One of you fine gentlemen recently posted about rewatching Sopranos and Deadwood over and over, and as someone who for reasons I cannot recall missed out on both of these shows thought that that is a pretty good recommendation to at least check them out. I recall also seeing recommendations for the likes of The Wire and Entourage, which are again shows that I have never checked out for some reason.
Aside from hopefully getting some good content to watch there might be others in the same shoes, so here is your chance to spread the love. If you include a sentence or two about why you recommend a certain show that is very much appreciated.
My recommendations are mostly science fiction and comedy, drama and romance is for girls.
Stargate SG1, and then Stargate Atlantis
Farscape
Monty Python
Father Ted
More modern (2000s): Whitest Kids U Know, Arrested Development, Leverage, The IT Crowd, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Farscape is such a good show.
Yeah it ended too soon
As I get older, I have more and more respect for shows that go out on the high note instead of dragging it into the dirt.
Yeah it is best it when they actually have an ending planned from the start. But Farscape was cancelled early because it was very expensive to make (it had Jim Henson puppets for the aliens).
What do you think of Everybody Loves Raymond? It's the classic example of going out on a high note but it gets a lot of shit in these spaces for also being the classic example of the "smart wife puts up with idiot husband's bumbling" trope that's become a cultural staple.
Amazing how Graham Lineman kept changing his public opinions about so called progressivism given his works.
IT Crowd is great.
And sticking with the Brits Black Adder.
Great shows
Thank you for all the recommendations, for Monty Python I have most likely seen just about everything they have every done, and it certainly good entertainment.
I will give the rest of them an episode or two of a try.
You'll love the dry british humor of Father Ted, Black Books and the "Mitchell and Webb Look."
WKUK is like America's Monty Python, it's very silly with short comedy sketches by my favorite comedian: Trevor Moore. All on youtube
"Italian for beginners - IT crowd" is a full episode for free on YouTube
Babylon 5 is also good
I like Colombo. The character is still somewhat in the zeitgeist. People still do the "one more thing bit." Still it's a detective show told through the villain's perspective.
In a similar vein Murder, She Wrote is good. I like the show but there are proto-woke elements in it. I'd say it has strong feminist and liberal sensibilities in it. Still it's a cozy little who done it, and Jessica Fletcher is an enjoyable character.
Someone mentioned Father Ted, I'll add "Keeping Up Appearances" for the BBC tally. Also if you enjoy Simon Pegg, "Spaced" is a nerdy little British sitcom before Pegg did "Shaun of the Dead."
As far as American sitcoms Barney Miller is probably underrated. The Republican on the show is the black guy. It takes place in a Manhattan police station so there's a glut of diversity, including faggots, be warned.
And I'll always say Frasier is my favorite sitcom, so I always recommend it.
My mother used to watch Murder, She Wrote with me when I was a kid. We had a little meme we shared while watching, which is that old granny Jessica Fletcher is a serial killer, and we tried to "whodunnit" the mystery show into showing that Fletcher killed the murder victim of the week, AND planted evidence to accuse/frame another person.
Surprisingly, there were very few weeks we couldn't logic out a hollywood-logic-level line to her actually being the villain. It brought great laughs to both of us.
It actually makes sense since she's always around murder. How else could she statistically be around so much murder?
My family calls her the Angel of Death and if you are a family or friend you'll be accused of murder.
Welp, that seals the deal for me. Bitch is guilty af.
I love Colombo and Murder She Wrote. Colombo is like a “reverse who done it”. Also I’ve heard it described as a who catch-em
Spaced is great. They did a great job wrapping the series up.
Peep Show is another good British comedy. The name comes from the initial idea that all shots would be from the point of view of one of the characters but that drops off as the series progresses.
Thank you for all the recommendations. Colombo got a surprising amount of mentions, I recall watching some of it, so I will give it an episode or two of a try.
I'll recommend one that's not great but never comes up in these things.
Lois and Clark: New Adventures
It's from the before time, young Teri Hatcher, and it's just a fun family friendly type show.
Ripley's Believe It Or Not
And the Johnathan Frakes episodes of Beyond Belief: Fact ir Fiction
My Mom used to really enjoy that one. Sometimes we'd watch it as a family. It was wholesome.
Watched it back in the day, decent show, thank you for contributing to the thread!
Mr. Inbetween
Best Australian TV show ever made and it's a shame the guy hasn't done another one. I would call it a Dark Comedy Crime Slice of Life Drama. Funny as hell, heartbreaking and one of my favorite shows of all time.
I never heard of this until Critical Drinker. It's on my watch list now.
Thank you for the recommendation, I will give it a shot just to see some aussie stuff.
It honestly is one of the best TV shows of all time.
Surprisingly layered show that makes you appreciate virtually every main character, especially the lead. Also think they handled the romantic interest dynamics in a very interesting way.
All Aussie Adventures just for the handshakes
Stargate SG-1 was a fun watch when I was younger. It's really just the Richard Dean Anderson hour, but that's still a good time.
