My All-Time Favorite Shows

I talk a lot about TV shows on this blog, but I just realized I haven't actually given a list of my all-time favorite TV shows.  I haven't listed TV shows that are my favorite purely from a personal enjoyment standard.  This is a show that is on TV and I'll stop what I'm doing and watch it.  

As I write this, I don't have a specific number in mind of how many I'll list so it could be anywhere from five TV shows to 20.  There's also no order, rhyme, or reason why I pick these shows.  It's not necessarily based on the best quality either.  So literally you cannot disagree with me on these shows as I have defined my list.

So with all that said, I would like some commentary on if my favorite TV show list is respectable, shameful, or whatever.  Then feel free to point me to your favorite and I'll see if I plan to watch or need to pay attention to.

Friends
Aired: 1994-2004
10 Seasons: 238 Episodes

This show needs no introduction.  Even if you weren't paying attention when this show aired, re-runs are on several different channels every week.  You've probably seen an episode or two or 10 or 100.

This was the first show I really watched.  I burned through this show with my sister six episodes at a time until finally we realize we should pace ourselves.  Then we re-watched it.  Several times.  The number of times I've seen this show makes it impossible for me to a put a number on it, however I'm sure I've seen the equivalent of well over 1,000 episodes.

This show consistently made me laugh and it still does.  Re-watching the episodes does not make the laughs any less harder or the show diminish somehow.  The characters were so well realized and so well written.  The creators knew what was funny for each character.  Chandler was an easy character to make funny since he's funny in the show, but Monica's obsession with cleanliness, Ross' bad luck in everything, Joey's dimwittedness, Pheobe's wackiness, or Rachel's cluelessness (at first), the show had a reliable humor machine for each of the characters.

Take characters you know well and like and put them in weird and funny situations and you have Friends.  It's funny, but that's how you make a successful sitcom.

The show does have flaws, namely nobody is overweight, nobody is unattractive (though this is TV), and seemingly nobody in that universe is anything other than white.  Also, the show could be described as "safe," as in it took basically zero risks. (Monica and Chandler could be construed as a risk.  It's hard not to use hindsight to know they just worked as a couple though)  The basic outline of every episode is the same.  Lastly, Ross and Rachel drama was hilariously stretched as thin as possible.  Most cliffhangers at the end of the season showed Ross and Rachel possibly getting together, only for a super convenient way to back out of that when the next season aired.

Most of those things don't actually bother me. (The lack of diversity is disturbing though)  But I realize how it technically is a fault of the show.  Anyway, I've rambled on enough about this show.  I plan to write episode recaps in the future on this show so I have plenty more to write!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Aired: 1997-2003
7 Seasons: 145 Episodes

I only just finished this show in December last year and I feel confident in saying this is one of my favorite shows.  A good barometer on how much I love a show is probably how much I want to write about it.  I am planning to write about this show a lot in the future, detailing the quality of each season.  Yeah, my outlet is writing because nobody I know will watch this show (except one!) so I can't talk about it ever.

This could be a bit more difficult to talk about.  If for some reason, someone somewhere decides to watch this show based on this recommendation, well I choose to avoid spoilers.  Also, I bet almost none of the people reading this have seen the show so that wouldn't matter anyway!

The character of Buffy Summers, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar (sure everyone at least knows that), was fully realized from the beginning.  Her character arc is the most consistent over the seven seasons, with each representing her growth as a person.

In fact, I say this to anyone who I recommend the show to, Season 1 was terrible.  Not all of it was bad.   Like I said, Buffy's character was the only consistent part of the show and she was truly a three-dimensional character from the start.  Willow, played by HIMYM star Alyson Hanigan, and Xander were not.  They became awesome characters, but in the first season they get little to work with.

Granted, I'd say watch Season 1 if you have patience, because around half of the episodes are good.  They become worse with hindsight, but some of the episodes are actually good on first viewing.  If you have no patience, start with Season 2, though you may be a bit confused.  That's what you get for not being patient!

Seasons 2 and 3 have some of the best television I have ever seen.  It doesn't reach those heights after those seasons, but there are some amazing episodes such as The Body, Hush, and Once More with Feeling (a musical episode).

Breaking Bad
Aired: 2008-2013
5 Seasons: 62 Episodes

As of now, I'm conflicted on whether to do an episode reaction for Season 5 Part 2 episodes in the summer.  It's not something I do on this blog, but I think I'll make an exception.

This show is actually kind of hard to write about since I think anyone who has read this blog has seen the show.  The transformation of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman's characters has been remarkable.  If you told me in the beginning of this show that by the end I'd be rooting against Walt, well I'd have thought the show took a bad turn (I mean in quality) somewhere.  But it has not.

I had a whole paragraph written out and then I realized for anyone who hasn't watched Season 5, there were huge massive spoilers in there.  For the two people that read this that haven't caught up to Breaking Bad, I'm thinking of you.

I mean I got nothing else since I'm not writing any spoilers here.

