Shows on my To-Watch List
It is currently 4:26 AM when I'm writing this. I am bored to death and have nothing better to do but blog, so let's talk TV.
I think being an avid consumer of any medium, be it TV, Anime, Manga, Comics, Books, Video Games or Movies, one of the hardest things to do is to finish that thing people on Booktube call "The TBR Pile". TBR stands for "To Be Read" and a TBR Pile is generally one that never runs out. Why not? Because eventually you're going to get more books than you're actually reading and it grows and grows and grows. This holds for Video Games too as you eventually buy more games than you can play.
As for all the other media formats though? Let me introduce thee to the internet. Movies and TV has Netflix and other streaming services. Anime and Manga have online places for you to consume them with no limit. The equivalent of a TBR to people who consume these media is non-physical. Hell even video games could be considered this already since some games you don't have to pay for anymore. So with an infinite TBR, or more accurately, TBW or To-Be-Watched, I decided to document all the TV shows I am planning to watch in no particular order.
Note that if you are curious what order I will be watching these in, I usually employ Shortest Remaining Time First scheduling. This just means, the shorter the series is, the sooner I get to it. Sometimes, I'm just going to be in a mood and I just pop in an episode of Friends or The Twilight Zone. I'm just saying. Anything goes. There's no rhyme or reason to any of these.
Also, feel free to recommend shows in the comments. And if you actually want me to eventually watch your show instead of me just putting it on this list, do SELL the show to me. Tell me why I should watch it. It's more fun that way.
Without further ado, let us begin.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Where I'm At: Season 2
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I hate to start on a sour note, but, I just have trouble binging this show. At first I thought it was because it was the first sitcom I tried binging on Netflix, but I binged The Good Place and Bojack Horseman just fine.
I love Michael Schur to death, but to me, this show feels like an easy show to write for him. Too easy. I mean don't get me wrong, this show is really good. I give Season 1 an 8/10. Better than half the sitcoms out there, maybe even more. But I was raised on Arrested Development and Parks and Rec, where we have humor so expertly intertwined with characters.
Maybe I'm not at the high point yet. I'll give this show a chance just because I owe Michael Schur a lot for cheering me up with Parks and Rec at a time in my life where I needed it. But I'm just saying, this show is on the "Only If I Have Nothing Better to Watch" Pile.
Atypical
I have never claimed to have a full grasp of what autism is. I've relied on media to teach me, since all these articles online are greek to me, but none so far has caught my eye. After getting a few recommendations from people at my lab, I'm strongly considering giving this one a try.
The strongest selling point for this one is two seasons, 8 episodes each, 30 minutes each. Perfect length.
Sense8
At first, I didn't want to get into this show because it got cancelled against the showrunner's will and they only made up with it with a finale movie.
Then I remembered I loved Firefly and so I decided to give it a go.
That or I just have a really huge crush on Tuppence Middleton. Let's see when I get to it soon.
The Twilight Zone
Where I'm At: Season 2
I love this show. I love it to death. Some of the best stories I have ever witnessed came from this show. The best part? It doesn't even feel dated. I mean by effects standard, yes it is dated. But in terms of subject matter, I think this show will never be not relevant. I've only seen one season and I am thrilled that I have 4 more seasons to dig through.
The Office
Where I'm At: Season 7
I am not the biggest fan of this show, but I do think it has had some of the strongest sitcom seasons I have ever seen.
At the point I'm at, which is season 7, it just got a bit boring. Maybe I'll finish Season 7 soon, but I'm having a hard time imagining myself getting through Season 8 and 9 without Michael.
Friends
Where I'm At: Season 4
You know, this was my third sitcom after How I Met Your Mother and that other show I'd rather not name but if you know me in real life, you know the one show I'm ashamed of having watched. As my third sitcom, I didn't care it was from the 90's. It was really funny. I love all the characters to death. This was shaping up to be my favorite sitcom.
But ironically, especially regarding Season 3 of this show, I took a break.
Within that break, I witnessed the perfection that was Arrested Development and my entire view of what a sitcom can be has irreversibly changed. I tried watching Season 2 of Friends and after AD showed me what a real sitcom was like, I just couldn't get into it again. This was in 2012.
I would resume watching Friends in 2017 when I had French class at 7:30 in the morning until 9 in the morning then no class until 2:30 PM. I would stay in the student nook and watch Friends all day with some friends *rimshot*. But while I was watching it, I was laughing. I was enjoying it. But I never felt as engaged as I was with all those brilliant sitcoms I've seen since I first saw Friends.
I need you to understand, I didn't even know sitcoms could go without a laugh track, but after I saw AD, Parks and Rec, and The Office, I never wanted to look back. A laugh track to me was lack of faith in the writing. It was a crutch. And honestly, I just don't feel comfortable devoting my time to shows on crutches. I'm putting this show in the "if I'm in the mood" pile.
