Over the past year, for no good reason aside from chronic tiredness, I've been reading less and instead watching a lot of old and new TV. Here's what I've watched in (very) rough order from best to worst. The shows in the bottom half of the list mostly suffered from getting a little tiresome toward the end.
Liked a lot:
- Deadwood
- Ozark
- Boardwalk Empire
- Travelers
- Rome
- Orange is the New Black
- Bridgerton
- Money Heist
- Perry Mason
- Lost in Space
- True Detective
- The Wire
- Bosch
- The Boys
Liked:
- Game of Thrones
- Umbrella Academy
- Mad Men
- Broadchurch
- Clarkson's Farm
- Night Sky
- Queen's Gambit
- Watchmen
- Chernobyl
- Painkiller (thanks entirely to Uzo Aduba)
- Bodyguard
- Halt and Catch Fire (first three seasons)
- The OA
Not bad:
- The Sopranos
- Behind Her Eyes
- The Peripheral
- Russian Doll
- Succession
- The Leftovers
- Mare of Easttown
- The Expanse
- Bodies
Meh:
- Band of Brothers
- Beef
- Wheel of Time
- The Mandalorian
- 1899
- In From the Cold
- Counterpart
- Squid Game
- The English (though it had an odd charm)
- The Magicians
No good:
- Archive 81
- Lupin
- His Dark Materials
- The Book of Boba Fett
- Man in the High Castle
- Jack Ryan
- The Witcher
- Dead to Me
This list doesn't include shows that I gave up on after watching a few episodes, including: Station Eleven, Ballers, Entourage, Barry, The Pacific, The Deuce, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry Sanders, Breaking Bad, The Diplomat, Shadow and Bone, Mr. Robot, Schitt's Creek, Veep, Emily in Paris, and Silicon Valley.
Great to see all the recs for tv shows. I don’t think I saw Slow Horses on Apple TV mentioned. Outstanding spy series with a star performance by Gary Oldman.
I really loved Loki on Disney, and the recent four Doctor Who specials.
I agreed on a lot of these, although it's funny to see The Sopranos under "Not bad" considering how big a deal it was when it came out.
Schitt's Creek may not be everyone's taste, but the core theme doesn't quite come into focus until the end of Season 1, early Season 2. At it's start, it seems like a cheesy/goofy skewering of awful rich people forced to live without money, and it kind of is, but you eventually learn that the Rose family aren't bad, it's just that being rich robbed them of the opportunities of being decent people. As they start to grow, the show warms up.
Breaking Bad is an even slower burn, but it's not always an easy one to watch.
Soap Operas as far as the eye can see.
And the fact that you put the OA, literally the worst piece of garbage I have ever forced myself to sit through a season of, makes me wonder very much about what kind of person you are.
This is amazing. How in hell does anyone find the time to watch that much television (and maybe some in-person movies) in a single year? And still publish 20 or 30 mostly rational blog posts a week? While also spending many hours on mountaintops with astrophotography equipment? I can't comment on your ratings, Kevin, because I only view about one percent of the stuff on your list. Still, amazing.
You don't go much for comedy, do you you Kevin? Too bad, because there is some very funny stuff available, with Derry Girls and Reservation Dogs being high on my list. I also strongly second the several nominations for Slow Horses and Poker Face, which are both both funny and suspenseful, and, I know it gets a lot of backlash, but Ted Lasso is also fine, as is almost anything with Hannah Waddingham.
I'll add Slow Horses as a recent show that's excellent and very enjoyable. A Murder at the End of the World was another recent show that was quite good. The new season of True Detective is strong so far.
Over the past few years White Lotus, The Good Lord Bird, The Terror (season 1), Hacks, Mindhunter, and Euphoria were all very well written and acted.
If you're into SciFi / Fantasy then The Last of Us, Silo, Lockwood & Co, and Fortitude were all entertaining. The first season of Raised by Wolves was approaching greatness until the end of season 1 when the writers lost their collective minds and fully jumped the shark (or should I say snake) in epic fashion.
Some excellent non-American but still in English detective / police / crime series are Reyka (South African), Troppo (Australian), Vigil (British), Kin (Irish), Strike (aka C.B. Strike, British), Killing Eve (British), The Fall (Northern Irish), and Luther (British). Two decent American ones are City on a Hill and Hightown.
For younger skewing comedies Derry Girls, Reservation Dogs, Sex Education, and Wednesday (comedy / very light horror) were all fun. Better Things (older skewing but with several young characters) is pretty great.
Easily seconded shows already mentioned by others above : Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Treme, Line of Duty, plus (for those who liked The Boys) Gen V. Peacemaker is another one for fans of The Boys / Gen V.
I agree on almost all of the "Liked a lot" and "Liked" lists but some real favorites that I love slipped into the "Not bad" / "Meh" / "No good" columns (The Leftovers, Succession, Band of Brothers, The Sopranos, The Magicians, and The Expanse). I also really enjoyed many on the "Gave Up" list (Silicon Valley, Breaking Bad).
Comedies are interesting; I find that where you're at in life when you watch them has a lot of influence on how they're received. Entourage is a very male, very juvenile show but it takes me back to my younger years and I thought it was hilarious. Veep is an all time classic.
I'll stop there because we are truely living in the peak televsion era and are swimming in qualikty shows.
I cannot recommend enough - if you're looking for something light to put on with almost no consequence from episode to episode but it's still an incredibly enjoyable hour of television: Taskmaster. Go for the brit version and I'd skip ahead to season 6 if you just want to get a sense of it. It's not quite a panel show, it's not quite a a game show. inst=ead imagine if double dare's phyisical challenges (I think you'll get that reference) was the whole thing and the rules were left ambiguous - leading to some truly wild and wonderful bits of rule interpretation.
the show is extremely funny, especially as you watch enough to get to know the people involved. the basic premise is that Greg Davis assigns chores to comedians which they carried out in their various ways, and the results are screened live. He's aided by Alex Horne who is his long suffering assistant. In reality Alex is the creator of the show and not only writes most of the tasks he even wrote the (very catchy) theme. The big joke is everyone knows this but we all act as though he's a stuttering sycophant.
all episodes are on YouTube for free. pop in for a season or even just an episode - I have grown to find it makes perfect viewing when having a meal.
There is no accounting for taste.
It's nice to see that someone else flushed “Curb Your Enthusiasm," and I can respect a "Breaking Bad" rejection - I liked it, but it has been too highly revered.
I wish "Succession" had been cancelled and the master tapes simply burned. "Game of Thrones"? Unwatchable.