Thank you for the recommendation, SG-1 got other mentions so it sounds worth giving it a shot.
Depends on what you’re looking for. Psych is solid buddy comedy, white collar was decent in a similar vein, lonesome dove is a must watch for westerns, band of bothers and the pacific are solid WW2 recreations. The old twilight zone holds up very well.
You left out the best one from the network with Burn Notice. Bruce Campbell is always worth watching.
If you liked psych than you might also like Chuck, it's the espionage show where the guy has a computer in his brain.
Just be aware that it was on the brink of cancelation for the last three seasons, so each season had to end on a series finale. They did a great job at dealing with it, but it definitely screwed with the consistency.
Still, I miss that show. It almost made up for firefly getting canceled since it wouldn't be the same without Adam Baldwin. And they should have done a spinoff about Jeffster.
A Psych recommendation...man why don't you suck it. 😉🍍
As an aside, did you watch the finale special after the show's finale? Someone asked the creator, Steve Franks, what he was most proud of on the show. His response was casting a black and hispanic leads for the show.
The actor who played Sean in Psych only shapeshifted into an Hispanic some years ago. He was absolutely a white dude on the show. Both of his parents on the show were 100% white.
Yeah, I believe it was during all the 2020 shit. I know he recently changed his SAG name from James Roday to James Roday Rodriguez, his given name.
Gus was my favorite character when he was a geeky guy with a lot of esoteric interests and hobbies.
Later in the series, he was just black. They absolutely ruined him.
Not to mention that the last couple seasons, all you had to do to find the murderer was find the white guy you'd most suspect because obviously the obvious white guy was guilty. I was especially annoyed when they rehabilitated the super villain chick "Moriarty" character (who already sucked) as a victim of her (white man!) father.
Every Law and Order turned into it was always a white guy.
Thank you for all the recommendations, TZ got other mentions as well, so I will definitely give it a shot. I recall seeing some of it on TV way back when.
Watch “Cheers”. There’s more humor packed into any randomly selected 30-second clip than there is in an entire season of any horseshit comedy show running today. The jokes are intelligent and well-paced, in contrast to whatever tossed off pop culture references and gay-ass “witty banter” pass for humor in 2026. It’s a refreshing blast from the pre-irony era.
Family Ties also holds up extremely well in the modern era.
Taxi
Wings
Loved Wings. Too bad that show never really had a big audience
Thanks for the recommendations, Cheers was on TV around here the same time Married with Children was, should be interesting checking it out these days.
Simon and Simon, Magnum PI, News Radio, Dark Matter (The Syfy channel one), Columbo, Last Kingdom
Thanks for the recommendations, Columbo got some other votes too, which is kind of surprising, but it speaks to the staying power of the show.
RIP Phil Hartman. Lovitz did a decent job but it just wasn't the same after.
Night Court is a comedy series that made me laugh my ass off; mostly in the middle seasons. John Larroquette as Assistant D.A. Dan Fielding is one of my favorite all-time fictional characters.
Also enjoyed the All in the Family comedy.
Coach
It has Patrick Star, and the movie Camp Beverly Hills goes great with Bushwacked.
Coach was great. I vaguely remember Luther making some comment about “homosexuals and, uh, regularsexuals” in one episode.
"Awww geeeez Dobber!!!!! .... but Christine!?!"
I enjoy them but I would caution both are super liberal, so be warned
Thanks for the recommendations, don't even think I have even heard of either of them.
Heil Honey I'm Home
Thanks, will take a look!
Millenium looks great, I love Lance Henricksen.
Watched all of those, and they are definitely worth checking out, thanks!
Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul - Great shows about a meth dealing crime syndicate
Community - Lighthearted comedy, weird
Ditto on Psych
I've started watching St Denis Medical and there's some good moments in it
I recall watching a few episodes of Breaking Bad and for some reason not continuing with it, but I will give it another go, thanks!
Since most modern Hollywood stuff is trash, I'd recommend older series:
Emergency!
MASH
Emergency! may be hard to get ahold of, but MASH will be easier.
Those really are older shows, but it might be interesting to give them a shot, thanks!
Emergency is on Peacock and is on MeTv and FETV
I was halfway through writing an impassioned list until I realized almost half of what I was writing that other anons hadn't mentioned yet is basically Jeremy Clarkson's entire oeuvre of work.
He is pretty much the most based Brit this century, even if a couple of his takes have been shit every once in a while. Nobody's perfect, after all.
Top Gear (2002 - 2015) is the most obvious of these, and liking cars is absolutely NOT a pre-requisite. Plenty of compilations on YT, particularly of "the news" that I think anyone here will enjoy. If you want '90s style non-PC humo(u)r that'll keep you going for the better part of the year, you can do a lot worse than Top Gear.
Fuck it, just watch this if you remain skeptical. No cars in sight, just solid laughs.
The Grand Tour (2016 - 2024) is the continuation of that previous show, as you might be aware, but be careful. The retards at Amazon are rebooting it with a woke cast, so don't venture too far. It's not as good as Top Gear, but it's still worth a watch, especially the last few specials from "Scandi Flick" onwards.
