The Top 300 Greatest TV Shows of All Time: FBG Consensus: 50 Lists received. 2: Seinfeld 1: Breaking Bad (7 Viewers)

[KarmaPolice]

Yeah, yeah, I have Max but haven’t gotten around to watching this. Maybe this is the year:

I also have Max and haven't seen Sopranos or GOT

I have never had HBO since I was a kid and my parents had it on the cable package so we could watch "Savannah Smiles" 3 times a week, so I've never seen any of these shows that aired on HBO. I now have Max, but, frankly, the subject matter of these acclaimed shows don't appeal to me so I'll never watch them, but I know how acclaimed and water-cooler worthy they all were.

This is where i am with Sopranos. Never seen an episode.

 

[steelerfan1]

3 - The Sopranos​

Drama
Score: 2050
Average Rank: 12.4

New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.

List Breakdown

Keith R 1
Atomic Punk 1
Barry2 1
simey 1
Binky 1
UncleZen 1
Dr Octopus 1
Scoresman 2
Tau37 2
Yo Mama 2
Runkle 3
Dan Lambskin 3
AAABatteries 3
Frostillicus 3
McBokonon 4
krista4 5
zamboni 5
Sullie 6
timschochet 6
kupcho1 6
The Gator 7
Brutal Penquin 7
Chaos34 7
ilov80s 9
titusbramble 10
Todem 19
shuke 21
Maik Jeaunz 25
BlackCrowes 26
Nick Vermeil 28
Psychopav 33
Hastur 36
landrys hat 36
Don Quixote 54
Instinctive 60

I've tried at least 3 times to watch this and never follow through. Much like I did with The Americans. I liked it, but for reasons unknown I never stuck with either.

 

[Shaft41]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

 

[Todem]

I wasn't as bothered by the ending of GoT. I did feel it was a bit rushed with pacing issues, but I dont have too much of a gripe with how it played out. And the ride to get there is just incredible.

First time it was a letdown....second time through I was....ok with it. And that is because the second time thru the show (we just did this near the end of 2024 in literally 4 weeks) was so much better than the first time.

My #2 for a reason.

Lol. You just poted to me it was amazing. I think we probably agree more than we think. I did have it at 11, so even i didn’t downgrade it too far. No desire to rewatch it though, which is odd for a top 20 show.

I thought seasons 1-6 were the best TV I may have ever watched....and I agree seasons 7 and 8 were not as good....but in no way takes away from everything. Yeah we probably agree more than I thought.

 

[Scoresman]

Obligatory seizure warning for the next two due to the number of pickles.

Both are 600 points above The Sopranos. The most a show up to this point has been higher than the previous has been about 100 so far.

I'll post them together since I think we all know what they are.

 

[KarmaPolice]

I wasn't as bothered by the ending of GoT. I did feel it was a bit rushed with pacing issues, but I dont have too much of a gripe with how it played out. And the ride to get there is just incredible.

First time it was a letdown....second time through I was....ok with it. And that is because the second time thru the show (we just did this near the end of 2024 in literally 4 weeks) was so much better than the first time.

My #2 for a reason.

Lol. You just poted to me it was amazing. I think we probably agree more than we think. I did have it at 11, so even i didn’t downgrade it too far. No desire to rewatch it though, which is odd for a top 20 show.

I thought seasons 1-6 were the best TV I may have ever watched....and I agree seasons 7 and 8 were not as good....but in no way takes away from everything. Yeah we probably agree more than I thought.

We differ in that I think the drop off was S5-S6, but it was still very good-great. The rest was bad enough i don't have the desire to rewatch but obviously the rest was good enough to rank at 11. Still one of the best tv shows and experiences with thread of any show.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

It did have one thing unique to me in that there's one episode that I will never re-watch. "The Dance of Dragons" made me physically nausiated when I watched it the first and only time I did. The demise of Shireen Baratheon was so brutal and so undeserved that I don't ever want to see it again.

That was brutal, man. It was hard to watch.

I agree with @Andy Dufresne that the drop in quality for GOT would be less noticeable on a binge watch. Watching it in real time with breaks in between seasons, the drop-offs were easier to spot (especially for those who read the books). I think most of the main characters' end points were earned early on (getting them there towards the end is another matter).

All that said, this show was a phenom. The internet would blow up every Sunday night after the latest episode aired. As adaptation, I think S1 was the best, but S3 & S4 were probably it's height if you account for quality mixed with being A Thing.

 

[timschochet]

I liked the last season of GOT way better than I liked the last season of The Sopranos….

 

[B Maverick]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

I do like heist/con type shows so I would have Leverage on mine, but didn't see it on the top 300 list. I may do a deeper dive on this later to see where some of my faves were and see if any that I haven't seen might be worth watching.

