…that I’ve seen.
I love TV (and lists), so I decided to really get to the nitty and
gritty of my favorite series of all time. That is, my favorite TV series
that I’ve seen and only from 2000 and onward, because while the
original Doctor Who might be a tour-de-force of brilliance and
originality, I’ve never seen it and it’s plainly too outdated for me to
care at this point. I’ll take your word for it, though.
Anyway, if you’re here you’re probably bored and looking to start a
war with me over what constitutes a good show. So, without further
adieu:
10. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Best episodes: E04 An Alchemist’s Anguish, E47 Emissary of Darkness, E61 He Who would Swallow God
Best character: King Bradley
It’s rare for me to get into a show from the very first episode, much
less the first few minutes or so of watching it. And that’s still the
case with
Fullmetal Alchemist, a show I reluctantly started because one of my exes couldn’t stop putting it on a pedestal at the summit of Mt. Everest.
I’ve never been a huge fan of anime in general either, except for
when I was younger and watching muscle-y alien men charge up their powers
for 27 episodes (
Dragon Ball Z, looking at you) seemed to
really get me worked up. Of course, when you grow older, shows like
Dragon Ball Z and Rugrats are only enjoyable for their nostalgia once
you realize how stupid you were when you were too high on
Surge to pay
any real attention.
Fullmetal Alchemist is the sole reason that I started giving
anime another shot. I’ve Netflix’d quite a few since my re-entry into
the vast genre, but even since I was a child, I’ve never see an animated
show so wildly original and captivating without pandering to the ADD in
me. The story starts off (somewhat) simply enough, with two brothers
who engage in “alchemy” attempt to bring back their dead mother,
resulting in one brother’s soul being trapped in a suit of armor for
eternity and the other losing an arm and a leg in the process. The plot
revolves around them trying to restore their bodies and unlocking the
true potential of alchemy by chasing a macguffin, a “philosopher’s
stone.”
That’s the breakdown, but when you get multiple episodes in and start
meeting other characters, the show truly starts to shine. Every single
character (and there’s plenty) is multidimensional, their goals and
ambitions explained, none of whom are traditionally “evil” or “good.” My
reason for loving the show is because it doesn’t fall to some more
conventional anime gimmicks that would turn most people off, but instead
gives us an original setting and storyline with incredibly layered
characters with suspense at every turn and absolutely STUNNING
animation.
Fullmetal Alchemist is great for the anime-lovers and just plain tv-lovers in general, providing the thrills and laughs of any outstanding tv show.
You should watch if: you like anime, OR if you don’t. If you like a
great plot with multiple characters, solid themes and beautiful
animation, definitely watch
Fullmetal Alchemist (both versions).
9. The Walking Dead
Best episodes: S2E11 Judge, Jury, Executioner, S3E3 Walk with Me, S3E13 Arrow on the Doorpost
Best character: Hershel Greene
The Walking Dead is a show that has polarized its audience.
It’s half soap-opera, half zombie massacre. People expecting more of one
over the other seemed to be turned off; however, it has certainly
picked up steam over the years as can be observed by the
16.1 million viewers
for the premiere of season 4. I like to describe the show as an intense
character drama where zombies just so happen to be co-existing.
I’ll be honest, the first season took a long time to hook me in. So
long, in fact, that it didn’t hook me at all. I fell into that group
that expected more zombie madness than “RICK CAN NEVER KNOW,” followed
by crying. I watched two episodes, thought it was neat, then read the
synopsis of the season on Wikipedia. Then I heard people talking about
how incredible it had gotten and I was floored; I kept saying “really?
That show?” How shallow of me, I guess. I started Season 2 being a little lost, but slowly started to understand why
The Walking Dead
was so great: its characters. Yes, the show had great pacing, build-up
and tongue-in-cheek humor here and there, but I started to really hate a
lot of people. The Walking Dead, much like Game of Thrones, leaves no
character safe from very abrupt murder. The end of season 2 gave me a
very satisfying death in one of my most hated characters, but that was
the whole point.
It’s very good at keeping you torn on people; one second, you’ll eat
cereal out of their bath water knowing they are pure and perfect, the
next… well, you’ll want to drown them because
oh my god what the fuck are you thinking? While you may not agree with things,
The Walking Dead
puts this alternate future-reality in a grim-yet-realistic scope, and
you find yourself pulling your hair out disagreeing yet understanding a
lot of the characters’ decisions. It’s one of the few things on TV
you’ll find yourself having a one-sided conversation with, other than a
sports game… I guess. I don’t know, I don’t keep up with sports.
