TV nerds: what should I watch

Track_Shovel@slrpnk.net to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 142 points –

I haven't watched TV in years; kids and my previous job really killed that.

There's SO much out there since I last picked up a remote, and I have a fucking huge backlog.

I'm open to anything, as long as it's well done.

Series I liked: Vikings, Norsemen (hysterical), The Americans, GoT, Man in the High Castle, Expanse, Spartacus (Batiartus is amazing)

I'm scratching the surface of Boardwalk Empire, but open to other rabbit holes.

140

The Good Place.

Be warned, that you should watch this one without much research. If you like the first episode, you'll love the show.

One of the very few shows where each and every season is consistently great. Super funny and had a satisfying ending, instead of the usual clifferhanger-because-of-cancellation ending

Came here to post this as well.

Just watch the first episode or two, and if it doesn't have you hooked, it's not your jam anyway.

But it will have you hooked, because it's the best piece of American television in recent history.

Normally I'd agree with that advice, but it took me the whole first season to get hooked by the show. After about 5 episodes I was ready to call it quits, but my partner who had seen it told me to keep watching, and they were right! Loved every minute of it from then on.

On my fifth rewatch right now. Just started S2

Some shows I really enjoyed in recent years:

  • Arcane (amazing animation, world, and story - you don't need to know anything about the game to enjoy it)
  • Peaky Blinders (it's finished and so good throughout)
  • Travelers (also finished, extremely underrated)
  • The Expanse (6 seasons of some of the best sci-fi ever)
  • Stranger Things (ongoing but highly recommend)
  • Beef (limited series so finished, so good)
  • The Bear (very good, raw characters and emotions)
  • Ted Lasso (no need to care for football, just extremely lovable characters and heartwarming story)
  • Breaking Bad (if you haven't watched this, it's a must - best TV imo)
  • The Last of Us (no need to know the game)
  • Andor (best star wars since the original trilogy, mature, dark, and suspenseful)

They're in no particular order, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot, but I definitely think all of the above are must watch.

Travelers, The Expanse (noted by OP), Beef, and Breaking Bad are all solid. Add Mare of Easttown, the Morning Show, and the Newsroom and you've got half of my favourite shows of the past 15 years.

Ted Lasso was the big surprise to me here. The characters are lovable, caring, and well-crafted, and the story is simple but compelling. In all, only the most heartless, isolate, human beings would get nothing from this show.

Travelers is such an underrated show! Really good premise, tight well thought out time travel, solid storytelling and some great performances by lesser known actors. I really want to second its recommendations. Honestly it’s not top tier prestige TV but damn it’s good.

"Very good" is an understatement for The Bear.

And recent seasons just keep stacking up the talent.

Here's an ordered list of shows that came to mind, starting with what I think best fits with what you mentioned and getting further away from there, though I think they're all worth it.

Mr robot

Fringe

The boys

Yellow jackets

Stranger things

The good place

Fringe is great. Season 1 is a bit "Monster of the week" but when it gets going it's a great ride.

I love monster of the week episodes. Those are my favorite X-Files episodes, too.

Westworld Season 1. Sooo good, just do it.

Season 1 is 10/10, the other seasons not so much. Definitely worth watching S01 on its own though

Letterkenny! Canadian humour at its absolute finest.

Also What We Do In The Shadows, and Reservation Dogs.

Just a warning, the third episode is notoriously bad and not indicative of the quality of the rest of the show. It's totally skippable.

I can't believe no one recommended Fleabag. It's not the type of show that would attract me usually, but goddamn was that a masterpiece. Two seasons, short and sweet.

Another short series that is incredible is Chernobyl.

I couldn’t get over the insane exaggerations of Chernobyl, but I agree the show was great.

Scavengers Reign. If you like The Expanse, you might be into sci-fi animated with a seriously weird style. And it's one season with the story tied up in a bow at the end.

I LOVED SR. It’s completely unique for animation, I felt, and every scene was like reading a Belgian comic book from the 60s.

