#69

The Jinx

 “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

With those words, the HBO true crime documentary went from being a fascinating story of a man and his narcissim to an absolute epic show.

The Jinx, which added a sequel recently, is the story of Robert Durst, an eccentric New York businessman who was believed to have murdered his wife. Durst spoke his story, in his own words, throughout the six first season episodes. Andrew Jarecki was the driving force behind the doc and had built a relationship with Durst through interviews.

The final episode of the first season had Jarecki confronting Durst with evidence that they had uncovered that pointed directly at him. Durst and Jarecki ended the interview and Durst went into the bathroom. While in there, he did not realize that the microphone was still on his person and he uttered the infamous words that implicated him.

The sequel season followed the arrest and subsequent trial of Robert Durst. There is no denying thta this case had so many bizarre twists as we learned more about the odd behavior of Robert Durst.

Those final words from Durst’s own mouth were chilling. It was as close to a confession as you are ever going to get in a documentary. It made for amazing TV.

#70

Match Game

Another childhood fav is the “game show” where yu tried to match your favorite “celebrities” with answers that start off “Dumb Dora was so dumb….”

HOW DUMB WAS SHE???

Ah, good times.

The Match Game was a show that survived way longer than one would guess. Hosted by EYG Hall of Famer Gene Rayburn, The Match Game lasted for years in the 1970s to the 1980s. It has returned to TV several times, formerly with Alec Baldwin, and, most recently, with Martin Short as hosts.

The celebrities had rotating appearances. In the first iteration of the show, the regular celebrities included Charles Nelson Reilly, Brett Somers, and Richard Dawson. The other slots were filled regularly by Betty White, Gary Burghoff, Nipsy Russell, Fannie Flagg, Jack Klugman, Bert Convey, Tom Poston, Ava Gabor, Bill Daily, Joyce Bulifant, Marcia Wallace, Patti Deutsch, and Avery Schreiber.

There were times when the show went off the rails and those moments were gold. Richard Dawson staging a giant riot over the rejection of an answer, Brett and Charles’ constant bickering and interactions, Betty White and then McLean Stevenson taking over hosting duties midway through the show, to many more.

While this was dumb, there is no denying that it was funny. The cast always had great chemistry with each other and Gene, and it was cleverer than you think. Admittedly, if you answered BOOB, then you had a pretty good chance of matching.

BLANK

#71

Yellowjackets

I did not have Showtime when this show first came out, so I waited until it was available on Netflix to watch season one. Before the end of the series, I had purchased Showtime on Prime to be able to watch seaosn two.

Yellowjackets tells the story of a girls soccer team on their way to the playoffs. However, they never made it there. Their plane crashed in the wilderness and it became the story of survival.

But it was more than that.

We see the survivors in present day, years after their struggles in the woods, dealing with the long-trm fallout of the trauma they went through during their time in the wilderness. Mysteries about exactlywhat was happening combined in the story and the pain and frightening situations and choices stuck with them.

I found this show to be veyr much like LOST, which I absolutley loved, so this show appealed to me. The characters were fascinating and deeply flawed. The mystery surrounding everything was amazing.

The huge ensemble cast does a great job with their characters. What is even mor impressive is the fact that two actresses play the same character, as a youth and as an adult… at least those who survived.

Two major standouts in the cast include the absolutely crazy Melanie Lynskey as Shauna and Christina Ricci as the manipulative Misty, both of whom played present day versions of their characters.

The show is not averse to shocking surprises or twists either as one main character died at the end of season two.

Season three was a little less than the first two, but still offered some big reveals. Yellowjackets provide some riddles and some horror and always keeps you guessing.

#72

Firefly

You can’t take the sky from me

This was another one season wonder that found its following after it was canceled. Firefly was created by Joss Whedon and it was a space opera/Western that followed the crew of the Serenity, a “Firefly” class ship.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds led his merry band of thieves across the galaxy in search of wealth and happiness.

Firefly starred Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Adam Bladwin, Jewel Staite, Ron Glass, Sean Maher and Morena Baccarin.

The interaction among the talented cast is really the strength of the series. The dialogue stood out as always in a Joss Whedon scripted show.

The show was canceled after airing 11 of 14 first season episodes. The final three episodes did air on DVD. The show became such a cult hit, inspiring a desire to resurrect the show, that a wide released film came out called Serenity.

Every time the cast members are involved in any fan events, it seems inevitable that there would be questions about Firefly. Nathan Fillion even dressed up as a “space cowboy” and donned his Captain Malcolm Reynolds outfit on a Halloween episode of his next show, Castle.

“I aim to misbehave”

#73

Once Upon A Time

What happens when all of the fairy tale creatures livd together in today’s world? We get ABC’s Once Upon A Time.

