|
I guess I better speed up my Mad Men watch 
|
#
¿
Jul 31, 2021 10:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 22:09 |
|
|
I'll take this chance to recommend everybody watch all three seasons of The Detectorists, which is just a lovely, lovely, lovely show that I want everybody to experience.  Also it has a simply beautiful opening theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q58Gm18-IMY
|
|
#
¿
Aug 3, 2021 23:28
|
|
|
I've been holding off on mine because I've only really just gotten to the eligible portion of Mad Men for this decade and there's no way I'm not including it, I just don't know where yet.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2021 01:35
|
|
|
BetterLekNextTime posted: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! It did remind me to watch Fleabag at least, and after the first episode (hell, the opening scene!) I'm very grateful for this.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2021 23:12
|
|
|
Yeah, just put titles on a list. Once you're done, you'll be able to look at it and go,"Hmmm, that shouldn't be over that" or "That one deserves to be higher" and it'll all sort itself out. I say that but I'm still holding off doing anything because I'd like to finish Mad Men before putting it down on the list, but given the pace my real life allows me to watch it, it seems unlike I'll be able to get through it before the year's end.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 23, 2021 06:19
|
|
|
Escobarbarian posted:Fleabag is amazing and very well could make it into my top 10 for this list Having just finished both seasons... holy gently caress. What an incredible show, if anybody hasn't watched it then they absolutely must, because holy gently caress. It is SO good.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 2, 2021 08:03
|
|
|
Pillowpants posted:4 Veep: Political Satire at its finest. Everything about this show is loving perfect. Just a typo or did you include Community but forget to rank it?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 22, 2021 11:13
|
|
|
If brevity is the soul of wit, then I am a lumbering oaf confused by my own reflection. I apologize in advance for how incredibly long this is, click here to bypass all these  if you have no interest in reading my ramblings. 20. Wet Hot American Summer (2015, 2017): Sometimes something magical happens in the world of television, against all odds, and that's what happened when Netflix made the baffling but very welcome decision to greenlight not one but two seasons of a follow-up series to a ridiculously silly (and brilliant) 2001 film that largely disappeared without a trace after it came out in theaters. That movie (which I highly recommend you watch, it's great!) ended with the promise that the characters would get back together 10 years later... so of course the first season was a prequel, with all the actors (many of whom had gone to great success in film and television) returning 14 years later to play even younger versions of themselves from the film! It was exactly that ridiculous, absurdist style of humor that made the film so great, and this was followed up by the second season fulfilling the promise of "10 years later" with yet another period piece, this time involving multiple Presidents of the United States in a scheme to... well, you really have to watch it to do it justice. This was just a very silly, very stupid, and very wonderful television series about weird people doing weird things and somehow playing it completely straight, all while gleefully lampooning summer camp films and eagerly leaping from genre to genre in the process. Here's just one of the many fantastic scenes from this series, and there's 16 episodes of this wonderful nonsense to enjoy.  19. Legion (2017 - 2019): If either of the follow-up seasons had lived up to the quality of season 1, this show would be near the top of my list. Unfortunately season 2 was largely a letdown and while season 3 improved to a degree it really seemed to be struggling to recapture the magic of season 1 (that said, the "Rap Battle" from season 3 was a highlight). But wow that season 1. At a time when it seemed Noah Hawley could do no wrong, he simultaneously worked on Fargo and this series, with the first season hitting a high watermark it would never rival again. Weird, often disconcerting, sometimes funny, often confusing, Legion told the story of David Haller, a young man diagnosed with schizophrenia who discovers he is a "mutant" with enormous telepathic/telekinetic powers, unsure if the monster he continually sees and is threatened by is a real alien presence in his head or simply a manifestation of his mental illness. David is just one of many characters occupying the weird world of Legion, including a woman who briefly "becomes" any person she touches; a twin brother and sister who can coexist as one body, leading to the sister aging far slower than the brother; a man who can remember everything; a man in cryogenic suspension whose mind continues to potter about in a psychic bottle in the astral plane; plus a variety of simply "human" characters including the wonderful Jean Smart as Melanie. But the actor/character who stands out above all others, and was sorely missed due to her reduced presence in seasons 2 and 3, was Aubrey Plaza as Lenny Busker, David's old friend who is killed in the first episode but continues to appear in David's mind as a hallucination... until other people start to see her too. Plaza plays Lenny with a scary intensity, at times the supportive friend whose company David takes great comfort in, at other times... something entirely different. She's the high point of the season that is the high point of the show, and without her I doubt I would have kept this show in my Top 20. Overall, Legion was a letdown, but that first season.... man that first season was GOOD.  18. Game of Thrones (2011 - 2019): It's rare you see a show that ran as long as it did poo poo the bed as badly as Game of Thrones did in its last season or two. That it still makes the list is testament to just how good the show was for a significant chunk of its run, before George R.R. Martin's published books ran out (he only finished ONE extra book in the series across the ENTIRE run of the television show! The same year the first season came out!) and the show's writing went off the deep end. The high production values and impressive setpieces remained (when we could actually see them on-screen) but much of the pacing completely went out the window, with characters making baffling decisions or rushing to sudden shifts in morality/personal decisions that had been slowly teased but not fully developed. There were still high points even from season 6 onwards, such as the Battle of the Bastards which remains an incredible visual spectacle, or The Winds of Winter where Cersei finally achieves her ultimate goal (in explosive fashion!) after endless disappointments or false starts. But it's those first 4-5 seasons that keep the show on my list. It is deeply disappointing that the show seemed to largely disappear from public consciousness after the poor finish, because during its peak period it was well worthy of the constant praise and utter fascination it generated. Ned Stark's fate; Jamie Lannister's slow growth as a human as he experienced true hardship for the first time; the Red Wedding; Daenerys becoming the "Breaker of Chains"; Stannis' failed assault on King's Landing/Tyrion's use of Balefire; The Night's Watch fighting off the Wilding raid on The Wall; The Mountain vs. The Viper; Cersei's disastrous courting of the Sparrows and her walk of shame; Jon and Tormund escaping the assault on Hardhome... this was a show that for a time EVERYBODY wanted to watch and EVERYBODY wanted to talk about. Shows like Westworld and Jessica Jones might have had incredible first seasons, but they fell apart quickly after that. Legion's 2nd and 3rd season weren't bad, just a letdown. But until it all went wrong, Game of Thrones ran for almost half a decade as one of the best shows on television... but boy did it go wrong!  17. Detectorists (2014 - 2017): You ever just want to watch a show that makes you feel.... nice? That's exactly what Detectorists was. For three seasons, it told the mostly low stakes story of a couple of metal detecting enthusiasts who just liked to go out together and enjoy the countryside, chat about nothing, and quietly dream of achieving what they insisted to everybody they didn't really care about : finding actual treasure. To call it a gentle series gives the wrong impression, there's still plenty of drama and character development to be found, moments of sadness and frustration and just wishing you could grab a character by the shoulders and shake them. But overall it's just... it's nice. Created by Mackenzie Crook, probably best known to most as the pirate with the fake eye in Pirates of the Caribbean (or Gareth from the British version of The Office, the "Dwight" character), it's a astonishingly confidently written piece and he more than holds his own as one half of the main duo, alongside the always impressive Toby Jones. It's also a very, very, very funny show, filled with plenty of running gags and callbacks, as well as a truly wonderful opening theme song. It ends on about as perfect note as a show like this could, each season as written could have been the end of the show and it would have still been a tremendous achievement. The ending to season 3 just knocks it out of the park, leaving you feeling a glowing warmth for characters you've come to love and wish only the best for, just as they want only the best for each other. It's.... it's just so nice  16. Community (2009 - 2015): For a man perhaps best known for a cynical sense of humor, especially after the success of Rick & Morty, it's remarkable just how oddly wholesome the show that first brought Dan Harmon to widespread attention is. Which isn't to say it isn't absolutely stacked to the rafters with cynical humor, because it certainly is, but it was a series that really had heart, and I think it was that more than the clever writing and often black humor that makes it stick out in people's memory. Ostensibly the story of Jeff Winger, it didn't take long at all for this to become an ensemble show, with the ensemble cast becoming the "star". The setting and the concept of a