The Best of the Best I

Best TV Shows Since the Turn of the Century

(in no particular order)

1. Suits Season 2 – I think I finally understand what people see in Mad Men; Suits Season 2 is the coolest show on television. It does everything in style and makes the mundane and boring as interesting as any television show you’ve ever seen.
2. Farscape Series – Farscape made the mundane interesting, the ridiculous normal, and the aliens human; it is quite simply one of the best sci-fi shows ever made.
3. Defying Gravity Series – A show condemned by its own network to die an unlamented death before it even began, gave Defying Gravity the ability to do whatever it wanted. Not even shown in its entirety in the US, nevertheless the show had a brilliant cast, along with great episodic writing. Given how ridiculous the series arc should have been, that the show was that great anyways is a testament to its strength.
4. L&O: Criminal Intent Season 10 – By all rights the final season of this storied show should have been horrible. All the previous season actors quit, many of the show runners left and the network brought back two actors it had let go previously. And yet somehow the last season of Criminal Intent is the finest of them all.
5. Life Season 2 – Life was always a pretty good series, and even though season 1 was lesser and truncated because of the writer strike there was a lot to Life. Season 2 blew all that out of the water. The music was amazing, the actors were spot on, and the writing was superb. A nice twist on the detective show that is unlikely to meet an equal for a long time. Note: the DVD version has all the music from the show removed.
6. Stargate SG-1 Series – Rarely particularly impressive episode by episode, SG-1 is proof of the concept of being greater than its parts. A superb show that just seemed to get better season by season. It was a show that was willing to make fun of itself as well as present serious issues to contemplate.
7. Doctor Who Season 6 – A crowning achievement in the Doctor Who series, I believe the 6^th season to have been the best ever. While individual episodes might have been better than any one of the sixth season in its entirety the season was superb.
8. Luthor – Possibly the best written cop show ever, Luthor is a tour-de-force show backed by the brilliant acting of Idris Elba as a man barely hanging onto his sanity and moral compass. His job forces him to look into the abyss and catch monsters that just look like humans.
9. Misfits Season 1 & 2 – A show marked by its irreverent script born of the absurd and ridiculous, none of which stops its from being a simply brilliant look at five young adult delinquents that find themselves gifted with extraordinary powers.
10. The Fades Series – Only one short season, about a boy who becomes aware that he has been tasked to save the world from demons and angels if need be. One part a coming of age story, and one part of rise of the hero story the fades does everything in its power to not fade away from your memory.
11. Torchwood S. 3: Children of Earth – Dark, depressing, and yet somehow miraculous at the same time, Children of Earth is the crowning achievement of Torchwood. Documenting planet Earth at the time of an unimaginable crisis, where humanity is nearly put to its breaking point making a monstrous choice. Season 3 is a magnificent series full of incredible acting, writing, and directing, science fiction at its absolute best.
12. Firefly Series – Before the now celebrated writing/directing work on The Avengers, Joss Whedon created the cult hit Firefly. Often called a science fiction western in space, Firefly was a one season wonder on the perennially booed Fox Network. A who’s who on before they were famous, Firefly managed in one season to be one of the better science fiction shows of its generation; a fair feat by any measure.
13. Sherlock Series - And finally, the legendary detective himself. Is the modern retelling better than the movies? I suppose its like asking the question is the book better than the movie? Either way Cumberbatch has made Sherlock all his own and television is better for it. Certainly its the best Holmes to ever grace the television screen. More than that, what should have been sacrilegious, the modernization of Sherlock Holmes has freed it from the shackles of the past greatness of Doyle.

Addendum: Yes gamers do watch the occasional television show