I love Scavenger's Reign, and don't remember any of the characters names or the basic story at all.

I feel like it's just a long world building art project.

Avenue 5 is a brilliant dark sci-fi comedy that I cannot stop thinking about. It’s basically a cruise ship in space but then things go wrong. The physics are actually sound which makes for some really fun and terrifying gags. It’s heavy on dark humor, but if you’re ok with that it’s such a fun ride. I am biased but I feel like this show is criminally underrated.

As a side note, there's a Swedish movie called Aniara which has a similar premise, except if you replace the 'dark comedy' part with 'unrelenting existential horror and infinite, unfathomable bleakness'. Worth a watch lol

I'll check it out!

Alternate take: This show is godawful but for some reason I kept watching. It’s literally unpleasant to watch. Critics also panned it, if you find that of importance.

Same for me. I found the show amusing but never once laughed while watching it, if that makes sense

If you didn't laugh when they came up with the slogan "Together, there are more of us!", then I don't know what's wrong with you.

The Wire

The Sopranos

Deadwood

Justified

Bosch

If you’re open to comedic stuff:

What We Do In The Shadows

Resident Alien

Miracle Workers

Lots on this list I've been meaning to check out

This list is excellent. Bosch is a personal favorite.

Me too, and it's rare I see it already watched much less recommended by anybody else.

Others have mentioned a bunch of shows I would recommend, but one I haven't seen mentioned yet is Turn: Washington's Spies.

I loved the first three seasons, but I never finished it. It’s one of my favorite historical periods.

Don't think I've seen Foundation or Silo mentioned yet.

Maybe sense8? Much like the expanse it takes a while to get going

3 body problem

I think I understand your taste and you will love Black Sails. This is also imo the single most underrated TV show ever.

I swear all the shows you mention lead me to black sails. I had a phase where I binged like 6 of the shows you mentioned plus black sails since they fit in so well together. I can't say much more than, seriously, trust me on this one.

White Collar

Travelers

Stargate sg-1

Travelers is such a great show. It's confusing how few people know about it

I'll addon and say Stargate Atlantis

I will be bold and say Stargate Universe as well. One has to keep open mimd to a completely different vibe especially in first season.

Making my way through Stargate this year, been fun. Finished SG-1, now half way into Atlantis.

  • Fawlty Towers
  • Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister
  • Good Omens
  • Black Books
  • The Expanse
  • For All Mankind (feels like a precursor to the expanse)
  • The Boys
  • Firefly
  • Stargate / SG Atlantis
  • Castle
  • The Orville

Yes Minister / Yes Prime Minister

Then for the dramatic take - the BBC version of House of Cards / To Play the King / The Final Cut starring Ian Richardson (Not the US version with Kevin Spacey)

Black Books

...and then Father Ted and IT Crowd

Then I think you have to include the big HBO series: The Wire / The Sopranos / Game of Thrones / House of the Dragon.

How did I forget about Farther Ted, that is such great show.

I haven't seen House of Cards, but I'll have to put it and To Play the King on my list.

Another vote for Scavenger's Reign, it was amazing.

I have enjoyed the Wheel of Time episodes on amazon.

Blue Eyed Samurai was beautiful.

The IT Crowd is hilarious.

I thought I was the only one who's seen Scavenger's Reign. I haven't heard much talk about it. Damn shame because it's amazing.

It really is. I had only heard it was sort of hopeless so held out for awhile but my goodness it was just so very good. The art style, story, the very creative settings and flora/fauna, everything. So creative and oddly compelling, we enjoyed it so much.

My T shirt says:
Have you tried turning it off and on again

All the star trek. This is not negotiable.

There is an absurd quantity of low quality Trek being shat out recently, did Disney buy the IP or something?

what?

SNW and Lower Decks is pretty much as good as star trek can get. I'm on the fence about prodigy, but people generally are also very positive about it.

disco has its fair share of problems, but the later seasons were also quite good

Lower Decks is great if you're already a fan of classic trek ie TOS, Next Gen, Voyager, and DS9. I would never recommend the show to anybody who wasn't a big fan of Star Trek already as most of the really good jokes would go over their head.

