I enjoy shows where I get completely engrossed in the world and the story. I love shows that I can fall in love with again on a rewatch. And I want to have lingering thoughts about it when it’s over.

True Detective S1 (2014) is perfect television, but is too old for the last-decade list.

The only other definitive Top 3 is Dark (Netflix)

Other candidates:

- Frieren

- Better Call Saul

- Arcane

- Midnight Mass

- Counterpart (underrated)

- Andor

+1 for both Andor and Arcane (although I would probably do a +10 for Arcane given how amazing it was inside the genre even not knowing anything about the background story)

Arcane was really something. Hard to think of anything like it.

Not familiar with all the other shows mentioned, but strong upvote for Andor. Possibly the best Star Wars anything. It's a shame that people might not give it full credit for the drama it is because of the Star Wars association.

Also check out Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's got an infectious positivity that we need more of in this day and age.

I will!

> I enjoy shows where I get completely engrossed in the world and the story.

Have you watched LOST?

If not, don't read anything on the internet (you'll get spoilers in search results) and give it a shot.

I watched when it was originally aired, but never came back to it. It didn't come together in the end in a satisfying way.

Hehe, I'm essentially the only person I know who loved the ending.

I appreciated that it was a tribute to the characters we'd grown to love, and also kind of a middle finger to the plot bits that didn't line up perfectly.

I'd rather watch a show with plot gaps and great characters than a perfectly plotted show with middling characters.

I’d love for one of the streaming services to take another crack at Lost. Desmond in the hatch is some of my favorite TV ever.

From is pretty good.

Having caught a few episodes since it ended, I think the real tragedy of LOST is how good each individual episode was in comparison to how terrible the overall planning was. It was engrossing during the episode, but any time spent outside that trying to tease out meaning or clues was just wasted time. Ostensible foreshadowing was really just "wouldn't it be cool if?" with no further thought behind it.

I'd argue that quality actually makes it an amazing show to binge. It wouldn't "work" in the current climate of one-episode-per-week with bountiful time to analyze and Internet sleuths/theorists often coming up with better plots than the actual writing in each next episode, but Lost promises high quality episode after high quality episode for you to, well, just get lost in.

For anyone who hasn't seen it: you're in for a wild ride. Don't look up spoilers.

When it first aired, people definitely did that on the internet.

I'm of a firm opinion that there are two very different kinds of Lost viewers -- ones who care about the characters first and plot second vs ones who only care about the plot.

Personally, I took it as 'We're getting to see these things through these characters' eyes and how they react.' And we probably wouldn't have given a shit about the plot, if we hadn't actually cared about the characters first.

Lost did characterization very well. (Helped by an insanely talented cast!)

[Spoilers]

I lost interest when they reached back.

Although I definitely like "unexplainable" stories like Twin Peaks.

If we are talking old TV, definitely check out The Wire. It's up there in the classics, but people nowadays don't talk about it much.

Meh. Saw it at the time. After season 2 I certainly got lost, but not “in it”.

The plot always thickens, back then there was the promise/hope that “everything will be explained”, but then the show ended with sooo many loose ends and inconsistencies. Utter disappointment, I’d like my time back please.

From is quite fun too. It is extremely similar to lost in its vibes and writing style. For the record I think both of these shows are not good shows, but are definitely entertaining shows.

If you like Counterpart, see Fringe, an earlier show with parallel universe.

John Noble as Dr. Bishop is amazing. And manages to keep it cohesive given later... developments.

He later appeared in the Sleepy Hollow series, which had a great first season.

Is it too late to watch True Detective S1 then? Old as in dated?

You should absolutely watch True Detective Season 1. It definitely holds up a decade on.

Old as in not made in the last 10 years, so not in the list's window (2015-2025)

It's timeless.

True Detective S01 seems more cultural for a time, rather than a good story. It's a very drawn out, non-interactive (meaning you can't figure anything out) detective story that's really more of a convoluted buddy cop story with lots of time skipping around. One cop is unlikable and the other is weird (nihilist). The best part is the title theme song and the main character actor performances. My wife and I think it's some kind of nostalgia for when there was nothing better on. Nic Pizzolatto was writing up until 2019 and the subsequent seasons weren't lauded. Probably because he's not that great of a writer.

Disagree. All True detective have some plot holes. Yet all the seasons are still in highest tier of the genre. Every season has very different setting. Because its series very much about mood people were upset after season 1 that instead of rural occult mystery they got casino gangster corruption. But if you accept its all completely separate mini series each season is pretty good on its own.

