I haven’t been watching much in terms of actual shows for a good while, then while listening to a podcast a host casually mentioned they had rewatched Chernobyl, how it still holds up, that there’s a reason it got as much acclaim as it did, etc. So I thought I’d give it a go and wow, loved it (still one episode left to watch).
Had me thinking, what else have I missed out on? What are some “absolute cinema” TV shows that still hold up and and are considered must watch?
This is PEAK of my last year.
Black Books
Phineas and Ferb; I love their music and evil adventures Dr. Doofenshmirtz
I’m a huge sci-fi nerd, and can highly recommend The Eternaut I love when movies/shows come up with interesting ideas like this. It’s been renewed for 2 more seasons, but sadly it’s going to be over a year before season 2 comes out. It was so popular that they greatly expanded the budget and scope. Oh well.
At least season 3 of Silo starts soon.
- Invincible
- For all Mankind
- Pantheon
I wrote out a whole list for you then I accidentally deleted it. I was very proud of that list. Here’s a few:
- Widows Bay
- Our Flag Means Death
- Ted Lasso
- The Good Place
- Watchmen (show not movie)
- Halt and Catch Fire
- Silo
- Man in the High Castle
- Tokyo Vice
- What We Do In The Shadows
Apple TV has a lot of really exceptional Sci-Fi if that’s your thing.
AND FINALLY. The weirdest most indescribable show of all time that will not make sense it is somehow a must watch for me:
Raised by Wolves
Most people won’t like that one. It is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s a sci-fi show by Ridley Scott’s company and it feels like the plot was written by a Norwegian Death Metal band.
Androids raise children during the time of a religious war. One Android gives birth to a flying snake. A lady becomes a tree. A sea monster puts a baby into its chest cavity.
EDIT:
I get asked about recommendations a lot so after writing this, I decided to make a list. It’s not finished, I’ll add more over the next few days.
Comedy? Futurama (be ready to have your feels tickled)
More serious SF but still funny? The Orville
More more serious SF and not so funny, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Not at all funny and serious SF (anyone seeing a pattern?) Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
Extra credit serious SF, worth every hour, dated graphics and all, Babylon 5 Amazing stories, worth every minute it takes to watch it.
Chernobyl was a great show, yes, though technically so wrong on so many levels, but I guess it’s in part to make it more exciting
Another recommendation: The Orville. The true successor to Star Trek TNG and DS9. Especially the first two seasons are amazingly good
Fleabag - I can’t believe I didn’t see it yet in this thread. If you like Phoebe Waller-Bridge then you must see it, and if you’re not familiar with her yet, this is a great show to get to know her humor. It’s extremely funny and tugs on your emotions, mainly about love, trauma and family.
Better than the rest
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The Wire & Homicide: Life on the Street (David Simon Box Set)
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Atlanta
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The Expanse
Comedy
- NewsRadio (for Maura Tierney and Dave Foley and Phil Hartman and Khandi Alexander and Vicki Lewis and Stephen Root)
- Schitt’s Creek
- Ted Lasso (Seasons 1 and 2)
- Murphy Brown
- Sex Education
Sci-Fi
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
- Dark
- Devs
- Altered Carbon (Season 1)
Drama
- The Newsroom
- Law & Order (seasons 1-8)
- Succession
- Severance
Intense Drama (TV-MA and little levity)
- Chernobyl
- Adolescence
- Utopia
- MR. ROBOT
- Luther
- True Detective (Season 1)
- Vince Gilligan Box Set (Better Call Saul & Breaking Bad & Plur1bus (has levity))
- Ozark
Anthology shows
- Black Mirror
- Love Death + Robots
Animated
- Rick and Morty
- Samurai Jack (2001-2004, 2017)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)
- Gravity Falls
- South Park
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Final Space
Perpetually on deck for me
- Fargo
- Andor
- Band of Brothers
- Barry
- Legion
- Letterkenny
- Bojack Horseman
- Scavenger’s Reign
- Fringe
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With no regard to how big stuff is/was, because OP hadn’t seen Chernobyl.
‘Chernobyl’ is up there. Brutal indictment of a hypercorrupt dying empire that only cares about power and is built almost entirely on lies contrasted with the people it happens to, who largely embody the ideals their government lies about; the heroism of a dead culture striving to save everyone from some of the fuckers who killed it.
