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TOP TEN Lists - This Week: "Blank Check" Media Projects.

NIGHTBRINGER said:
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That is an amazing episode. What a "villain"!!! You really feel sorry for the Mr. Freeze. What would you sacrifice to save the one that you love?


I should really give this a watch someday. I like Chris Pratt! Does he play a main character?


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Another show that I haven't seen, but I've heard positive things about it.


Talk about cheating. Those shows aren't even similar to each other... especially Seinfeld! :p


In the finale, he admits to cheating in the contest! Classic George.
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Avatar: Airbender: Ha ha. Thank you, sir. I figured you would like Airbender being at the top of my list too. Maybe I'm just trying to curry favor? :p
*Seriously, it's just a great show*

Batman: Agreed. Naturally, there are other strong episodes in the animated Batman, but "Heart of Ice" is practically flawless. Others that jump to mind are the first Two-Face episode (Richard Moll is SO good), the Man-bat episode, the "Feat of Clay 1 & 2" Clayface episodes, the one where a supposed regular crook accidentally kills Batman and everything is turned upside down, and a Mad-Hatter episode where he makes Batman think his parents never died and he was never Batman.

Another nice memory is that my dad loved comics as well, and helped kindle my interest in them. He introduced me to the old Fleischer animated Superman cartoons, which are just beautiful. There is a touch of that style to the Batman intro and the early seasons. So, it was a nice bridge series for us. I liked it more, but he enjoyed it.

Parks & Rec: My wife and I love Parks. It's one of our "comfort food" shows. Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) is so earnest, goofy and sweet. Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) is one of best characters on TV. Andy (Chris Pratt) is more of a side character, but he becomes more main as his popularity grows. The first season is good but not as strong. Season 2 is better, especially by the end. And it takes off with Season 3.

Samurai Jack: Of course these images are from the "go to" episode for the sound design and it's not hard to hear why (as you know well). But there are others where it's probably as good. Jack was such a clever and artistic show on many levels.

Cowboy Bebop: I recommend Bebop to any animation and Anime fan, but it may not be for everyone. I won't lie, some of the episodes are kind of odd or goofy, but most are serious with good anime action. The serious episodes tend to be the more story-driven ones, while the episodic ones can be either serious or wild. Spike is a cool character and Steve Blum delivers great voice acting. The intro is a blast to watch as well. The intro music reminds a bit of Johnny Quest and I think the animators of Archer basically copied the intro (or at least were heavily influenced).

Yes... I'm a dirty, dirty cheater in these Top Ten lists. Too many good movies or shows! The one unifying thread for those shows is the decade/my stage in life. They all pretty much showed up around the late 80s or 90s.
 
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Quite a ways back:

NIGHTBRINGER said:
Topic #5 - Top Ten Comedy movies.
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But here is mine:

  1. Monty python and the search for the Holy Grail
  2. Back to the Future (I-III)
  3. Hook (1991)
  4. Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels
  5. Dude where is my car
  6. The Big Lebowski
  7. Deadpool I
  8. Johnny English
  9. Home Alone
  10. The Truman show


Honorable mentions:
Forrest Gump, Free Guy, Yes man(2008), The Mask, Space Jam

Grrr, !mrahil
 
The next one:

NIGHTBRINGER said:
Topic #6 - Top Ten Fantasy movies.
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  1. LORD OF THE RINGS (I-III)
  2. THE HOBBIT (I-III)
  3. The Narnia Chronicles (I-III)
  4. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them
  5. Harry Potter (I-VIII)
  6. The Golden Compass
  7. Clash of the titans (2010)
  8. Avatar
  9. Maze Runner (I-III)
  10. Alice in Wonderland


Honorable mentions: Troy, Wrath of the Titans, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: the Lightning Thief, Maleficent

Grrr, !mrahil
 
I am catching up:

NIGHTBRINGER said:
Topic #7 - Top Ten Western movies.
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  1. Once upon a time in The West
  2. A fist full of Dollars
  3. The Magnificent Seven(2016)
  4. Django Unchained
  5. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
  6. Wild Wild West
  7. A Million Ways to Die in the West
  8. An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
  9. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron
  10. The Mask of Zorro