So many fan faves/critical darlings on here that I never watched and some that I never finished.
Seen some of: Sopranos, Americans, Supernatural
Never saw: BB, BCS, The Wire

Also some newer shows not noted: The Rookie

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Not hyperbole - if I reranked this today I would put The Pitt in my top 10. Probably somewhere around 8-10. It's that outstanding - all of you people should be watching it.

Was the finale last night? Still need to watch that one

 

[Nick Vermeil]

Just going to jump the line here and praise @Scoresman for a heroic effort and super fun thread.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I'm also in the camp that's not much into gangster/cop centered shows. I'm not sure I'll ever watch The Sopranos or The Wire.

OTOH I don't think Breaking Bad and BCS fall into those categories. They are gangster adjacent to me.

 

[krista4]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

Hmmm. I get that people don't necessarily dabble in some genres, like fantasy. That being said, while I'm not into fantasy shows, I ended up binging Game of Thrones and put it in my top 15. It's just that good.

I didn't realize it was such an issue that people wouldn't watch shows on a particular topic such as mafia/mob or what they perceive to be shows that are "drug-centered." To me, a story is a story, but I get what you're saying. I would not at all call The Wire "drug-centered" though there is drug trade in there. Breaking Bad is more drug-centered as a story. But at least you didn't say The Wire was about journalists.

 

[Gally]

I would have Leverage on mine, but didn't see it on the top 300 list.

I probably should have had that on my list. Totally forgot about it.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

I was expecting sopranos at 1…as good as BB is I think we are overrating it here regardless of it ends up 1 or 2

 

[Nick Vermeil]

I'm also in the camp that's not much into gangster/cop centered shows. I'm not sure I'll ever watch The Sopranos or The Wire.

OTOH I don't think Breaking Bad and BCS fall into those categories. They are gangster adjacent to me.

Knowing your tastes from years of comment in entertainment threads, you need to watch The Wire. It's the craft at it's finest. It's a show that could not be made today, and it's a little shocking it was made at all frankly.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I'm also in the camp that's not much into gangster/cop centered shows. I'm not sure I'll ever watch The Sopranos or The Wire.

OTOH I don't think Breaking Bad and BCS fall into those categories. They are gangster adjacent to me.

Knowing your tastes from years of comment in entertainment threads, you need to watch The Wire. It's the craft at it's finest. It's a show that could not be made today, and it's a little shocking it was made at all frankly.

Well I may just give it a whirl then, thanks!

 

[Instinctive]

Alrighty, shows that didn't make it from my list. Going to try to bucket them with descriptors that can make it easy to follow and maybe identify something you want to watch!


If I were to blanket recommend anything it would be The Chef Show and Lucifer.





Bucket A: Competition shows - generally any show with the broad premise of "start with a group of people who do a thing and cut them down until there's a winner." Some of these contain every episode (4 people start, cut one, cut another, final challenge, winner declared every time), some are season at a time (start with group, cut one per episode). You might like these if you like: learning things, competition, Survivor, Top Chef, Chopped, etc.

31. Forged In Fire - 4 guys/episode, challenged to make a knife with restrictions, best two make a famous historical weapon. Judged at each stage.

44. Blown Away - start with like 12 glass blowers, do various challenges, judge once/episode and declare a winner and a cut each challenge until finale declares overall winner

64. Hyperdrive - limited series (one season) where drift racers compete on a track with crazy obstacles for time trials. A few qualifying rounds, then elimination rounds, winner declared



Bucket B: Action with a little bit of procedural mixed in - if you like Reacher, or NCIS, or Law & Order, or the Rookie, or Burn Notice, etc...these are some of the best in the genre.

20. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - Krasinski is awesome in this, and so is Rachel's dad from Suits. Michael Pena is in a season too, a guy I have come to like basically everything he's done as I see him pop up in stuff.

24. White Collar - con man gets a deal to basically be a CI / directly work with the FBI to stop other con men and solve crimes. Series long mystery gets moved along a little most episodes too. Great cast. If you liked anything else that was a USA Original, this is good too (Burn Notice, Suits being the other two best)

41. Leverage - former insurance investigator for high end crimes turns to a team of con men to try and do the right thing more often. They start conning bad guys and fighting for the little guy. Solid show, and good cast

55. Kaleidoscope - cool concept for a limited series. Tells a heist from everyone on the team's POV one episode is one POV, then the final episode(s) kind of put together the full picture and the con and brings conclusion. Stars Gus Fring from breaking Bad!

63. Lie to Me - Tim Roth runs a firm that assists law enforcement with mysteries and figures out who is lying and how. Veeeeerrrrry similar to the Mentalist.

