10) Fresh off the Boat – The first Asian American-led TV show since All-American Girl (1 season, 1994-1995) gets the last spot on the list. It’s not always the strongest show in terms of plot, but I’m a fan of the cast. The show follows the Huang family after their move to Orlando, Florida in the 1990s. While Louis establishes his steakhouse and Jessica works on her mystery crime novel, they both parent Eddie, Emery, and Evan as they navigate elementary/middle/high school, enter into relationships, learn to drive, and make college plans. The jokes don’t always land, but there are a lot of good moments.
9) Sherlock – BBC’s take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective has Holmes and Watson sharing a flat in modern-day London where Sherlock runs his consulting detective agency and Watson blogs about their adventures. The first two seasons, which primarily adapt Doyle’s stories, are really, really good – the plot is engaging, the dialog is tight, and the camera work is excellent. Season three has a couple of my favorite scenes, but starts moving away from being strictly a detective show. Then came season four. It’s too clever for its own good. It starts reaching conspiracy theory levels of what-the-heck. Just for that season, Sherlock ends up this far down the list.
8) The Magic School Bus – In this show that teaches children science, the elementary-aged characters regularly climb onto a magical transforming bus that shrinks, grows, and turns kids into reptiles, bats, water, and more. Sounds safe and realistic to me. I actually appreciate that there’s absolutely no attempt to explain how the bus works. Everyone just accepts it. The science, while often simplified (it’s a 25-minute children’s TV show; give it a break), is generally theoretically sound. I’m now in engineering, so a show that relates math and science to everyday life gets a thumbs up from me. [Other educational/semi-educational TV shows from my childhood: Cyberchase, Reading Rainbow, Between the Lions, Zoboomafu, Fetch!, Zoom, and Liberty’s Kids. Thanks, PBS.]
7) Community – Seven students find their way to Greendale Community College and form a study group that becomes more than a study group. Episodes are centered around the classes they take, but tie into other events that happen throughout the year. One of the show’s big strengths lies in its ability to spoof other genres/styles in the context of Greendale. The season 1 and 2 paintball episodes (imitating action, western, and sci-fi movies) are some of the best TV I’ve seen. There’s also a funny bottle episode and a Claymation Christmas. That said, I see the problems with season 4 that are a result of the showrunner (Dan Harmon) being fired after season 3. The show goes off the rails a bit. Although Harmon was brought back for seasons 5 and 6, they don’t quite capture what they had in the first half of the show’s run, but Community’s worth a watch even just for the first three seasons.
6) Star Trek: The Original Series – Due to budget and technology constraints, TOS is not great television, especially season 3, but this was the Star Trek that started it all. Even if the plots are formulaic, they address pertinent questions about moral and social issues ranging from the use of technology to discrimination.
5) Star Trek: The Next Generation – TNG has some of the same problems as TOS in terms of plot, and it takes some time for the characters to settle into their roles, but once they do, it’s classic Star Trek. The casting overall is strong, but Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard is brilliant.
4) The Great British Bake Off – A baking competition in which the contestants are pleasant to each other. What more could I ask for? I prefer the original hosts, because the current hosts are downright bizarre sometimes, but I’m not really complaining.
3) Jeopardy! – Last year during the MLS season, I discovered that I have TV service through the internet, which I used to watch the Revolution’s one nationally televised game in Spanish. For some reason, I didn’t think about also using my newfound TV access to watch Jeopardy! until after I went home for Christmas and came back to Ann Arbor. Since then, I tune in for my week-nightly viewing of Jeopardy!, where I can put my stores of semi-useless knowledge to use.
2) The Office – Everyday life at the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. The characters are all flawed, but ultimately likeable, and yes, the office dynamics and shenanigans are exaggerated, but I’ve worked with some interesting people and done some pretty ridiculous things in my office, so they’re not that far out of left field. I can see why the show’s not for everyone, but I think it’s hilarious. The first season is a little rough, it really hits its groove in the middle seasons, then the last two seasons have a few questionable episodes before the final three episodes, which have some incredibly funny, strange, poignant moments.
1) Avatar: The Last Airbender – Like Star Trek, it considers important issues regarding gender roles, racism, propaganda, and animal abuse, among many others. It also has amazing characters, plot, and animation, so it earns the top spot on this list.
Other noteworthy shows (not necessarily vying for a spot in the top ten, but interesting for one reason or another) – lesser known, but Person of Interest is relevant to current questions about technology and surveillance. A computer program, “The Machine,” can predict crime before it happens and can output the social security number of a “person of interest” – a perpetrator, victim, or bystander. The first couple seasons have mostly self-contained episodes with variations on a standard plot, then an overarching plot is woven in. The last season was regrettably cut short, so the finale is a little rushed, but still done well. And not lesser known, but The Walking Dead. Only the first ~3 seasons, maybe the first ~5, and only more if you want to see what a train wreck it becomes. Starts out great, turns into a zombie soap opera. That’s all I’ll say about that.
3) Jeopardy! – Last year during the MLS season, I discovered that I have TV service through the internet, which I used to watch the Revolution’s one nationally televised game in Spanish. For some reason, I didn’t think about also using my newfound TV access to watch Jeopardy! until after I went home for Christmas and came back to Ann Arbor. Since then, I tune in for my week-nightly viewing of Jeopardy!, where I can put my stores of semi-useless knowledge to use.
2) The Office – Everyday life at the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. The characters are all flawed, but ultimately likeable, and yes, the office dynamics and shenanigans are exaggerated, but I’ve worked with some interesting people and done some pretty ridiculous things in my office, so they’re not that far out of left field. I can see why the show’s not for everyone, but I think it’s hilarious. The first season is a little rough, it really hits its groove in the middle seasons, then the last two seasons have a few questionable episodes before the final three episodes, which have some incredibly funny, strange, poignant moments.
1) Avatar: The Last Airbender – Like Star Trek, it considers important issues regarding gender roles, racism, propaganda, and animal abuse, among many others. It also has amazing characters, plot, and animation, so it earns the top spot on this list.
Other noteworthy shows (not necessarily vying for a spot in the top ten, but interesting for one reason or another) – lesser known, but Person of Interest is relevant to current questions about technology and surveillance. A computer program, “The Machine,” can predict crime before it happens and can output the social security number of a “person of interest” – a perpetrator, victim, or bystander. The first couple seasons have mostly self-contained episodes with variations on a standard plot, then an overarching plot is woven in. The last season was regrettably cut short, so the finale is a little rushed, but still done well. And not lesser known, but The Walking Dead. Only the first ~3 seasons, maybe the first ~5, and only more if you want to see what a train wreck it becomes. Starts out great, turns into a zombie soap opera. That’s all I’ll say about that.
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