Top Ten TV Shows

[Damasta]

The writers have given theirs. Here's mine:

• 1. LOST. No competition there.
  2. Battlestar Galactica. I'm a little surprised none of the writers mentioned this one, but oh well.
  3. 24. Season 7 was kind of a stinker, though.
  4. Firefly. Too bad it was ruined by Fox.
  5. Dollhouse.
  6. Alias.
  7. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Again, ruined by Fox.
  8. Fringe (even though most of the 'fringe science' is really just junk science and techno-speak).
  9. Star Wars: Clone Wars.
  10. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (yes, they're different).

Honorable Mentions: The 4400, Jericho (cut short in its prime), Legends of the Seeker (cheesy sometimes, but what do you expect from the creator of Xena and Hercules?), Heroes (it's gone downhill since the first season), and Mythbusters (best when it was just Adam and Jamie).

There are shows which are good, but I haven't watched enough of them to put them in the top ten list, like Psych, Monk, and Smallville,

There are also some shows which I'm interested to see, but haven't yet. These include Deadwood, Veronica Mars, V, Flash Forward, Pushing Daisies, Dr. Who, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Bones, Regenesis, Dexter, Warehouse 13, Prison Break, House, and Kyle XY. Time will tell whether they're actually worth their salt.

I hate lowbrow comedy, so you'll notice that entries such as Arrested Development, Family Guy, The Office, 30 Rock, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Scrubs, and Futurama were excluded.

Of course, if we were going by sheer number of viewers, then American Idol would win it, hands down. Geesh, I hate that show.

[krebscout]

Lowbrow?

Maybe Family Guy and Futurama (though they have their witty, sophisticated moments), but...I'd be interested to know what comedies you don't consider "lowbrow."

[Tao]

Link

Assuredly not a top 10, as I don't know that I saw 10 different television shows more than once (willingly) this decade. I'm a little surprised not to see House on anyone's list. I've enjoyed the episodes I've seen. I was also interested to see Avatar:TLAB pop up so often. I did see all four seasons of that one, and enjoyed the martial arts foundation w/in a cartoon, but the show was definitely geared toward a younger crowd. (ie. suspense was not allowed to hang for more than 2.6773 seconds.)

Mythbusters was worthwhile, and I enjoyed the Future Weapons that followed it when I could. And while it was a miniseries, BBC's Planet Earth has got to rank toward the top for me.

[Damasta]

I'll concede that all of those shows have lucid moments. But I dislike the general fare. I consider anything that is primarily focused on how stupid, dysfunctional, or vulgar people are lowbrow. Anything that primarily consists of mockery, lewdness, or inanity, I consider lowbrow.

I haven't ever actually watched an episode of 30 Rock or Scrubs so perhaps my judgment of them is unfounded. But I suspect it's not.

I don't consider Monk or Psych lowbrow, for example. But then, they're both comedy-dramas, not straight-up comedies. Perhaps I just dislike comedies in general. Or perhaps these days they're all lowbrow.

[Tao]

Or perhaps these days they're all lowbrow.

I'm afraid I tend to think this is the case. While it does require wit and intelligence to come up with a character who doesn't understand why his therapist/analysis skills aren't desired even after producing business cards with "______: professional analrapist" on them (arrested development), or another who is convinced that his metal detector is a gay-dar (the office) such cutting seems more a hack-and-slash comedy that only bleeds the viewer (and medium) dry. The Colbert Report actually has wit that can cut more surgically, but I often wonder how few viewers even are sensitive enough to catch it. Blackadder also had it's low points, nonetheless it was the first to my mind on comedy that wasn't 'lowbrow'. QI:Quite Interesting is one that is still running, (and gaining popularity). While it can be very crude, I would put it leaps and bounds beyond some of what passes as comedy on TV.

[krebscout]

Interesting. I love The Office, Arrested Development, and 30 Rock because I don't consider them lowbrow. They each have moments you could probably call lowbrow, but their humor is so far above that of Adam Sandler and Jack Black (not that I don't love me some Nacho Libre)...

I think they all (especially - and obviously- The Office) borrow a lot from British humor - they thrive on the play of social misunderstanding, awkwardness, and semi-realistic characters.

Now, Colbert Report and The Daily Show? I would say those are anything but lowbrow.

[Cognoscente]

I hate lowbrow comedy, so you'll notice that entries such as Arrested Development, Family Guy, The Office, 30 Rock, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Scrubs, and Futurama were excluded.

That's an almost embarrassing admission that you have no taste and no sense of humor. And are stupid. I'm sorry. I suppose you hate the Simpsons too, huh?

[Whistler]

These TV shows are a conflation of high and low culture! People! Postmodernism. It's why the Simpsons and Calvin and Hobbes laughs at avant-garde art but also fart jokes. THEY'RE BOTH. Sorry, finals are getting to me.

House would have been on my short list, although lately they've been getting a overdramatic.

[Cognoscente]

[Tao]

That's an almost embarrassing admission that you have no taste and no sense of humor. And are stupid.

I've never claimed to have a typical grasp on taste, nor asserted my sense of humor to be along common lines in the least, but please tell me; in what way do you draw conclusions of lacking intelligence in those disliking that which you like?

[Cognoscente]

Tao: because I'm an unapologetically arrogant prick. Duh.

