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Best All-time TV Series


MickinMD

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While waiting for the NFL Draft picks, I thought with sadness about the fact there are only four more episodes of Game of Thrones - unless they do a sequel series at some point.

So I thought about best of all-time series and looked at some lists and searched to see if the topic had been discussed here.  kingtermite mentioned "best TV shows" in 2014, describing "Breaking Bad" and no one has "best TV series."

I see "The Wire" and "Breaking Bad" at the top of many lists on the Internet but never watched them. I guess I've have to check them out.

I also see passionate disagreement in the comments on those lists, so it's hard to list shows agreeable to everyone.

My top 20 list, done during much NFL distraction, that I'd want to take with me if I was sent on a multi-year mission to Mars, would be in approximate order:

Game of Thrones
Last of the Summer Wine
Big Bang Theory
That 70's Show
Dr. Who (especially the "new" series beginning in 2005 with "Rose.")
Star Trek the Next Generation
Downton Abbey
Seinfeld
I Love Lucy
Doc Martin
Friends
Lost
MASH
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Lonesome Dove (original miniseries)
Homeland
Wyatt Earp
South Park
The Simpsons
Family Guy

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Most consistent best show over its whole run would probably be Breaking Bad.  There are a fair number of excellent shows out there that have flat spots or down seasons, Breaking Bad seemed to get progressively better.

For a doctor that seems to know a bit about chemistry, it is odd that you haven't beelined to that show.

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Some overlooked gems...

Rumpole of the Bailey, Piece of Cake, Almighty Johnsons, Darling Buds of May, Testament of Youth, Brideshead Revisisted (the 70s BBC production, Shogun, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (the tv show, NOT the movie), House of Cards (the BBC version), Sex Education.

 

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For me it kinda follows the Sci Fi channels previous lineups:

Battlestar Gallactica

Firefly (Curse you Fox for killing the good ones)

Stargate (Both SG-1 and Atlantis)

Farscape

Eureka

Warehouse 13

Defiance

The Expanse

I haven't been able to watch a lot of TV in the last few years. With treatment, new career, and a toddler who knew I wouldn't spend time on the "tube". But have been consistently watching a few series on over-air channels like The Resident, The Rookie, The Good Doctor, and Netflix's Royals.

I am going for a vacation soon overseas so have some fairly long plane rides, I plan on trying out Happy and 12 Monkeys to see if I like 'em.

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Mick I'm shocked you have not watched The Wire. Set in B'more. Maybe you see some former students?

For me I'd go

Breaking Bad

Sopranos

The Wire

Seinfield

I think the really good shows are the ones you talk about at the office the next morning. Just a phrase or two and everyone knows the reference. For instance Sponge worthy....or Say my name

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I have just started watching Breaking Bad.  I am in the second season.  It's dope!

I will have to add Justified.  I want to be Raylan when I grow up. 

MASH and Seinfeld are both great as well. 

I liked the Dukes of Hazzard and the A Team back in the day.

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13 hours ago, Randomguy said:

Most consistent best show over its whole run would probably be Breaking Bad.  There are a fair number of excellent shows out there that have flat spots or down seasons, Breaking Bad seemed to get progressively better.

For a doctor that seems to know a bit about chemistry, it is odd that you haven't beelined to that show.

I'm not a doctor - I'm a master chemist and former chemistry teacher and former industrial process development chief chemist, including pharmaceutical intermediates, and in my younger days I was approached by old friends, now using drugs, who wanted me to get into making them. I declined. So I guess a show about a fellow chemistry teacher having to turn to drugs for income bothered me and I never got into it, even though his excuse of terminal cancer and need to provide for a palsied son makes it more palatable.

When I was in college, a bunch of us were talking about "All on the Family" and one girl said she didn't watch it because it came too close to her home life with an Archie Bunker-like father and constant arguing.  Maybe Breaking Bad, where I'd have to try to see the world from someone in my same career, who made a decision I avoided, similarly bothers me.

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17 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

It a long list of "Best", eh?  Maybe need a by decade?

Hill Street Blues was a great one.

One of my favorite shows of the 80’s too.  As a MP squad leader I used to give the preshift briefings and would always end with “Let’s be careful out there”.

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11 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Maybe Breaking Bad, where I'd have to try to see the world from someone in my same career, who made a decision I avoided, similarly bothers me.

The key to the entire series is that "Chemistry is the science of Change". You see Walter change from a high school teacher into a monster, with all of his justifications. It's good television, and I believe you will NOT find yourself identifying with his character for too long.

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