I will own, though, that the belief that your ability to appreciate new media dissipates as you get older is, to some degree, starting to happen for me with television. I don't know if it's a case where I'm just not giving new shows a chance, or if new television isn't compelling (I think it's a combination, if looking at this year's rather unimpressive Emmy nominees is any indication-this is the best TV could produce in 2026?), but as you'll see, only five of these shows are still on the air (though, it's worth noting, one just went off the air in the past month), and only two of those five premiered in the past 10 years. By-and-large, there are very few TV shows that I have fallen in love with that are still airing (I do my own personal Emmys on a Golden Globes timing so I've got a few more months, but will own that this year is looking peaked so far).
And that, for me, is what is the hallmark of good television. I am very much a movie guy-I watch a lot of TV (probably more than I should), but TV is not really my jam. I think it's too predictable, too overdone. I like a good story, one that is told well, with relatively little repetition unless it's making a point. A movie, with just 90-180 minutes of typical length, certainly can fall into that trap, but it largely stays away from it. TV, though, can stretch for years. There are shows that I don't have on this list even though I watched them (on the air) cover-to-cover because they went on too long and stopped being worth it in my memory. Even shows that are on this list clearly had their moment in the sun and never stopped: The Simpsons is in the Top 10 shows, but of its 37 years on the air, the latest episode in the run that I have here is toward the end of the 7th season. This isn't because I stopped watching-it's because it was never as impressive as it was those first few seasons.
But "love" was the word I wanted to highlight, because that's what I think about when it comes to great television. Look at my Top 100 movies and you'll find cold, tough films like The Conformist or A Clockwork Orange-these are not films that are easy to love. But I'd go out on a limb and say I love all of these 25 shows in the sense that I rooted alongside them, I wanted to know what happened to the characters and they became a part of my life while I watched them...and after. Television is a thing that I watch over-and-over, much more so than movies, I'm just pickier about it. Other than something like, say Clue and The English Patient, I doubt there are a lot of movies I have seen more than, say, 20 times. But Friends or Bob's Burgers or Community...I have watched those episodes more times than I can count. As a result, this feels honestly more indicative of my personality than even my movie list-I have spent thousands of hours with the characters on this list. I have spent more time with Abed Nadir or Kate Austen or Eric Cartman than I have all of my cousins combined.
Rather than just unveiling my Top 25 favorite shows, I thought I'd do a little twist on the format and list my Top 10 favorite episodes of each series. This was MUCH harder to do than the series. For starters, it's unwieldy (some of these series have literally hundreds of episodes...remembering the kinds of details to pick out favorites is a challenge). It was oddly easy to name the favorite episode in each series (you know what you're looking forward to)...what became harder was hitting, say, the 8th best episode because then it became splitting hairs.
I learned some things about myself with these. I famously don't like series finales when rewatching. Sometimes they're too much-it's not on this list (though I do enjoy it), but I will almost always stop watching Schitt's Creek before the ending because I don't want to let it go (and to a degree I don't totally like the ending). I want that familiarity to be with me. Also, some of these shows their final seasons are their least successful. Oddly, though that's kind of true for pilots which are sort of crystallized in some cases & the show needs to get off-the-ground, and I have an equal number of pilots listed below as I do final episodes (six each). It tends to be Season 2-4 that fare best (all but two of these series have at least one episode in their second season), as that's when you've gotten to know a series the best but it can still surprise.
