Television Your Top 3 Greatest TV Shows Of All Time

[Parma Dewol]

We already have an excellent thread for TV Show Recommendations, but there are plenty of shows that are good for killing time, and with so much choice it can be tough separating the wheat from the chaff.

This thread is for you to list Your Top 3 Greatest TV Shows Of All Time, in order of greatness. We're talking shows that have blown your mind and will live long in the memory. The sort of shows that everyone ought to have seen at least once.

May as well start with my own choices:

1. The Sopranos
   
   Has to be my all-time favourite. Incredible writing, fantastic music, and my favourite shows tend to be those that have really interesting characters. The Sopranos has loads. Everyone from Tony to Svetlana is absolutely fascinating. Must easily be two-dozen characters who would be deserving of their own spin-off show, and that finale, wow, they don't come much better than that. Hard to think of a weak episode in all six seasons; once you've seen the lot you can easily drop back into any episode and enjoy it. Looking forward to the day when I can say I've seen a better show than The Sopranos, but reckon I could be waiting a while yet. 10/10.
   
   
2. Only Fools and Horses
   
   Adored this show when I was young, but only used to catch the odd episode on TV here and then. Recently watched the whole lot from start to finish and it has aged surprisingly well. Writing is still superb and I didn't realise back in the day how poignant certain parts of it actually are. There are a couple of weaker episodes, and the show definitely should have ended with Time on Our Hands, but on the whole it is still as loveable today as it was back then. 9/10.
   
   
3. The West Wing
   
   Another show we revisited during lockdown. I really enjoyed the supposedly weaker latter series this time around, and in my opinion this is another show whose charm hasn't diminished with time. It is arguably an acquired taste and can be extremely cheesy at times, but that's part of the fun and I love that it aspires to be better than we know we really are. Once again a long list of fantastic characters, with Toby being my favourite, and Jed Bartlett surely has to be the best on-screen president of all time. There are definitely some filler episodes in each series, and Mandy is annoying in the patchy first few episodes, but when it hits its stride the rapid walk-and-talk dialogue is a joy to behold. 9/10.

Which shows deserve a place on your list?

 

[Spielmacher]

1. The Sopranos
2. Breaking Bad
3. True Detective (season 1 in particular)

 

[Solius]

The Wire, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad for me.

 

[lsd]

The Wire
Top Gear ( with Clarkson and co )
Parks and recreation

 

[LawCharltonBest]

Frasier, Breaking Bad and Only Fools.

Unsure on the order.

 

[Eendracht maakt macht]

1. The Wire

2. The Sopranos
3. Breaking Bad

Honorable mention for South Park.

 

[esmufc07]

24 Season 5
24 Season 3
24 season 4

 

[Brocky]

In order from best down;






With this such an incredibly close fourth that I had to add it...

 

[ha_rooney]

Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
Mr Robot

 

[Volumiza]

Not necessarily the best shows of all time but my 3 favourite shows of all time are:

1. All Creatures Great and Small - Take the p*ss if you want but I absolutely loved the James Herriot books as a kid and still love reading them from start to finish. THe TV show was nowhere near as good but I still really enjoy watching it all the way through from time to time. Although the acting is crap (Robert Hardy aside) and its very, very dated now, it is my happy place nonetheless.
2. The Sopranos - Just incredible and watched it so many times and it never gets old.
3. This is England (Film, 86, 88 and 90) - Just love Shane Meadows depiction of a group of friends in a poor Midlands town. The characters are so well written and acted and remind me of characters I knew in real life. This, coupled with amazing soundtrack and amazing splicing of grim hardship and humour means I can watch this literally again and again. Awesome.

Honourable mentions to:
- Breaking Bad
- Twin Peaks
- The Shield

 

[Solius]

I'd do comedies separate to serious shows but my top 3 for those would be:

Always Sunny
Parks & Rec
Nathan For You

 

[Spielmacher]

Everyone knows mini series don't count for this sort of thing.

 

[HTG]

The Simpsons
The Sopranos
The Wire

Honorable mention to Frasier.

 

[oneniltothearsenal]

The Wire - Without a doubt, the greatest for me. Unparalleled and unmatched through the years. Others will have their favorites but this is consistently the best.

Mad Men - The only show I've rewatched episodes the way I did with The Wire. Brilliant show with some wonderful acting and perhaps the most beautiful sets and cinematography in television history (especially to a vintage lover like myself).

Too Old to Die Young - Not to everyone's tastes as Refn's style is a slow burn but so much is going on here that it's truly a genius show and deserves some love.

 

[The Cat]

I'm coming to the end of season 3 of Breaking Bad but I think it's going to be included.

1. The Sopranos
2. Breaking Bad
3. Narcos - Disclaimer I have The Wire lined up after Breaking Bad.

 

[OleBoiii]

I tried to go for a combination of personal bias, a sense of objectivity and how well they hold up today:

1. Mr. Robot
2. Breaking Bad
3. Malcolm In The Middle

Honorable mentions:
Hunter X Hunter, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The Wire, Succession, Game of Thrones(season 1 to 6), Curb Your Enthusiasm, Peep Show, Scrubs, Chernobyl, Better Call Saul, Dark, Death Note, True Detective(season 1)

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

The Simpsons, up to and including Season 10 anyway. Infinite rewatchability.

The Sopranos. Currently watching it through for I think the 5th time. It just never gets old. So many great performances. Tony is such an absorbing character that you don't ever feel like you are watching someone act. Incredibly written and portrayed.

