television

There are so many great television shows to watch these days. Now that cable stations, both premium and basic, are creating quality original programming, and that we have access to tv from around the world at the click of a button… the possibilities are endless. I haven’t even gotten around to watching shows from non-English speaking countries, but I hear there are some pretty amazing offerings from Asia and much of Europe. As it is, I always have an enormously long list of television shows I need to get around to seeing, or get around to catching up on, or get around to finishing. Then again, the list of culture I want to consume is enormously long regardless of which medium you are talking about, whether it be books, tv, movies, etc.

Lately, I’ve finally gotten around to a few shows I’d been neglecting for a while, and I thought I would share my recommendations with you.

Here are five shows which, if you aren’t already watching, you should be.

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1. Sherlock

I’m pretty sure everyone already watches this, but I finally saw the end of series two after taking way too long away from this Stephen Moffat brilliance after series one. I was a really early adopter of the first series, but then it took me forever to finally watch the second offering.

Also, try to avoid the American re-edits of the show that aired here in the States. They edit quite a bit out for time, and it sucks. Do whatever it takes to get your greedy little hands on the original BBC edits of the show, to enjoy all 90 minutes of each episode.

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2. Luther

Personal favorite Idris Elba is John Luther, a badass Detective Chief Inspector who will do anything to catch any proper villain who made the mistake of letting Luther catch his or her scent. From a major decision Luther makes that opens the series, to his unconventional relationship with someone from a previous case, the show is an excellent departure from your run of the mill cop show.

There are only ten episodes so far, divided up over two seasons. I’ve seen seven thus far, and shit gets real at the end of series one. It’s not a perfect show, with several annoying plot holes at times, and episode three didn’t make much sense (although it is as creepy as fuck), but it sure is entertaining. The performances are also stellar across the board, including those of characters only around for a single episode.

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3. Breaking Bad

The combination of the massive number of good shows to watch and my own habits of procrastination resulted in it taking me until now to finally start watching Breaking Bad. I’m only through the first season, but you can already count me amongst the show’s believers. Smart, dark, well-acted, and unlike anything else on television.

Well, I guess it is like Weeds, but it’s about a potentially dying chemistry teacher who is selling drugs because he is trying to leave something for his family instead of being about a rich white widow who is selling drugs because she doesn’t want to move into a smaller house or get a job. With the exception of Mary-Louise Parker’s insane hotness, Weeds is inferior in every way when it comes to stories about unlikely people building drug empires.

The Breaking Bad hype is well-deserved.

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4. The Newsroom

Another Aaron Sorkin show that is going to create polar opposites in people’s opinions. They had me at “Sam Waterston delivering Aaron Sorkin lines once a week.” Add to that the rest of the strong cast, and my heart was just a series of dominoes waiting for Sorkin to knock them down. He wins.

The show isn’t perfect… yet. Still, I will never understand Sorkin haters. Sure, he’ll never be subtle, and his idealism and hope that people can be better than they usually are will always bleed through, but why is that so terrible?

Another Sorkin complaint I’ve heard is that his characters never talk like real people. Right, because I’m sure the people on your favorite show talk exactly like fucking real people. No one talks like real people in film, books, tv shows… they speak an approximation of regular speech that serves a narrative and dialogue. Whedon characters all talk like Whedon characters, Wes Anderson characters all talk like Wes Anderson characters, etc. Having a voice isn’t bad. Shakespeare characters didn’t talk like regular people, neither did Jane Austen characters, or Dickens characters. No, my friend, characters in culture don’t talk like regular people, it’s really the other way around, we start speaking like the characters on the things we consume. I’d much rather have some Sorkin intelligence rub off on me than whatever other dumb shit makes up most of what’s on television.

Also, why do some people like to rag on Sorkin shows for the idealistic monologues? What’s wrong with being passionate enough about something that we get carried away and share ideas, hopes, and dreams for how the world might be better? We could all stand to be more articulate, more thoughtful orators in our daily lives. Especially when we are championing in favor of logic and reasonableness, which Sorkin’s characters always are. Tyrants and assholes are always willing to stand up and voice their ideas, if reasonable people aren’t willing to do it as well then we are allowing the tyrants and assholes to frame the entire conversation.

I’ll take Sorkin any day of the week and twice on Sunday, which just so happens to be when Newsroom airs on HBO.

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5. 30 Rock

It isn’t a show I’ve recently caught up with, but it is the show I’ve been watching every night when I am trying to trick my brain into sleeping. Not because the show is boring… that’s not how it works. Most nights, er… mornings, to fall asleep, it helps me to distract my overactive brain with a show I’ve seen over half a dozen times.

I love this show so much.

And speaking of Tina Fey, she makes a guest appearance on the last track of Childish Gambino’s new mix tape R O Y A L T Y, which you can download for free here.