Featuring everyone from Pinocchio to teh Evil Queen, Once Upon A Time ran for seven successful seasons on ABC. The show’s main protagonist was Emma Swan, played by Jennifer Morrison, who was, unbeknownst to her, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. Emma, and her son Henry, whom she gave up years before, but had found her, came to a small town called Storybrooke, Maine.

In Storybrooke, the fantasy/fairy tale creatures lived normal lives, but Henry figured out the truth.

Over the years, new characters were intorduced, but few with the impact of Captain Hook, played by the charming Colin O’Donoghue. Emma and Hook became the “it” couple of the show, as the hero and villain showed sparks.

The show also featured an awesome couple of antagonists. The Evil Queen was portrayed by Lana Parrilla and was basicaly running Storybrooke as the mayor, and Rumplestilkstin, also known as Mr. Gold, played by character actor Robert Carlyle. The key with these characters was they were multi-dimensional characters, unlike their fairy tale counterparts. These characters were real people with real desires and even the “evil” ones had motives that you could understand. No one was evil for the sake of evil.

The musical episode of the show that aired in the sixth season was right up there with “Once More with Feeling” from Buffy as the great musical episodes of all time.

The show had a very LOST feel to it, which makes sense since  Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, both writers on LOST, were the creative forces behind the show.

#74

Seinfeld

One of the most successful comedies on network TV, Seinfeld finds its way onto the list at number 74.

I may not have loved this show as much as many others, but I did watch it regularly. It was clever and funny, with a group of some of the most eccentric characters on TV.

To this day, I will use lines like “NO SOUP FOR YOU” or “Hell-oooo Newman” in my life. Seinfeld has a place in the zeitgeist of American culture, unlike few shows of its generation.

Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards made one of the best foursomes in TV history. The show worked because of these four characters, as unlikable as they may be to the on show world, were beloved by the public.

Though the show reviled in the idea that it was a “show about nothing,” it was actually about life. Life with these four characters and their desperate needs to find something more than what they had.

#75

American Horror Story

This is a very interesting spot on the list for this show.

American Horror Story has 12 seasons. It is an anthology show that changes characters every season. Ryan Murphy is the creator of the series that has a regular list of performers who play someone new every season.

The problem with AHS is that, while some of the seasons were so fantastic and should be higher up this list, but there are too many seasons that are average to downright bad that it limited the shows ranking on my list.

I absolutely LOVED Murder House (season 1), Asylum (season two), Freak Show (season 4), and Roanoke (season 6). I hated Delicate (season 12). The remainder of the seasons fall somewhere between these. Many of the others are fine to blah.

Some of the top repeated actors include Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Denis O’Hare, Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe, Frances Conroy, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, and Angela Bassett.

I could have seen a world that if this list was made after season 4, AHS would be way up this list, probably top 20, maybe even higher. However, the rest of the seasons place it at #75.

#76

The Penguin

HBO Max had a mini-series last year featuring a character that was “intorduced” in the big screen movie, The Batman. That was Penguin.

However, unlike the Batman Forever Penguin, who was played by Danny Devito, this version of the Penguin is played by Colin Farrell. When you think about the Penguin physically, Colin Farrell does not come immediately to mind.

The make-up job on Colin Farrell to make him look like the Penguin is truly some of the best make up on TV. But the make up is far from all- his performance was more than just make up. Colin Farrell brought so much life to the character of Oswald “Oz” Cobb that he was deeper than the character has ever been.

Throw in an Emmy-winning performance from Cristin Milioti as Sofia Gigante. Milioti was absolutely sensation in this role and provided such a foil for Oz that you were almost rooting for her.

The finale of the show had one of the most shocking and upsetting events that, even though Penguin was the protagonist of the show and easy to root for, you found yourself completely switched to seeing him as the villain. It was truly an amazing moment.

#77

Shrinking

We go back to Apple TV + for the next show on our list. Shrinking is a comedy that buries a lot of real life drama into its storylines.

Starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford, Shrinking is very poignant, funny as only real life can be, and filled with wonderfully characters.

Jason Segel is our main character. He is therapist Jimmy Laird, who gets way too close to his patients. However, the death of his wife rocked Jimmy’s world and had him questioning everything, including how effective he was at his job. He has a strong relationship with his daughter, Alice, though the loss affected them both.

The fact that Harrison Ford has not won an Emmy for his performance in this show is criminial. Ford gives such a human performance as Dr. Paul Rhoades, whose personal struggle with Parkinson’s disease is one more powerful storyline among some of the best around.

There is a wonderful comedic troop of actors on the show adding color and hilarity. Other cast members included Jessica Williams, Christa Miller, Michael Urie, Ted McGinley, Luke Tennie, Brett Goldstein, Wendie Malick, and Lily Rabe.

