Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (15) Garth Ennis – The Boys

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Cover of The Boys Volume 1 (collected edition) with art by Darick Robertson, also the artist throughout the series. Arguably the most iconic image from the comic, which was replicated pretty well by promotional poster art for the TV series, such that you could place them side by side. Sadly, the TV series did not replicate the comic quite so well in other aspects (fair use)

 

 

(15) GARTH ENNIS –

THE BOYS (DYNAMITE 2006 – 2012)

 

I was introduced to this comic by the first season of its television adaptation in 2019, which prompted me to read it ahead of the other seasons. I’m glad I did, as while the television series had diminishing returns each season to the extent that I abandoned it before the finale (which I understand to have been disappointing at best), I read the comic through to the end.

The comic is by Garth Ennis – with whom I was familiar from 2000 AD and even more so his, ah, confrontational comic series Preacher, which perhaps best encapsulated his reputation and recurring tendency to be a provocateur or just for sheer shock value. Ennis quipped that The Boys would out-Preacher Preacher, presumably in terms of its profanity, sex and violence. I’m not sure that anything could out-Preacher Preacher, but The Boys certainly gives it a shot. And ultimately it may be for the best, as I prefer The Boys. It told a better story, and if anything, seemed less purely gratuitous for its own sake than Preacher – although the TV series certainly leaned into the shock value. (Although don’t get me wrong – I liked Preacher or at least it got stuck in my mind as you certainly never forget it).

The series takes place in a world where superheroes exist, although such that you would prefer they didn’t. On the superhero side, you have the Seven, the world’s leading superhero team – sponsored by the powerful corporation Vought International – and mostly copies of the Justice League, led by its equivalent of Superman (with some Captain America thrown in), Homelander, who more than earns the description of diabolical and invokes the trope Beware the Superman.

And on the other side, you have the titular Boys, vigilante cape-busters forced to use their smarts, skills and willingness to fight dirty (including some of the superheroes’ own weapons) against their adversaries – led by Billy Butcher, perhaps the series’ most compelling character to rival his primary adversary, Homelander.

The comic has layers to it that the television series did not – and diverged substantially (and progressively) from the latter with each season.

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of Warfare (Special Mention): (19) Animal Warfare

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Petty Officer 2nd Class Blake Soller, a Military Working Dog (MWD) handler petting the head of MWD Rico, at the War Dog Cemetery on Naval Base Guam. The cemetery honors the dogs—mostly Doberman Pinschers—that were killed in service with the USMC during the Second Battle of Guam in 1944. US Navy photo 27 October 2006 by Petty Officer 2nd Class John F. Looney (public domain image – Wikipedia “Military animal”)

 

 

(19) ANIMAL WARFARE

 

All warfare is animal warfare, as humans are animals after all.

But seriously, with animal warfare we come full circle to prehistoric or primal warfare, the origins of war itself. It is commonly argued that human warfare is fundamentally different from other animal intra-species violence. I’m not so sure, as this argument is persuasively challenged by Azar Gat’s War in Human Civilization among others – Edward O Wilson memorably wrote in his book On Human Nature “I suspect that if hamadryas baboons had nuclear weapons, they would destroy the world in a week.”

So, one theme for animal warfare is intra-species violence among animals approximating human warfare, or at least organized, territorial conflicts. As Wilson continued from the above quote – “and alongside ants, which conduct assassinations, skirmishes, and pitched battles as routine business, men are all but tranquilized pacifists.”

One of the most famous examples of animal warfare, perhaps not surprisingly fought by our closest living relatives, was the Gombe Chimpanzee War, in which one band of chimpanzees systematically  targeted the males of another band, wiping out that other band in a period of over four years. This wasn’t an isolated event either – at least one subsequent chimpanzee war has been observed, with the Ngogo Chimpanzee War.

Another theme for animal warfare is the military forces of humanity being humbled by the forces of nature in historical wars, such as weather, which has swept away what have otherwise seemed overwhelming military forces, particularly in war at sea. It also applies to terrain – John Keegan in A History of Warfare noted how terrain (and climate) has been a limiting factor in wars throughout history, such that the majority of battles occur in surprisingly small or narrow territories on a global scale.

Occasionally, those forces of nature have included animals – with two of the most famous occurring in the Second World War, although unfortunately both are somewhat inflated and one almost so apocryphal as to be urban legend. The first involved sharks preying on the sailors from the cruiser Indianapolis when it was sunk by Japanese submarine in July 1945, made famous by iconic narration of it in the film Jaws.