Clarkson's Farm (2021 -) is in fact the only show from this decade I've watched, but it's a damn good one. After he retired from driving cars, he bought a farm and decided to become serious about being a farmer and experiencing what millions of those like him have been experiencing for the past several decades, with bureaucracy eating many of them alive. Very informative, interesting and surprisingly funny at times, despite it being a serious documentary. Full white "cast" too, since real life isn't a Disney movie. Even in his old age, he has done for farming what he did for cars, if not twice over.
They tried to cancel him when he stood up for his crew. He seems solid.
Never seen any of it, so I will give them a shot, thanks for the recommendations, and the writeup!
X-Men the animated series
Batman the animated series
Spider-Man the animated series
The Tick
Gargoyles (seriously Disney went hard)
Spawn and Aeon Flux if you're into that
As a teenager during Gargoyles original run, it felt very grown up during it's run.
I always enjoyed Becker if you can separate it from Ted Danson's rancid politics.
Original run of Curb Your Enthusiasm except that season he gets cucked and then where he commits bestiality.
Rubicon
Fringe
Counterparts
The Twilight Zone original
+1 for Fringe, it was a good show and it actually had a decently satisfying ending, unlike many.
Rewatched Fringe recently. Didn't like it as much the second time. It's dumber than I remembered.
Jon Lovitz gets a pass- my favorite role of his is in Trapped in Paradise alongside Dana Carvey.
High School High
Gotta revisit that
Since I already threw out Deadwood and the Sopranos let me add Rome to the mix. Excellent historical drama, only two seasons. Keeping with historical HBO dramas I also really enjoyed Paul Giamatti’s John Adams miniseries. Both have great production value and acting. I also started watching The Shield. I missed it when it was airing but it’s been great so far, Miachael Chiklis is basically Tony Soprano with a badge.
Thanks for the original comment, and Rome was definitely a good watch.
Twin Peaks. It was a phenomenon at the time, with everyone watching week by week to find out who killed Laura Palmer. But then in typical David Lynch fashion, you get twisted up by the end with more questions than answers. Kyle Machlachlan made his name here, Ray Wise and young Lara Flynn Boyle also stand out.
Columbo as others have mentioned - justice is served and the bad guys always squirm under Columbo's questioning.
Rewatching with my kids - Dinosaurs. It's Jim Henson so even toddlers enjoy his little creatures but it has wholesome themes and adult humor too. We've been watching everything we can get of Henson's and haven't found a dud yet. Top films- Dog City, Muppet Treasure Island (Tim Curry) and Muppet Christmas Carol (Michael Caine).
Monty Python, Benny Hill, Leave it to Beaver, In the Heat of the Night, Andy Griffith Show, Good Neighbors (70s British show), classic Dr Who, Farscape, Nightmare Cafe, original and 80s TZ, tales from the Darkside, monsters, amazing stories
Person of Interest was pretty good. Starts out as a weekly crime procedural and becomes serialized about a bigger story with competing AIs that are treated as gods by their followers as they go to war against each other. Lots of action and doesn't end on a cliffhanger.
My only complaint is that there is a bit of girlbossery toward the end due to the changing times, but it doesn't get too ridiculous. And the girls are at least hot.
Sopranos was genuinely funny & entertaining
you can gauge a show's quality but how many memes it conjured
"20 yeeeaaz in the can"
"I like the one that says shum pulp"
"Fucking QUEEEAAZZ!"
"Jamal Ginsburg, The Hasidic Homeboy"
"Before And Way Before"
"He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians, guy was an interior decorator."
"You got a bee on-a you hat"
"Hasidim but I don't believe 'em!"
The Rockford Files, Columbo, Police Squad, Maude, Golden Girls, Mork and Mindy, Sledge Hammer!, Dead Like Me, X-Files, Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, Cheers, Airwolf, Night Rider, A-Team, Magnum PI, Star Trek: TNG, The Simpsons (up to season 9 imho)
That's when Oakley and Weinstein left to make Mission Hill which is very "progressive" as it was targeted to hip genx young adults, but it is well made and I enjoy it.
70s era detective shows.
Rockford Files
Mannix
Cannon
I actually used to run a cytube channel but the spreadsheet is on my old laptop
As Told By Ginger
Archies Weird Mysteries
Eerie, Indiana
I cannot believe no one mentioned it, but Miami Vice. The pilot episode alone is all kinds of epic. Most movies don't even feel as high-quality as the average episode of this show -- filmed on location, this show actually feels like you're there. Always loved it.
Also, The Nasty Boys -- show about cops operating above the law to deconstruct criminal organisations in Las Vegas (this was also loosely based on a true story). If cops acted like this nowadays, progressives would absolutely lose their minds, but crime would drop to absolute record lows for sure. Pilot episode was also pretty epic, and takes a few turns you likely won't see coming. Unlike Miami Vice, The Nasty Boys did not last very long but it's still worth a watch.
The Shield