Top 5 List: Top 5 TV Shows
We geeks sure do love our tee-vee. When we aren't using the boxes to play our favorite electronic distractions, we are watching riveting series. We are obsessive in our television watching, renting season after season of our favorite shows from Netflix and watching hours in one sitting. Television is arguably better than movies these days, and to prove that here is The Weekly Geek's list of the Top 5 TV shows of all time. Cue up your queue and get crackin'. Full lists after the jump.
The Geek's List:
5) DCAU - Technically, the DC Animated Universe isn't just one show, but it all takes places within the same continuity over 4 (and a half, thanks Static!) different shows and does it just so damn well. Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League all have the mark of people who love making cartoons, love the source material, and love the fans. Bruce Timm and Paul Dini basically forever changed the landscape of cartoons by showing that you can do a good American produced action toon that wasn't campy and had high quality in all aspects of the show. The attention to detail and continuity over all the shows is practically unheard of in other cartoons. While still working within the limited confines of S&P, they still managed to produce a mature, darker series of cartoons that appealed to a very wide age range. Unfortunately, I don't think it's terribly likely we'll see any more from this universe, but we can be thankful for all the awesomeness that did come out of it while it lasted. They caught lightning in a bottle 4 times in a row.
4) 24 - I was excited by the possibility of this show from the very first time I heard of the concept. It was just such a daring idea that I had to tune in. And I'm glad I did because 24 is one of the best shows ever. Pretty much every episode has me thrilled and tense. It does a good job of using its gimmick without relying on it as a crutch. Plus, it's got sweet delicious Kiefer. I hadn't really seen much of his other work, but I need to go back and check it out now because I enjoy him so much in this show. Few characters have been as strongly brought to life as Jack Bauer. Jack will fuck you up. The great thing about this show is that it's so good, I never mind if the current season that's on is going to be its last. I would have been completely satisfied if it ended at season 1. Each season, I'm expecting Jack to die for good in the finale. And, despite being on FOX, they haven't completely run it into the ground yet. I do worry about it, though.
3) Battlestar Galactica - Now, I haven't kept up on this show because of lapses in cable service due to budget restraints, but I love every bit of this show. Despite all the flak they were taking for resurrecting an old franchise, twisting it around, and even completely changing some of the ideas, BSG is an amazing show. It is easily the best drama on TV. I just wish that traditional audiences could get past the whole sci-fi stigma and truly enjoy the show. Everything about it feels so real. I love how the mini-series that started it all was just depressing scene after depressing scene, horrible things happening to people at every turn. It'd give you a slight glimmer of hope, and then smash it to bits with a hammer. This is a show that just sucks you in.
2) Firefly - Yay, more sci-fi! Yeah, this one is such a cliché to be on a geek's top 5 list, but I don't care. Practically every moment from this show and the following movie is memorable. Everything just came together so perfectly. The writing, the acting, the concept, everything. If pressed, I can pick out favorite characters for shows like Star Trek, but I cannot decide when it comes to Firefly. I just love them all so much. unfortunately, as much as all the browncoats out there would like to hope and believe, I don't think we're gonna see any more of this show other than non-canon paperbacks. It's so sad that we won't be able to explore this universe any more and really get to know it. It was great that we got the movie, but it would have been so awesome to see what Joss had planned out for everything in between.
1) Mystery Science Theater 3000 - I will state time and again that MST3K is the greatest show ever and it is a scientifically proven fact. No show will ever be able to even come close to duplicating what this show had. No show will even be able to attempt it because the idea was just so unique that you can't even try to do something like it without being called a complete rip-off. You can make other hospital shows, crime dramas, sitcoms, sci-fi adventures, and they can all share some elements with other shows in their genre and that's fine. But you can't ever do another making-fun-of-movies show. You just can't. Even in other genres, you'd never be able to make a show where every episode is 2 hours and have it last 10 seasons. This was a show made by people who absolutely loved what they were doing. Joel's attitude toward the writing is what made it so good. "When we write our jokes, we don't ask ourselves, 'Will anyone get this?' We say to ourselves, 'The right people will get this.'" If I ever meet a person who, completely on their own, gets every single joke and reference in an episode of MST3K without any sort of outside help, I will declare him or her to be the smartest person alive.
Chris' List:
* Disclaimer - It's super hard to make a definitive list like this... so I am SURE I left some out. Honorable mentions include Seinfeld, Arrested Development, The Simpsons, MST3K, The Office (US), Saturday Night Live... the list goes on and on. These are my current favorites, and the ones that really stick in my mind when you say "Top 5 TV Shows"
5) Faulty Towers - The classic post-Python Cleese comedy. It only had 13 episodes. It only needed 13 episodes. Each one is comedy perfection. The timing is like a stage show, and still holds up even today. The jokes aren't time-specific and are perfectly relateable no matter how old you are. John Cleese is truly the king of comedy. I hope he doesn't die soon.
4) The Office (UK) - Just barely eases out Faulty Towers for the title of best British show of all time, The Office pioneered awkward comedy. You either get it or you hate it. It's not for the squeamish, but the mix of bittersweet drama and romance with laughing-so-hard-it-hurts moments is divine. Also only lasted a number of episodes, and spawned an EXCELLENT American version. Go figure!
3) Lost - OK, so it's only the first season that I am really focusing on here. The first season of Lost is one of the best 24 hours of television you will ever see. The mysteries of the island are so unique and gripping that you really won't want to miss an episode, let alone use the bathroom or eat. Must... resist... interruption. Too bad the most recent season is so sub-par. I watched the entire first season on my iPod, in bed. In the dark. In one weekend.
2) Firefly - Take Han Solo and give him a show, and you have Firefly. Scrappy outlaws in a stylish cowboy future makes you want to root for the bad guy. Joss Whedon tends to treat his characters like humans (rare!) and you actually care whether they get harmed or live or die. There was no reason to care if Chakotay died in whatever episode of Voyager, but when Mal gets stabbed with a sword you feel it.
1) Battlestar Galactica - Sci-fi perfected. No longer the realm of cheesy bright costumes and amazing utopian technology, Battlestar Galactica is the grand champion of hard sci-fi. The technology takes a back seat to the characters, plopped into a situation that you can completely relate to. Sure the archetypes are there, but they are so gritty and real its almost as if you are seeing them anew. Everything is bad, times are tough. Cliffhangers MATTER. If you haven't seen it, and even if you aren't a fan of sci-fi, you owe yourself to tune in to the best hour of television ever beamed directly into your eyeball.
What say you?!