I'm going to now present the list in descending order (#1 being my favorite show). I'll do a quick little write-up for each, but will note a few things. First-this is based on my favorite shows (just want to underline that if you hadn't already gotten it). Second, I'm not a completist about TV (I give up shows once I'm bored, and also I don't see every show); I have a running list of classics I need to watch someday, but they take a backseat to movies. I will note, though, that I've seen every episode to date of all 25 of these series, even the ones with 10+ seasons. Every series has at least two seasons (there are great miniseries out there, and maybe someday I'll make that list, but the goal of this is continuing series so I wanted to truly do multiple season shows); I also didn't include web series, though I would be remis if I didn't say that Bad Boy on YouTube as I chronicled here would be a contender if I did (see it, see it, see it). I also cheated a little bit with two-parters, and did include one movie that is based on these series because it feels like a "very special episode." This updates every few years, and occasionally shows get back on (#20 dropped from the list a few years back to reemerge last time, and #23 was actually in 26th place last time and finally got onto the list with virtually no new episodes in the interim). Also, I put a parentheses behind each episode title to indicate season and episode number, so (1.4) is the fourth episode of the first season, for example. Enjoy, and share your lists in the comments!
1. The We We Are (1.9)
2. Cold Harbor (2.10)
3. Woe's Hollow (2.4)
4. Defiant Jazz (1.7)
5. Who is Alive? (2.3)
6. What's for Dinner? (1.8)
7. Chikhai Bardo (2.7)
8. The After Hours (2.9)
9. Attila (2.6)
10. Good News About Hell (1.1)
Severance is one of the only shows on this list to still be on the air, and of the five that's still on the air, it's the only one that is truly long-form for the entire run of the series (three of the remaining are generally self-contained, and the fourth is largely season-contained). I tended to favor episodes, therefore, that feed into the central mystery and drama, which means that this list could honestly change the most the longer I feel if there's a payoff or if there's new turns that make me favor older episodes that hinted at those turns. Severance is also in a dubious spot here-it's only on its second season (I did not include any single-season shows here), so it could falter (shows like, say, Westworld or The Bear might've been a threat here if they had kept up what they did the first two seasons) but the first two seasons were so good I feel confident endorsing it).
1. The Burrito (2.12)
2. Michael's Gambit (1.13)
3. Whenever You're Ready (4.13)
4. Janet(s) (3.10)
5. Rhonda, Diana, Jake, and Trent (2.11)
6. Somewhere Else (2.1)
7. Pandemonium (3.13)
8. Chidi Sees the Time-Knife (3.12)
9. The Trolley Problem (2.6)
10. Dance Dance Resolution (2.3)
On the flip side of Severance is a show like The Good Place, which honestly had a fine-but-unremarkable first season until its finale. It was an inventive show, but I distinctly remember when I was catching up (I started watching it sometime in the middle of the second season if memory serves) thinking "why is this so critically-acclaimed?" but when the twist of "Michael's Gambit" happens, it becomes much, much funnier & confident, and honestly more sincere. This is one of the few series that has its finale on here, which is unflinchingly beautiful (I wish they'd had the guts to not put a silly stinger on it, but until that moment it may well have been one of only two series whose best episode might've been the finale).
1. Kiss (1.3)
2. Perfect (2.8)
3. Promise (2.3)
4. Boyfriend (1.8)
5. Challenge (2.4)
6. Forever (4.1)
7. Crush (1.2)
8. Love (3.1)
9. Friend (1.5)
10. Together (3.7)
The most recent show to finish its run, and the only series on this list to have its connected movie on the Top 10, Heartstopper is odd because it's a show that 1) demographically, I'm probably too old for (proof that I can fall in love with a series very much made for Gen Z) and 2) it may be the only series on this list that I largely don't give a damn about the supporting characters. Joe Locke & Kit Connor's chemistry is so good in Heartstopper, it's hard to focus on anything else. I partially wish that Heartstopper had been a full 22-episode season because there are aspects of the side characters I think might've been worthy in that situation, but you'll note that virtually all of my favorite episodes are very clearly major moments in Nick & Charlie's evolution.
