It is summer time, apart from the ongoing Euro crisis and the upcoming Olympics (next week) there is not a lot to blog about. I figured it was time to take a light subject, as it is, for most people at least, vacation time. People love top 10 lists, as they give us a chance to agree with (and feel connected to) other people or to disagree with (but still feel connected as it is about arguing taste in a positive way) other people. Usually top 10 lists are discussed at home with the family, or at social events with friends. Usually in a light and positive setting, with people you relate to.
I have chosen the subject of the best TV series ever. Not to put together a top 10 list, but to pick one!
Picking one is a lot harder than putting together a top 10 list, which in itself is a lot harder than putting together a top 50 list. It is the selection part that makes it harder. Picking 10 means that you have to leave out at least 5 to 10 that you also would have liked to see in your top 10 list. Picking one means you have to leave out many of your favorite TV series and choose just one winner. Isolating the series will make you wonder if this is the ONE series that can withstand all criticism from people who believe their pick is the much better choice. It has to be an obvious number one choice.
I am telling you, it is impossible to pick one TV series that people will agree is the true #1. Creating a top 10 that the majority of people would feel happy about is not so difficult, although it is very hard to please everyone, but picking ONE is impossible. And yet, on a more personal note, for me it is obvious. My #1 series is crystal clear, it is truly the best series ever. I must say that even for me it is hard to exclude my numbers 2 and 3, but the rest I can easily set aside as not being a truly #1 series.
In preparation of this blog I have done some homework and checked other people's top 50 or top 25 or top 10 lists for best TV series ever. Not only other people's lists, also selections by authorities in the industry, TV magazines, TV websites, actors' guilds, directors' conventions etc. What struck me was that practically all top 10 lists from all these different selectors contained my numbers 2 and 3, which truly are epic TV series and masterpieces by themselves. I found that there is a huge resemblance between all lists, so much that creating a weighted top 10 list of TV series ever would be very much possible and the outcome would find a lot of agreement with a wide variety of people, well... except from me!
My #1 would not be in this weighted top 10, how is this possible? I just do not get it. It is the TV series with the highest number of awards for a television series ever (together with Hill Street Blues, which is not in the top 10 either, but I can relate to that decision). Maybe it is not as appealing to Joe Sixpack as my #2 and #3 series, due to the setting of the series, I don't know. What I do know is that I am very disappointed in all top 10, top 25 and top 50 list makers so far, for hardly ever recognizing the greatness of this TV series, THE best TV drama series ever made.
I say drama series, as that is the category that is usually seen as the best, as characters are much deeper and story lines are closer to real life than they are with for example TV comedy series.
I know we all loved Cheers, of Friends, or Seinfeld in the past, but the characters in these long running shows remain fairly flat and the story lines do not go much deeper than the bottom of a bucket of popcorn. That is not criticism, as these series usually only have 25 minutes for their storyline and they usually need to have a beginning and an ending for that storyline within the same show. Today's TV comedy great Entourage sets a much higher standard opposed to the old time favorites I mentioned before, but still it is a flat story in a shallow world, beautifully set and with brilliant characters (who doesn't love Johnny Drama and who doesn't enjoy the noise of Ari Gold), but still fairly flat. If this blog was about comedy series, Entourage would be my #1 pick. But it isn't, so they're not.
It is about TV drama series, which has multiple genres. There are the unavoidable 'police' series, probably with 'The Wire' as the best of its kind (they would be the highest ranking police series in the weighted top 10), there are the action packed, cliffhanger series like 'Prison Break' and the ground breaking series '24'.
There is the occasional costume drama series like 'Brideshead Revisited' which is highly appreciated, except by me, and there are the historical drama series in historical settings (Rome), not seldom around wars (North & South, Band of Brothers, Tour of Duty) and fantasy like series such as the highly appreciated 'Game of Thrones' or a classic like 'X-files'.
These are all not the kind of series that rank the highest. The highest ranking TV drama series are the ones where the characters become the viewers friends, as they can relate to them.
The beautifully created world of 'Mad Men', set in the fifties and sixties of the 20th century is a nice gimmick, but the story lines of our favorite characters are the reason we want to see more and more.
Before I convince you why my #1 pick is THE best TV series ever, I will share my bronze and silver medalists with you. As I mentioned before, these two series are in every one's top 10 list.
Bronze medal for being innovative, society critical, funny yet sad and probably the series with the best acting cast goes to... Six Feet Under!
Silver medalist is the Mafia series which outgrew the cliché and became one of the best series ever, with brilliant casting work and James Gandolfini who will live on as Tony Soprano forever. Great scripts, great casting, catchy atmospheres and more that just a mob story...: The Sopranos!
The Golden medal goes to the TV series about the staff of the President of the United States who work from the West Wing of the White House. It is not just a very interesting peek into the daily routines and schedules of the President and his staff, it is the unbelievable sharpness of the script writing of Aaron Sorkin and the passion the actors put into their characters. Maybe it is because I love politics and not many people do, that the series is not commonly placed in the top 3. Whatever it is, as writer of this blog it is my opinion that counts, therefore I am pleased to present to you THE best TV series ever: West Wing.
I am sure by now you are contemplating your own top 10 list and trying to work out what your #1 pick would be. Good luck an good fun with that. I am going to prepare myself for the 2012 London Summer Olympics and will leave you with the first medalists on the podium, to get you in the Olympic mood as well.
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