Let’s recap you: the worst bit of these articles is the recap. Skip ahead, and I won’t blame you. Life’s too short and the recap to the recap has ended up nearly as long as the recap.
Last week, I began my quest to rank my favourite fifty television programmes of all time. It was difficult, but hopefully you encountered a taste of my eclectic, if occasionally obvious, taste in entertainment. From the psychological torment of The Sopranos to the psychological torment of Daredevil, I truly had a varied selection.
This week, we skip past the obvious omissions; both those I have never seen that I probably should get round to (Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men, etc.) and those which deserve nowhere near the amount of acclaim they have gathered (The Bear, Succession, The Last of Us).
Then there are the programmes which nearly made the cut, and missed out. Fifty seems like a lot, but not when there are so many great programmes about. Bad Sisters, The Punisher, Extras, Black Mirror, Only Murders in the Building – shows I love but simply have no space for. So we progress…
25. Sherlock
Sometimes Steven Moffat got too clever for his own good, but at the best of times he was so bloody clever that it rarely mattered how clever his ego thought he was. This modern day adaptation of Sherlock was so flashy and creative in its first three seasons, bolstered by exceptional performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The show was at its best when it followed an episodic format, as it became too knotty when it started relying too much on the grander, serialised plot threads. Yes, the ninety minute runtimes are intimidating to new viewers, but trust me, they fly by, with some of the most witty scripts anywhere in television.
24. Years and Years
Probably one of the most underrated shows on the list – only because most of the others get the praise they deserve – is this RTD drama from 2019, which followed the Lyons family navigate an increasingly relatable version of society where right-wing-borderline-fascist politics enters Downing Street and technological disaster and innovation is on every corner. The show was great because RTD understands people, society, characters, and some of the predictions he makes are frighteningly accurate. The first episode catches our attention, not only through the phenomenal performances and characterisations of a family that feel truly real, but also a jaw-dropping, edge-of-your-seat ending. The high point comes at the end of episode four, in a tragic telling of those affected by small boats crossings, and how love triumphs over all. A heartbreaking, gripping, accessible drama.
23. This Country
The story of Kerry and Kurtan is one we can all relate to. We might not be like these characters but we certainly know somebody like them. Set in the Cotswolds, the sitcom follows two cousins (portrayed by real-life siblings Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper) who are unemployed and constantly searching for drama or purpose. All the trailers for the show suggest something that might be dreadfully unfunny, but upon watching it, it becomes one of the most hilarious sitcoms of the twenty-first century. The best episodes are when literally nothing happens, and the script relies on the wits and quirks of its off-kilter leads – an entire episode passes by as they wait for a pizza to cook, another sees them lost in the forest on the way to a steam fair. Other than that, highlights usually revolve around Mandy, a recurring character who the leads are terrified of.
22. Friday Night Dinner
Martin Goodman has to be one of the best sitcom characters of all time. The modern day Basil Fawlty makes a mess out of everything that he gets himself into, and constantly finds himself hiding secrets from his wife Jackie (Tamsin Greig) with the help of his sons, Adam and Johnny. It feels like a classic sitcom adapted for the modern age, centred around the dynamic between a mischievous, offbeat Jewish family, made all the better when their interplay is peppered by appearances from outlandish neighbour Jim (Mark Heap) or either of the Grandmas. The high points come from traditional sitcom premises, where Martin must race to escape the consequences of his preposterous actions. Though the latter seasons were still enjoyable, the premise became a little stale by the sixth series, which was by no means as strong as the first few.
21. The Sarah Jane Adventures
Some of these programmes are here because they are comfort shows, and that includes The Sarah Jane Adventures. Elizabeth Sladen leads the kids’ drama as Sarah Jane Smith, the classic Doctor Who companion who starred alongside Tom Baker in the seventies. Sladen is magnificent, and became such a cherished part of UK households that she became a surrogate grandmother for an entire generation, and was greatly missed when the show was cut short following her death. The spin off was not only something faithful to Doctor Who fans which adult viewers could enjoy, but was also something else entirely. Fun, action-packed yet never insulting, this has to be one of the most creative, consistent children’s shows ever put to screen. For kids, the amount of maturity it possessed was astonishing, as it tackled abandonment, homelessness, bereavement and orphaning.
