This week, I’ll be listing off my Top 10 Favorite Television shows. As with any list evaluating such an arbitrary medium, my selections are based on a mixture of quality markers, like formal aesthetics and strength of story and character, and more esoteric values like nostalgia and sentimental value. My metric for deciding which films and shows would take the top spot was how much I personally enjoyed watching them and how many times I could go for a repeat viewing. If I were flipping through the channels on a weeknight, these are the titles that would get me to put down the remote, kick back, and immerse myself in another world.
#10 Freaks and Geeks
Kicking off our list is a critically acclaimed comedy that was cancelled too soon. Let’s face it: for most of us, high school sucked. The cafeteria food was gross, the classes were hard, or pointless, or both, and the teachers just didn’t understand you. What’s more, you didn’t understand you, because you were in the process of changing. Limbs stretched, acne bloomed across your face, and old clothes, as well as old friends, just didn’t fit any more. There have been plenty of onscreen depictions of this universally difficult time in our lives, but few if any have been as searingly honest or as painfully hilarious as Freaks and Geeks was. For 18 glorious episodes before its unceremonious cancellation, Freaks and Geeks captured high school in a way that perfectly mixed the good, the bad, and the awkward of American youth’s chaotic developmental years. It’s no wonder that pretty much everyone involved in this show, both in front of and behind the camera, went on to have stellar careers. Series creator Paul Feig and executive producer Judd Apatow have gone on to be comedy kings in Hollywood, and the cast is a who’s-who of current day indie darlings and A-listers. Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, James Franco, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen, just to name a few.
#9 Scrubs
Next up on our list is a different kind of medical show. Eschewing the maudlin seriousness of its contemporaries, Scrubs brought a new element to the genre - absurdist humor. Although a good number of medical shows had successfully combined black comedy and morbid melodrama with success - see St. Elsewhere, Doogie Howser, MD, and a little show called M.A.S.H., for example - but never in a way that was so wacky and fun. As JD and his fellow interns muddled their way through the first few seasons, you could be sure to see sketches setting up all manner of crazy scenarios and parodying a wide variety of popular culture - all triggered by a stray line of dialogue. And as funny as it was, Scrubs still managed to hit you with a gut punch every once in a while. I know I’m not alone in remembering John C. McGinley acting his tail off as Dr. Cox, melting down as three separate patients died on him, The Fray’s “How to Save a Life” blaring in the background the whole time. When one of my buddies in med school comes over, before Grey’s Anatomy or House, I’m queueing this up on Netflix.
#8 Parks and Rec
At #8 on our list is another comedy lampooning another traditionally serious topic: local government. City council meetings, county fairs, and town halls that devolve into shouting matches - not what you typically think of for rich comedic fare. But series creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, already flying high off of the success of the American version of The Office, envisioned these scenarios through a uniquely funny point of view - that of noted civics enthusiast Leslie Knope. Watching Amy Poehler’s bundle of energy civil servant attempting to keep a small town in Indiana from running itself into the ground never got boring in its seven-season run. Spectacular supporting runs by the likes of Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Retta, master of deadpan Aubrey Plaza, newly-crowned Hollywood it-boy Chris Pratt, and Nick Offerman as fan-favorite Ron Swanson only served to further raise the show’s profile in the pantheon of workplace comedies. If you’re ever feeling down, one viewing of the Snake Juice episode should pick you right back up.
#7 Doctor Who
And now for the first and certainly not last sci-fi entry on the list: cult British television epic Doctor Who. Originally aired in 1963 as a low-budget children’s education program, Doctor Who has grown into a pop culture juggernaut over the past 50 years. A revival in 2005 after a brief hiatus introduced a whole new generation of fans, including yours truly, to the world of Time Lords and Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels. You can debate until you’re blue in the face about which Doctor and which Companion are the best, but the fact remains that one of the BBC’s longest running programs has stuck around for a reason - the Mad Man in a Box makes for some darn good television.
#6 Sherlock
Rounding out the first five is another BBC rendition of another classic British character. There have been several popular detective characters throughout literary history, but the most famous and enduring of them is probably one pipe-smoking fox hat-wearing gentleman cooked up by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Almost as enduring as the literary character is the long line of film and television adaptations depicting the master sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Dr. John Watson. The most recent of these, although painfully scarce when it comes to episodes, is also one of the most ambitious and cinematically dazzling takes on Holmes you’ll ever see. With their modern iteration of the character, show creators Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss have gifted viewers with a captivating and delightfully acerbic version of the world’s only consulting detective. Before he was Dr. Strange, before he was Khaan, Benedict Cumberbatch was everyone’s favorite resident of 221b Baker Street. Do yourself a favor if you haven’t already, and check out the role that launched a thousand awkward pronunciations of the last name Cumberbatch.