The show has had two seasons so far and is one of the best shows from Apple TV +.

#78

Watchmen

One of the all-time classic comic book mini-series came from DC Comics was entitled Watchmen written by Alan Moore. It was adapted as a big screen movie by Zack Snyder.

Years later, LOST’s Damon Lindelof created a new TV show for HBO based on the movie/comic.

Watchmen the TV series was very different, but it was a sensational series. Honestly, (and this is a little shameful) this was the first time I ever heard about the Tulsa race massacre, which plays a big role in this story. It was set 34 years after the movie.

Featuring Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Louis Gossett Jr., Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, and Tom Mison.

#79

Hawkeye

The first Marvel Studios to find its way onto the list is Hawkeye, starring Jeremy Renner, reprising his role as Clint Barton from the series of the MCU movies and Hailee Steinfeld, playing Kate Bishop.

The show was set at Christmas as Clint has to leave his family in order to try and retrieve his old Ronin costume he wore during the period when his family had been blipped. He comes across fangirl Kate Bishop, who was inspired by Hawkeye during the battle of New York. She had taken up archery and was intent on joining Clint on his rounds.

The show was wonderfully written and had a nice tone to it. It is a great Christmas time show as it deals very much with family.

One of the issue a lot of people had was the return of Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin. Some people hated his return here because he was not playing Kingpin the way he did in the Daredevil Netflix series. That did not bother me at all. I expected some differences.

The show also introduced Echo, though the use of Echo is probably the weakest area of the season.

Yelena, portrayed by Florence Pugh, guest starred starting in episode 4, in her attempt to kill Clint for his part in the death of her sister Black Widow. Pugh and Steinfeld had remarkable chemistry and their shared scenes were some of the best of the series.

Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld worked extremely well together, in a mentor-mentee/father-daughter style.

I really enjoyed the six episode series and I would love to see another season at some point.

#80

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

While this would also include the time when the show was hosted by Trevor Noah and others, my favorite stretch of The Daily Show was when Jon Stewart was the host.

The Daily Show appeared Monday-Thursday on Comedy Central. It is a parody of a news program, hosted by Jon Stewart. He has had a lot of correspondents that have become huge stars including Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, Jessica Williams, Larry Widmore, Olivia Munn, Roy Wood Jr., Hasan Minhaj, Jordan Klepper, Ronny Chieng, Lewis Black, Wyatt Cenac, Michael Che, Josh Gad, Jason Jones, Al Madrigal, Aasif Mandvi, Rob Riggle, and Kristen Schaal.

The writing and humor of this show is as high of a level as you are going to find. There have been people in the world that gets their news from the Daily Show.

Jon Stewart is truly one of the best interviewers you are going to see. He is so intelligent and well-read, I would hate to try and debate Stewart. Just ask Bill O’Reilly.

Jon Stewart left the show and spent several years away, as comedian Trevor Noah took over the desk. Noah was a solid host too. Stewart has returned to The Daily Show for once a week.

Here is your moment of Zen…

#81

Murderbot

I had heard some positive things about this Apple TV + show, but it turned out to be one of my favorite new shows of this year.

Murderbot is a futuristic sci-fi show where a personal security unit robot winds up getting a mind of his own and that mind has some potential violent tendencies.

Sec Unit was played by Alexander Skarsgård and he goes rogue. He is assigned to a team of researchers who were on a dangerous mission to another planet. Sec Unit does the voice over for the show and he is both fascinated and repulsed by the humans and their decisions.

Sec Unit is obsessed with an in-universe TV show called The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. As viewers, we see some of the scenes of this show making it quite meta.

I did not expect to love this show as much as I did, but it was gripping, extremely funny and full of great action.

#82

Paradise

The next show in the countdown is one of the better shows from the last year on Hulu. Starring Courtney B. Vance and James Marsden, Paradise is a dystopian/sci-fi/mystery show that saw Marsden as the President of the United States who had to lead during an extinction level event,

Vance played his main secret service agent who discovered the president’s dead body. He was murdered!

Did I mention that the surviving humanity retreated to a hidden city inside a mountain?

Shenanigans ensued. The mystery was amazing and the flashback episode that showed what happened was epic.

Paradise was a surprise hit and earned its place on this list.

#83

Sherlock

The British mystery crime drama reimagined Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and placed him in the present day.

This show helped introduce me to Benedict Cumberbatch, who led the show as the autistic-like Sherlock, and Martin Freeman, who was his sidekick Dr. John Watson.

The series ran for four seasons, but each season only had three episodes. However, each episode was more like a movie length, running around and hour and a half.

These were all great episodes. Perhaps my favorite was “Sign of Three,” which details Watson and Mary Morstan get married.