You should watch if: you’re looking for a deep drama that poses challenging scenarios in an alternate modern-day reality.
8. Modern Family
Best episodes: S1E16 Fears, S2E7 Chirp, S4E11 New Year’s Eve, S5E12 Under Pressure
Best character: Claire Dunphy
Ah yes, a comedy about the trials and tribulations of every day
family life in three different-yet-connected households. What a gold
mine of societal commentary!
And indeed it is;
Modern Family has one of the most boring
show titles in the history of anything, and while the seemingly normal
premise might seem cute for a few episodes, you’ll get hooked on the
inner workings of the Pritchett family. Three different sub-groups of
the American family are shown: the traditional family (2 parents, 3
children of differing ages), the non-traditional family (woman and man
both divorced then re-married, step-son, ethnic, old man with young
woman), and the
very non-traditional family (gay male couple, adopted Vietnamese child).
The show certainly took some risks with the gay-centric family, but
it also pulls it off fantastically, pulling humor from easier, typical
gay jokes AND ALSO from the sarcastic indifference towards them. Every
actor gives outstanding performances, with characters like Claire, Jay
and Mitchell showing their affinity for perfect comedic timing. Each one
is so varied and different, and considering the show is an ensemble
piece about 10 main characters each getting significant screen time,
that’s no easy feat. They somehow made a middle-child character
archetype just as interesting as everyone else. The show draws most of
its humor from simple, every day nuisances and how the quirky
personalities of each family member responds to them; each episode also
has three separate plots that each tie into eachother and have a common
theme among them, usually with some sort of heart-warming message
accompanied by guitar. What’s not to love?
You should watch if: you love a good comedy that tries to progress
society’s standards and if you can relate to bad relationships with
in-laws and annoying smoke detectors.
7. Community
Best episodes: S1E23 Modern Warfare, S2E19 Critical Film Studies, S3E6 Advanced Gay, S3E20 Digital Estate Planning
Best character: The Greendale Human Being
You would think a show about a bunch of school rejects at community college would be funny. And you would be right.
But you wouldn’t expect how deep and detailed such a show could
be, and that’s where you’d need to hop off that high horse and start
riding the humble donkey because
Community is a show that
demands you take it at more than face value. At its core, it’s a comedy,
a sitcom without a laugh track where its characters get into ludicrous
and hilarious predicaments, but the first season makes you think it’s
all about Greendale Community College and its hijinks; it’s not, and
once you see the secret garden episode or the paintball episodes, you’ll
discover that
Community makes a name for itself and
differentiates itself from other network comedies by being weird,
original and critical of other genres.
It parodies action movies, old-school sitcoms, horror films,
documentaries, B-movies and everything else you can imagine. While its
being funny, it’s providing smart commentary on a range of subjects and
the entertainment industry as a whole, and you won’t even realize you’re
forming an opinion while watching “Trey and Abed in the Morning!”
Community was such a delightful surprise of a show and
continues to be suspenseful, hilarious and heartfelt all at the same
time. For a TV show, that’s hard, especially for one that shamefully
lost its showrunner for a whole season before bringing him back. Its
characters are so diverse and retain their own brand of comedy and the
storylines are always so much more intricate than what you first expect.
Also, Joel McHale’s body…
You should watch if: You’re sick of typical sitcoms and you’re ready for something to turn your view of TV and film on its head.
6. Parks & Recreation
Best episodes: S2E24 Freddy Spaghetti, S3E11 Jerry’s Painting, S4E6 End of the World
Best character: Ron Swanson
If you’ve seen
The Office, chances are you’ve at least heard of
Parks & Recreation, a show that exists in its spirit and soul. Similarly, the show retains a lot of what made
The Office great: handy-cam,
cinema verite cinematic approach, varied characters, juxtaposition of the mundane worklife against zany antics, etc. But
Parks learned from any of the mistakes
The Office made, which is why it replaces it on my list of the best shows because it’s essentially
The Office 2.0.
It follows the story of Leslie Knope, head of the Parks &
Recreation department at her local government office of Pawnee, Indiana.
The show starts by following her lead a rag-tag group of ill-informed
government employees from the pop culture-obsessed, materialistic Tom to
the apathetic, lazy intern April. Although one of the real stars here
is Ron, Leslie’s boss, a man who prides himself on being riggedly
conservative in social values and a man who doesn’t take shit from
anybody. But like many of my favorite shows, each character isn’t just a
two-sided coin, but rather they evolved into Rubik’s cubes, each having
multiple values and reasons for those values. They each also add their
own flavor of humor to the show, and I’m honestly beyond impressed with
how varied each character is. Other than focusing primarily on Leslie,
you could argue that
Parks & Recreation is a pseudo-ensemble with the other characters getting their fair share of attention and screen time.
