TV viewing is still the undisputed past time of all. It is a habit that we just can’t get enough of, even in this mobile-dominated generation. Of course, watching TV wouldn’t be that much of an addictive endeavor if not for the great shows that stream from it.
Here are 6 of the shows that in my opinion, greatly changed the way people view television forever.
The X-Files
Created by: Chris Carter
This show is about 2 FBI agents who are assigned to solve the most mysterious cases the agency has to deal with. During the mid-90s, Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully were household names and TV sensations because they were the lead characters of this show. With great emphasis on aliens and with little embellishments of people with extraordinary capabilities, no show before it reached the height of fame that X-Files got.
The premise of the story revolves around the abduction of Agent Mulder’s sister when they were still teens. His obsession with finding out the truth and seeking for the mystery behind the event is the main driving force of his decisions regarding his career as an FBI agent.
The show is really addictive since it keeps you coming back for more as it poses more mysteries and with deeper questionings as to how and why such a certain plot twist is added to the story’s narrative.
24
Created by: Joel Surnow, Robert Cochran
With the tenacity and toughness of Keifer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer in this series, 24 has really changed the way primetime TV is defined forever. The plot devices that are employed in this show are mainly about terrorism, government conspiracies, political scandals, and certain world issues.
Although Agent Bauer is mainly the man, he has the support and allegiance of his super-loyal friends like Chloe O’Brian, who’s an expert hacker and female computer geek, and the husband-wife tandem of Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler as his most proficient allies.
In case you’re wondering why it is named as it is, the answer is due to the fact that all of the events of a particular season of that show happens in only 24-hours. This means that for Bauer and company, no terrorist would ever last more than a day before he gets entangled with the web of toughness that the Counter-Terrorist Unit of Los Angeles is only capable of unleashing.
Lost
Created by: Jeffrey Lieber JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof
What do you do when you happen to be on a plane that crashed on a mysterious island, yet you still managed to stay alive? Wait for rescuers to arrive? Cry in despair because no one seems to know that you’re still among the living?
The survivors of Oceanic 815 did exactly that, but then there are other things to do as well: avoiding polar bears on a tropical island, evading a monster made of black smoke, and fight a native island tribe who appears to be more advanced in technology and tactics than they ever were.
Their lead character is also named Jack. But unlike the Jack that we talked about in the previous item, Lost’s Jack is a doctor, a very smart one, yet has some real serious daddy issues that haunted him even in his very tough days on the island.
Believed to be crafted due to the popularity of 24, this show with an ensemble cast will surely be remembered still even in the next generations of television.
Breaking Bad
Created by: Vince Gilligan
Who says lead characters need to be morally upright guys at all times? If you ponder on the case of what happens to Walter White, the show’s lead character, you can certainly arrive at the conclusion that a TV show doesn’t always need to have a very kind-hearted lead so it can be hailed as one of the best.
Mr. White was just your typical chemistry teacher. But when he got diagnosed with cancer, he decided to put his excellent knowledge with chemicals to great use – he cooked the purest crystal meth of all and earned a reputation in the underworld as the greatest crystallized drug maker in existence.
In a very short span of time, Mr. White became very rich, powerful, and influential within the drug business. But such a reputation came to him at a great cost – it led to the destruction of his mainstream life, as well as that of his family’s.
If you were to ask critics from everywhere, Breaking Bad is one of those shows that truly proves you don’t need to have huge sets and high-budget visual effects to come up with a truly compelling TV show that will be loved by audiences from across the globe.
Daredevil
Created by: Drew Goddard
Superheroes are undoubtedly the biggest things nowadays in movie houses. It started with Richard Donner’s Superman in 1978. Then there came Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989, then there’s Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in 2000. And then there came the onslaught of the MCU movies which are greatly loved by people so crazily that cinema wasn’t simply the same anymore because of them.
Now let’s talk about a bit of a smaller world that is somehow connected to it. I’m talking about Netflix’s MCU take, particularly this show called Daredevil. To quickly describe it, I’d say it is somewhat the TV equivalent of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy.
The entire 3 seasons of Daredevil is not only about mindless comic-book action, but of dark plots, compelling real-world themes, and impressive courtroom drama. The lead actor Charlie Cox plays the blind-lawyer thing so convincingly too, that you can almost forget his other roles instantly as he plays the role of the religious crime-fighting superhero with the alter-ego, Matthew Murdock.
Game of Thrones
Created by: David Benioff, DB Weiss
TV shows were mostly about small sets and small budgets until this show rocked the TV screens and pushed the bar really high for other upcoming television series. Believed to be the most expensive production ever in the history of TV, Game of Thrones boasts of its ensemble cast, cinema-level visual effects, and intelligently written storylines.
With the multi-layered plot that it is known to showcase and deliver, it is almost too difficult for a fan to root for just a single character or group of characters as it is just not too easy to pick a side to love or hate. It can only be viewed on a screen in your living room, but the spectacle and cinematography it projects is something that can’t be deemed as small.
When the show reached its end not too long ago, many fans were disappointed. They felt that the show could have ended on a note that’s higher than what they expected. That may have scratched a dent into the show’s near-flawless trait. But it won’t diminish the fact that it always will be, one of the greatest events to ever happen on television.
