Over the years, a great many people have asked, "Ryan, what television shows are worth watching?" (Editor's Note: Only one person has ever actually asked him this.) I have spent much of my own time pondering what one's time would be put to best use, in terms of television gazing.
And so with nothing else to do, (Editor's Note: He wrote this about an hour before a final he had not studied for at all up until that point. And he spent half an hour writing this.) I wrote up a guide to shows that deserved to be watched. Hope it is of some use to someone someday:
Essentials
- The Sopranos (My pick for the best TV show of all time. It’s about a mob boss in New Jersey named Tony Soprano who is stricken with panic attacks. He goes to therapy to try and solve them. Through both his therapy sessions and his life, we see him struggle with sin, lust, greed, anger. Basically everything that makes us human. And it’s about whether he can overcome those things, or if he’ll be crushed by them. If Freud, Shakespeare, and Martin Scorsese all made a show together, it’d be this. There’s much more to it than that (He’s not the only character), but all this is what that’s what makes the show interesting to me.)
- The Wire (The general consensus pick for the greatest show of all time. Slow, but so worth it. It’s a very smart dissection of the drug war on a Dickensian scale, analyzing every single possible angle of “The Game”. If you want to understand that’s wrong with the drug war, this is where to find out.)
- Deadwood (The other pick that sometimes people make for the greatest television show of all time. Of the top 3, it is probably the most optimistic, but that is not saying much. Takes place in a gold mining town in South Dakota during 1877. All about how societies slowly grows. Think Shakespeare if Shakespeare used the word cocksucker every thirty seconds. )
- Mad Men (It is The Great Gatsby on television. All about people and their attempts to acquire happiness, or what they believe is happiness, during a very iconic era of this country. Riveting stuff.)
- Breaking Bad (Favorite show of the last five years. What does it take to break a good man?)
- The Simpsons (Trust me, early Simpsons changed the game. They’re brilliant. For the 90’s, greatestAmerican satire there was. I mean, they’ve invented words that are now in Webster’s Dictionary. That’s how good it is! THEY MADE UP WORDS.)
Not Quite in Top 6 But Might As Well Still Be Essential
- The Shield (Ifyou combined The Wire and Breaking bad. Plus, best series finale to a showever. Taking place in a drug ravaged area of L.A. called Farmington, it’s all about this small squad of cops that is allowed to deal with drug dealers by anymeans necessary. Sometimes they do the right thing. Other times, they don’t. But then, what price are you willing to pay for your safety?)
- Arrested Development (If you haven’t seen this, I’ll be disappointed.)
- Battlestar Galactica (The newer one. I haven’t actually seen it yet, but the general acclaim surrounding this inclines me to say to watch this one.)
- Game of Thrones (Lord of the Rings with more blood, sex, and modern themes of power and politics. And lots of incest.)
- Louie (Modern day Woody Allen basically. Funny but introspective. I love this show to death, and one episodein particular had a massive impact on me emotionally… I am a dork.)
Some Random Great Shows That Are Not Necessarily Essential
- Justified (This show is so good that even when it is slow it is still better than 90% of what’s on tv. But I don’t want to say essential because it’s still on and they could mess it up. I doubt they will at this point though.)
- Terriers (Little known, it only ran a season, but holy shit was it great. Think a modern noir films about two shaggy private eyes working for scraps in southern California. Most fun you’ll have all year. Please watch this show, it deserves to be known!)
- Veronica Mars (Film noir that takes place in high school. Witty and dark, it is a compelling private eye shows. BUT WATCH TERRIERS FIRST.)
- Firefly (I’ll just use what Joss Whedon said. “It’s about nine people looking into the blackness of space and seeing nine different things.”)
- Comedy Bang Bang (You can knock this show out in a day. Parody of late night talk shows, really absurd humor. May not be up your alley, but I love it.)
- Cheers (Not as crazy or manic as current sitcoms and more character based, but great stuff in here if you can get into it.)
Great But Flawed Shows Worth Watching
- Buffy/Angel (Great, great character work. Amazing dialogue. And some wickedly inventive plotting. That said, when it's bad, it's really bad. Which is unfortunately something that happens more often then I'd like to admit. Especially in the beginning, Buffy's rough to get through. I would just skip season one entirely, but many would disagree. Ultimately, it's your call. I haven't seen Angel, but understand that it is of equal merit.)
- Lost (People either love or hate this show. Watch it to enjoy the stellar character work, but do not expect a perfect resolution to all your questions.)
- Friday Night Lights (Another series I have not actually seen but I understand is very good, the only reason I put it on flawed is that a certain subplot in season 2 is still, to this day, routinely mocked by the TV watching populace at large.)
- West Wing (Great in the early seasons, but the seasons not penned by Aaron Sorkin are apparently lacking.)
- Scrubs
- Boardwalk Empire
- Homeland
- Malcolm in the Middle
- 24
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