How I Met Your Mother
Where I'm At: Season 6
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If LOST introduced me to serialized drama. Then HIMYM introduced me to the sitcom, and for that, I will be eternally grateful to this show. However, I think my experience with it was better articulated with my story about Friends. Same thing. Which goes for all of you readers. I will not watch a show with a laugh track. I just will not. After I finish Friends and HIMYM, I will never go back to laugh tracks again... unless Tuppence Middleton stars in a show with Emilia Clarke and Felicity Jones and the jackass producers decide to add a laugh track, but that will NEVER happen. MARK MY WORDS.
Mad Men
Where I'm At: Season 2
Can I just say two things? One: This show has the greatest opening title sequence of any show I have ever seen in my life. Two: This show has one of the best casts I have ever seen ever.
Now I haven't even mentioned the writing of this show, which is phenomenal. Honestly though? It's a bit too nuanced for my taste. This show thrives on subtext, but I prefer my drama with a healthy balance of subtext and actual text, and honestly, the beauty of this show is allowing the viewer to read between the lines. When I'm intellectually awake enough, it's great, but this show just needs a lot of effort. I watch it when I'm in the mood.
So I guess you can say Friends and HIMYM are "too easy to enjoy" but this one would be "too difficult to enjoy". I'll write about the Goldilocks zone in a future blog post, I promise.
Maniac
The trailer looks interesting. Everyone says it's Black Mirror-esque. I don't know what else to say.
House of Cards
I've heard this described as "Game of Thrones in the Modern American Landscape" and if that doesn't intrique me, I don't know what would. The only thing going against this show is Kevin Spacey, which I find weird to watch since that entire drama with him a while back when he was revealed to be quite a creep. Since this show is quite long, I can imagine it will be quite a while before I get around to this. I'll see.
True Detective
In case you haven't noticed, I love anthologies, so here's another one I thought I'd get to... eventually.
Fargo
Fargo is one of my favorite movies, so to see a series spin into an anthology of twisted tales in the spirit of the movie sounds really fun.
Band of Brothers
It's really highly rated on IMDb plus a friend recommended it to me. I'm sorry. I'm running out of things to say. I haven't seen these yet.
The Wire
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Gravity Falls
My Hero Academia
Money Heist
Anyway, that's the list. Again, if you have any shows, preferably short ones, to recommend, drop them below and please sell them. I don't want to go in completely absolutely blind.
P.S. That was longer than expected.
P.P.S. That's what she said.
P.P.P.S. I'm lucid enough to make that joke. Nice.
I think being an avid consumer of any medium, be it TV, Anime, Manga, Comics, Books, Video Games or Movies, one of the hardest things to do is to finish that thing people on Booktube call "The TBR Pile". TBR stands for "To Be Read" and a TBR Pile is generally one that never runs out. Why not? Because eventually you're going to get more books than you're actually reading and it grows and grows and grows. This holds for Video Games too as you eventually buy more games than you can play.
As for all the other media formats though? Let me introduce thee to the internet. Movies and TV has Netflix and other streaming services. Anime and Manga have online places for you to consume them with no limit. The equivalent of a TBR to people who consume these media is non-physical. Hell even video games could be considered this already since some games you don't have to pay for anymore. So with an infinite TBR, or more accurately, TBW or To-Be-Watched, I decided to document all the TV shows I am planning to watch in no particular order.
Note that if you are curious what order I will be watching these in, I usually employ Shortest Remaining Time First scheduling. This just means, the shorter the series is, the sooner I get to it. Sometimes, I'm just going to be in a mood and I just pop in an episode of Friends or The Twilight Zone. I'm just saying. Anything goes. There's no rhyme or reason to any of these.
Also, feel free to recommend shows in the comments. And if you actually want me to eventually watch your show instead of me just putting it on this list, do SELL the show to me. Tell me why I should watch it. It's more fun that way.
Without further ado, let us begin.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Where I'm At: Season 2
I love Michael Schur to death, but to me, this show feels like an easy show to write for him. Too easy. I mean don't get me wrong, this show is really good. I give Season 1 an 8/10. Better than half the sitcoms out there, maybe even more. But I was raised on Arrested Development and Parks and Rec, where we have humor so expertly intertwined with characters.
Maybe I'm not at the high point yet. I'll give this show a chance just because I owe Michael Schur a lot for cheering me up with Parks and Rec at a time in my life where I needed it. But I'm just saying, this show is on the "Only If I Have Nothing Better to Watch" Pile.
Atypical
I have never claimed to have a full grasp of what autism is. I've relied on media to teach me, since all these articles online are greek to me, but none so far has caught my eye. After getting a few recommendations from people at my lab, I'm strongly considering giving this one a try.
