I’ve missed a lot of good shows over the years. And I hear they’re good but I’m not sure I’m up for getting into a show that’s already on year 4 unless it’s really really that good.
My question is, what shows would you recommend to others that have already been on more than say 2 seasons even if they are starting at the beginning?
Parks and Rec, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men (this show seems to be very polarizing , so either people love it or they don’t).
Supernatural. The first half of season 1 is a little rough as it starts simply as monster-of-the-week. But once it gets the mythology established, it fires on all cylinders until the end of season 5. Season 6 wobbles a bit as they try to figure out where to go after the finale of season 5, but about half way through it catches on again much like season 1 did and it’s been great up until where it’s at now nearing the end of season 7.
Three shows I always recommend to my friends are The Shield, The Wire, and Breaking Bad.
I utterly devoured the first two seasons of Archer on Netflix a couple of weeks back.
Yes. Archer is amazing. I’m up on that show.
I also have watched every episode of Merlin which, admittedly, is fairly crappy. If it’s Sci-Fi, fantasy, I have pretty low standards.
Dexter is one I picked up lately. Also, Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, Sopranos, Community, Weeds, 30 Rock, Justified and Arrested Development.
I’m strting to think that i watch too much TV. Seems like quality shows are holding my interest moreso than movies these days.
Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Shameless and Louie.
I totally watch way too much TV.
Totally this, plus Justified, Community and Archer.
So I pretty much stopped watching Supernatural in the middle of Season 1 when it became awesome…
Sigh.
Other than those already mentioned, Cougar Town and Happy Endings are both great comedies, if you can forgive the first 5 episodes, or so, of each.
I’m also in the middle of a Jericho rewatch and rediscovering how amazing that show was. It only lasted for about 30 episodes, unfortunately, but did get some closure.
What better reason to return to it now that you know?! ;-)
Limmy’s Show is a Scottish comedy show that most of you will probably hate because it’s basically tonally it’s a Scottish version of Tim and Eric. But here is a sketch from it anyway.
Fringe
You really gotta watch Breaking Bad. I gave up partway through Season 1, came back to it last year and got caught up. It’s probably the finest thing on television right now.
Even if a show has been on multiple seasons, I try not to let that stop me from starting it, otherwise there would be several great shows that I would never get to experience at all. Some shows are worth it even if you may only have time to watch the first season or two. (And if it’s really that good, you won’t mind going on to watch more seasons after that.)
For example, Dexter has been on for several seasons, but you could still have a solid experience just watching seasons 1 and 2 before moving on to something else.
I recommend Friday Night Lights to everyone, unless they’re the sort of people who need a lot of edge or cynicism in their shows. Yes, it’s basically a high school soap opera, but–BIG but–the characters and situations are realistically drawn (99% of them), there is a lot of excellent acting, and the show is not afraid to let bad things happen to the characters you love. There are shows that are as well done as FNI, but none that I know of that are as consistently well done, through to the end.
(Oh, and you can watch the whole thing from beginning to end at your own pace because the show is over after, I think, 5 seasons.)
The Wire is the best television show ever made and everyone should watch it. It’s massively entertaining, funny, touching and exciting on an episode-to-episode level which makes it a pleasure to watch. The action is so disparate, the characters are so believable and yet larger-than-life that the show works as a sprawling epic that puts HBO’s Game of Thrones to shame. The sociology examining the drug war, corruption, the media and politics make one see Western society in a new way and the portrayal of the nature of institutions is both deeply disturbing and perfectly plausible. It is an absolute masterpiece of both form and content. You should definitely watch it.
Breaking Bad is a tense, stylish, dark character drama about a man who is played and written absolutely perfectly. Extremely dark, claustrophobic, and cynical but cathartic and strangely empowering, too. If the wire is a masterpiece for the rational mind, Breaking Bad is a masterpiece for the lizard brain. Not even over yet, so the best may well be yet to come.