3rd place could be one of a number of shows. Peep Show, It's Always Sunny, The Office, Community, Parks, Bobs Burgers. Adore them all. I'll go Peep Show, for similar reasons as above, I can watch it through any time and it never outstays its welcome.

If it was a top 4, I'd go Breaking Bad for 4th, to even out the drama and comedy.

 

[Brocky]

Everyone knows mini series don't count for this sort of thing.

Wasn't aware there were such stringent rules...

It's a TV show. It counts. Fawlty Towers is widely recognised as one of the best TV shows of all time and it only has two more episodes than Band of Brothers, so I am not sure on your reasoning.

 

[balaks]

My all-time favorites (I'm not even joking):

Quantum Leap
Game of Thrones
House of Cards (UK version)

 

[nimic]

1. The Leftovers

2. The Wire

3. Band of Brothers

(Honourable mentions to Mr Robot, True Detective, Rome, Sharp Objects, Succession, Battlestar Galactica, Chernobyl, Deadwood, Generation Kill, Narcos, Watchmen, The Americans, Veep, The Office, What We Do in the Shadows and Scrubs in no particular order)

Edit: Added a couple to my honourable mentions. I could go on forever.

 

[Stack]

MASH
The Wire
The Man in the High Castle

 

[SirAnderson]

The Wire
Breaking Bad

3rd one is tough....but I will go for the recent, but short Mr Inbetween

Prior to Mr Inbetween it is
The Shield.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Drama - The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men

Comedy - Parks and Recreation, The US Office, Peep Show

Honorable mentions - Breaking Bad, Mr. Robot, Rick & Morty, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, Chernobyl, Band of Brothers, The Leftovers, Atlanta, Succesion, Community, The UK Office, Mr Inbetween, It's a Sin, loads more

 

[Macern]

Haven't watched that many shows, but from those I've watched:
1. Lost (sue me)
2. Breaking Bad
3. How I Met Your Mother

 

[SirAnderson]

Drama - The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men

Comedy - Parks and Recreation, The US Office, Peep Show

Honorable mentions - Breaking Bad, Mr. Robot, Rick & Morty, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, Chernobyl, Band of Brothers, The Leftovers, Atlanta, Succesion, Community, The UK Office, Mr Inbetween, It's a Sin, loads more

I like most in this list. So hard to chose. I like that you did top 3 per genre, as I have 1 comedy I love, Scrubs.

 

[nimic]

Everyone knows mini series don't count for this sort of thing.

Yet you put True Detective in your list, which is an anthology series where each season is almost completely unrelated to the previous one. You even specified Season 1.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Mini series probably deserve their own list cause there's so many amazing ones but it's impossible to justify them over a story spread out over multiple seasons and tens of episodes.

I'll go.. Chernobyl, True Detective S1, Band of Brothers

 

[The Cat]

I nearly put Blackadder in. It still makes me laugh to this day no matter how many times I've seen it.

 

[Amar__]

Sopranos
Breaking Bad
The Wire
Mad men

I can't pick three out of these 4, all 4 absolutely brilliant shows, writers can make reboots of these shows and they couldn't find any flaws to change from original versions.

Edit: out of these 4, Mad men is definitely the most underrated one here.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

The Sopranos
Mad Men
The Wire

 

[Mike Smalling]

1. True Detective (Season 1)
2. Band of Brothers
3. Breaking Bad

I will add that shows that drop in quality or don't stick the landing does not deserve to be on the list. The first few seasons of Game of Thrones is up there with anything, but it gradually declined into garbage. Breaking Bad, on the other hand, might be the longest series I have watched that maintains/increases it's quality throughout.

 

[Lennon]

Married with children
TWD (at least the first few seasons)
The Simpsons

 

[11101]

The Sopranos
The Wire
Fawlty Towers

Blackadder or Only Fools could easily be third but Blackadder was weaker early on and Only Fools got weaker at the end, whereas Fawlty Towers was brilliant in every episode.

 

[Mike Smalling]

I'd do comedies separate to serious shows but my top 3 for those would be:

Always Sunny
Parks & Rec
Nathan For You

Not enough people know about Nathan For You - genuinely some of the funniest TV I have ever seen!

 

[Idxomer]

Drama

The Sopranos
Rectify
Dekalog

Comedy

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Peep Show
Seinfeld

 

[Wittmann45]

If we can pick individual seasons rather than quality of the entire show, the process becomes even more difficult. True Detective season 1 is probably the best single season of a show I have ever seen, maybe besides Band of Brothers, but I think the other seasons take away from the overall quality of the series. Ditto the second season of Fargo (although season 1 was great as well), or the first seven or so seasons of the Simpsons if we can disregard the next 20 something. But, based on quality of the entire run of the show, my favourite three are:

Breaking Bad
Band of Brothers
Nathan For You (ever so slightly ahead of Peep Show/Its Always Sunny)

 

[Verminator]

The Wire
Black Sails
Breaking Bad

 

[Revan]

The Wire, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos (in that order).

I liked GoT more than any of them though.

 

[choccy77]

I think this should have been split as: UK / America and maybe comedy / drama etc

Too many great shows to pick just 3 as a whole.

 

[rcoobc]

1. Big bang theory.
2. Two and a Half Men.
3. Love Island

Love Island arguably should be higher up on the list. It really holds a mirror to society.