other... I guess the long chronological jumps between the seasons didn't quite work for me, to be honest. The characters feel more distant, or something. But I actually haven't finished the last season yet, as HBO's streaming app had issues where I live and although they have fixed them now, we had already jumped into the second season of Mindhunter, so will see that to the end before returning to The Deuce.
Yeah, I don't think The Deuce or Show Me a Hero did a great job at aging the characters. The seven years for Show Me a Hero isn't too bad, but the fourteen for The Deuce needed something a little more. Not wrinkles or anything, but it's like nobody aged a day unless they were sick.
For me, the thing with the Deuce is that it's a difficult series. One thing with Simon's work is that I never feel like I'm cheering or siding with a character as much as I'm simply an observer of that place in time, if that makes sense.
Overall, I'm grateful that HBO pretty much accepts anything David Simon wants to put out.
Mindhunter is fantastic. I liked Holt McCallany from Lights Out, even when the series wasn't as good as it could have been, his performance was always strong. He's fantastic in this role.
That's a good point. Even if some of the characters may look a little older and the style of their clothing has changed, the between-seasons time doesn't really make them grow or change in any meaningful sense.
You also mentioned community as the core element in both The Wire and Treme. Now that I think about it, while The Deuce certainly has its communities, they feel much more alienating, with characters not existing so much in relation to their peers, but rather as individuals responsible mainly for themselves. They all seem quite lonely, detached, and unable to find meaningful human connections, even while being constantly surrounded by each other. This may well be intentional, but it's a big contrast to the previous shows and something that I hadn't really thought about until now.
And yes, Holt McCallany is absolutely brilliant in Mindhunter. The show also has one of the most interesting sound designs that I have come across. It's subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, and it works really well to underline and contrast with the visuals whenever needed.
I really liked how the Deuce ended. Initially, they were going to start the series with the bar scene but decided against it, which was a good call.
One thing I really loved about The Deuce is how Leon was basically the protector at his diner. That's not the best word for it — maybe shepherd. He knew what was going on and stepped in when nobody else would. It is a compilation of somewhat mundane things like knowing what the girls ordered, giving them a free meal, etc; it seemed like he created a sort of sanctuary.
Anwan Glover (Leon, Slim Charles) has a natural wisdom and strength about him and it shows in his performances. He had two minor roles in Treme, but I'm hoping he'll remain a fixture in David Simon's stories.
I really loved how people just lost touch with other characters in The Deuce. It worked well with the timing but it needed something more to signify the passage of time. Fourteen years isn't really that much, and we did see a shift in music and style, but it felt so gradual (which is really a credit to the series.)
I also liked, as tough as it was, to see Candy not really know wtf happened with Lori.
I'm so happy to see series like The Deuce, Mindhunter, etc to be able to take their time with the stories. It's been like this for a while, but I think we're really entering the next phase of cinematic episodic storytelling. Some series have dropped the conventional duration for episodes and are using the time needed for that episode (e.g. Too Old to Die Young.) I think the Deuce would have benefited from this, but running week-to-week, its not really fair to the audience, even if its better for the overall, final product.
Finally, I don't watch tv series regularly. so there is A LOT of them that basically I know NOTHING about
Friday Night Lights
I've been binging Mr. Robot this week while home sick and GOD DAMN the cinematography is fantastic.
My top five:
There's one show I never see mentioned, that got cancelled despite the plot only getting thicker by the end of season 1 and having so much still left to explore: Intelligence, the US one.
It had a mature, intelligent male protagonist, and a capable, smart female deuteragonist.
It had the exploration of a world in which man-machine interface was a reality (in a form of a chip in one's brain) – and the challenges it presented.
It had a decent mystery all the way through the first season – and a plot that had the potential to go far beyond a single season.
It had interesting supporting characters that went beyond two dimensions.
It was a serious, character-driven exploration mission into the area of what it means to be human, especially when pitted against technology, with a potential to bloom fully – from an interesting flower that it was already – within three or four seasons.
Nope. "Bad ratings, show cancelled". :/
It's on my backup HDD. I rewatch it every couple of years.
The Muppet Show
'Allo 'Allo
Jeopardy!
Japan Screen Topics/Japan Video Topics
Revista De La Liga
A lot of TV shows came to my mind when I read this question, and what's funny to me is that there are some TV shows that I would LIKE to call favorites but can't because of some obvious issues (a good amount of anime come to mind).
However, there are some I unequivocally call my favorites, here are 5 in no particular order:
Courage the Cowardly Dog, a weird and creepy cartoon that first aired in 1999 (I think). It's about a dog named Courage living in the middle of nowhere in Kansas with his human owners and encountering all sorts of supernatural and otherworldly forces.
What's New, Scooby Doo?, a Scooby Doo cartoon that aired from the early to mid 2000s. Pretty much just an updated version of the 1960s TV show, but it's really good.
The first 3 seasons of Spongebob Squarepants. Everything after the third season isn't as good, in my opinion.
The Powerpuff Girls, THE ORIGINAL, NOT THE REMAKES. A fun superhero show about 3 little girls with superpowers protecting the city of Townsville. It had some pretty memorable characters (Him and Mojo Jojo are the first to come to mind) but also some good morals sprinkled throughout. The theme song and end credits songs are both iconic.