You should watch if: you enjoyed
The Office, love Amy Poehler and love making fun of the government.
5. Lost
Best episodes: S1E1 Pilot, S3E22 Through the Looking Glass, S5E3 Jughead, S5E12 Dead is Dead
Best character: John Locke
Other than reigniting my passionate love for peanut butter,
Lost is probably the show that got me hooked onto the ‘serialized drama.’
Lost
was ambitious from the very beginning, setting up LOTS of questions
that people still make fun of to this day, almost 4 years after it ended
(seriously, polar bears, am I right?). At its core, the show is about a
group of people who crash land onto an island and have to survive. It’s
like that Tom Hanks movie but there’s no volleyballs. Oh, but you’d be a
fool to think the show was JUST about being stranded on a desert
island, wouldn’t you?
You would, because the show tackles more thematic elements that I
could shake a hatch door at: religion, time travel, physics, cults,
medicine, societal hierarchy, life and death and existence itself.
There’s plenty more, but each of those could be made into their own
9-season show BY THEMSELVES. Many people criticized the show for
spreading itself too thin with all these different angles, and I can’t
entirely disagree with them. After the 2nd season, the show started
playing with more advanced ideas (like time travel and teleportation)
and it all started to feel more and more gimmicky. Perhaps it was; but I
admire the show for pulling in all these different ideas and evolving
the base concept into far, far more; something that people still argue
and debate over
today (again, 4 years after its end).
The show kept you guessing in every single episode, and you started to have things like
movie tie-in conspiracies. People (including myself) would stay up all night rattling my brain, and my thoughts usually went something like
"Wait,
if he made the plane crash, then how did she- oh right, isn’t on the
island. But that guy’s dad is, or is he an illusion? Or is he alive? And
if he is, what does he want with the peanut butter chick? OMG SHE
SPEAKS ENGLISH?!"
You should watch if: you don’t already know major spoilers and love
being a detective for 6 seasons and, also, you love deep conversations
about existence and God.
4. Archer
Best episodes: S1 E5 Honeypot,S1E10 Dial M for Mother, S2E10 El Secuestro, S3E8 El Scandolo
Best character: Mallory Archer
Anything that strikes me as inappropriate and
non-water-cooler-friendly immediately grabs my attention because I like
to make sure I alienate as many co-workers as possible.
Archer is the kind of show that has that kind of humor. Lampooning James Bond and Mission: Impossible-style thriller movies and shows,
Archer
retains silly cartoon banter and slapstick while still sticking to its
roots. Sterling Archer works for his mother, Mallory at a CIA-style
super-intelligence facility called ISIS. Sterling, along with his
on-again off-again love interest Lana and a team of scientists,
accountants and receptionists are tasked with assassinating political
leaders, busting drug networks and taking care of an ocelot.
The show works primarily well because of all the long-running jokes.
While certain plot points carry over episode-to-episode, it wouldn’t be
necessary to follow the show in chronological order except for how most
of the humor works. One-liners are funny on their own, but the real
gut-busting comes from referencing a joke from season 1 in season 3.
Many of the jokes are inside jokes, with no set-up or real way to
explain it to a friend (should you have any) without having them see the
episode for themselves. Yes, you’ll be “that person” that tries to
explain a “had-to-be-there” moment if no one else has experienced
Archer,
and it’s incredibly difficult to pinpoint what works so well about this
style of comedy. The animation is also usually very static, so combine
the minimal movement of someone like Sterling with his over-the-top
delivery and you’ve got a winning combination of originality. It’s as if
the show includes you in its circle of friends and only then will you
begin to understand why everyone should be its friend.
You should watch if: you love big action set-pieces, sexy characters,
ocelots, androids, nudity and perfectly timed banter among selfish
people who don’t know how to do their jobs.
3. Arrested Development
Best episodes: S1E2 Top Banana, S1E13 Beef Consomme, S2E16 Meet the Veals
Best characters: Lucille Bluth
A more perfectly-crafted comedy never existed.