67. Bodyguard - almost put this in bucket B, but another limited series that is excellent. veteran becomes security bodyguard for politician, there's a plot, he has to try and uncover it and not let it get pinned on him. Set in UK.


Bucket B.5 - with some fantasy mixed in - almost put these into bucket B, and couldn't really think of another place, but these are kind of similar except based on Fantasy material. So if you like Game of Thrones, same genre and similarly strong stories from some of the most famous in the genre.

16. Lucifer - the devil, Lucifer, has always walked the earth and becomes a consultant for the LAPD and many hijinks ensue between him falling for the detective and also his not protecting his identity at all and how people react (mostly they think he's crazy). This is truly top notch, I'm amazed it didn't make the list.

56. The Witcher - book series, video game series, and really high production quality show. Cavill is great too. Magic, monsters, swords, etc. Every episode moves along the overall plot and many of them have a monster that the Witcher has been hired to subdue.


Bucket C: Political dramas - if you like the West Wing, these are probably up your alley.

57. Madam Secretary - Tea Leoni becomes the Secretary of State after a CIA career, totally unexpectedly. Political intrigue is afoot throughout

68. Designated Survivor - someone blows up the capital during state of the union, and the guy who they were gonna fire the next day from HUD becomes President. Can he solve the plot, stay in power, and keep his family safe?



Bucket D: Animated shows mostly from my childhood - your kids probably loved these too, you old fogies This was my generation's Saturday morning cartons, and that's when most of them aired, although then it shifted a bit and became the 4pm after school slots.

23. Pokemon - built on the back of perhaps the most successful RPG video game of all time, certainly commercially. Kid goes on adventure collecting and battling pokemon and trying to be the very best. Initial character arc lasted 20+ years, they've recently started with a new protagonist. A goal when my kids are a bit older is to do a watch through of every episode ever in order.

32. Dragon Ball Z - there's a politician who bases his platform on the values of the show. i think over 70% of people born in the 90s have a positive view of Dragon Ball Z.

40. Yu-Gi-Oh! - second show that launched a HUGE trading card game and was a big part of my life through high school - collecting, strategizing, competing with decks I built, etc.

53. Arcane - not actually old, but some of the best written based-on-games content I have ever encountered. So well written that I actually watched an animated show for the first time in over a decade. Did not disappoint. Based on the game League of Legends.



Bucket E: Sitcoms - some of these have been discussed already. They're sitcoms.

54. Two and a Half Men - fairly low brow and formulaic, but Sheen always delivered a good 20 minutes of funny and I never regretted the time spent watching. I'd dip when he does from the series.

70. The Ranch - in contrast to the Kutcher-is-bad-on Two and a half men take, this is really funny. I had it very low because after they kick off Danny Masterson, it is WAY less funny. The stories honestly go to more sad than funny too. Sam Elliott is great in this too.



Bucket F: Learning stuff and turn your brain off - if you liked Mythbusters, or documentaries, this is for you. Entertaining, not gonna make you think too hard, but basically always fun, lighthearted, and interesting.

12. The Chef Show - I mentioned this early in thread, but basically Roy Choi (father of food trucks) and Jon Favreau (actor, producer) met when Favreau needed a tutor for his role in the movie Chef. They reprise the friendship over a few seasons of cooking famous stuff with famous people, from chefs to Bill Burr, from streets of LA to the Star Wars ranch, etc. Just good fun, great cooking show, good chemistry, and very wholesome.

29. Car Masters: Rust to Riches - this is representative of a whole sub-genre for me like Count's Kustoms, Tex-Mex Motors, Rust Valley, etc - take old cars and restore them with an element of "can we make enough money to do this for a living???" thrown in. This is one of the best because they're big time pros, they do interesting stuff, and the cast fits well together. Almost always includes negotiating deals too.

42. Pawn Stars - guys runs pawn shop, people come in to buy and sell things, he calls in experts to try and appraise them accurately, then they negotiate a deal. Silly son and dumb friend work there. Bare bones, but always fun.

69. Full Swing - also a new sub-genre of doc that follows sport (original is Drive to Survive, now there's also tennis, NASCAR, basketball, and football ones), this one is golf. Really cool, beautiful scenery, neat stories, and gets me more interested in the golf for the new pro season every year. Great insights to stuff like Ryder Cup.

 

[Psychopav]

Did Prison Break show up here? I didn't rank it but my wife probably would have.

Which brings me to my point...

For those saying they aren't genre fans so certain shows would never be on their list: my wife is one of those. She doesn't like fantasy, at all. Won't watch LotR, won't watch Star Wars, won't watch any superhero movies. Thinks they're all dumb. But she was hooked on Game of Thrones from episode 1. I suggest you may want to reconsider your position on some of these highest rated shows even if you aren't into "the genre". Just my . You might be robbing yourself of a masterpiece!

