Breaking Bad without a doubt should be your first choice. Clever compelling TV, and, as it’s still running, you’ll have time to get caught up before the next season starts.
The Wire should be next- it’s just too good not to get stuck into.
To rank the others I’d have to know more about your tastes, especially in comedy.
Do you like Curb Your Enthusiasm? Community? Archer? Friends? Always Sunny?
Because some of the comedy shows have a specific audience, and won’t be to everyone’s taste.
I would recommend Six Feet Under or Oz. SFU is a bit more of a serious show, while Oz is a bit more fun.
I wouldn’t bother with Desperate Housewives. The first season was fine, and half the second season. Then the writers decided to make the characters serve the plot, and their personalities and behavior change back and forth so much it’ll make your head spin, and then you’ll throw up.
I agree that Terriers and Justified should be on your list.
I voted for Breaking Bad, The Wire, Veronica Mars and Six Feet Under.
I’d hate to see your idea of dark and edgy. :eek:
Something else, how fast do you want to be able to watch this? Arrested Development is 53 episodes, but you can probably knock it out in less then a month. It’s very easy to watch two or three episodes in a row. OTOH, Six Feet Under is 63 episodes, but watching that show takes me several months. Even if I watched it every single day, I typically can’t watch more then one episode a day. It’s just to draining. But it is, however, one of my favorite shows ever. Also, as someone else said, if for no other reason, it’s worth watching for the finale alone. But you’ve been around here long enough to have seen plenty of threads on “Greatest TV Moments/episodes/finales” to know that and I don’t want to work it up so much that it’s a let down.
Psych is still on, but I watched three or four episodes a night of that show and got caught up pretty quickly. OTOH, there’s about as much continuity as The Simpsons, so you could watch the current season and the old seasons at the same time without any real problems. There’s only one real commonly occurring theme in the show and if you watch the new season you’ll see where it goes, but it’s not a big deal. My only problem with the show is that since there’s no continuity and it’s a formulaic show, watching so much of it so quickly I got a bit burned out. It was nice when I got caught up and now I’m only watching one episode a week.
Another good option is Pushing Daisies. Not on Instant right now (I think Amazon Prime might have it for free). I watched it after reading absolutely not one single bad thing about it…and I have nothing bad to say about it. It was a great series. It’s too bad it was cut short, but that does make it a quick watch. Another good one to breeze through in a few weeks. It’s definitely something else I’ll watch again if Netflix brings it back to instant. They also had no shortage of cameos.
I also picked Desperate Housewives because, c’mon, it’s fun to get wrapped up in the drama and there’s a lot of drama. Unlike AuntiePam (and we watch a lot of the same stuff) I thought it was all pretty good up until this current season. It’s a soap opera, you have to remember that. It’s all manufactured drama.
Lastly, I just noticed you had HIMYM on the list. That’s another great one. I wouldn’t go out of your way to watch it. Don’t get me wrong, you really should see it, but the reruns are on all the time. Just set your DVR to start picking them up (say, 10 at a time or so) and watch them as it records them (or watch them when they’re on if you don’t have one). That’s what I did. After you’ve seen 20 or 30 or 40 episodes, you’ll catch on to what’s going on. Most of what happens is funny even if you don’t know who’s dating who or whether or not Lily and Marshall are married or still dating. After a while you’ll be able to watch an episode and pretty quickly be able to figure out where it fits in. Focus on one of the other shows and shoehorn HIMYM into your free time, it’ll work out best that way.
It wasn’t on the list, but have you considered The Big Bang Theory? I’m really a lousy person to ask about episodic TV because I just don’t watch that much, but TBBT is a keeper in my book.
I like a lot of shows on your list, but I would go with Breaking Bad first, so you get it all in before the final season starts, whenever that is. But even with out that reason, I still recommend it highly, one of the best dramas around.
I wouldn’t start anything still in production, because you may be frustrated wondering what happens next. That eliminates quite a few right away.
You may want to reconsider Heroes: some of us who followed it were outraged at how it was handled. The same with My Name is Earl and Dollhouse.
I voted Pushing Daisies, Six Feet Under, Reaper and Arrested Development.
I’ll second Dead Like Me and Terriers as potential additions to your list.
re: the movie - I thought that the gang’s efforts to deal with his replacement were hysterical.
Good suggestion. Pick a genre and tell us what you like.
Ack! Sorry for the triple post.
If The Shield is not on your list, it should be. And I would rank it first.
I haven’t watched much TV as I didn’t own a TV for many years.
So I’ve never seen Curb Your Enthusiasm, Community, Archer, Friends, or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Only show’s I’ve watched fully (and liked), so far, are Lost, 24, That 70s Show, The Dead Zone, Prison Break, Buffy, and Angel.
Shows that I’ve tried, but stopped watching due to not liking them: The Pretender, Jericho, and Alias.
And I know I wouldn’t like overly political shows (like The West Wing), Western shows (like Deadwood), space shows (Like Stargate, Babylon 5, Firefly), shows that are heavily dramatic (like 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, Dawson’s Creek, Grey’s Anatomy, etc) or shows heavily leaning towards cops or law (like NYPD Blue, JAG, any of the CSI’s, any of the Law and Orders).
Mostly I enjoy comedies (any kind, but especially dark or clever), horror, shows that are high on suspense or cliffhangers, shows that have a lot of action, and some sci-fi and detective/mystery.
I wouldn’t call Gilmore Girls dramatic. It’s mostly a comedy, with some relationship drama tossed in.
Well, maybe if I gave it more than 3 episodes, it’d have grown on me. I watched three episodes of it and all three bored me to tears, heh.
I guess it just wasn’t my thing.
You’ve already got your list and poll but I want to recommend Being Erica. It just ended (very well) so it should be out on DVD or streaming pretty soon. It’s very fun, touching, well written and acted.
On the list? Six Feet Under. Best, most amazing emotional finale ever. Second is 30 Rock for hilariousness.
Not on the list…Sons of Anarchy. LOVE LOVE LOVE this show.
I normally hate Westerns…but Deadwood is so much more than “just a Western” and I think it was truly one of the great series of the decade. Again, I almost never like Westerns, but just try a few episodes and you will see what I mean.
Still sticking with The Wire, followed by Sopranos and Six Feet Under, but don’t discard Deadwood!
Dang, DMark, you litrally took the words ourra my mouth! But you may want to have subtitles on - you don’t want to miss a word of dialog.
I also thought Six Feet Under had the best finale of all time, but I have a feeling, after seeing this season’s Breaking Bad finale, Vince Gilligan is ready to steal that crown.
Part of that was because they weren’t sure if they were going to be renewed for another season so the season finale was written as a possible series finale. I would have liked to see the show/season/series end when Walt said to Sky
“We Won” or was it “I won” either way, I think that would have been perfect.
Personally, I thought the ending of the episode “Crawlspace” could have been a series finale.