On a more serious note, it's more an emotional reaction to what I perceive as a perfunctory, baseless disdain for a number of exceptional shows. Shows that feature phenomenally sophisticated writing and intelligent social commentary. Especially Arrested Development, 30 Rock, and Futurama. If you can honestly sit down and watch any of those and tell me you don't think they are brilliant examples of comedy, then you are either A) not smart enough to appreciate them, or B) too uptight and unfunny to be taken seriously. Don't brush them off with the shallow and unfair excuse that they're solely "lowbrow," either. No one paying attention could possibly believe that.

[Gimgimno]

I have sacrilegiously compared watching Arrested Development to reading scriptures. Every time you watch it, no matter how many times you have watched it before, there is something new that you didn't notice before. I swear, that show has more layers of humor than any other show that has ever aired on television.

Scrubs is an entirely separate case--comparing it to any of the other shows listed doesn't do it any justice. Some of the humor is inane and shamelessly predictable, yet that is what makes it so hilarious. I enjoy watching it because each character has a distinctly different sense of humor, but the writers maintain consistency throughout the entire series. It's not the same brand of humor from a short cast, like most sitcoms--it's a spectrum of humor spread over a diverse cast. There's no other show that pulls that off.

I think my appreciation for shows is directly proportional to how intelligent the writers seem to be. It is extremely apparent to me that the writers for these shows in particular are unmeasurably witty and brilliantly clever.

[Tao]

It is interesting, as a closer look at my dislike for what I have seen of many of these shows has yet to give a concrete reason why. My first impulse was to point out the humor based on mocking the socially dysfunctional, yet Red vs. Blue could well be categorized similarly and I find that hilarious (gotta love Caboose). Perhaps it is simply a matter of sensitivity. I remember watching Ice Age II with some FHE sisters, one of whom found it to be too intense. She was quite clearly more entertaining to watch than the movie was, as her reactions were very visceral and implied a connection to the characters on a level that I did not share. The mocking humor of the office and arrested development presupposes an ability to suspend empathy for the characters being mocked. I'm not sure that I have enough of that skill to handle more than the snippets I have been asked to endure.

I think my appreciation for shows is directly proportional to how intelligent the writers seem to be. It is extremely apparent to me that the writers for these shows in particular are unmeasurably witty and brilliantly clever.

Acknowledgment of intellect need not lead to appreciation. I'd say Jim Carrey stands a fair chance of being more intelligent than I, yet I feel no compulsion to appreciate all that he has done. Then again, much the same could be said of Shiro Ishii.

[Whistler]

The mocking humor of the office and arrested development presupposes an ability to suspend empathy for the characters being mocked. I'm not sure that I have enough of that skill to handle more than the snippets I have been asked to endure.

Oh, you have empathy? I thought you were incapable of human emotion.

Well, you have a good point. Perhaps our modern humor requires an awareness that what we are watching is not real. Not real; HYPERREAL. Thus it's easy to laugh at people who are just actors! The documentary style of the shows you mention also suggest that they're going for an imitation of reality... but yeah I'm going with hyperreal on this one. Let the simulation of reality continue!

[Damasta]

That's an almost embarrassing admission that you have no taste and no sense of humor. And are stupid. I'm sorry. I suppose you hate the Simpsons too, huh?

Actually, you're right. I hate The Simpsons, too.

I'll go ahead and play all my cards. I actually like Seinfeld. And I would consider it lowbrow, too. So what's the difference between it and all the other shows I listed? I can only think of one common denominator: When I watched Seindfeld I liked it. When I watched all those others (with the exception of 30 Rock and Scrubs, which I haven't seen), I didn't like them--and I even felt a mild sense of revulsion that I'd spent approximately half an hour on them. So there you have it.

[Cognoscente]

Actually, you're right. I hate The Simpsons, too.

You... monster! There's clearly nothing I can do for you.

[Whistler]

Many of these TV shows are funny because they subvert our expectations for what a regular TV show does. But if you don't know what a "regular" TV show is, then some of the humor is lost, I think.

[Damasta]

These TV shows are a conflation of high and low culture! People! Postmodernism. It's why the Simpsons and Calvin and Hobbes laughs at avant-garde art but also fart jokes. THEY'RE BOTH.

Yes, they are very postmodern. But that doesn't increase their value per se. Postmodernism (like every -ism that came before it) has its faults, and that is one of them.

[Imogen]

i'm gonna have to defend my darling arrested development. you see, odd people with no humor, in arrested development you DO have empathy for the characters. all of them. even lucille 1 has her moments where you truly feel for her. ron howard (who i've met btw. nice guy) created a family like every other family and put them in sometimes silly, but ultimately believable, circumstances. yes, some of the comedy can be lowbrow, but it's so funny because a lot of it is unexpected (there's always money in the banana stand!! the reveal of that left me speechless and then i laughed so hard i cried).

maybe i like it so much because my family is also ridiculously dysfunctional, and so they remind me of my family. but i really think you should give it another shot. it's an incredibly well written and well acted show that was murdered by fox like my beloved firefly and dollhouse (I HATE FOX NETWORK SOOOOO MUCH!! at least they haven't killed glee yet...).

you know, this kind of reminds me of people who don't like star trek because they don't reach beyond the surface and see the social and political commentary. often, we as a society don't want to deal wth issues head on, but if you put it in scifi show, suddenly we can talk about racism. same with comedy.

[Damasta]

Don't give up hope on Dollhouse, yet. It's still showing. They did, however, axe Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.