study group allowed for a wide variety of different formats to be explored, and the show reveled in playing with genre, parody, and a self-aware meta humor that was carried by the quality writing and direction (the Russo Brothers were heavily involved in the show!) and of course the acting. As a result, you never knew quite what to expect each week, and while the characters continued to develop and change and react to prior events, there wasn't necessarily an overarching plot.... hell, even Jeff getting his degree was settled by about the halfway point of the show. If anything, the show's biggest flaw was its creator, whose poor handling of the relationship with Chevy Chase and clashes with the studio saw him kicked off his own show for awhile. But when he wasn't getting in his own way (and after getting back on the show) he was producing an often brilliant, almost always clever, and most importantly very funny television show. Characters developed and changed, new characters managed to admirably fill in the gaps caused by the departures of Chevy Chase, Donald Glover and Yvette Nicole Brown, and even the odd cultural relic of season 6 being produced by Yahoo! didn't stop that season from being a very entertaining and very funny season with great new characters like Frankie (Paget Brewster) and Elroy (Keith David). The consistency was remarkable all the way through (all the seasons Dan Harmon was showrunner anyway). Plus, of course, one thing the show had from start to finish was Dean Pelton, and there's not a single other show on this list that can make that same boast.  15. The Queen's Gambit (2020): Some shows benefit from lasting for years and really developing characters over a long course of time. Other shows work best as a one-and-done, and sadly some that would have worked best that way become victims of their own success and end up diluting the buzz from a fantastic first season with weak follow-ups (like Legion, Jessica Jones and ESPECIALLY Westworld). The Queen's Gambit wasn't ever expected to be anything other than a single season, adapting the 1983 novel, and despite it's ENORMOUS success it seems likely that it will remain as a one-and-done. After all, the story is told, the journey complete, and while Beth Harmon might have a long life ahead of her, we saw her achieve exactly what it was she had been aiming for during most of her life and end the season on about the most pitch-perfect note possible: returning to what first attracted her to chess in the first place, and just playing the game for the excitement of playing, finding a universal language in Chess that crossed age, gender and even international politics no matter how much people tried to interfere in that. The story of an orphaned girl in the 1950s who discovers a talent for Chess at roughly the same time as she becomes addicted to a drug being casually handled out at her orphanage, she spends roughly the next 20 years slowly overcoming bias against her gender, her age, her looks and endless attempts to exploit her talent for other people's gain. There are plenty of other shows and stories that show us talented and intelligent people who succeed against all odds, but this series really stood out to me. Perhaps it is because when she finally does triumph, her victory doesn't come at the expense of anyone. Rather, what Beth finds when she realizes her visualizations weren't caused by the drugs she finally kicked but her own extraordinary mind is acceptance. Not just acceptance of herself by herself, but the acceptance of the watching crowd, whether Russian or American or British. Acceptance by a terrifying rival she realizes was as intimidated by her as she was by him. Chess was the universal language by which she found a place to belong, and when she found it those who she had always been told or thought were her enemies turned out to be her allies. In America, former rivals and lovers embraced in celebration of her. In Russia, the Soviet Citizens adored the woman who defeated THEIR champion. Her rival embraced her and credited her with a triumph that was fully earned by her. The Queen's Gambit is a story about a brilliant woman who always felt like an outsider, and finally found a place where she didn't just want to be, but was welcomed. That was it, and that was all it needed to be.  14. Parks and Recreation (2009 - 2015): Like Community, Parks and Recreation likes to play with cynical humor and characters who are selfish, self-serving and often not very smart. Like Community, Parks and Recreation is also at heart a very wholesome series about people who care for each other in spite of that cynical exterior. Unlike Community, Parks and Recreation absolutely wears its heart on its sleeve about the weirdos and dorks who work for the Pawnee, Indiana Parks Department caring for and loving each other. Both shows started in 2009 and ended in 2015, and both had a final season that was perhaps not entirely expected to ever actually happen. The similarities are obvious, but I like Parks and Rec a little more because even if the writing isn't quite as clever, it's just a show that gave me an overall more positive feel while watching it. There was rarely any nastiness to the show, even scenes involving the ridiculously corrupt council members, the bizarre eccentricities of the Pawnee townspeople, or the stupendously stupid people who showed up to public meetings didn't feel cruel, more just delivery mechanisms to allow Leslie Knope to gape in horror or struggle mightily to keep up her effort to see the best in everybody. That was something else where the show stood out from Community's ensemble as well: while each of the supporting characters were great to watch or had fun subplots (in particular the awkward romance and eventual marriage of Andy and April as the human equivalent of a dog and cat respectively) this was very much the Leslie Knope show. Amy Poehler as Leslie was a delight, an endlessly optimistic and driven woman who believed with all her heart that Government as public service wasn't just a job but a calling. In spite of everything that got in her way, every bit of bullshit or corruption or complete lack of sincerity/care from those in power she encountered, she continued to just believe and push. From her early seasons obsession with getting Ann Perkins the park she wanted through to becoming Governor of Indiana and possibly President of the United States, Leslie would just keep on pushing through no matter what - or how ridiculous - the obstacle. This was the show in a nutshell, each of the characters had a dream (in Ron's case, a very simple dream) and over the course of the show's run they hit problems and setbacks but they never gave up, not fully, and each of them eventually triumphed in one way or another. Not entirely realistic perhaps (Community, which I keep comparing it to, had a far more down-to-earth but equally happy conclusion) but it's television... it doesn't have to be! For 7 seasons (most of which were in the qualifying range for this decade) I watched these people try hard and eventually succeed, and I got a lot of laughs along the way.  13. What We Do in the Shadows (2019 - Ongoing): In 2014 in New Zealand a film was released about some hapless vampires living together in the 21st Century not really getting how the modern world works. For some bizarre reason decided to let a documentary crew film their daily lives despite one of the few vampire rules being "don't let humans know vampires exist!). It was very, very funny and quite touching in parts, but despite the involvement of Taika Waititi (Thor Ragnarok) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords) that's a pretty niche film. So it was a pretty big surprise when 5 years later it was announced that a television version of the film was being made in America, with the same name and concept, but new characters played by mostly British actors. The core cast was good - Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou and Mark Proksch along with Harvey Guillén who had mostly done one-off appearances in various television shows - but would the humor translate? Would they be able to recapture the magic of the film? The answer, surprisingly, was yes. And not just for a single season either. For 3 seasons now, the show has built on and expanded on the world introduced in the film (which remains "canon", with characters from the film appearing in the tv series) while staying largely true to one very specific concept: vampires are incredibly loving stupid! Maybe as a result of their long lives and falling out of tune with modern society, or being educated centuries earlier and then pissing about "to suck blood and gently caress forever". Whatever the reason, a joy of the show is in watching these frankly terrifyingly powerful and dangerous killers be complete morons and do the stupidest and most hilarious things, while Nandor's familiar Guillermo (who isn't as smart as he thinks) cleans up after them, protects them and keeps everything ticking along while they just assume it all just takes care of itself. The show has a wonderful approach to backstory, keeping characters consistent but not minding tossing things aside in favor of what makes for the strongest joke at any given time. They're not good people, they're monsters in fact, but that dosn't meant they don't have a heart or don't care. The relationship between Laszlo and Nadja - as weird and hosed up and dangerous as it can get, especially to bystanders - is very genuine and sincere and has lasted centuries. Nandor, for all that he thinks of himself as a ruthless warlord, does actually care for others and looks out for them. Even the truly bizarre energy vampire Colin Robinson will take steps to try and make sure his roommates are okay, even if he can't resist feeding on their energy at the same time. Whether it's accidentally murdering their monstrous sire, having bad orgies (and then reveling in shameful batsex afterwards), getting judged by celebrity vampires, learning that their souls live a separate existence to their undead bodies, being threatened by an Internet chainmail scam, jerked off by witches looking to mass produce youth potions, running the local vampire council into the ground, bothering Scott Bakula, having an existential crisis about heliocentrism, or going on the run over an incredibly small debt (seriously, watch the Jackie Daytona episode, it's incredible!), the show just continues to deliver delightful comedy episode after episode, year after year. There's also an endless series of very welcome guest stars: Tilda Swinton, Mark Hamill, Batista, Wesley Snipes, Donal Logue, Paul Reubens, David Cross and more besides. That the show is as good as it is, and keeps up that high quality even after Waititi and Clement stopped actively writing for the show, isn't just a surprise but a goddamn miracle.  