What to watch next

Today, Kristin asked what show she should start watching now that she is almost done with True Blood. This is along the lines of something I’d wanted to do. Currently I’m working my way through Dexter and have Six Feet Under and some other shows lined up to watch next.

Here’s my list of shows you should get in to that you might not have seen. I’m leaving off obvious ones and things like Arrested Development, which everyone who is going to see, has seen, multiple times.

I’m going to do my best to rank these.
1. The Wire – The best show of the decade and one of the best ever. It takes a few episodes to get in to and moves slower than almost every show. You’ll realize that every scene is important and you want it to take as long as possible, because you don’t want it to end.
2. Veronica Mars – You have to watch because the premise doesn’t grab you. A high school girl detective? The pilot will hook you. Like AD, there were only 3 seasons and people want a movie. Everyone who has listened to me and given the show a shot tore through the entire show in no time.
3. Breaking Bad – Like Dexter, the premise is a little out there: Chemistry teacher starts cooking meth to pay his health bills. I watched Season 1 in just a few days, it hooks you right away. 3rd season starts in March on AMC, so get moving. You might have seen Bryan Cranston win the Best Actor Emmy and wondered what show he was on. Once you watch you will wonder why anyone else was nominated.
4. Friday Night Lights – You don’t even have to love football, but if you do then you have no excuse for not watching this yet. Don’t think of the movie, I don’t even remember anything from the movie. It’s sad that NBC is sharing the costs with DirecTV and not airing this in the fall, during football season.
5. Sports Night – If you like Sorkin (West Wing and Studio 60) then you’ll like this. The problem with this show when it was on is that people that like sports didn’t like it and people that don’t like sports didn’t watch it.
6. One Tree Hill – If you are just looking for pure entertainment, you love ridiculous high school drama, and need to kill some time, this is it. You won’t believe any of it. The acting is terrible. But for some reason you grow extremely attached to the characters.

Other possibilities
Ed – Not on DVD. I would have mentioned this first if it was. If you bring me a hard drive, I can give you the shows.
Ally McBeal – This one disappeared after it ended, although it may have popped up on Lifetime or WE (is that still a channel?). I think it’s on DVD now, it took a while, probably because there is a ton of music. I was a big fan, my whole family watched, and I convinced at least two people to watch in college. It was really funny, so many quirky characters. Again, hard for some to get past the premise of a female lawyer and her relationship troubles. I didn’t rank this one because I haven’t seen it in so long. Plus, the last season wasn’t great so it has probably been 10 years since I was able to enjoy it.

Not quite established shows that are on now (everyone watches Modern Family, so I left it off) …
Better Off Ted – The 1st season is on DVD. I’m going to keep talking about this show even though I doubt there will be a 3rd season.
Men of a Certain Age – 1st season is on TNT now. It’s excellent. It’s a drama but the humor is everywhere.
Parks & Recreation – You might have watched it last year and it wasn’t any good. This year’s premiere blew me away, I couldn’t believe how good it was. The 1st season is short, so you can watch that to get the background and then get into the good stuff.