The Best of TV: Qualifying Round • Page 2

The expanse
The wire
Parks and recreation
30 rock
Justified
Brooklyn 99
Rectify
Deadwood
Avatar the last Airbender
Star wars clone wars
Star wars rebels
Boy meets world
Bojack horseman
Scrubs
It's always sunny in Philadelphia
Fresh prince of Bel air
Giri/haji
Veep
The good place
Mad men

 

No particular order...

Veep
Barry*
Superstore
Bob's Burgers*
The OC
Boy Meets World
New Girl
The Leftovers
The Magicians
X-Files
Watchmen
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Mr. Robot
Succession*
Lost
For All Mankind*
Ted Lasso*
Schitt's Creek
BoJack Horseman

*still airing, but including on the quality of what's been produced thus far

I go to a lot of these shows for very different things/with very different definitions of quality. But... that's kind of the beauty of television. A prestige drama and a weekly comedy don't have to operate in the same realms to still be excellent in their forms. It just creates a really weird dichotomy where you'd have to compare like... Bob's Burgers to Breaking Bad.

A decently-sized blindspot of mine is that I've started Mad Men, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Americans... and have yet to get any further than somewhere in the middle of season one on all of them. None of those shows are all that enticing to watch in the middle of depression waves, and that's when I've tried most of those.

You're the Worst, Brooklyn 99, Parks and Rec, The Office, Community, Station Eleven, West Wing, and The Newsroom all probably make my list at different points in time. I've watched all of Twin Peaks (including The Return) and it is... highkey not for my entertainment sensibilities. House of Cards got docked for Kevin Spacey being what he is AND that terrible final season, but for a long time it was some of my favorite television when new seasons dropped. Squid Games' final episode keeps it from being in the running for me. There's a laundry list of Netflix shows that I've loved, but aren't quite there for me such as Stranger Things, Mindhunter, Elite, Arcane, etc. Amazon has quite a few I like, too--Invincible and Upload, in particular--but they've only had a season each. Hulu has Normal People, but that's about it for Hulu properties I think about after finishing.

 

Arcane was so good and if we get another strong season or two that would definitely make my top 20.

 

I gotta bump something for New Girl. Bad oversight there.

 

It didn’t make my list but the first 3-4 seasons of Vikings were surprisingly very good, and if it wasn’t for the truly horrible seasons after that I might put it above more popular shows of that type like Game of Thrones. There were some really intricate themes and powerful moments that I wasn’t expecting. The scene where Ragnar is mourning the death of his daughter was about as touching as anything I’ve seen.

 

Mines gonna be like 90% comedy

 

Yeah I love that first half of Vikings. Pretty close to making my list. I really love The Last Kingdom too.

 

The Simpsons
Seinfeld
The Sopranos
Mad Men
Curb Your Enthusiasm
You’re the Worst
The Wire
Jeopardy
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The Real World Challenge
Justified
Friday Night Lights
Nathan For You
Happy Endings
Tales From the Crypt
Oz
Chappelle’s Show
The Critic
Detroiters
Cheap Seats

 

Mad men
Friday night lights
Lost
Succession
The Chris gethard show
You’re the worst
The leftovers
Fleabag
Parks and Rec
High maintenance
Atlanta
The Americans
The simpsons
Twin Peaks
Arrested Development
Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
The Wire
Watchmen
Halt and catch fire

 

Separate list of my favorite reality tv of all time because I’m a weirdo:

Vanderpump Rules
Big brother
Survivor
Below deck
The bachelor/ette
Terrace house
Jersey shore
Project runway
Real housewives NYC
Laguna beach/the hills
Real housewives Bev Hills
Dating Around
Siesta key
Selling sunset
Million dollar listing NY
The circle
Summer house
Southern charm
Are you the one
Shark tank

 

I'll list mine tomorrow while i'm at work, there are going to be some real tough decisions the further down the road we get

 

Early gut feeling is the office us is going to go a lot further than our lists so far would imply

 

Let's hope not.

 

Mad Men
Sopranos
Breaking Bad
Lost
Better Call Saul
Friday Night Lights
Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Grounded For Life
Real World
Real World Challenge
Entourage


Hm that's all I got now, i'm bad at recalling for lists and rankings.

 

none of the nbc comedies have held up particularly well to rewatch. 30 rock probably best of the bunch

 

Wrong. Community, 30 Rock, and The Office are still great.

The one that’s slipped a little is Parks, but it’s not really the show’s fault. The jokes are still good, but it feels weirdly naive now that we live in political hell 24/7. Plus the presence of Aziz and Pratt is less fun now.

 

oh okay if you say so

 

In no particular order

1. Game of Thrones
2. The Leftovers
3. All In The Family
4. I Love Lucy
5. Breaking Bad
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm
7. The Walking Dead
8. Hey Arnold!
9. South Park
10. Boy Meets World
11. The Wonder Years
12. Friends
13. Veep
14. Scrubs
15. The Office
16. Stranger Things
17. Key & Peele
18. Doug (Nick)
19. Rugrats
20. The Jeffersons

left off a couple of obvious ones that will be getting in to get more names out there. Hard to stop at 20 tbh, some other older shows deserve to be on there (Three’s Company comes to mind), also wanted to get X-Files on there too but assumed someone else would. Felt weird about putting Succession on there with it still early, and also felt weird about miniseries like Watchmen. Put Walking Dead on there mostly for the longevity and getting a serious (and sometimes good!) zombie show on tv. Wanted to get some childhood cartoons that had big cultural impacts on a generation and/or have had huge sticking power like Rugrats

Also wasn’t sure what to do with shows like Jeopardy, The Daily Show, Colbert Report, SNL, etc. All probably belong in the convo but wasn’t sure if those kinds of shows count lol

 

Oh, add Sesame Street to that “don’t know what to do with it” part

 

Superstore

 

The Sopranos
Seinfeld
Mad Men
The Wire
Bojack Horseman
Superstore
New Girl
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Cowboy Bebop
Chernobyl
Veep
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Good Place
What We Do in the Shadows
Brooklyn 99
Futurama
Friday Night Lights
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
LOST

 

The Sopranos
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Nathan For You
Trailer Park Boys
The Simpsons
The Shield
BoJack Horseman
Seinfeld
The Larry Sanders Show
Jeopardy
Fargo
Arrested Development
The Tom Green Show
Beavis and Butthead
How To With John Wilson
Better Off Ted
Party Down


Gonna go ahead and post this - I'll probably edit it and add a few more as I remember

 

Community has held up perfectly imo. Parks feels like it’s from a different time (or at least a more naive time for me) and The Office was never good after season 3 sooo

 

I've been rewatching The Office recently and loving it. I actually like seasons 4/5 more than I did when the first time. Lots of great stuff in those seasons.

 

It's more or less the same quality throughout its run