12. Fargo (2014, 2015, 2017 & 2020): There have been other entries on this (very long) list where I mentioned shows that fell off from a very good season and how it hurt the way I looked at them as a whole. Fargo is remarkable in that fully half of its run I'd classify as being okay on average and only good at best... but the other half, holy poo poo the other half. While seasons 3 and 4 were a letdown (not bad, necessarily, just a letdown), seasons 1 and 2 remain of such a high quality that I couldn't bear to put the show any lower on the list than this. And the crazy thing about that? Season 1 is exceptionally good, one of the best shows to air that year and one of the best seasons of the decade... and it wasn't as good as Season 2. Aiming to recapture the feel of the 1996 Coen Brothers film, Noah Hawley nailed this best in season 1 before he made an even superior follow-up in season 2. The first is set in the modern day, telling the story of a terrifying hitman (Billy Bob Thornton) of seemingly supernatural, perhaps even biblical, prowess who decides to play with his meals for a bit creating a chain reaction of events including most prominently the development of a monstrously egotistical Lester Nygaard (wonderfully portrayed by Martin Freeman), but also the ascension of Deputy Molly Solverson (Allison Tolman) as she seeks to solve the murders only she can (be bothered to) see the connections between. But while the first season was excellent (Lester orchestrating a case of mistaken identity just to test a theory is one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen on television) it is overshadowed by the sensational season 2. Set in the late 70s and featuring Patrick Wilson as Lou Solverson (father of Molly), it details the chaos that ensues when a beautician (Kristen Dunst) accidentally hits a man with her car and simply drives on home with the body on the trunk, too shocked to actually think to stop, convincing her husband (Jesse Plemons) to help her cover it up. Involving a crime family whose Patriarch has been knocked out of the game by a stroke causing a tug of war for ascendancy between the eldest son (Jeffrey Donovan) and his mother (Jean Smart), it spirals out into an attempt by a Kansas City crime syndicate to take control in the chaos, spearheaded (eventually) by Mike Milligan (Bokeem Woodbine, who is incredible) while the terrifying Hanzee (Zahn McClarnon) becomes steadily more unhinged by a lifetime of prejudice and bias against him. If all that sounds like a lot... it is! And that's why the season is so good. Because every single episode is just packed with incredible characters, plot developments, shocking turns of events and revelations... and it's all just so easy to follow, so straightforward to understand. It's the best kind of writing, that makes you not realize how much you're taking in because it happens so smoothly that when you get to the line,"It's just a UFO..." it all somehow makes perfect, beautiful sense. Fargo seasons 3 and 4 are... they're fine. Season 1 is excellent television, just tremendous stuff. Fargo Season 2 is sublime, a work of art. God I wanna go watch it again just writing about it.  11. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005 - Ongoing): Some shows work best as a one and done. Some shows wear out their welcome. Some shows keep up the quality a long time and then fall off a cliff. Then there are the outliers, the ones that make no sense because somehow not only do they run for an incredibly long time but they stay great the entire time. In 2005, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia first aired. In 2006, they added Danny Devito to the cast. In 2021, they're still making episodes and they're somehow still absolutely fantastic. There have been 4 US Presidents since the show started. Parks and Recreation, Community, The Office, Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and many, many other shoes started, had their entire run, and finished all between the time Sunny started and today when it is STILL going... and it's STILL funny! Even after all this time, it continually astonishes me with just how incredibly awful and horrible these monstrous people are, aided in part by the fact the actors (3 of whom are the main writers) play up the fact their characters are getting older and straining and struggling to deny this fact which only makes them worse. Somehow the joke hasn't gotten old, the routine hasn't gotten tired, the characters haven't worn out their welcome. This is a Seinfeld where the characters don't even have the benefit of being somewhat successful or charming as they callously wreak havoc in the lives of others, which made their own Seinfeld homage particularly apt. Arguably the show did "peak" during season 7, which is the first season that falls within the 2011-2021 window, because that was the season that featured Fat Mac, a glorious creature too beautiful for our sin-cursed world. Actor/Writer/Creator Rob McElhenney wanted to avoid the usual trope of actors playing poor blue collar workers getting handsomer, healthier and better dressed as seasons progressed due to the actors being in a successful show... so he got superfat while trying to convince the rest of the cast to as well (they, wisely, refused). Then a few years later he got absolutely loving ripped, which he pointed out was far from as enjoyable as getting fat and also represented an unrealistic body goal, purely so he'd be in shape to produce a stunningly beautiful moment that for once stepped aside from the usual comedy and gross-out humor of the show, turning the constant jokes about Mac's homosexuality into an actual serious moment as Mac came out as gay and performed a dance in hopes of reaching his emotionally detached convict father, but did actually reach of all people the disgusting and vile monster that is Frank Reynolds. The show doesn't perform sincere moments like that very often, which is what makes them stand out and remind the viewer that the show's writers/performers are very, very good at what they do. Because outside of these moments, the standard fare is the great enjoyment that comes from watching very stupid, very vile and incredibly selfish people trying to wrap their head around changing societal norms, and figure out how they can try (and almost always fail) to benefit financially, personally, and sexually from it all. They're monsters, and for 15 years they've only gotten worse, and it has been a true treat to watch it happen. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Dec 10, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2021 02:53
|
|
|
 10. Atlanta (2016, 2018): A tremendous showcase of phenomenal writing, direction and acting, Donald Glover's creation is a demonstration of his vast multi-talented ability to be clever, to be funny, to seemingly effortlessly (which takes a LOT of effort!) dance between the serious, the hilarious, the surreal and the absurd. As Earn, a Princeton Dropout who has hit his 30s and realized that simply being the smartest guy in the room isn't going to make him a success, Donald Glover manages to walk the tightrope of showcasing a depressed, frustrated and increasingly panicked young man without making him unlikable or annoying. He's joined by a remarkable supporting cast of characters in Paper Boi, Darius and Vanessa who are far from one-dimensional, and often get entire episodes devoted to their own trials and tribulations as they try to navigate their way through a decidedly unfair world. Schoolteacher Vanessa's efforts to fake her way past a mandatory drug test after casually smoking marijuana is hilarious and has a fantastic payoff that also demonstrates the utter futility and unfairness of the system she is trying to work within. Her brush with fame when she attends a party at Drake's mansion is a hilarious send-up of how more value is put on the facade of success than any substance. Paper Boi's success as a rapper means he's in a better position than most, while also showing how "success" doesn't necessarily mean happiness, as he lethargically continues to work the hustle to maintain a career when it seems like all he really wants to know is hang out at home and chill out. The episode where all he wants to do is get a haircut only to be dragged all over town from one scheme to another is a delight, and like Earn there seems to be an (understandable) underlying anger in Paper Boi who is just fed up with all the bullshit he needs to put up with or hurdle simply to survive, let alone thrive. Then there is Lakeith Stanfield as Darius, an eccentric who is a genius in his own way, seemingly living in his own world, always with some plan in motion that makes perfect sense to him even if to nobody else, who seems to know everybody and be everywhere. There are a vast number of other supporting characters, but these four make up the core of the show, which is beautifully shot and stunningly well directed (Hiro Murai directs the bulk of the episodes). But it is the writing that elevates the show to something phenomenal, and most of the credit for that goes to Donald Glover who is the driving creative force behind the show. Plus, this is a show that made the episode Teddy Perkins, one of the most incredible episodes of any television show this decade, a terrifying horror with the atmosphere of Stanley Kubrick's Shining featuring a Michael Jackson-esque "monster". That's what Atlanta does, it just produces episode after episode that stand out as remarkable achievements in writing, directing and acting as the STANDARD, before hitting you with something absolutely extraordinary like Teddy Perkins. It's an incredible show, just incredible.  