Honorable mentions: Dances with Wolves

Grrr, !mrahil
 
And that is the last one from previous weeks:
NIGHTBRINGER said:
Topic #8 - Top Ten Animated movies.
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  1. Robin Hood (1973)
  2. An American Tail
  3. Monsters Inc.
  4. Sinbad, legend of the seven seas (2003)
  5. Treasure Planet (2002)
  6. Lion King
  7. Hoodwinked
  8. Wreck-it Ralph
  9. Brother Bear
  10. Mulan

Honorable mentions: Hercules, Cars, Finding Nemo, Pinocchio and loads of others

Grrr, !mrahil
 
NIGHTBRINGER said:
Just do a straight list then... without a write-up. That shouldn't take too long.
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We've known each other a long time. You should have noticed that I have two settings: Long winded replies (or a very carefully selected meme) and not saying anything at all.

NIGHTBRINGER said:
I wonder if this show will make @Scalenex 's list?
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Speaking of which. What really bugs me is that if Gargoyles came out ten years later, it would meme tastic, but it's hard to find a Gargoyles meme.

If I was better with screen captures, I would make a template out of this scene here at 4:25,

Xanatos: You see soon, everyone in the Big Apple will be hunting Gargoyles.

Goliath (signature angry Keith David): "BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Xanatos: (wags fingers) If you want to be picky we won't get anywhere."

SJWs: You see, racial tensions are at an all time high.

Goliath: "BECAUSE OF YOU!"

SJWs: (wags fingers) If you want to be picky we won't get anywhere."

I can just imagine that meme could apply to every political spat.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, there are a lot of awesome quotes and dialogs.

"I've been denied everything! EVEN MY REVENGE!" and "The access code...is 'ALONE'" still gives me chills.

I'm working on creating my own original material, but I am tempted to re-watch seasons 1 and 2 of Gargoyles and make a bunch of screen caps for meme templates and host it on a website. But I have enough silly side projects already, Greg Weisman doesn't need me fanboying for him though Disney screwed him over years ago, he seemed to land on his feet okay.
 
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Additional Honorable Mention: The Pirates of Dark Water! I always forget a good one on my lists. I thought this was a very clever cartoon. It had nice Hanna-Barbera animation (for at least a season or two), a classic hero questing story, interesting heroes and villains, cool ships, and a pretty unique and fleshed out world. It seemed like it had an "Eco-message" back in the day, but that didn't distract from the exciting stories.

It was the successful "Pirates" 10 years before Disney's "Pirates" movie.
 
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NIGHTBRINGER said:
Topic #9 - Top Ten TV shows.

Having gone through the main movie genres (we tackle some sub-genres in the future), it's time to spice things up.

Rules:
This one is pretty open ended. Your favourite TV shows of all time. Feel free to mix and match all sorts of TV shows, regardless of genre or type. Note that "TV" show includes streaming shows (Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.). You are welcome to include things like game shows, reality TV shows alongside of fictional shows. Just make sure that it has episodes and is not a "one off".

Things to avoid: movies, sports events, news, shopping channel, music videos, etc.
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@Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl (and @Lizards of Renown if we can pry you away from your real life responsibilities)... top 10 favourite TV shows?
 
NIGHTBRINGER said:
@Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl (and @Lizards of Renown if we can pry you away from your real life responsibilities)... top 10 favourite TV shows?
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NIGHTBRINGER said:
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NIGHTBRINGER said:
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NIGHTBRINGER said:
Hmmmm.... :shifty:
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And here it is! My response at last! You shall be rewarded for your patience!



This has really been a toughie, particularly because it allows me to choose from TV shows of all categories. As it’s a free-for-all I'm going to have to list my top 10s by genre first, then work out a master list of all the best of those.


