I need something long to sink my teeth into.
I’ve seen Castle, The Mentalist, Fringe, Lost, The Good Wife, Man in High Castle, Handmaid’s Tale, The Practice, Scandal, Person of Interest
I’ve seen some of Star Trek: The Next Generation, The X-Files, MASH, Burn Notice
I’m looking to The Wire, The West Wing, The Americans, The Sopranos.
If it has some comedy in it, that’s awesome. That’s why I like Castle, Fringe, Mentalist tbh.
Very serious or dramatic or gory stuff is not what I like at all. Neither do I like pure comedies, usually. But I liked Community and The Good Place.
Thanks!
Why the fuck would you consider the goddamn west wing lmao
It's aged really poorly. I think you'd find it grating. It's basically locking yourself in a room with the Pod Save America guys and Pete Buttigieg.
huh. Why was it in so many of the “best tv show” lists I saw
The dialogue is pretty punchy and the cast is generally very good, and it's hard to deny it was culturally significant (the pod save guys were in the Obama admin and modeled themselves after the show). But it's written for a really different audience than people that frequent this place.
I can turn my leftist brain off when I watch cop procedurals but I guess it would be hard to do it the show is constantly shoving capitalist talking points down my throat. Thanks.
Oh speaking of police procedurals, Columbo is an excellent show. It you want to see a weird little gremlin man locking up rich assholes. It's also generally a very funny show without being a comedy.
It is a deeply, deeply indulgent fantasy of how Liberals think politics should work. It's basically porn for their little civility poisoned brains, constantly congratulating them on how smart and reasonable they are and depicting politics as happening through compromise and technocratic fiddling.
jerkoff liberal fantasy and they still capitulate to republicans
Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul? Both have a mix of drama with funny moments (BB more drama, BCS more comedy).
Do I need to watch Breaking Bad to watch Better Call Saul?
You should. BB is the best television show of all time, bar none. BCS is a close second.
Good question. I wouldn't know personally, because I watched Breaking Bad while it was on.
I think, for the most part, you don't have to have seen the whole series, but it helps to know the basics, e.g. major characters shared by both shows, overall story arc. A meme-level understanding is probably fine.
But I also think BCS is good enough on its own that it would probably be enjoyable to watch even without Breaking Bad.
You're kind of right, but there are a lot of dramatic scenes in Breaking Bad that feel like they're structured like comedic scenes, with a surprising "punchline". The Crawlspace is one example.
spoiler
Gus's death
is another.
Spoiler
tbh that character alone took the show from "old man in whitey tighties" to best TV show ever
I would also like to see him in a more harmless role, but to be fair I find him highly enjoyable as the cold, calculating, business-like villain that he always seems to play nowadays
Scrubs through season 8 (S9 is soft-reboot trash), if you don't mind a mostly-comedy-dramedy that over time matures into genuinely moving stories. Though it was made in the early-mid 00's so there's some problematic stuff in it from that time
Thanks! Yeah I kinda love old stuff, so 2000s shows are completely my jam.
Star Trek and Stargate are both essentially endless shows. Like 800+ episodes between the two. Also Battlestar which has like 100ish episodes.
Stargate Atlantis is a more "approachable" series btw. Better effects and sets than the original series and builds on it in a fun way.
Battlestar Galactica was good! I’ve been watching Next Generation too.
I’ll give Stargate a shot! Thanks!
Another good one is Ripper Street, it's a cop show, but it's set in Victorian England and they only go after serial killers. Matthew McFadyen is the lead and he's always great.
I guess "long" is a little subjective, especially when it comes to TV, but I'll just drop my lists and hope anything hits:
60 minutes: The Leftovers, Angels in America, The Sopranos, Twin Peaks, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Mad Men, Six Feet Under
30 minutes: Atlanta, Bojack Horseman, 30 Rock, Veep, Community, Fleabag, Community, Avatar: The Last Airbender
The Leftovers
Snowpiercer
pls dont bother with West Wing u will come out LiberalLiberal
:geordi-no: watching the West Wing
:geordi-yes: listening to the West Wing Thing
Stargate SG1 is pretty silly fun sci fi a lot of the time. It features USA military as good guys so not based, but I recall enjoying it enough as some fun slop years ago. 42 min episodes. Ton of seasons and such.
Farscape is also in a similar vein, not as many season, but might be worth a look. Lots of really cool characters and costumes. Some of the actors show up in Stargate shows too, so that's kinda fun. 42 min episodes and 4 seaons + extras.
DS9 is great if you dig some trek vibes. 42 min episodes and 8 seasons.
If you like animation, Samurai Jack is really well crafted and usually has a bit of comedy in the episodes. Only 22 min episodes though and 5ish seasons.
Doctor Who is not exactly my vibe, but it's like hourish episodes and tons of seasons. Not a comedy, but has a good bit of funny from the little I've seen.
Other than BB/BCS that someone else mentioned here, Elementary (modern day take on Sherlock Holmes) is fantastic. The Americans is also exceptional and worth watching.
Glad to see another Person of Interest fan here. I might re-watch it now that ChatGPT is out and it will seem all the more poignant.
Black Sails is a really good (and surprisingly leftist) pirate show. Since you mentioned The Mentalist I'm duty bound to mention Psych. If you don't min subtitles, Black Spot is one of the creepiest most atmospheric slow-burn horror shows I've ever seen, although I dunno if 2 seasons counts as long. Hap and Leonard is also amazing.
I second Black Sails. It's also largely a Pro-Revolution show. Super horny in the first season, but the story fleshes out and becomes really good.
Watch DS9, its kind very serious tho but theres enough comedy sprinkled in to liven things up
Don't watch the West Wing, but do listen to The West Wing Thing podcast, where a screenwriter and a comedian slowly go insane while watching every episode.
The Wire is very good, but pretty much straight drama so probably not up your alley.
I’ve never watched an episode of the West Wing but listened to every episode of West Wing Thing
based on your criteria i think that you would not enjoy the sopranos or the americans. haven't watched the wire but from what i've heard that one is very serious and dramatic too.
Tbh The Sopranos isn't that serious. There are some parts that are very dark and gory, but it borders on being a comedy quite often.
this is true in the first few seasons but by the end there is a lot less comedy from my memory.
spoiler
tracee getting beaten to death, adriana's death, dr. melfi getting attacked, aj's suicide attempt, etc
Sopranos has comedic and satirical elements. It's definitely very explicit and gory at times, but it might be for you regardless. Give the first few episodes a try, it'll give you an idea of the level of violence.
Star Trek DS9 is definitely the best Trek if you're looking for long term story arcs. TNG and TOS are much more "thing of the week" shows.