My favourite comedy right now is Archer - a unique visual style and the great H Jon Benjamin make it easy to recognize this cartoon and the nonstop jokes and callbacks and references make it hard to not laugh all the way through. I included a clip because, really, that should explain it. Gets better with every episode you watch. Definitely recommend starting from the beginning.
Flugh. Okay. Strap in.
Breaking Bad - Probably the best show currently in production. About 70% drug-related suspense story to 30% dark comedy. AMC, first four seasons are in the bag, next season will be the last, broken into two parts, and start this summer. Con - you’re not really supposed to “like” many of the characters.
Justified - Close runner up for maybe the best show currently in production. Modern western set in Kentucky, on FX. First three seasons are in the can and it’s renewed for a fourth.
Louie - Easily the best half hour program, but maybe not the best half hour comedy. Caveat - it can be kind of a downer from time to time. Two seasons done on FX with a third coming up in the summer.
Archer - Easily the funniest comedy, though it is exceptionally jokey. Three seasons done on FX and a fourth coming up at some point (presumably Winter 2013).
Mad Men - Extremely high quality program - has the same likeability issue as Breaking Bad for some people. Soap opera in the truest sense of the word (there is absolutely no genre or procedural element to this show), but don’t read that as a bad thing. Four seasons in the bag from AMC with a fifth currently airing.
Game of Thrones - Extremely affecting, well done overall, but just brace yourself for remarkable amounts of callous brutality without any justice in the near term. Medieval sort of middle-fantasy (low in the first season, but it will steadily increase as it goes) on HBO with one season done and a second airing now.
American Horror Story - This is not a good show by any stretch of the imagination (the entire thing is basically turned up to 11), but it is audacious as hell and sort of ridiculously addictive. One season on FX with another coming this fall, and all of them are going to be closed, self-contained stories.
Bob’s Burgers - First season was pretty okay, but the second season has dialed into the parts of the show that were the funniest. Animated comedy in Fox’s Sunday block with one season done and the second airing now.
The Legend of Korra - See below; this recommendation gets complicated.
Community - Archer’s competition for best comedy. Slightly less jokey, much better assembled. Fuck them for making me cry during the Imaginarium episode, but, still, that’s some damn good programming. Two seasons done with a third airing right now on NBC and most of the gossip has a fourth likely at this point.
Homeland - Modern espionage thriller on Showtime. Much more excellent than I thought it would be going in. Tense, with some action. One season done, second one coming up later this year (presumably paired with Dexter again).
Venturing outside of what’s currently on the air…
Supernatural - Specifically, seasons 1 - 5. It’s not that it got bad after 5, but it was among the best on television that year. It’s still on the air, but I don’t think it’s ever going to hit the same high it did then. Genre show.
Terriers - One season, closes well, maybe my favorite show ever. Modern noir, from FX, and I think it’s on Netflix.
Avatar: The Last Airbender - There’s, like, one outfit that does all ages visual programming any more, and Pixar only does movies. That said, this show right here is just about as close to a perfect all ages show as you could hope for. The story is continued in the successor series Legend of Korra, but you should start here for the full context. Three seasons for Avatar and they’re in the middle of the first season of Korra on Nickelodeon.
Dexter - Season 1 and 2, specifically. A sort of genre-adjacent show about a serial killer who kills killers serially and maintains a normal life on the side. First two seasons were exceptional, but it started to slide after that. You could extend the recommendation out to 5 to catch the John Lithgow bit, but 6 was…entirely ridiculous.
I have a small army of stuff that I would recommend just under these ones, but they all have more significant conditions on them (i.e. Breakout Kings is good in an old television sort of way, Lost is good if you can live with a somewhat controversial ending, same for BSG, etc.).
Brian’s above (well done and easy to agree with) post reminds me of something.
FUCK YOU FX for killing TERRIERS.
Sad sigh.
I wouldn’t hesitate to add Fringe, which I thought was interesting in Season one and has become much watch for me along with Justified. I’d also add New Girl, which I can’t get enough of.