Your favorite shows over the past twenty years. (1 Viewer)

[Bryan^H]

Here are my top five:


5 - The Office. Funny, and even after the Jim/Pam relationship developed, there were so many weird characters, and funny moments.

4 - The Walking Dead. Yeah I know, this series hit the wall years ago, but still, zombies on a weekly basis, great SFX, and makeup, and true horror (at least in the earlier seasons). It was really good early on and some of the best TV I had the pleasure of watching.

3 - Dexter. Riveting, and although the later seasons weren't as good as the first 4 (1, and 4 being the absolute best) it was still a very very good series. Music score by Daniel Licht was the icing on the cake. Creepy, and satisfying series that I used to binge before "binge watching" was a household term.

2 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What can I say, it was a weird, and wonderful series that was superbly acted, and written. Joss Whedon and his gifted team of writers made the series great.

1 - The Sopranos. A classic. The characters, and production were second to none. And I thought the final episode was brilliant. Not a letdown.

 

[Walter Kittel]

While a limit of five series wasn't explicitly stated, I'll follow suit and limit myself to only five series. (Man, it is like having ten children and being forced to pick your favorite five. ) Okay, here goes...

5 - Person of Interest - The series was a bit of a mixed bag with some of the 'case of the week' episodes weakening the overall impact of the show. The story arc episodes dealing with 'The Machine' and the secret war that was being waged were uniformly excellent. I really liked the casting in this show and it was something that I invariably looked forward to viewing during its five year run. Adam Lenhardt described this show as operating in a 'heightened reality' IIRC and that is an apt lens through which to view the series.

4 - Battlestar Galactica - Really loved the new iteration of this series. There is an argument to be made that some of the story elements (especially in the final season) weren't well thought out, but despite this, the characters and the execution of the series made this a favorite. (The 'Adama Maneuver' is reason enough for this to make the list. )

3 - Breaking Bad - Arguably the best series in my list in terms of flawless execution. I cannot recall a single episode that didn't deliver a compelling story and excellent plot development. Cranston was terrific in this series. Great, great show.

2 - Game of Thrones - The spectacle, scope, and production values all put this in the #2 spot for me. Some of the later seasons didn't (for me) live up the the standards set by the uniformly excellent earlier seasons. But even the weaker seasons had standout episodes and the production values never faltered. Loved the scope of the series. Just great.

1 - Fringe - An all time favorite show. Of the shows I've listed this easily had my favorite cast in terms of the rapport that I thought the series and actors developed with me, the viewer. Some great mind bending concepts in this series. The show's finale was excellent and did a very nice job of wrapping up the show in an emotionally resonant manner.

There are a few shows that just missed the cut that I really love, but these are all easily favorites.

- Walter,

 

[TravisR]

There's been alot of great shows over the last 20 years but off the top of my head, I'd say my top 10 is (alphabetically): Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Deuce, The Leftovers, Lost, Mad Men, Parks And Recreation, Treme, and The Wire. Jesus, I'm depressing.

I'd have included The Sopranos but didn't because it started in 1999 (although I see why others including since the overwhelming majority of episodes aired in the 2000's).

 

[TravisR]

4 - Battlestar Galactica - (The 'Adama Maneuver' is reason enough for this to make the list. )

I caught up with BSG before the fourth season ran and I remember the first time I saw that episode and it was so awesome that I didn't even need to wonder if the fans went apeshit when it first aired. It's one of those episodes that I wish I could delete it from my brain so I could rewatch it for the 'first' time again.

As cool as that sequence is, I'm an even bigger fan of the scene where the Galactica is getting pummeled and Adama tells the crew that "It's been an honor."

Spoiler

and then the Battlestar Pegasus shows up...

 

[Jack P]

There's nothing from the last twenty years worthy of being part of any list of mine and pretty much nothing from the last thirty for that matter.

 

[Matt Hough]

The most entertaining for me:

1. The Good Wife
2. The Shield
3. Lost
4. '24'
5. Elementary

Notice: no comedy shows. While the last few seasons of Friends, Frasier, and Will & Grace did fall within the twenty year window, I don't think they should qualify since they began earlier. The closest for me: Modern Family, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Schitt's Creek.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

I totally agree about Parks & Rec.

