A few years ago I wrote a TV Roundup, an exercise in futility – collecting and writing my favorite shows ever. Why did I do this? I don’t know – and I shortly regretted it. And yet … I took a look recently and knew that I couldn’t let it rest. It’s a problem.
I’ll add a few new shows to the “just missed” category first – Parks and Recreation and Justified are two shows I absolutely love right now. It could happen. And I still haven’t seen The Shield, which now seems to reside as the Best Player Never To Win A Major category (that is, the show I’ve been told is fantastic by the most folks but haven’t ever seen myself).
Here was the original list I posted, with links to each writeup of the given shows:
21. Kids In The Hall
20. Taxi
19. How I Met Your Mother
18. Dexter
17. The Simpsons
16. The Daily Show
15. Mad Men
14. Arrested Development
13. 24
12. The Office (UK & US)
11. Lost
10. Cheers
9. Six Feet Under
8. The West Wing
7. Friday Night Lights
6. Survivor
5. Battlestar Galactica
4. Sports Night
3. The Sopranos
2. Seinfeld
1. The Wire
If you give more than half of a shit about it, you can go back to this post to see all the caveats I threw in there to hedge my bets with this, but in the 2 1/2 years since I wrote this, things have predictably changed.
My top ten still looks about right to me … it’s the second half that is a bit in flux. First, I suppose it’s entirely possible that the new, final and unexpected season of Arrested Development will be so awful or brilliant that it moves it one way or another a few slots. The apparent return of 24 next year for a half-season could do similar things, presumably.
Two new shows made the list, which meant that new shows above fell completely off. As it turns out, these were the 18th and 19th shows.
Dexter was a show I’d only seen three seasons of – and had yet to see the amazing John Lithgow season. But after that? God, it got boring and weird and … just not interesting. I moved Season 6 so far down in my Netflix queue that I eventually conceded I just didn’t want to see it. Yep, it’s gotta go.
The same is true for How I Met Your Mother, which we do still watch but has really tailed off in its last few seasons. It’s become a much less clever show, often annoyingly so. It still gets a laugh or two out of me most of the time, but otherwise is often boring or disappointing. That’s not the description of one of my favorite shows ever. See you later, HIMYM.
So, here’s the new list, with descriptions where needed.
21. Kids In The Hall
20. Taxi
19. The Simpsons
18. The Daily Show
17. The Office (UK & US)
A five point tumble! This is a reflection of the fact that I really stopped enjoying the last few seasons with Michael Scott (Steve Carrell, crying here for a reason I can’t remember), and just stopped caring whatsoever once he left. I didn’t watch last season or this, final one. It’s worth pointing out that there’s a possibility that one day Parks and Recreation will join this overall list, and higher than The Office. Just putting that out there, guys.
16. Game of Thrones
The first new entrant to the list — and I’m breaking my own rules here because it’s still in its third season, which I decided was the minimum number of seasons to count here. But why pretend? IT’S SO GODDAMN AWESOME. Plus, I’ve read the books and know where we’re going and OH MY GOD IT’S GOING TO BE EVEN MORE AWESOME. It’s hard for me to imagine this not being on the list the next time I make it, probably higher.
There’s really no way to describe Game of Thrones without sounding like an enthused 14-year old, so let’s just say there is swords, dragons and major bad assery all over the place. I was going to put in a picture of Tyrion, or Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons – but then I saw this and loved it, too:
Love this show.
15. Arrested Development
14. 24
13. Breaking Bad
The other new entrant was one I expected back in 2010, and acknowledged it was one of the shows people raved about and I had yet to see. It’s … almost indescribably good.
It’s the story of a science teacher who gets cancer – and in order to set up his wife and disabled son up, he begins to make and sell crystal meth to build up some money for them after he dies. That teacher is Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston masterfully. The character arc White takes through the show is epic in its total transformation that seems totally plausible. If anything, I might like Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) even more – the former student of White’s who he teams up with as a business partner.
I heard Cranston being interviewed about the show and he said that when it was pitched by Vince Gilligan to AMC, the head of the station said that it sounded horrendous. A science teacher selling crystal meth – this was the stuff of a successful program? But, he quickly added, he trusted Gilligan to understand this better and to make it work. If that’s even remotely true, we need more guys like that AMC executive. This show is truly brilliant, and I’m both excited to see it wrap up this summer and sad that it will be over so soon.
12. Mad Men
The climb of Mad Men is both a result of a few others fall and the reflection that it has yet to truly stumble – at all. Each season, I’m convinced it’s the best yet – even if I’m not crazy about all the choices they’ve made, I love this show. It was tough to decide if it should be above or below Breaking Bad, but for now it just edges it out.
11. Lost
10. Cheers
9. Six Feet Under
8. The West Wing
7. Friday Night Lights
6. Survivor
5. Battlestar Galactica
4. Sports Night
3. The Sopranos
2. Seinfeld
1. The Wire
Back when I wrote the original post, I sort of feared that it meant I’d never be able to let it stay static. I suppose that fear has manifested itself. But better yet, that will only be true if there TV keeps churning out some quality shows.
See you again in a few years.
I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains by Chuck Klosterman
greebs. 