First up, Dramas:
  1. The Last Kingdom: Without a doubt the best drama I’ve seen in recent times, The Last Kingdom, based upon Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories, seems to be the one series that has really escaped the taint of wokism in these dark times. The series has its fair share of strong female characters, but they are flawed, don’t overstep the boundaries set by historical accuracy and are balanced out by the presence of a multitude of strong male characters. The characters are all human, with their own strengths and weaknesses, and the majority, from all sides, are likeable in their own way. While there is enough sex and death to properly evoke the brutality of life in the Dark Ages, it’s not excessive (looking at you Spartacus). Historical accuracy is by and large maintained, the only liberties taken being the haircuts on some of the Danes (but then I think Vikings did similar and it came first, so one could say Vikings is to blame for this) and the English and Britons having rectangular shields rather than round, to make it easier for the viewer to distinguish between them and the invading Vikings. There’s the perfect balance between practical and CGI effects, with all close-up and interior shots being made on practical sets, and CGI being used to recreate the overarching views of historical settlements and battle scenes, the things it was meant to be used for. It’s amazing that the Last Kingdom just does so many things right and avoids so many pitfalls, especially when it was made by the BBC and Netflix, both of which are known for being agents of woke politics, and it rightly has a strongly devoted fanbase. The five series have now concluded and are available to watch on all media, and a follow-up film, Seven Kings Must Die, has just come out on streaming and will presumably arrive on DVD later this year.
  2. Rome: A big hit from HBO before Game of Thrones made it a household name, this lavish drama charts the fall of the Roman Republic and its rise into an Empire with gravitas and a collection of some of the finest British actors ever to grace television in this day and age. Like The Last Kingdom it focuses on the story rather than superficial blood and boobs, and though while the occasional liberty with history is taken (such as Pullo being roped into becoming one of Cleopatra’s lovers before she meets Caesar and Anthony), historical accuracy is by-and-large preserved. One gets to witness this tumultuous period of history from both the perspective of the movers and shakers of Roman society (including Ciaran Hinds’ stoic Julius Caesar and James Purefoy’s foul-mouthed Mark Anthony) and through the eyes of two relatively ordinary Romans, the family-man Centurion Lucius Vorenus, and the tough but dim Legionary Titus Pullo. The series manages to make all these characters memorable and likeable, and excellently delivers the tragic Revenge of the Sith storyline that sets the Ancient World’s greatest superpower onto the road to both landmark success and, ultimately, its decline and fall.
  3. Merlin: A more family-friendly series that I grew up with, which thoroughly revitalised Arthurian legend from the late 2000s to the early 2010s. While not historically-accurate, it never professes to be, and revels in telling the story of Arthur from a high Medieval fantasy perspective. Some excellent actors really bring the main characters to life and make them convincing – John Hurt’s Kilgharrah the Dragon is by turns helpful and self-centred. You can condemn Anthony Head’s Uther for his ruthlessness and desire to persecute magic-users, but you can also sympathise with why he chose to do so when you meet particularly cruel and murderous examples like Nimue. Richard Wilson’s Gaius is both wise and also narrow of mind. The character of Mordred continually fluctuates between being a great ally and friend and being the bitter-minded traitor he ultimately becomes. The first two-three seasons are more light-hearted with more banter and comedy intermixed with action and drama, but the last two series set a darker tone and propel the story into completing Arthur’s journey from privileged, senseless princeling into both a great king and a tragic casualty of betrayal, just as the legends told.