The other involved crocodiles preying on Japanese soldiers trapped in mangroves by the British in the Battle of Ramree Island in Burma from January 1945 to February 1945. At one stage, they were reported to have killed all but twenty of a thousand Japanese soldiers, but sadly for fans of crocodile horror such as myself, this has been discounted to almost the reverse – at most they killed up to twenty soldiers, although they may also have scavenged on the bodies of Japanese soldiers killed by other causes.

Of course, in my special mention for biological warfare, I’ve already featured the true unsung champions of animal destruction of human forces at war – insect vectors and the diseases they carry, which have been as effective hostile weather in wiping out whole armies and even more effective in wiping out whole populations.

You have the theme of humanity’s use of animals in or for war or military operations. Of course, the horse is standout here as featured in my entry for cavalry warfare, but war has seen a whole range of animals used in it – from more commonplace ones such as elephants, camels, donkeys or mules, oxen or cattle, dogs and pigeons, to more exotic animals such as pigs, moose, rats, dolphins, sea lions and others.

And then you get to the truly bizarre, such as entomological warfare or animal-borne bombs – with my personal favorite example of the latter being the American bat bomb project against the Japanese, taking my quip that the Americans fight wars like Batman to a literal extreme

To that you can add wars named for animals, of which there are a surprising number, albeit including non-military conflicts such as the Cod Wars over fishing between the United Kingdom and Iceland, or border conflicts or near-war situations such as the Crab Wars or Pig War – with perhaps the Beaver Wars being the most intense actual wars named for animals.

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (14) Steve Niles & Ben Templesmith – 30 Days of Night

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Cover of 30 Days of Night Deluxe Edition by Australian artist Ben Templesmith – also used for the original comic mini-series (fair use)

 

 

(14) STEVE NILES & BEN TEMPLESMITH –

30 DAYS OF NIGHT (IDW 2004 – 2009)

 

This comics series came to my attention through its film adaptation, which is ironically fitting as the comic was initially an unsuccessful film pitch, only to turn full circle back into film adaptation after it became a breakout success story for writer Steve Niles and intense Australian artist Ben Templesmith (which it also brought to my attention).

And what’s not to love about a comic that brought some raw bloody horror back to vampires in comics and film? No Twilight vampires here – these are sharks on legs, even in their pale-skinned black-eyed blood-smeared shark-mouthed appearance.

Mostly invulnerable to all but sunlight, the plot of the initial series followed vampires to the Alaskan town of Barrow – who then use the month-long Arctic night for a literal feeding frenzy. A small and dwindling number of town’s residents survive by hiding, led by the town’s sheriff Eben Olemaun and his estranged wife Stella, but face increasingly desperate choices to survive the titular thirty days of night.

Oh – and it did indeed make a fine horror film. And also a franchise, which expanded the mythology of the vampires (and human characters) within the series. My favorite sequel (or more precisely prequel) used the Arctic night in a different setting – the Eastern Front, where the German and Soviet soldiers have to band together against a more deadly and ravenous enemy…

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Wars (Special Mention: Revised) (19) Emu War

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Sadly not an Australian choking an emu with his bare hands – but instead holding an emu killed by Australian solders published by the Land Newspaper on 25 November 1932

 

(19) EMU WAR

 

The “war” the Australian army lost to flocks of flightless birds, since immortalised in meme. Although groups of emus are more commonly known as herds – or mobs.

The Australian army was the best in the world, man for man, as it had demonstrated in the First World War, and would demonstrate by stopping the German army at Tobruk and the Japanese army at Kokoda in the Second World War, but it lost to emus in 1932.

Of course, it wasn’t an actual war – the Emu War or Great Emu War was just the humorous tag given to it by the media – but a nuisance wildlife management military operation to curb the population of emus, apparently as many as 20,000, damaging farmland in Western Australia.

And there’s the rub, as the Australian army undertook a task it was not designed for, despite taking to it with machine guns – having seen their effectiveness in the First World War. Unfortunately, the emus didn’t charge at guns like the human soldiers of that war, but evaded or fled from fire.

Calling it a defeat, however, is unfair – the army did kill and wound a substantial number of emus, particularly as their skill at hunting them improved, such that by the end they were killing approximately 100 emus a week, ultimately killing almost 1,000 emus at the rate of ten rounds per confirmed kill, while also claiming 2,500 emus as wounded.

It just wasn’t economic – the emus were difficult to locate in substantial numbers and keep within range as well as scattering and evading pursuit. Even mounting a gun on a truck wasn’t effective – it wasn’t able to gain on fleeing emus and the roughness of ground prevented the gunner from firing.

And so the state and federal governments resisted further calls for military culls (in 1934, 1943 and 1948), resorting instead to the far more effective means of bounties to professional hunters.