1. Open and Shut (1.10)
2. Sitzprobe (3.8)
3. The Boy from 6B (1.7)
4. The Last Day of Bunny Folger (2.3)
5. Fan Fiction (1.8)
6. I Know Who Did It (2.10)
7. True Crime (1.1)
8. Grab Your Hankies (3.3)
9. After You (5.2)
10. The Show Must... (3.1)
We're clearing out all of the recent shows pretty early here (every other remaining current show started over a decade ago). Only Murders is a series that is just a joy to watch each week. It tries to be about more than that sometimes, but honestly the best parts of this adventure is just Charles, Mabel, & Oliver riffing on each other, each scoring the next zinger or punchline, solving another murder in the silliest way possible. I love me a mystery, and you'll see here that while the three "very special episodes" stand apart, a lot of these are just damned funny moments from the series (or finally revealing the killer).
1. Cocktails & Dreams (2.16)
2. The St. Valentine's Maxssacre (2.13)
3. Blax, Snake, Home (2.1)
4. The Kerkovich Way (2.17)
5. Everybody Loves Grant (2.14)
6. Barefoot Pedaler (1.11)
7. More Like Stanksgiving (3.4)
8. The Ex Factor (3.11)
9. Baby Steps (2.2)
10. The Incident (3.16)
One of two series on this list that clearly ended before its time but still has stayed in my heart, Happy Endings is a show that I occasionally feel was thrown off by the constant need to wrap up each season, and there are parts of Season 3 where I believe/hope that they were going to rewrite and give certain characters a shot (Penny deserved another round with Pete, same with Max and Grant) which neither of the two script-reading codas to the series really captured. But it's also one of the funniest series of all time, and one that in episodes like "Cocktails & Dreams" proves the chemistry was unstoppable with the main characters.
1. Generalissimo (3.10)
2. Reunion (3.5)
3. MILF Island (2.11)
4. Queen of Jordan (5.17)
5. The Natural Order (3.20)
6. Dance Like Nobody's Watching (6.1)
7. Double-Edged Sword (5.14)
8. Lee Marvin vs. Derek Jeter (4.17)
9. Mrs. Donaghy (5.11)
10. Tracy Does Conan (1.7)
30 Rock is a good example of a show that I love and that I generally think of as steady throughout its entire run, so this list (I made these in a bottle, not in any way trying to spread the wealth) kind of backs that up. With the exception of the 7th season, every one has at least one entry on this list, and while I think in part that's telling (the seventh season tried to wrap and do multi-episode arcs in a way that many of the early episodes really didn't), it also shows that 30 Rock really started out strong and ended strong. These episodes are in part driven by three of my favorite recurring guest stars (Jon Hamm, Elaine Stritch, & Sherri Shepherd).
1. I Heart NY (4.18)
2. Ex and the City (2.18)
3. The Good Fight (4.13)
4. The One (6.12)
5. Hop, Skip, and a Week (6.6)
6. Anchors Away (5.1)
7. Shortcomings (2.15)
8. Are We Sluts? (3.6)
9. Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda (4.11)
10. Four Women and a Funeral (2.5)
I never watched beyond the second episode of And Just Like That because I could instantly tell that the series was going to be dreadful and no amount of Carrie/Charlotte/Miranda would make it worth it, and I made it through the two movies with nostalgia and love of the characters carrying me through, but when it was good (particularly Seasons 2-5) Sex and the City was an ode to a specific type of adulthood. One that involved culture, food, life, romance, friendship, and yes, even sex, that didn't need to have shame about the fact that you didn't look like the Huxtables or the Taylors or the Cleavers. As someone who would grow up to spend the entire time that I was these women's ages being single in the city (part of it even in New York), it felt aspirational as much as entertaining. The best episodes of the series you'll notice are frequently about that balance, about falling in love with being single itself.
1. Cities (2.6)
2. Islands (2.1)
3. Extremes (3.6)
4. Humans (3.7)
5. Ice Worlds (1.6)
6. Mountains (2.2)
7. Deserts (2.4)
8. Freshwater (3.4)
9. Ocean (3.2)
10. Ocean Deep (1.11)
Maybe the most out-of-place series on this list, and the only one that is truly non-fiction, Planet Earth is as much here on its own merits as it is a placeholder for the many, many, many David Attenborough series that I have watched & adored continually through the past 20 years. For me, the best episodes of this series combine learning something new and having genuinely jaw-dropping nature where you kind of can't believe there was a camera at that exact moment. Season two is very much my favorite, as you can see it takes up 40% of the list with only six episodes in total.
