I almost never binge shows, oddly. I watch a single episode of a show at a time. I bounce between a dozen or so shows on a regular basis. It's like constantly changing the channel and landing on the exact channel with the exact show I want to see every time. Truly, I am a rat hitting the stimulation button over and over again until I starve to death.
Funniest show ever. Same humor style as The Naked Gun, which was itself an expansion of the TV show Police Squad! Rashida Jones is perfect as the lead and every episode has multiple belly laughs.
Better Call Saul
Breaking Bad was too hardcore for me. Saw the pilot, respected its high quality, but didn't want to take the dark ride. But this spin-off is just right. Not too hot, not too cold. Bob Odenkirk is a one-man fireworks show as a desperate lawyer trying to build a name for himself and stay alive in the process. Every episode is a cinematic epic.
Mike Tyson Mysteries
This is like a demented Scooby-Doo cartoon, both visually and structurally. Only it stars Mike Tyson as himself and Norm MacDonald as a very Norm MacDonald-esque pigeon. They solve mysteries. Ridiculous, ribald, and all over the place. You will love it or hate it.
Mr. Robot
Nice to see Christian Slater again in this tear-down-a-corrupt-society hacker drama. The lead guy is cold as ice and not super-engaging, but it's still interesting and unpredictable.
Man in the High Castle
I love me some Philip K. Dick, so it's neat to see one of his most unadaptable books given an epic, expansive adaptation. They changed the story all around, but it's totally in the spirit of the book and I support it. A bit too much pottymouth for my tastes, but a dark, commendable work of art overall.
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
It's not as fast or funny as you remember it being in the 80's. But the cinematography and editing are surprisingly zippy for the time. Lots of laughs to be had, even if it's not a classic.
When this show hit, I was skeptical about yet ANOTHER murder mystery show, especially one starring a fresh-from-starring-on-CSI Laurence Fishburne. Like- really?! Fishburne's on ANOTHER murder mystery show!? Also the Hannibal the Cannibal IP is pretty badly burned after the super-lame Hannibal Rising. Hannibal's star has fallen a long way since Silence of the Lambs. Buuut...it's awesome. Super-dark, brilliantly made, constantly compelling. Brilliant casting, too, with bit parts by Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall, Scully from X-Files, and legendary comedian Eddie Izzard. The only downside now is that my life is divided into "watching Hannibal" and "not watching Hannibal." And it's always annoying to be living on "not watching Hannibal" time!
Inside Man
Cool mini-documentary series by the Super Size Me guy, Morgan Spurlock. He dives in and explores a different societal phenomenon in every episode, such as drug legalization, robots, economic collapse, and religious evangelism. His take is always interesting and he's pretty fair with his presentation, even when he clearly disagrees with people.
Fear the Walking Dead
We all know season 1 sucked. So we all watched season 2. And it sucked, too. SURPRISE! At least some stuff happened in the first season, with L.A. collapsing under the zombie outbreak. Season 2 is just hanging out on a boat with much boredom and arguing. The characters are all annoying or forgettable. Barely any zombies, either. Fun fun. STOP WATCHING THIS, PEOPLE! (I'm addressing myself with that command, too.)
Alias
Super-cool spy drama from a pre-Lost J.J. Abrams. Stays solid for all five seasons.
Vinyl
Ray Romano gets a serious dramatic role. And the scenes with the New York Dolls are great. This 70's record industry show has its moments, but is exhaustingly mean and sleazy and hard to recommend.
New favorite show. A super-smooth snarky lawyer takes under his wings a young genius who faked his way into a lawyer job. It's like a series-length sequel to Good Will Hunting, if Will took a job as a lawyer. It addresses what would happen if someone who knew everything and could remember anything...was forced to actually apply that knowledge in the complex legal profession, where most of what you need to know can't be found in books. Likable characters (even a likable sleazy villain!), lots of interesting ideas, and a great sense of humor. Oh, and their boss at the firm is Zoe from Firefly!
Baskets
Zach Galifianakis totally commits to his role as a rodeo clown. Painfully honest and silly, often at the same time. Louie Anderson is perfect as his mother, too.
Downton Abbey
First couple seasons were great. Didn't care for the sexual assault in one of the later seasons. Unnecessary. But it closed out strong with a delightful final season.
Continuum
Cool sf show about a lady future cop who follows a buncha criminals back in time to our present to stop them from wrecking our world to change the future. Keeps twisting and jumping around, maintaining a high quality level.
Possibly the most deliriously strange and twisted cartoon of all time. Every episode is wall-to-wall ideas and hallucinogenic visuals. It's about an exuberantly insane warden for a geometry-defying prison where random death and mayhem and reality-shifts are a constant.