Strange New Worlds is a fantastic starting point though IMO.

I'm very torn on disco. Season 2 is probably the best (due in no small part that it sets up SNW), but the rest are a chore to watch. Most of them have some neat ideas, but they're badly executed more often than not. They also were too heavy handed with each season arcs serialization, most episodes don't stand on their own, and the writing and consistency is just bad. I just finished the final season, and I'm glad they're done with it so they can put more money on good Trek like SNW - hopefully they don't screw it up eventually.

No, thankfully no, Disney's intergalactic shenanigans are limited to the Empire only

Based on your references I would say:

  • Viking stuff: The Last Kingdom
  • Alternate history+space: For All Mankind
  • Spy stuff: Slow Horses
  • Roman stuff: Rome

Deadwood, Mr Robot, For All Mankind, first season of True Detective, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul

The Last Kingdom. Better than Vikings.

Haven't watched Vikings, but I can confirm TLK is compelling as hell.

Edit: Aside from the obviously fictional plot it's also pretty damn historically accurate, most of the time, if you care about that.

Mr Inbetween

An Australian hitman navigates his underworld life and parenthood. Better than it sounds. (Includes some heavy violence)

Turn from AMC is really excellent if you're into revolutionary war spy rings! Excellent writing and acting.

I would also second Andor, fantastic show. Peaky Blinders is another good one, though try not to binge it, I think it'd be much better if watched less avidly.

The Cyberpunk 2077 anime was a trip

I found it very hard to follow without having played the game. There’s a lot of jargon that I didn’t enjoy

I've never played it either, but I liked it. I was definitely lost on the first episode though

If you like Vikings, try Black Sails. A very, very underrated pirate story, unofficial prequel to the story of Treasure Island that you might have read as a kid.

I watch it once a year. It's that good. It recently appeared on Netflix in the USA and it's finally starting to get the attention it deserves.

Based on your previous shows: fallout, shogun and the boys are current.

Fallout - incredible S1 for the video game ip. Hilarious, visually stunning, flavorful

Shogun - game of thrones in japan

The boys - civilians take their city back from super powered heros

Ted lasso [ended] - amazing show about people, likely one of the best of this decade. A meme American football coach from the Midwest moved to the UK to teach a top tier UK futbol league.

Silicon valley [ended] - a tech startup in silicon valley on HBO constantly overcoming challenges with their revolutionary IP.

Avatar the last Airbender [ended] - best of the 2000s, unique flavorful. There is no live action in ba sing se, cartoon only

Disenchantment [ended] - Futurama but medieval magic

One piece live action - another great first showing for anime cross over, skips a lot of the filler and is executed well

+1 for the good place, arcane and last of us

It's a short series (six episodes so far) but with two more in production: The Devil's Hour.

Go in blind, don't spoil it for yourself.

If you like a series that gives you all the clues but none of them fall together until the last episode, this one is dark, brain-bendy supernatural mystery with an excellent cast.

Sounds great!

Also if you like Peter Capaldi (the older actor in that show), he was in a really good crime drama recently called Criminal Record, which is only 8 episodes.

  • Stranger Things
  • The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
  • Upload

Mrs. Maisel is one of the funniest shows I've seen.

I'm a huge fan of anything Damon Lindelof has been a head writer on

Lost

Watchmen

And my personal all time favorite show:

The Leftovers

He's latest show Mrs. Davis is ok too but not quite as good as his previous stuff.

Another show recommendation that I love to give because no one watched it is The English. It's a crazy stylish western, reminds me of Coen Brothers.

I watched Lost when it aired and Leftovers during the pandemic. I won't post spoilers, but I think Lindelof has a unique brand of writing intentionally disappointing stories that's not for me. Like most people, my partner and i didn't like how Lost ended, but the internet would have me believe that we are the only people in the world who didn't like Leftovers.

