The Best of TV: Qualifying Round

There Will Be Blood is now objectively the greatest film of all time, so what about TV?

Doing TV by year can be unruly, with seasons stretching across multiple years and some shows even airing multiple seasons within a year. Instead, we will do a qualifying round.

What are your top twenty TV shows of all time?

Everything is worth 1 point each. The top 64 will enter the bracket. We will keep this open for one week.

 

My twenty:

1. Strangers with Candy
2. Larry Sanders Show
3. Seinfeld
4. Simpsons
5. The Office (UK)
6. Extras
7. The Sopranos
8. The Wire
9. Deadwood
10. Twin Peaks
11. Mad Men
12. Friday Night Lights
13. Bojack Horseman
14. John from Cincinnati
15. Carnivale
16. Eastbound and Down
17. The Shield
18. Justified
19. Nathan for You
20. Curb Your Enthusiasm

 

Veep and South Park were close.

 

This is so hard. I'm breaking it into 10 dramas and 10 comedies - obviously there is some blurring of genres, especially between "comedies" like Bojack, Atlanta, and Barry, but whatever.

Dramas:

1. The Sopranos
2. The Wire
3. Deadwood
4. Mad Men
5. Breaking Bad
6. Twin Peaks
7. The Shield
8. The Leftovers
9. Freaks and Geeks
10. Friday Night Lights

Comedies:

1. The Simpsons
2. Seinfeld
3. Arrested Development
4. Bojack Horseman
5. Atlanta
6. The Office (US)
7. Curb Your Enthusiasm
8. 30 Rock
9. Community
10. Barry

 

1. Scrubs
2. Breaking Bad
3. Spartacus
4. Curb Your Enthusiasm
5. Mr Robot
6. You're the Worst
7. Twin Peaks
8. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
9. Black Mirror
10. Nathan for You
11. Peep Show
12. Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
13. Girls
14. Fleabag
15. Catastrophe
16. Lost
17. Pen15
18. Extras
19. Game of Thrones
20. The Sopranos

Super hard to try and narrow this to 20 as there's so much stuff I love and it's hard to compare shows with a lot of seasons to ones with only a few but this is the 20 I like the most as of right now I guess.. Didn't include any anime because that would just make it way harder and it feels like a whole different thing.

 

Not in any order

Sopranos
Better Call Saul
Breaking Bad
Bob's Burgers
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Seinfeld
Twin Peaks
Hannibal
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
The Leftovers
Veep
Futurama
Community
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Review (US)
Archer
The Good Place
Nathan For You
Dragon Ball Z
The Eric Andre Show

 

I have had to amend my list a couple times because I forgot so much. I don't have a mental map of them the way I do for movies.

 

gonna break it up by comedy and drama too

drama:
1. sopranos
2. the leftovers
3. the wire
4. mad men
5. justified
6. the twilight zone
7. deadwood
8. band of brothers
9. succession
10. breaking bad

comedies:
1. seinfeld
2. the simpsons
3. curb your enthusiasm
4. eastbound and down
5. it’s always sunny in philadelphia
6. atlanta
7. chappelle show
8. the larry sanders show
9. jackass
10. veep

 

Mine is gonna be like 90% anime

 

Maybe I'll do top 32 comedies and top 32 dramas and let them meet in the final.

 

i like that

 

So this is scripted and unscripted?

 

Yes.

 

drama:

twin peaks
the wire
the sopranos
true detective
the twilight zone
lost
breaking bad
better call saul
carnivale
freaks and geeks

comedy:
trailer park boys
party down
jackass
eastbound and down
the office
south park
the inbetweeners
the increasingly poor decisions of todd margaret
seinfeld
beavis and butthead

 

the sopranos
lost
breaking bad
mad men
the leftovers
scrubs
the simpsons
parks & recreation
bobs burgers
the office
its always sunny in philadelphia
succession
better caul saul
friends
veep
game of thrones
south park
family guy
atlanta
true detective

 

i need to finally fucking watch The Wire

 

This is what I keep telling myself about The Sopranos.

 

I debated whether I should include some of these because they won't get enough points anyways, but whatever. I also decided on only shows that are no longer airing. This is my honest top 20:

Veronica Mars
Lost
The Wire
Mad Men
Friday Night Lights
E.R.
Friends
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Dragon Ball Z
Sailor Moon
Parks & Recreation
Firefly
Freaks & Geeks
Gilmore Girls
Jeopardy
Impractical Jokers
The Challenge
The Good Wife
Deadwood

 

David Simon's Twitter and sociological views on law enforcement have made The Wire less essential. The Sopranos, however, seems to get better every year, despite what The Many Saints of Newark tried to sully.

 

The Sopranos
The Americans
The Golden Girls
Deadwood
Fleabag
In Treatment
Twin Peaks
Lost
Futurama
The Twilight Zone
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Boy Meets World
Taskmaster
QI
What’s My Line?
Broadchurch
United States of Tara
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Dark
What We Do in the Shadows

I may have to mess with this a bit, I can already think of easily a dozen others ghag would fit just as easily. I tried to not pick limited series options, otherwise I would very likely have put Fosse/Verdon, Scenes from a Marriage, Fanny and Alexander, Face to Face, Sharp Objects, or Wanderlust. May need to make a whole separate list from that category for fun. Also had a hard time trying to figure out something like the Degrassi universe which means a lot to me but encompasses a bunch of different shows and levels of quality.

 

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Rectify
Mr. Robot
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
Fargo
BoJack Horseman
Twin Peaks
Seinfeld
Veep
Mad Men
The Americans
Succession
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Succession
Community
Fleabag
You're the Worst
Review
The Leftovers

 

What’s the feeling on single season series/miniseries made for television? They feel different (see: Watchmen), but then also fit here I think?

Also, just noticed this and was able to sticky it. Same nudge offer as last time if you need it, @Morrissey.

 

They definitely fit in. Watchmen was in consideration for me for sure.

 

Bojack Horseman
Mad Men
Community
Nathan for You
Daria
The Twilight Zone
The Simpsons
Seinfeld
The Leftovers
Friday Night Lights
South Park
Party Down
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
I Think You Should Leave
Six Feet Under
Girls
Freaks and Geeks
New Girl
Parks and Recreation
Enlightened

 

No particular order

1. The Sopranos
2. The Wire
3. Deadwood
4. Mad Men
5. Twin Peaks (including The Return)
6. The Shield
7. Six Feet Under
8. Treme
9. The Simpsons
10. Battlestar Gallactica
11. The Twilight Zone (original)
12. Justified
13. John from Cincinnati
14. Friday Night Lights
15. Cheers
16. Frasier
17. Firefly
18. South Park
19. Dragon Ball Z
20. Curb Your Enthusiasm

it was really hard to leave off Black Mirror, Extras, Fargo, and The Leftovers. The Americans was close too. Some obvious ones I cheated on like Seinfeld and Breaking Bad because I know those will make it. Dragon Ball Z ran as a series so it made it different from anime, there are better animes out there though.