9. Chernobyl (2019): Another one-and-done, Chernobyl had a story to tell and it told it and left it at that, and was all the better for it. Yes there are some liberties taken, some characters are combinations of multiple people, some of the events are over-dramatized or shifted about in time for a stronger narrative etc. No show is perfect, and this one wasn't either... but it got drat close. At times a horror film, the series also struck a fine balance between showcasing the contradicting human urges to avoid or redirect blame and also to help others and to do the right thing or even sacrifice oneself for the greater good. It would be foolish to try and claim the show simply condemns or especially endorses either Communism or Capitalism, those are largely irrelevant to the key message of the dangers of the lie. Jared Harris gives a tremendous performance as ever, but the final episode where his Legasov appears as an expert witness at the trial of Dyatlov and delivers a horrifying account of how the accident really happened and who is to "blame" is a masterclass in acting, writing, framing and editing. That is a standout scene, but each of the five episodes is replete with standout scenes, all of them tremendous in unique ways. The first episode showing the immediate aftermath of the explosion is incredible all the way through, and provided the audience with striking and memorable visuals and lines ("3.6 roentgen, not great, not terrible..."). But each episode that followed kept up the incredible quality while exploring different aspects of the efforts to first understand and then contain the disaster. The General driving the dosimeter to get a more accurate reading; the lights going out as volunteers race through heavily radiated water to drain the tunnels; the evacuation of Pripyat; the miners agreeing to dig a tunnel directly underneath the highly radioactive remains of the plant; the extermination of wildlife AND domestic animals; the clearing of the plant's roof by individual Soviets due to the malfunction of robots sent to do the job (because the Government lied about what radiation tolerance they needed to save face); the firefighters clothing being dumped into a pile that to the best of my knowledge remains untouched to this day; the visuals of Legasov's accounting for what exactly happened that day. Then there is Legasov's own fate, shown right at the start of the first episode, and the torment he faces as he (and others) struggle with risking their own futures to tell a truth that may simply be buried anyway. It's a story about the explosion of a nuclear power plant's reaction and the clean-up that followed, but it could be about any disaster, any situation, because the message remains the same: "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later... that debt is paid."  8. Fleabag (2016, 2019): Breaking the fourth wall and/or acknowledging the audience has been a favorite trope of various films and television for a long time, whether taken to the extreme of recognizing the fictional construction of the "world" of the show, or simply having a character share a knowing look with the audience before moving on. Fleabag is full of the latter, including monologues that - while not specifically talking to the audience - make it clear what the inner thoughts of the central character are. That by itself is nothing remarkable, and certainly wouldn't warrant the show's inclusion on this list. But it's what Fleabag does with this concept that makes it something special, adding on to an already extremely impressive list of qualities the show has in its favor. Written by and starring the remarkably talented Phoebe Waller-Bridge, this is the story of a woman (never named), her family, her friends. It is the story of her increasingly desperate efforts not to have to acknowledge all the incredibly painful things that have left her feeling hollowed out, miserable and somehow deserving of unhappiness in spite of her cheerful outer demeanor and delightfully biting sarcasm towards, well... everything!. The audience acts as an outlet for her to express her inner thoughts, whether in words or simply a knowing look, but it becomes increasingly apparent over the two seasons that this inner "truth" is itself yet another coping mechanism, another lie she is telling herself. We get the briefest moments of flashback showing us a truth she simply does not want to remember or deal with, hoping to lose herself in an almost nihilistic pursuit of empty sex rather than open herself up to... well, to anyone. When the truth comes out, it is as devastating as feared, and what we learn as an audience is that we are far from the close confidants we thought: even her own seemingly distant family (particularly her high-strung sister Claire) know more about her deep secrets we do, often referencing them before we know what they are, or serving as the actual source of that information for us rather than Fleabag's own grinning asides sharing her supposedly innermost thoughts with us. But even THAT isn't what is the most remarkable. After a season-and-a-half of Fleabag casually turning mid-conversation to look at or talk to an audience nobody else is aware of, this happens and it's absolutely extraordinary. And the thing of it is.... all that, all I just wrote about... it's only ONE facet of what makes this show so good. There is so, so, so much more to it even than that. Her relationship with her sister, with her father, with her MONSTER of a stepmother (you'll be shocked to learn that Best Actress Oscar winner Olivia Colman is good at this whole acting thing!), her revolting brother-in-law, her various boyfriends, her bank manager even! There's her history with her best friend and the source of her cafe's guinea pig motif. There is the hilarious opening sequence of the first episode leading to an incredible punchline. There is the running subplot of the headless/limbless nude statue she steals that crops up again and again throughout both seasons before we get a stunning piece of information that re-contextualizes the entire storyline. Then there is the enthralling and doomed subplot from season 2 of her infatuation with Andrew Scott's Priest (also unnamed), an infatuation he clearly shares even as his own obvious problems (his alcoholism) are clear for all to see but never outright acknowledged. This leads to an absolutely incredible final scene in the final episode, and seeing Fleabag sadly shake her head at the camera to make it clear she is leaving the audience behind is about as perfect an ending to near as perfect a two seasons of a sensational show as you can get. If you haven't seen this show, you must, it really is as good as everybody says it is.  7. Hannibal (2013 - 2015): How this show existed is bizarre enough, how it was this loving good is a goddamn miracle. Every movie since Silence of the Lambs has been diminishing returns, to the point that most people legitimately have stopped their minds from remembering Hannibal Rising even existed at all. So the fact that Hannibal Lecter was being turned into a television series, and it was going to be on Network Television, and it was going to effectively be a "Case of the week" procedural in the "an eccentric genius helps the police solve crimes" vein was... well, hopes weren't high. But.... it was being made by Bryan Fuller. They cast Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal Lecter (the studio wanted Hugh Grant!), and though they couldn't get the rights to use Clarice Starling there was plenty of content to mine from Red Dragon/Manhunter. Will Graham, lead character of the first book/film, became the series protagonist, played by Hugh Dancy. Even that on paper seemed like the standard NBC fare you might expect: a troubled "genius" who can "see" what the criminals see and think like they think, like seen in scores of other police procedurals. But right from the first episode, it was clear this show - this beautiful, disgusting, wonderful, horrifying show - was something different. Something special. How Fuller took all the standard elements - wisecracking forensic teams, a no-nonsense boss, criminal-of-the-week, copious use of flashbacks, characters literally just giving exposition on how they felt etc, etc - and turned it into something as grotesquely beautiful as this is beyond me. The show was GORGEOUS, the color design, the hyper-focus on the smallest of details, incredibly beautiful sets (Lecter's private practice makes me drool), sensational framing on EVERY shot, all of it just perfect. It wasn't just visually but audibly amazing: the oddball orchestral music was always perfectly placed to enhance the mood of a scene - an episode in which a particularly annoying character sees his life fall apart at Lecter's machinations has music that almost seems to be actively making fun of the character - because there was NOTHING in this show that wasn't meticulously put together. The wardrobe. The incredibly delicious looking food even when we knew significant portions of it were human. The locations. This show was a feast for the senses, even at its most brutal an episode would leave me ravenous for food... delicious food, perfectly presented and laid out to appeal to every sense, to see, to smell, to taste, even to touch. But beneath the style of the show was the substance of the content. Fuller's "criminal of the week" show was very different to most of its peers. Here each criminal served to further the ongoing and over-arching seasonal arcs around Lecter's bemused slow corruption of Will Graham, his fascination with a man whose nature allowed him to "understand" others. The slow "seduction" of Will was equally an example of Lecter's longing for a peer as well as his contempt for the idea that anybody could ever match him. Bored, killing time by giving "use" to the "rude", here was a project for him to sink his teeth into. As Will fell apart, Lecter reveled in it. When Will rallied and turned his attention back onto Lecter, he reveled in that too. Here was a partner, a peer, a rival. The two were essentially a "couple", Will drawn to Lecter even as he was repelled by him, Lecter making a cruel mockery of the relationships he developed: as "father" to Abigail Hobbs (Kacey Rohl), as "husband" to Will, as "friend" to Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), as "patient" to Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson). As the show developed and played with the continuity of the series (and cleverly backdoored in doing a Silence of the Lambs adaptation of sorts anyway), it quickly grew to eclipse in my mind Anthony Hopkins' version of Lecter. That movie remains great, but Hopkins' Lecter was diminished by various follow-up films. Mikkelsen's Lecter? Untouchable. After three seasons of quality beyond my wildest dreams, the show ended about as strongly as it could in spite of essentially being "canceled" before the story was done. If they were to make another season or a movie that could promise to be anywhere near the quality of the individual episodes of this fantastic show, I'd be all over it in a heartbeat. This was a NETWORK TELEVISION SHOW how the hell is that possible!?!  