20. The Young Ones
Once in every lifetime, comes a love like this. Never has anything come about that has been anywhere close to The Young Ones. Nothing has even tried. Classic comedy double act Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson were among four University students living wildly in a mess of a student house. All four of the main cast are completely different, but one of them is most likely an exaggerated version of you. Rick is kooky and self-obsessed to the point of being unhinged, Vyvyan is undeniably unhinged, Neil is a hippy and Mike is suave. Then there is Alexei Sayle, who pops up as a different member of the Balowski family every week. Twelve episodes long, with every episode feeling as fresh as the last, The Young Ones is proof that longer is rarely more.
19. Blackadder
The premise of Blackadder is genius. Each season, the same cast members will portray the same types of characters, but in different time periods. The first unfortunately failed, despite the promise of its ideas and the presence of Brian Blessed, with Rowan Atkinson playing Blackadder as a clownish fool and Tony Robinson as the smart, cunning Baldrick. Their places swapped with the vastly superior second series, which brought the pair to the Elizabethan era, spearheaded by a masterful performance from Miranda Richardson as Queen Liz. Then, the third series sparkles in the Georgian era, before the hilarious and equally profound World War One-set fourth series rounded off the saga immaculately.
18. I’m Alan Partridge
Very few comedy characters are quite as defined as Partridge, someone who literally jumps off the page and onto the screen. Alan has done everything: a sports commentator on The Day Today (a show which very nearly made this top fifty), a TV chat show to himself, a radio show, documentaries, This Time. Steve Coogan’s finest hour comes in this sitcom about Partridge’s life as he navigates fame and a lack of success. Over these two adventures, we see Alan struggling both with his career and general life. The first series is practically perfect, following Alan’s time staying in a Travel Lodge. The second is less successful but intermittently hilarious, as Partridge shifts into a caravan home. I cannot remember laughing more in anything than when Alan meets his biggest fan.
17. Spaced
Though Edgar Wright has since become best known for his work on the Cornetto Trilogy, and more recently his big US hits Baby Driver and Scott Pilgrim, his first well-known work remains his best – and not Fistful of Fingers. Spaced was Wright’s first collaboration with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who he would later work with on the aforementioned trilogy and who would both become big Hollywood stars themselves. Filled with pop culture references and parodies, none of which feel lazy or uninspired, the show follows Tim and Daisy as they pretend to be a couple to secure a house. Both of them are a bit rubbish and keep failing in every aspect of their lives, but are held up, or judged, by the eccentric characters around them: mardy landlady Marsha, offbeat neighbour Brian, and army obsessive Mike. The ending is beautiful, and the length of the show, at two seasons, is short but sweet.
16. Fawlty Towers
Friday Night Dinner has been mentioned already, but there is no way that would exist if it were not for Fawlty Towers, the iconic John Cleese sitcom which aired two seasons between 1974 and 1979. Cleese himself plays Fawlty, a character to laugh at, not laugh with, who constantly finds himself running into scrapes while running his hotel. Home to some of the most iconic sitcom moments and one-liners, the programme revolutionised the British comedy, transforming it into something far smarter, which manipulated the three-act structure to deliver a final act where all the situations from the episode come together in one huge mess. The Germans episode, culminating in one huge quasi-racist diatribe from Basil, is best regarded for good reason.
15. Squid Game
As we await the second season later this year, it feels right to include the groundbreaking first run, one of the only foreign language shows included on this list, yet one which took everybody by surprise. The creator pitched this as a movie in 2008 to various executives who rejected it, then in 2021 it became Netflix’s biggest show to date, though it may be better watched before all the fuss, as I did. It follows 456 participants in a series of childlike games with violent repercussions, and studies class culture, the corrupting influence of money, and the volatile economy. Not only were a second and third season immediately ordered, but this also sparked a new international investment in Korean culture, spurred on by the chart popularity of BTS and Stray Kids.
14. Gavin and Stacey
The ultimate comfort programme which does need another episode, following the cliffhanger which rounded off the last one, this is a show I go back to all the time, and love every time I watch it. Unlike a lot of the sitcoms on this list – and the sort of comedy I usually like – this is subtle and grounded in reality, with only a few laugh-out-loud moments, but by the time you crack what the comedy is going for and get to know the characters, it becomes irresistible. Ironically, Gavin and Stacey are the least interesting characters in Gavin and Stacey. Creators Ruth Jones and James Cordon steal the show as Ness and Smithy, while Rob Brydon and Alison Steadman bring so much personality to their characters of Bryn and Pam, and Larry Lamb and Melanie Walters are just lovely as Mick and Gwen. Torn between two worlds, England and Wales, Gavin and Stacey will forever be treasured.
