this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
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I haven't been watching much in terms of actual shows for a good while, then while listening to a podcast a host casually mentioned they had rewatched Chernobyl, how it still holds up, that there's a reason it got as much acclaim as it did, etc. So I thought I'd give it a go and wow, loved it (still one episode left to watch).

Had me thinking, what else have I missed out on? What are some "absolute cinema" TV shows that still hold up and and are considered must watch?

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[–] SupremeJerk9999@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (17 children)

TV Shows

Must Watch

  • Breaking Bad
  • Better Call Saul
  • Chernobyl
  • Peaky Blinders
  • Dinosaurs

Highly Rated (With Caveats)

  • The Wire: A timeless masterpiece, but the extremely slow pace requires pushing through the first season.
  • Band of Brothers: Excellent, but historically did Captain Sobel dirty—he wasn't like that.
  • Primal: Extremely good, but the story ends at Season 2. Season 3 is an unnecessary overextension.

Good Shows (Minor Caveats)

  • Narcos: Enjoyable until Escobar (the star) is captured, then it loses its appeal.
  • Pablo Escobar, The Drug Lord (El Patrón del Mal): Less dramatic but more accurate and highly enjoyable than Narcos.
  • Dune: Prophecy & House of the Dragon: Good overall, but heavily woke. They take too many liberties and squander their superior source materials.

Great for Uniqueness, Story, or Style (Major Caveats)

  • Game of Thrones (Seasons 1-4): The absolute best TV ever made. It doesn't top Breaking Bad only because the later seasons are absolute garbage.
  • The Sopranos: Great episodic show, but slow. The overarching story wasn't the main focus; six seasons could have been condensed into three.

Shows That Don't Live Up to Their Name

  • Dark: Starts great, but convoluted rules in Season 2 and Deus ex machina plot devices in Season 3 ruin it.
  • Shōgun (2024): Unremarkable. Unfaithful to the source material due to wokeness, specifically erasing Blackthorne's protagonism because he's white.
  • The Expanse: A convoluted, messy dumpster fire.
  • Westworld: A convoluted, messy dumpster fire.
  • Euphoria: Hot Gen Z garbage.
  • A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Pure hype with no justification to exist. Spends 6 episodes on Dunk, an absolute loser and terrible fighter, whereas the show was advertised as being about Aegon Targaryen, who barely gets screen time in the show

Anime

Must Watch

  • Frieren: Beyond Journey's End (Sousou no Frieren): A beautiful, clean, family-safe show with no fan service. The appeal is the whole package.

Good Shows (Minor Caveats)

  • Noragami: Beautiful, but not a masterpiece; sequels dip in quality.
  • Psycho-Pass: Genuinely good Minority Report-style premise. Season 1 is amazing.
  • Mob Psycho 100: Good comedy, but relies on repetitive tropes after Season 2.
  • One Punch Man: Extremely funny great premise, but the quality drop after Season 1 shouldn't have happened.
  • Dragon Ball / Dragon Ball Z: Legendary but too long (Kai is the shorter alternative).

Great for Uniqueness, Story, or Style (Major Caveats)

  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Very unique. The writer projected his mental issues onto a weird cast, the protagonist is a loser, and it has no proper ending.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Good, but overhyped. Suffers from forced humor, quality drops near the end, and a predictable "happily ever after" ending.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist (2003): Much darker, serious, and extremely good, but the animation is garbage.
  • Tokyo Ghoul: Only good until Season 2 before major quality dips.

Shows That Don't Live Up to Their Name

  • Death Note: A bad show imo. The premise is amazing but the characters are so obnoxious that i dropped it

EDIT:

Forgot to mentione The Last of Us. Pretty good show with story close to the original. I rated it an 8/10 on IMDb.

