8 of the Greatest TV Shows You Will Ever Watch.

Regular Show is the best show.

I don't know man, seems like a pretty biased list consisting of your favorite horror/mystery/cartoon shows. For example where is The Wire? There cannot be a best TV show list without it. Also, I don't know that The Walking Dead is that good of a show. Perhaps you over-exaggerated your title a little bit.

Seinfeld? Lost? The Sopranos? X-Files? South Park? Archer? Where is the love, man?

I would agree on The Twillight Zone, Breaking B(r)ad and Twin Peaks. The rest not so much...

Also, there are certainly more than 8 amazing shows one should watch.

Three pages in and no one has complained that Mystery Science Theater 3000 was not included? That makes me feel sad and old.

@DarthOrange: Lost is missing from this list.

from what I've watched, nothing comes close to matching the scope and quality of the Wire.

@joshthebear said:

Six Feet Under is still the greatest TV show, in my opinion.

Agreed.

Some great shows on this list...greatest ever though? No, your opinion is wrong.

I don't know how to feel about Twin Peaks. Right up until the reveal, it's very mysterious and intriguing, characters and setting and motivation and all. After the reveal, it kind of unravels. It just feels like Lynch had completed his story, but was made to extend it as long as possible to financial reasons. The final episode where *spoilers* everyone dies (basically) was such a turn off it nearly unmade all the interest I had maintained up until that point.

Also, Burn Notice belongs on this list. I'll fight you.

Yeah those are shows I can see someone really getting into, but are they the greatest shows to ever grace the silver screen?

no

except for maybe Breaking Bad. You're missing The Wire, and that's just one show out of many.

I was going to post something snarky but then i saw Twin Peaks.

Excellent choice.

I strongly recommend The Wire.

@joshthebear said:

Six Feet Under is still the greatest TV show, in my opinion.

This.

Adventure time when drunk/high is just the largest pile of random and creepy humor, me and a mate quite litterally had to run out of the room or piss ourselves laughing. The humor is so random and just plain creepy that I am surprised its for kids.

Regular show is just as funny but the random doesn't happen as often, the random part is generally whenever they are doing something seemingly normal then piss off some random god of whatever they where doing. AKA, getting arrested by the coolness council for being 'too cool and creating a cool black hole'

Motherfucker you forgot something...

@feliciano182 said:

@joshthebear said:

Six Feet Under is still the greatest TV show, in my opinion.

This.

Good to see some people agree with Six Feet Under. Personally, I'd also have The Wire, LOST, and Mystery Science 3000 on mine.

The Wire stands unparalleled.

[insert TV shows that I think are better than the ones presented by the OP here]

Drawn Together is amazing!

@joshthebear said:

Good to see some people agree with Six Feet Under. Personally, I'd also have The Wire, LOST, and Mystery Science 3000 on mine.

I think mine would be Six Feet Under, The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Nip/Tuck and LOST.

Hey thanks to everyone for taking the time out of their day to read this, I promise you I read all the comments and will take all of your suggestions to heart. There were three of the things that stuck out to me as I read through the comments.

1. The first is how much hate a lot of you seem to have for The Walking Dead. That show is pretty awesome and like @Sackmanjones said:
   

   And walking dead is also awesome. Sure season 2 was kind of a bummer but the way season 3 has shaped up has made me a believer again.

2. Another thing that stood out to me were just how many people recommend The Wire so I guess now I have to check it out, I hope it is on HBO Go.
3. As for Mystery Science Theater 3000 @UitDeToekomst I have heard nothing but great things about that show before but it isn't available on Netflix and it isn't on TV as far as I know. They aren't even done releasing all the seasons on DVD yet, let alone give it a blu-ray release. I will wait for a complete box set before I sink my teeth into it but rest assured it is on my radar.

And here are a few selected responses to comments. Again, if I do not respond to you personally don't feel bad, I don't love you any less and I did read your comment and it meant just as much to me. If you want to discuss anything then feel free to PM me or ask me here. I know I responded to a lot of you so I have linked your name to make it easier to see.

