- Peaky Blinders is essential viewing. It feels real and the characters are extremely engaging. The plot involves a criminal family in 1919 England. A 5th season has been released in 2019 , and the wonderful acting and drama continues.
- Vikings is a long-running History Channel series that seems to portray a world that TV viewers so not understand: savage, spiritual, and sexy. It’s on several streaming services including Hulu.
- Letterkenny on Hulu is hilarious. The show chronicles the lives of farmers, meth heads, and immigrants in rural North America. One of the best TV shows ever. Three seasons are available.
- The Last Kingdom on Netflix is great Viking drama.
- Maniac on Netflix is quirky, cool, and retrofuturistic.
- The Tudors on Netflix is brilliant and beautiful. 4 seasons.
- Shameless on Netflix is based on the UK comedy series of the same name but takes the idea to Chicago with such drama and accuracy. Wonderful show. 8 seasons.
- The Borgias is a brilliant, beautiful, and violent take on the story. It’s on Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and more. Watch it, if you dare.
- The thoroughly delightful Netflix show, Flowers, is sad, funny, and offbeat. It gets a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes megareview site.
- Hulu’s The Bridge is a great crime drama from the Mexican-American border
- Spartacus on Netflix is well done. The production is impeccable. Even the English that is spoken, is appropriate for the era (although, clearly Spartacus did not speak English). The other aspect that is worth mentioning is that the lead character changed for the second season because extremely virile actor that played Spartacus in Season 1 had to fight lymphoma, and he ultimately died from it as is recorded in a heartbreaking Netflix documentary “Be Here Now” which is itself worth watching.
- Crazy funny and so valid, Big Mouth takes adolescent hormonal rage to the limit. Wow. 3 seasons so far.
- Superlatives is all I can say about the sweet, funny, sad High Maintenance on HBO. Season 3 is underway right now and I hope there are 10 seasons.
- The Ovation network has a wonderful historical drama, Versailles, that should not be missed. 3 seasons.
- AMC’s The Walking Dead is not about zombies; it’s about the essential ingredients of humans. 9 seasons so far.
- The Expanse, which originated on the SciFi network is now on Amazon. It is the game of thrones of interstellar sci-fi, and as you might expect by that comparison, extremely well done. At the time of this writing, there are four seasons.
- How can any list of great TV, not include the Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu? Everything is well done, and terribly unsettling. Watch at your own risk.
- And another Hulu show really deserves some love: The First. It’s about the first mission to Mars; Sean Penn is terrific. Unfortunately only one season will be made.
- Fortitude, on Amazon, is an excellent, spooky horror show in episodes set in Iceland. Iceland seems to be a natural for this type of program with snow obscuring the perception of the world. The music is perfect and spooky too. Dennis Quaid is surprisingly good.
- The Crown (NetFlix): what a wonderful multiple season show that evolves wonderfully with different actors performing the roles
- Love, Death, + Robots (NetFlix): surprisingly funny, poignant, and beautiful animated series
- Shameless (American version) (NetFlix): fascinating look at something that looks REAL
- Better Call Saul (NetFlix): a great spin-off from Breaking Bad
- Ozark (NetFlix): a Breaking Bad-ish story of normal people who do some very bad things
- Dracula (NetFlix & Tubi). There are actually two versions, both TV series, that are excellent. The one on Tubi is great and the one on NetFlix is wonderful.
- Van Helsing (NetFlix): varmpire hunters +++
- The Outer Range (Amazon): spooky, beautiful, otherworldly
- Outlander (NetFlix): once I got my head around this (suspended my disbelief), I fell in love with this show. It’s beautifully filmed.
Last update: 6/12/2022