 

[Bryan^H]

I think that series that started before the twenty year mark, and ended within it should be acceptable. But I get it, I should have been more specific with the thread title, or went back 30 years.

 

[TravisR]

2. The Shield

Damn, I forgot The Shield. 24 would make my honorary mentions too.

I think that series that started before the twenty year mark, and ended within it should be acceptable. But I get it, I should have been more specific with the thread title, or went back 30 years.

Not at all. I think setting it at 20 years is right since it's the start of the new century. I'd say the decade that the majority of a series aired in is its decade* so The Sopranos would be a 2000's show. More than anything else, I just left The Sopranos off my list because I already had too many shows.

* The only problem with that categorization is when you look at The Simpsons, what the hell decade do you put that in? It's now aired in 5 different decades and fully in 3 of those decades.

 

[StarDestroyer52]

5.) The Office
4.) Law & Order: Criminal Intent
3.) NCIS
2.) Community
1.) House

 

[Maxman43]

1) Deadwood
2) Justified
3) The Sopranos
4) Lost

 

[William T. Garver]

1) Deadwood
2) Lodge 49
3) Bob’s Burgers

 

[jcroy]

Plenty of shows, but unfortunately very few had any replay/rerun value for me.

The only show which had any consistent replay/rerun value for me over the past decade or so, was Criminal Minds.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This is a hard one for me to answer, but if I think about Bryan’s question (with his addendum that something that started just before the last twenty but ended there could count) and then I think which shows from that period so I find myself returning to, that makes it a little easier.

(In no particular order)

24 - This is the perfect television concept. That the execution is sometimes less than perfect takes nothing away from how thrilling the show is when it kicks into high gear, and even the worst of the filler is forgivable because of that. Kiefer Sutherland was the perfect guy for that part. He takes what could have been something broadly generic and makes it personal and human, and the price his character pays for trying to do an impossible job comes through in a subtlety haunting, heartbreaking fashion.

The West Wing - Particularly in the first four seasons Aaron Sorkin oversaw, but even in later years, the show aspired to portray a world where politics and governing were treated as noble pursuits and the players respected their positions and such. Put aside whether or not you agree with the politics, which in many ways is beside the point. It was a delight to watch a show that believed in the power of people coming together to try to make the world a better place. It was a delight to watch a show where cynicism didn’t win the day. Modern day Capra.

Twin Peaks: The Return - There’s a legitimate quibble for whether this should count as something new or the renewal of something old but in truth it’s both. As ahead of its time as the original was in its day, if not more so, watching this unfold over the summer of 2017 is an experience I’ll never forget, and one that may not ever be equaled. No TV show has ever behaved quite like this and nothing on TV has ever sounded like this. It defies explanation while somehow making complete sense.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - The original remains my favorite by far. It redefined the television procedural, bringing high tech gloss to one of television’s oldest concepts. Though it peaked quite a few years before it wrapped and ran up against the law of diminishing returns with a few too many late run cast changes, the original lineup had great chemistry, and the writing team especially in those first seven or eight years had a really high batting average for clever mysteries worth watching. William Peterson was stellar, expertly peeling back layers on a character that was outwardly perfect for his job, but began to feel burdened by seeing the worst of the world just as he was learning to join in it.

Vicious - Not everyone’s cup of tea, this British comedy with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as an aging, bitter, cranky but deep-down-very-much-in-love couple, never fails to put a smile on our face in this house. Without really trying to reinvent the wheel of what a classical multi-camera sitcom could be, the cast just run with it and it’s a pleasure to see everyone having such fun together. Once a year we’ll pull out the show and laugh as if it was the first time we’d seen it.

Honorable mentions to:

-The Bad Robot group at the top of its game: Lost and Fringe. The early seasons of Lost focused more on characters that ultimately don’t bring much to the table aren’t as exciting to me, but as it fully commits to its mythology, it shows itself to be something truly special with ambitions no less than telling a new version of the myth of creation. Fringe, for me, had the opposite problem in that it started strong but finished with a less compelling revision of its core mythology, switching gears in the fourth season and yet again in the fifth. It manages to be cohesive, but I can’t help but regret that the show runners felt the need to do a soft reboot rather than believing more fully in the story they began. It’s also one of many shows where Fox’s meddling with the scheduling created unnecessary obstacles for the audience.