1. Connor's Wedding (4.3)
2. America Decides (4.8)
3. All the Bells Say (3.9)
4. With Open Eyes (4.10)
5. This Is Not For Tears (2.10)
6. Church and State (4.9)
7. Which Side Are You On (1.6)
8. Safe Room (2.4)
9. Nobody is Ever Missing (1.10)
10. Chinatishire (3.8)
Most of the series on here, as I mentioned above, tended to peak in seasons 2-4, which is of course the case for Succession. This series, though, stands apart from every other series on this list as its final season was undoubtedly its best one. The series' early moments, where we're establishing this family of misfits, don't work nearly as well as when we understand what tragically broken and deeply bad people everyone in this is. The best part of Succession is that it makes you, desperately, want people like Shiv and Ken and Roman to be the redemptive hero...but in this family, there are no heroes. Everyone is their own version of corrupted. The best episodes of the series show that, and the destruction that can have on the world when you give these morally bankrupt people control of the country.
1. If It's Thursday, It Must Be Beverly (4.7)
2. Murder Takes the Bus (1.18)
3. The Sins of Castle Cove (5.17)
4. Sticks and Stones (2.10)
5. The Murder of Sherlock Holmes (1.0)
6. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall Parts 1 & 2 (5.21-22)
7. Who Threw the Barbitals in Mrs. Fletcher's Chowder? (4.12)
8. Mr. Penroy's Vacation (5.3)
9. The Corpse Flew First Class (3.12)
10. Who Killed JB Fletcher? (7.14)
Because there are so many, and because they are so similar, Murder, She Wrote was the hardest of the 25 series to corner down to ten episodes. Do you judge based on which was the hardest crime to crack (if so, that is on this list though I won't spoil it by pointing it out because if you tell someone there's a twist they know to look for it)? Do you judge based on the quality of the guest stars (in which case, the best one, Jeanne Crain, definitely makes the cut as well)? For me, I judge it based on the one that is the funniest, and keeps our treasured Jessica close to home (the Cabot Cove episodes were always the best, which is why all of the move to NYC post-Season 7 is off of the list here). But man do I love this show-I used to time my Sunday nights based on when Andy Rooney was on 60 Minutes because I knew we were just moments away from Murder, She Wrote.
1. The One where Everybody Finds Out (5.14)
2. The One with the Embryos (4.12)
3. The One with the Rumor (8.9)
4. The One with Monica's Thunder (7.1)
5. The One with Chandler in a Box (4.8)
6. The One with the Prom Video (2.14)
7. The One where No One's Ready (3.2)
8. The One with the All the Poker (1.18)
9. The One with the Cheesecakes (7.11)
10. The One with All the Thanksgivings (5.8)
At one point Friends was immobile as my favorite show (honestly, in my whole life I've probably only had two shows I've ever consistently called my "favorite" which is not the case for movies...if you want to know the other one, skip to the bottom of this article or just read through this blog a bit as I talk about it a lot). It's now at #15 but that's because it's not omnipresent for me anymore-a recent revisit made me realize though that I still loved it, especially the first few seasons (honestly, the show was never as good as it was before Monica & Chandler fully got together, and then it truly never recovered after Joey & Rachel). But when it was good, like these episodes, showing people just welcoming themselves into life, it was a warm hug every Thursday night. Few shows have gotten such a momentous finale watch from me (I threw a party with about 15 people shoved into a tiny dorm room).
