I LOVE YOU TELEVISION

[schmerica]

My top five TV shows of the last ten years:

1) Farscape
2) Deadwood
3) Arrested Development
4) Freaks and Geeks
5) Slings & Arrows

Runner-up: Buffy, for its amazing first few seasons -- but with points reduced because it couldn't keep up that level of awesome its whole run.

What about you guys? What are your top shows, the ones that make you go "Holy SHIT" and "WOW" and "LOVE" and squeak incoherently and just make you amazed for what the genre of television programs can do?

(Ones I didn't include: I'm assuming The West Wing and the Sopranos will make appearances, but I never watched either of them. I'm three quarters of the way through the first season of Battlestar Galactica and can't quite get into *that*, either. Firefly was good and fun, but it was more potential than achievement. Veronica Mars swings between awesome and rage-inducing a little too much for my taste. Etc, etc.)

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

1) Slings & Arrows
2) Slings & Arrows
3) Slings & Arrows
4) Slings & Arrows
5) Slings & Arrows

[loz]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'm understanding... you like some show called Slings & Arrows? ;)

[loz]

1) Life on Mars
2) Slings & Arrows
3) Futurama
4) Spaced
5) Angel

I've not seen Farscape yet. Nor Firefly, Deadwood or Arrested Development actually. I loved and adored the episodes of Freaks and Geeks I got to see, but it was finished too soon.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I've never even heard of Spaced -- is that British?

[loz]

Yep, by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, directed by Edgar Wright. It's very meta.

[minervacat.livejournal.com]

slings & arrows.
sports night.
futurama.

there are others i've loved and thought were brilliant IN MOMENTS - west wing & battlestar galactica included - but those are the three that made me go HOLY SHIT pretty much all the time.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

<3<3<3

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

Well, are we talking shows that *I* love, personally, shows that totally hit me in my id, or are we talking shows that are very, very high quality? Because they're not always the same!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Well, I was going for high quality -- thus the whole "holy shit, tv is an amazing genre" thing -- but my choices were High Quality That I Also Madly Adore, aka Freaking AMazing.

[ficbyzee.livejournal.com]

1. Veronica Mars
2. The Wire
3. Life On Mars
4. Buffy, with the exception of season seven
5. The Boondocks

Angel would be on the list if it weren't for occasional suckiness and consistently awful treatment of women. I will always have a special place in my heart for the first season of The O.C., because it introduced me to watching TV, period. And Supernatural is definitely in the top five of shows that affect me emotionally.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

1. Homicide: Life on the Street
2. The Wire
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (for the first three seasons)
4. The West Wing (for the first two seasons)
5. The Sopranos

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it is amazing to see how little our tastes overlap, isn't it? At least we can bond over our less-qualitatively-good-but-still-satisfying shows.

[china_shop]

No Due South? *makes puppy eyes*

For me:

1) Buffy (pretending that it ended with Normal Again)
2) Slings & Arrows (I still have 3 eps to go! eeeeeeeee!)
3) Due South
4) West Wing
5) My So-Called Life

(I feel like I should mention The Simpsons because it's been ground-breaking, but I don't really watch it so I won't. Also, I am adoring ReGenesis but I haven't seen enough yet to know whether it's going to manage to keep all the balls in the air or if plot threads are just going to be randomly abandoned. (Please don't tell me.) Oh and Life on Mars would probably be on my list if I hadn't felt like the last ep was a let-down. I'm sure there are others, too. My brain is fruz.)

OT: It is SO COLD here today! *huddles in front of heater*

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Aww, I love Due South with a deep and true love, I really do, but I don't think the actual quality of the show is up there with the other things I listed, when it comes right down to it.

Also, I bond with you over Life on Mars -- I had the same reaction to the last episode.

[china_shop]

I know DS is uneven and not particularly well-plotted, but I do love the mix of cop show and whimsy that I haven't seen done anywhere else. Maybe I just haven't come across it's predecessors, though. :-)

[destina.livejournal.com]

Top five of the last ten years...hm. I can't honestly say these are my top five, but they certainly sprang to mind very quickly.

1. Rome
2. Deadwood
3. Angel
4. The Sopranos
5. Queer as Folk

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting to notice how many of the shows we're all saying on only on extended cable, huh?

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

I'm still new to it, but The Wire is at the top of my list.