  4. Star Trek – Deep Space Nine: Everyone knows this is my favourite Star Trek series, because of the darker themes introduced with the Dominion War arc, all the characters being at least decent with no particularly bad ones, and a new wave of races and civilisations emerging with the exploration of the Gamma Quadrant.
  5. Dickensian: A surprisingly big gamble on the BBC’s part that could so easily have flopped turned out to be a great success. The premise features a wide array of characters from Dickens novels all living in the same district of London, with all the mini-storylines acting as prequels for the works from which the characters originate. Inspector Bucket investigates the murder of Jacob Marley, Meriwether Compeyson worms his way into the trust of Miss Havisham with the intent of stealing her fortune, Mr. Pickwick and friends lodge in one of the rooms of The Three Cripples while Nancy serenades the regulars, and Ebenezer Scrooge pinches pennies from the likes of Fagin, Silas Wegg and the rich Barbary family.
  6. Sharpe: Sean Bean swashes buckles, kisses girls and fights Frenchmen as Bernard Cornwell’s other great creation, the British rifleman who rises to command his own company in the Napoleonic Wars.
  7. Battlestar Galactica 2004: Never seen the original BSG series, but I doubt it is as good as the 2004 reimagined series. A grimdark tale of the last survivors of the twelve zodiacal Colonies of humanity fleeing persecution by the robotic Cylons, who have evolved to produce individuals capable of mimicking human form and temperament to infiltrate their hated foe. Main characters get sucked out of airlocks, good guys and bad guys change sides, potential lifelines turn out to be serious threats. This series is never predictable and has an intelligent ending. A solid sci-fi work.
  8. Lark Rise to Candleford: A much gentler series compared to the rest on my list, charting life in late Victorian England and the relations between the rural village of Lark Rise and the neighbouring market town of Candleford. Again a host for an excellent cast of British actors and actresses, some moments are outright funny, along with plenty of more serious and moving drama and the poignant backdrop of change, as old traditions dating from the Georgian era and previous are phased out by the rise of industrialisation and mechanical transportation. Up there with Dickens dramas of all kinds and other adaptations of period novels, once again its end was met by cancellation by the BBC, after four series from 2008 to 2011.
  9. Alias Smith and Jones: A solid western show from the 70s that charts the adventures of two of the most successful train-robbers in the history of the West (who never shot anyone), Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry, who have to adopt the aliases and lifestyles of law-abiding citizens while waiting for their pleas for amnesty to be accepted. This turns out to be a lot less easy than they first anticipated, with posses still tracking them down for their past crimes, old contacts from the criminal world trying to rope them in on heists and schemes, and their own battles against their instincts finely honed to take rather than to give. Always entertaining in the first two series due to the quality of both the main two actors and many supporting characters, though took a nose-dive in the third series in my opinion after the actor who played Hannibal shot himself, forcing the recruitment of a replacement who could never quite replicate the role.
  10. Atlantis: The creators of Merlin attempted to bring the same twist to Greek myths, and almost succeeded… until the BBC decided to cancel it and made a last-minute second series to finish it. Gah! Atlantis started off as a fun series that brought back some of the magic that Merlin had started, and really was the last genuinely good Saturday night family show, only to be terminated by a rather rushed and anticlimactic second series that foretold the start of the BBC’s descent into wokeism. But then, it’s the BBC that are now paying for what they did, because they’ve lost the talent and ability required to make decent family-friendly Saturday-evening dramas altogether, and rely upon imported American junk like Superman and Lois (and woke Doctor Who) to try and fail to do what Merlin and Atlantis achieved. Pitiful.
Honourable Mentions: Stargate Atlantis, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Game of Thrones (what I've seen so far of Series 1 and 2 at least), Spartacus, By the Sword Divided, The Terror


