I haven’t been watching much in terms of actual shows for a good while, then while listening to a podcast a host casually mentioned they had rewatched Chernobyl, how it still holds up, that there’s a reason it got as much acclaim as it did, etc. So I thought I’d give it a go and wow, loved it (still one episode left to watch).
Had me thinking, what else have I missed out on? What are some “absolute cinema” TV shows that still hold up and and are considered must watch?
Orphan Black: it’s hard to say much without spoiling it, but it’s one of the best series I’ve ever seen, and Tatiana Maslany’s acting is incredible. It’s
Battlestar Galactica, which others have mentioned already.
Stargate SG-1: my favorite show of all time. It’s the sort of scifi that makes you hopeful about the future of humanity. You don’t absolutely have to watch the movie first (it’s not as good as the series IMO, though worth watching) but it lends to more understanding of who some of the characters are.
I love SG-1, but unless you’re a super fan (I am, but I feel the disclaimer is warranted) I’d say stop at the end of season 7. That’s it, main plot is wrapped up, it’s done, great finale.
I say this, because while the rest of the series is good, season 8 is in a weird place as they set up an entirely new arc that’s wholly unrelated to the original series, including some new characters on the team. There’s interesting episodes and it’s still great, but might be a bit hard to swallow for some because it’s so different.
That said, if you enjoy the first 7 seasons, at the least, also watch the Continuum film, it’s great and Cliff Simon always chews up any scene he’s in (in a good way), he definitely took charisma as his main stat.
they pratically stopped exploring after the ori came into picture, and basically it turned into another DS9 dominion war situation. Although ORI were somewhat interesting villians.
SGA at least have 2 seasons worth of good material left before they cancelled it.