 

[Psychopav]

I was expecting sopranos at 1…as good as BB is I think we are overrating it here regardless of it ends up 1 or 2

No, you're wrong.

 

[Barry2]

3 - The Sopranos​

Drama
Score: 2050
Average Rank: 12.4

New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.

List Breakdown

Keith R 1
Atomic Punk 1
Barry2 1
simey 1
Binky 1
UncleZen 1
Dr Octopus 1
Scoresman 2
Tau37 2
Yo Mama 2
Runkle 3
Dan Lambskin 3
AAABatteries 3
Frostillicus 3
McBokonon 4
krista4 5
zamboni 5
Sullie 6
timschochet 6
kupcho1 6
The Gator 7
Brutal Penquin 7
Chaos34 7
ilov80s 9
titusbramble 10
Todem 19
shuke 21
Maik Jeaunz 25
BlackCrowes 26
Nick Vermeil 28
Psychopav 33
Hastur 36
landrys hat 36
Don Quixote 54
Instinctive 60

I had Sopranos 3.

 

[BrutalPenguin]

Did Prison Break show up here? I didn't rank it but my wife probably would have.

I had Prison Break at 48, but I'm pretty sure it didn't make the cut here.

 

[Instinctive]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

I do like heist/con type shows so I would have Leverage on mine, but didn't see it on the top 300 list. I may do a deeper dive on this later to see where some of my faves were and see if any that I haven't seen might be worth watching.

So many fan faves/critical darlings on here that I never watched and some that I never finished.
Seen some of: Sopranos, Americans, Supernatural
Never saw: BB, BCS, The Wire

Also some newer shows not noted: The Rookie

literally just referenced the Rookie in my "not top 300" essay of a post and I have Leverage on there. Was doing a rewatch recently and still love it. I'm a sucker for a heist move or show.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Last of Us S2 starts this weekend and Andor S2 on the 22nd - hoping they keep the ball rolling!

 

[B Maverick]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

I do like heist/con type shows so I would have Leverage on mine, but didn't see it on the top 300 list. I may do a deeper dive on this later to see where some of my faves were and see if any that I haven't seen might be worth watching.

So many fan faves/critical darlings on here that I never watched and some that I never finished.
Seen some of: Sopranos, Americans, Supernatural
Never saw: BB, BCS, The Wire

Also some newer shows not noted: The Rookie

literally just referenced the Rookie in my "not top 300" essay of a post and I have Leverage on there. Was doing a rewatch recently and still love it. I'm a sucker for a heist move or show.

Was reading your post. Leverage and White Collar are both fun shows. Leverage is one of my favorites and I throw an episode on when there is nothing else on.

Got to give you credit for mentioning Yu-Gi-Oh!. Enjoyed it although was probably a bit old for it when it came out. The card playing strategy was fun.

I got a few seasons into Lucifer but didn't finish. Seemed repetitive.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Couple that were on the cusp for me that I just couldn’t find room for

CSI - one of the few procedural / story of the week shows I liked. Great cast in this one

Resident Alien - Alan Tudyk is great in this, one of the few shows I’ve watched recently that has me literally laughing out loud.

Animal Kingdom - loosely based on the Aussie movie, Ellen Barkin and her kids run a California crime ring and pull of some elaborate heists. Plenty of hijinks. It’s stupid and you have to suspend some disbelief but it was always a fun watch

real sex - we had hbo as a kid so I’d sneak in some late night viewing, unfortunately more often than not it would be a naked fat lady rolling around in cake and guys with old floppy dongs doing jumping jacks or something like that

Outer banks - Netflix teen drama set in the outer banks. Rich kid vs poor kid drama but with a little bit of adventure thrown in too. Dumb but fun

Sherman oaks - I’ll be surprised if anyone else has heard of this, but it was a showtime show about a plastic surgeon and his wife and slutty daughter and hardcore republican son with a racist pet parrot

Babylon Berlin - German show set after WWI. Detective / conspiracy stuff. Now that I see 4 seasons I can’t remember if I finished

The Magicians - I think we watched this during Covid, kind of like Harry Potter for adults. There’s one absolutely hilarious scene with a magic rabbit

 

[shuke]

23) The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015–2024): "There it is, you’re caught … Killed them all, of course … What the hell did I do?"

I thought the first miniseries was good but really could have been told in 60-90 minutes. Haven't watched the follow-up.

 

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

20. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - Krasinski is awesome in this, and so is Rachel's dad from Suits. Michael Pena is in a season too, a guy I have come to like basically everything he's done as I see him pop up in stuff.