Next, Comedies:
  1. You Rang, M'Lord?: An oft-forgotten but criminally-underrated gem, this parody of Upstairs, Downstairs just tickles all the right notes for me, there's no other way to explain it. All the characters are spot-on and developed so that they are incredibly human, with everyone having both good traits and bad, the humour is perfect... you even get longer episodes, at 40-45 minutes long rather than half an hour, so more story per episode! Folk see Hi-de-Hi! and Dad's Army as Jimmy Perry and David Croft's masterpieces, but while those are undoubtedly great, I would say You Rang, M'Lord? is better than either, not only for its greater continuity but because it is wittier and sharper, relying upon the interplay between all the different characters even more for its humour. If you're a fan of Perry and Croft's creations then definitely look this one up, more people really need to see this.
  2. One Foot in the Grave: I really love how David Renwick managed to write this classic so that the situations Victor ends up in are certainly out-of-the-ordinary enough to make one laugh, but are still things that can feasibly happen in real life and are thus still believable. Also very much like You Rang, M'Lord?, all the characters have both their good and bad points - you can easily sympathise with Victor about some of the things he grumbles about, for example, while at other times it's clear he brings it on himself with his desire to pay back people who wind him up getting him into escalating feuds. Not to mention how Renwick manages to pack both hilarious comedy and moving drama into the same package, all linked up by witty twists of fate.
  3. Only Fools and Horses: Rightly listed as one of the best British comedies of all time, John Sullivan's East-End-set corker has produced some of the best and most famous moments in British comedy history. David Jason’s Delboy hawks whatever cheap rubbish he can get his hands on while thinking of getting-rich-quick schemes, Nicholas Lyndhurst’s Rodney is by turns utter plonker and voice of reason, and Grandad and later his brother, Uncle Albert, reminisce about the old days, ‘during the war’.
  4. Dad's Army: An enduring classic about the Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard during WWII that is popular even today, with some of the most well-known comedy catchphrases ever devised, this was one of Jimmy Perry and David Croft's earlier comedies and is still up there with the best of them.
  5. Hi-de-Hi!: The other most famous classic dreamed from the minds and pens of Perry and Croft, charting the ups and downs of Maplin’s Holiday Camp in the 1950s. While not flawless due to cast changes and a decline toward the ending series, the main cast of characters is as great as in any other Perry/Croft comedy, from crooked and roguish Camp Host Ted Bovis to miserable Mr. Partridge the child-hating children’s entertainer.
  6. Terry and June: Another great British comedy the BBC became unnecessarily embarrassed about because of its gentler, daily-life oriented nature, once again the main reason this one reaches my list is because of the realistically human and often memeable characters. The late Terry Scott and June Whitfield play the titular middle-aged couple - enthusiastic, pompous, sometimes childish Terry and his patient, doubting, sometimes materialistic wife June, who, pretty much like the rest of us, muddle through life’s challenges aided and hindered by relatives, neighbours and colleagues - Terry’s crawling, ruthless, adulterous boss Malcolm, the fearsome Company Chairman Sir Dennis Hodge, batty old Lavinia Dingle, the cringeworthy Brian and Tina Pillbeam and the haughty and snobbish Tarquin and Melinda Sprye.
  7. Ever Decreasing Circles: My favourite of John Esmonde and Bob Larbey's comedies and the best one in my view starring the late Richard Briers, in particular because Martin Bryce is a character I myself sympathise with a lot - a perfectionist who tirelessly does his best to carry his community, nay his whole life, on his shoulders through thick and thin, all the while juggling his work life and marriage, and being regularly at odds with smooth, laid-back, seemingly Gods-touched, occasionally smarmy neighbour Paul.
  8. Fawlty Towers: Another classic, John Cleese's rude hotel owner Basil endures his obnoxious wife Sybil, hapless waiter Manuel and various guests and situations including a stuffed moose head, a garden gnome, Germans, Manuel’s pet rat (also called Basil) and Mr. O’Reilly’s gang of cheap cowboy builders.
  9. Blackadder: Further down because of its *ahem* maturity of comedy, I still had to include the four series of Rowan Atkinson fudging up history as the deplorable males of the Blackadder family, with Tony Robinson as his dogsbody Baldrick (who seems to be a lesson on the dangers of inbreeding as he gets dimmer and ever-more useless with every subsequent period of history) and various other characters like Tim McInnerny's foppish Percy/Darling, Hugh Laurie's posh twit George and Stephen Fry's intimidating lunatic authority figures. Baaaah!
  10. Open All Hours/Still Open All Hours: Ronnie Barker squeezes money out of shoppers as Arkwright and David Jason is by turns dogsbody and later master of all he purveys as his nephew Granville as they both deal with customers of all stripes. Another old classic that later gave way to one of the two decent modern comedies I have yet seen.
Honourable Mentions: Bodger and Badger, Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister, Keeping Up Appearances, On The Up, Man About the House, George and Mildred, Robin's Nest, Bless This House, 'Allo 'Allo!, Mr Bean, Porridge/Going Straight, It ‘Aint Half Hot Mum, The Office (UK)


