Top Ten TV Shows!
Sep. 15th, 2007 06:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaSo on a forum I hang at, there's this plan to come up with the forum's top 100 shows by popular vote. Everyone's encouraged to submit their top ten and then they'll poll the results. I figured since I spent time thinking about this, I'd cross-post here. Especially since with hiatus fever there's been a distinct lack of fannishness here-abouts.
It's a very personal list and the fact that I probably watch very little TV means that I'm sure there are loads of other shows out there I'm missing that really oughta be in this list. But still, my biased attempt:
1. Babylon 5
Because it laid the way for so much. Even though I felt the fourth season rushed through a war that should have been more epic and the fifth was a little listless (and yes I know that there were external reasons for that), and even though the acting wasn't always incredible, what this show attempted was. Nothing had tried to do that before. And the unbelievable G'Kar and Londo relationship and the acting of the two actors portraying those characters is possibly the most complex, ugly, heartbreaking relationship I've seen on TV. We always hear stories of friendship that breaches unbreachable gaps. Here's a story about a gap that was too wide and too horrific to be breached. Because those really happen too.
2. Martian Successor Nadesico
Not including the sequel movie! Okay probably most people have never heard of this. It's a 24-episode anime series, and usually I'm not a huge anime fan. I'd love to be an anime fan, but I find it hard to find series I like. Anyway, back to this show; it blends humour and tragedy very well. It applies all of the cliches of anime with a wonderfully light touch and a surprising amount of self-consciousness. When it then starts getting all metafictiony and using the anime-show within the Nadesico-universe that all the characters are fans of, to both poke fun at the 1970s giant robot era, and also within the show to make contact and bridge cultural differences on the other side of the war (Look! We all love anime!) it's hilarious. And when it fails utterly and leads to a pointless, bloody assassination because all 1970s giant robot anime teaches you is that the good guys always win and nothing they do is evil and their enemies are always unjust; when it only entrenches already entrenched sides, it's shockingly powerful.
3. Jim Henson's The Storyteller
Because it's perfect. I wouldn't change a thing except to make more. The Muppet Show very nearly made it up here, but I chose this instead because while it might not be as funny, it's more self-contained; more of a jewel waiting to be discovered.
4. Countdown with Keith Olbermann
I almost chose The Daily Show, but I went with Olbermann because his special comments are important, I think. Whatever one's political stance, passionate, well-reasoned, eloquent speeches are in short supply. And the power of dissent is something that needs the utmost protection. I love the Daily Show for masking such important points with humour; I love Olbermann for taking himself so seriously. Because teh internets iz srius business, err, newscasting is serious business!
5. Heroes
It's hard to tell how high/low Heroes would end up rating on this chart because we've only had one season. And things can go horribly wrong after one season (like Angel). But it amazed me enough with that season that it's got a space here. I love it for taking its medium so seriously, for refusing to apologise for being a visual comic, and for, well, being filmed like a comic book. With the exception of Tim Burton's Batman films, I haven't seen a really good visual depiction of a comic book is a LONG time, and considering how ingrained in our pop culture both TV and comics are... Well, it's a first and it pulls it off, and that means it gets to be on my list.
6. Battlestar Galactica
The new one. It's probably my favourite show on TV right now. It would have a higher ranking because it really discusses some awesome points and has a bold approach to, well, I suppose we're back to not being shy or ashamed about what it is and just committing to the premise and the style. I do feel that in the second and third seasons the writing and tightness of the plot suffered as did some of their integrity when dealing with certain themes. So it's lost some of it's uberness. But it totally deserves to be here based on what it has achieved. I think much of my final opinion on it will depend on the ending. If it's awesome, it'll retrospectively make me gloss over the parts that disappointed me; if it's not great, it'll always be an amazing show, but will confirm its place in the lower half of this ranking.
7. Dead Like Me
Who doesn't love this show? It's awesome! Deepness and biting humour. So well-constructed. Cancelled before it's time. I suppose also before it had time to suck.