So why the special mention amidst actual wars in history?

Well, because it does illustrate a number of themes, some of which are of note or interest for historical wars.

One is humanity’s hubris in waging war on nature, albeit more metaphorically rather than literally, not least in pest or nuisance wildlife management. Interestingly, Australia wasn’t the only nation to be “defeated” waging war against birds. Famously, China waged war against sparrows as part of its Four Pests Campaign to much more disastrous results – as the loss of crops to insects spared from sparrow predation was a contributing factor to the catastrophic famine of the Great Leap Forward.

Other themes are reflected in my corresponding special mention entry for my Top 1o Types of War, animal warfare.

And finally you have the military approximations from the Emu War itself, particularly for guerrilla war.

As one ornithologist observed, “The machine-gunners’ dreams of point blank fire into serried masses of Emus were soon dissipated. The Emu command had evidently ordered guerrilla tactics, and its unwieldy army soon split up into innumerable small units that made use of the military equipment uneconomic. A crestfallen field force therefore withdrew from the combat area after about a month”

And the commander of the operation, Major Meredith, observed after their withdrawal – ” If we had a military division with the bullet-carrying capacity of these birds it would face any army in the world … They can face machine guns with the invulnerability of tanks. They are like Zulus whom even dum-dum bullets could not stop”.

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (13) Kurt Busiek – Astro City

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Artwork by Alex Ross of the holy trinity of Astro City, corresponding to that of DC Comis – the Samaritan, Winged Victory, and the Confessor – also used as the cover art of Astro City graphic novels (vair use)

 

 

(13) KURT BUSIEK –

ASTRO CITY (1995-PRESENT)

 

A long-running superhero anthology series through various imprints of Image Comics and DC – with a rotating roster of superheroes and the only truly consistent ‘protagonist’ being the titular city itself as setting. Indeed, Astro City’s superhero back story goes back at least to the nineteenth century (Astro City’s supernatural champion the Hanged Man, the Old Soldier and Ironhorse, the Human Locomotive) and probably earlier. The heroes typically resemble the superheroes of other comics with my favorites being the Superman-like Samaritan (although he’s a time-traveler rather than a space-traveler), the Amazonian Winged Victory and the Batman-like Confessor (who hides a dark secret).

Top Tens – TV: Top 10 Documentary & Drama TV Series

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Yes – it’s an Emmy!

 

Exactly what it says on the tin – my Top 10 Documentary & Drama TV Series.

Well, perhaps not quite exactly, as that is my label of convenience for my Top 10 live-action ‘non-genre’ TV series – that is, excluding animated TV series (which typically are my favorite TV series) and excluding ‘genre’ or fantasy and SF TV series. I also rank comedy TV series in their own top ten.

That said, quite a few of my non-genre TV series have fantasy or SF elements, just not predominantly so to rank them within the genre – but I will have a special section in each entry to note fantasy or SF elements. Also, almost every TV series has comedic elements or at least the odd gag – after all, one could classify almost every narrative work by the comedy-tragedy dichotomy of classical Greek drama – so I will also have a special section for comedy in each entry.

Also, all my top ten lists for TV series are easily my most fluid top ten lists. That is because most TV series suck – at some point or other, usually when ending or in their final season but sometimes simply not being able to match the quality of their standout first season. That’s right, I went there, but I’ve been betrayed too many times now to pretend otherwise.

And that’s if I make the ending. Many, perhaps most, simply miss the mark for me at the outset. Those that do hit the mark generally fall away quickly or don’t have an enduring (or consistent) quality – or they endure too long, sadly waning until they limp into their final season, and even if they end on their own terms (or perhaps especially if they end on their own terms), they don’t end in a satisfying way. Even when a TV series does endure in quality or finish with a satisfying conclusion, they can often just become dated.

Hence, I tend to have a high turnover for shuffling entries into my special mentions, particularly as series conclude or wane, with so few entries having the consistent or enduring quality to rank in the top ten itself – or remain there.

Anyway, these are my Top 10 Documentary & Drama TV Series.

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

 

 

 

(10) BEEF

(2023-PRESENT: SEASON 1-2)

 

Beef was my favorite (non-genre) TV series of 2023 – but earns my tenth place wildcard entry as best of 2026 for its second season.

It’s a series by Korean-American showrunner Lee Sung Jin, featuring an Asian-American cast led by Steven Yeun and Ali Wong – and is virtually a parable or fable of the all-consuming, self-destructive nature of vengeance as its two star-crossed leads escalate a feud originating from random road rage into a roaring rampage of revenge. And oh boy – that leads to some very dark place indeed.