King of the Hill, the best slice of life TV show I think I've ever seen. I watched it when I was younger but didn't understand why I found it to be so compelling until I was older. It's got wonderful dry humor and it's so much better to watch once you've been to Texas.
Stargate SG-1. It had its highs and its lows, but it is still my overall favorite. It doesn't take itself too seriously and has a lot of fun moments, but can still build suspense despite you knowing things will work out in the end.
You are a person of culture, I see!
SG1 is one of favorites of all time and was super excited to hear the voice of Bra’tac in Jedi: Fallen Order
The 90s where my decade and The X-Files was one of its greatest hits! I don't think I'll ever love another character as I love Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Saw it since the start. Took ages to download the crappy RealVideo file, but it was totally worth it. Futurama seemed, at the time, the perfect animated comedy, with clever (sometimes brilliant) stories, perfect rhythm, and just enough references to please science fiction fans without alienating everyone else. It has a strong presence in popular culture up to this day, and every time I re-watch it I notice little details.
If I were to choose just one show, it would probably be The Big O. It's basically a giant robot anime with a heavy influence from the visuals of the Batman animated series with a nod to midcentury American culture and aesthetic design (so much art deco!). The main characters are all interesting and memorable, especially R. Dorothy. But of course, the best thing about the show is the giant robots. Most of them have a steampunk industrial look to them, but some are like living art deco statues and there's one that looks like an old tin wind-up robot toy. But the animation always looks fantastic, and there isn't a hint of CGI to be found.
You may come for the robots, but you'll stay for the story and world-building. The show takes place in a place called Paradigm City, a place where everyone has lost their memory. There are giant domes over part of the city, where the rich live. Most episodes are reflections on memory; many of the bad guys are people who have managed to recover a memory, and ghosts are a common theme. By the end of the second season, things get really crazy and the world literally starts to fall apart. They didn't know if the show was going to get a renewal, so it has an ambiguous ending. It's perhaps one of the best endings of it's kind, but I'll always want more.
I like a hard-hitting well-written tense drama as much as anyone, but when I think about "my favourite tv shows" they're definitely all very unchallenging television.
Pushing Daisies - this show was a dang delight. It's made by Bryan Fuller (dead like me, wonderfalls) and it's really beautiful visually, and also everyone is really beautiful and are nice people, the mysteries are interesting and disturbing without being evil, and it's funny. If you've never seen it, you should watch it. There's only two seasons because it was cancelled, which is terrible!
Arrested Development - "I mean, it's one banana, Michael. How much could it cost? 10 dollars?"
Cougar Town - before podcasts really became the thing that we all know and love, this show was the closest experience to what I think podcasts are like now - kind of like hanging out with some friends but you don't need to participate?
I always feel awkward about ranking things that I believe can be great for different, incomparable reasons, so I'll just pick a recent show that truly surprised me and which I think floats close around "top" rank for me: The OA.
It's a Netflix show starring and co-written by Brit Marling who I knew from Another Earth, a film so beautifully weird in a quiet, smart way that it kept her on my radar for years (fun fact, that movie came out the same year as Melancholia, which makes it part of maybe the weirdest movie trend in decades).
The premise of The OA is quite bizarre: A young woman arrives in her home town, after having gone missing for 7 years, during which time she was apparently cured from her blindness. She refuses to talk to the police or her parents but befriends a group of high school students and a teacher, telling them in detail her experiences over the past 7 years and the more detail she goes into, the weirder things get. Discovering it at the pace the show intends to is IMO the best way to experience it, so I'll stop here to avoid spoilers but rest assured, things happen in that show. It's part thriller, part mystery. It's Stranger Things without the 80s nostalgia (and more believable teenagers) or Lost, but with an idea for an ending that ties it all together. Season 2 kicks it up a notch, there's not much I can say about it but it involves a giant octopus.
Now the thing is, however I try to pitch this show to people who might be into it, I believe I wouldn't have ever watched it based on these descriptions alone. Like, I hated Lost so much in the later seasons but it kinda does that, but better. I also know that this is a show that's easy to hate. I can imagine some people getting genuinely angry at some of the twists. All I can say is that I went in expecting a very unique kind of weirdness and wasn't disappointed. I'll admit, though, that I'm not quite sure about the season 2 finale.
I love the OA! And it's kind of amazing because it's so different from any other show out there and it doesn't have the same kind of intents or structure you would expect.
You will regret reading this before you have seen the show
When the second season came out, I was honestly really let down. The best part of the show was the ambiguity of weather OA was telling the truth or not. To make a sequel, they had to make a choice, and that kind of ruined everything. But at the same time, I really liked how it helped to flesh out the characters for the side characters from the first series and how it furthered the lore it was building. I especially love the concept of OA and Hap having a cosmic connection, and really want to know where the writers were going to go with that.I am so upset that it was canceled. Especially since it was supposed to be five seasons long. But at least they didn't decide to stuff everything together in the last few episodes; there are so many shows and movies that have been ruined that way.
If it's only one favorite: Sopranos