Now for Gameshows:
  1. Raven: Unfortunately I had to withdraw my ranking of childrens' TV due to time, but some of my absolute favourite childhood shows were gameshows so appear in this list either in a ranking or as an honourable mention, and my absolute favourite of these, and one of my favourite gameshows of all time, was Raven. Gods I loved this as a child. You all remember the nostalgic feeling of rushing home from school to try and get back before a show started? I associate this feeling most with Raven. A fantasy gameshow from the early 2000s to 2010, hosted magnificently by James MacKenzie as the titular immortal hero, who could transform into a raven at will (Animagus!) and who fought to free the land from the Demon (Daemon :p) Lord Nevar. The contestants, as Warriors, had to participate in feats of strength, skill and cunning to gather gold rings across a 5-day week, but if they failed to complete a challenge, they would lose one of their nine life feathers. Whoever had a combination of the least lives and rings remaining at the end of every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, had to complete a near-impossible obstacle course, The Way of the Warrior, or be eliminated from the contest. If a Warrior defeated the course in a rare instance, then the one with the next lowest number of lives and rings would also have to take it on. Every Friday, with just three Warriors remaining, the survivors would have to take on another obstacle course, The Last Stand, featuring Nevar himself as one of the obstacles that couldn't be defeated, so had to be avoided, with the one winner going through to compete in the final week of each series alongside the other week winners, with the ultimate victor gaining a Staff of Power of their own and becoming one of Raven's Ultimate Warriors. A fantastic series, with its own interesting mythos and setting, that also spawned three 'campaign' series that followed a full storyline alongside being a slightly altered version of the show. Let the challenge begin!
  2. Bullseye: Sometimes mocked unfairly nowadays for having prizes that are comparatively affordable nowadays (but not so back in the days this was made), but this was without a doubt a solidly successful gameshow back in a more civilised age that was a Great British innovation. The gameshow deity that was Jim Bowen read the questions (and did all the rest as well in the show's humble beginnings in the very early 80s), Tony Green took the darts scores (and in later series became Bowen's comedy double-act partner) and a ubiquitous speedboat regularly took the place of Star Prize in Bully's Prize Gamble. One of the few decent programmes still repeated by the declining gameshow channel Challenge, and an undeniable British cultural landmark that folk from other nations rarely could understand. You can't beat a bit of Bully! Moooooo!
  3. Winning Combination: A very recent gem that was first shown in 2020 and returned for a second series in 2021, but has since been cancelled for no real reason by ITV, despite the fact that they also make a mind-numbingly boring word game show called Lingo that was a far better candidate for execution. The comedian Omid Djalili I thought was a great host who enriched the show with his own style of comedy, the fast-paced gameplay was always engaging and the endgame was difficult enough to be rewarding to win, but not so difficult that it became pointless to enter it. RIP certainly one of the best gameshows the 2020s has ever produced.
  4. The Link: Slower-paced than Winning Combination, this mid-2010s show had a similarly Gods-tier theme tune and an absolute legend of a presenter (the inimitable Mark Williams), and also sadly only ran for two series (though I suspect in The Link's case it was more due to Mark dedicating himself to the equally-excellent Father Brown, series of which were being made at that time).
  5. Moneybags: Another great recent development in gameshows hosted by another comedy legend - Red Dwarf's Craig Charles – and another example of a great show tragically eradicated by idiotic TV producers. Players were asked questions and had to pick physical bags bearing valid answers that travelled down a conveyor belt, and avoid the bags with the wrong answers. Never predictable unless you knew all the answers (and most people don't), after the death of Winning Combination it became my main gameshow to watch for a while, but now its own cancellation has left the void of top modern gameshow vacant once again.
  6. Beat the Chasers: Pretty much everyone has heard of The Chase, a British game show that has been exported to many other countries around the world, but I have come to prefer the newer, higher-stakes spin-off that originally intended to be a one-off experiment during the early COVID lockdowns, but has since become a gameshow giant in its own right. The more epic reworking of The Chase theme music, the greater banter between Bradley Walsh and all five (later six) Chasers and the more challenging gameplay (1 contestant VS potentially up to all six Chasers as opposed to up to 4 contestants vs one Chaser) all make this one more exciting in my view.
  7. The Crystal Maze: A particularly famous and successful show here in the UK, with the Crystal Dome finale being notoriously difficult to win (especially if contestants kept on getting themselves locked in during the games beforehand).
  8. Total Wipeout: As a child who grew up in the 2000s, I couldn't not include this one – brave and bonkers contestants charge round an obstacle course in Argentina with dubious levels of health and safety, getting wet, muddy, bashed, spun dizzy and run ragged, all with host Richard Hammond irreverently commentating.
  9. Catchphrase: The pre-2000 version of this show, hosted by the one-and-only Roy Walker, is the original and the best, the later versions pale in comparison.
  10. Riddiculous: A particularly intelligent gameshow that has arisen very recently to fill the space marked by Winning Combination’s decline where solving riddles is the order of the day. Different modes of riddle help keep the show fresh and entertaining, the host and the Riddlemaster are both good presenters and it certainly makes you think. A solid entry without a doubt, though I wish Winning Combination had not been the show it replaced.
Honourable Mentions: Knightmare, Trapped!, 50/50, Jungle Run, Tenable, The Chase, Cash Trapped, Bruce’s Price is Right, Strike it Lucky/Strike it Rich, Play Your Cards Right, Takeshi’s Castle, Two Tribes, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?