There are a handful of shows that I eventually enjoy like this one, but their seasons are just too spaced out that I spend too much time refreshing my memory during the early episodes of a new season that results in playing catch up with the storyline right to the end. These all might be great if I knew to wait until they were done to binge watch them all at once, but I didn't! Still good, but I think I'm missing too much.

 

[Eephus]

33) War and Remembrance (1988–1989): NBC went all out to thwart this from getting the viewership it was expected and it worked, such a shame. ABC spent a fortune on this, including rebuilding Auschwitz and while it has some issues (like the age of the lead) it was still great. I have no idea if this is streaming anywhere, or has ever as my rewatches first came from Blockbuster and then Ebay. I think a few of the shows on my list will be like this.

There are VCR quality prints of The Winds of War and War and Remembrance on YouTube

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Prison break might have had the biggest season after season drop in quality of any show I’ve ever seen.

 

[shuke]

55) V (1983): Sure the 2nd miniseries was a mistake that took away from the series, and the remake had its positive but the first miniseries nailed a lot of things for its place in time. So much so that it remains even if it has to carry the baggage of red sprinkles being dropped from balloons of the sequel.

Given the board's demographic, I'm shocked this didn't make the top 300. This was a major television event when I was in the 5th grade.

 

[Dan Lambskin]

Also wanted fo find a spot for The Facts of Life

 

[B Maverick]

real sex - we had hbo as a kid so I’d sneak in some late night viewing, unfortunately more often than not it would be a naked fat lady rolling around in cake and guys with old floppy dongs doing jumping jacks or something like that

Forgot about this show. Definitely a lot going on for a certain age group in the early 90s. And they were not afraid to stray from the typical nudity.

 

[Hastur]

Couple that were on the cusp for me that I just couldn’t find room for

Resident Alien - Alan Tudyk is great in this, one of the few shows I’ve watched recently that has me literally laughing out loud.

This is some bull$#!t

 

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

68. Designated Survivor - someone blows up the capital during state of the union, and the guy who they were gonna fire the next day from HUD becomes President. Can he solve the plot, stay in power, and keep his family safe?

I think political wishcasting is frown on around here.

More seriously, while I get that it had to eventually be about the conspiracy to topple the government, I wish this had eased into that a bit slower. Don't really know how to explain it other than saying I wish that the mere troubles of transitioning would have been prioritized longer. Liked the show, and understand the decisions made, but it butted against my preferences. Lots of times when this happens, I'm thankful the creators didn't listen to me as they knew better, but not this time.

 

[Ilov80s]

Another thing - there's a big difference between watching a series as it unfolds, year after year, as opposed to binge watching all together after the series is completed.

I was late to the party with GOT and only started watching as the final season was ending. There is much less investment when watching that way.

That’s true. I was in from episode 1 and told literally everyone I knew that they absolutely had to watch it even if they didn’t care about fantasy. So perhaps it made me more possessive of it feeling like it was “my show” in a way.

 

[shuke]

real sex - we had hbo as a kid so I’d sneak in some late night viewing, unfortunately more often than not it would be a naked fat lady rolling around in cake and guys with old floppy dongs doing jumping jacks or something like that

 

[zamboni]

real sex - we had hbo as a kid so I’d sneak in some late night viewing, unfortunately more often than not it would be a naked fat lady rolling around in cake and guys with old floppy dongs doing jumping jacks or something like that

Some of those made me wish they went back to scrambled programming where you had to use your imagination.

 

[shuke]

This was a major television event when I was in the 5th grade.

Speaking of, I didn't but curious if anyone ranked The Day After.

 

[Ilov80s]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

Hmmm. I get that people don't necessarily dabble in some genres, like fantasy. That being said, while I'm not into fantasy shows, I ended up binging Game of Thrones and put it in my top 15. It's just that good.

I didn't realize it was such an issue that people wouldn't watch shows on a particular topic such as mafia/mob or what they perceive to be shows that are "drug-centered." To me, a story is a story, but I get what you're saying. I would not at all call The Wire "drug-centered" though there is drug trade in there. Breaking Bad is more drug-centered as a story. But at least you didn't say The Wire was about journalists.

I generally think fantasy is like the lamest thing but GoT seasons 1-6 are about as good as anything ever put on TV.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Alrighty, shows that didn't make it from my list. Going to try to bucket them with descriptors that can make it easy to follow and maybe identify something you want to watch!


If I were to blanket recommend anything it would be The Chef Show and Lucifer.





Bucket A: Competition shows - generally any show with the broad premise of "start with a group of people who do a thing and cut them down until there's a winner." Some of these contain every episode (4 people start, cut one, cut another, final challenge, winner declared every time), some are season at a time (start with group, cut one per episode). You might like these if you like: learning things, competition, Survivor, Top Chef, Chopped, etc.