6. Doctor Who (2005 - Ongoing): I've been watching this show most of my life, from replays of old Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker stories through Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, the television movie with Paul McGann and then 9 years of horrifying silence followed by the revival series. The show has hit incredible highs and miserable lows over the last 16 years and 13 seasons, and what was probably the very best season (Season 5) aired just outside of the eligibility for this decade. With that said, even if the show's writing hasn't been the greatest during the Chris Chibnall era (in spite of looking great and having a great lead actor in Jodie Whittaker), it has been that same constant presence as it was during my childhood, and those dizzying highs have more than made up for the awful lows. That's part of the charm of Doctor Who, really, and perhaps a core theme of the series itself: as bad as things get, there can and will inevitably be something better coming the track. Most of this decade was Steven Moffat's, with Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi playing the titular character respectively though David Tennant returned for the (excellent) 50th Anniversary along with the fantastic John Hurt playing a previously unseen incarnation of the Doctor (and we got some Paul McGann too!). The show was probably at its post popular globally during that period, and it wasn't hard to see why. Moffat, for all that he had a set series of tricks he LOVED to reuse in his own writing, also did a great job finding a ton of great writers to produce excellent episodes, whether one-offs or recurring, multi-part stories. There were bad stories too, some real stinkers in fact, but the standard quality level was very high and the very best of Who was the very best of television. Matt Smith was a revelation in the part, playing "a young man put together from memory by a committee of old men", and Peter Capaldi's follow-up as an old rocker-dad whose gleefully cringey antics belied his often calculating machinations worked well in contrast: a man who looked young but knew he was too old, followed by an old man who wanted to keep acting young. Their companions were well-written, interesting, sometimes tragic but always optimistic. Amy, Rory, Clara, Bill, each bought their own energy to the show and had very different dynamics with the Doctor: Imaginary Friend, "the other man", slightly doddery grandfather, professor/teacher etc. Every genre was explored, weird sci-fi ideas and settings were taken advantage of, things got sometimes political (Oxygen is, ironically, a breath of fresh air in its utter disdain for capitalism), the pace was always quick enough to paper over cracks in the plot, and Moffat's love for puzzle box season arcs where everything came together in a cohesive whole continued to make for seasons where everything largely made sense at the end. Since Moffat's exit, Chris Chibnall has tried hard and fallen short, sadly, primarily perhaps because he takes on so much of the writing duties himself when his strengths clearly lie in other aspects of showrunning: he puts together great casts and talented crews, his shows look great, people seem to genuinely like him and like working with him... but his Who scripts are just kinda... good at best, quite bad at worst. His core cast, good as they were individually, were too large and diluted the scripts, making some well fleshed out (Graham) and others barely sketched (Yaz), while he writes the Doctor as oddly passive, a far cry from the proactive types that preceded her. His interest in the minutaie of prior Who history overshadows good work he is doing elsewhere, giving his series an almost navel-gazing feel like it is more interested in exploring the show itself than the world the show is supposed to be presenting - though Jo Martin as an "unknown" Doctor incarnation has been a highlight. It's still an entertaining watch, there are still good episodes (It Takes You Away from Season 11 is fantastic) and Jodie Whittaker clearly has the potential to be an excellent Doctor if she just had the material to sink her teeth into. It's just a shame that Who as a show feels like it has been treading water the last few years, not helped by two of its seasons happening during the COVID era. Up till 2017 this was one of the best shows on television for me, and I'm looking forward to the time when it inevitably will be again. The Doctor always bounces back. Eventually.  5. Mad Men (2007 - 2015): Maybe this is cheating, because due to time constraints and the self-imposed delays between episodes I put on myself as part of my blindwatch thread, only one of the seasons of Mad Men I have watched actually falls into the eligibility criteria for this decade. With that said, that one season (Season 5) was absolutely extraordinary, building perfectly off of all the material that preceded it in the prior 4 seasons. I had to include this show on my poll, not recognizing the quality of Mad Men in a Best of the Decade poll felt like madness, and even with only "one" season seen I couldn't bear to put it any lower on the list than this. Everything I have heard leads me to believe the last two seasons not only kept up that quality but exceeded it, and having seen the four seasons before 5 I see no reason not to expect it to continue to shine. Mad Men is, to put it simply, magnificent. It seems to have been put together with machine precision to produce a series that shows you how the sausage is made while somehow managing to make all the hosed up, self-destructive, self-sabotaging, egotistical and often out-of-touch people who inhabit this world somehow extremely compelling. Ostensibly about the efforts by a comparatively small New York Advertising Agency to build their business during the turbulent decade of the 1960s, it is so much more than that. Advertising is all about the image, about selling an idea to people who want to believe in something. That same need (pathological at times) to present an image affects almost every character in Mad Men to greater or less degree. In season 5 alone we see how achieving everything you ever wanted still won't bring you happiness if you're living a lie or can't be honest with yourself. This is most obvious in the central character of Don Draper, but it is everywhere else: Roger Sterling's divorce after his LSD trip makes him acknowledge the truth; Peggy Olson's wonderful smile as she chooses to walk away from the comfort of SCDP to take control of her life; Joan Harris finally ditching Greg's worthless rear end; Pete Campbell's desperate unhappiness in spite of enormous personal and professional success; Megan Draper pursuing her dream even though she knows it could wreck her relationship with Don; Betty Francis' weight gain as a symptom of an unhappiness she can't understand why she is feeling when she has "won" in every way it is possible to win; Harry Crane's yearning for the excitement of a life he can represent but never live, and thus resentment of the family that have given him a good and loving life; and perhaps most tragically of all Lane Pryce's ultimate resolution of a problem that was completely of his own making, after failing to take advantage of the multiple solutions that were on offer to him. In a show about successful, respected people on the cutting edge of creativity and business, we see the truth all too often behind that image. But it takes great acting and writing to pull that off without making it obvious or hackneyed, and those are two things that Mad Men has in spades. As a period piece the set design, hair & makeup, and costuming is top notch, of course. But it is the quality ensemble cast of actors and the accomplished, confident writers that raise it up to something special. Matthew Weiner's hands are all over almost every script, and while other shows on my list have suffered from a showrunner that wants to write everything, here it pays off (or maybe Weiner's just a credit-hog? I don't know!) in spades. Then, of course, there is Jon Hamm as Don Draper. An extraordinary performance for an extraordinary character. Writing a confident, handsome, debonair, creative genius is one thing... portraying it is something else, and Hamm's Draper is the sun that every other character revolves around. You can buy him as the powerful, authoritative and appealing figure he is meant to be. But that's only one aspect, and where Hamm truly shines is being able to show us this powerful, handsome, perfect man.... and then make it clear that beneath that mask he is paranoid, fearful, self-doubting and convinced that he is nothing but a fraud and one day everybody will finally figure that out. Getting that balancing act right is tough for any actor, but Hamm makes it look effortless... which it definitely wasn't! Everytime Don Draper snaps at somebody or declares some proclamation that is not to be denied, you know that he's trying just as hard to convince himself of what he is saying. He usually succeeds in convincing those he talks to, but rarely does he succeed at convincing himself. Tall, handsome, a millionaire, married to a beautiful and talented wife, respected and lauded by his peers and society at large.... he's also still a scared little boy just waiting for the other shoe to drop and everybody to declare him an imposter and cast him out. If Mad Men had ended at season 5 and never made another episode, I'd probably still have included it on this list just as high, because it really was just that great a "single" season for the decade. One of the best shows on television, with some of the best writers and best actors, and at the forefront of it all was Jon Hamm's Don Draper  4. Breaking Bad (2008 - 2013): I wasn't