-The Shield and Breaking Bad - Two utterly gripping shows with leading characters spiraling far out of control in the most spectacular fashions, with incredible performances all around. The darkness of the content along with the serialized nature of the storytelling makes them hard to watch casually but that they’re not necessarily candidates for frequent rewatching takes nothing away from how good they were.

-Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - A great premise and show that was unfortunately just a little bit early and on the wrong network. Had this come out when reboots and continuations were more wholeheartedly embraced on television, and had this been on a network or platform other than Fox, this might have lived to its full potential. What did exist was a strange and beautiful exploration of what it meant to be human.

Too soon to say:

-all of the new Star Trek shows - I think once shows like Discovery and Picard and the others have finished their runs, I’ll look back and be in awe of what it was like to live in a time with so much new Star Trek coming out, shows that sought to honor and deepen the connection I’ve felt to that universe after a lifetime of fandom. That they’re not on this list now doesn’t mean they won’t be later.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Lost

Talk about a show that went off the rails toward the end. It did have my favorite pilot (heh) of any TV show.

 

[Walter Kittel]

A few comments about some other folk's selections...

Dexter - Really started strong but ran out of steam in the last three seasons. Ray Stevenson almost redeemed season seven single-handedly. I thought the writers / production team made some really bad choices particularly in the final season.

The Wire - Probably the only reason that this didn't make the list is that for some inexplicable reason I've never gotten around to watching seasons two through five. Season one was incredible, but I can procrastinate with the best of them and this show fell prey to that trait.

House - Great lead performance by Hugh Laurie. Some pretty strong work from the rest of the cast as well. Particularly enjoyed the relationship between House and Wilson. About the only weakness (for me) that I could ascribe to the series was that the 'a-ha' mechanism that fueled so many of Dr. House's diagnoses became fairly predictable. Still enjoyable, despite that. A series that just missed the cut for me.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Loved, loved, loved this show. Josh gave a pretty good assessment of the series and why it was unfortunately so short lived.

- Walter.

 

[Bartman]

So many to choose from, these are the top five:
1. Homeland.
2. The Wire.
3. Blue Bloods.
4. SEAL Team.
5. Elementary.

 

[TravisR]

24 - ...Kiefer Sutherland was the perfect guy for that part. He takes what could have been something broadly generic and makes it personal and human, and the price his character pays for trying to do an impossible job comes through in a subtlety haunting, heartbreaking fashion.

I know most people don't think of acting when it comes to 24 but without Sutherland, that show never works as well it did. There are moments in most seasons that should have been ridiculous but they usually worked because Sutherland was able to sell them to the audience.

Twin Peaks: The Return

I left Twin Peaks off only because it was a mini-series rather than an ongoing. That being said, I think it's one of the best things ever to be on TV.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Vicious - Not everyone’s cup of tea, this British comedy with Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi as an aging, bitter, cranky but deep-down-very-much-in-love couple, never fails to put a smile on our face in this house. Without really trying to reinvent the wheel of what a classical multi-camera sitcom could be, the cast just run with it and it’s a pleasure to see everyone having such fun together. Once a year we’ll pull out the show and laugh as if it was the first time we’d seen it.

I looked for Vicious, watched a preview, and it looks to be very good. Not free streaming yet, far as as could tell Prime only sells it per episode. Apple TV has it per season, which is the way we’ll probably go.

 

[ScottH]

Hmm...

In no particular order:

The Wire
Breaking Bad
Rectify (probably the most well written show of all time)
Fargo
Better Call Saul

Honorable mention: Justified, Arrested Development, Six Feet Under, Boardwalk Empire

I feel like I'm totally forgetting something. Also, I can't include a show like Dexter on the list for the reasons mentioned - it completely fell apart the last few seasons. To be on a "best of" list I think it should have had to remain consistently good throughout its run. Shameless is another one I'd put in that category.

There's nothing from the last twenty years worthy of being part of any list of mine and pretty much nothing from the last thirty for that matter.

This statement puzzles me. Television has gotten SO much better over the last 20-30 years.