31. Forged In Fire - 4 guys/episode, challenged to make a knife with restrictions, best two make a famous historical weapon. Judged at each stage.

44. Blown Away - start with like 12 glass blowers, do various challenges, judge once/episode and declare a winner and a cut each challenge until finale declares overall winner

64. Hyperdrive - limited series (one season) where drift racers compete on a track with crazy obstacles for time trials. A few qualifying rounds, then elimination rounds, winner declared



Bucket B: Action with a little bit of procedural mixed in - if you like Reacher, or NCIS, or Law & Order, or the Rookie, or Burn Notice, etc...these are some of the best in the genre.

20. Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan - Krasinski is awesome in this, and so is Rachel's dad from Suits. Michael Pena is in a season too, a guy I have come to like basically everything he's done as I see him pop up in stuff.

24. White Collar - con man gets a deal to basically be a CI / directly work with the FBI to stop other con men and solve crimes. Series long mystery gets moved along a little most episodes too. Great cast. If you liked anything else that was a USA Original, this is good too (Burn Notice, Suits being the other two best)

41. Leverage - former insurance investigator for high end crimes turns to a team of con men to try and do the right thing more often. They start conning bad guys and fighting for the little guy. Solid show, and good cast

55. Kaleidoscope - cool concept for a limited series. Tells a heist from everyone on the team's POV one episode is one POV, then the final episode(s) kind of put together the full picture and the con and brings conclusion. Stars Gus Fring from breaking Bad!

63. Lie to Me - Tim Roth runs a firm that assists law enforcement with mysteries and figures out who is lying and how. Veeeeerrrrry similar to the Mentalist.

67. Bodyguard - almost put this in bucket B, but another limited series that is excellent. veteran becomes security bodyguard for politician, there's a plot, he has to try and uncover it and not let it get pinned on him. Set in UK.


Bucket B.5 - with some fantasy mixed in - almost put these into bucket B, and couldn't really think of another place, but these are kind of similar except based on Fantasy material. So if you like Game of Thrones, same genre and similarly strong stories from some of the most famous in the genre.

16. Lucifer - the devil, Lucifer, has always walked the earth and becomes a consultant for the LAPD and many hijinks ensue between him falling for the detective and also his not protecting his identity at all and how people react (mostly they think he's crazy). This is truly top notch, I'm amazed it didn't make the list.

56. The Witcher - book series, video game series, and really high production quality show. Cavill is great too. Magic, monsters, swords, etc. Every episode moves along the overall plot and many of them have a monster that the Witcher has been hired to subdue.


Bucket C: Political dramas - if you like the West Wing, these are probably up your alley.

57. Madam Secretary - Tea Leoni becomes the Secretary of State after a CIA career, totally unexpectedly. Political intrigue is afoot throughout

68. Designated Survivor - someone blows up the capital during state of the union, and the guy who they were gonna fire the next day from HUD becomes President. Can he solve the plot, stay in power, and keep his family safe?



Bucket D: Animated shows mostly from my childhood - your kids probably loved these too, you old fogies This was my generation's Saturday morning cartons, and that's when most of them aired, although then it shifted a bit and became the 4pm after school slots.

23. Pokemon - built on the back of perhaps the most successful RPG video game of all time, certainly commercially. Kid goes on adventure collecting and battling pokemon and trying to be the very best. Initial character arc lasted 20+ years, they've recently started with a new protagonist. A goal when my kids are a bit older is to do a watch through of every episode ever in order.

32. Dragon Ball Z - there's a politician who bases his platform on the values of the show. i think over 70% of people born in the 90s have a positive view of Dragon Ball Z.

40. Yu-Gi-Oh! - second show that launched a HUGE trading card game and was a big part of my life through high school - collecting, strategizing, competing with decks I built, etc.

53. Arcane - not actually old, but some of the best written based-on-games content I have ever encountered. So well written that I actually watched an animated show for the first time in over a decade. Did not disappoint. Based on the game League of Legends.



Bucket E: Sitcoms - some of these have been discussed already. They're sitcoms.

54. Two and a Half Men - fairly low brow and formulaic, but Sheen always delivered a good 20 minutes of funny and I never regretted the time spent watching. I'd dip when he does from the series.

70. The Ranch - in contrast to the Kutcher-is-bad-on Two and a half men take, this is really funny. I had it very low because after they kick off Danny Masterson, it is WAY less funny. The stories honestly go to more sad than funny too. Sam Elliott is great in this too.



Bucket F: Learning stuff and turn your brain off - if you liked Mythbusters, or documentaries, this is for you. Entertaining, not gonna make you think too hard, but basically always fun, lighthearted, and interesting.