Originally a mini-series, the second season involved a new cast with a similar premise.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Not really – except for some literally toxic trippy moments in the first season.

 

COMEDY

 

Yes, indeed – dark comedy.

 

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

*

*

(9) VIKINGS

(2013-2021: SEASONS 1-6)

 

Ah – Vikings. My Game of Thrones away from Game of Thrones.

Well, not quite, but it does have something of a Game of Thones fantasy feel to it (not least that default medieval setting common in fantasy) – and it does have a fantasy element in glimpses of mythic visions (Odin and his Valkyries or ravens on the battlefield, seers and prophesies, mysterious strangers and so on), although these could be equally attributed to the subconscious effects of a people and culture imbued in Nordic mythology (and subsequently Christian visions as well for that matter).

It also has a Game of Thrones feel to it as it was one of those TV series that fell off before its final season – in my opinion in its fourth season. Yes, I was watching it for Ragnar.

Vikings is a medieval drama series originally airing on The History Channel and created by Michael Hirst (who also was behind Elizabeth and The Tudors), although it is only partly historical – given that it is based on the legendary sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok and his sons, the scourge of England and France in raids at the dawn of the Viking Age. Of course, his rise is helped by the stupidity of many of his Saxon and Frankish opponents.

Ragnar Lothbrok may be the focus, but there are many compelling or engaging characters – such as shipwright Floki, the Joker of Vikings, or perhaps more aptly, his mythic namesake Loki. And for fantasy girls, there’s everyone’s Viking shieldmaiden crush Lagertha.

Let’s face it – those Vikings were hardcore. And it has one of my favorite opening credits of any TV series – sinking amidst water and fire, set to Swedish singer-songwriters Fever Ray’s “If I Had a Heart”

 

 

 

(8) SPARTACUS 

(2010-2013: SEASONS 1-3)

 

THIS…IS…SPARTACUS!

That’s not an actual quote, but I couldn’t resist evoking the film 300, obviously a major influence on it. Spartacus – my other Game of Thrones before Game of Thrones, except with even more oiled loins.

A very graphic, very violent, very sweary and very explicit series produced by Sam Raimi (of Evil Dead fame, as well as Hercules and Xena – Lucy Lawless herself appears in it) – so something for everyone, although it takes a couple of episodes to grow into itself (with the first episode in particular appearing as a cheesy knock-off from 300).

And the mother of all lines, especially memorable when your own mother quotes it back at you after you introduced the series to her – “neither coin nor c***” (with the latter four-letter c-word being what you’d expect). It sure stuck in my mind after that. Thanks, Mum! In fairness, she loved the series, although she quoted that back to me as one of the more eyebrow-raising lines of the series. (Her comparison of manipulative hot slice of crazy Ilithyia to my ex-wife also stuck in my mind).

Obviously the series adapts the story of the historical gladiator-turned-rebel leader Spartacus, “but drenched in an over-the-top aesthetic lifted directly from 300” – each episode is chock full of slow-motion fight scenes, in-your-face blood spatters and explicit s€x.

Are you not entertained?

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Anything set in the Roman Empire or Republic (the latter in this case) has something of a fantasy (or sandalpunk) ambience for me…but there are some hints of fantasy in this series, notably in the odd dream vision or two.

 

COMEDY

 

Perhaps some unintentional comedy in that “over-the-top aesthetic” – as in 300.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

 

 

(7) THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT (2020)

 

“The one thing we know about Elizabeth Harmon is that she loves to win”.

Not many TV series get such acclaim or hype as this sleeper hit – based on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis – particularly for a series revolving around chess, indeed one that made it engaging for a mainstream audience.

“The Queen’s Gambit manages to personalize the game and its players thanks to clever storytelling and, in Anya Taylor-Joy, a lead actor so magnetic that when she stares down the camera lens, her flinty glare threatens to cut right through it.”

Although its engaging quality was in the drama of its leading character, Elizabeth or Beth Harmon, the chess prodigy rising from the tragic circumstances of being an orphan (from her mother’s su!cide), while struggling to overcome her emotional problems and literal addictions. It was something of a breakout role for Anya Taylor-Joy playing the lead – sure, she’d made a name for herself in roles in The Witch and Split, but this role really saw her showing her dramatic chops and getting the critical acclaim to match (which has seen her becoming nearly ubiquitous in films since).

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Not really – except for some trippiness from her addictions, which almost lends itself to a supernatural interpretation of her as chess prodigy. Almost, but not quite.

 

COMEDY

 

Yes – some character comedy, particularly from Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon.

