One of my current Favs is: Shrinking.
Who wouldn't love Harrison Ford as a grumpy therapist?
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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I'm gonna go old school on you, remembering some of the pioneers from an age long past.
In 70s comedy, there was MASH (deftly balancing war and humor), Barney Miller (like a gritty urban Sydney Lumet movie, turned into a sitcom) and Taxi (Danny Devito, Christopher Lloyd and Andy Kauffman, WTF?!!).
In early-80s drama, there was Hill Street Blues (once again, like a gritty urban Sydney Lumet movie, turned into a brilliant ensemble cop drama) and St. Elsewhere (another ensemble, a Boston hospital drama with a good splash of magic realism, this is where Denzel Washington got his start!).
Later in the 80s and early 90s, there was yet another groundbreaking ensemble, Northern Exposure (a quirky and sophisticated half-serious drama, with LOTS of magic realism, about a small, remote Alaska town).
Finally, I can't go without mentioning my favorite #1 all-time GOAT series, Mad Men. I've watched the entire thing at least four times, it's like reading and re-reading the proverbial "Great American Novel".
Good stuff. MASH is the best ever TV series. Barney was smart fun. St.Elsewhere was one of my favs. And Belker from HSB was great.
Angelyne....
It has Emmy Rossum playing a Hollywood billboard icon. A loosely 'based on a true story' miniseries. Highly recommended. It's ... Different.
Mr Robot.
Xena: Warrior Princess.
Rifleman.
House of Cards.
Shameless (either one.)
Black Sails.
Into the Badlands.
Halt and Catch Fire.
Vikings.
And heck, here's a few cartoons:
Steven Universe.
Adventure Time.
Infinity Train.
Amphibia.
Derry Girls
Pingu
I've been rewatching Community recently and it definitely fits the bill. It has incredibly good writing.
But more than that, Community gives me the impression that is has an infinite budget. Not a ridiculously big budget like some shows and movies do... an infinite budget. The difference being that they don't waste a cent. There isn't a single thing on screen that doesn't serve a purpose. No ridiculous effect or expensive crane shot added in just to flaunt their budget. But if an episode's script actually called for a particular shot to be done, they would move heaven and earth to make that happen. That's what it feels like.
In my head I compare it to having unlimited vacation days at work. Case studies have shown that workers take fewer vacation days when they can take as many as they want, compared to when they have a set number per year. So in the analogy, a show with a set ludicrously high budget will use every last cent of it even for pointless frill, whereas a (hypothetical) show with an unlimited budget would only use however much money is necessary to create the show. Somehow, Community became that show. ... It probably has to do with how frequently they actually went way over budget in practice.
I fucking love Community.
Absolutely no comedy series comes close to being as in depth and well thought out as community was. Community is actually art for the ages.
Dan Harmon has said the producer did this magic for him. He would often telling Dan that, no, they were over budget when they weren't, so he could then say yes to the best ideas, actors/cameos, etc.
I'm a huge superfan. My ringtone is Professor Professorson's.
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Resident Alien
That was a good one! Got a little weird at the end, but they wrapped it up well.
The Good Place. It starts off deceptively shallow but by the end it became one of my favorite shows of all time.
Dark. The constant time travel makes it hard to keep track of what's going on a lot of the time but if you can manage, it's very rewarding. Great character development. Not the best ending, but good enough.
Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad have some poorly written characters but the well-written ones are very well-written.
I didn't include any shows based on books because I felt that would go against the scope of your question.
+1 for Good Place. That show is phenomenal.
Dag - a Norwegian show about a couples councilor that believes people should be alone.
Bojack Horseman
Firefly.
- Mister Roger’s Neighborhood
- Twin Peaks
- Frasier
- Futurama
- The Wire
- NCIS S1 to like S5
- Fringe
- Peaky Blinders
- Orphan Black
- The Good Place
- Severance
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House. I remember fuckall from the past 40 years of watching tv but that one show is etched in the feels.
Can't believe Ted Lasso hasn't been mentioned
Really fun stuff! The Roy Kent actor is in one of my current Favs; Shrinking.
Andor
Agreed.
There's several examples of >2min speeches that hit super hard: Luthen's "I need all the heros I can get", Karis' "random acts of rebellion", the "one way out" speech, Mon Mothma's final speech.
There's huge character growth and complexity for most of the main characters. Although I guess Syril never had much character growth, but that was kinda the point of his obsessive character. And they really showed how the rebellion grew from basically nothing
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Star Trek: Deep space nine
Kira: From hot headed terrorist to level headed leader
Nog: petty criminal to first of his kind in Starfleet
Yessss! Garak wound up being my favorite character at the end!
Including his lies?
Especially his lies.
especially his homoerotic relations with Julian
Don’t forget O’brien who start as an engineer and become the most important personne in starfleet
I love how in Lower Decks, Garak is married to a Holo-Bashir
Edit: Changed Holi to Holo, though the idea of a Desi Bashier...
Babylon 5 too.
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Avatar: The Last Airbender
Dirk Gently
Based off a book based off a script for a Dr Who episode that was too weird by the guy who wrote Hitchiker's Guide, starring Frodo:
Extremely loosely based. Like, almost no actual story similarities. They kind of adapted the premise, to a degree, but that's about it.
Still an enjoyable show, but not really representative of either Dirk Gently book. The books are really really good, if you like Adams' writing. I had to stop at least once per page reading Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul to sit and appreciate a fantastic sentence.
Good show. Shame that it ended on a cliff-hanger and didn't get renewed because Max Landis turned out to be a sex pest.
There was a UK made adaptation starring Steven Mangan that's pretty good as well.
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Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood (Nearly perfect)
The first 9 seasons of the Simpsons (great little 22 minute stories. Character depth is episode dependent, but some of the best episodes of anything television has ever offered.)
Battlestar Galactica (Had some iffy plotlines along the way, but great character development and intriguing story)
FMA:B is up there on "shows I wish I could forget just so I can watch it for the first time again", and so much of it has is how many characters' final moments (re)define them. Tossup for me between:
spoiler
- Kimblee reminding everyone that he might not subscribe to conventional morality, but he does have a code.
- Truth showing genuine joy at Edward giving up his alchemy. It completely re-frames Truth's role in the series.
Upvote for FMA:B
In reverse chronological order:
- The Good Place.
- The Sopranos
- Seinfeld (maybe not the character depth, but the writing)
- Shogun (6-episode miniseries, does that count?)
- The original Bob Newhart show, the one with Suzanne Pleshette.
- Band of Brothers
- The Wire Seasons 1-4
- Friday Night lights Seasons 1, 3 and 4
- MASH
- Star Trek the Next Generations the latter half of S3 and then seasons 4-6.
- The West Wing Seasons 1-5
- The Pitt
- Task
- Stranger Things
- True Blood (for Characters only) The story writing is a mess at times, but the characters are a masterclass.
- Travelers Seasons 1 and 2
- NYPD Blue
- Game of Thrones Seasons 1-3.
- Get Smart
I'm loving The Pitt and Task was pretty good.
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King of the Hill
The Leftovers, Maniac, Mr. Robot, anything by Sam Esmail really.
It is unacceptable that Babylon 5 is not on this list. It was rare, at the time, for shows to have a multi-season story arc with character development planned from the start. JMS got his seasons, though, and used them beautifully. Every single episode, even those that don't contribute to the main storyline advancing, either show a character developing or build the foundations for that development.
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