The 3 Greatest TV Shows Ever (IMHO)

Sunday, May 4, 2020

In addition to writing and gambling, my other favorite hobby is probably watching TV, and since everyone loves lists, I thought I'd put together a list of what I consider to be the greatest TV shows of all time.

Obviously any list of this kind will be totally subjective, but here's how I came up with mine. First, I excluded all sitcoms or procedurals because, as rewatchable as some of them are, I can't ever see myself going back and rewatching Friends or Seinfeld in their entirety from beginning to end. I know, I know, most people wouldn't rewatch any TV show from start to finish considering what a waste of time that would be, but this article isn't meant to be an indictment of my time management skills, so let's just move on.

If my memory serves, there have been a total of 3 shows I have ever gone back and rewatched from beginning to end, and one show where I went back and rewatched seasons 1 - 4 after finishing season 5. Before I reveal my list, let me get something out of the way and say that neither The Sopranos or Breaking Bad made the cut. I understand that The Sopranos was groundbreaking and probably kicked off what is known as the Golden Age of Television, but I watched it years after it had finished its run in 2007, so it might not have had quite the same impact for me as it did for those who watched it during its heyday.

As for Breaking Bad, as much as I loved watching Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from one week to the next, I've never had a desire to go back and watch it again. I haven't even seen Netflix's sequel: "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie".

The rest of this article is going to be split into two sections. In the first section, I will reveal what I consider to be the 3 greatest TV shows of all time. In the second section, I will list 3 shows I truly love but couldn't justify putting in the same category as the others. These are more quirky, personal favorites that most have probably never heard of.

My top 3 in descending order:

#3. Game of Thrones: I know the final season kind of killed the entire series for most people, but you have to admit that leading up to season 8, and arguably even up until the final episode of that final season, Game of Thrones had the potential to take the crown as the greatest show in the history of television. No other show comes close in terms of production budget. Throughout the series, there are so many jaw dropping moments, heart pounding action scenes, and such an amazing array of characters, that it would take me too long to list them all. I can only assume the series started to lose steam during the last couple of seasons because they ran out of source material. Without George R.R. Martin's epic novels, the show couldn't live up to its former glory. Still, it deserves a place in my top 3 considering the heights the show reached at its peak. I don't think there's ever been another show I eagerly awaited from week to week like I did GoT. Considering the horrible final episode, I will probably never go back to watch this show again, but I did rewatch seasons 1-4 after right season 5 ended, and it was just as good, if not better, the second time around.

#2. The Wire: This might be the first "prestige" television show I ever watched. What made The Wire so powerful was that it was based in the real world setting of present-day Baltimore. Each season, viewers were given an in-depth look into a different facet of the city. During its five year run, the show covered Baltimore's drug trade, its port system, bureaucracy of the city government, the education system, and the news media. Everything about the show feels authentic because the show's creator, David Simon, was a former Baltimore city police reporter. I actually rewatched the entire show about five years ago, and I thought it was even better than I remembered it. The characters feel real, not two-dimensional, and though each season has a different theme, because it all takes place in the same world, you will see your favorite characters pop up from one season to the next. It's a show that explores the complexity and interconnectivity of society and entertains you at the same time.

#1. Mad Men: I remember hearing about this show for a couple of years before I started watching it. I was on another Vegas trip with some friends, and when I lost more money than I'd intended one night, I went up to the room and pulled out the iPad and started binging this show. Like any great show, I was sucked in right away, but it was the final episode of season 1 that I knew I was watching something amazing. Like almost every show, the ending left me a bit disappointed, but not enough to remove it from the top spot. Right before this lockdown started, one night my wife went out with her friends and I had nothing to watch, so I decided to go back and watch the first episode of Mad Men just to see if it was as good as I remembered. It was, and I couldn't stop watching. For me, whether it's a TV show, a movie, or a book, the story is often less important than the execution. And Mad Men, while having great story lines, executes better than any show in my humble opinion. You are transported into the world of the 1960s, into the life of a mid-level ad agency from that era, and into the families of its employees. You get to see how copywriters and creative directors work, what it's like to manage a client account, and all that comes with running a large firm. Though the agency in the show is fictitious, the show does a great job of taking you through real life events of the sixties. The assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK, the moon landing, the Vietnam War, and so on. Throughout its seven seasons, we follow the enigmatic Don Draper as he struggles with his demons of alcohol and women. The entire cast is flawless. Roger Sterling is hilarious, the relationship between Don and his daughter is portrayed so beautifully that both times I've watched the show, it has made me sad I only have two sons. Even the artwork in the show is amazing, which isn't a surprise considering each episode often feels like a work of art on its own. I know it's a great show because after it ended, I found myself wishing I could ask the creator a bunch of questions. I felt like there were many big themes that I probably didn't fully grasp. There's Ayn Rand, capitalism and consumerism, race relations in the 60s, the rise of women in the workplace, the individual versus the collective, and tons of sex. So if you ever want to watch a show that is beautiful to look at and escape into, but also something that makes you think, give Mad Men a try. (By the way, the other day I tweeted people asking for their lists of the greatest TV shows of all time. And while every other show mentioned in this article was in at least one reply, sadly Mad Men wasn't mentioned even once.)

I know I said this article would have two sections, but seeing it's already pretty long, I'll save the second section for part two depending on how many thumbs up I get below. And if you would like to see more of these review type articles from me, please let me know in the comments. As always, thanks for reading.