Then probably Farscape, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and .... augh. Carnivale.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I think Carnivale is vaguely on my "maybe I should watch that someday" list, but I haven't gotten around to it, quite.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_abulafia/]

Hi!

1. The West Wing
2. Regenesis
3. Slings & Arrows
4. Psych
5. Spooks

[http://users.livejournal.com/_abulafia/]

Although I've just remembered A Bit of Fry and Laurie!

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I really do need to get my hands on Regenesis some time...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_abulafia/]

It's so great! (Do you need any advice on where to get ahold of it?)

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

Due South, Dr Who (except for Peter Davidson and Colin Baker), Simone de Beauvoir's Babies, Seven Periods With Mr Gormsby, Slings & Arrows

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Wow, dude, I haven't heard of half of yours! Crazy other side of the world.

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

I actually don't watch much television from the US, because anything halfway decent is usually buried in the late night slots. I grew up watching a lot of British tv, and the Dennis Potter stuff was pretty much "Holy Shit!" but I wasn't always sure if I liked it.

[tharaist.livejournal.com]

Twin Peaks
Northern Exposure
Farscape
Babylon 5
Slings and Arrows

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Man, we overlap a little, and then the other ones I am totally unfamiliar with. (Are they the last decade? I thought maybe a little older than that.)

[tharaist.livejournal.com]

Well yes, Northern Exposure (1990-1995) and Twin Peaks (1990) are little older, but I wanted to mention them, because I certainly have been obsessed about them during the last 10 years. Excessively! Dvds on repeat! I kind of need time to form real attachment and we're talking about real gems here *g*

Babylon 5 is my sekrit passion. Sci-fi geek at heart, you know!

Also, I liked the first four seasons of West Wing, but then I lost my fate. Same with X-files, bad seasons kind of ruin my opinion about the shows in general.

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

1. The West Wing (only seasons 1-4; I left with Sorkin, 'cause they fucked up Jed and Leo and I couldn't deal with that.)
2. M*A*S*H (well, up until season 8, anyway.)
3. Matador (Danish TV show of twee wonderfullness)
4. Brideshead Revisited
5. Law and Order (season 1-5; I never could tolerate Rey, and though I like Ed Green, it still not the same.)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

...I'm 99% sure M*A*S*H wasn't on in the last ten years, but otherwise it's a very interesting list!

[vampirespider.livejournal.com]

Right. Uhm. I feel a need to re-iterate that I can read. Even if that does disqualify three of my choices. Damn it.

Well, replace with:
2. Sports Night
3. Sherlock Holmes (Granada edition)
4. Due South

Again: can read. just apparently not today.

[jae-w.livejournal.com]

1) Deadwood
2) The Wire
3) Gilmore Girls
4) Buffy
5) Arrested Development

[jae-w.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait -- I thought this was best of the past ten years, so I didn't include thirtysomething (which I was totally addicted to when I was a kid, best primetime soap every) and My So-Called Life.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait -- I thought this was best of the past ten years,

Heh, it was! But neat-o anyway.

[china_shop]

Oh, I desperately want to see some thirtysomething! It's not available anywhere, is it -- do you know? I didn't watch it as a kid, but I love My So-Called Life and I'm the right age for thirtysomething now and I want eeet! /random blurt, sorry :-)

[jae-w.livejournal.com]

thirtysomething is not out on DVD, which is outrageous! I would totally love to watch it again, but I don't know where to find it either.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_abulafia/]

Hey, I forgot about Gilmore Girls, even though I prefer Gilmore Girls to the bottom two items on my list. (All of the television I have watched! It's so hard to keep track of!)

[jae-w.livejournal.com]

It's hard to make these lists -- I made mine about twice before I got it into its final version, and the first time around I forgot Gilmore Girls too.

[minim_calibre]

1. Buffy
2. Angel
3. Farscape
4. Family Guy (original run more than resurrected Family Guy)
5. Supernaturalshutupseriouslyitmademecry.

I only included shows starting in 1996 or later, and which had at least one full series run. I discounted things like Slings and Arrows, because I mentally map short run series into a different category, but if I smush the categories, strike 4 and 5, replace with Slings and Arrows and Ultraviolet.

Also, the world needs an icon of Paul Gross Arms with Steve Holt Text.

Because.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Also, the world needs an icon of Paul Gross Arms with Steve Holt Text.

You have a beautiful and brilliant mind.