What TV shows are a cut above the rest, and why?

TwinkieGorilla said:
edit: btw, Twin Peaks is and forever will be the greatest series on syndicated television. it was created (and with some episodes written and directed) by David Lynch. it makes X-Files look like an episode of sesame street.
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Fucking A', man, you said it. Twin Peaks is a masterpiece, and, to date, the best series i have ever watched. Figures it was never finished, but then again, most of the series i like never did. Haha.

I'm also positively surprised that at least some people here recommended Carnivale, it didn't really get the recognition it deserves, imo. The atmosphere and directing is fantastic, definitely something to watch if you like to feel "disturbed".

Other good and decent shows and series i watched:

That 70's Show
Never fails to make me laugh.

Harvey Birdman
Absurd humour cartoon at it's best, much better than stuff like Family guy.

Monty Python's Flying Circus
Classic, a must to watch. If you can stomach this brand of humour, that is.

Millennium
A good and enjoyable show, imo much better than X-Files (not nearly as good as Twin Peaks, though).

Monk
Who doesn't love Monk? :D

Nowhere Man
Alright, so i'm reaching here a little, it's not particularly good. But it packs quite a bit of good, old, atmospheric paranoia, and i love it for that.

Good vs Evil
It's not much more than an action series with semi-good attempts at humour, but the directing is decent enough, might be worth your time if you're looking for simple entertainment.

Heroes
I heard a lot of things about it, but one can't deny it's the best show about superhumans in years, except The 4400.

The 4400
Decent stuff, it's a tad boring at times. I'm in the middle of season 3 at the moment, and am enjoying it very much.

The Job
This show was great, it's a damn shame it was discontinued. The goofy detective and his even more goofy cop buddies really made my days brighter.

The Lost Room
Another good, but discontinued series. It's not stellar, but it's good enough to make one sad that it will probably never be picked up again.

Futurama
I doesn't always make me lol, but does it often enough to make it worth watching.

Bullshit
Penn & Teller at their best. The first season was a killer, and the rest isn't that much worse.

Cowboy Bebop
Even people who do not like Anime like Cowboy Bebop, that's recommendation enough, i think. :P

Allo! Allo!
It rules, fuck off. :E

Charlie Jade
I highly suspect that the only reason this show didn't become cult and is not getting the highest grades, is people have trouble following the action, and get confused as to what exactly is going on. I have to say, it happened to me too, this series IS damn confusing. But, nevertheless, it's also fucking great.
 
Madbringer said:
Twin Peaks is a masterpiece
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Nah.

I'm also positively surprised that at least some people here recommended Carnivale, it didn't really get the recognition it deserves, imo. The atmosphere and directing is fantastic, definitely something to watch if you like to feel "disturbed".
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I approve of Carnivale.

Monty Python's Flying Circus
Classic, a must to watch. If you can stomach this brand of humour, that is.
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Does that even count as a TV series? It's more like a cultural milestone and icon.

Heroes
I heard a lot of things about it, but one can't deny it's the best show about superhumans in years, except The 4400.
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Heroes is commendable, which makes it all the sadder that they have no qualms about resorting to cheap and hackneyed solutions at times.

The Lost Room
Another good, but discontinued series. It's not stellar, but it's good enough to make one sad that it will probably never be picked up again.
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I thought Lost Room was a 3-part miniseries? I've only seen the first two parts so I don't know if the ending was meant to segue into a series (no spoilers please). The second part definitely exceeded my expectations.

Cowboy Bebop
Even people who do not like Anime like Cowboy Bebop, that's recommendation enough, i think. :P
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Hell yeah. The only anime series I can unreservedly recommend.
 
Per said:
Nah.
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Heathen! :irked:

Per said:
Does that even count as a TV series? It's more like a cultural milestone and icon.
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Well yeah, of course. Originally it was just the TV show, all the other stuff came after it.

Per said:
I thought Lost Room was a 3-part miniseries? I've only seen the first two parts so I don't know if the ending was meant to segue into a series (no spoilers please). The second part definitely exceeded my expectations.
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There is at least one major loose end left hanging, and to my knowledge, it was supposed to be continued as a full series, but dropped due to poor ratings. A real shame.
 
Well, OK, Twin Peaks is special. When it aired for the first time back when none of you people were even born, I was glued to the screen - but that was also the case with Hill Street Blues. Also a large part of the fascination hinged on the prospect of finally getting some answers - any answers. After the series was cancelled, one of the writers openly acknowledged that they had been making it up as they went along:

Harley Peyton from the Twin Peaks FAQ said:
This is how we tended to handle a lot of plot cliffhangers -- set them up, figure them out later. It's not necessarily the best way to shape a narrative, but given the chaotic state of the creative process -- David's sudden entrances and exits, Mark Frost's desire to direct a movie at that point in time -- it was the best we could do.

[...]

And at any rate, the way we wrote -- we made it up as we went along -- made it impossible to ever project that far into the narrative future.

[...]

And let me reiterate one point, the writers were often speculating right along with the audience, and in this way, many of the characters evolved into more complex creations. And sometimes, it just seemed to blossom out of nothing. We would take character names from movies we liked, join them together, and others would take those names as some kind of sign. And would then speculate and ruminate on the various implied meanings.
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This also goes some way to explain my scepticism towards Lost. Interestingly, I know people who in spite of the quote above just won't believe it to be true - because they think a show simply couldn't be done that way. I don't know if they also believe that there's a unifying Lost theory that ties together all the hints and handwaves. I remain cynical on that point.
 
