The Greatest TV Shows of All Time (Kinda): The Top 10

[DrunkonDuty]

AH! I should really have gotten that. Thanks, @Mannahnin.

 

[ilgatto]

(...)

So, here is the list. This Hall of Fame/Top 10 list is the product of maths, and therefore cannot be argued with, although you are welcome to make a case for other shows in the comments. Also? This is not an ordinal list; the rankings are not in order.

1. The Leftovers. Perhaps the best finale ever, and the best show no one watched. Very few shows are as ambitious, well-written, and well-acted as this show. Simply put, a tour de force.

Totally agree with this. Stumbled upon it some time ago and watched the first-and-a-half season in one go without taking a single breath while being overwhelmed with all manner of emotions I didn't even know existed. I'd never seen anything that kept the suspense going for so long and haven't since (although The OA and perhaps Don't Look Now come close). Completely blown away by Carry Coon - never seen anyone act as good as she does in the first season and easily among the best performances of ever. Totally in awe of the writing, especially how the writers manage to do so much without literally anything happening at all - it is truly the best TV show I've ever seen.

Anyway, [/end rave].

So, haven't read the whole thread but if Homicide: Life on the Street wasn't mentioned somewhere, it is now.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So, haven't read the whole thread but if Homicide: Life on the Street wasn't mentioned somewhere, it is now.

Yup.

HLotS is so overlooked it's kind of grotesque. Only Halt & Catch Fire is more unfairly ignored.

The West Wing has aged EXTREMELY poorly. And I would call its view on the world anything but "mature." "Naive" would be one word for it.

100%. To me it seemed like rah-rah naive drivel even at the time, about 50% of the episodes - I'll never forget an incredibly stupid speech Sorkin put in poor Alison Janney's mouth about how it's impossible to keep anything like a major aircraft project secret. Apparently Sorkin was staggeringly ignorant about how many US aircraft projects were successfully kept secret for years or even decades. It was so smug, smirking and superior whilst being demonstrably stupid and wrong. A lot of the other ideas have been demonstrated to be woefully naive, not least the insistent and foot-stamping belief in the US political system.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yup.

HLotS is so overlooked it's kind of grotesque. Only Halt & Catch Fire is more unfairly ignored.

100%. To me it seemed like rah-rah naive drivel even at the time, about 50% of the episodes - I'll never forget an incredibly stupid speech Sorkin put in poor Alison Janney's mouth about how it's impossible to keep anything like a major aircraft project secret. Apparently Sorkin was staggeringly ignorant about how many US aircraft projects were successfully kept secret for years or even decades. It was so smug, smirking and superior whilst being demonstrably stupid and wrong. A lot of the other ideas have been demonstrated to be woefully naive, not least the insistent and foot-stamping belief in the US political system.

Not American but couldn't watch it at the time. Bit to American made my teeth itch.

Remember it screening in small town NZ damn it was 22 years ago.

 

[Ryujin]

Not American but couldn't watch it at the time. Bit to American made my teeth itch.

Remember it screening in small town NZ damn it was 22 years ago.

Then you definitely don't want to watch "Independence Day", if you haven't already seen it

 

[Zardnaar]

Then you definitely don't want to watch "Independence Day", if you haven't already seen it

Saw it at the theatres in 1996.

And yeah itchy teeth.

 

[ilgatto]

Not American but couldn't watch it at the time. Bit to American made my teeth itch.

Remember it screening in small town NZ damn it was 22 years ago.

Then you definitely don't want to watch "Independence Day", if you haven't already seen it

Saw it at the theatres in 1996.

And yeah itchy teeth.

The solution to itchy teeth is to watch Starship Troopers right after you've seen Independence Day.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Then you definitely don't want to watch "Independence Day", if you haven't already seen it

Independence Day is weirdly less xenophobic than The West Wing, sad to say. The West Wing rarely represents any non-US characters, and when it does, it's pretty much just to sneer at them and how inferior or needlessly difficult they are. Whereas Independence Day at least portrays the victory as a world-wide thing and everyone working together and so on. Also West Wing seemed to be on a pretty weird trip re: the UK specifically, with an ambassador character who was like something from a 1970s farce, and the only PM we saw was like, Poundland Maggie Thatcher, which was weird given it was 2005.

 

[FrogReaver]

Blacklist?

 

[Ryujin]

Independence Day is weirdly less xenophobic than The West Wing, sad to say. The West Wing rarely represents any non-US characters, and when it does, it's pretty much just to sneer at them and how inferior or needlessly difficult they are. Whereas Independence Day at least portrays the victory as a world-wide thing and everyone working together and so on. Also West Wing seemed to be on a pretty weird trip re: the UK specifically, with an ambassador character who was like something from a 1970s farce, and the only PM we saw was like, Poundland Maggie Thatcher, which was weird given it was 2005.

Sure, except everyone seems to be waiting for the United States to tell them all what to do. In fact they seem to be doing little more than sitting around their radios, waiting for instructions.