Issues it has if you liked the game though:

  • Bella Ramsey was severely miscast as Ella. Ellie in the games is a fierce, humorous and lovely girl, who's matured too early. On the show she tries to be but isn't funny, she's aggressive and lacks self control. You'll have to accept it for what it is, two different characters altogether.
  • Season 2 has some noticeable defects
  • It inherits the game's plot, which is amateurish at best *Some parts are rushed
  • Take the already ridiculously written character of Abby Anderson and miscast an actress for it to, and there you have it
  • Kaitlyn Dever was supposed to be Ellie, and i think she'd work really well as her. They miscast that one and they used Kaytlin as Abby, who has a totally different personality

In the end i think it's not a terrible show, but it could easily have been a much better one

[–] pleiades@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

I strongly disagree with these takes on Death Note, FMAB, and Evangelion, especially considering the fact that the endings of all three were great (counting EoE as the ending for Evangelion, since that was basically its purpose.) What do you mean the premise of Death Note is unbelievable? It's not trying to be realistic whatsoever; it's like if I said Harry Potter has an unbelievable premise because magic isn't real. Seasons 5 and 6 of GoT are great too, the last couple episodes of 6 are the best in the show imo (I said this in another comment)

[–] SupremeJerk9999@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Evangelion has three endings, and I didn't like any of them. They're all abstract, symbolic, and open to interpretation rather than proper conclusions.

Game of Thrones is excellent through Season 4, and Season 5 is still good, even if it's already slower.

From Season 6 onward, it falls off hard. The Season 6 finale isn't bad, but I don't think it's a masterpiece. It wipes out years of complex storylines in one move just to simplify the plot, and that approach defines Seasons 7 and 8. By then, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss had already decided to end the show earlier than HBO wanted, despite the network being willing to keep it going.

I have high standards for TV, and Game of Thrones never came close to fulfilling the potential of its early seasons.

[–] pleiades@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They’re all abstract, symbolic, and open to interpretation rather than proper conclusions.

This is kind of the point, isn't it? It asks the viewer to consider interesting questions, e.g. loving yourself and others despite the certainty of pain in life. It's fair to say that it's abstract and not for everyone, but it's far from a bad or improper ending.

I can see the case for season 6 of GoT having worse plotlines than the prior seasons, but the direction and cinematography of those last two episodes were phenomenal, and more than enough to counter any issues with the plot. It's some of the most excited I've ever felt watching a TV show, even if the plot wasn't as good. I'm not going to defend season 7 and 8, those were at the quality of marvel movies

[–] SupremeJerk9999@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I see you're unhindered by overall bad production, which is fine, you dont have to hate anything you watch really.

Im otherwise very bothered by sloppy production and writing.

Evangelion endings are a waste of time and energy imo, i consider the show fo have no ending and still enjoy it that way

[–] pleiades@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Sure the show didn't have the best production for the ending, but the production of EoE was amazing. It was well written, well animated, well paced, and resolved the plots in a satisfying way. I guess that any discussion beyond this is purely a matter of personal opinion, so idk what else to say

[–] SupremeJerk9999@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

​I see we're getting into a subjective argument again. ​EoE is widely known on the internet for not being a conclusive ending. It's highly philosophical and completely lacks closure. Ever since the 2000s, people have complained about how ambiguous it is. Plus, no one knows what actually happens to Asuka, Shinji, or humanity as a whole once EoE ends. There's a huge amount of religious symbolism and metaphors that never glue together, much less get explained. ​The pacing is faster in the first half, and then it just turns into delirious psychological metaphors. Instrumentality is central to the plot, but not once does the show make clear what it is or what purpose it serves. ​If that's your standard for an "amazing show, well-written, well-animated, well-paced, and with plots resolved in a satisfying way," you're completely completely out of touch with what most reviews say. You've probably just been watching a lot of garbage.

But again, there are some garbage movies I watched and I liked it, but I don't go out of my to defend them cause i know they're garbage

[–] pleiades@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Instrumentality is central to the plot, but not once does the show make clear what it is or what purpose it serves.​

Okay you clearly didn't pay attention when watching the show, so I'm gonna stop arguing here.

[–] SupremeJerk9999@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Says the guy who clearly didn't even watch it

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