Television
Favorite shows of all time
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Witty show that perfectly mixed drama, comedy, satire, intelligence and action. It doubles as a perfect metaphor for young lives, and after seven years, offered the best dialogue and character development you could find in any medium.
2. Game of Thrones
This might be blasphemous, but I think I prefer the show to the books (which I read). Nice job of streamlining. Who knew you could do epic fantasy on tv? Of course, dragons help. I liked the ending much more than most people, but still, definitely not perfect.
3. Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad is stunning and flawless. The only problem was that whenever an episode was on, the next day I'd overhear people mentioning "Jesse" throughout the office, which was always disconcerting.
4. Arrested Development
This was probably the funniest sitcom ever to air, and it rewards repeat watchings. We still quote it all the time. Enjoy the Simpsons mashup here.
5. Dollhouse
This great show only lasted two seasons, but it built a fascinating mythology in that time. It was riveting to watch: when anyone can be anyone else, you get twist after twist after twist, and no deux ex machinas like in Lost.
6. Community
Community is a hilarious sitcom, but it's more like an anti-sitcom. It sends up every sitcom cliche it can think of. One of my favorites was its clip-show episode: a series of flashbacks to other episodes. The twist was that those other episodes had never happened, so we just saw tantalizing hilarious snippets of what might have been.
7. Over the Garden Wall
This animated miniseries offers one of the most unique creative visions I've seen. This is the reason I read so many graphic novels, because you can find that creativity there, but it rarely gets through to TV or film. This has to be watched more than once.
8. Flight of the Conchords
I remember my friend showing me a clip of theirs early, and I didn't get it. Who knows what frame of mind I was in at the time. The thing that finally pushed me over was seeing this classic Jenny clip.
9. Veronica Mars
Great cast in a fun and complex show. The first and second seasons are better than the rest, but you can say that about a lot of the shows here. It also gets a lot of points for having a running theme of the nation's growing income inequality, years before it was a primary political issue.
10. Young Justice
This show is surprisingly sophisticated in terms of its plotting, which is super-tight and gets better as the show goes along. The animation is top-notch, but perhaps their greatest feat is streamlining 80 years of DC Comics continuity and dozens of characters into a much tighter, more integrated, cohesive story. Besides The Simpsons, I dare you to think of a show with more great characters in play than this one.
11. Louie
Well, that didn't age well. But what a strange and daring show, so well done. The episode tackling religion was pretty remarkable, as was the episode in which Louie is harrassed by a young hooligan and then follows him home to confront his parents. Season one ended in Veselka, down the street from us.
12. The Middleman
Go find this obscure show. If you have a very specific sense of humor that appreciates bizzare sci-fi happenings, ridiculously complex dialogue, running gags and great characters, it's for you.
13. Batman / Justice League
2 shows?! Whatever, it's my list, I can do what I want. These are terrific dramas, with cool noir art. Justice League Unlimited in the last season was spectacular! All of the episodes were part of a large chain that culminated in a grand finalé. The best part - the Speed Force! Also, The Question ...?
14. The Simpsons
Most brilliantly executed, longest-running satire ever created. It should keep running forever ... when are they finally going to create an all-Simpsons network? The Simpons gets the vote for single show you'd like to be stuck on a desert island with. Mmmmm ... dessert island.
15. The Daily Show
Whether John Stewart or Trevor Noah, the host and his crew achieved something better than just making fun of politicians and society; they also make fun of the media itself, and all the sensationalism and inanity contained within.
16. Fringe
Both Fringe and Lost suffer from too many episodes, probably - so some of them are misses. But the great ones are really stellar. And the acting, particularly from Anna Torv and John Noble, is incredible, especially with the large number of characters they each have to play! White Tulip is one of my favorite episodes, what with the time travel.
17. Hawkeye
Several of the Marvel shows could have gone on this list - Wandavision was particularly good - but both Clint and Kate are favorite characters of mine and it was incredible to see one of my favorite comics runs adapted so faithfully to the screen. The action and humor are both great, and Hailee Steinfeld is the perfect Kate Bishop.
18. Firefly
Short-lived ensemble show with nine great characters in a space Western. Serenity, the follow-up movie, was even better.
19. Freaks & Geeks
Caught this spectacular but short-lived show on DVD. Jason Segal, James Franco, Seth Rogen and more all got their start here. Check it out immediately!
20. Lost
Lost is finally over, but it went out with a bang, and I for one think it wrapped up well. Except, of course, for the 50 remaining plot details they never answered. Well, it was fun while it lasted: no other show kept us riveted week after week like this one.
22. Stranger Things
Brilliant and a blast, especially at inspiring retro '80s fan art. I have one coworker who could only watch the first 15 minutes of the first episode before getting too scared to watch the rest.
23. Jekyll
This is the shortest series on this list (6 episodes), almost short enough to be interpreted as a tv movie. But no, it's episodic, and it demonstrates two important rules: keeping it short and simple (like Lost didn't) and the quality that can come from a single coherent vision (one writer wrote all the episodes.) It's tightly plotted, and excellently done.
24. Jessica Jones
It's still hard for me to believe that one of my favorite comic characters got her own tv show. Alias was the first Marvel comic I read and it got me into that whole universe. The show totally does it justice.
25. Six Feet Under
Incredibly well-done show I caught on DVD after a recommendation by the lovely Rachel. Its level of quality would place it higher on this list, but it was just hard to watch at times.
26. Penn & Teller: BS
Big Props to Penn & Teller for making this show. I didn't agree with every one of their conclusions, but most of them I did, and we need a show like this on tv to try to stem the tide of misinformation.
27. How I Met Your Mother
This seems like just a regular, formulaic comedy, but somehow it works and is hilarious. Also nice to see a lot of accurate NYC jokes. No idea why they felt compelled to squeeze in the weird framing element of his kids, though. A strange, unnecessary gimick.
