Obligatory Firefly mention.
The Good Place. Funny, compelling, I cried through the final episode. It also doesn’t waste your time, things will happen mid-season that any other show would have dragged out for the season finale.
The Wire. It’s the best piece of visual media ever created. Not only is it the best portrayal of the inner city drugs trade but also the decaying institutions and social structures that allow it to flourish, and the corrupting influence of dirty money.
It also is consistently the best written show on TV and is grounded in it’s reality better than anything else. Half the cast were complete unknowns, in many cases plucked from the streets of Baltimore itself and there are standout performances all across it’s vast and diverse cast.
It’s a little slow to get going, the first few episodes have a lot of ground to cover to get the viewer up to speed, it also makes no effort to ease the viewer in, with a lot of jargon, slang and some very thick accents to content with, there’s also no “previously on the wire” to go over key points from earlier episodes so it definitely requires more participation from the viewer than most TV but it’s all the better for it.
Community
As a scifi buff: Battlestar Galactica, and The Expanse were excellent. Nightsky was also a really good watch even though it was slow moving, and was more about relationships than SciFi
Well, Breaking Bad is already on here and its really good. But to me Better Call Saul is one of, it not the best shows out there. Also doing the whole chronology:
Better Call Saul till the middle of S6 > Breaking Bad > Rest of Better Call Saul > El Camino
Really slaps.Other than that The Leftovers is quite an underappreciated piece of Television. It simply delivers 3 Season increasingly weird and intriguing and then its just finished.
I also really enjoyed Station 11 bit of a different take on a Post Apocalyptic World and a great miniseries
My name is Earl.
Andor is the best piece of Star Wars media and the best TV show I’ve ever seen. You don’t need to like Star Wars. I don’t know if seeing Star Wars would even increase your enjoyment. I think seeing Rogue One would probably be good but otherwise just jump in. No space wizards or laser swords or destiny or whatever. It’s so adult and grounded. I can’t believe Disney let them make this.
Since it’s not mentioned, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you liked Firefly, you’ll like Buffy. Yes, it has baggage, but that doesn’t prevent everyone else in the cast from having their work appreciated. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll dabble in witchcraft.
Barry Bojack Horseman
arrested development
I am surprised that I’m the first to mention Bojack Horseman here.
This series is for you if you want to cry out your mental health problems
Avatar: the Last Airbender.
Fringe. Best Sci-Fi ending that wraps back around to an episode that broke the show open. The last season getting there is kind of rough. But the first 4 seasons are solid.
Futurama.