Arrested Development revolves
around a family who owns a real estate company known as the Bluth
Company and how absolutely crazily and idiotically each member treats
the multi-million dollar establishment. Save for Michael Bluth, the
show’s primary protagonist, each character seems to suffer from some
sort of social deficiency that results in each of them leading their
lives astray from logic. Michael is tasked with keeping the company, and
the family, together, but is tested to his absolute limits in nearly
every episode. Much like Archer, the shows truly shines when it
references things from other episodes, future episodes and even things
in the same episode that may or may not have happened yet. There exists a
ridiculous amount of foreshadowing, allusion and puns/word play that it
would be easy to completely miss over half the jokes throughout your
first viewing.
Yes,
first.
Arrested Development warrants
at least 2 or 3 views of its 4-season run because, after having watched
it 3 times or so now, I STILL find references and jokes that I never
caught before. Once you start blue-ing your mind with all the
foreshadowed events, you’ll see why the show is so masterfully created
and written. The humor often informs the plot rather than just being
funny asides, such as the mistaken Spanish for “Hermano” or the way the
devilish matriarch treats her children. Things evolve out of the jokes,
and too many comedies don’t understand how difficult and appreciated
that can be.
You should watch if: you love dysfunctional families and playing with
the English language (and appreciate a show you can re-watch
unabashedly).
2. Breaking Bad
Best episodes: Every
Best character: Walter White
I hate to build upon the hype because that often ruins things for people, but
Breaking Bad is
one of the very few things in the world that simply cannot be
over-hyped. Okay, maybe it DOESN’T have fire-breathing tigers and
machine-gun-laden dinosaurs, but it falls just short of those things in
the “awesome” factor. In case you were recently born within the past
day,
Breaking Bad is a story about a high school chemistry
teacher-turned meth badass who starts dealing so he can make money for
his family once he dies of cancer and finishes dealing because, well, he
is the one who knocks.
This is the ultimate anti-hero/redemption story, though. Writing a good character is hard; writing characters
this good
is near-impossible, but here you have a set of characters who shock you
with every move but aren’t unbelievable. The story is always so tightly
told, with every loose end tied up in a perfect drug-laced bow,
characters who act within their own parameters and pacing that never
feels too fast or too slow. The writers seemed to have worked so
methodically, even the tiniest details you never thought would be
important turned out to be
REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT.
Breaking Bad pushed the boundaries of cable television and
introduced a character we needed to hate, but couldn’t. Throughout the
shows 5-season run, we grew up with Walter White, seeing him evolve (or,
devolve, rather) and we can’t entirely blame him for how many events
play out. Characters carry true weight, and when one dies, it strikes a
powerful chord. And let’s not forget the dark, dark,
dark humor the show uses as both very slight dramatic relief but also as points of “..can I laugh at that?”
You should watch if: you like TV. At all. If you’re a fan of good writing and an exceptional dual-life redemption story,
Breaking Bad is for you.
1. Futurama
Best episodes: S3E4 The Luck of the
Fryrish, S5E18 The Devil’s Hands are Idle Playthings, S6E7 The Late
Philip J. Fry, S7E10 The Prisoner of Benda, S10E10 Game of Tones, S10E12 Meanwhile
Best character: Professor Farnsworth
You’ve made it to my #1 TV show of all time. Congratulations!
You do care! …Or you skipped just to see the list instead of reading my
reasons, which is fine, whatever,
you’re a cunt.
If the tragedy and comedy masks had a child,
Futurama would
be that mask. The show is hilarious and smart, albeit pandering to the
5-year-old in our hearts at times. And I don’t just mean smart like
“what a great twist that was,” I mean this is the show that
made up and proved its own mathematical theorem. Yeah, it’s that kind of smart.
But to reference my allusion to the masks earlier,
Futurama is like
The Simpsons or
Family Guy
if those shows could make you cry. Episodes like the infamous,
heart-wrenching, SERIOUSLY HAVE TISSUES READY “Jurassic Bark” all deftly
mix humor with serious heart, and it’s when you watch these episodes
that you realize that
Futurama is something special. It’s far
more than butt jokes and slapstick; it has pitch-perfect commentary on
everything from politics and technology to big business and religion.
It’s the rare show that you can enjoy with your brain at low power or
maximum power, being able to grab your attention with its bright colors
and special effect and then hold it with it big, scientific words and
explanations. While the setting has plenty of holes in logic, the year
3000 still feels real and tangible. The show is phenomenal at butchering
other shows and genres and despite how far out it is, still remains
relatable. Fry’s undying love for Leela never gets old, and by the end
of season 9, you’re going to realize why.
You should watch if: you have a heart
and a sense of humor.
TV-obsessed,
Kyle