1. The Theme of Life (1.17)
2. Fools Night Out (2.3)
3. The Last Virgin (4.5)
4. Troubled Water (3.5)
5. Cro-Magnon (1.12)
6. Cloudy Skies, Chance of Parade (4.20)
7. The Ex-Files (4.10)
8. In Dreams (2.11)
9. Pilot (1.1)
10. Just Friends (3.10)
If there was a show that competed against Friends for the top of my affection in high school, it was 100% Ally McBeal. This was the first show I thought of that was really one that I would consider mine. And part of that was because I not only watched it live, but because it was (for years) incredibly hard to find (it was one of the last major series of its era to get a DVD release) it existed mostly as something I would offer up. The fifth season does not hold up (too many characters were gone, and the sugar high of Robert Downey, Jr.'s best performance the year before left a gap), but a funny, snappy, culturally delicious portrait of life it was in its heyday. I still hear my theme song.
1. Kiss and Tell (1.7)
2. That Damn Donna Reed (1.14)
3. The Lorelais First Day at Yale (4.2)
4. Twenty-One is the Loneliest Number (6.7)
5. The Big One (3.16)
6. I Can't Get Started (2.22)
7. Raincoats and Recipes (4.22)
8. The Incredible Shrinking Lorelais (4.14)
9. The Bracebridge Dinner (2.10)
10. Come Home (5.12)
Fun fact-"The Theme of Life" (Ally's best episode) starred Gilmore Girls staple Liz Torres in a guest spot. I point that out both because it's true and also because Gilmore Girls would 100% be on the Top 10 of this list if it had stuck a little more to the themes of its early episodes and not the dreaded Season 7. I recently rewatched most of the series, and while there are moments toward the college years where it starts to feel a bit stretched, it still works and is funny & sweet & lovely & romantic (growing up is realizing that Logan was the guy for Rory because Rory was also kind of shallow & materialistic, and we wanted her with Dean or Jess because we wanted to date them...or maybe just I did). I love how the show upon rewatch gives us deeply imperfect characters (no one on this show is a saint except maybe Lane, which would not be the case in 2026 when Manic Pixie Dream Friend status would've been bestowed upon Sookie at least). But the seventh season is unwatchable, and is best left discarded for a repeat of one of the more Stars Hollow-centered episodes where romance is left in the dustbin and the girls get to just enjoy their magical lives.
1. Scott Tenorman Must Die (5.4)
2. Woodland Critter Christmas (8.14)
3. Fat Butt and Pancake Head (7.5)
4. Imaginationland Episode III (11.12)
5. Make Love, Not Warcraft (10.8)
6. Dances with Smurfs (13.13)
7. Cancelled (7.1)
8. Casa Bonita (7.11)
9. Doubling Down (21.7)
10. The List (11.14)
There are three animated series on this list, the three animated series of my life, and all of them I've seen them through the good and the "maybe we should cancel this." While one still regularly spits out bangers in the mid-teens and one could've retired in Season 15 & been the greatest series of all time (but has since become a hollow shell), South Park is in the middle. The first Trump administration, and the horrifying parallels with Cartman & Mr. Garrison on the show mean that we have one episode from the 21st season here, by far the latest in a run any series on this list was able to get an entry, proving it could give the best far into the series. But the true best is probably Seasons 5-8, when Cartman would graduate from a stupid bully into a sociopathic supervillain, and we'd fall under the spell of a lovable scamp named Butters.
1. Casino Night (2.22)
2. Beach Games (3.23)
3. Dinner Party (4.13)
4. Boys and Girls (2.15)
5. Women's Appreciation (3.22)
6. Niagara (6.4)
7. The Dundies (2.1)
8. Customer Loyalty (9.12)
9. Stress Relief (5.14)
10. The Job (3.24)
I started watching The Office because I worked in an office where everybody would not stop talking about The Office. Similar to Gilmore Girls, I don't actually watch the full series when I rewatch it (I have probably S1 of The Office slightly more than S7 of Gilmore Girls, but I'd be shocked if I'd seen either of them more than maybe twice outside of the initial viewing, whereas the rest of the series I've hit double digits on). For me, the cringe humor of this series is secondary to the camaraderie that comes with a chosen family at work, which is close-to-my-heart as most of the best friends I would make in adulthood would come from working, in, well, an office. While I never met my Jim or Pam...still open to it? Also, kudos to the series for recovering from the brutal post-Michael back-half of S7 and all of S8 for a surprisingly strong S9 (it's #8 on this list for a reason).
