Yes – it’s an Emmy!
Exactly what it says on the tin – my Top 10 TV Series.
Well, perhaps not quite exactly as these are my top ten non-‘genre’ TV series – that is, excluding ‘genre’ TV series such as fantasy or SF, animated, or comedy series, all of which have their own top tens.
That said, occasionally fantasy or SF elements pop up in my non-genre TV series, just not enough as to rank them as fantasy or SF – 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.
Anyway, these are my Top 10 TV Series.
Netflix promotional art
(10) GUY RITCHIE – THE GENTLEMEN (NETFLIX 2024)
“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.
RATING: 4 STARS****
X-TIER (WILD TIER)
(9) BEEF (NETFLIX 2023)
Beef was my favorite (non-genre) TV series of 2023 (and hence former wildcard tenth place entry as best of 2023).
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, there’s a second season on the way – but by way of anthology series, with a new cast to a similar premise.
FANTASY & SF
Not really – except for some literally toxic trippy moments
COMEDY
Yes, indeed – dark comedy
RATING: 4 STARS****
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
(8) MY NAME (NETFLIX 2021)
Funnily enough, I happened upon this Korean action thriller drama not through another Korean entry in this top ten at about the same time (my very next entry in fact), but because of the abject failure of the first season of The Rings of Power.
Not directly, that is, but through some Youtube commentator – that I can’t even remember – pointing to the failure of that series to depict its female lead Galadriel’s quest for revenge, at least plausibly or for any audience engagement in her character, in contrast to this series doing it right.
And My Name does the roaring rampage of revenge right – as well as a female lead that is not as insufferable as Galadriel in the Rings of Power, nor the proverbial “girlboss”. I don’t entirely agree with that term, given that it is too widely used in criticism – although if one character embodied the term, it was Galadriel in The Rings of Power (“both a Mary Sue and a Karen”), succeeding effortlessly and failing upwards.
Contrast the female lead in My Name, Yoon Ji-Woo, bent on avenging her father’s death by proving herself as a member of his criminal gang, who has to fight every step of the way, usually literally and at visceral price or at least high cost (to pretty much everyone involved) – indeed higher than she ever could have known, as is ultimately revealed.
FANTASY & SF / COMEDY
Not really much of either – mostly straight thriller
RATING: 4 STARS****
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
(7) SQUID GAME (NETFLIX 2021-PRESENT: 2 SEASONS)
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.
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.
RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(6) THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT (NETFLIX 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.
RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(5) BARRY (2018-2023: 4 SEASONS)
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.
RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP-TIER)
*
(4) 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.
RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(3) SPARTACUS (2010-2013: 3 SEASONS)
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 sexually 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 sex.
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.
RATING: 4 STARS****
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(2) BREAKING BAD (2008-2013: 5 SEASONS)
“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.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)
(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.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER)
TOP 10 TV SERIES: TIER LIST
S-TIER (GOD TIER)
(1) DAVID ATTENBOROUGH – LIFE
(2) BREAKING BAD
You know the line – if David Attenborough’s Life series is my Old Testament of TV series, then Breaking Bad is my New Testament.
A-TIER (TOP TIER)
(3) SPARTACUS
(4) FARGO
(5) BARRY
(6) THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT
(7) SQUID GAME
B-TIER (HIGH TIER)
(8) MY NAME
(9) BEEF
X-TIER (WILD TIER) – BEST OF 2024
(10) GUY RITCHIE – THE GENTLEMEN