sure what to expect when I watched the first season of Breaking Bad. It was a show starring "Hal", the dad from Malcolm in the Middle, who was a fun comedic actor but not somebody I figured I could really take seriously in a serious drama. The opening of the first episode with Walt in his underwear on the road had an almost MitM feel to it, and early almost slapstick scenes such as Walt watching Jesse sneak out of a bedroom during a DEA raid (and what from memory was the ONLY nudity in any episode), or even Skyler giving Walt a distracted handjob as his "birthday treat" gave a muddied impression of a show that was aiming for drama but wasn't ever going to quite hit the tone it was going for. Boy was I wrong! Even in that first episode it became apparent that there was something extremely interesting happening here, that there was a bit more to Walt's character than there initially appeared. Even early on, you see small signs of a former life of accomplishment far beyond a depressed High School Chemistry teacher. More importantly, even early on you saw signs of Walt's ego, long buried perhaps but still there, a man who hated what he had become but was so beaten down by life that he'd given up. His cancer diagnosis gives him a recklessness he thought long since gone, he tracks down his old student Jesse who he found out was cooking meth and he makes him an offer: he'll cook the best quality meth Jesse has ever seen so he can make enough money to pay for his treatments (the old joke stands, this is a show that could ONLY be made in America) but more importantly to put aside cash to look after his family when he's gone. So began one of the best shows on television of the 21st Century. All those elements were there in unrefined form: Walt's ego, his belief in his own superiority and seething resentment for those who either didn't see it or in some way "looked down" on him (whether perceived or in reality). But he didn't just flip a switch. Over the course of the show's life, we saw him go from agonizing over causing harm to others to killing (or ordering to be killed) people without a moment's hesitation or remorse. The moral absolutes he once argued with himself against the intellectual debate between killing and not killing were completely absent. It happened gradually, but the signs were there from the start, and what seemed like a show about a beleagured, desperate man just trying to die with some dignity quickly became the story of one of the most monstrous human beings in television history. And the thing is, by Bryan Cranston's performance alone this was a great show... but there was far, far, far more to it than simply Walt. Even characters that started as broad caricatures like Hank - Walt's loud, obnoxious brother-in-law - were quickly revealed to have real depth and substance to them. Cranston's co-star Aaron Paul as Jesse went from an overly confident dumbass to a character people genuinely felt for, somebody who in spite of all his many flaws and stupid mistakes people longed to see change for the better, and whose shifting relationship to Walt in many ways mirrored the audiences' own sympathies. There was Skyler, Walt's wife who seemed at first an emasculating control freak who the audience got mad at for getting in the way of Walt's "cool" crimes, before it at last sunk in for people that she was not only entirely justified to act the way she did even before she knew the truth, but that she was far more sensible and disciplined than Walt ever was. Plus the supporting cast! Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman! Jonathan Banks as Mike! Jesse Plemons as Coupled with fantastic cinematography and an ever escalating (but believable) upping of both the stakes and Walt and Jesse's own reach/influence in the drug underworld, it's no surprise Breaking Bad was so beloved. It wasn't without its flaws of course: sometimes the marriage of comedy and drama didn't entirely sit right. Sometimes the show got a little self-indulgent (season 2's recurring black & white flashforward to the aftermath of a tragedy). It was also clearly a show produced to be watched one episode a time, one season a year: a binge watch makes clear the show's pace wasn't intended to be watched in that way, and almost every episode features some big moment/shock that can get a little exhausting if not spaced out. Ironically, because I missed the start of season 2 I ended up waiting and catching up on the show before the end of the 1st part of the last half-season, and while I loved what I was watching I had to take time between episodes to avoid getting burned out. Despite that, it remains high on my list. Watching the final half season with friends each week was a highlight of those weeks, everybody wanted to get together and see what crazy thing would happen THIS week. It was an extraordinary experience watching this show. Not just because of Bryan Cranston, great as he was, but it is certainly true that I went into the show thinking of him as Hal, and now whenever I catch an episode of Malcolm in the Middle my first thought is,"That's Walt!"  3. The Good Place (2017 - 2020): Much like he did with Parks and Recreation, Michael Schur made a series full of seemingly cynical, awful and in some cases monstrous characters and... made it incredibly wholesome! The Good Place was magnificent from start to finish, with its first season in particular doing an incredible job of never quite letting the audience in on the full story of what was happening (or making them think they knew more than they did) until the spectacular reveal in the Season One finale. But where other shows might have struggled to live up to such a strong first season, The Good Place never let me down over the full 4 seasons as it explored philosophy, ethics, morality and ultimately what purpose there is to our time in the universe. Nailing the landing in an utterly wonderful series finale where they somehow provided an answer that was not only palatable but uplifting AND made perfect sense, this show was a wonder in how it just never let up on the quality and constantly managed to repurpose itself into compelling narratives and continued to make the characters compelling. Even standard television tropes like the romance between Eleanor and Chidi remained fresh, as did characters that might be one-note in any other show, like Mindy, Derek or even Manny Jacinto's Jason. The show had excellent co-stars and supporting characters like Jameela Jamil's Tahani, D'Arcy Carden's Janet, Maya Rudolph as The Judge, Marc Evan Jackson's Shawn, and a whole slew of Good Place and Bad Place inhabitants and various humans added into the mix, each of whom brought their own distinct and hilarious flavor to the mix. Kristen Bell and Ted Danson as arguably the two leads (William Jackson Harper's Chidi by season 3 is probably right up there with them) are great, with both managing to find a fine balance between maintaining the illusion of their own chosen personas and the underlying neuroses, paranoia and selfishness they're constantly battling with. Eleanor's slothful nature and seeming lack of any moral sense of right and wrong makes her perfect for a character who ends up developing into an ethical and highly moral person as a direct result of studying those things in order to hide that she is slothful and lacks any moral sense of right and wrong! Michael as the architect of "The Good Place" and his own growth as a "human" never feels forced or unearned, and the end result of the series where Michael chooses to live as a human with the PERFECT name in order to truly understand the other side is a beautiful choice to wrap up his character. Perhaps, more than anything else, the message I took away from this show is that it is never too late to be a better person, and everybody is capable of change. That's a good message, and a valuable one, with the benefit of being presented in the form of a very, very, very funny show.  2. Better Call Saul (2015 - Present): When I first heard there was a planned spin-off to Breaking Bad that would star Bob Odenkirk's Saul Goodman, I was sceptical in spite of the quality of that series. Sure, Odenkirk was always a fun guy to watch, and Saul was a neat comedic addition to the main cast, but how could you build a show out of that? I expected maybe one to two seasons of Saul involved in silly cases with guests of the week, a subplot about his efforts to help a buddy sell a lasertag place, and then a quick tie in to his first appearance on Breaking Bad to wrap it all up, if it even got that far. Instead, what I got was a show that in many ways exceeds the incredible series that spawned it. A frequently hilarious but also often heartbreaking and extremely tense series about a man named Jimmy McGill bashing his head against the wall of the role society, the law and even his own brother have pigeonholed him in. Odenkirk's Jimmy is a rapidly approaching middle-aged guy who largely "wasted" his youth as a small-time con-man who went by the name Saul Goodman before being saved from prison by his eccentric but highly respected brother Chuck. After years restraining his natural instincts to hustle and con, Jimmy has tried to follow in said brother's footsteps and managed to attain a law degree of his own, which is when his life goes back off the rails. For the first three seasons, perhaps the defining arc of the series is the relatively low-stakes drama of Jimmy's relationship with Chuck, whose genius and highly respected status as a lawyer allows him to get away with indulging in his belief he has electromagnetic hypersensitivity (not a real thing) when anybody else would be classified as suffering from delusion or even mental illness. Chuck's seeming support and defense of Jimmy are exposed as a patronizing, condescending disdain for his brother's abilities and moral compass that he hides behind directing Partner Howard Hamlin (a delightful Patrick Fabian) to vocalize for him. This all builds to one of the most electrifying and satisfying scenes in television history, when Jimmy and Chuck finally go one-on-one in a courtroom to decide whether Jimmy will lose his license to practise law, and it's just so. loving. good. Since then (and beforehand as well) there has been a growing convergence of what is happening in Jimmy's life in the aftermath of Chuck's reaction to this trial, and the wider