1. One Wonderful Day (1.23)
2. Bang (3.7)
3. Guilty (1.8)
4. Free (4.17)
5. Something's Coming (4.9)
6. Pilot (1.1)
7. Come on Over for Dinner (7.23)
8. I Know Things Now (2.21)
9. Down the Block There's a Riot (7.10)
10. A Spark. To Pierce the Dark (5.18)
You'll note that I'm old enough that I remember what nights certain shows were on, my brain not yet functioning around the idea of a streaming drop giving me my favorite shows (you'll also note that with the sole exception of Heartstopper, none of these are released in a binge model, even the streamers). For eight years, you did not talk to me on Sunday nights from 8-9 PM because I was spending it with Susan, Gaby, Bree, & Lynette. I was obsessed with Desperate Housewives, and watched it without fail even as others fell by the wayside. The best episodes are the ones that leaned into either each season's mystery (i.e. the the finales) or the disaster episodes in the middle (gotta love the era of the sweeps month), which makes up the majority here, including the brilliant conclusion to the first season's mystery. I even liked S8, though by then too many characters had left & we needed to call it quits.
1. The Book of Nora (3.8)
2. I Live Here Now (2.10)
3. The Most Powerful Man in the World (And His Identical Twin Brother) (3.7)
4. International Assassin (2.8)
5. Cairo (1.8)
6. Gladys (1.5)
7. G'Day Melbourne (3.4)
8. The Garveys at Their Best (1.9)
9. Guest (1.6)
10. The Prodigal Son Returns (1.10)
I will own, though, that I started watching Desperate Housewives around episode 4 or 5, so it wasn't truly start to finish. Honestly, only three series on this list did I actually start watching on the very first episode, in real time, and watch until the true end in real time. One of those three was The Leftovers, a series that honestly most don't get to claim that distinction, as the tone of the first season was off-putting for some, who got more into it when the second season came about. But I was a fan from day one, and loved the horrifying repercussions that it shows the world ending when 2% of the population disappear. This is also notable as the only series on this list where the finale is the best episode (Veep, not on this list but a strong show, is another that would have this distinction), giving us as close to a "meaning of life" conversation we'll probably ever get from a TV series.
1. Cape Feare (5.2)
2. Marge vs. the Monorail (4.12)
3. Lisa's First Word (4.10)
4. Mr. Plow (4.9)
5. Bart Sells His Soul (7.4)
6. A Streetcar Named Marge (4.2)
7. Lisa's Substitute (2.19)
8. Treehouse of Horror V (6.6)
9. Sideshow Bob Roberts (6.5)
10. Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in the Curse of the Flying Hellfish (7.22)
I mean, I've tacitly insulted The Simpsons a couple of times in this article, so I think I should point out that putting it #8, in a Top 10 after watching hundreds of TV shows through the years, is truly an achievement, and I love it so much. The #1 episode here is the single funniest half hour of television I think that's ever been produced and I'll just watch it for no reason regularly to revel in the genius. I also think that people who focus on the first ten seasons alone miss out-there are great episodes in seasons 11-17 or some that are worth mentioning even if I didn't above. But nothing compares to the God Tier levels this would hit in roughly Seasons 4-7, where every episode seems to be a classic. I mean, look at the deliciousness of the guest stars alone in this Top 10 (Kelsey Grammer! Dustin Hoffman! Linda Ronstadt!)...all perfection.