It started off as one of the best tv shows ever. Each season after that made you think it couldn't sink any lower, Game-of-Thrones-season-8 style. I think season 4 might actually have been trying to make fun of the first season, though I have no evidence for it. I do not accept seasons 2 through 4. I reject them.

No, watch it.

And speaking of old goodness, The Wire, possibly the best TV series ever. And with the 1080p re-release, I’m going to claim it’s younger than 10 years old.

Edit: oops. 1080p happened in 2014. https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/28/7457291/the-wire-hd-scre...

Yeah, I rate The Wire among literature. It transcends television.

It's great, and also very enjoyable.

Devs, scavengers reign

The box contains everything.

Scavengers Reign is an amazing, 10/10 show and it's so depressing we'll never get a second season. I miss my telepathic dead wife salamander addiction metaphor.

Scavenger's Reign made me remember how much I missed the batshit crazy Liquid TV animation of the 90s.

The SR episode with the moment in the cave wall is the most profound and beautiful animated thing I've seen in awhile.

Amazing how tame everything has gotten by comparison.

So glad I watched Midnight Mass on a whim. Incredible show.

Yes. Best vampire show ever!

Counterpart may be the best show of that sort I’ve ever seen.

Have you seen Patriot?

Counterpart was excellent - until it got cancelled :/

It's fine, it's wrapped up enough. Watching it is totally worth it, and it won't leave you hanging. The authors were saying that a third season would've pursued a different storyline anyways.

True Detective was great, but the last episode of season 1 really was a crappy ending.

These were good, but short lived.

Incorporated (Damon & Affleck), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporated_(TV_series)

Peripheral (Nolan), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peripheral_(TV_series)

Zoo (James Patterson), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoo_(American_TV_series)

it's sad that the the Peripheral second season got cancelled. the concept was really interesting (esp the way corporations/scientists used it).

I would suggest reading the books, because they go into a lot of detail about those specific elements.

For me, Bir Baskadir (Ethos) is easily in the top 3. It only got one season but it's very self contained, highly recommend.

For me other than severance: Halt and catch fire and Better call Saul.

Slow Horses (also on Apple TV+) is currently my favorite - Gary Oldman is crushing it. Severance is my second favorite of the last decade.

Slow Horses is great... until there are action sequences.

At which point it does that British television thing where action just isn't.

But given there isn't a ton of actual action in it, the bulk of the show holds up.

It's great at building tension but the actual action is pretty underwhelming, as you say.

But it's quirky, because there are some great action shots too. E.g. Jackson Lamb. But those tend to be tighter, usually interior shots.

So maybe they should avoid the grand exterior action sequences.

Definitely The Americans as mentioned above, also The Expanse, The Man in the High Castle, Slow Horses (especially the panoramic London drone shots), Preacher (in which both Tom Cruise and a sewage treatment methane reactor violently explode for their own independent reasons), Babylon 5 (relaxing the last decade constraint), LEXX (a soft porn space opera), Farscape (with real MUPPETS!!!), A&E Network's "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" (with Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe, who was also just as grumpy in War Games), and Wilfred (both the original rough edgy low budget original Australian version, and the well produced clean cut American version with Elijah Woods).

Also anything with Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale, who was Claudia the KGB handler who liked playing PacMan in The Americans, Mags Bennett the ruthless head of the marijuana and moonshine smuggling clan in Justified, a fictionalized (or was it???) version of herself "Esteemed Character Actress Margo Martindale" in Bojack Horseman, records supervisor Camilla Figg in Dexter, and Ranger Liz in Cocaine Bear ("I'm sorry. Where'd the bear go?"), and a Canadian maple syrup smuggler in The Sticky. Such a wide range and prodigious rap sheet!

The Complete Margo Martindale Timeline | BoJack Horseman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX1zXzz8xVw

If someone would be kind enough to make a Trakt list (or similar) of HN favourites for Sonarr and Radarr, it would save a lot of community time.

For research only, obviously.

If you like Margo Martindale, you'd be remiss in not starting to watch The Riches immediately. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0496343/

Eddie Izzard putting in a serious character acting role as an Irish Traveler ner-do-well who essentially steals a Florida suburban identity. With Minnie Driver as his just out of prison addict wife.

It was really good, even moreso for its time.