12. The Chef Show - I mentioned this early in thread, but basically Roy Choi (father of food trucks) and Jon Favreau (actor, producer) met when Favreau needed a tutor for his role in the movie Chef. They reprise the friendship over a few seasons of cooking famous stuff with famous people, from chefs to Bill Burr, from streets of LA to the Star Wars ranch, etc. Just good fun, great cooking show, good chemistry, and very wholesome.

29. Car Masters: Rust to Riches - this is representative of a whole sub-genre for me like Count's Kustoms, Tex-Mex Motors, Rust Valley, etc - take old cars and restore them with an element of "can we make enough money to do this for a living???" thrown in. This is one of the best because they're big time pros, they do interesting stuff, and the cast fits well together. Almost always includes negotiating deals too.

42. Pawn Stars - guys runs pawn shop, people come in to buy and sell things, he calls in experts to try and appraise them accurately, then they negotiate a deal. Silly son and dumb friend work there. Bare bones, but always fun.

69. Full Swing - also a new sub-genre of doc that follows sport (original is Drive to Survive, now there's also tennis, NASCAR, basketball, and football ones), this one is golf. Really cool, beautiful scenery, neat stories, and gets me more interested in the golf for the new pro season every year. Great insights to stuff like Ryder Cup.



Bucket G: Prestige TV - thsi is high production quality, drama, deep stories, etc. if you liked the Sopranos, Justified, the Shield, etc, you'll like this.

52. Sons of Anarchy - I love Charlie Hunnam. Great show, very similar vibes to Justified, Sopranos, Shield, etc. Biker Gang navigates its way through life.

My mother-in-law LOVED Madam Secretary and Designated Survivor.

A little surprised Sons of Anarchy wasn’t top 300. It’s not my kind of thing but I know a lot of people who liked it.

 

[Ilov80s]

Sopranos was awesome and so unlike anything on TV to that point. However, it did have some real dry spots. That whole part where Tony was in a coma and living some dream world. That was kind of rough but seriously what a show and what great performances. I can’t believe there’s so many people here who haven’t seen it.

 

[Scoresman]

2 - Seinfeld​

Comedy
Score: 2665
Average Rank: 9

The continuing misadventures of neurotic New York stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York friends.

List Breakdown

Chaos34 1
BLOCKED PUNT 1
Scoresman 1
Gally 1
Shaft41 1
Frostillicus 1
steelerfan1 1
landrys hat 2
AAABatteries 2
simey 2
Keith R 2
Dr Octopus 3
Jayrod 3
Tau37 3
Barry2 4
John Madden's Lunchbox 3
ilov80s 4
Atomic Punk 4
The Gator 4
Pip's Invitation 5
shuke 5
Psychopav 6
Tick 6
UncleZen 7
whoknew 7
Runkle 7
Todem 8
krista4 8
Dan Lambskin 9
turnjose7 10
Binky 11
Yo Mama 12
gr00vus 12
kupcho1 12
KarmaPolice 13
Nick Vermeil 13
Brutal Penquin 13
Maik Jeaunz 14
BlackCrowes 14
Don Quixote 17
McBokonon 23
zamboni 52
Rand al Thor 62

 

[Scoresman]

1 - Breaking Bad​

Drama
Score: 2687
Average Rank: 7

A chemistry teacher diagnosed with a terminal lung cancer, teams up with his former student, Jesse Pinkman, to cook and sell crystal meth.

List Breakdown

Pip's Invitation 1
Psychopav 1
McBokonon 1
zamboni 1
AAABatteries 1
Don Quixote 1
Bottomfeeder Sports 1
Jayrod 1
The Gator 1
shuke 1
Maik Jeaunz 2
Frostillicus 2
Tick 2
Binky 3
Yo Mama 3
timschochet 3
KarmaPolice 3
Chaos34 4
landrys hat 4
Todem 4
Dr Octopus 4
whoknew 4
steelerfan1 4
Runkle 5
Scoresman 5
Sullie 5
kupcho1 5
John Madden's Lunchbox 5
Gally 5
Barry2 6
Atomic Punk 6
BlackCrowes 6
Nick Vermeil 7
Hastur 8
Dan Lambskin 8
simey 12
krista4 14
Keith R 20
Rand al Thor 21
ilov80s 23
Instinctive 26
gr00vus 56

 

[Scoresman]

3 - The Sopranos​

Drama
Score: 2050
Average Rank: 12.4

New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.