New Girl
First couple seasons were hilarious. They went overboard with the lame sex jokes from then on and the show just devolved into a sleazefest and the characters got lame and predictable.
American Horror Story
First season was a pretty solid no-holds-barred horrorfest. The second season tried a bit too hard to top it and every episode was a phantasmagorical mess of scattershot images and plot threads and lots of people yelling and arguing and freaking out. Also aliens. Not much fun. Not sure I wanna see any more. Puzzled that anyone would.
American Crime Story: People Vs. O.J. Simpson
From the same team behind American Horror Story, these guys do a pretty solid job telling O.J.'s story. He comes across as haunted but sympathetic. And Travolta is a treat, hamming it up as Robert Shapiro.
Hawaii Five-O
Pretty generic cop drama. Some neat casting choices, but nothing too interesting.
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Jerry Seinfeld goes full-Seinfeld in this show that is well and truly about nothing. He drives around and gets coffee (sometimes even a full meal) with comedians. It is exactly what it promises to be.
This lightning-fast spoof of police and forensic shows nails every trope and cliche mercilessly. Every cast member is game and every episode is hilarious.
Torchwood: Miracle Day
Torchwood was always pretty hard-hitting, but this fourth season is a story about the end of death and its global consequences and is just devastating. So much cruelty and disturbing imagery. It's increasingly odd that this show is a Doctor Who spin-off because that show has its dark moments, but is Blue's Clues compared to this.
Gilmore Girls
Seven seasons of gold. A story of a mother and her daughter. I don't even care for the daughter and I still loved it. The supporting cast is great, especially Luke and Kirk. And EVERY actor EVER shows up at some point. Even Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach as a washed-up old musician who joins a teen garage band. He's a delight. So is everyone.
Lizzie Borden Chronicles
The pilot felt like a perfectly self-enclosed demented horror movie. Christina Ricci was decent as the title character. But...I really didn't see where the story could go from there. And I didn't really care.
Comedy Bang! Bang!
A deliriously funny, oft-surreal talk show spoof. Every episode is a gem.
Dr. House meets Loki! The two handsome men give it their all in this spy thriller about a weapons manufacturer and an undercover agent. Huge payoff in the final episode, but a treat throughout.
Archer
Funny for a while, but the shrill tone gets repetitive. Clever scene-connecting dialogue and a few good jokes, but I'm gonna let you guys keep this one. Think I've had enough.
Hand of God
Ron Perlman plays a corrupt judge who has a religious experience with a religious con man. And things go all over the place from there and it leaves you wondering what's really real. An interesting ride.
Stargate: SG-1
Pretty cheeseball. Neat to see MacGuyver at work again, but nothing about the pilot invited me in any further.
The Returned
The pilot was directed by a cool guy, Peter Berg. But it's no fun and none of the characters are moving in any interesting directions. It's about kids who die in a horrible school bus accident coming back to life one by one. Blah.
Bates Motel
First episode left me cold. Plus- Psycho was a cool movie, but Norman Bates isn't that interesting a character. How many people actually saw Psycho II? III? IV?
Peggy Carter rules! Sad the show got canceled after two short seasons, but it was a nifty 40's pulp adventure while it lasted.
Party Down
With the cast's pedigree, I expected a comedy. But this tale of a neurotic catering company is a drama. A pretty dry one. EVERYONE is on this show. But it's got maybe one laugh per episode. Approach with caution.
The Path
Feels like it was created by a data analytics computer. The stars of Breaking Bad and Hannibal and True Detective? Too exquisitely manufactured, Hulu. But it's pretty cool. Not bingeable, it's too emotionally intense, but a wild ride.
Robot Chicken
Super-abrasive humor but the stop-motion effects are a marvel.
The Leftovers
Much like The Path- unbingeable. Just too intense. But this tale of the sorta-Rapture has its moments despite being super-mean. A few downright transcendent moments.
Falling Skies
The ultimate alien invasion show. Things escalate with every season and even when things seem super-duper at the end of season four, things take a horrible turn in season five and keep things interesting for our protagonists.
I was totally xenophobic toward forensic dramas when this show hit. I made it through SEVEN seasons of CSI, 2 seasons of CSI: Miami, and 3 seasons of CSI: NY. It was enough.
So when multiple friends were expressing their delight with Bones a decade ago, I cheerfully bah-humbugged 'em. No more forensics for me, plx thx.
Well, I was wrong. This show has forensics in it, but it's vibrantly character-driven. A charming show about death and decay. The two leads are super-charismatic and the supporting cast is super-likable.
Most character arcs and human drama on the CSIs come off as, "Well, we have to have people do and say SOMETHING to kill time between uber-gory flashbacks and evidence-processing montages." But Bones has characters filled to the brim with life. (Though they're surrounded by death.)
