I haven’t been watching much in terms of actual shows for a good while, then while listening to a podcast a host casually mentioned they had rewatched Chernobyl, how it still holds up, that there’s a reason it got as much acclaim as it did, etc. So I thought I’d give it a go and wow, loved it (still one episode left to watch).
Had me thinking, what else have I missed out on? What are some “absolute cinema” TV shows that still hold up and and are considered must watch?
I’m really surprised The Expanse didn’t get more of a mention here. Great scify series, and I don’t like series in general.
Its closer to hard sci fy than prob anything else, it has pretty realistic politics of exploitation, rebellion and inyterdependace in the near (few hundred years) colonisation of the solar system. There’s some gritty pewpewpew in space, balanced out by some space opera, with spectacular characters that have more depth than most and a story arch thats likely to make you binge it.As an added bonus the series is 6 out of 9 (/10) books it is based on. There are some notable differences by the end but still you can… expand beyond what the series shows.
What resonated me the most in The Expanse is how tribalistic humans still are. Our lizard brain is having a hard time evolving with human development.
I watched the show and then within the last year listened to the audiobooks. In book 4? I think? Amos is talking to Peaches about how humans are tribal, and their tribes expand when times are good but shrink when times are bad. And yeah, it was kind of a mind-blown moment for me because I’d never thought of it that way before.
I liked that and also how most everyone lives in a moral grey area. Very few could you say are outright evil or good.
It’s biggest problem was the arguably not so good first season I think. Also the ending is kinda eh.
Other than that, it’s my favorite series since TNG. I absolutely loved it and I pity the people that couldn’t see past the first season
It’s biggest problem was the arguably not so good first season I think.
I thought the 1st season of The Expanse was good, but the 2nd season was so bad that I stopped watching in middle of episode 2. The difference was pretty stark, almost as bad as the difference between the great season 1 of Spooks/MI-5 vs its god-awful season 2.
I’d recommend the first 2 seasons of Okkupert, and Firefly.
While I think Chernobyl is a great fiction series, there’s a huge amount of completely unnecessary lies in it, including the intro and outro about lies.
I couldn’t disagree with you more. Especially when you mention Firefly, which in my opinion was a mediocre slog that only got attention because it was cancelled.
Dang, I didn’t realize I had a nemesis until this very moment. I will die on the Firefly hill.
Haha cheers
The Good Place. Season one is just to set it up, please stick with it through at least S2. The ending makes me cry every time I watch it
My gf and I like to say that, based on the premise, The Good Place had absolutely no right being as amazing as it was. Phenomenal.
As a non religious person, I wrote this show off for years. I recently watched it and it was amazing. Can’t recommend it enough.
Same. The advertising didn’t do it justice, so I ignored it as some Christian-adjacent pandering. I was very incorrect about that.
For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s an intelligent, witty, creative comedy about moral philosophy and friendship. There’s an absolutely hilarious episode dedicated to The Trolley Problem. If that sounds interesting to you, then I think you’ll love this show.
I love the lady who’s stuck in purgatory and everything there is just meh
Oh fork. Fork! what the fork!!
I made it… Almost through season 1? I don’t remember how far. There were clever bits, but it just didn’t grip me. I hate to invest that much time into something that people keep recommending just to make it to the end and… Yeah.
That and severance. It took so long to get started that I fell off that too. People say it’s great though.
Avatar:TLA was great and so was Arcaine and Blue Eye Samurai though!
Eh, at the end of season 1 there’s a huge twist that nearly everyone loves. You should finish the season.
It’s also why I STOPPED watching the show, but I’m very much in the minority.
Is the twist that they are actually in hell? Cuz I guessed that about halfway through the first episode when every single character was an insufferable ass. Which coincidentally is also why I stopped watching. Very American humour I think, it felt similar to Parks and Rec, another one which everyone seems to love that I bounced off hard.
Spoiler
I think so. I saw a spoiler online where the mayor guy says something along the lines of “is this the bad place?” But even knowing that… I guess I just didn’t enjoy ride enough to make it to that point? Ok, so they’re in the bad place… Now what? File a grievance? Maybe there’s no good or bad place and they’re all in purgatory? Idk. Maybe the humor just didn’t hit.
Speaking of Chernobyl, watch Andor next (lots of the same actors). Go in ignoring the fact it has anything to do with Star Wars and you’ll have a great time. It’s peak television.
I love me some Sci-Fi but yeah, the fact that it’s Star Wars had me ignoring this one despite all the amazing reviews and hype. Is Andor still enjoyable without having seen anything but the first six movies and the first two of the sequels? I know it’s closely linked with Rogue One and I didn’t watch that either. Still recommendable with that little knowledge of the current expanded universe?
If you’re into sci-fi, I hope you’ve seen Babylon 5. The political storylines have never felt more relevant.