 

 

 

 

(6) BARRY

(2018-2023: SEASONS 1-4)

 

Its unprepossessing title belies just how much this series rocks as dark comedy and drama, named for its protagonist, a Marine sniper veteran from the war in Afghanistan turned hitman now seeking to take a much more bizarre turn into something completely different…acting. That happens after he stumbles into a theatric acting class of laughably bad amateur actors while stalking his latest hit in Los Angeles, a fitness instructor having an affair with a Chechen mafia kingpin.

Unfortunately for Barry, he’s a good hitman – with a stone-cold combat-honed talent – but not so good an actor. Even worse, his career as a hitman is not so easy to quit – or in the words of the third Godfather film, “just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in” – as it constantly throws out its tentacles to ensnare his best efforts to escape it. Not least by his former associates – his slimy “agent” Monroe Fuches (masterfully played by Stephen Root) – and by his former client (and fanboy), Chechen mafia lieutenant NoHo Hank (hilariously played by Anthony Harrigan).

Bill Hader absolutely, dare I say it, kills it with his performance as the titular protagonist – showing his dramatic chops as well as his comic roots, particularly in the penultimate episode of the first season which won him an Emmy, as he showcased all his character’s emotional turmoil as Barry delivers a single line in his bit part in Macbeth with breathtaking intensity.

 

FANTASY & SF / COMEDY

 

Not really much fantasy or SF – but I could well have classed the series as comedy for its dark comedy.

 

 

Netflix promotional art

 

(5) GUY RITCHIE – THE GENTLEMEN

(NETFLIX 2024-PRESENT: SEASON 1+)

 

“Everything you want from a Guy Ritchie caper”.

 

My usual wildcard tenth place entry for best of the present or previous year – in this case, The Gentlemen as best TV series in 2024. (Disclaimer – I have yet to see Shogun, which from what I heard might well have eclipsed The Gentlemen for this spot).

The Gentlemen is a spin-off created by Guy Ritchie for Netflix from his 2019 film of that name. By spin-off, I don’t mean a spin-off from a character or characters in the film, or even the plot, but the premise of the film of English aristocratic estates fallen on hard times and seeking a reversal of fortune by high times instead, by growing cannabis on a plantation scale.

Like the film, it profits from a charismatic cast with good chemistry – and the usual Ritchie narrative twists or gags, such as that chicken suit from the standout (black) comedy scene of the series.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Not really – Ritchie tends to steer clear of fantasy or SF elements, except perhaps for a certain comedic surrealism.

Speaking of which…

 

COMEDY

 

The works of Ritchie tend to be action-comedies – and The Gentlemen is no exception, albeit Ritchie’s comedy tends to be black, character-driven, and dry.

 

 

 

(4) COEN BROTHERS – FARGO

(2014-2024: SEASONS 1-5)

 

What can I say? Given how highly I rank the Coen brothers – Joel and Ethan Coen – in my top 10 Films, it was only to be expected that I would rank this TV series based on their film of the same name highly. Although the Coen brothers only take the role of executive producers, the creator and primary writer is Legion’s Noah Hawley, who seamlessly adapts their cinematic style to the TV screen – so much so that it is essentially Coen Brothers The Series. It’s an anthology series, with each season as self-contained storyline and new set of characters at different points of time in the wider Fargo-verse in Minnesota and the Dakotas, although each season “retains similar themes and tropes that ultimately keep them connected” (and just enough trademark Coen fantasy or surreal elements)

The first season remains my favorite as it follows insurance salesman Lester Nygaard – played by Martin Freeman in a distinct turn from his more characteristic nice-guy roles – descent into his heart of darkness after shady ‘fixer’ Lorne Malvo – played by Billy Bob Thornton with more than a hint of the actual devil about him (not to mention No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh) – influences him to stop absorbing the disappointment of his mundane life and start lashing out against those who belittle him. (And how!)

 

FANTASY & SF

 

Characteristically for the Coen brothers, there’s more than a touch of surreal fantasy or SF – as noted above, Billy Bob Thornton’s Lorne Malvo has more than a hint of supernatural devil about him in Season 1, while there’s recurring UFO visitation in Season 2.

 

COMEDY

 

Even more characteristically for the Coen brothers, it could well be classified as comedy – albeit black or dark comedy.

 

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

 

 

 

(3) SQUID GAME 

(2021-PRESENT: SEASONS 1-3)

 

I assume this TV series needs no introduction – the Korean survival drama series (created by Hwang Dong-hyuk) which became the most watched TV series on Netflix.

