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I'm starting to work on my list but I feel like I'm penalizing limited series and shows that ran only a couple of seasons compared to ones that ran longer. BBC just posted a 100 Best Shows of the Century and had Fleabag in the top 5, which made me think about shows that were good but over so quickly I kind of forgot about them.
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Oct 19, 2021 19:48
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 23:40 |
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I'm not advocating for this list in particular. It just provided me with an example. I'm sure my list will have some equally suspect picks though!
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Oct 20, 2021 19:15
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Alright, I'm jumping in. First some honorable mentions that I'm not going to bother to rank: What We Do In The Shadows The White Lotus Maniac Russian Doll Schitt's Creek Mystery Road Giri/Haji Cobra Kai Master of None Downton Abbey Dead to Me Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Killing Eve Reservation Dogs WandaVision and the top 20 20-- iZombie (CW). This is definitely my "mock me" pick. iZombie is not a great show but somehow almost perfectly scratches the itch for Funny/ Secret Identity/Supernatural/ (mostly) light police procedural. I don't watch a lot of CW shows at all so I missed this during the original run. I almost stopped after S2 because it looked like it was going to get to bogged down with dumb stuff but then S3 leaned into the humor even more. S4 and S5 did get a bit dreary at times but it ended up with a decent finale. Rose McIver makes the show, usually injecting just the right amount of hamming it up and going all in when necessary. 19-- Longmire. Strong leads and western scenery made this modern-day western sheriff procedural a favorite of ours (possibly the first show we ever paid to get on Amazon Prime). If you only know Katee Sackhoff from Battlestar she does a good job in this show as a loyal but independent deputy and Robert Taylor's Walt Longmire is the perfect anachronistic strong silent small-town sheriff. There are cases of the week with long running mysteries in the background, and they feel well grounded in the setting (energy companies throwing their weight around, conflicts and problems on the local reservation, etc). 18-- Orphan Black (BBC America) I came late to the party for this show. Somehow it's got the Canadian sci-fi feel of doing a lot with a little (see also: Travelers, which didn't make my top 20). I don't think it would land in my top 20 without Maslany's work as the lead, but in almost every episode you can point to something really remarkable with her portrayal of so many characters. There are times when one character impersonates another, or someone else in the cast gets a rare scene with a different persona, and you really appreciate what she's doing. S3 was probably my least favorite, but it starts to recover in S4 cheek maggots aside, and has reasonable closure over the latter half of S5. The messages of family and sisterhood feel well earned and often triumphant (for example, the dance scene at the end of S2 is one of my all-time favorite TV moments). 17-- The Good Place. It was between this and Schitt's Creek for this spot on my list and I chose The Good Place because a) the premise was MUCH riskier and required a lot more creativity to pull off, and b) the finale is hands down one of my favorite show endings ever. Who knew the afterlife and philosophy could be so funny and colorful? 16-- Trapped (Icelandic). Two seasons of Nordic noire, season-long mysteries, set in Iceland. I'm not sure how original these types of shows are, but this one just seemed to do everything right (small town, old crimes and secrets, lots of snow). With the relatively long 10-episode seasons there's a lot of time to roll out the story. 15-- GLOW (Netflix). The premise of this show is pretty ridiculous-- writing a dark comedy about ridiculous, exploitative ladies wrestling show from the 80's. Somehow GLOW becomes a charming story of empowerment, friendship, and found family. Alison Brie and Marc Maron are the perfect driving force. 14-- Fleabag. Just a quick LOL at myself for putting this here after wondering earlier in the thread how it could end up on someone else's list. Certainly not a top 5 show for me but the dark humor and rawness of this show were spot on. 13-- The Boys (Amazon). Of course super heroes would be scary assholes and corporate stooges! The gore in this show feels well enough earned to avoid being completely gratuitous in this context. Nice balance of action and humor. The entire cast is pretty great but the menace and frustration in Antony Starr's Homelander is underrated brilliance. 12-- Ugly Delicious. We like culture/foodie shows, and this one was forward about challenging our assumptions and biases about cuisines. Travel food shows are one thing but this is definitely something different. David Chang brings a fresh approach and this is neither PBS Sunday afternoon mellow-fest nor Food Network faux spectacle. 11- Mindhunter. Premise: take the study of serial killers and while pretending to make it as boring and academic as possible somehow make a really compelling show. Between the era, the chemistry between the partners, and the criminals themselves, this show was surprisingly enjoyable for us and somehow avoided getting too dark and in its own way in spite of the subject. 10-- Game of Thrones (HBO). Final season aside, this show actually did a lot right, and it did something GRRM apparently can't do which is f-ing end. Yes the books are probably better, but the big budget dropped on this series led to some impressive world building. So many sword & sorcery shows feel like they are cheap knock-offs of something else but not GoT. Add to that the cast was pretty fantastic. 09-- Stranger Things (Netflix) Sometimes campy, sometimes scary, but usually good for a fun ride. It can be hard to do a show with kids as the leads but this one usually finds the right notes. The kids act like kids and not mini adults. The 80's nostalgia is well done with roles for actors like Winona Rider and Sean Astin. 