I think I saw that @wumpus was already watching it, but ‘Halt and Catch Fire’ probably wouldn’t make a best-of list but it has a lot to recommend to people who grew up through the early tech booms.
Also it has one of my favorite intros:
Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch (at least early on) were both very good. Discovery had quite the reality TV trifecta there, actually.
I don’t know about converting them, or if an archive even exists, but back when dinosaurs walked the Earth and I was a young man, TV Guide regularly ran reviews of current shows
The local newspapers also did reviews in the TV section and the Sunday TV supplement.
Oh yeah, Dirty Jobs. That show was amazing. Not just for the content and actual jobs (the one where they clean out the sewage processing plant will always be in my primal fear level gross out nightmares) but Mike Rowe’s absolutely infectious enthusiasm for stuff and the way he engaged with people. He’d show up in hazmat gear and some old man would lead him through his job and Mike would be slackjawed the entire time. It was like looking at a hidden world. I want my sons to watch that show to appreciate how multi layered and complex our world is and how many real people it takes to maintain it.
Come to think of it, in that same vein was a show called “Life After People” that I enjoyed immensely. Maybe it doesn’t deserve to be on this list but that’s another show that is an object lesson in entropy. That show could also be called: “Maintain your roof!”
Ever see that show “How it’s made”? I have no idea why it’s interesting, but it is. It’s amazing.
You watch them make something like a fire extinguisher…I have no idea why I care how they make one. But I do. I think they use some kind of subliminal control.
I had this book as a child
http://www.best-childrens-books.com/images/inclined-plane-diagram.jpg
I read that thing cover to cover dozens of times. Understand it was something like 400 pages of fairly technical things, and 8 year old me just devoured it. Anytime I think about something like the compound pulley I still think of that illustration from the book.
What an awesome looking book. Did that inspire you to enter a mechanical/design/technical field?
It was but one of many factors, but certainly was on the list along with Legos.
Same. Fantastic book.
Dirty Jobs sounds interesting. My library has five collections on DVD. I’m going to check it out.
They did an episode about Mackinac Island. A place where no motor vehicles are allowed and horses are the main mode of transport. The “Dirty Job” ? The process of cleaning up and disposing all of the horse poop in order to keep the island pristine. It was incredible how much horse shit they had to deal with. Your job is, literally to deal with mountains of shit.
My favorite was called “Engineering Disasters” I think. Each show had 2-3 examples of things that had gone terribly wrong. I even have a book based on the show, or maybe it’s vice versa.
That show was always interesting. It got a little repetitive after a year or two, but I always learned something watching it… even if that something was just “man, they make a lot of stuff in Canada.”
Ya, “The Way Things Work” was a favorite of mine when I was a kid, that book was amazing.
There are actually a bunch of these now, covering newer technology.
Oh man, the Las Vegas pig farmer was the best.
Wait, people think Star Trek is great television? I understand it’s embedded in people’s minds and has become a 50 year phenomenon, but it has some pretty awful acting and lousy writing. The original series is pretty mediocre.
It’s not as amazing as TNG (which easily holds up as realistically futuristic decades after it was made), but the original series laid the groundwork and is still consistently entertaining.
This is a good point, I don’t know how I missed this first time. Sort by user ratings and let’s see, highest rated first:
Breaking Bad
The Wire
The Shield
Fargo
The Sopranos
Game of Thrones
Rome
Arrested Development
Band of Brothers
Twin Peaks
Better Call Saul
Planet Earth II
True Detective
Justified
In Treatment
Deadwood
Lost
The Practice
The Leftovers
Rectify
Sherlock
Archer
Flight of the Conchords
Friday Night Lights
Dexter
24
Bleak House
Queer as Folk
Futurama
Longmire
Mad Men
Eastbound & Down
Moonlight
Psych
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Prison Break
The Simpsons (Season 2)
Silicon Valley
Marvel's Daredevil: Season 2
The Americans: Season 4
Parks and Recreation: Season 3
Southland
Damages
White Collar
The Lost Room
What About Brian
Supernatural
The Office (UK)
The West Wing
Boy Meets World
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
I used the same methodology, take the top 100 and combine all seasons into the highest rated one – some of these have multiple season hits, some are singletons. Generally the lower in the list, the more likely it is that just one season got a high user rating.
I’m skeptical about this, but going for Murder One next based on the critical ranking. I don’t remember this series at all. I guess Windows 95 was too glamorous, or something.