Interestingly, Wikipedia describes the series as a dystopian survival thriller action television series – I find the description as dystopian particularly interesting. It is not the archetypal futuristic or SF dystopian setting with its setting in contemporary South Korea – arguably the titular game would be open and official rather than secret and criminal to be dystopian in the strict sense. However, the series does succeed in casting contemporary South Korean as dystopian to a degree – that is, as a society in which the game could occur even in the secret and criminal way it does, as well as one with the economic desperation to drive players to the game. More than once as it turns out, even when they know what’s at stake.

You know how it goes – protagonist Seong Gi-hun (or player 456) is down on his luck in virtually every way, such that he finds himself in such economically desperate dire straits that he is happy to accept the offer to play games for monetary reward.

Of course, that offer should have seemed a lot less appealing when it involved being picked up in a proverbial black van by mysterious hooded and masked figures, gassed to unconsciousness, kidnapped to an unknown location, and waking to find onself as well as 455 other people in green tracksuits (in which they were all dressed while unconscious).

Initially, everything about the games and the setting seems childlike and brightly colored – indeed, the games played throughout the series are usually drawn from Korean children’s games. And that’s down to the guards in their pink hooded tracksuits – and faceless masks that only show triangles, squares and circles in the place of faces.

As they say, if it’s too good to be true, it usually is. It would seem odd that simply playing children’s games would pay such substantial monetary rewards – and it is. The very first game – Red Light, Green Light, with its creepy giant doll figure Young-Hee calling out the cues green light to move and red light to freeze – shows that while they are indeed children’s games, they are also death games, played with life itself as the stakes. Not surprisingly, that sees the first game devolve into mass panic – and massacre.

And so it goes from there, with players getting literally eliminated through the series of games until the final showdown game for the massive monetary prize, jackpotting with each player’s life.

There’s much to be traumatized from in this drama, although I still feel that player Kang Sae-byeok (Player 67) was cheated in the fifth penultimate glass-breaking game – and for that matter, that whole game was a massive cheat. No – I will not let it go. Justice for Sae-byeok!

Much of its appeal comes from its distinctive visual design – and that theme music – as well as the arduous physical and psychological twists it put its characters through, with the titular games a combination of trial by ordeal and trial by combat. The grand prize – 45.6 billion Korean won (or 100 million won for each player’s life), with a bonus of PTSD and survivor’s guilt.

The end of 2024 saw its second season released – while not to the standard of the first season and seeming like more a half season cliffhanger for the third season in 2025, it was still interesting and intriguing. The third season may have fallen off further but admit it – you watched it to the end.

 

FANTASY & SF

 

As per that dystopian description used by Wikipedia, the series does invoke dystopian SF, or at least dystopian SF chic.

 

COMEDY

 

Arguably there are some comedic elements – albeit not surprisingly dark or black at best.

 

 

 

 

(2) BREAKING BAD

(2008-2014: SEASONS 1-5)

 

“I am the one who knocks!”

This needs no introduction – just say the name.

A neo-Western crime drama – or Macbeth makes meth. In this case, Macbeth is mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher Walter White, who takes one hell of a left turn in Albuquerque to rise to the throne as a drug kinpin. However, his three witches are not so much a literal trio of fates spouting prophecies of the throne, but more metaphorical fate and grim prophecy in the form of a diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer, that threatens to destroy his family’s financial future. And his Lady Macbeth is also more metaphorical – although many would be happy to cast his wife Skyler in that role more literally – as not so much his equally ambitious and power-hungry wife pushing him to become king through crime, but the opportunity he sees while on a ride-along with his DEA brother-in-law Hank Schrader. After seeing a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman, escape a drug bust through dumb luck, he sees a potential opportunity to entrap Jesse with a proposition to use his chemical expertise and Jesse’s drug connections to manufacture crystal meth and make them both rich. And after that, like Macbeth, one bloody footprint leads to another as the pair find themselves entangled by the worst kind of attention from both local drug pushers and law enforcement – and even more so toll it takes from their lives, loves and psyches.

 

FANTASY & SF / COMEDY

 

Not really much fantasy or SF – but surprising quite a lot of black comedy, although not predominant enough that anyone would call it a comedy.

**

 

(1) DAVID ATTENBOROUGH – LIFE

(1979-2008)

 

When you peel back the layers of my mind to the deepest part of my psyche, you will find it narrated by David Attenborough. The man is one of my personal heroes – indeed, he transcends mere heroism to become legend. And he is responsible for my enduring love of natural history and television nature documentaries – with his Life series, particularly the series that started it all, Life on Earth, at the heart of it all. (His books, adapted from his scripts for the series, feature equally as prominently at the peak of my Top 10 Science & Philosophy Books). Indeed, he taught me to see everything as part of the story – nay, grand narrative – of life on earth. It would not be exaggerating to say that Life on Earth is essentially my bible.