@Video_Game_King said:

This is how I announce how odd it is that Adventure Time didn't make the list.

You and a few other people questioned my decision not to include Adventure Time, and a few suggested that it is in fact better then Regular Show. This is just a matter of personal preference. While I think Adventure Time is fun the problem I have with it is that it is always cranked to 11 with the crazy shit. What I love about both Regular Show and Dan Vs is that they both start in a normal spot before they go off the rails with their insanity. I prefer the build up but that being said I still think that Adventure Time is a damn fine show indeed with Jon DiMaggio's voice of Jake probably being the highlight of the show.

@N7 said:

Saw the first two episodes of Twin Peaks and fell in love but never watched anymore because it gets canceled before any real conclusion can be made, and I couldn't deal with that heartbreak.

Go watch Twin Peaks! While it did get cancelled I promise you the show does have an ending that is more then satisfying. The last 20 minutes or so of that series are trippy as hell and you will spend quite a bit of time thinking about just what the hell it is that happens. Once you really think about it for a while and marinate on the events of the finale and the show overall you will be able to truly appreciate the genius of creator David Lynch.

As for your other suggestions, while I am not all that much of a DC fan myself I will be sure to keep an eye out for those and check out at least one episode from each of them.

@believer258 said:

Baccano is not on this list. It ought to be. ...no, really. You would think that I would put FMA on here but Baccano is very well made and never really falls into the things that turn a lot of people off of anime. Also I never did watch much TV of any sort...

While I am normally of the opinion that anime is for jerks this one seems short enough that I just might actually go and check it out.

@Bourbon_Warrior

I love me some Luis CK the show Louie goes some really dark places and I don't always enjoy it. I believe it is a show of a high quality but fuck is it depressing.

@JazGalaxy said:

er... isn't this list more like "I love TV! Here's what I'm watching right now!"

Nah not really. I don't actively watch all of these shows. It is more a list of the greatest television programs I have ever watched, both past and present.

@JazGalaxy said:

@redbliss said:

I watched Twin Peaks through maybe the first and second episodes, and it is a terrible show. It felt like the Deadly Premonition of TV.

Oh man, it's fantastic.

I think Deadly Premonition is heavily influenced by Twin Peaks. Along with Alan Wake, Metal Gear Solid, and a ton of other games.

The production is clearly bad, as any early 90's show would be, but it does a bajillion things that were utterly amazing and have lost some significance due to everyone copying it in the later years.

For example, every hack writer loves to say "the environment is a character" but Twin Peaks was one of the first shows to actually make that happen. It was also amazing in the way that it took a part of the United States that most people aren't familiar with and put it on TV. It's INCREDIBLY rare for a show not to take place in New York or Las Angeles, and Twin Peaks took you all the way up to Washington or wherever, for probably the first time ever. It also managed to make a creepy show out of scenarios that aren't usually thought of as creepy. It also parodied the life of american's and american towns which is probably why it was so immensely popular in Japan.

While you are correct that Twin Peaks is fantastic I could not disagree with you more about the production being bad. What exactly is it about it the production that makes it bad in your opinion?

@redbliss said:

@JazGalaxy: Maybe I just needed to watch it in the 90s then. It is on netflix now, but I just cant bring myself to finish it.

If it didn't click with you in the first two episodes then maybe it just isn't your cup of coffee. I believe it still holds up today but hey, opinions!

@CH3BURASHKA said:

I don't know how to feel about Twin Peaks. Right up until the reveal, it's very mysterious and intriguing, characters and setting and motivation and all. After the reveal, it kind of unravels. It just feels like Lynch had completed his story, but was made to extend it as long as possible to financial reasons. The final episode where *spoilers* [Spoiler removed by DarthOrange] was such a turn off it nearly unmade all the interest I had maintained up until that point.

Jesus dude at least put up a spoiler warning like this:

I disagree and feel that the ending was perfect and it made me appreciate the build up that much more. They build up to that moment so well and it pays off in my opinion.

