The Absolute Best TV Shows I've Seen (Non-Animated)
I'm not just a nerd about cartoons, I'm a nerd about all media. This list was made with all the honesty I could muster.
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- CreatorMark FrostDavid LynchStarsKyle MacLachlanSheryl LeeMichael HorsePicks up 25 years after the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town are stunned when their homecoming queen is murdered.David Lynch somehow successfully brought an art-house production to Showtime and enthralled us all again with his endearing and quixotic characters, eerie moods, exceptional music, and the most surreal television ever created. One cannot rate this show along side other shows without thinking that perhaps an entirely new medium of media consumption should have been created just for David Lynch. The series finales of such great shows as The Sopranos seem hilariously shallow, pedantic, and bereft of any artistic merit when compared to the finale of this limited-event season. Twin Peaks is high art, when the rest of television simply isn't.
- CreatorDavid SimonStarsDominic WestLance ReddickSonja SohnThe Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.It's hard to add anything new to what's been said about this show. What I will try to contribute is that as a viewer who disdains graphic violence and unnecessary bleakness, I never once had to look away or feel scarred from what I saw. If anything, the more I saw the more I wanted to see. It is as educational as it is enthralling as it is true to life, albeit a part of life I'm unfamiliar with being raised in a very different place than B-more. I will forever be a changed person from this show.
- CreatorMitchell HurwitzStarsJason BatemanMichael CeraPortia de RossiLevel-headed son Michael Bluth takes over family affairs after his father is imprisoned. But the rest of his spoiled, dysfunctional family are making his job unbearable.There are innumerable things to laud here, but I'm going to point out that managing the interweaving of these characters as well as the interweaving of their schedules as actors, the funding of the show, being cancelled right after winning SIX EMMY AWARDS, and having seasons spanning a decade with nothing in-between - while maintaining tone and quality - is nothing short of miraculous. That said, it's quite simply hilarious from front-to-back.
- CreatorLarry DavidJerry SeinfeldStarsJerry SeinfeldJulia Louis-DreyfusMichael RichardsThe continuing misadventures of neurotic New York City stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York City friends.Television at its core should be easy to enjoy. Seinfeld is exactly this. I don't really care what you think about Jerry as an actual comedian, nor do I care if you think Larry contributed every good thing here (seasons 8 and 9 prove otherwise by the way). What I do care about is that this show is just as funny now as it was when it aired. No other live-action show can say that in 2021 in my opinion. No other 'sitcom' has aged this well, nor has any other TV show changed our national sense of humor so much.
- CreatorJoss WhedonStarsNathan FillionGina TorresAlan TudykFive hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.Perhaps the most iconic show to ever be cancelled, Firefly represents everything that went wrong with Hollywood at the turn of the century. It was quite close to perfect, yet nobody seemed to notice because it wasn't profitable. I feel lucky I was one of the apparent few who watched it while it aired. Shiny.
- CreatorDennis KleinGarry ShandlingStarsGarry ShandlingJeffrey TamborWallace LanghamA comedic behind the scenes look at a late night talk show.It's difficult to process exactly how groundbreaking this show was. The style of the writing and the performances echo throughout all of television comedy since. This is high-brow writing but from a place of pure love. Garry Shandling's humor may have seemed trite as a stand-up, typically limiting his observations to sex and women. In this show however, you'll find that all of that insecurity and shallow nervousness was coming from a place of deep and innocent love for everyone.
- CreatorCarl ReinerStarsDick Van DykeMary Tyler MooreRose MarieThe misadventures of a TV writer both at work and at home.Despite its age, the writing and acting in this show shine as brightly now as I'm sure they did in the '60s. Carl Reiner's Alan Brady is exhaustively hilarious in every appearance, and Dick Van Dyke shows a deftness for comedy, slapstick, and emotional catharsis that only a super-star of his magnitude could pull off in their early 30s. I also dare anyone to watch Mary Tyler-Moore here and not fall madly in love.
- CreatorRob McElhenneyGlenn HowertonStarsCharlie DayGlenn HowertonRob McElhenneyFive friends with big egos and small brains are the proprietors of an Irish pub in Philadelphia.One could say this is the Seinfeld of my generation, and I wouldn't disagree. The fact that the characters are legitimately unlikable was such a new thing for a comedy when this came out that I actually disliked it after the first few episodes. Once I realized I was not supposed to like the characters however, the genius behind this show was immediately apparent. It's highly commendable that these guys are still on the air, and still making people laugh with their own unique brand of dark humor.
- CreatorBonnie TurnerTerry TurnerStarsJohn LithgowJane CurtinKristen JohnstonA group of aliens is sent to Earth, disguised as a human family, to experience and report life on the third planet from the sun.Endearing, quaint, and sometimes raucously funny, this show seems to have slipped past later generations' radars. The obvious star is John Lithgow, whose awkward alien Dick is perhaps the most cartoonish character ever brought to life in a live-action sitcom. Despite some clunky episodes and hackneyed premises, this show's quality endures even decades later, and remains one of the best comedies NBC has ever produced.
- CreatorMark FrostDavid LynchStarsKyle MacLachlanMichael OntkeanMädchen AmickAn idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks.The original series gets a lower place on the list simply because of the falloff in season 2 that is quite obviously due to Lynch's absence. Even his absence couldn't completely ruin the show though, and there are really only about 4 episodes that don't hold the same level of quality as the first season, which is some of the best television ever aired.