I went in having only seen those movies too, you really don’t even need that much familiarity to enjoy this. Don’t sleep on it, it’s quite good.
I watched Rogue One after I finished Andor and I was pretty disappointed, it’s an alright movie I guess but a huge downgrade from the show IMO.
Interesting, as I thought the opposite. It felt bigger budget and a great extension to the series.
I think the only thing you need to know is the Empire are fascists and baddies. They make that pretty clear even if you don’t know that. Imagine a political spy thriller made by someone who doesn’t care about Star Wars lore, because that’s what it is.
Better than the rest
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The Wire & Homicide: Life on the Street (David Simon Box Set)
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Atlanta
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The Expanse
Comedy
- NewsRadio (for Maura Tierney and Dave Foley and Phil Hartman and Khandi Alexander and Vicki Lewis and Stephen Root)
- Schitt’s Creek
- Ted Lasso (Seasons 1 and 2)
- Murphy Brown
- Sex Education
Sci-Fi
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
- Dark
- Devs
- Altered Carbon (Season 1)
Drama
- The Newsroom
- Law & Order (seasons 1-8)
- Succession
- Severance
Intense Drama (TV-MA and little levity)
- Chernobyl
- Adolescence
- Utopia
- MR. ROBOT
- Luther
- True Detective (Season 1)
- Vince Gilligan Box Set (Better Call Saul & Breaking Bad & Plur1bus (has levity))
- Ozark
Anthology shows
- Black Mirror
- Love Death + Robots
Animated
- Rick and Morty
- Samurai Jack (2001-2004, 2017)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)
- Gravity Falls
- South Park
- Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Final Space
Perpetually on deck for me
- Fargo
- Andor
- Band of Brothers
- Barry
- Legion
- Letterkenny
- Bojack Horseman
- Scavenger’s Reign
- Fringe
I forgot about Altered Carbon! That first season was amazing, and it’s borderline criminal how shit the follow up season was.
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It might not be “absolute cinema” and had maybe 5% of the budget of Chernobyl, but given that people have suggested Ted Lasso, I’ll go one step further into the realm of fuzzy feel-good TV and drop a mention for my favourite TV show of all time.
There isn’t a single moment in that programme where any of the characters are mean to each other (save for the when dealing with a rival club). It’s just 20 beautiful episodes of people looking for gold, living their lives, and doing their best to be supportive.
And it’s incredibly funny.
DARK on Netflix.
It’s not for everybody but I loved every second of it. In summary (without spoilers):
I tried watching it on two occasions, but I felt like I needed a spreadsheet in hand to keep track of things.
There is a supporting website: select the series and the episode you’ve just finished and it’ll give you a family tree and a plot update.
That’s hilarious. Maybe a third attempt is in order.
I literally had a sheet of paper with me that I’d update as things were revealed, showing the relationships between people. It ended up looking like a conspiracy board. And for some people that probably sounds like homework, but for me it felt like I was exploring a ruin or something and was making a map of my discoveries. It made me more of a participant in the show, like I was actively watching for clues, rather than passively letting it wash over me.
It worked for me at the time.
Seriously. There are multiple times where just showing someone’s face is a big reveal, but you’re expected to keep track of multiple versions / ages of various people AND their family connection and I just could not keep up with remembering who was who. Everyone looks like the same so that doesn’t help.
DARK is a show to watch in ADHD Hyperfocus, which is what I did.
Indeed! I’m still autistically obsessed with the show, and it’s been about 4 years since I first watched it.
Nobody seems to have watched it, but “Counterpart”. It’s a mind fuck Science Fiction show. Only 20 episodes, so manageable.
It was cancelled, but the writers knew beforehand and wrote an absolute perfect conclusion for the last episodes.
Also it’s best to go in blind. There are events predicted in the show that later happened for real (I don’t want to spoil it), and it’s fun to think “oh that is how and why it happened”!
Also J.K. Simmons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterpart_(TV_series)
I can’t recommend this show enough.
Widow’s Bay is a recent horror comedy series starring Matthew Rhys & Stephen Root that’ll be getting a second season. I consume all media and I highly recommend this gem, especially for the person who’s seen everything in these comments. It has excellent, subtle comedy, ramping lore-building in the vein of the best years of LOST, and the story of the week combined with overarching season arc structure of classics like X-Files.
100% recommend this. I haven’t laughed at a show this much in a long time. Matthew Rhys is the king of reactions.
Well put!
Counterpart
It’s a unique show. Cold War spy games in Berlin involving a gateway to a parallel universe. Mood is somber and intense. Looks great.
Spoiler tags please. What you mention is a really amazing reveal for people who go in blind.
It’s not a spoiler if you learn this in the first episode.
Sure it is, if it is dramatically revealed in the first episode.