@Grissefar said:

I don't know man, seems like a pretty biased list consisting of your favorite horror/mystery/cartoon shows. For example where is The Wire? There cannot be a best TV show list without it. Also, I don't know that The Walking Dead is that good of a show. Perhaps you over-exaggerated your title a little bit.

It is totally a biased list. I said in this first paragraph that this was by no means all inclusive all great TV show list. It is simply a list of my personal favorite shows.

The Walking Dead is awesome.

As for the title, I made sure to leave the language loose. These are "8 of the Greatest TV Shows You Will Ever Watch", not "The Only Great TV Shows You Will Ever Watch". :)

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

Drawn Together is amazing!

Hell yea, TaliciaDragonsong knows whats up!

Arrested Development, Seinfeld, Simpsons through season 8, South Park, The Office UK, Extras, Dexter, The Sopranos, your list fucking sucks.

Don't forget It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

@redbliss said:

I watched Twin Peaks through maybe the first and second episodes, and it is a terrible show. It felt like the Deadly Premonition of TV.

That's because Deadly Premonition is the Twin Peaks of video games. If you don't like one, you aren't going to like the other.

I really didn't like where Drawn Together ended up going. It's not that I got offended, it's that I got super-bored. The last episode I saw was a Captain Hero focused episode. I honestly couldn't tell you what exactly happened. I think an ice-cream truck or the Wienermobile got involved near the end, though. I really liked where it started, though, so I can't really hold it against you for liking it.

The only other three shows I've seen on your list are Breaking Bad, Twilight Zone, and Twin Peaks, and I definitely agree that those three are three of the greatest TV shows I'll ever watch! I agree that your loose language makes this thread a lot more palatable. Maybe edit in a "these are not the eight greatest shows ever, but eight great shows you should check out" at the top so people stop being so combative.

While I'm only in the midst of Breaking Bad's second season, and I've only sporadically seen Twilight Zone, I can speak on Twin Peaks. What a fucking fantastic show. The characters, the town, the musical cues, it's just brilliant. I don't think the 90's have anything to do with it; you either dig that show's off-kilter sensibilities or you don't. While I'm finishing the show long after playing Deadly Premonition, I can say that I legitimately adore both of them, without irony. There's something about the sensibility shared between the two that is just so affecting and, well, hilarious too, but meaningful. In a lot of ways, I haven't finished Twin Peaks simply because I don't want the journey to end. Both Twin Peaks and Deadly Premonition are just so damned joyous.

As for other shows people keep mentioning, I do really like Adventure Time, but it's probably not one of the best shows I've ever watched. I'm honestly not sure I enjoy Adventure Time more than I enjoyed the first Pokémon series with the run-up to the Elite 4. And don't even start including anime, or else we're gonna have to talk about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Air, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, etc. There's a lot of "anime that's for jerks," but if we're bringing it in, we have to bring it in big time.

For the record, in many ways, Haruhi Suzumiya is the Twin Peaks of high school anime.

I should really try Regular Show, Walking Dead, and American Horror Story. All three have been on my radar for a long time.

And I have DVDs of the first seasons of The Wire, Dexter, and Lost sitting in my house.

The Wire

@Little_Socrates: Walking Dead is a great series, 2nd series is pretty slow but there's alot of character development.

Breaking Bad number 1

Seinfeld, Battlestar Galactica have to be on that list

X Files and Lost probably on that list

Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Downton Abbey, Archer, Deadwood, Pushing Daisies, and Arrested Development.

+ The Sopranos.

+ The Wire.

+ Mad Men

+ Game Of Thrones.

+ Adventure Time.

- Dexter

I will never understand why people like Dexter. After watching something like the Wire it seems so melodramatic and shallow. I can't take it seriously, it's like watching a cartoon.

@Gerhabio said:

The Wire

@strangeling said:

The Walking Dead should not be on this list. I have watched it, and it is not one of the 8 greatest tv shows I have ever watched. Its main flaw: it uses characters and events established in another medium. Had it gone the route of the The Walking Dead game, I may have been able to accept it as being great television.

So you're one of those people that can only enjoy something that's 100% new?

