OT: Top TV shows all time
Stole this from the BCS thread below and want to hear more opinions. I separate dramas and comedies.
Dramas:
1. The Wire
1a. Breaking Bad
1b. The Sopranos
4. Game of Thrones
Honorable Mention: Better Call Saul, Sons of Anarchy, Dexter.
Comedies:
1. Seinfeld
2. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
3. Curb your enthusiasm
4. The Office.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:10 PM ^
Totally agree with The Americans—I even rewatched it last winter while recovering from foot surgery and it holds up well.
Also loved Justified, Sopranos, Ozark, and The Wire. Mad Men and Band of Brothers would be up there too.
Comedies? I don’t watch them. Hardly laugh anymore. World is a heavy place these days. Give me grit and grime that mirrors my internal experience please.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:10 PM ^
I'm surprised I had to scroll so far to see someone mention Succession. It's one of the best shows of modern television. Also have to mention Barry as Bill Hader gives some of the gutsiest performances I've ever seen. Honorable mention for Avatar the Last Airbender; yeah it's kids' show, but some of the more dramatic story arcs can be completely heart-wrenching and Zuko is one of the greatest redemption stories ever. Also have to shoutout Ted Lasso; I don’t think it’s amongst the best of the best as TV shows go, but it’s got plenty of hilarious bits, wonderful performances, and tackles some real issues with genuine care.
August 11th, 2022 at 12:02 AM ^
By modern do you mean the last 5ish years? If so I agree it's up there. Doesn't quite stack up to legends like Breaking Bad though.
August 10th, 2022 at 2:23 PM ^
Letterkenny is fantastic especially for people living near Canada who've seen some of those elements. I went to a city school in Michigan and "cutting" (insulting each other) was everyone's favorite past time including your mother jokes. Despite being a different culture Letterkenny captures that as well as any show I've seen.
The show does seem pretty played out, but the first half dozen seasons were pretty brilliant.
August 10th, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^
Man, I love "What we do in the shadows".
August 10th, 2022 at 11:14 AM ^
I agree with most of your list but never saw Sons of Anarchy and the ending of Dexter was SO bad. The quasi reboot was pretty good but nothing will top the Trinity Killer storyline
- 30 Rock
- Seinfeld
- Fleabag
- Arrested Development (mostly seasons 1-3 but the newer seasons were not AS bad as people made them out to be)
- Futurama
I want to add The Simpsons but they hurt their legacy by going on for too long past the expiration date.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:42 PM ^
First mention of Fleabag.
Though earlier I mentioned the recency bias of the list and, implicitly, many of the comments, I'd add this recent show of only two seasons as one of the best.
Maybe it's because I also saw it as her original one-person show, impressing me how she managed to take what was essentially a long and very funny/sad monologue and turn it into a television series.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:17 AM ^
Dramas
1. Breaking Bad
2. Better Call Saul
3. Righteous Gemstones
Comedies
1. BoJack Horseman
2. It's always Sunny
3. Archer (1st 5 seasons)
4. Trailer Park Boys (1st 6 seasons)
5. Eastbound and down
6. Moral Orel
August 10th, 2022 at 11:30 AM ^
I would consider Righteous Gemstones a comedy. But that's just me.
August 10th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
Archer is brilliant.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
Dramas:
1. Sopranos
2. Yellowstone
3. Breaking Bad
Comedies:
1. Seinfeld (by far)
2. Andy Griffith
3. Cheers
August 10th, 2022 at 12:27 PM ^
Man I forgot about Yellowstone. That would make my honorable mention group. But I’ve only seen the first 3 seasons.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:22 AM ^
The 80s were really an incredible and underrated decade for police/detective series:
- Magnum PI
- The Fall Guy
- TJ Hooker
- Remington Steel
- Hill Street Blues
I don't know if any of these rank as "all-time greats" (except maybe Magnum PI) but they were damn good shows. Cable and now streaming services are able to do things now that just were unthinkable back then.
There are a lot of great foreign TV series streaming right now as well.
Babylon Berlin (Germany), Trapped (Iceland), and Fauda (Israel) are three of my favorite series streaming right now.
Braquo and Spiral were two amazing French police series. Braquo was fucking nuts (in a good way).