I’m always ready to plug Bojack Horseman. Yes, it’s an animated show about an anthropomorphic horse, with tons of silly, animal puns and visual gags, and cartoon-ish storylines, and it will sometimes just rip you open emotionally. Will Arnett is a phenomenally gifted voice actor. And despite this, one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen is one in which he has barely any lines.
The usual advice, of course, is that it takes until the middle of the first season to get really good. (The first few episodes aren’t bad, they’re just light comedy.)
It did some really cool experimental stuff as well, such as:
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An episode that’s 90% the main character’s monologue, delivered straight into the ‘camera’.
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An episode from the perspective of someone with advanced dementia, where a lot of the important details are scribbled out.
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An episode from the perspective of someone who’s (perhaps) dying, and it’s all explicitly stated to be a hallucination as their neurons are misfiring.
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A lot of exploration into themes of nihilism and pointlessness.
And it all works. That show is amazing.
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Bojack is a depressed narcissist feeling sorry for himself. The main character is a self centered asshole.
“The view from halfway down” saved me from suicidal ideation, thoughts and intent. It was the first light that got me to realise suicidal ideation is not normal, it’s not a solution. It got me to listen to what friends were saying, and eventually led to me accepting the breakdown that got me professional help before I hurt myself. Not saying it’s the trigger, or the totality: I had a lot of help along the way. But definitely significant in so many dark times.
The way Bojack Horseman approaches gender, sexuality and mental health is always extremely accepting, able to draw comedy because of it and not against it, and then being so utterly heartbreaking at times.
Yeh, “sad horse” show. But it has so much depth.
The constant development of BoJack, of Todd, of Diane causes you (well, it did for me) to reassess previous episodes in new light.
Truly incredible.The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn’t a search for meaning. It’s to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you’ll be dead.
The Great (Hulu) is an all time favorite of mine and almost nobody talks about it.
I loved Mr Robot
Edit- I’d also throw in Fargo. The season with Chris Rock and Jason Schwartzman was weak but the rest are great (Especially seasons 2 & 5)
Hello, friend. Hello friend?
I find the anti china nonsense thats makes zero sense and the ending being limited redistribution only to americans very troubling and really ruined the whole show.
Deadwood Invincible Mr. Robot
This is PEAK of my last year.
I’m pretty into it
Yo, I loved Scavenger’s Reign, I’ll have to check this out.
Scavenger’s Reign
OOO. Thanks for the recommendation! Never heard of this shows. Looks pretty cool. Gotta BUY IT for my Jellyfin.
I really like animated showsss.
Scavengers Reign was great but this one has a much tighter plot/story
So many good answers so i will only add ones i didnt see in the responses.
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Supernatural (seasons ~1-5 before the storyline was extended)
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The Last Of Us
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Dark Matter
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Archer
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Game of Thrones (except the last season unfortunately, but the others are still worth watching regardless)
And since someone has already said black mirror, i would add Love Death & Robots, which is both very similar (tone & thematically) but also all over the place (artistically and storytelling wise).
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I always plug Scavenger’s Reign. It’s a a sci fi survival show about a set of people who get stranded on an alien planet animated kind of like a graphic novel. The creators used a bunch of nature documentaries as inspiration to create a truly alien and interdependent ecosystem, but the theme tells you everything you need to know about the tone.
Also, animated sci fi comedy, The Venture Bros
The creator behind Scavenger’s Reign, Joe Bennett, has animated for the FXX series Cake, and he also created Adult Swim’s Common Side Effects, as well as soon to be on Netflix Dealies which is based on one of his Cake shorts.
Everything he does is excellent, even his illustrations for Joe Pera’s bathroom book “A Bathroom Book for People Not Pooping or Peeing but Using the Bathroom as an Escape” are wonderful.
Also the artistic inspiration for Scavenger’s Reign is french graphic novelist Jean Henri Gaston Giraud, also known as Mœbius, if you’re looking for similar artwork.
/infodump
I had no idea, it just keeps getting better
There’s also a video game that uses a very Moebius style that’s unrelated to all this, it’s called Sable and its a lot of fun.
Severance is amazing and worth watching multiple times.
The Walking Dead through the end of season 6
Futurama
Ted Lasso
The Good Place
3rd Rock From The Sun
Band of Brothers
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (don’t let the trailers fool you— it starts kinda slow but it’s an adult storyline and is phenomenal from like middle of Season 1 on. The last four episodes are iconic for me. You can skip the movie.)
Long Way Round (sequel Long Way Down is excellent also)
The IT Crowd
Marvel’s The Punisher
Chapelle’s Show
Haunting of Hill House / Haunting of Bly Manor
Fringe
The Expanse
Simpsons through season 7
Finally, I was scrolling to see if anyone else mentioned Fringe. I need to rewatch it sometime, I haven’t seen it in probably a decade or so and I still remember it was one of the first shows that made me realize what really good TV actually is (I was in my early teens at the time).
