The Real Greatest TV Shows of All Time

[Morrus]

Do I need to have watched Breaking Bad to watch it?

Nah, its a prequel and stands alone.

 

[billd91]

Blackadder. Ignoring season 1 (hey we're ignoring Got's s8, right?) this is one of the best two comedy shows ever made. Pure genius.

Why on earth would you ignore season 1? It's a bit different with Blackadder's character not as established, but it's still damn funny.

 

[Morrus]

Why on earth would you ignore season 1? It's a bit different with Blackadder's character not as established, but it's still damn funny.

It's just a totally different show. It was completely reinvented for s2.

 

[Gradine]

Serious list time

• Duck Tales (2017) - No seriously, though, this is such a great damn show. The humor works, the heartwarming stuff works, the moments of nostalgia work, the triplets have defined personalities, the cast is amazing (including the always under-appreciated Paget Brewster). Sure, it throws a lot of stuff at the wall; it's just that nearly everything sticks.
• Bluey (AUS) - If you don't have young kids I wouldn't go out of your way to watch it, but if you do have young kids watch this with them immediately. I think it's on Disney+. Genuinely funny, genuinely heartwarming, and it always has a wonderful lesson (for kids and, sometimes, for parents).
• The Witcher - Yeah it's not all kiddy stuff on this list. The Witcher isn't going to win any awards for deep storytelling, but it's exactly what it needed to be, which is fun.
• The Good Place - The only sitcom that is consistently excellent all the way through (don't @ me), and it did it while being both hilarious and having actual insight in the human condition.
• Lost - Say what you will, but Lost changed the face of TV, and it did it with unique storytelling and characters that were always compelling (if not always or even often likeable). People hate on it a lot because it left a lot of mysteries of the island unexplained (and the magic bathplug at the end was a little weak), but that's never what the show was about.
• Battlestar Galactica - It's become trendy to look back on this show with disdain, and in some ways that's fair (Caprica being awful didn't help, and BSG had some clunker episodes, and the last five minutes of the show were just plain terrible), but this show was as big as it was for as long as it was because it was good. I dare you to find a more compelling hour of TV, from beginning to end, than "33". I'll wait.
• Haunting of Bly Manor - I was worried about this, because Hill House was also very good, but Bly Manor is better in every conceivable way. Both seasons are very good. There's not a lot of jump scares here; the horror is very slow burn and melancholy.
• Deadwood - Ended before its time, this is another show with an absolutely phenomenal cast that makes us root for both good guys and the bad guys. Quite possibly the best dialogue on television. There's something almost Shakespearean about the writing, right down to the fool's monologue (warning: language).
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - A show that somehow holds up both better and worse than you'd expect it to. Reckoning with Joss Whedon's legacy makes it difficult to not color perceptions of his presentation of "female empowerment". It's also one of the whitest shows set in Southern California I've ever seen (Deadwood, of all things, has a more diverse cast). Still, this is the only show that can compete with Lost in terms of how much it's contributed to the face of modern TV, and that's for a reason. Nobody was really doing storytelling like this on TV, and more than anything, that's the aspect that holds. (Also, Season 6's allegory for depression works way better than people want to give it credit for).
• She-ra and the Princesses of Power - Someone asked the right question at the right time: "What if Buffy, but even more gay" and the end result was this very excellent series. It had some missteps (A non-binary character? Yay! They're a shapeshifting con artist who thrives on chaos? Uhh...) but if you ended up missing out on this for whatever reason, it's worth a shot. The animation is a little rough, but the writing and characters more than make up for it.

Not Appearing on This List:

• Avatar the Last Airbender - Recently re-watched it and... it doesn't hold up as well as I remembered? The Aang/Katara stuff in general was realllly rough. Toph still rules though.
• Angel - Occasionally better than Buffy; usually worse though, and it had longer (and deeper) rough patches. Gunn still rules though.
• Breaking Bad - Along with Sopranos and The Wire, these are shows that I can recognize as having quality, but feature stories and characters that I just don't care about at all.
• Brooklyn 9-9 - At it's best it competes with The Good Place (by the same production company, if I recall correctly), but it has some more distinct downturns and missteps. Rosa still rules though.

 

[Umbran]

So, I'm not a fan of ranking my personal favorite shows.

Greatest of all time, in terms of TV history and impact, most of what's getting mentioned here is still going to be small potatoes compared to the historic greats - the Ed Sullivan Show, 60 Minutes, The Honeymooners, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, I Love Lucy.

Maybe Star Trek fits in there on cultural impact.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's just a totally different show. It was completely reinvented for s2.

I thought season 1 was the best, in no small part due to Brian Blessed

 

[Morrus]

So, I'm not a fan of ranking my personal favorite shows.

Greatest of all time, in terms of TV history and impact, most of what's getting mentioned here is still going to be small potatoes compared to the historic greats - the Ed Sullivan Show, 60 Minutes, The Honeymooners, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, I Love Lucy.

I’ve seen the Simpsons. No idea what the rest are!

 

[Sacrosanct]

As far as British Comedies go, while I am a fan of the older shows (BA, Faulty Towers), I have to rank Season 2 of Cuckoo (Tyler Laughtner was a huge pleasant surprise for me) and all but season 1 of IT Crowd. Those are two my all time favorite comedy shows, regardless of nationality.

 

[Imaculata]

Season 1 of the Haunting of Hillhouse is fantastic, and some of the best acting I have seen on tv. I'm less of a fan of Blymanor, it didn't really click with me.

Cobra Kai is also fantastic. It manages to be both funny, sincere drama, and nostalgic. A loving tribute to a movie that no one knew they wanted a tv show of. The writing in each episode is stellar.

Better Call Saul is also great, but is it as good or better than Breaking Bad? Personally, I feel the stakes are not as high. But it still is a great show.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer has stood the test of time. There are just so many great episodes. My favourite episodes are: Conversations with Dead People, The Wish, Hush, The Zeppo, Bewitched Bothered & Bewildered, Help, Dopplegangland, Passion, Revelations, Innocense, Halloween, Lovers Walk, Crush, The Body, Killed by Death, Earshot, Something Blue, Restless, Fool for Love, The Gift, Forever, Normal Again, Him, Bad Girls, and Once More with Feeling.

If that seem like a lot of episodes to list as favourites... yeah...

 

[Morrus]

Season 1 of the Haunting of Hillhouse is fantastic, and some of the best acting I have seen on tv. I'm less of a fan of Blymanor, it didn't really click with me.

Cobra Kai is also fantastic. It manages to be both funny, sincere drama, and nostalgic. A loving tribute to a movie that no one knew they wanted a tv show of. The writing in each episode is stellar.

Cobra Kai is really good! Not top 10 for me, but it’s ready good!