August 10th, 2022 at 2:51 PM ^
Second on Magnum PI. Sadly, Roger E Mosley, who played helicopter pilot TC, died this week from serious injuries sustained in a car crash. He was 83.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:23 AM ^
I am watching Game of Thrones again right now again. It is overrated. I overrated it myself for a long time. It has some incredible moments but from episode to episode it is a trudge through long weeds.
Top 5 TV dramas -
1. Breaking Bad
2. The Leftovers
3. Hannibal
4. Rectify
5. Deadwood
The Wire and The Sapranos are both very good but I don't feel about them the way a lot of other people do.
Better Call Saul was as high as 3 only three weeks ago. IMO this has been a lackluster final stretch though and it has played its way out.
As far as comedy, the list begins and ends with Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:18 PM ^
Hannibal!!!
August 10th, 2022 at 4:25 PM ^
Glad to see you mentioned The Leftovers and Rectify. Two great dramas. I forgot about Hannibal. Mads Mikkelsen is awesome as Hannibal.
August 10th, 2022 at 5:54 PM ^
Almost forgot about Hannibal!!! What a show!!!!
August 10th, 2022 at 11:23 AM ^
In no particular order...
Rescue Me
The Americans
Cheers
The Golden Girls
All in the Family
Hill Street Blues
China Beach
Roseanne
St. Elsewhere
The X Files
EDIT: almost forgot my very favorite show of all-time...
Taxi.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:24 AM ^
Dramas:
1. The Sopranos
2. Sons of Anarchy
3. The Last Kingdom
4. Better Call Saul
Comedy:
1. Seinfeld
2. King of Queens
3. The Andy Griffith Show
4. The Office
August 11th, 2022 at 8:16 AM ^
The Last Kingdom is suprisingly good. I've never heard anyone talk about it though.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:25 AM ^
Dramas...
1. The Sopranos
1a. Breaking Bad
2. The Wire
3. GOT if not for ending probably 1
HM: Better Call Saul/Mad Men
Comedy...
1. Family Guy
2. Curb your enthusiasm
3. Seinfeld
4. Always Sunny
5. Office
HM: Brooklyn 99
August 10th, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
I don't know how many people here have even heard of this series, but if you're interested in the WWII era, A French Village is a really fascinating depiction of the lives of civilians in occupied (and then liberated) France, who are continually faced with difficult choices as they try to get by day to day. (A caution: there are some intense and graphic moments.)
August 10th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
A French Village was a really great series. If you liked that, you would probably also like Generations War (also some intense and graphic moments).
From Amazon: "Valor, courage, and betrayal come to the fore in this remarkable epic that shows the everyday realities of wartime life from a deeply personal perspective. Billed as a German Band of Brothers, Generation War vividly depicts the lives of five young German friends forced to navigate the unconscionable moral compromises of life under Hitler"
August 10th, 2022 at 12:51 PM ^
Definitely not a TV show but you might be interested in This Land Is Mine. Filmed during World War II, it's set in a French village, showing the lives of civilians in occupied France, starring Charles Laughton as a cowardly school teacher.
Since the pandemic, I've regularly watched old movies (silents to 1970), which has been fascinating. Some are eminently missable, some are interesting for period details (bold women characters of the 20s-30s gave way to 1950s docility; shots of old NYC), but some are revelations.
So is Charles Laughton. I'd always considered him a funny-looking old ham but damn that guy could act. This movie, This Land of Mine, moved me.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:29 AM ^
No particular order but:
- The Simpsons
- The Office
- Friends
- Seinfeld
- The Wire
- Cheers
- Breaking Bad
- Batman the Animated Series
- The West Wing
- ER
- House MD
- Bojack Horseman
August 10th, 2022 at 11:32 AM ^
ER actually gets better as it ages. It becomes evident how transformative that show was. Also, the number of careers it started and shaped is staggering.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:23 PM ^
Huge up vote for Batman The Animated Series. Just found it new on bluray for 25 bucks recently.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:34 PM ^
For my money the best superhero-comic-to-screen translation we've seen.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:52 PM ^
I agree 100%. To this day my favorite episode is Almost Got Him
August 10th, 2022 at 4:56 PM ^
kind of a different category, but I do love the Watchmen series that came out on HBO a few years back
August 10th, 2022 at 4:53 PM ^
New Harley Quinn is very different but very fun
August 10th, 2022 at 11:33 AM ^
A couple of shows I would add to my list are:
The Newsoom - The opening soliloquy by Jeff Daniels is a TV classic.