13. Slow Horses
This gripping, unappreciated drama from Apple TV+ came out of nowhere, despite the relative popularity of the Mick Herron source material, but seems to have impressed pretty much everybody who has watched it. The spy drama is like a smarter version of James Bond, action-packed but also dense and meaty, containing some of the most suspenseful moments in memory and some of the best characters on television at the moment. Though everyone gives a stellar performance, to say this was not Gary Oldman’s show would be to lie. His disgusting, flatulent, reluctant Jackson Lamb straddles the line between caricaturish and realistic, and just about gets away with both. The fourth series is due out later this year, and Slow Horses is addictive enough to warrant four more, if all of the books are eventually going to be adapted.
12. The Boys
Possibly the finest use of superheroes in anything anywhere, this wild, uber-violent drama about supes turned bad makes imaginative use of one of the most oversaturated genres in entertainment, and the politics of where we are in the world right now. Everybody in the main cast gives it their all, but just like Slow Horses, certain people stand out more than others. Karl Urban excels as the foul-mouthed Billy Butcher while Anthony Starr’s immaculate performance as Homelander might just make him the best TV villain of all time if he sticks the landing. Just never eat your dinner while watching The Boys, because some of it is repulsive. Spin-off show Gen V is too similar to get its own place in the top fifty, but was almost as fantastic.
11. Fargo
Not everybody loved the fourth season of Fargo, but I certainly did. Weird place to start in this roundup, you might think, but it goes to show that every series of Noah Hawley’s dark comedy drama has something to offer. Each series tells a different tale of murder and deceit in Minnesota, taking more twists and turns than a narrow road in the countryside, and creating some of the strangest, wildest and most imaginative characters ever. Every series thrives on its perfect ensemble and the perfect delivery in both characterisation and performance. It all began with the Coen Brothers movie in 1990, of course, but each series has locked into what made that film so special, while also offering something new and dynamic to the plot and humour of the franchise.
10. The IT Crowd
Have you tried turning it off and on again? Everybody uses that phrase these days, even those who have forgotten where it came from in the first place. The origins? Graham Lineham’s signature noughties comedy about two nerds who work in a tech department and Katherine Parkinson’s Jen, who knows nothing about computers yet is expected to lead them. The programme is littered with pop-culture references and meta sequences, but above all this is clever, laugh-out-loud comedy, made all the better by Richard Ayoade’s delightful performance as Maurice Moss. The finest episodes are some of the best and most rewatchable sitcom instalments ever, from Street Countdown to Gay the Musical, finding the middle ground between absurdism and relatability.
9. Stranger Things
Sometimes things are best off without huge masses of budget. Stranger Things is among them. The first series is wonderful nostalgia, which manages to be so many things at once, and above all ambitious. A comedy, a drama, science-fiction, romance, action, thriller, and it holds all that together with a versatile cast led by kids who prove that child actors are not always awful. Taking us back to the eighties – a period which, for whatever reason, everybody holds with fond memories now despite everybody who lived in it being keen to escape it whilst it was happening – the first series evoked Spielberg and Carpenter to create a fun, exciting show that remains one of Netflix’s finest original programmes, although one that peaked as a pleasant, out-of-nowhere surprise.
8. Father Ted
The highest rated British sitcom on this list, and for good reason. Clever, consistent and constantly curious, this programme explores three priests stuck on Craggy Island. The “straight man” of the sitcom formula here is just as rubbish as the rest of them, though pretends his hardest not to be. Meanwhile, Dougal and Father Jack have stood out as some of the most enjoyable and crazy sitcom characters ever created, with Mrs Doyle rounding off the ensemble. The humour is joyously Irish but also outlandish and absurd, with great cut-aways, running gags and meta jokes, plus some of the best sitcom third acts ever. The third series still stands as the most immaculate run of any sitcom, and probably always will be.
7. Better Call Saul
One of the rules of entertainment tends to be that prequels are never good, and sequels are rarely are too. Better Call Saul acts as both a prequel and a sequel, and an exception to those rules. Though no programme deserves the “slow burn” label as much as this one, the wait for exciting things to happen is never more worth it. In the meantime, relish some of the finest performances, scriptwriting and visuals ever seen on television. Made both for those who have watched Breaking Bad, and those who never have, the spin-off tells us what happened to a bunch of characters, including Bob Odenkirk’s Saul, before and after the events of the main show. Prequels tend to be dull because we know what happens next, but Jimmy’s journey is utterly unpredictable, as is the fate of his fantastic sidekick turned wife, Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn).
6. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Never have we hated to love anyone as much as the gang behind Paddy’s Pub. This band of completely awful people constantly astound us with how terrible they can be. Racist, sexist, homophobic yet always trying their best to prove themselves as otherwise, this group is like the anti-Friends. Every classic sitcom trope is unpacked: the will-they-won’t-they, the inner romance, the redemption plot, yet none of them go as you might expect. Though the first series is fantastic, it was the second that gave the programme its big break. A lot of that was to do with the casting of Danny Devito as Frank Reynolds, who spun an interesting new dimension into the existing dynamic, but also because the characters started to feel like distinctive people. Charlie Day is the standout.
5. Friends
The key to a great sitcom, as I mentioned last time, is a fantastic cast. Clever writing helps, too, but the characters are the key, and no show has been as lucky with that as Friends. I have written about the fortunes of those casting the show many times on this site, but how they found a bunch of six people so suited to their roles, and so suited to the company of one another that they became an extended family both in real life and in the show, is astounding. Everybody is great. Ross is consistently neurotic, Rachel constantly falls into romantic or workplace scrapes, Monica is the moral core, Phoebe is the lovable weirdo, Chandler’s sarcastic quips constantly make us laugh, and Joey…well, Joey is just Joey. At ten seasons, it stopped before it became a victim of its own success, and ended up as one of the most consistent sitcoms ever produced.
4. Dark
Nobody understands what the hell is going on in Dark most of the time, whether you are one of the characters or an audience member, but that is the beauty behind its appeal. Though it might not be like a lot of great shows – where characters are key, because here the characters are well acted but not necessarily thrilling or lovable – it makes up for that in one of the smartest plots ever made. A perfectly-built, constantly forward-thinking drama about time and its repercussions, which grows and builds across three seasons. Every time you might think it is as complicated as it will ever become, the writers do something to prove you wrong, throwing in another huge twist. Every narrative turn is as satisfying as the last, and utterly unpredictable. Always baffling in the best possible way, and never lazy, this one is the rare Netflix original that lasted for exactly the right amount of time.
3. The Office US
Who said that American remakes of British shows could never work? Well, most of them that came before and after The Office, but this version of Ricky Gervais’s groundbreaking fly-on-the-wall workplace sitcom certainly defies expectations. The first season is a little rough, as are the last two, but everything in-between is pure joy, filled with great characters, moments and one-liners, but excelling mainly because of Steve Carrel’s endearing performance as Michael Scott. His dynamic with his colleagues, and the awkward scrapes he gets into, are at the heart of this show. Michael is annoying and all too often oversteps the line, but he is misunderstood and completely relatable. Sure, the show is less grounded in reality than its British counterpart, but much more enjoyable and with greater room for longevity, as proven by the consistency of the majority of its seasons.
2. Doctor Who
Though the best show of all time is first on the list – yes, best and favourite mean two entirely different things – the show that has always meant the most to me is Doctor Who. A safe space, a haven of curiosity and adventure, a programme with so much imagination that everything else on telly must be so jealous. The conceit is simple: a time traveller can go anywhere and anywhen in their blue box with a friend or two, saving lives and stopping monsters, and changes their face whenever they sustain a significant injury. That may sound like a lame concept to people who have never watched the programme, but they are unaware of how awesome and limitless this programme is. Whatever your mood, there is an episode for you. Want comedy? Who has that in buckets. Tragedy? Just as much. This is a programme that can be anything it wants to be each week. You might not like one episode of the show, or an entire iteration of the doctor, but you can be sure another one will come along that you do.
1. Breaking Bad
People moan at me when I tell them what the best TV series of all time. “Obvious and boring”, sure. They are right. Then I ask them what their favourite TV show of all time is, and they say Breaking Bad, and that must make it the right answer, surely? No such thing, but I have never seen a show so perfect as Vince Gilligan’s creation. The story of Walter Hartwell White starts off strong and ends up delivering the finest entertainment put to any screen anywhere to date with its stellar final series. Throughout five seasons and sixty-two episodes, it makes not a single mistake. Well, of course there are nitpicks, small issues here and there, but nothing significant enough to groan about. The plot is immaculately mapped out, the characters bounce off the page thanks to the stunning performances and scripts, and the direction is on point all the way through. Never will television audiences be so lucky again as when they received a new episode of Breaking Bad every week.
-An S.M article
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