I like seeing a group evolve and form good friendships. I also like sci fi and weirdness. For these reasons, two of my favorite shows are The Expanse and Severance. In both, by the end, I felt like I was “part of the team” in some way.
What are a couple of your favorites? What kind of itch do they scratch?
Avatar The Last Airbender. An animated series with a complete story arch that takes place in a unique world. The characters are very relatable and have great development over time, even the villians are better than what most shows have. The animation is sophisticated in the way it is used to help tell the story, and the story is wonderful, it hooks you in from the intro:
“*Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world.”
This show truly deserves all the praise. My older brother used to watch it back in its time, and I couldn’t understand how a 30-ish year old could watch cartoons like that.
15 years passed and someone recommends it. One day, while recovering from some cold in bed, I put Avatar out of boredom, some days after that recommendation. Damn. First couple of chapters are not very strong, but enough to keep digging. As these are short episodes, it really doesn’t matter. But the ending of the first season? That is art.
Batman: The Animated Series
Unique art style (it was drawn on black paper), excellent writing, excellent voice acting.
Inequivocal yes! Grew up with Batman:TAS.
Batman: TAS was and is dope. The entire DCAU is the best adaptation of comic books to date. There’s a reason Alan Moore was happy to give his approval to For the Man Who Has Everything.
Shout out to Dwayne McDuffie too. Passed too soon.
Farscape. Always farscape.
Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. From the sound of it if you haven’t already watched them you would really like them. Sci fi and definitely has the group/team evolving aspect.
Westworld (Season 1). The other seasons are good and have great moments but season 1 is special.
Poirot. It’s charming, full of mostly subtle humor, and generally just well written, acted, and produced. I appreciate that it has a deeply humane perspective where justice matters, and that effort has been put into historical accuracy. It’s also sufficiently detached from contemporary reality that its not a downer to watch even though it still has a very honest view of human nature.
The first and ONLY season of Altered Carbon. I love the dystopian cyberpunk sci-fi film noir style.
I really like Black Mirror. I watched a bunch of TV shows, started and left midway through others, but I always go back to Black Mirror. Like the creator said, it’s sci-fi techno dystopia. And he is working on the 7th season. One of the episodes will be a follow up to USS Callister. Awesome!
The Magicians. It’s like a more mature and dark Harry Potter/Chronicles of Narnia crossover. It has really good character development and isn’t afraid to have fun with things like musical numbers and self aware plotlines. The first season is the weakest of the bunch, but it’s still pretty good. So give it a chance past then if you are still on the fence.
I’m so excited for severance season 2. I can’t fathom how they could recreate the perfection of season 1 but I have my hopes up regardless
I like seeing a group evolve and form good friendships. I also like sci fi and weirdness.
You better get on that Scavengers Reign train. There’s only one season right now, but it rules, especially from a “weirdness” perspective, and there’s not going to be more unless it gets some more attention.
It’s Always Sunny and Bob’s Burgers are standouts for me, along with a lot of this thread.
I guess I’d categorize them both as shows where every character, however minor, contributes perfectly to the hilarity and overall vibe of the show. Really, any show with great chemistry/cohesion and ownership of the characters, where you couldn’t change a single thing to make it better. Psych and Futurama are a couple mentioned that fit the bill. Others are on the tip of my tongue but not coming to me. Oh, King of the Hill!
The best thing about IASIP and Bob’s Burgers is there isn’t a single off/bad episode in the first like 12 and 5 seasons, respectively. I stopped keeping up with both at some point when I was up to date and waiting. There’s not really a bad episode in any of those shows.
What I really like about Bob’s Burgers is how they record all together and have a lot of fast quipping and reactive energy.
Oh, and Archer! At least until things really switched up.
Upon repeated viewings I’m enjoying the Archer coma seasons more and more!
Bob’s Burgers’ biggest appeal is it’s a family that all love each other and don’t treat one-another badly. I know it sounds corny but it really does have a much bigger appeal than on animated shows where they do the opposite.
I was recently watching Archer again, so I’ll have to see how the later seasons hit this time around. It’s one of those shows I’ve watched multiple times over (all the shows I mentioned are, honestly) and it seemed to fall off, but I might have just been finally burnt out lol.
And that’s a good point about Bob’s Burgers. It’s always pretty wholesome. I almost forgot about all the songs, too. They’re so good!
Awesome songs! So many great ones.
The Wire is one of those shows that portray the detective work with different approaches. They also show brilliant criminal minds, leadership and organization. There are bits of heroism in some rogue characters, too. The political and juducial aspects of organized crime are unashamedly put in front of you. Acting and writing are top-notch. It’s just a must watch if you like TV shows.
BTW, great picks Severance and The Expanse, however, the latter had so many problems to find enough financial support that ends up showing on the screen. Being said that, the show is awesome in a Battlestar Galactica way to make things happen no matter the circumstance.
Right now? Enjoying Preacher, that seems like it would suit you.
Ever? That has to be Dr. Who. I watched it as a kid and watched the newer ones with my kids.
Smiling friends. The humor isn’t anything like I’ve seen before. I tend to love random humor.
Letterkenny. The insults are top notch.
I can’t believe I forgot about Letterkenny. The riffing is just so good, it doesn’t get old, and every character is perfect. And the music, especially season one’s display is exactly my taste. The whole show is top notch, but season one is something special.
Schitt’s Creek, too. Both are Canadian gems. I love how like half of the cast is Eugene Levy’s family, and Dan Levy is bae. It’s one of the few comedies to bring me to tears, I’m pretty sure more than once.
So many shows have to be tied for number one for me lmao. Every time I look back at this thread the list gets longer.