The strongest selling point for this one is two seasons, 8 episodes each, 30 minutes each. Perfect length.
Sense8
At first, I didn't want to get into this show because it got cancelled against the showrunner's will and they only made up with it with a finale movie.
Then I remembered I loved Firefly and so I decided to give it a go.
That or I just have a really huge crush on Tuppence Middleton. Let's see when I get to it soon.
The Twilight Zone
Where I'm At: Season 2
I love this show. I love it to death. Some of the best stories I have ever witnessed came from this show. The best part? It doesn't even feel dated. I mean by effects standard, yes it is dated. But in terms of subject matter, I think this show will never be not relevant. I've only seen one season and I am thrilled that I have 4 more seasons to dig through.
The Office
Where I'm At: Season 7
At the point I'm at, which is season 7, it just got a bit boring. Maybe I'll finish Season 7 soon, but I'm having a hard time imagining myself getting through Season 8 and 9 without Michael.
Friends
Where I'm At: Season 4
You know, this was my third sitcom after How I Met Your Mother and that other show I'd rather not name but if you know me in real life, you know the one show I'm ashamed of having watched. As my third sitcom, I didn't care it was from the 90's. It was really funny. I love all the characters to death. This was shaping up to be my favorite sitcom.
But ironically, especially regarding Season 3 of this show, I took a break.
Within that break, I witnessed the perfection that was Arrested Development and my entire view of what a sitcom can be has irreversibly changed. I tried watching Season 2 of Friends and after AD showed me what a real sitcom was like, I just couldn't get into it again. This was in 2012.
I would resume watching Friends in 2017 when I had French class at 7:30 in the morning until 9 in the morning then no class until 2:30 PM. I would stay in the student nook and watch Friends all day with some friends *rimshot*. But while I was watching it, I was laughing. I was enjoying it. But I never felt as engaged as I was with all those brilliant sitcoms I've seen since I first saw Friends.
I need you to understand, I didn't even know sitcoms could go without a laugh track, but after I saw AD, Parks and Rec, and The Office, I never wanted to look back. A laugh track to me was lack of faith in the writing. It was a crutch. And honestly, I just don't feel comfortable devoting my time to shows on crutches. I'm putting this show in the "if I'm in the mood" pile.
How I Met Your Mother
Where I'm At: Season 6
If LOST introduced me to serialized drama. Then HIMYM introduced me to the sitcom, and for that, I will be eternally grateful to this show. However, I think my experience with it was better articulated with my story about Friends. Same thing. Which goes for all of you readers. I will not watch a show with a laugh track. I just will not. After I finish Friends and HIMYM, I will never go back to laugh tracks again... unless Tuppence Middleton stars in a show with Emilia Clarke and Felicity Jones and the jackass producers decide to add a laugh track, but that will NEVER happen. MARK MY WORDS.
Mad Men
Where I'm At: Season 2
Can I just say two things? One: This show has the greatest opening title sequence of any show I have ever seen in my life. Two: This show has one of the best casts I have ever seen ever.
Now I haven't even mentioned the writing of this show, which is phenomenal. Honestly though? It's a bit too nuanced for my taste. This show thrives on subtext, but I prefer my drama with a healthy balance of subtext and actual text, and honestly, the beauty of this show is allowing the viewer to read between the lines. When I'm intellectually awake enough, it's great, but this show just needs a lot of effort. I watch it when I'm in the mood.
So I guess you can say Friends and HIMYM are "too easy to enjoy" but this one would be "too difficult to enjoy". I'll write about the Goldilocks zone in a future blog post, I promise.
Maniac
The trailer looks interesting. Everyone says it's Black Mirror-esque. I don't know what else to say.
House of Cards
I've heard this described as "Game of Thrones in the Modern American Landscape" and if that doesn't intrique me, I don't know what would. The only thing going against this show is Kevin Spacey, which I find weird to watch since that entire drama with him a while back when he was revealed to be quite a creep. Since this show is quite long, I can imagine it will be quite a while before I get around to this. I'll see.
True Detective
In case you haven't noticed, I love anthologies, so here's another one I thought I'd get to... eventually.
Fargo
Fargo is one of my favorite movies, so to see a series spin into an anthology of twisted tales in the spirit of the movie sounds really fun.
Band of Brothers
It's really highly rated on IMDb plus a friend recommended it to me. I'm sorry. I'm running out of things to say. I haven't seen these yet.
The Wire
Gravity Falls
My Hero Academia
Money Heist
Anyway, that's the list. Again, if you have any shows, preferably short ones, to recommend, drop them below and please sell them. I don't want to go in completely absolutely blind.
P.S. That was longer than expected.
P.P.S. That's what she said.
P.P.P.S. I'm lucid enough to make that joke. Nice.
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