David Attenborough himself needs no introduction – in the words of TV Tropes, “a British broadcaster and naturalist, most famous as a nature documentary producer and narrator, long fondly stereotyped and much mimicked for his hushed yet enthusiastic delivery” (similar perhaps to what I like to call the whispered menace of Clint Eastwood) “and ability to find (and make) any plant or animal interesting”. And I would add not just interesting but compelling in his ability to make me think about them in ways I had never imagined previously. And further – “he has long been THE face and voice of natural history, having created what can safely be called the definitive—and usually technically groundbreaking—series of television nature documentaries, spanning all parts of the globe and every type of living creature (yes, including humans)”.

For me, it is his epic Life series that is his definitive work – beginning with 1979’s Life on Earth and continued through 2008 with The Living Planet, The Trials of Life, Life in the Freezer, The Private Life of Plants, The Life of Birds, The Life of Mammals, Life in the Undergrowth and Life in Cold Blood.

Although his Life series is unequalled, it doesn’t really matter to me if any of the other series he’s narrated as is his work as such (in terms of its writing) as long as he’s narrating them (and they’re produced by the BBC) – they’re all awesome in production and quality.

 

FANTASY & SF / COMEDY

 

None of the former and little of the latter – it is nature documentary after all.

 

 

 

 

 

TOP 10 DOCUMENTARY & DRAMA TV SERIES (TIER LIST)

 

S-TIER (GOD TIER)

 

(1) DAVID ATTENBOROUGH – LIFE

(2) BREAKING BAD

(3) SQUID GAME

 

You know the line – if David Attenborough’s Life series is my Old Testament of Documentary & Drama TV, then Breaking Bad and Squid Game are my New Testament.

 

A-TIER (TOP TIER)

 

(4) COEN BROS – FARGO

(5) GUY RITCHIE – THE GENTLEMEN

(6) BARRY

(7) THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

 

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)

 

(8) SPARTACUS

(9) VIKINGS

 

X-TIER (WILD TIER)

 

(10) BEEF

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Types of War (Special Mention) (18) Culture War & Memetic Warfare

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The original culture war, Germany’s Kulturkampf between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Catholic Church (in Germany), depicted here by Otto von Bismarck and Pope Pius IX in a cartoon from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1875 (public domain image – Wikipedia “Culture War”)

 

 

(18) CULTURE WAR & MEMETIC WARFARE

 

Metaphorical war essentially along the lines of psychological warfare, but with cultural or social conflict substituted for military conflict – as such, it can be wide-ranging (as in virtually anything can be culture war) as well as the subject of controversy.

Typically, it is portrayed more in terms of civil warfare within nations, although often as occurring in a similar form across nations (such as the West in general), usually by design. Not coincidentally, culture war is often reported as involving or at least alleging disinformation by foreign agents or other nations, consistent with psychological warfare for other conflicts involving those agents or nations.

It has come to particular prominence with the internet, especially with memes – hence my term memetic warfare, in turn often adapted or used in memes, for example online declarations of being veterans of meme war.

However, culture war as a term has a surprisingly long history of usage – surprising to me at least, looking up the use of the term, which apparently dated back to the Kulturkampf or cultural struggle in 1871-1878 between the Prussian state and Catholic Church in Germany. The term has then been adapted from the twentieth century onwards, in the United States and elsewhere.

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (12) Mike Mignola – Hellboy

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Poster art for Hellboy and his signature Right Hand of Doom (fair use)

 

 

(12) MIKE MIGNOLA –

HELLBOY (DARK HORSE 1993 – PRESENT)

 

Dark Horse comic series Hellboy has been popularized by the Guillermo de Toro films (less so by its latest reboot, of which we won’t speak)

But then, what’s not to love about a comic series in which the hero is the literal Beast of the Apocalypse? (Or Anung Um Rama – “upon his brow is set a crown of flame”). Of course, he’s one of the good guys – and humanity’s best hope against hell and other eldritch abominations – because of his human upbringing. His backstory is that he was summoned as an infant demon in the last days of the Second World War to turn the tide of that war in Project Ragna Rok by Nazi occultists, led by none other than Grigori Rasputin – the mad monk turned eldritch abomination himself. I can’t help but feel Rasputin cheated his Nazi patrons if they expected victory for their war, as Rasputin was apparently playing the apocalyptic long game. Fortunately, Rasputin and his Nazi occultists are opposed by the Americans and their nascent Bureau of Paranormal Research and Development, who disrupt the ritual and raise Hellboy as one of their own – as he grows into his full-blown demonic appearance, with horns (which he files down for appearance), hooves, tail and red skin.

