I haven’t watched TV in years; kids and my previous job really killed that.
There’s SO much out there since I last picked up a remote, and I have a fucking huge backlog.
I’m open to anything, as long as it’s well done.
Series I liked: Vikings, Norsemen (hysterical), The Americans, GoT, Man in the High Castle, Expanse, Spartacus (Batiartus is amazing)
I’m scratching the surface of Boardwalk Empire, but open to other rabbit holes.
Andor
Avenue 5 is a brilliant dark sci-fi comedy that I cannot stop thinking about. It’s basically a cruise ship in space but then things go wrong. The physics are actually sound which makes for some really fun and terrifying gags. It’s heavy on dark humor, but if you’re ok with that it’s such a fun ride. I am biased but I feel like this show is criminally underrated.
I’ll check it out!
Alternate take: This show is godawful but for some reason I kept watching. It’s literally unpleasant to watch. Critics also panned it, if you find that of importance.
Same for me. I found the show amusing but never once laughed while watching it, if that makes sense
As a side note, there’s a Swedish movie called Aniara which has a similar premise, except if you replace the ‘dark comedy’ part with ‘unrelenting existential horror and infinite, unfathomable bleakness’. Worth a watch lol
If you like Vikings, try Black Sails. A very, very underrated pirate story, unofficial prequel to the story of Treasure Island that you might have read as a kid.
I watch it once a year. It’s that good. It recently appeared on Netflix in the USA and it’s finally starting to get the attention it deserves.
Hell yeah, such an amazing show!
Some historical drama/fiction I really liked:
- Pillars of the earth
- For all mankind
- The tudors
Not listing obvious masterpieces like Breaking Bad or The Office. These are my top picks that may not be on your radar, in no particular order, most of which are just 1 season, or have ended:
- Scavenger’s Reign - 1 season, animated, sci-fi drama
- The Rehersal - 1 season, Nathan Fielder, comedy, introspective
- How To with John Wilson - off-beat, documentation show, very funny and introspective
- Jury Duty - 1 season, hidden camera, comedy
- Red Oaks - 80s coming of age story
- Over the Garden Wall - 1 season, animated, for kids and adults, great to watch during fall/winter
- Tales from the Loop - 1 season, sci-fi, Twilight Zone-style 1-off episodes
- Taskmaster - UK, comedy, gameshow
- Gamechanger - American, comedy, gameshow
I know little about English speaking TV, so can’t quite help OP, but I gotta vouch for Taskmaster. This show is just incredible. I’ve only watched a few UK episodes, but I’ve watched every single one they’ve made in Portugal (4 seasons out already, 5th in the making iirc). It’s peak cheek-hurting laughter content. It’s not sophisticated humour or whatever, but it’s undeniably funny AF.
Glad to hear the Portugal version is good. The US version was pretty lame in comparison to the UK version. The thing I like about Greg’s judging in TM is how he rewards out of the box thinking, and takes ownership of being the Taskmaster. But it felt like the US TM punished it. “Yeah, the task didn’t prohibit you from doing that, and yeah you did it the fastest, but that wasn’t really in the spirit of the task, so I can’t give you points for it.” It was like the most boring game of Cards Against Humanity you can imagine. Apples to Apples with your grandma.
I’d say there’s a bit of both in Portugal’s TM. Sometimes the TM acknowledges the creativity, but if the execution it too off the rules, it doesn’t get well rewarded. Other times, creative solutions really bump a player’s score.
An interesting detail, though, is that in here, TM contestants are mostly non-comedians, and only four of them are permanent per season, with each episode having a different guest. I don’t know how it is in US, but I find it really entertaining seeing well known figures doing silly shit and being creative. The varying 5th seat also brings a nice dynamic, and sometimes some of them then get moved to the permanent cast in following seasons.
Ahh, that is interesting. I guess they have a winner of each episode that could be the 5th, but the season winner is always one of the 4?
Yep, that’s correct! There have been multiple occasions where the guest wins the episode.
but open to other rabbit holes
If you like satirical comedy or entertaining educational shows, there’s a lot on Australian television (particularly shows from the national Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Also, for people who enjoyed The Office (at least, the UK version, I haven’t seen the US variant), I recommend Utopia - it’s far from a clone but has a lot of similar themes of workplace life mixed with poking fun at bureaucracy and government.
but I don’t live in australia, or have a VPN to access ABC iView!
Visit the sidebar resources of [email protected], or even just YouTube will get you a lot of them.
My top ten-ish tv shows
- The Wire
- Bojack Horseman
- Patriot
- The Americans
- Better Off Ted
- Arrested Development
- Pushing Daisies
- Gravity Falls
- The Bear
Honorable Mentions
- Over the garden wall
- Luther
- Friday Night Lights
- The Queen’s Gambit
- GLOW
- Mindhunter
- Sports Night
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Atlanta
I can’t believe no one recommended Fleabag. It’s not the type of show that would attract me usually, but goddamn was that a masterpiece. Two seasons, short and sweet.
Another short series that is incredible is Tchernobyl.
I couldn’t get over the insane exaggerations of Chernobyl, but I agree the show was great.
Another vote for Scavenger’s Reign, it was amazing.
I have enjoyed the Wheel of Time episodes on amazon.
Blue Eyed Samurai was beautiful.
The IT Crowd is hilarious.
I thought I was the only one who’s seen Scavenger’s Reign. I haven’t heard much talk about it. Damn shame because it’s amazing.
It really is. I had only heard it was sort of hopeless so held out for awhile but my goodness it was just so very good. The art style, story, the very creative settings and flora/fauna, everything. So creative and oddly compelling, we enjoyed it so much.
My T shirt says:
Have you tried turning it off and on again
Letterkenny! Canadian humour at its absolute finest.
Also What We Do In The Shadows, and Reservation Dogs.
Just a warning, the third episode is notoriously bad and not indicative of the quality of the rest of the show. It’s totally skippable.
Aww I love Fartbook.
Mr Inbetween
An Australian hitman navigates his underworld life and parenthood. Better than it sounds. (Includes some heavy violence)
- Stranger Things
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- Upload
Mrs. Maisel is one of the funniest shows I’ve seen.
Severance
Six more months until season 2. Counting down the days.
So good.
Oz.
Then you may proceed with everything else.
Based on your previous shows: fallout, shogun and the boys are current.
Fallout - incredible S1 for the video game ip. Hilarious, visually stunning, flavorful
Shogun - game of thrones in japan
The boys - civilians take their city back from super powered heros
Ted lasso [ended] - amazing show about people, likely one of the best of this decade. A meme American football coach from the Midwest moved to the UK to teach a top tier UK futbol league.
Silicon valley [ended] - a tech startup in silicon valley on HBO constantly overcoming challenges with their revolutionary IP.
Avatar the last Airbender [ended] -
Disenchantment [ended] - Futurama but medieval magic
One piece live action - another great first showing for anime cross over, skips a lot of the filler and is executed well
+1 for the good place, arcane and last of us
