So here we are. Five whole years of writing about movies. In that time, there's been ups and downs. I've explored the world of British sitcoms, toasted the best of the 21st century, and tried and failed to understand the Death Wish remake. I've defended Game of Thrones' ending, waxed lyrical about Harold and Maude and It Happened One Night, and struggled to wrap my head around Joker. There's been ravings about Paul Thomas Anderson and Studio Ghibli and rants about Mötley Crüe and Hellboy. I've written some things I'm incredibly proud of (my Clerks retrospective, the top 100, my not-review of Extra Ordinary), as well as some stuff I'm a little less proud of (the pieces I've written on Black Books and The I.T. Crowd have... not aged well). I've even been to a couple film festivals, both in-person and virtual, and being able to blog along as I watched those movies has been a definite high point of this whole endeavor. But we're here now, and although I celebrate every year that passes, it's time to toast a half decade of the Scoundrel of the Screen in style with something a little different
TV has always had a presence on this blog, but I don't feel like I've given my love for the medium its due. I watch an embarrassing amount of television, and although I've mentioned a lot of favourites over the years, I think the time has come to look a little closer, and especially show some love to shows that I haven't really found an opportunity to talk about before. That's why, for the month of December, I'm going to be counting down my top 25 TV shows of all time, advent calendar style. That's right, one a day, starting with my 25th favourite on December 1st, before talking about my favourite show ever made on Christmas Day
I should lay down a few rules before we get started, and I won't be repeating any of this over the month of December, so listen up. Obviously this is all my own opinion, and the order of the shows is entirely based around how I feel as I write this list. They were a hard bunch to order but in the end I got it down to something I'm happy with, even if the ranking swapped around somewhat as I put the list together. The shows themselves rarely changed though, as a lot of these are favourites I've held onto for years. I love each and every one of these series, and every one of the entries will serve as a glowing recommendation for you to check out a show if you haven't already.
Also, if I'm missing something, it's probably because I haven't seen it. I've watched a lot of shows but there's just as many that have passed me by, including some really iconic series that I'm ashamed to admit I haven't seen. There's a lot of TV out there, but as always, anything I'm missing now will get its own writeup in the future if I catch it and happen to love it
Also, because of the nature of lists, there were a ton of shows that I love that I just couldn't find room for, and I ended up with a shedload of honourable mentions as a result. Some of them are shows that I love that missed the boat because I found 25 I prefer, while others are shows that I haven't seen enough of to count as an all-time favourite, but love everything I have watched. There's also a fair few shows that have great seasons, but just don't have the consistency for me to label them as all-timers. So here they are, my honourable mentions, in no particular order:
Stranger Things
Justified
The Knick
Ted Lasso
Broad City
Uncle
Big Little Lies
Barry
The Killing/Forbrydelsen
Maniac
Spaced
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Dark
Bob's Burgers
Watchmen
The Haunting of Hill House
The I.T. Crowd
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Futurama
True Detective
Phew. Anyway, shall we begin?