Again, what’s not to love about this comic series? Nazi occultists? Rasputin? Secret occult history? Demons and Lovecraftian eldritch abominations, most notably the apocalyptic Ogdru Jahad? And as I said, a series with the Beast of the Apocalypse as hero, fighting his own apocalyptic destiny – embodied in his Right Hand of Doom, the key to the abyss…?

Top Tens – History: Top 10 Wars (Special Mention: Revised) (18) Paraguayan War

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Brazilian steamers ramming Paraguayan ships in the Battle of Riachuelo, painted by Eduardo de Martino 1882-1883 (public domain image – Wikipedia “Paraguayan War”)

 

 

(18) PARAGUAYAN WAR (1864-1870)

 

Ever since reading about it, I’ve been fascinated by the Paraguayan War – also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, although let’s face it, Brazil did the heavy lifting.

It’s a war that seems like a meme or something out of a cartoon, at least as traditionally attributed to the “mad dictator” of Paraguay, President Francisco Solano Lopez – “the infinite ambitions of a supposedly megalomaniac and bloodthirsty Solano López who had the intention to create the “Greater Paraguay” through the conquest of territories of the neighboring countries.”

By neighboring countries, that means Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. In fairness, he might have had a shot against one of them, even the larger and more populous Brazil – Paraguay was not styled as the Prussia of Latin America for nothing – but not all three at the same time.

I suppose that’s the part that appeals to me. It’s like Paraguay as the “Prussia of Latin America”, was having a dress rehearsal in the jungles of South America, for the same basic script of the actual Prussian state in Europe, Germany, for the world wars – and defeated by the same basic lack of understanding of war or understanding the limits of military and national power. In other words, encirclement and attrition by a coalition of enemies with superior resources – a coalition brought about by their own actions, “a foolish attempt to fight an unwinnable war that almost destroyed the nation”.

It’s almost like that adage by Karl Marx about history repeating itself except in reverse – with history happening first as farce and then as tragedy.

Although in the case of the Paraguayan War, it involved both farce and tragedy, the latter particularly for Paraguay itself, as it was ground down in attrition by its three opponents first in conventional warfare, then in its drawn-out guerilla resistance until Lopez was killed in action.

In the end, Paraguay was defeated and lost almost 40% of its territory, but it was Paraguay’s casualties and losses of population that are truly staggering. We don’t really know what they were because of a lack of reliable census figures before the war but they’re usually reckoned as at least half the population or even 60% or so, making it proportionately one of the most destructive wars in modern history – with the worst figures estimating the loss of 90% of the male population

Whatever the case, there was an 1871 census with about a 4:1 ratio for adult female population to adult male population – such that there was an informal acceptance, even by the Catholic Church, of polygamy afterwards to help repopulation.

Top Tens – Comics: Top 10 Comics (Special Mention) (11) Jeff Smith – Bone

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Cover of Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume (featuring protagonist Fone Bone and one of the antagonist creatures). There have been a few editions – this one was the 2010 paperback edition by Cartoon Books, Jeff Smith’s own self-publishing company, the edition I had (fair use)

 

 

(11) JEFF SMITH –

BONE (1991-2004)

 

Bone is like if Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck suddenly popped into Game of Thrones – which I suppose could happen now that Disney owns Fox? Who knows? Anyway – literal cartoon characters placed in the middle of an epic fantasy of an increasingly desperate struggle against an otherworldly foe. Or in the words of TV Tropes – a “lengthy independent comic book series by Jeff Smith that took 13 years to complete, mixing the sensibilities of a joke-of-the-day comic strip like Pogo with the sweeping story of an epic fantasy à la The Lord of the Rings”

The cartoon protagonists, the Bone trio of cousins, are indeed cartoon characters, both visually and in personality, who’ve been exiled from their (unseen) cartoon village Boneville. The main protagonist, Fone Bone, is the most dependable, resourceful and moral of the Bone cousins. Smiley Bone is good-hearted but dim-witted (although his good heart sees him through most of the time). Phoney Bone is the reason they have been exiled from Boneville – a greedy, hotheaded schemer with perpetual plans to make money (usually by a con or cheat).

The epic fantasy protagonist Thorn and her family are at the heart of a war against the Lord of the Locusts, the Hooded One and their minions of ravenous rat-creatures.

Stupid, stupid rat-creatures! As Fone Bone dubs the duo of ineffectual rat-creature henchmen in their hapless pursuit of him and the other protagonists. They are indeed not the brightest – and strangely endearing for it. They’re just not cut out for this evil villainy business

Apparently Netflix has the rights to a TV adaptation – presumably animated. It seems unlikely but maybe they’ll do it and do it right.