#5 Rick and Morty
At the top of my Top Five is the relatively new animated series on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim late night programming block - Rick and Morty. “But Aaron!” you protest, “That show’s only run for two seasons! It’s barely out of the gate.” Indeed, dear listener. It may be one of the newest shows on this list, but I’ve always been more of a quality guy than a quantity guy. And believe me, the comedic quality of Rick and Morty’s twenty-odd episodes is already out of this world. Seldom have I so often been reduced to tear-shedding, abs-aching fits of laughter as I have when watching this show. Whether they’re riffing on an established media property like Back to the Future or Jurassic Park, or literally just making it up as they go along like in Rixty Minutes, the results of series creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s wildest ideas are usually riotously funny. The show’s penchant for irreverently nihilistic hijinks is unparalleled by pretty much every show that is not Bojack Horseman. But what puts this show over Bojack Horseman in my book is how dang fun every episode is. Even in the rare moments where the show gets serious, the scene is always followed up by a punchline that hits twice as hard. Rick and Morty truly is a comedian’s animated sci-fi adventure.
#4 Steven Universe
Fourth on the list is yet another animated show which is Rick and Morty’s polar opposite and creative equal. When it premiered two years ago, I was skeptical of this little cartoon called Steven Universe. I mean, sure, its creator, Rebecca Sugar, was behind some of the greatest episode and songs on Adventure Time, which up until that moment was my favorite show on Cartoon Network. But how good could a show about a chubby kid and his magical guardians set in an out-of-the-way beach town possibly be. Two years and three musical, action-packed and world-building episodes later, the answer is: VERY. Ms. Sugar and her ukelele have introduced any number of complex and important subjects to her young audience. Gender identity, same-sex love and relationships, dealing with emotional trauma - Steven Universe has tackled all of the above and more while maintaining its trademark combination of optimism, humor, and heart. I’m not saying your kids will grow up to be monsters if they don’t watch this show, but I’m not NOT saying it either.
#3 Avatar the Last Airbender
As we enter our top three, we’re sticking with animation but switching networks. About a decade ago, Nickelodeon premiered a little show called Avatar: the Last Airbender. Set in a fictional world where certain people are able to control or “bend” the elements of water, earth, fire, and air, the show follows an airbender named Aang and his friends as they fight to prevent an international war. Did I mention that the show also had realistic depictions of living with disability, life in a surveillance state, dealing with grief and loss, the destructive nature of revenge, and the high costs of war? Or that this children’s program has some of the most complex and sympathetic villains on television. Or that the main character is only twelve? All while bringing in record ratings on Nickelodeon? It is for these reasons that, as a recent Kotaku article by Kirk Hamilton asserts, Avatar is one of the greatest TV shows of all time. Not children’s shows, not animated shows, just TV shows. All of them, ever. If you don’t already know why, do yourself a huge favor and check out all three seasons on Amazon Prime.
#2 Cowboy Bebop
My runner-up on this list is animation from the other side of the Pacific, and it has often been heralded as one of the few anime shows that you can safely show to someone who has never seen anime before. Cowboy Bebop didn’t make much of a splash when it premiered in 1998, but it found new life with Western viewers when it debuted on Adult Swim in the early aughts. Maybe it’s the effortless cool of protagonist Spike Spiegel, a leisure suit-wearing, Jeet Kune Do practicing spacefaring bounty hunter with dead aim and a quick temper; it also doesn’t hurt that in the English dub he’s portrayed by voice acting god Steve Blum. Maybe it’s the equally colorful cast of supporting characters, including a cybernetically enhanced ex-space cop, a cryogenically frozen con woman, and a free-spirited girl hacker prodigy. Maybe it’s the Yoko Kanno’s jazzy score, crackling with frenetic energy in one scene and smoldering with sensuality the next, perfectly accompanying the drama and action sequences. Whatever it is, the series has a unique timeless quality to it. From the breathtaking action to the beautiful and haunting score, to the easy-come-easy-go devil-may-care swagger of the main character, Cowboy Bebop is one of my favorite things in any medium.
#1 Firefly
And last but certainly not least, we round up this week’s countdown with a critically acclaimed sci-fi that was cancelled too soon. Like this week’s runner-up, my favorite show also follows a group of outlaws drifting from job to job through the cold reaches of space. And like Cowboy Bebop, this show also didn’t make much of an impact when it first hit the airwaves, but found a cult following on home video. What sets Firefly apart from most shows on this list, and most television in general, is the sheer scope and ambition of its concept and the unparalleled crushing disappointment of its abrupt cancellation by Fox. Coming fresh off the success of not one but two of television’s hottest shows about a vampire slaying teenager and her on-again-off-again vampire ex, Joss Whedon attempted to give us a western...set in space. He dreamed up an entire galaxy, populated it with all types of peoples and modes of government, and gave them a language with its own terminology. He assembled one of the greatest ensembles of characters in television history, lead by charisma incarnate Nathan Fillion. He collaborated with a room of writers, including the equally great Tim Minear, to make thirteen fantastic episodes, not a weak story among them. And Fox took his baby and killed it. So many questions left unanswered, so much mythos left unexplored. Grassroots fan efforts would eventually produce a feature film, but it still stings that we won’t be getting a second or third or sixth season. The sting is extra hard this year with the passing of Ron Glass, the actor who portrayed Shepherd Book, a man of God with a mysterious past. Nevertheless, I find myself revisiting this old gem at least once a year on Netflix, and I find it just as fun each time. To join me in my agonizing over what could have been, you can find Firefly on DVD and streaming on Netflix.