‘Andor’ star wars, but about antifascism instead of wuxia bullshit or daddy issues. Some of the best TV ever made. Weaves in links to history and obscure star wars apocrypha. It’s everything it should be and more with amazing layered deliberate fast-slow-fast pacing. There’s a long-payoff joke that is also the serious culmination of the first season’s meta-arc (the first season of that show would be about five seasons of anything else) and half the fans didn’t even notice.
‘Severance’ or the ~decade earlier whedon-directed much more sex focused show it was linked to, ‘dollhouse’ if you need fast pace or a slightly more dramatic version of what the internet is now. Low-scifi corpo-surrealism about the ways we treat identity. The two versions come to very different conclusions.
‘Scavengers’ reign’ beautiful uncanny man-vs-nature space narrative, haunting sound track, amazing in every way that matters.
‘Westworld’ only season 1. Its About Things. No not just the robots. They left some plot threads unresolved for season 2, but they’re not really what’s important and each season is exponentially worse, riding the first season’s nonstop hitting. Season 2 is still okay I guess.
‘daredevil’ Netflix version, season 1 only. There’s more but its not the same quality.
‘Cowboy bebop’ everybody’s favorite film noir space (neo?)western. Dripping with cool. Remade a few years later in a historically accurate Japan right after the consolidation of the Tokugawa dynasty with arguably 10% less style and 30% tighter production.
‘Kaos’ though it was left extremely unfinished. High budget modern Greek mythology soup. As gay and misothiest as you would ex0ect if you had actually read any.
‘Peacemaker’ murder-himbo realizes he might be one of the bad guys while trying to save the world with/from the CIA immediately post-‘the suicide squad’.
‘Harley Quinn’ batman villain fucks around, continues fucking around, occasionally finds out. But lesbianly, sharp unhinged comedy.
‘Futurama’ fox seasons/original run only. Occasionally heart wrenching SciFi comedy that’s not trying to be as edgy as ‘rick and Morty’ later would. Definitely aged, but smart enough it’s aged gracefully.
‘True detective’ season 1 only. The rest are fine, I guess. Southern Gothic neo-noir ambiguously fantasy.
‘Star trek: deep space nine’ a space station on the edge of falgsc utopia orbiting space-palestine as the toned down space zios do space-zio things. 90s in all the best ways and very few of the worst.
Or the more woo-scifi version which aired I think simultaneously, ‘Babylon 5’.
‘Community’ very few comedy shows age this well.
‘Lovecraft country’ endritch horror and american racism standing in frame next to each other, while the arc and the anthology flirt over a meal of ‘how to love SciFi as a marginalized person?’. The most beautiful wholesome profound bed covered in gore you’ve ever watched coincidentally ‘is this gay, and if so what kind?’ sex on.
I’ll add more later, and there are more certain people need to see but others don’t necessarily.
- Riget by Lars von Trier. Combines hospital drama with horror and adds a dash of black and absurd comedy into the mix. The third season was also quite watchable, but not as essential as the original show.
- Twin Peaks. All three seasons. Takes a quality dip some point at the second season but the third one really ups the ante and redeems.
- The Office UK. Peak cringe comedy throughout, with a dash of drama. The US version is alright, but really its own thing after the first seasons and not really comparable.
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Peak absurd humour. Some of the stuff probably doesn’t fly as well as it did over 50 years ago, but well worth the watch.
law drama: svu 1-S(when stabler left the show), the new seasons just dont hit as good as pre-2010s, mariska had to be asked to come back to the show with a significant PAY package(shes kinda done with the show). law and order CI with vincent d’nofrio, original, and another that never took off(LA a believe). i dont new cop shows can match these, as they are just mostly copaganda.
SCIF: Stark trek; DS9, TNG, enterprise, voyager.(dont really reccommend movies until you watch the series). Nutrek is just awful except the animated series.
american GODs, sand man, good omens.
the concept of american gods are very similar to other shows like spn, where gods gain power from followers worshipping them,sacrificing them and fade away if they lose followers.
Legion (2017)
It’s a psychological drama with Aubrey Plaza in it at her weird best, by the same writer behind Fargo, the TV series and Alien: Earth. Jermaine Clement plays a small but important role. It was nominated for a variety of awards, but only won a couple of minor ones. If that seems interesting to you but you haven’t heard of it, it’s best to go in blind because spoilers could really ruin it.
The Pitt.
It’s easily one of the best television shows ever made.
