My Top 25: Shows That Just Missed

Some regret for a few titles that got left off, either intentionally or by accident

As I put together this top-25 list, occasionally I have had a moment where I hear a reference to a TV show and I panic, thinking I’ve forgotten it on this list. In most cases, the show is on the list and I’m just reminded about how bad my memory is. But in some other cases, they aren’t - and I either know it was a tough call or I honestly forgot about it when I made the list. In the first post about this, I mentioned some shows like Arrested Development, The Simpsons, Sons of Anarchy, Party Down and others - but here’s a few other shows worth recognizing even if they aren’t on the list.

Oz was perhaps the first show of this new “golden age” of television, where true gritty dramas (on HBO, where nudity and foul language was not just allowed, but encouraged) could create a new world where every week we fell deeper into characters we’d never seen before. Without Oz, so many of the other shows that actually made the list wouldn’t exist. Taking place as the fictional Oswald Penitentiary, main characters like neo-Nazi Vernon Schillinger (J.K. Simmons), paraplegic drug dealer and cop killer Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau), murderer (and psychopath) Chris Keller (Christopher Merloni) and so many others are people in real life we’d not want to associate with, but every week they were so compelling and portrayed so well we genuinely empathize with them.

The Americans was on this list for a hot minute. It was so clever - a show about two Russian spies in 1980s America, fully integrated and raising their children (who have no idea what’s happening). Paired together as a job, they’ve still grown together and Phillip (Matthew Rhys) realizes that despite being loyal to Russia, he has very little animosity towards the United States, while his wife Elizabeth (Keri Russell) is much more of a good, loyal KGB soldier. As part of living in the D.C. suburbs, they end up becoming good friends with Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent who is actually trying to track down the KGB agents he doesn’t realize live just across the street. From the first episode, where a car chase is set to Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk,” to the final, heart-wrenching episode that felt perfectly real, the show was terrific for six seasons. With a tremendous list of guest characters (including pre-Ozark Julia Garner, Frank Langella and Margo Martindale), a timely soundtrack and spot on costume and hair design, the show was a tremendous trip back to the Cold War without the sheer terror of imminent nuclear holocaust. Good times! (Fun fact: Russell and Rhys ended up as a couple in real life as the result of the show, and in one season Russell went to great lengths to hide her real life pregnancy, a child the two had together.) The show lasted for six seasons, won two Peabody Awards and was widely respected - though never a massive hit. You should watch it, if you haven’t already.

Boardwalk Empire is one of those shows I always thought I was supposed to like more than I actually did. Centered around Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), it focused on Atlantic City through Prohibition. With a sterling cast that included Michael Shannon, Michael K. Williams, Bobby Cannavale, Kelly Macdonald, Shea Whigham and Dabney Coleman, among others, the show always looked great and told a captivating story. It just never FULLY clicked for me. Sometimes, that happens.

The last show I dropped from this list, and it’s because I’d completely forgotten about a show that needed to be ON this list, is Taxi. For you youngsters, you may have only vaguely heard about this show, but I can say this - Danny DeVito was on a show before It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (another show not on the list, I’ve just never been able to get into it.) Taxi was about a taxi company (shocking, I know) in New York City in the late 1970s. With actors such as DeVito (who played the boss Louie DePalma), Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Marilu Henner, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza and Marilu Henner, not to mention Andy Kaufman … man, it was funny and unique and paved the way for some truly great shows. It fell off my list because of recency bias, to be honest. If you haven’t seen it, go check out some episodes.

I never could get into Doctor Who. I apologize.

I didn’t watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer when it came out. It’s not a great show to watch for the first time now, though I’ve tried and respect, but don’t love it.

Twin Peaks was awesome - for a bit. And then, it devolved into a total mess. Much like X-Files, which I liked for a bit, the idea that I was getting fully invested into a story that the writer STILL had zero idea how to finish was a lesson I learned the hard way, and it informed the way I watch these types of shows going forward. I very much liked both of these shows, but these failings left a bad taste in my mouth.

When you see my top shows, you’ll have to wonder why Curb Your Enthusiasm didn’t even crack the list. Much like the last two seasons of The Office, I just stopped watching. I’m like three or four seasons behind and I have no idea why I stopped. Nor why it seems so hard for me to start it up again. And the seasons I saw included some of the funniest episodes of TV and, I regret to say, more just ‘okay’ episodes than I’m comfortable with for this list.

I just finished up Ozark, which is a very good show, but I don’t believe it’s a great one. (In particular, the last season is very bumpy and that’s always a tough element to make a case to be on my list here.) I also really liked Vikings - for the first few seasons - but lost interest in a way that means it can’t make the cut. (That said, Lagertha rules.) I couldn’t figure out WHY Community was never really a contender for this list - because it contains some of the very best episodes of television made, in my opinion - but it just isn’t. Hey, it’s my list.

Other shows I’m watching that I truly enjoy but aren’t ELITE are Stranger Things, My Brilliant Friend, Bosch, Hacks, Barry and probably a few others I will regret not including here. It’s possible that any of these shows could get so much better they have to knock another show off - but right now, nope.

To be quite clear, all of these shows are really good, and if they make YOUR list, I’d love to hear all about it below. They just couldn’t quite crack my list, still in progress.

What shows might crack the list eventually, but aren’t quite there yet? Well … that’s a subject for another post entirely.