aspects of drug dealing/cartel involvement in New Mexico. This has featured returning characters from Breaking Bad such as Mike, Nacho, Tuco, Hector, the Cousins, and of course Gustavo Fring. Along with these are new characters, including Lalo (mentioned in one of Saul's first Breaking Bad episodes but never seen) played with delicious relish by Tony Dalton. But while the drug storylines have been very good (if a little divisive for people who just want more Jimmy) where the series has really shined was the creation of the remarkable Kim Wexler, played by the amazing (and criminally underrated) Rhea Seehorn. As first a friend, then lover, and sometimes partner of Jimmy McGill, Kim is an incredible addition to the world of Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. A meticulous researcher with an incredible work ethic, Kim's slow shift from lowly HHM associate to striking out on a partnership with Jimmy to becoming a partner at a high end corporate firm to a passion for pro-bono work has been fascinating to watch. Along the way, she has courted with and reveled in brief dips into Jimmy's old con-man world and found it dangerously alluring. Kim's involvement in Jimmy's life constantly puts her own legal status at risk, as well as her moral compass, but while Jimmy anguishes over this fact, Kim is going in eyes wide open. Never is this better demonstrated than one of the most incredible scenes of the prior season, when Lalo makes an unexpected visit to Jimmy and Kim's apartment to make a dangerous accusation and an off-hand comment by Jimmy makes Kim realize the story he's keeping even from her is about to fall apart unless she does something spectacular. Better Call Saul is one of the most incredible television series airing today, and for the last 5+ years. Whether as a prequel to Breaking Bad or as a show in its own right, it was almost the best show on television this decade. Almost.  1. Twin Peaks (2017): It couldn't be anything else. 27 years after David Lynch left the world reeling with a series that revolutionized television of the time, and 25 years after a film that enraged many for gleefully refusing to answer any of the questions asked by the finale to season 2 (in fact it raised MORE questions), a completely unexpected third season was made. Could it possibly live up to the cult status of the original? Could it recapture the magic feeling that watching weekly episodes of Twin Peaks created for viewers in 1990/91? Was Lynch still the master of the medium he revolutionized, despite the explosion in the quality of prestige television in the quarter century since he deigned to work in it? The answer was a resounding yes. Given almost complete creative freedom by Showtime as part of their bid to showcase their streaming network, Lynch had the opportunity denied him in season 2 when the first season's popularity caused television executives to try and "help" and dragged the middle section of the season down, causing Lynch to leave and only return for the (phenomenal) final few episodes. 18 episodes, commercial free, and Lynch could do whatever he wanted with them, using whatever actors he could get, telling whatever story he wanted in whatever way he wanted to. Like in 1990, what Lynch did in 2017 was to once again vault far past what anybody else in television was doing. Noah Hawley was probably the closest to capturing the strange mix of the surreal and the genuinely dramatic/cinematic flavor so much of Twin Peaks has, particularly in his first season of Legion and second season of Fargo, but even that paled in comparison to what Lynch produced. Most of the original cast returned (sadly Michael Ontkean's Harry Truman did not, the one sour note of the season for me, in spite of Robert Forster doing great as his brother Frank), and plenty of others jumped at the chance to be in the show - Madeline Zima, Michael Cera, Chrysta Bell, Jim Belushi, Tom Sizemore, Naomi Watts, Matthew Lillard, Tim Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Monica Belluci and of course Laura Dern. People weren't entirely sure what to expect, and it certainly wasn't what we got. With breaks for musical performances, characters that appeared for a single scene or episode never to be seen again, various cutaways to seemingly completely unrelated events, people acting in highly over-exaggerated ways, special effects that were often crude or amateurish looking... it would have been easy for this season to be a mess. But it wasn't, oh my God it wasn't. It's... it's so loving good. It's a movie. An 18-hour-movie, and the best movie of the decade to boot in addition to being the best television series. It evokes a mood, a feeling, at times deeply disconcerting but also incredibly uplifting. Even on a first watch when the frustration of Dale Cooper's absence is palpable, the adventures of Dougie Jones - a naive and happy blank slate who mostly just repeats what he last heard - were a delight to watch. The show jumps between locations, from Twin Peaks to South Dakota to Las Vegas to New York, and of course all those "other" places that exist outside of known time or space. Then there is Episode 8, perhaps the greatest episode of television ever made. Words can't even begin to do it justice, it was an episode that left me watching with my jaw hanging I could not believe what I was seeing or how it was making me feel. It's that "feeling" that really is what made The Return hit so strong for me, very rarely has any show ever made me feel as strongly while watching it as this one does. There was 8, of course, for obvious reasons, but also Episode 17, in which we come agonizingly close to seeing as "happy" an ending as one could ever hope for a series like Twin Peak. There is a moment where, in a return to the first episode of the first season, we see Jack Nance's Pete simply walk to his favorite fishing spot and cast his line that had me near tears. It seemed as if Agent Cooper might finally fulfill his goal, and when that is (literally!) ripped away from us it is devastating. Which of course lead to Episode 18, which is likely to be the last Twin Peaks we will ever see. An episode filled with a sense of foreboding, of things being not quite right, but one that also invites the viewer to return to the first episode and watch scenes with a whole new context that - for me at least - made me ponder if I had truly just watched a season of a television series with a beginning, middle and end... or just stepped into a never-ending cycle featuring a character who - since the end of season 2 - has no longer truly existed in time and space as we understand it. Twin Peaks is a series that, in my opinion, openly invites and welcomes this kind of perspective. It doesn't offer any answers... it really isn't interested in those. It shows you events, it offers you points of view, and it leaves it to the viewer to ascribe their own meaning to it. Whether those are right or wrong are irrelevant, in the end, it's the pondering that matters. I can watch the rather adrupt and stunning ending of The Return and feel motivated and uplifted, the "scream" exciting the senses and making me consider what it means, where it is going or might be, what the significance if any there is to "Richard" making his odd stutter-step: is he ready to move into a different reality and try again? Is that his (chosen) fate? To always be the guy who tries to save people? Others may see it in an entirely different way, and that's fine. That's what Twin Peaks does, that is what the Return did. For 18 episodes it fascinated, it drew me in, it enthralled me, it offered me tantalizing glimpses of answers before instead offering new questions. But it also provided closure, it acted as a love letter to characters and storylines from the original series, it acknowledged that darkness existing does not negate the light, but nor does light simply banish darkness. I feel like Lynch showed up after 25+ years to simply demonstrate once again that television can and will lift to greater heights than it has before. That is why, for me, Twin Peaks: The Return was the greatest television show of the decade, and despite how good the other shows on this list were... it wasn't even close. Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Dec 10, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2021 02:53
|
|
|
Sorry for making you scroll all that way on the last page if you didn't push the button to get here!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2021 02:54
|
|
|
Escobarbarian posted:Jerusalem, did you watch Ted Lasso? I haven't, though I have heard it is good. Just didn't have the time to catch up on that. Succession is another one that has gone completely under my radar until hearing a bit about it recently.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2021 21:43
|
|
|
Hell yeah, I was introduced to it by my parents and I figured it would be something I could watch and it would be okay and then I'd move on. I ended up just being entranced by the entire thing, such a beautiful and heartwarming show. I hope more people discover it, it's a hidden treasure all of its own.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2021 23:05
|
|
|
I really would have liked to have included The Deuce on my list, I think I unfairly graded it on a curve because while the final season was very, very good I couldn't help but feel a little let down after the absolutely fantastic season 2. The loss of the pimps was inevitable since that was part of the story they were telling about how they were being crowded out by the growing porn industry and commercialisation of sex work, but it meant losing some really memorable characters - particularly Gbenga Akinnagbe's Larry Brown, who was an absolute highlight of season 2.Escobarbarian posted:it should be The Leftovers because I can only imagine how much you’d love that show I heard people rave so much about that show that a couple of years or so back I settled down ready to enjoy a great show. I... uhh... I hated it. I forced myself through to the end of the first season and just couldn't take it anymore, I detested almost every character outside of Christopher Eccleston's anguished priest and found some of the storyline decisions utterly maddening. I know plenty of people loved it and I'm not saying they're wrong to, just that it was a show I really, really didn't like. 
Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Dec 16, 2021 |
|
#
¿
Dec 16, 2021 04:12
|
|
|
Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:7. Childrens Hospital (Adult Swim; 7 seasons; 2010-2016). This parody of medical dramas like E.R. and Grey’s Anatomy started out as eight-minute “webisodes” that aired during the writers’ strike of 2008, then launched as 15-minute episodes on Adult Swim that got more ambitious and high-concept as the show continued, against all odds. It features so many beloved names in comedy, very few of whom would be considered “stars” or household names, but they were all amazing here, usually playing it completely straight, which made it even funnier. Lake Bell, Erinn Hayes, Ken Marino again, Rob Huebel, Megan Mullally, Henry Winkler, Rob Corddry, and Malin Akerman played the core cast, but some of the recurring characters, like Nick Offerman’s Detective Chance Briggs and co-creator David Wain’s Rabbi Jew McJewJew, filled me with delight whenever they showed back up. And later on, we’d find out that the ”Childrens Hospital” we were watching this whole time was a show within a show, and we’d spend time with the actors playing the characters on that show, which somehow had been running for decades. It all makes sense. Kind of. Or maybe not. But it was brilliant, inspired, chaotic comedy that included everything from direct parodies to slapstick to wordplay to callbacks to gimmick episodes to changes to the entire status quo of the show. Oh yeah, and it was all set in a hospital in Brazil. Which was where they were the entire time. Oh man, I have honestly, legitimately never heard of this show and it sounds fantastic, especially if David Wain is involved. Thanks for making me aware of it  Also, great list!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 23, 2021 04:47
|
|
|
Great list, Rarity.... man that first season of Jessica Jones was so loving great. Like you, I struggled through season 2 and ended up not bothering with season 3, but season 1's quality absolutely cannot be denied. Also, Sex House was great and also lead into the beautiful Lake Dredge Appraisal series which has an utterly incredible final episode.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 23:06
|
|
|
Escobarbarian posted:weeeelllllllll……… This better be a David Tennant impersonation, or else I'll.... have to accept that we have different subjective opinions 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 23:32
|
|
|
Man, yeah True Detective Season 1 was so loving good, 2 was utterly bizarre (and NOT good!) and 3 ended up being solid but by that point the momentum/magic was gone.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2021 23:45
|
|
|
True Detective:Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:I think I liked Season 2 better than most people just because neo-noir is my favorite genre, but it had a decent cast and still wasted so much potential. If it had been a 1950s period piece, I think that would have improved it in every possible way, in most people's estimation -- especially with the closeted veteran motorcycle cop, whose plot ultimately went nowhere. It would have resonated more if he was a World War II veteran. Yeah, the motorcycle cop storyline went nowhere and felt utterly redundant to the entire season, and I kept waiting for the reaction to the,"What if they find out I'm gay?" plotline to be,"Who could possibly give a poo poo?" - it absolutely felt like the character started in a version of a script that was a period piece, then it got updated to the modern day and they forgot to update the character too.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2021 00:01
|
|
|
Yeah, I put it on my list in 2015, it was really good! People you will be shocked to learn that Oscar Isaac is a very good actor!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2021 10:59
|
|
|
Literally had no idea it existed, thanks for making me aware of it!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2022 09:04
|
|
|
Escobarbarian posted:I only have two more entries to write so I am now sure I’ll get it in time for tomorrow night. But jesus, this is exhausting! How do you do it so much, Jerusalem? The trick is to commit yourself to having to do something extremely important and then procrastinating for as long as possible till you can no longer put off doing it... at which point you will be overwhelmed with motivation to instead write up a Ranking list about television shows!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2022 03:48
|
|
|
That's an incredible write-up, Esco, and you correctly picked the right entry for #1 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2022 02:38
|
|
|
Chiming in to say thanks as well for running this, Looten
|
|
#
¿
Jan 11, 2022 22:30
|
|
|
Awesome, eagerly waiting for Tuesday!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2022 00:06
|
|
|
Somebody tell David Wain that Wet Hot American Summer was voted the 248th Best Show of the Decade, he's the kind of guy who might actually put that on a blu-ray cover. 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
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 00:55
|
|
|
BetterLekNextTime posted:Best show I watched last year. It's basically perfect. Awww man, but oh well, you got to watch a wonderful show!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 01:07
|
|
|
I got two questions. 1. Where's the countdown? 2. Gimme the countdown.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:00
|
|
|
Oh man I forgot about Snake Juice  Actually legitimately surprised Parks and Rec is so relatively low.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:17
|
|
|
God that single shot in True Detective was so loving good.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:21
|
|
|
Just for anybody interested in Doctor Who, just to be aware the chosen video was one of the less well-received/liked one of Capaldi's run as the character, in case you watch it and go,"Well he kind of sounds like a piece of poo poo if you think about what he's saying here!"
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:30
|
|
|
Looten Plunder posted:(But, apologies for the selection. Must have been high on the YT recs from hate and not love. drat them removing the dislike button!) Well to be fair, rule one of being a Doctor Who fan is that none of us can agree on anything when it comes to what was good and what was bad! So maybe there are plenty of people who liked it too, I just remember plenty of people (myself included) not really liking the themes of his big speech basically being that the oppressed need to "grow up" and stop expecting people who did monstrous things to them to deserve consequences for their actions, and work with them (to basically recreate the same status quo as before!). Still a great performance by Capaldi regardless.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:36
|
|
|
I've never really been all that into musicals, is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend enjoyable otherwise or does that have to be your type of thing to get anything out of it?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:48
|
|
|
I gotta watch more Taskmaster, first time I saw an episode I ended up binging an entire season, but I haven't gone back to watch anymore. It's fantastic but deeply addicting.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:54
|
|
|
 choice of video for Legion, absolutely the best scene of Season 3.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 03:57
|
|
|
Looten Plunder posted:Jesus, for a show that polled so well, you people don't have a lot of positive things to say about it. Confused Non-Mandolorian Watcher: How come people liked that show so much? Every Mandalorian fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGeEAAlQdNQ&t=44s
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 04:04
|
|
|
God I hope Hannibal ever gets to return in some form, everybody who was involved with the show wants to do it, let Bryan Fuller make his cannibal/FBI profiler gay romance horror movie goddammit!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 04:13
|
|
|
Seeing such incredible quality shows not even making the Top 10 is really hammering home that goddamn there was some great television this decade!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 04:41
|
|
|
Always Sunny makes the Top 10, hell yes! Atlanta missed out, hell no! Only a six point difference, too!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 04:50
|
|
|
Watching Charlie and Mac beat the poo poo out of those kids never gets old 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 04:54
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 9, 2024 22:09 |
|
|
Genuinely surprised but pleased that GOT placed so high - it was REALLY loving good for a long time before it poo poo the bed!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2022 04:55
|
|