TV nerds: what should I watch

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

Severance has a really cool premise and season 2 is being made.

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.

The Wire

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

Severance

Westworld Season 1. Sooo good, just do it.

You're asking on Lemmy? Star Trek.

Which one? Yes.

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad + Better Call Saul

Letterkenny! Canadian humour at its absolute finest.

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

Andor

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.

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.

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.

The Wire

The Sopranos

Deadwood

Justified

Bosch

If you’re open to comedic stuff:

What We Do In The Shadows

Resident Alien

Miracle Workers

Also Ozark

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

• 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

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

This thread has cost me about a terabyte on my NAS.

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

Hannibal is a great show. Mads Mikkelsen is the best Hannibal, hands down.

If you like GoT, you'd probably like Shogun

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.

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.

Mr Inbetween

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

All the star trek. This is not negotiable.

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

The Last Kingdom. Better than Vikings.

Futurama

Parks and Rec

The Good Place

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Orphan Black if you like mystery

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

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.

The Cyberpunk 2077 anime was a trip

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.

• Stranger Things
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• Upload

Person of Interest.

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.

"From" And "Evil"

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.

Deadloch

Am I Being Unreasonable?

Mandy

Ted Lasso

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

From (https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/124364-from)

Season 3 should be done by end of September.

Other suggestions in this thread are pretty good.

And one of my preferred show; Utopia (the UK version) warning it is unfinished, only two seasons but this is just a great show. Take care of not watching the cropped version. Also it is so cool this TV show aired before COVID19.

https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/46511-utopia

Babylon Berlin

Band of Brothers

News Radio

Titus

Better Off Ted

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

Oz.

Then you may proceed with everything else.

Old and left field ones

Wonderfalls Dead like me The almighty Johnsons (nz)

British ones Teachers (Andrew lincolin one) Coupling

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

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".

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).

I am watching Sweet Tooth now, seems alright.

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

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

I am watching Sweet Tooth now, seems alright.

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.

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

The pilot for White Dwarf, then sob in abject anger at what could have been but never was.

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

Permanently Deleted

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