I like how the ride starts, I just don't think he's even trying to write an ending that satisfies all the questions he takes the time to ask.

That's fair. Lost had trouble because they were building the track as they went. I still loved the ride though. For me, I don't think every question needs an answer as long as what it creates feeds into the themes of the show. Like on Lost, I wish they never explained the Smoke Monster, it just wasn't necessary.

With Leftovers, I'd say it's ending is the perfect summation of the show and anything else would betray what it was going for. ::: spoiler spoiler It's a show about logic vs belief and that's where it leaves us, do you believe Nora? What happened to the 2% ultimately doesn't matter because the show is about how people deal with the unexplainable. There's no satisfying answer to that mystery. :::

You're not alone in not liking the ending though. I've had this conversation before and it's totally ok not to.

I appreciate what he says he's going for, which is that it's a story about the characters, not the sci-fi/magic. If you've watched Tales from the Loop, I think it does a much better job at this. You always want to know more about the tech, but you're never lead to believe that that's what the story is about.

I would liken good story writing to a magic trick. The writer has to create a bunch of threads, and weave them together in such a way that are interesting, but just opaque enough that you can't predict how they all tie together in the end. And once you reach the end, like a magic trick, your mind is blown at how well everything fits together.

But Lost and Leftovers feel like they're keeping a bunch of threads going, only to drop 90% of them on the floor, tie two together, and say "it was never about those other threads". And I feel like I'm still standing there like, "um...aren't you going to guess my card?"

Lindelof thinks that's his gimmick, but to me just feels like he's just decided he's not going to do the actual difficult part of story writing.

This snippet is my favorite review of Lost.

Person of Interest.

Wow, Lemmy knows me, knocking it out with an absolute top tier pick at the very top of the hot comments.

Good taste, my friend.

Deadloch

Am I Being Unreasonable?

Mandy

Ted Lasso

If you can only do one make it Am I Being Unreasonable? It is incredibly good.

My top ten-ish tv shows

  1. The Wire

  2. Bojack Horseman

  3. Patriot

  4. The Americans

  5. Better Off Ted

  6. Arrested Development

  7. Pushing Daisies

  8. Gravity Falls

  9. The Bear

Honorable Mentions

  1. Over the garden wall
  2. Luther
  3. Friday Night Lights
  4. The Queen’s Gambit
  5. GLOW
  6. Mindhunter
  7. Sports Night
  8. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
  9. Atlanta

but open to other rabbit holes

If you like satirical comedy or entertaining educational shows, there's a lot on Australian television (particularly shows from the national Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Also, for people who enjoyed The Office (at least, the UK version, I haven't seen the US variant), I recommend Utopia - it's far from a clone but has a lot of similar themes of workplace life mixed with poking fun at bureaucracy and government.

but I don't live in australia, or have a VPN to access ABC iView!

Visit the sidebar resources of !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com, or even just YouTube will get you a lot of them.

If you like the character-plqy of GoT and don't mind a smaller story (i.e. a single conflict rather than a world at war) then I think House of the Dragon is great. I know some are finding the pacing slow, but I'm really enjoying all the 2 or 3 character scenes where it's all about the dialogue.

Edit: another I've not seen in the thread is "The Great", which styles itself as "A sometimes true story". A comedy drama based on Katherine the Great's rise to power in 18th Century Russia - Huzzah! Written by the same writer that did the oscar winning "The Favourite".

The early 00s - the mid 2010s was the era of the anti hero. It gave us some of the best TV series of all time. You will empathize with the the bad guy... Until you don't.

Breaking bad

Ad men

The wire

Dexter

The sopranos

House

Old and left field ones

Wonderfalls Dead like me The almighty Johnsons (nz)

British ones Teachers (Andrew lincolin one) Coupling

I've seen Breaking Bad mentioned. If you enjoy that, check out Your Honor. It's another drama series starring Bryan Cranston.

Some historical drama/fiction I really liked:

  • Pillars of the earth
  • For all mankind
  • The tudors

There’s a Pillars of the Earth series?! I read the book last year and loved it.