08-- High Maintenance (HBO). The conceit of the show is almost secondary. This makes my top 10 for its beautiful, raw glimpses into different peoples' lives. The weed guy makes a relatable through-line for the show. 07-- Lucifer (Fox/Netflix). Don't overthink it. Tom Ellis takes this show from what could be a truly stupid train wreck to a frequently hilarious, sometimes touching, silly supernormal procedural love story. I disliked this show from the trailer and it took me a couple of watches to get past the bratty lead character we find in pilot. And now it's in my top 10 because it sparks joy, fight me! Both the Fox seasons and Netflix seasons have their own charm. Most of the police cases are not that compelling but it really doesn't matter because you are there for Tom and the rest of the cast. 06-- The OA (Netflix) Cancelled too soon, but the two seasons (especially, imo, S2) were some of the most beautiful, haunting, and captivating episodes on TV. This is the show that finally convinced me to join Reddit for the discussion board. It's hard to quickly describe what the show is about but if you like Lost or the new Twin Peaks you may like this. 05-- Brokenwood Mysteries. Not every great show has to have grand ambitions. There are a million light police procedurals out there but somehow this one stands out for us. This New Zealand offering isn't groundbreaking in any particular way but became one of our favorites with its comfortable tone, great music, and nice chemistry between the leads and residents of the small town. This will probably be the only vote in the whole thread for this show but it's the reason we originally subscribed Acorn TV at the beginning of the pandemic after catching some of the episodes on our local PBS station. Bonus points for having long episodes and short seasons. 04-- Borgen (Original network? New season on Netflix) Another show that cracks the Top 10 for me because I wasn't expecting to like it this much. Political drama in Denmark somehow is fascinating! I haven't watched West Wing but I imagine this has a somewhat similar feel (as opposed to much darker stuff like House of Cards). I think one of the reasons I might like this is that (in a pre-Trump, pre-Brexit Europe) paints such an optimistic picture of politics in general. With the parliamentary system there's much more respect between opposing factions and a general patriotism and belief in the political system. I can't wait to see how the writers deal with the poo poo show of the past 5 years in the upcoming season. 03-- The Expanse (Amazon). Best sci-fi show since, maybe ever. Part gritty detective series, part political thriller, part captivating speculative sci-fi. It's re-invented itself through many strong seasons. 02-- Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime). It is happening again! A beautiful, weird show that somehow defied every guess of what I thought would happen and simultaneously felt like every scene was tapping directly into my expectation and nostalgia. What a gift from David Lynch. 01-- The Crown (Netflix). (Mostly/partly true) historical vignettes of British monarchy in the second half of the twentieth century. Why did I pick this as number 1? For something that I'd expect to barely rise to the level of "interesting", this has been a riveting series and exceeded my expectations at every turn. Great acting throughout even with the changes in cast. Especially in the earlier seasons it doesn't feel so much like a dramatized story chopped into episodes (like the recent Victoria series on PBS) but instead as a series of cruical moments that build to tell the broader story.
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Oct 22, 2021 23:52
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The top 5 was pretty quick from me, and then I could think about other shows that I really liked for the top 10. Figuring out 11-20 out of my top 30-ish list was a lot harder but I just played around with it for a while and adjusted as I remembered new shows.
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Oct 23, 2021 06:06
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Jerusalem posted:
Just started this today and it looks awesome.
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Dec 10, 2021 22:51
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Looten Plunder posted:Are you trying to break me? I've still gotta get done with these two polla. On the one hand, I'd say the sooner the better so I actually have some chance of remembering what I watched 15-20 years ago. But on the other hand, the longer we wait the more chance I'll have to watch some of the great shows of that decade.
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Jan 10, 2022 19:45
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Yeah, this is awesome, thank you! I only found TV/IV relatively recently so I’ve been enjoying the recs.
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Jan 15, 2022 20:32
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Dammit I should have edited my list to add The Detectorists. I definitely would have had it in my top 10.
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Jan 19, 2022 00:14
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Jerusalem posted:Sad that nobody else voted for The Detectorists but at least one person said they were going to watch it and that makes me happy BetterLekNextTime posted:Dammit I should have edited my list to add The Detectorists. I definitely would have had it in my top 10. Best show I watched last year. It's basically perfect.
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Jan 19, 2022 01:06
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Thank you again LP, this is so fun to look through. The YT videos are such a good touch. I only had 5 shows in the top 20. Most of those I didn't pick I haven't seen at all so that means there's a lot of good TV still out there for me!
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Jan 19, 2022 18:51
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 23:40 |
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Looten Plunder posted:Do you have an explanation for The Office? cause whilst it's one of the most popular shows on TV and had a massive following on this site, it didn't receive one vote. Was season 5ish when it started to go downhill? I think only the last 2 seasons were eligible. I’ll definitely put it in my list for the Aughties poll.
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Jan 20, 2022 05:16
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