The Wire
Aired: 2002-2008
5 Seasons: 60 Episodes

The best television show of all time.  When I first watched The Wire, there wasn't a show I had ever seen like it.  And I doubt there ever will be.  People who've never seen The Wire are surely skeptical, but try to find someone who has seen The Wire and thought it was alright, because those people don't exist.  I mean people who have seen the show, not people who've seen the first few episodes and gave up.

The first episode doesn't do a whole lot to soothe you in.  It acts like you've known these characters, drops in a million of them, and then by the end of the episode, you're not totally sure what happened.  You know how in a pilot episode, shows typically introduce the idea of the show and the characters and have characters saying stuff they already know just for the audience?  Well that doesn't exist in this show.

I promise that whatever the plot point it is, it leads to somewhere.  Almost nothing that happens is irrelevant.  In addition to entertainment value, the show makes these ambitious themes about modern America.  Institutions prevent change, the decay of the American working class, the ineffectiveness of the drug war, how the system consistently fails inner-city kids, the corruption of the government and the slow death of the newspaper.

Buy the entire series on Amazon if you have the money.  If you don't, buy it anyway and then sell it back once you've finished the series.  That's what I did.  Although I have been dying to re-watch the show and kind of want to buy it again.

That 70's Show
Aired: 1998-2006
8 Seasons: 201 Episodes

I think the remarkable thing about this show is that many of the actors in this show got their start here.  Topher Grace (Eric), Milas Kunis (Jackie), Ashton Kutcher (Kelso), Wilmer Valderama (Fez), and Laura Prepon (Donna) had never been in a credited role before this show.  Most of them were 20-years-old or younger with the youngest being Milas at 15-years-old (14-years-old probably when it was filmed).

The most experienced was Danny Masterson (Hyde) who had guest starred in a bunch of TV shows such as Roseanne, NYPD Blue, Party of Five, and Cybill plus had appeared in The Faculty as Fuck Up #1.  Actually most successful TV shows have careers very similar to Masterson's.  Lots of guest roles just waiting for the their big shot.

I think playing high school kids as a first time actor isn't terribly difficult, which is probably why this was successful.  I mean most of these actors were still kids.  Ashton Kutcher couldn't really act in this, but he didn't really need to.  With probably the exception of Milas and Wilmer, they were basically just playing themselves.

Kurtwood Smith (Red) is one of the best parts about this show.  Apparently they originally offered this role to Chuck Norris.  Thank God that didn't happen.  Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty) plays the seemingly normal, but actually crazy alcoholic mother really well.

This show just got a bunch of talented people together (discovered most of them) and wrote a funny script.  I don't think it's a mistake that all of these actors have had good success after this show.

Honorable Mentions
I guess that's it.  A few shows I debated with myself quite a bit about putting on here.  I'm going on pure feeling here and these shows just didn't feel like my favorite.   I got no other explanation.  Again, this isn't about quality.  Actually a few of these shows would probably be on the best ever list of their genre.

Friday Night Lights
I love this show.  This doesn't feel like a favorite show of mine if that makes any sense so I couldn't put it up there.  This could change.  I could re-watch it, appreciate it more, and then constantly want to re-watch it until it finally lands there.  I mean Friends, That 70's Show, and Breaking Bad were all more appreciated after they were re-watched.

But for now, it gets a strong honorable mention.

Archer
This is more of a length problem.  It's one of my favorite shows without a doubt that is currently airing. I feel weird putting it up on my favorites list with having seen only two seasons.  If it keeps up the quality that the first two seasons provided, then this will no doubt make its way up to my favorites.  I'm pretty confident it can pull off the job.

Game of Thrones
Copy that last paragraph and put it here.  This show has been phenomenal, but the show is geared towards a conclusion that hasn't been filmed.  It's pretty impossible as well to say this is my favorite as well because this next season is the first that deviates from the book.  Will it keep up the quality when it has to come up with semi-original content?

Shows that I appreciate but won't ever be my favorite
Mad Men
Man I really do respect this show and know it's well made and love watching it.  But what kind of favorite show has few memorable episodes?  The episodes all mix and mangle and I can rarely remember specific episodes that blew me out of the water.  From a critical standpoint, I appreciate the attention to detail, the characters' consistency, and the time period.  It'll always be on my best of list, but not my favorites.

Arrested Development
This is way different than Mad Men.  I find this funny, I laugh out loud more than most shows, and the witty and joke a second all works for me.  I like Archer more strangely even though I'll admit this was a better show (for now).  I feel like I just don't get it the way hardcore fans of this show do though.  I find it to be a great comedy, but I feel like I'm slightly missing something here.

Louie
In a sentence, this show is too depressing for it to be a favorite show of mine.  The show's outlook on life is entertaining, but not something I'll want to re-watch a lot.

That takes care of my favorite TV shows.  This spot was originally going to review Zero Hour until I found out that it was terrible and about evil Nazi clocks.  I don't like hate-watching TV like some people.

Next post: The supernatural section of my TV shows.