I also enjoyed Broadchurch,
Another British series that was very good is Bodyguard (not the movie).
There is a whole list of interesting shows under the Water Presents banner from PBS/Masterpiece. Some are German, French, or Italian.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:11 PM ^
I watched that soliloquy by Daniels on the Newsroom again recently. I have to say I found it really weird this time. He is oddly aggressive toward a young woman, and it just comes across as literally anti-American rather than ironical or insightfully critical. It is the kind of rant where you find yourself wanting to "geez, than why do you still live here?" 10 years ago I found it insightful. Now it is like going back and reading what you wrote in somebody else's yearbook in the 10th grade.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:58 PM ^
It's far from an anti-American rant. Unfortunately most American's don't get the opportunity to see the rest of the world. If they did it would be more like Jack Nicholson shouting "You can't handle the truth".
One of my favorite sayings of all time is from Mark Twain. 'Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.'
I have been fortunate due to work and leisure travel to have visited over 70 countries around the world. I have seen how the wealthiest and the poorest live both here and abroad. I don't want to live in any other country. I have also met many people who would never want to live here.
August 10th, 2022 at 2:42 PM ^
Ok. But why is the character so angry?
August 10th, 2022 at 9:20 PM ^
I didn't watch the show but I've seen the soliloquy. Based on that, he's probably so angry for the same reasons I'm often angry: Because we're better than this. And we should be better than this.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:34 AM ^
In no particular order:
West Wing
Lost
Cosby Show (yes I know it’s tainted because of Bill, but the show itself was the best family show ever)
Breaking Bad
X Files
Deadliest Catch (it was groundbreaking, and it is bonafide reality TV, not made up BS)
Walking Dead
Party of Five
August 10th, 2022 at 1:16 PM ^
I loved the first three seasons of Walking Dead, but after that it just got really repetitive and I couldn't stick with it anymore. I stopped watching probably a half season or so after Negan showed up.
Must still be really popular, because they're still making spin-offs about it, although what new stories there are to tell that won't seem like re-hashes, I don't know.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:34 AM ^
college football
August 10th, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
College Football as drama or comedy?
August 10th, 2022 at 11:35 AM ^
Honorable mention for comedies:
-Workaholics
-Eastbound and Down
August 10th, 2022 at 11:38 AM ^
Drama:
Breaking Bad
The Wire
The Americans
Comedy:
M*A*S*H
Cheers
Simpsons -- I haven't watched in 15 years and yet it is so pervasive in society that it has to be included.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:39 AM ^
I've seen Breaking Bad off this list. It was pretty good except the stupid MacGuffins about healthcare not being covered (by government employees!), that was used not once, but twice.
I made it through 4 seasons of Dexter before the stupidity of his sister finally irritated me enough to stop watching it.
The others I tried to watch a couple episodes because people kept telling me how great they were, but I thought they were either terrible or stupid, or both.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:17 PM ^
I don't think it is somehow ridiculous to assume that an employer, even a government employer, wouldn't offer unlimited medical coverage at any provider. It was made clear that Walt had insurance that had a deductible and a limit. Hank was on an HMO and went both outside of it for a provider and above it for the number of treatments. Neither of these seem implausible even for workplace injuries. He could have (and likely did) file an SSI/disability claim but that would not be a fortune and wouldn't cover anything he wanted.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^
Agree with much of the above. I like Cheers in the late 80's. Mash for the even older crowd.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:46 AM ^
Let's open up BBC sitcoms as a category then -
Five very good ones, in no particular order:
- "The Fall & Rise Of Reginald Perrin"; I consider this to be one of the most incisive shows ever written in comedic form
- "The Good Life"; about a couple that turns their suburban property into a self-sustaining farm, much to the dismay of their neighbors
- "Only Fools And Horses"; basically about scrap dealers and their misadventures
- "Yes, Minister" (and it's quasi-spinoff "Yes, Prime Minister"); political satire that actually is applicable here to some extent
- "Father Ted"; don't watch this one if you're religious in a serious way, but hilarious all throughout
August 10th, 2022 at 12:37 PM ^
Yes, Minister is one that I can watch all the time. That was just amazing comedy.
August 10th, 2022 at 2:03 PM ^
I'm a preacher and I love Father Ted. Fun fact is that the dimwitted priest on the show, Arlon O'Hanlon, was a DI for 2-3 seasons on Death in Paradise.