-The Wire
The best show I've ever seen, but it's also one of the hardest to get into, thanks to the initially incomprehensible dialogue (consistently thick regional dialects, spoken at the speed of light) and unforgiving writing style (by the end of the first season I'd only figured out the names of half the characters). But let me tell you - it is worth it. It's a highly rewarding thing to watch, because everything is constantly in flux - characters develop, storylines unfold steadily yet unpredictably, several big emotional punches are landed every year, and dead characters are never forgotten. Also, it tackles some major social issues; it's most definitely not just another cop show. The more you watch it, the more it'll pull you in - that's just the way it's been written.
To sum it up, it's an ultra-realistic and deeply thorough depiction of several aspects of Baltimore (police, drug gangs, politics, education and reporting), focusing particularly on a different aspect every season.
A lot of superlatives, I know, but I love it that much. Do yourself a favour though and enable subtitles when watching it, it'll triple your comprehension of what the hell's going on.
-The Sopranos
Another great show - more subtle than The Wire (too subtle, possibly) with an extra layer of deeper meaning. Basically, it's a vastly more effective, serialised version of Goodfellas - the personal and professional lives of a Cosa Nostra clan. In my opinion it could have done with more action, and probably lasted a bit too long, but it's a brilliant series.
-Dexter
This one's about a twisted serial killer with a day job in the Miami Police Department - or, at least, it was. Dex has become a bit too cuddly and loveable for my liking, he just isn't the unfeeling monster he was in the beginning. I suppose you could call that character development, but I'm not sure it's entirely intentional. Anyway... amazing second season. The first and third had a shambolic first half, but heated up later on.
Why's it so good? The stories. Really, really good stories.
-Lost
This show has had such a tempestuous life. It started off mysteriously intriguing, then became irritatingly, deliberately obtuse, and gradually shed everything that had made it interesting. *Enormous* chunks of time were wasted simply to fill up the episodes, as not enough story had been written to cover the whole season. It also became stale with constant flashbacks about characters we now either knew well enough already or just plain didn't care about. Finally, a number of characters were just written out of the show and have barely been referenced since, making every minute we'd spent getting to know the character a total waste of time.
Then came season 4, and everything changed. An end date was negotiated with the network, allowing the writers to plan all their story arcs well in advance and hook all the actors into fixed contracts. The writers' strike hit, forcing them to chop the show down from ~22 to 14 episodes - this condensed the story down so tightly that very little time was wasted, and every episode genuinely added to the narrative. And finally, they axed the flashbacks, replacing them with flash-forwards, restoring viewer confidence that the writers actually knew where their story was going.
And as a result, Lost was transformed. I'd all but given up on it in season 3, but now it's probably my favourite show still in production. At the end of each episode I'm actually looking forward to the next one, instead of instantly forgetting it. Great stuff.
-Top Gear
If you've ever had even mildly positive feelings towards the car, you need to give this one a watch. Basically, it's three guys mocking each other and messing around with vehicles. It's often one of the funniest shows on TV, and is always a top-quality production. It's been wildly successful, and in the last year or two it feels like they've become very aware of this, and are trying a bit too hard. But it's still very entertaining. Lamborghini Murcielago SV, Mercedes-McLaren SLR 722, Bugatti Veyron and McLaren F1 duking it out in the Middle East next week.
-South Park
For around seven years, this was so freakin' good, and just got better and better, evolving from the ultra-crude yet oddly hilarious early shows to biting satire and some just plain excellent comedy. During that time, they only produced one flat-out bad episode, and just a handful of 'meh's (in my opinion, at least). Then came season 8, and in several episodes, the quality started to slip. Trey Parker married around this time, and I do wonder if that had anything to do with it. Or perhaps they just became burnt out after the tortuous development of Team America. In any case, the quality continued to slide in subsequent years, and it's gotten to the point that South Park, which was once often better than The Simpsons, is now routinely worse than Family Guy (which is ironic given how venomously they mocked it a few years ago).
It's been pretty painful to watch this show fall. They're still contracted for another few years though, so here's hoping they can get back in the zone again.
-Red Dwarf
Excellent, classic sci-fi comedy. It started out as an ultra-low-budget mismatched-buddies type of thing, drawing extra laughs from various imaginative sci-fi concepts, and moved on to sending up Star Trek as the success and budget rose. Quality peaked and troughed frequently, and took a general dip after Rob Grant left the show, but every episode was at least very watchable.
I'm excepting the recent revival, which was essentially no more than masturbation for the remaining creator, and should not be watched.
-Blackadder
*Best comedy ever*. Ridiculously funny historical sitcom, with each season taking place in a different era (Middle Ages, Elizabethan, Regency, World War 1).
Skip the first season though - it's as rubbish as the other three are amazing. Weird, that.
-Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Other than the Simpsons, Fresh Prince and some of Twin Peaks, this is the earliest American show I ever enjoyed. Lots of hilariously bad monsters (such as a hot substitute biology teacher in an early episode who turns out to be a giant praying mantis, and consumes the smitten schoolboys she brings home), constantly sparkling dialogue, great characters and that all-important factor which was so rare at the time, evolving long-term storylines with emotional punch.
That said, it did grow darker and darker as the years rolled on, and by the sixth it was oppressive to the point that it wasn't entertaining anymore. Also, the last series wasn't terribly good. But for those first five seasons, classic show.
I'm also a fan of...
-Californication
-Daria
-Rome
-Futurama
-Simpsons
-Roswell
-Monty Python's Flying Circus
-3rd Rock From The Sun
-Fresh Prince
-30 Rock
Sorry for the ridiculously long post! Muchas gracias if you made it this far.
