Mr Inbetween
One of my current Favs is: Shrinking.
Who wouldn’t love Harrison Ford as a grumpy therapist?
I’m gonna go old school on you, remembering some of the pioneers from an age long past.
In 70s comedy, there was MASH (deftly balancing war and humor), Barney Miller (like a gritty urban Sydney Lumet movie, turned into a sitcom) and Taxi (Danny Devito, Christopher Lloyd and Andy Kauffman, WTF?!!).
In early-80s drama, there was Hill Street Blues (once again, like a gritty urban Sydney Lumet movie, turned into a brilliant ensemble cop drama) and St. Elsewhere (another ensemble, a Boston hospital drama with a good splash of magic realism, this is where Denzel Washington got his start!).
Later in the 80s and early 90s, there was yet another groundbreaking ensemble, Northern Exposure (a quirky and sophisticated half-serious drama, with LOTS of magic realism, about a small, remote Alaska town).
Finally, I can’t go without mentioning my favorite #1 all-time GOAT series, Mad Men. I’ve watched the entire thing at least four times, it’s like reading and re-reading the proverbial “Great American Novel”.
Good stuff. MASH is the best ever TV series. Barney was smart fun. St.Elsewhere was one of my favs. And Belker from HSB was great.
Angelyne…
It has Emmy Rossum playing a Hollywood billboard icon. A loosely ‘based on a true story’ miniseries. Highly recommended. It’s … Different.
Mr Robot.
Xena: Warrior Princess.
Rifleman.
House of Cards.
Shameless (either one.)
Black Sails.
Into the Badlands.
Halt and Catch Fire.
Vikings.
And heck, here’s a few cartoons:
Steven Universe.
Adventure Time.
Infinity Train.
Amphibia.
Derry Girls
Pingu
I’ve been rewatching Community recently and it definitely fits the bill. It has incredibly good writing.
But more than that, Community gives me the impression that is has an infinite budget. Not a ridiculously big budget like some shows and movies do… an infinite budget. The difference being that they don’t waste a cent. There isn’t a single thing on screen that doesn’t serve a purpose. No ridiculous effect or expensive crane shot added in just to flaunt their budget. But if an episode’s script actually called for a particular shot to be done, they would move heaven and earth to make that happen. That’s what it feels like.
In my head I compare it to having unlimited vacation days at work. Case studies have shown that workers take fewer vacation days when they can take as many as they want, compared to when they have a set number per year. So in the analogy, a show with a set ludicrously high budget will use every last cent of it even for pointless frill, whereas a (hypothetical) show with an unlimited budget would only use however much money is necessary to create the show. Somehow, Community became that show. … It probably has to do with how frequently they actually went way over budget in practice.
I fucking love Community.
Absolutely no comedy series comes close to being as in depth and well thought out as community was. Community is actually art for the ages.
Dan Harmon has said the producer did this magic for him. He would often telling Dan that, no, they were over budget when they weren’t, so he could then say yes to the best ideas, actors/cameos, etc.
I’m a huge superfan. My ringtone is Professor Professorson’s.
They spent all their money on overdubbing lines.
Resident Alien
That was a good one! Got a little weird at the end, but they wrapped it up well.
The Good Place. It starts off deceptively shallow but by the end it became one of my favorite shows of all time.
Dark. The constant time travel makes it hard to keep track of what’s going on a lot of the time but if you can manage, it’s very rewarding. Great character development. Not the best ending, but good enough.
Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad have some poorly written characters but the well-written ones are very well-written.
I didn’t include any shows based on books because I felt that would go against the scope of your question.
+1 for Good Place. That show is phenomenal.
Firefly.
Bojack Horseman
Dag - a Norwegian show about a couples councilor that believes people should be alone.
House. I remember fuckall from the past 40 years of watching tv but that one show is etched in the feels.
- Mister Roger’s Neighborhood
- Twin Peaks
- Frasier
- Futurama
- The Wire
- NCIS S1 to like S5
- Fringe
- Peaky Blinders
- Orphan Black
- The Good Place
- Severance
- Fringe but only to the two or third season
Can’t believe Ted Lasso hasn’t been mentioned
Really fun stuff! The Roy Kent actor is in one of my current Favs; Shrinking.
