• Shrinking
• Sopranos
• Severance
• SAS Rogue Heroes

Season 2 of Shrinking has been a very emotional ride, but has a good mix of comedy & drama, while addressing some difficult topics.

Sopranos is a classic. Depends if you like long character development.

Severance is a great dystopian show about people essentially hating to work. Season 2 should be out shortly.

SAS is an expensive BBC production following the formation of the SAS during WWII. Has a Band of Brothers type feel to it, with a British twist. They’re all madmen. Cinematography is amazing, and the history, while dramatized, is still impressive. It’s based on the book of the same name by Ben McIntyre (non-fiction).

Right now I’m watching silo (apple tv+) and Gilmore girls. They are nice

From

If you’re into something different, a weird Canadian comedy kind of thing: Shoresy It’s different, and I like different.

Landman would be good if it weren’t pushing so much fucking propaganda.

My kids love Gravity Falls, which as an adult I still love.

Someone else mentioned Silo, I agree.

My wife loves Great British Bakeoff. It’s an easy background show.

I also enjoyed Bad Monkey. It’s kind of a B- show, but easy to watch.

• Silo
• Ted Lasso
• A Man on the Inside

DanDaDan on Netflix is bonkers.

Mr. D (think Michael Scott but a teacher)

Shrinking (low stakes like Ted Lasso)

Taskmaster UK (if you like comedy panel type shows. Although it’s not really a panel in the traditional sense)

Silo. It’s so fucking good. So are the books.

• Deadloch
• Colin From Accounts
• Shrinking
• Silo
• Landman
• Arcane
• Lower Decks

The Expanse. I forgot how good the earlier seasons were, and looking forward to seeing the newer stuff for the first time.

Marvelous Miss Maisle is solid from om beginning to end. Not a minute, scene or note is wasted. The writers know how to pack every scene with as much energy and storytelling as possible. Just perfect.

Scrubs

Shōgun

Schitt’s Creek is currently on Netflix. One of my favorite, wholesome sitcoms!

Arcane.

I missed the hype for Arcane season 1, mostly because it didn’t really seem up my alley. I figured it’d be boring to me because I wasn’t into that specific game, or too juvenile for me, or something.

I was really wrong. Really, really wrong. It stands on its own and season 1 has the strongest storytelling I’ve seen in anything in a good, long time. You don’t need to care about or play League of Legends to watch the show. And it’s very much NOT a kid’s show even if it starts with kid characters…it touches a lot on crime, poverty, mental illness, etc. It’s very honest and truthful and complex and nuanced on these things.

And every aspect of storytelling was strong. EVERY ONE.

What I mean by that is this…in most TV shows, animated or live, you usually have one form of strong(ish) storytelling carrying the entire thing and compensating for other things that are weaker. So a show will have one or two stand-out aspects, and others that are okish to bad, but able to be overlooked because of the other awesome things going on.

Like, you might have a poor script but really good actors who can elevate the poor script with their spoken intonation or physical acting. Or you might have a good script and really good soundtrack but mediocre acting and bland costume/set design. Basically, script, art/costume design, music, and actor ability all play together to deliver a story, and usually you have one or two of those that are strong, and the rest are being carried by the strong parts and ranging from competent-but-not-awesome to mediocre to bad.

Arcane’s not like that.

Arcane has top-tier storytelling on the writing level, AND on the art and animation level, and in the choice of songs for the soundtrack. Like, the script itself is fantastic, but then you watch the animation and see they decided not to use common animation shorthand. Instead, they went back to actually LOOK at how humans display emotion and move their bodies and translated THAT into their animation. So you have a strong script AND strong “physical acting”. How they frame shots is fantastic too. And if that wasn’t enough, all the music is stellar and pertinent to the scenes it’s used in. And if THAT wasn’t enough, even the design of the characters BEFORE they even move or speak is top-notch. And if THAT isn’t enough the voice actors are phenomenal too.

For Season 1, nothing’s carrying anything else, everything is strong. And that’s EXTREMELY rare in ANY show. So, so, SO rare.

Season 2 is not as good–but that’s really just in comparison to how outrageously and unusually good Season 1 was. I’d say in Season 2, the script is not as tight, but all the other things are still as good as Season 1. So the animation/art design/music/etc. carry the script a little in the second season. The script isn’t HORRIBLE though…it’s mostly the pacing is off and it’s missing some appropriate build-up in some parts. I’ve read they had to cut some scenes, and if that’s true it would completely explain the flaws. The second season also suffers a bit in comparison to Season 1…Season 1 did everything right, so anything that’s not perfect in Season 2 naturally sticks out. It doesn’t make it bad though.

Anyway, yeah. Watch Arcane, if you missed that boat previously.