Oz, Deadwood, Dead Like Me, Doctor Who, Community, Bob's Burgers, Home Movies. Plenty of things I feel deserve to be on this list, that aren't on it.

Star Trek:TNG, 30 Rock, Mad Men, Twin Peaks, Arrested Development, Community and Seinfeld are all a man needs to live a life of luxury.

The fact that Chuck is missing from this list blows my mind. Then again most of my favorite shows are not on your list anyways.

MST3K, Flight of the Conchords, Mad Men, The Simpsons, Breaking Bad, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Community, Fawlty Towers, The Wire, Father Ted...

Hey, I disagree with you. Where's TV-show?

In my opinion the best 8 shows i have watched over the years:

1. The Sopranos

2. Six Feet Under

3. Breaking Bad

4. Trailer Park Boys

5. The Shield

6. Seinfeld

7. The Office (UK)

8. Fawlty Towers

All of the above are consistently great. I left off Dexter, Always Sunny, The Wire and some others because their last few seasons dropped in quality.

Firefly.

Remove the word Greatest from the title of this thread and I'll more readily agree with you on this one.

Those are certainly 8 of the TV Shows I will ever watch.

Homeland.

Pretty good list, although I figure i'll be the british guy and suggest a bunch of amazing british shows, because I am british;

The Mighty Boosh

The Day Today

Brass Eye

The IT Crowd

The Thick of It

The Office (UK)

And because i'm a horrible person, I really like Death Note.

@strangeling said:

The Walking Dead should not be on this list. I have watched it, and it is not one of the 8 greatest tv shows I have ever watched. Its main flaw: it uses characters and events established in another medium. Had it gone the route of the The Walking Dead game, I may have been able to accept it as being great television.

I agree but not for the reason you give. I don't think the fact that it's using established characters has any bearing on quality. The problem is the inconsistent writing. Sometimes it's great, other times it's teeerrible.

So you're one of those people that can only enjoy something that's 100% new?

I really hate it when someone makes a list and then people say "You're forgetting X" It's their list people. They aren't forgetting it, they just don't like it as much.

That being said, I don't think a single show from your list would pop up anywhere near mine.

No Dexter

No Star Trek

No Arrested Development

No thank you

@EpicSteve said:

@strangeling said:

The Walking Dead should not be on this list. I have watched it, and it is not one of the 8 greatest tv shows I have ever watched. Its main flaw: it uses characters and events established in another medium. Had it gone the route of the The Walking Dead game, I may have been able to accept it as being great television.

So you're one of those people that can only enjoy something that's 100% new?

Or 100% SUCK!

No but really, season 3 of the Walking Dead is much better than the past 2 seasons. But even saying that, I still wouldn't rank it up there with "The 8 Greatest TV Shows You Will Ever See." When you get past the initial shock and excitement of zombies and gore, there isn't that much to the characters.

The idea behind Drawn Together was great but holy shit the execution was well...shit. Walking Dead is not great, the only time I was truly captivated with what I was watching was the first episode, it's been all downhill since then.

No The Wire and no Mad Men? Hell, The Boondocks can take a dump on a couple of these shows. Fuck this list.

@Irvandus said:

No Dexter

No Star Trek

No Arrested Development

No thank you

Dexter peaked at season 4 and has crashed and burned into the ground since then.

In my opinion, Top Gear is the best show on TV right now. Is it one of the ten best of all time? For me personally, yes.

It isn't even about the cars; the cars are just tools that feed the comedy (although the review segments are very well shot). The interactions between the hosts and the ridiculous(ly stupid, perhaps) challenges are just immensely entertaining to me.

I think The Wire & The Sopranos are still the 2 best shows I've ever seen. I really, really enjoyed the first series of the Danish political thriller Borgen but it's probably premature to top 10 it until I've seen the second season which I think BBC4 starts showing in the next month. Here's a top 10 I wrote last July on another website. I think it basically is still accurate, maybe I'd change #10 for Angel on closer examination.