1. Bad Habits (2.3)
2. Girth (1.5)
3. Pie-Lette (1.1)
4. Comfort Food (2.8)
5. Circus, Circus (2.2)
6. Dim Sum Lose Some (2.5)
7. Pigeon (1.4)
8. Bitter Sweets (1.8)
9. Water and Power (2.12)
10. Smell of Success (1.7)
I declare a level of ownership on all of these series, but in terms of shows I think people would call a "John Show," other than the Top 3, this would be the one you'd name check. I adore Pushing Daisies, and it's truly a show where there is no bad episode. Even the ones that are lesser are still miracles, wonderful bits of mystery, romance, & joy all rolled into a warm doughy pie tin. The main problem with Pushing Daisies ever cracking the Top 5 is that there simply weren't enough episodes. Given that Severance will get a second season, this will be the shortest series on this list by the next time that I update this in three years, with only 22 episodes in total and only two seasons. My favorite episodes focus on side characters Olive & Emerson, and honestly care less about some of the multi-episode subplots (which never work as well as the standalone bits), and of course that means that the Top 2 are both totally moments where Kristin Chenoweth takes center stage.
1. The Monsters are Due on Maple Street (1.22)
2. The Obsolete Man (2.29)
3. It's a Good Life (3.8)
4. Time Enough at Last (1.8)
5. The Masks (5.25)
6. Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up (2.28)
7. The Eye of the Beholder (2.6)
8. A Nice Place to Visit (1.28)
9. Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (5.3)
10. Five Characters in Search of an Exit (3.14)
Television is personal, and it's about where you are when you see it. It therefore makes it harder to fall for shows that you see retroactively. While only three shows (Pushing Daisies, The Leftovers, & Heartstopper) are series that I watched in real time with their releases, only one show I didn't watch at least part of the series in real time with when it initially aired: The Twilight Zone, which ended twenty years before I was born. But The Twilight Zone is the most cinematic TV series ever made, and is just a cascade of brilliant performances & writing. Look at the above list-it features not just jaw-dropping twists, but the best performance ever from Oscar nominee Burgess Meredith, and complete proof that William Shatner was capable of great acting. Each New Year's Eve, I go through and watch the whole marathon, in awe of what Rod Serling was able to achieve.
1. The Suitcase (4.7)
2. Shut the Door. Have a Seat (3.13)
3. The Other Woman (5.11)
4. The Strategy (7.6)
5. The Wheel (1.13)
6. Waterloo (7.7)
7. Meditations in an Emergency (2.13)
8. Nixon vs. Kennedy (1.12)
9. The Beautiful Girls (4.9)
10. The Gypsy and the Hobo (3.11)
Rearranging the chairs of shows #2-5 (which were the same Top 5 last time, but the comedies got moved up and the dramas got moved down) is partially because I don't revisit #4 and #5 as much (I've maybe rewatched Mad Men once from start to finish, and never have Game of Thrones). But they're both shows that I couldn't stop thinking about & pondering when I first went through, and are objectively spectacular series. Of the two, Mad Men is the most consistent (all but Season 6 is represented here), and has some of the greatest acting I've seen on television. The duet between Don & Peggy was so good in "The Suitcase" we'd have to repeat it years later in the nearly as strong "The Strategy."
1. The Rains of Castamere (3.9)
2. The Winds of Winter (6.10)
3. The Lion and the Rose (4.2)
4. Blackwater (2.9)
5. The Door (5.6)
6. Battle of the Bastards (6.9)
7. Baelor (1.9)
8. Hardhome (5.8)
9. The Children (4.10)
10. And Now His Watch Has Ended (3.4)
Bring up Game of Thrones today, and literally the words "disappointment" and "worst finale ever" will come up almost instantly, which I don't entirely think is fair, and I'm sensitive to given the #1 show on this list also got the same criticisms and I defended the ending (which history has proven I was right). I really want to do a rewatch of this this winter to see how it stacks up as a collective story as I think some parts of the finale will actually work better as a unit, but you'll note that nothing past Season 6 is on this list for a reason. The best parts of this series (the shocking horrors of the Red & Purple Wedding) prove that Game of Thrones was the series that established the "no one is safe" mentality that TV hasn't really escaped in the years that followed.