Per said:
This also goes some way to explain my scepticism towards Lost. Interestingly, I know people who in spite of the quote above just won't believe it to be true - because they think a show simply couldn't be done that way. I don't know if they also believe that there's a unifying Lost theory that ties together all the hints and handwaves. I remain cynical on that point.
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I dunno, from a production viewpoint it can be easier to write out the entire plot before. They did it for Carnivale, note, which was supposed to last 6 seasons.

The exactness people ascribe to Lost is a bit more dubitable, but who knows?
 
The lost mythology and mysteries of the island were already written and conceived before the actual story was written, according to JJ Abrams. The story is still in writing, and not going how they planned it. For example, they originally planned to kill off Jack, the most prominent character, in the first episode. But the actual mythology has only seen slight deviations, such as Bens character and attachment to the mythos, and all that. They have the entire story plotted out already, and they are just writing the filler to get there. From a production standpoint it is far more efficient, considering it could take as few days as a week to write up all the mysteries of the island, and then after that just add the story to the setting, the way tolkien added stories to his made up fantasy world.
 
Oooh, oooh, i nearly forgot about Kingdom Hospital, a really amazing and atmospheric series. One of the few series that got me gripped from the beginning till the end.
 
I know a few anime series that are pretty good, although I'm not much of an anime fan (I blame the amount I've seen on having nerdy friends):
Death Note, Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal, Afro-Samurai (cheesy but awesome), FLCL, Bastard!, Elfen Lied, and Serial Experiments Lain.

And anime movies worth a mention:
Akira, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Blood: The Last Vampire, Spriggan, Ghost in the Shell, Armitage III, A Wind Named Amnesia, Spirited Away, Paprika, and Jin-Roh.

I'm sure there is more, but that's all I can remember. All of those are pretty great, and would probably be enjoyed by people who don;t like anime very much (like me).
 
Survivorman wins! Bear Grills from man vs wild... well lets just look at him. He drinks his own piss!

So yeah, firefly, cowboy bebop, wolf's rain. They're happiness in a video form.

And thats all I've got to say about that.
 
Man vs Wild is pretty fun to watch, especially when Bear does something completely absurd, for the sake of survival, such as doing naked push-ups on a glacier. Ah-Teen, I know you appreciated that scene.

Someone mentioned great shows that were never finished. That made me think of "My So-Called Life". Perhaps just another high school show but one that felt a lot more real than the rest. Plus, you know, Jared Leto.... :look:
 
Makagulfazel said:
They could use those two hours showing much better shows like ...
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Makagulfazel said:
Squidbillies
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Makagulfazel said:
Tom Goes to the Mayor.
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I do believe you just invalidated your own point, sir. The only way that could've gone worse for you is if you'd mentioned 12-oz. Mouse. Most of Adult Swim's original programming watches like it was churned out by chemically imbalanced college dropouts.

As to LOST, I find it easy enough to believe that the folks generally knew what they were doing at the outset, but I think the truth is probably that the show's writing process is a hybrid between meticulously woven overarcing intrigues and the aforementioned Twin Peaks antics.

P.S.: Since the thread's expanded in scope now to include shows that no one under the age of 16 is likely to have even read the DVD slipcovers for, allow me to just say this: Northern Exposure.
 
I can understand how some people don't like TGTTM, but Squidbillies? Come on, you'd rather watch Bleach, Blood+, Eureka Seven, and Shin Chan?

Adultswim was way cooler when they stuck to comedy more than Anime/Absolutely-retarded shows.

Absolutely retarded:
Xavier
Saul the Mole man
Tim and Eric Awesome Show
12 oz. mouse
 
xdarkyrex said:
Makagulfazel said:
Come on, you'd rather watch Bleach, Blood+, Eureka Seven, and Shin Chan?
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No, those shows are also terrible.
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Haha, fair enough. They should play more Harvey and Space Ghost. I know there's a shit ton of episodes for both of those that I've never seen. Too bad the voice actor for Captain Murphy died, he was one of the best characters in any show, and Sealab 2021 could have run for a lot more episodes.
 
See, now you're getting to the good shows.
I'm iffy about space ghost, sometimes it was just retarded, but a lot of times it was hilarious.

Sealab, on the other hand, was brilliant.
I think adult swim cartoons should also start getting airtime on comedy central (sealab, harvey birdman, space ghost, metalocalypse, athf, the good funny original shows)
 
What about Frisky Dingo? That's a damn fine show.

Some other shows that I like:

-Lost: despite the retconning and fecking HUGE plot holes (WALT, anyone?!?!?) I still love this show. Though sometimes I wonder why.

-Metalocalypse.

-12 oz Mouse. Lots of people hate it, but I liked how it built if you saw the episodes from end to end.

-Perfect Hair Forever. Makes fun of anime cliches, is funny.

-Deadwood.... Well, some of it. A few times the pacing and writing took slight dips, but overall, it's solid.

-Carnivale: A great show, cancelled well before its time.

-Firefly: I'll admit I was skeptical at first, but I recently saw a mini-marathon on scifi. I'm shocked I've deprived myself of this show for so long.

-CSI (re-runs only.) The writing's gone downhill lately, but damn if the old episodes aren't a blast to watch.

-The Blade miniseries. Laugh away.... I know the premise was stupid, but gods help me I actually liked this thing.

-The Lost Room miniseries: I personally don't care if scifi makes this into a series, it was a solid miniseries.

Ahhh.... that's all I can think of right now. I know I'm missing something..... but that's a good list anyway.
 
Uh huh.... And just how many months ago did they say it was going to be resolved? And besides, I do remember them saying it was going to be explained in Season 3. *Looks around* Nope, no explanation.... hell, no Walt at all for almost the whole damn season.
 
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