3) Friday Night Lights (2006-2011)
I don’t think there’s been a better written season, and out of its entire run, you could argue that season 3 while still great took a dip because the writers strike cut it in half. What made this series special is because in the background of a small Texas Town, and a high school football team, the plot lines and problems that people faced were realistic. From the starting QB breaking his neck. To the accidental murder of a rapist, to the death of a parent in Afghanistan it was all there. It also covered the obsession that Texas small towns have with football from recruiting violations, to crooked boosters. This was a supremely good cast lead by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, and I realized when I recently did a rewatch. Its still relevant and it ages really well.
Best Episodes
- Pilot (S1E1)
- State (S1E22)
- The Confession (S2E9)
- Hello, Goodbye (S3E4)
- Underdogs (S3E12)
- The Son (S4E5)
- Laboring (S4E12)
- Always (S5E13)
2) The Sopranos (1999-1997)
This show rates so very highly for me because it was unique from any other show on TV and was and still remains as a pioneering show. This was a show that was purely about the antihero, and it turned TV on its head because of it. None of the characters were hero’s or good people. This was a show about a crime family, period. While it was also a show about some deeply dark and disturbed individual. The Sopranos was so different and complexly genre defining. A show with an exceptional cast led by the late and great James Gandolfini, you had to work very hard to feel sympathy for a group of characters that could generously be called sociopaths. We watched the show for not only the unapologetic violence and betrayals but because it was like watching a car accident in slow motion. The main characters destroyed each others lives, and we loved it. You couldn’t look away and it kept drawing you back on a weekly basis. One of the biggest criticisms of the show was its murky ending. Did the Sopranos get wacked, did they have a nice dinner of cannoli? It doesn’t matter much.
Best Episodes
- Pilot (S1E1)
- Full Leather Jacket (S2E8)
- The Knight in White Satin Armor (S2E12)
- Funhouse (S2E13)
- Pine Barrens (S3E11)
- Whitecaps (S3E13)
- Long Term Parking (S5E12)
- Made in America (S6E12)
1) Babylon 5
One of the most incredible science fictions shows that’s been made. Even though the first season was more about character development, once they moved into the Shadow War and the the Earth Civil war, the show moved with an unrelenting pace. Once of the rare shows that from start to end seemed to stay extremely loyal to its lore and story line, and it had an incredibly deep lore. Even with the replacement of the original Commander Sinclair with the excellent Bruce Boxlietner as John Sheridan the show didn’t lose its way. But in terms of the cast, it was the supporting actors that made this show special. From the frenemies Mollari and G’Kar, to Jerry Doyle chewing up the scenery in the background, this show offered up something different that served every different kind of stand. The show was unique in that in terms of enemies there either wasn’t a big bad, as the shadows and the Vorlon’s didn’t have a main enemy. And we never really got to see the evil President of the Earth Alliance making plans. Because of that the enemies always lived in the shadows, moving and plotting and that made them all the more frightening.
Best Episodes
- Points of Departure (S2E1)
- The Coming of Shadows (S2E9)
- In the shadow of Zha’dun (S2E15)
- The long, Twilight Struggle (S2E20)
- The fall of Night (S2E22)
- Path of no Return (S3E9)
- Severed Dreams (S3E10)
- War without end (SeE16E17)
- Zha’dun (S3E22)
- Into the Fire (S4E6)
- Endgame (S4E20)
- The Corps is Mother, the Corpse is Father (S5E13)