1. Modern Warfare (1.23)
2. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2.14)
3. A Fistful of Paintballs (2.23)
4. Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television (6.13)
5. Cooperative Polygraphy (5.4)
6. Cooperative Calligraphy (2.8)
7. Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design (2.9)
8. Remedial Chaos Theory (3.4)
9. Basic Lupine Urology (3.17)
10. Critical Film Studies (2.19)
I moved up Community because I think it feels (along with #1 & #2) the show that encapsulates what I love about television the most-it is so homey, so moving, and so fleeting. Again, we're skipping the famously worst season (the fourth) but every other season gets an episode in this Top 10, including the finale, which (like The Good Place & The Leftovers) manages to bring the series someplace higher. The series is really about seven broken people who come together and find a chosen family and feel truly loved for themselves for the first time. That the series doesn't ignore that characters like Pierce, Troy, & Shirley leave, but instead makes it a commentary about how loved ones eventually lift out of your day-to-day life, and you have to trust that the love you carry for them was real even when you don't get reminded of it every day (and that you are, in fact, worthy of love), becomes the message of the final episode. Beneath the absurdist and meta-commentaries, Community is truly about something, and of the Thursday-night NBC comedies of its era, somehow the series that was the least heartfelt is the one that has the most emotional core.
1. The Bleakening (8.6-7)
2. The Plight Before Christmas (13.10)
3. Housetrap (5.19)
4. The Hauntening (6.13)
5. Topsy (3.16)
6. V for Valentine-detta (8.8)
7. I Bob Your Pardon (9.7)
8. Broadcast Wagstaff School News (3.12)
9. The Fresh Princ-ipal (9.15)
10. Brunchsquatch (8.1)
If Community is the show that I feel the most vulnerable with, Pushing Daisies the show that I feel the most mine, Lost the show I love most...Bob's Burgers is the show I feel the most at-home within. Most of the shows on this list I rewatch every couple of years, letting it simmer. There are shows that get an annual screening, but they're few and far between (basically just Community & Pushing Daisies). And then there's Bob's, which I'll watch from start-to-finish (or more often backward) at least twice a year; it's on so much in my house I have regularly referred to it as my roommate. The show, like The Simpsons and South Park, has some of its weaker entries right at the beginning, when it was still finding its groove (and admitting that unlike the Simpsons and the Griffins, this is a show about a family that loves each other AND has good parents), it's also a show that continued to be top drawer way longer than any series on this list. Its second-best episode is in its 13th season! And with its really strong Halloween, Thanksgiving, & Christmas entries (bring them back!) it also is a testament to the joys of watching a show in real time, across a full season.
1. Through the Looking Glass (3.22)
2. The Constant (4.5)
3. Deus Ex Machina (1.19)
4. The End (6.17)
5. Exodus, Part 2 (1.24)
6. The Candidate (6.14)
7. The Incident, Parts 1 & 2 (5.16)
8. Exodus, Part 1 (1.23)
9. There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3 (4.13)
10. The Other 48 Days (2.7)
I mean, what more can I say about Lost that I haven't already said on this blog (seriously-I'm rewatching in January and I need article ideas that I haven't already used). Click the label at the bottom of this article for Lost and you will see how often I have talked about it here, including an article ranking the best-to-worst episodes I've already done. Lost is pretty much perfect, and really well-balanced (every season has an entry in this Top 10, the only 5+ season series to claim that in this Top 25), a show that gives me such joy every time I watch it, and revel in the way it tells a mythological, complicated mystery on top of stories of broken people, finding their way in the world through their friendships, rivalries, & yes, even the occasional romance. Lost is honestly never moving from this spot. Give or take Harry Potter and The Oscars, it is the most consequential pop culture or arts relationship I have. When I die, I hope that Michael Giacchino's score in the finale is playing at the funeral.
2 comments:
This was such a cool article, thank you so much for the hard work you put into it. It made me want to re-watch old shows and start watchung a few new ones.
Thanks so much-it was a lot of work, but so glad you enjoyed it!
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