List Breakdown

Keith R 1
Atomic Punk 1
Barry2 1
simey 1
Binky 1
UncleZen 1
Dr Octopus 1
Scoresman 2
Tau37 2
Yo Mama 2
Runkle 3
Dan Lambskin 3
AAABatteries 3
Frostillicus 3
McBokonon 4
krista4 5
zamboni 5
Sullie 6
timschochet 6
kupcho1 6
The Gator 7
Brutal Penquin 7
Chaos34 7
ilov80s 9
titusbramble 10
Todem 19
shuke 21
Maik Jeaunz 25
BlackCrowes 26
Nick Vermeil 28
Psychopav 33
Hastur 36
landrys hat 36
Don Quixote 54
Instinctive 60

I had Sopranos 3.

Fixed. I really thought I had all these fixed. No change to the rankings, just pickles.

 

[Shaft41]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

Hmmm. I get that people don't necessarily dabble in some genres, like fantasy. That being said, while I'm not into fantasy shows, I ended up binging Game of Thrones and put it in my top 15. It's just that good.

I didn't realize it was such an issue that people wouldn't watch shows on a particular topic such as mafia/mob or what they perceive to be shows that are "drug-centered." To me, a story is a story, but I get what you're saying. I would not at all call The Wire "drug-centered" though there is drug trade in there. Breaking Bad is more drug-centered as a story. But at least you didn't say The Wire was about journalists.

It's also an issue that I rarely watch a show without my wife, and she has no interest in these types of shows unless they involve Pierce Brosnan.

 

[krista4]

Sopranos was awesome and so unlike anything on TV to that point. However, it did have some real dry spots. That whole part where Tony was in a coma and living some dream world. That was kind of rough but seriously what a show and what great performances. I can’t believe there’s so many people here who haven’t seen it.

I had Sopranos #5, but to me it wins the Best Acting Ever in a Series award hands down.

 

[zamboni]

3 - The Sopranos​

Drama
Score: 2050
Average Rank: 12.4

New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.

List Breakdown

Keith R 1
Atomic Punk 1
Barry2 1
simey 1
Binky 1
UncleZen 1
Dr Octopus 1
Scoresman 2
Tau37 2
Yo Mama 2
Runkle 3
Dan Lambskin 3
AAABatteries 3
Frostillicus 3
McBokonon 4
krista4 5
zamboni 5
Sullie 6
timschochet 6
kupcho1 6
The Gator 7
Brutal Penquin 7
Chaos34 7
ilov80s 9
titusbramble 10
Todem 19
shuke 21
Maik Jeaunz 25
BlackCrowes 26
Nick Vermeil 28
Psychopav 33
Hastur 36
landrys hat 36
Don Quixote 54
Instinctive 60

I had Sopranos 3.

Fixed. I really thought I had all these fixed. No change to the rankings, just pickles.

More pickles there than you’ll find at Satriale’s.

 

[krista4]

I love that this exercise has been all about personal preference. I don't love Mafia/mob stories, so The Sopranos never appealed to me. Fantasy stuff is not my thing either, so Game of Thrones was an autoskip. I think I might have given The Wire a shot, but didn't have access, but also drug-centered stories don't appeal to me either, so I've also never seen Breaking Bad, and he'll always be Tim Whatley to me.

Hmmm. I get that people don't necessarily dabble in some genres, like fantasy. That being said, while I'm not into fantasy shows, I ended up binging Game of Thrones and put it in my top 15. It's just that good.

I didn't realize it was such an issue that people wouldn't watch shows on a particular topic such as mafia/mob or what they perceive to be shows that are "drug-centered." To me, a story is a story, but I get what you're saying. I would not at all call The Wire "drug-centered" though there is drug trade in there. Breaking Bad is more drug-centered as a story. But at least you didn't say The Wire was about journalists.

It's also an issue that I rarely watch a show without my wife, and she has no interest in these types of shows unless they involve Pierce Brosnan.

Might I interest her in some Idris Elba, to get her to watch The Wire?

 

[Scoresman]

3 - The Sopranos​

Drama
Score: 2050
Average Rank: 12.4

New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.

List Breakdown

Keith R 1
Atomic Punk 1
Barry2 1
simey 1
Binky 1
UncleZen 1
Dr Octopus 1
Scoresman 2
Tau37 2
Yo Mama 2
Runkle 3
Dan Lambskin 3
AAABatteries 3
Frostillicus 3
McBokonon 4
krista4 5
zamboni 5
Sullie 6
timschochet 6
kupcho1 6
The Gator 7
Brutal Penquin 7
Chaos34 7
ilov80s 9
titusbramble 10
Todem 19
shuke 21
Maik Jeaunz 25
BlackCrowes 26
Nick Vermeil 28
Psychopav 33
Hastur 36
landrys hat 36
Don Quixote 54
Instinctive 60

I had Sopranos 3.

Fixed. I really thought I had all these fixed. No change to the rankings, just pickles.

More pickles there than you’ll find at Satriale’s.

But not as many as at the Bada Bing!