Next, Mysteries:
  1. Father Brown: This adaptation and expansion of G.K. Chesterton’s original collection of detective stories about a crime-solving Catholic priest has quietly seized its own corner of the modern drama market by having a mixture of light-hearted comedy and fun alongside serious crime-solving, a rarity in this modern age. Mark Williams is excellent as the loveable titular priest, ably supported by his friends and associates Mrs McCarthy, Lady Felicia, Bunty Windermere and Sid Carter, and at odds with begrudging Inspectors Valentine, Sullivan and Mallory as he shows them how catching criminals is really done. Alas the most recent series of this classic has taken on a woke turn with an insufferable new regular character damaging enjoyment wherever she goes to satisfy minority groups, but the first nine series (encompassing a round 100 episodes) still make this my top Mystery drama.
  2. Cadfael: Both a historical drama and a detective series based upon a series of novels, Derek Jacobi’s eponymous monk uses his skills as an apothecary to solve cases of murder and theft during what many could consider the first actual English Civil War, but most know as the Anarchy – the war between King Stephen, the nephew of the deceased Henry I, and the latter’s daughter, Matilda, as to who should rule England. Rated particularly highly because I’m a history buff as a lot of you probably already know, with Early Medieval England being recreated perfectly, and the acting, as with all of the others on this list, is splendid. Probably the only flaw I can think of with this series is that they didn’t adapt all the original books, a shame because there was more material there to be made and those that were adapted were adapted very faithfully.
  3. Pie in the Sky: I only recently discovered this forgotten 90s classic, which was very much the Father Brown of its day, with Richard Griffiths starring as Henry Crabbe, a semi-retired Detective Inspector who juggles the last years of his career with achieving his dream of running the eponymous village restaurant. Perhaps less outwardly fun and light-hearted than Father Brown (though not without humour), where this one really shines is that, unlike most other mysteries, it doesn’t forget that crime doesn’t always involve murder – Crabbe also uncovers incidents such as fraud, theft and arson during his remaining tenure as a police officer. If you like your Mysteries with a bit of variation beyond the classic game of Cluedo, then this is a good one to watch.
  4. Endeavour: I have not yet seen the highly-appraised series Inspector Morse, but am an ardent fan of the prequel series, which ended at the beginning of this year and depicts a young Morse as he embarks upon his detective career during the 1960s and early 70s. Alongside Morse himself we meet several likeable and human characters who help and hinder him in his quest to solve crimes across Oxford, in the form of his boss Chief Inspector Fred Thursday and his family, Morse’s friend Sergeant Jim Strange and Superintendent Reginald Bright, all very well acted. With often quite dark storylines that are usually linked together across individual and sometimes multiple series,
  5. Jonathan Creek: David Renwick made his name through One Foot in the Grave, but continued his legacy with Jonathan Creek, which combined some of the former’s surreal-but-just-about-believable humour with compelling outside-the-box crime puzzles. Alan Davies is the eponymous rational, cerebral illusionist who is invariably called in to try and untangle webs of mystery and intrigue that baffle everyone else, including his tagalong journalist assistant/friend/friend-with-benefits/lover Maddy.
  6. New Tricks: Have recently started getting into this one, which is another comedy-mystery in the vein of Jonathan Creek, but in place of the will-they-won’t-they relationship between an illusionist and a journalist, we have Amanda Redman’s frustrated middle-aged Police Superintendent trying to keep in line three retired ex-cops who have been brought back into service in the newly-minted Unsolved Crime and Open case Squad (UCOS), and who rely upon tried-and-trusted methods from yesteryear that aren’t entirely by-the-book. Like Father Brown, the older series are the best, with the original three ‘Old Dogs’ (James Bolam, Alun Armstrong and the late Dennis Waterman) still showing they’ve got the skills from their past careers, while also exhibiting the camaraderie and banter of three naughty schoolboys.
  7. Agatha Christie's Poirot: Though several actors have attempted to recreate Agatha Christie’s first great detective creation, none have played the role so perfectly as David Suchet in the ITV series, the only complete production that has adapted all the brilliant, fussy, perfectionistic Belgian sleuth’s cases. Not only that, but in a lot of this series’ episodes we also meet some of his associates – the heroic but slightly dim Captain Hastings, the efficient and organised secretary Miss Lemon and the down-to-earth Chief Inspector Japp, who all riff off of Poirot and his mannerisms perfectly.
  8. The Sister Boniface Mysteries: A testament to Father Brown’s success, the eponymous nun of this series won hearts everywhere by first appearing as a comical supporting character in one Father Brown episode, where her mastery of chemistry and love of Agatha Christie novels were of especial help to the priest. Now she gets to take centre stage as she solves mysteries in her own village, ably assisted by a new cast of characters. Currently rated low on the list mainly because it debuted last year and is just beginning its second series, which means it will take time to assert itself and give all the characters enough development, but has the potential to be equally as good as its parent series was in its heyday.
  9. Agatha Christie's Marple: Of the three main attempts to recreate the mysteries solved by Agatha Christie’s other great creation, the spinster Jane Marple, I would easily say that the most recent ITV series did the character and her stories the most justice (though the old Margaret Rutherford films are also enjoyable). Geraldine McEwan and later Julia McKenzie really did well in creating particularly loveable and deceitfully harmless-looking iterations of the character, and the quality of these mysteries is certainly the equal of the counterpart Poirot series, though this one is rated lower down due to having significantly fewer episodes.
  10. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Rather less well-known these days thanks to the emergence of the cult favourite BBC contemporary adaptation starring Mr. Cumberbatch and Mr. Freeman, but arguably more respectful toward the source material by keeping Holmes in the Victorian era, this 80s ITV series starred Jeremy Brett as the World’s Greatest Detective, accompanied by David Burke and later Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. Focusing on adapting one of the original stories each episode, this series was sadly cut short by the premature death of its leading actor, but a good few episodes were nevertheless made and they all capture the spirit of Sherlock as Conan Doyle originally intended.
Honourable Mentions: A Touch of Frost, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher



After all those lists then, how do I devise just one Top 10? I’ll just have to rank my top 1 and 2 choices from each list accordingly:
  1. The Last Kingdom: If I had to pick one of all these, I would pick Last Kingdom all day long. It is that fantastic.
  2. You Rang, M’Lord?
  3. Raven
  4. Bullseye
  5. Rome
  6. One Foot in the Grave
  7. Father Brown
  8. Winning Combination
  9. Cadfael
  10. Merlin
With all the above others as Honourable Mentions.



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Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl said:
And here it is! My response at last! You shall be rewarded for your patience!
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Well done my friend... well done! You completed it!! :) And now... The Best Monstrous Infantry unit in all of Warhammer ;):D

Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl said:
After all those lists then, how do I devise just one Top 10? I’ll just have to rank my top 1 and 2 choices from each list accordingly:
  1. The Last Kingdom: If I had to pick one of all these, I would pick Last Kingdom all day long. It is that fantastic.
  2. You Rang, M’Lord?
  3. Raven
  4. Bullseye
  5. Rome
  6. One Foot in the Grave
  7. Father Brown
  8. Winning Combination
  9. Cadfael
  10. Merlin
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The only show I've seen out of your top 10 list is a little bit of Merlin. If we extend it to your genre specific TV show lists, then I have seen Star Trek DS9/TNG/VOY/ENT, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate Atlantis, Spartacus and GoT.

I must admit, I haven't heard of most of your shows.
 
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