8. Farscape
I don't have much objectivity when it comes to this show. I love it. There you have it. I think I may even have put it so low here because I fear I'm not objective. But to try: there may have been the occasional piece of bad makeup, and, especially early on, the occasional episode that resembled original Trek or Stargate, but what other show had Farscape's balls? Especially at the time. It's easy to forget how much things have changed in the near decade it's been since its debut. Muppet Pilot emoted far better than anything CGI I've yet seen. For sheer colour and wacky hijincks it's hard to beat. And its huge mix of episode types was great. You tuned in and didn't know if you were going to be watching a heartwrenching character piece as the heroine got drunk in the Hotel of the Damned and contemplated throwing herself out a window while slowly losing her sanity, or an insane comedy that features the hero in a space-hat covered in sick humming Ride of the Valkyries whilst becoming rapidly obsessed with crackers. Or an action adventure bank-robbery. Or an epic tale of inter-stellar war and destruction.
Plus what other show turned its hero into a nuclear terrorist. And kept him as the hero.
9. Ally McBeal
Pure genius and hilarity! It's here because I feel I ought to have something non-genre. Plus the commonplace use of magic realism and hallucinations and denying of the importance of a consistant reality is made of win. I think it's more succesful than other lawyer/medical/cop shows that try to be all gritty and moving because it does have such a light touch and a sense of the absurd, so the hard stuff hits you harder. Plus it always managed to pull off characters too quirky to be realistically believed. Perhaps because it simply denied believability was important, and thus, we just accepted it.
10. Dharma & Greg
I never saw the end of this series so I have no idea if it succumbed to the irritating habit sitcoms have of staying past their welcome. But yeah, I wanted to include something primarily comedic and I love this series. It's so hopeful. And so not based - as so much comedy is - on someone else's misery, or embarassment, or misfortune. Perhaps it's simply that if I were in charge of the world, the world would work this way. It captures the absurdity and surreality of my sense of humour and of the world, but treats this departure from logic as something wonderful, not something to be feared.
And thus ends my pretentious, non-inclusive list!
And yes. I feel terrible that Doctor Who isn't on here because it's massively iconic and I do really love large tracts of it, and I shouldn't let my emerging vendetta against Russell T Davies affect my enthusiasm as much as I'm doing. It almost made it on several times. But in the end, I guess, I figured there are other people who'll fight for Who. And while it might - overall - be one of the most important TV shows I've ever seen, I'm not sure I can genuinely claim it's one of the best? I don't know...it's a tricky one and I hope no one decides to skin me alive for leaving it off. ;)
P.S.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
asta77, have started watching House. It's pretty impressive! Enough so I may make a stab at watching it this fall season, though my schedule's pretty tight with Heroes, Dexter and perhaps the Sarah-Jane Smith adventures. Either way, thanks for the recommendation!
It's a very personal list and the fact that I probably watch very little TV means that I'm sure there are loads of other shows out there I'm missing that really oughta be in this list. But still, my biased attempt:
1. Babylon 5
Because it laid the way for so much. Even though I felt the fourth season rushed through a war that should have been more epic and the fifth was a little listless (and yes I know that there were external reasons for that), and even though the acting wasn't always incredible, what this show attempted was. Nothing had tried to do that before. And the unbelievable G'Kar and Londo relationship and the acting of the two actors portraying those characters is possibly the most complex, ugly, heartbreaking relationship I've seen on TV. We always hear stories of friendship that breaches unbreachable gaps. Here's a story about a gap that was too wide and too horrific to be breached. Because those really happen too.
2. Martian Successor Nadesico
Not including the sequel movie! Okay probably most people have never heard of this. It's a 24-episode anime series, and usually I'm not a huge anime fan. I'd love to be an anime fan, but I find it hard to find series I like. Anyway, back to this show; it blends humour and tragedy very well. It applies all of the cliches of anime with a wonderfully light touch and a surprising amount of self-consciousness. When it then starts getting all metafictiony and using the anime-show within the Nadesico-universe that all the characters are fans of, to both poke fun at the 1970s giant robot era, and also within the show to make contact and bridge cultural differences on the other side of the war (Look! We all love anime!) it's hilarious. And when it fails utterly and leads to a pointless, bloody assassination because all 1970s giant robot anime teaches you is that the good guys always win and nothing they do is evil and their enemies are always unjust; when it only entrenches already entrenched sides, it's shockingly powerful.
3. Jim Henson's The Storyteller
Because it's perfect. I wouldn't change a thing except to make more. The Muppet Show very nearly made it up here, but I chose this instead because while it might not be as funny, it's more self-contained; more of a jewel waiting to be discovered.