1. The Wire - Hands down the best thing made in my life time on TV. Doesn't treat the audience like morons, doesn't present life as black & white, deals with difficult social issues in an honest & informative way, with fascinating characters. Also one of the few shows to have child actors who were really damn good, season 4 was remarkable.
2. The Sopranos - Some of the best arseholes in television history were in The Sopranos. Ralph Cifaretto is probably my personal favourite. A terrific cast, probably the greatest single episode of television I've ever seen in season 3's Pine Barrens. Darkly funny at times, moving at others, it has an amazing capacity to make you sympathise for a cold-hearted murderer just minutes after you hated his guts. Tony Soprano is an interesting character & yeah, this is a must-watch program for people who like things. Yeah, just anything.
3. Monty Python's Flying Circus - Lets be honest, there's parts of it which aren't amazing after 40 years, but there's not many of them which is incredible for a comedy show. And so much of it is still hysterical. Influenced almost everything in comedy that came after it, but ignore that. It's just really funny.
4. Deadwood - I remember buying the 1st season on DVD while in Sheffield. I was feeling a bit homesick & had some personal issues going on so bought that to try cheer myself up. Well, I ended up watching all 12 episodes without a break for anything but the toilet, & was compelled to return to town the following day to buy the remaining 2 seasons.
5. Blackadder - My favourite sitcom, a show which never outstayed its welcome. The 1st season was a bit ropey with the gang finding their feet, but the seasons as a courtier at Queen Elizabeth's court, as a butler to Prince George, (later George IV), & then the final season as a captain in the British army on the Western Front during WW1 all contain some fantastic moments of humour. And the ending of Blackadder Goes Forth will always stay with me as incredibly poignant for a cheaply made, silly BBC sitcom.
6. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - My dad introduced me to this a couple of Christmas's ago, telling me to watch it. Alec Guinness as the retired spy George Smiley. It's the sort of thoughtful, slow moving drama that I'm not convinced the BBC would actually commission these days, which is a damned shame.
7. Battlestar Galactica - The modern version of course. Action-packed & lots of political chicanery, with the last surviving humans escaping from robots they created. Really marvellous TV, I know so many people put off by the fact it's "nerdy sci-fi" only to be forced to sit down & watch it & then be utterly captivated.
8. State of Play - A modern British drama, from 2003 or there abouts, standout cast, a political thriller as good as the classic 80s show Edge of Darkness (also made into a movie by the Yanks that I've no interest of ever watching). Nice to watch it in this post-phone hacking world & be reminded that sometimes the press don't have to be total scum, even if it is only fiction.
9. The West Wing - It lost something when Aaron Sorkin was kicked off the show in my eyes, but is still a gripping if entirely unrealistic look into the White House. I really hated the 7th season plot with Toby leaking that national secret about the military space shuttle though, totally didn't fit the character. Still, very good.
10. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - I suppose I should say I'm ashamed of this but I'm really not. Witty, snappy dialogue, fun stories, it's just thoroughly enjoyable. And Hush, an episode where everyone loses the ability to talk is a far better episode of TV than a teen drama has any right to have.

Honourable mentions go to Red Dwarf, to Sons of Anarchy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras, The Shield, Fawlty Towers, Oz, Cracker, Band of Brothers, The Prisoner (original run), Mad Men, Yes Minister & there's hardly a shortage of others to mention.

Actually I'd be inclined to remove Sons off that honourable mentions list after the last season which may be harsh. Justified is awfully close to earning a spot on the good stuff list, & like I said, Borgen is in consideration. And somehow I totally forgot to mention Arrested Development which is an oversight. It's either US dramas from the past 15 years, British comedy classics, with State of Play being the only exception in that top 10. Actually I noticed that I'd probably have to consider the BBC's Sherlock & Life On Mars as well, at least for the honourable mentions list. Fucksake, more I sit here & think the more I notice things missing. Brass Eye, Today's The Day, The Thick of It (how did I forget the best British telly program of this century? Christ), even forgot Father Ted.

Top 10 lists are bloody hard. Lets put The Thick Of It at 8, State of Play at 9th, & The West Wing at 10th. Sorry Joss Whedon :(