Foundation is a surprisingly competent sci-fi show in the second season, but you need to watch the first.

Also of interest: Severance, Person of Interest, The Peripheral, The Returned (French TV show), Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Invincible, Ozark, The Leftovers, Twin Peaks

Red Dwarf. Also that recent Netflix show where they explain trying to solve a complicated maths problem to help aliens, but I forget what it's called now. The one where alien eyes appear in the sky.

And also a weird Youtube video that's quite well-known, along with its sequel. They're called The Hole and The Orb.

The Hole is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAIbvlobWDM

If you liked Norsemen, I'd say give Plebs a try. It's another historical sitcom, about a group of losers in ancient Rome.

I loved Netflix' new Ripley series. It's cinematographically gorgeous, has a very poignant bit of humor and is generally the best rendition of the story.

Not listing obvious masterpieces like Breaking Bad or The Office. These are my top picks that may not be on your radar, in no particular order, most of which are just 1 season, or have ended:

  • Scavenger's Reign - 1 season, animated, sci-fi drama
  • The Rehersal - 1 season, Nathan Fielder, comedy, introspective
  • How To with John Wilson - off-beat, documentation show, very funny and introspective
  • Jury Duty - 1 season, hidden camera, comedy
  • Red Oaks - 80s coming of age story
  • Over the Garden Wall - 1 season, animated, for kids and adults, great to watch during fall/winter
  • Tales from the Loop - 1 season, sci-fi, Twilight Zone-style 1-off episodes
  • Taskmaster - UK, comedy, gameshow
  • Gamechanger - American, comedy, gameshow

I know little about English speaking TV, so can't quite help OP, but I gotta vouch for Taskmaster. This show is just incredible. I've only watched a few UK episodes, but I've watched every single one they've made in Portugal (4 seasons out already, 5th in the making iirc). It's peak cheek-hurting laughter content. It's not sophisticated humour or whatever, but it's undeniably funny AF.

Glad to hear the Portugal version is good. The US version was pretty lame in comparison to the UK version. The thing I like about Greg's judging in TM is how he rewards out of the box thinking, and takes ownership of being the Taskmaster. But it felt like the US TM punished it. "Yeah, the task didn't prohibit you from doing that, and yeah you did it the fastest, but that wasn't really in the spirit of the task, so I can't give you points for it." It was like the most boring game of Cards Against Humanity you can imagine. Apples to Apples with your grandma.

I'd say there's a bit of both in Portugal's TM. Sometimes the TM acknowledges the creativity, but if the execution it too off the rules, it doesn't get well rewarded. Other times, creative solutions really bump a player's score.

An interesting detail, though, is that in here, TM contestants are mostly non-comedians, and only four of them are permanent per season, with each episode having a different guest. I don't know how it is in US, but I find it really entertaining seeing well known figures doing silly shit and being creative. The varying 5th seat also brings a nice dynamic, and sometimes some of them then get moved to the permanent cast in following seasons.

Ahh, that is interesting. I guess they have a winner of each episode that could be the 5th, but the season winner is always one of the 4?

Yep, that's correct! There have been multiple occasions where the guest wins the episode.

The US version was severely bungled, especially in the cutting of the runtime to a 30 minute timeslot from 60. They made that decision AFTER filming it, so they edited down full episodes to half their length.

I think everyone agrees that Reggie Watts was not a great choice for the Taskmaster, but I do think a US version could work with the right group. It has to find it's own voice though, and be given room to grow, which is hard for US TV.

Lots of good recommendations already. I especially second Last Kingdom since you liked Vikings. There is the series + one movie that ends things. Also seconding Peaky Blinders because it is fucking amazing.

I will add His Dark Materials (based on YA novels, but really good) and Carnival Row (can't vouch for 2nd season yet as haven't had the chance to watch it, but 1st is great).

House of the Dragon too, since you liked GoT (again, can't vouch for 2nd season yet).