The Top Ten TV Shows. Or. My memories of the last four years

I’m going to make a bold statement here and say that I haven’t experienced a more difficult choice since the last time I had to buy toothpaste. The Broke and the Bookish insisted this week that my fellows and I go through this ordeal of choosing our top ten movies or TV shows. Movies – too hard. So I started by listing every TV show I ever became obsessed with and ended up with a list longer than my list of people I would save in a zombie apocalypse. I love TV shows more than I love people. So I decided to whittle it down by declaring a sub category: Top 10 Fantasy TV Shows.

1. Orphan Black

Think scientific experimentation gone horribly, horribly right. Sarah Manning is your basic foster home baby. Issues with authority and structured eyeliner. Then she witnesses a suicide – but here’s the kicker, the victim is her doppleganger. Bitch be cloned! But it’s not all fun and games. Actually none of it is fun and games. They are very serious all the time. Except for the gay foster brother, whose bare buttocks I have seen more times than my own. The themes in this show surround the debate of nature vs. nurture, dehumanisation of human experimentation, and corporations that think they are governments. Oh it’s just delectable. Our lead is one of the most brilliant actresses in the English speaking world (I can’t speak any other languages so that’s all I can claim). At a last count, Tatiana Mansalay plays nine different characters, five different accents, and two different genders. I shudder to think how long filming takes.

2. Game of Thrones

You know. You totally know. I’m one of those people who refused to watch it until I read the books. I think I finished the whole lot in about two weeks. The show was different, but as with LOTR it was fabulous in its own right. As a side note: If I have to watch Sean Bean die one more time I’ll need to be admitted to a psychiatric facility.

3. The 100

Can I just say, it’s about time we had a bad ass blonde protagonist. Bloody YA and their brunettes. The 100 is a futuristic Lord of the Flies. It drives you crazy like Lord of the Flies too. Teenagers are bloodthirsty brutes and will follow any angsty prick to the end of the world. Despite inspiring all the annoyance in the land, the plot is fantastical and brilliant. 100 criminal space monkeys (some call them teenagers) are sent down to live on a possibly radioactive Earth to test it for the rest of the humans. They aren’t very forgiving either.

4. Walking Dead

Walking dead is the ultimate dystopian fantasy complete with incredibly relevant Zombie survival education. The most amazing thing about this show is that in my infinite god-like powers, I put a target on the characters I dislike and they just die. Seriously.

5. The Vampire Diaries

When this started it was so great. Then every new season came and went, with one villain supposedly worse than the last. Then they ran out of villains so they started evolving the main characters into monsters. Not well. It was when I started wishing Elaina dead that I realised VD (fun fact also an acronym for venereal disease) was on the downward slope. But also. So many beautiful creatures. I want to live in the Salvatore house. With both Salvatores. Less decorative wall plates.

6. The Originals

This was a spin off done right. When the original family came into VD I fell in love with them. Their ability to out-plot the cast of VD and their confusing moments of family loyalty. Mostly Klaus’ intrigue with the arts. So legitimate. Then they went to New Orleans. Love love love.

7. Firefly

Literal space cowboys. If that didn’t convince you to watch it all in one sitting, I have nothing left to say to you. For those of you who aren’t aware of the controversy of Firefly (unlikely), the show was cancelled after one season.  It was utterly traumatising. As Sheldon Cooper once said, “there isn’t enough chamomile tea to quell the rage in my heart.” Due to the uproar – that I wasn’t present for – they created ‘Serenity’, a neat little conclusion that ties up all the loose ends in one feature length film. I did feel slightly consoled.

 

8. Misfits

Misfits was a quaint (not at all quaint) British TV show about ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order) kids that developed superpowers. It’s dirty and crude but hilarious. I thought the actors, along with the show would remain inconspicuous, then BAM – Nathan is a main character in City of Bones. Simon is still a psychopath in Game of thrones. It’s uncomfortable and riveting at the same time.

9. Supernatural

Every episode is its own horror story. Except you are accidentally in love with the Winchester boys. I have a feeling I would be taller than Dean, which is a real shame because I think we would just get along swimmingly – you know what I mean. Sam will do as a backup – I think we would have much more in common anyway.

 

1. Terra Nova

Think Avatar cross Jurassic Park. This was another one of those one season wonders. I don’t know, but I imagine this was due to the CGI budget. Dinosaurs will do that. When I think of all the unfinished story lines and characters developments I get anxiety. This is the same reason I always have to finish a series, even if I hate it. 50 Shades being the only exception ever. DNF. On that note, if someone wants to write some Terra Nova fan fiction and wind the world up for me, I will be eternally grateful.