Most character arcs and human drama on the CSIs come off as, "Well, we have to have people do and say SOMETHING to kill time between uber-gory flashbacks and evidence-processing montages." But Bones has characters filled to the brim with life. (Though they're surrounded by death.)
And it's STILL ON THE AIR?! 11 seasons!? Okay, then.
Maron
The neurotic dude who hosts his podcast from his garage is at it again. Very well-written and well-made. Every season.
Lucifer
Pilot was meh. The Devil deserves better.
Blunt Talk
Patrick Stewart is a crusading, self-righteous, hypocritical TV show host. Very funny but a dark funny.
Bob's Burgers
A charming low-key animated comedy about a family-run burger joint.
Wayward Pines
Season one was a wonderful dark trip into M. Night Shyamalan twistiness. Every episode had a new hook. Then season two already has all the cards on the table...and it just spins its wheels with characters revealing nothing new or interesting, just going through the same-old same-old.
A relentlessly funny and twisted goof on hospital dramas. It leapfrogs and does back-flips over every joke you expect it to make.
Kitchen Nightmares
Fun in small doses. It's fascinating to watch the restaurant owners' states of denial.
Catastrophe
Rob Delaney does pretty great in his comedy show debut. Lots of great jokes and truths about pregnancy and life.
Heroes Reborn
Heroes wasn't much of anything since season one. Three mediocre seasons followed, then it ended. Why wasn't that enough? This reboot isn't awful, it just never really justifies its existence.
Fargo
Much like Hannibal, I avoided this one due to an allergy to regurgitated IP. But it's a masterpiece. Even better than the movie. And season two is even better than season one. Bruce Campbell is an awesome Ronald Reagan.
Squidbillies
Another twisted and demented and wacky Adult Swim cartoon. There are nine seasons of this thing. If you're in the right mood, it's comic gold.
A much better reboot than Heroes Reborn. The funny episode was funny and it was only six episodes long, so even though it was flawed and the final episode was just ridiculous, it's a short journey.
Burning Love
This spoof of "reality dating" shows is dead-on and mucho funny. It's mostly the cast from The State tearing up the screen.
Bosch
Amazon proves they have some serious skills with this adaptation of the Michael Connelly character. The mysteries are solid, the acting is great, and the writing is rich.
The Big Picture with Kal Penn
Kind of like a Freakonomics TV show. Does some pretty fishy stuff with numbers and statistics, but is rarely uninteresting.
Fuller House
Exactly what you expect it to be.
The Heart, She Holler
Sick stuff. Like Twin Peaks on really bad acid. Funny. But sick.
Legends
Sean Bean in a non-medieval drama! He's a secret agent man losing his connection with reality. Works.
Tosh.0
The snark and the smug is strong with this one. Watching him mock everyone and everything makes the world seem like a pretty sad place.
Zoo
Our world's animals all go feral and start attacking us. Based on a James Patterson book, with some pretty lame CGI. Cheesy but fun and doesn't overstay its welcome.
A far cry from Tim & Eric's Awesome Show! Great Job! There's only some humor here, most episodes are more like surreal David Lynch short films. And they work. It's just unexpected.
Bored to Death
Pretty funny show about an awkward nerd bouncing back from a breakup by being an unlicensed private detective. Zach Galifianakis is great as his best pal and Ted Danson steals the show as his boss.
Preacher
A risky proposition, adapting one of the most loved adult comic series of all time. The pilot was iffy, but the second episode's chainsaw-in-the-church scene was legend. It can do no wrong from here on.
Extant
Future Halle Berry goes to space, has weird experiences, and comes back to Earth to further weirdness with her robot-inventing husband. It's okay.
Mr. Selfridge
If you burned through Downton Abbey and want more like it, this is a British drama from the same time period about an American in London opening the first department store. Lots of delicious drama and Jeremy Piven chews mucho scenery.
Dresden Files
Paul Blackthorne is a total delight as Harry Dresden, supernatural wizard detective.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever
The Aqua Teens close out strong. Keep it weird, guys.
Wonderfully paranoid thriller that's basically Batman-without-a-costume teaming up with a computer genius to access infinite NSA data for the purpose of saving people before they commit murder or murder happens to them. We care what happens to these folks and that keeps it going.
-Phony McFakename
There's also Madam Secretary (2 seasons on Netflix) and The Finder (1 season, Netflix).
ReplyDeleteGood catch, ARG! Those are the only two shows in the entire world that I failed to address here. We saw the Finder pilot when it first aired and liked the characters, but the premise felt like a half-baked Burn Notice. Madam Secretary we shall investigate...
ReplyDelete