4. Countdown with Keith Olbermann
I almost chose The Daily Show, but I went with Olbermann because his special comments are important, I think. Whatever one's political stance, passionate, well-reasoned, eloquent speeches are in short supply. And the power of dissent is something that needs the utmost protection. I love the Daily Show for masking such important points with humour; I love Olbermann for taking himself so seriously. Because teh internets iz srius business, err, newscasting is serious business!
5. Heroes
It's hard to tell how high/low Heroes would end up rating on this chart because we've only had one season. And things can go horribly wrong after one season (like Angel). But it amazed me enough with that season that it's got a space here. I love it for taking its medium so seriously, for refusing to apologise for being a visual comic, and for, well, being filmed like a comic book. With the exception of Tim Burton's Batman films, I haven't seen a really good visual depiction of a comic book is a LONG time, and considering how ingrained in our pop culture both TV and comics are... Well, it's a first and it pulls it off, and that means it gets to be on my list.
6. Battlestar Galactica
The new one. It's probably my favourite show on TV right now. It would have a higher ranking because it really discusses some awesome points and has a bold approach to, well, I suppose we're back to not being shy or ashamed about what it is and just committing to the premise and the style. I do feel that in the second and third seasons the writing and tightness of the plot suffered as did some of their integrity when dealing with certain themes. So it's lost some of it's uberness. But it totally deserves to be here based on what it has achieved. I think much of my final opinion on it will depend on the ending. If it's awesome, it'll retrospectively make me gloss over the parts that disappointed me; if it's not great, it'll always be an amazing show, but will confirm its place in the lower half of this ranking.
7. Dead Like Me
Who doesn't love this show? It's awesome! Deepness and biting humour. So well-constructed. Cancelled before it's time. I suppose also before it had time to suck.
8. Farscape
I don't have much objectivity when it comes to this show. I love it. There you have it. I think I may even have put it so low here because I fear I'm not objective. But to try: there may have been the occasional piece of bad makeup, and, especially early on, the occasional episode that resembled original Trek or Stargate, but what other show had Farscape's balls? Especially at the time. It's easy to forget how much things have changed in the near decade it's been since its debut. Muppet Pilot emoted far better than anything CGI I've yet seen. For sheer colour and wacky hijincks it's hard to beat. And its huge mix of episode types was great. You tuned in and didn't know if you were going to be watching a heartwrenching character piece as the heroine got drunk in the Hotel of the Damned and contemplated throwing herself out a window while slowly losing her sanity, or an insane comedy that features the hero in a space-hat covered in sick humming Ride of the Valkyries whilst becoming rapidly obsessed with crackers. Or an action adventure bank-robbery. Or an epic tale of inter-stellar war and destruction.
Plus what other show turned its hero into a nuclear terrorist. And kept him as the hero.
9. Ally McBeal
Pure genius and hilarity! It's here because I feel I ought to have something non-genre. Plus the commonplace use of magic realism and hallucinations and denying of the importance of a consistant reality is made of win. I think it's more succesful than other lawyer/medical/cop shows that try to be all gritty and moving because it does have such a light touch and a sense of the absurd, so the hard stuff hits you harder. Plus it always managed to pull off characters too quirky to be realistically believed. Perhaps because it simply denied believability was important, and thus, we just accepted it.
10. Dharma & Greg
I never saw the end of this series so I have no idea if it succumbed to the irritating habit sitcoms have of staying past their welcome. But yeah, I wanted to include something primarily comedic and I love this series. It's so hopeful. And so not based - as so much comedy is - on someone else's misery, or embarassment, or misfortune. Perhaps it's simply that if I were in charge of the world, the world would work this way. It captures the absurdity and surreality of my sense of humour and of the world, but treats this departure from logic as something wonderful, not something to be feared.
And thus ends my pretentious, non-inclusive list!
And yes. I feel terrible that Doctor Who isn't on here because it's massively iconic and I do really love large tracts of it, and I shouldn't let my emerging vendetta against Russell T Davies affect my enthusiasm as much as I'm doing. It almost made it on several times. But in the end, I guess, I figured there are other people who'll fight for Who. And while it might - overall - be one of the most important TV shows I've ever seen, I'm not sure I can genuinely claim it's one of the best? I don't know...it's a tricky one and I hope no one decides to skin me alive for leaving it off. ;)
P.S.
asta77, have started watching House. It's pretty impressive! Enough so I may make a stab at watching it this fall season, though my schedule's pretty tight with Heroes, Dexter and perhaps the Sarah-Jane Smith adventures. Either way, thanks for the recommendation!
