My Favorite TV Shows of All Time

Yesterday, I talked about my favorite movies of all time. Today, I'll go to the smaller screen, and talk about TV shows. This won't be as extensive because I honestly don't watch much in the way of TV and haven't for years.

But I do have a few favorites, so I figure I should talk about them.

Archer

This show is odd. It is a modern TV show animated like the 70s. But it's also hilarious. I love the characters, and the voice-over work is phenomenal. It's also one of the rare shows where the later seasons are just as good as those earlier in the series.

Burn Notice

This show was a roller coaster for me in terms of enjoyment. The early seasons were outstanding. The middle ones, meh. But that ending? This show may have the best series finale of any that I've ever watched. The premise of the show also sets this one apart, since it's just not like any other show.

House of Cards

I like the first three seasons. After that, the show jumps the shark. But the premise is fantastic, and Kevin Spacey is an amazing actor. Too bad he seems to be a horrible human being.

How I Met Your Mother

I'm the only person who liked the ending. I hated the last season. The whole drawn out Barney/Robin wedding thing in the last season was horrible. And to be honest, I didn't care for the mother. Not the actress's fault, the writers just didn't make her an important enough member of the cast for me to care about. Robin should have been the mother. A little unreliable narration and we could have all had the happiness of knowing Robin for the entire series and being surprised that they got together at the end despite all the signs that they weren't going to.

As you can tell, I have issues with this show. Still love it, though.

House

The early seasons. Wow. Then Huddy happened, and House became a criminal and even more unlikable. Good thing those early seasons exist. The series finale is excellent, though.

Dexter

I have mixed feelings about this show. The first four seasons were fantastic. Then they killed off Rita, and Dexter's reason attachment to the good life seemed to go away. Then there was the whole sister being in love with her brother part, which was very odd. I liked the series finale, and never watched the redo season.

Castle

If I were ranking these, this one would be #1. I love this show. I like the crime stuff, but the relationship between Castle and Beckett really makes this series so good. It also got me into fanfiction, something that I still enjoy a lot.

Downton Abbey

They killed off Matthew. I loved the show until that point. I love historical dramas, and this is one of the better ones. But I couldn't keep watching after they made the entire first three seasons irrelevant by killing off Matthew.

Justified

I'm usually not one for the cowboy, southern, crime drama type shows. But this one did it very well. The drama in Harlan was well done in all the season, the enduring villain throughout meant that it was easy to move the story along as the seasons progressed. And, the acting was fantastic.

The West Wing

I've watched this show more than any other. It's inspirational. It was a little less good after Sorkin left, but still one of the best shows of all time.

The Tudors

Another historical drama. They even incorporated some actual history into it.

NCIS and NCIS LA

I wasn't even going to mention these, but for NCIS, I really liked the early seasons. I wish they did a better job of making the characters the central focus. Castle did this well, where the relationships and character interactions mattered throughout the entire series. NCIS didn't do this and treated their characters as disposable. They're all gone now, but the series continues, and those who came before don't matter.

The LA spinoff did a better job of being character-centric, so I like it a little better. And I've actually watched all the way to the end.

Sherlock

The BBC sensation was superb. They took too long between series, but other than that, the acting was fantastic and I really enjoyed the stories.

Honorable Mentions

Weeds (before it jumped the shark and left the initial premise behind), Lucifer (before they decided they should make him God), New Girl, Bones, and The Big Bang Theory.

That's it. Nothing really modern. As I wrote before, I want to watch some new stuff, so maybe this list gets expanded some day. We'll see. What are your favorite TV shows? Please let me know in the comments below or on Mastodon.

This is day 5 of 30 in 30.