TV for Me

Avid TV watcher and fan. I enjoy making recommendations and finding new shows by comparing them to shows you already know and love. @TV_for_Me

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Letterkenny feels like a hybrid of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Schitt's Creek.

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You’re the Worst is like The League meets Crazy Ex-Girlfriend meets Younger.

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Killing Eve is like Dead to Me meets Big Little Lies meets James Bond.

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Mythic Quest reminds me a lot of Superstore: a cute, funny workplace comedy with a great ensemble cast. The depth of the characters also reminds me of Ted Lasso, while the satirical humor is reminiscent of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

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I don’t think any other show quite nails the formula of Boy Meets World–following a group of friends from adolescence through young adulthood, while spotlighting the adults who teach them about life, love, and hardship along the way–but here are a few that come close:

Full House: Another great family comedy that teaches us about life, but with more of an emphasis on the adults rather than the kids.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: This one was mostly about the characters’ relationships within the family, rather than with other people. Also, the “kids” are older when the show begins, so we don’t get to see them grow in their formative years.

Sister, Sister: Again, less of an emphasis on the main characters’ relationships outside the family. Also, a bit more superficial in its themes, not as many of those “tough life lessons”-type storylines.

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The Morning Show feels like a mash-up of The West Wing and Big Little Lies: a thought-provoking discussion of contemporary political and social issues combined with surprising (unrealistic?) plot twists and a very overly dramatic presentation style.

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Superstore is a surprisingly great sitcom. It combines the workplace-comedy format of The Office with the charm of Modern Family and the quirkiness of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Will appeal to fans of Brooklyn Nine-Nine as well.

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My Top 10 Shows of 2021

Here are the top 10 shows that I watched in 2021. (Note: I generally don’t watch shows that are currently airing, so most of these shows are not from 2021, I just happened to watch them this past year.)

10. Weeds (7/10) 9. Unbelievable (7/10) 8. Veep (7/10)* 7. Shameless (8/10)* 6. Firefly (8/10) 5. Modern Family (8/10) 4. Better Call Saul (8/10)* 3. My So-Called Life (8/10) 2. Chernobyl (9/10) 1. Freaks and Geeks (10/10)

*Shows that I’m currently watching and haven’t finished yet.

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The Sopranos: GOAT?

I think a lot of people who watch The Sopranos for the first time don't understand why it's generally considered to be one of the top 3 tv shows of all time. Critics usually include it with The Wire and Breaking Bad (with no real consensus as to the order). Sure, it's a solid show with a decent plot and good acting, but does it really deserve to be in the running for GOAT?

The thing is, you have to consider The Sopranos in context. It was groundbreaking for its time. One of the first truly serial dramas, where you had to tune in each week in order to keep up with the story--before DVR and on-demand were common. A complex main character that you're not sure whether you're supposed to love or hate, root for or against. And of course, the production quality--bringing movie-quality production (and budgets) to the small screen. These things were all practically unheard of at the time The Sopranos premiered.

It's not an understatement to say that The Sopranos redefined what was possible through the medium of television. So while the show standing on its own might not be considered the best of all time if it premiered today, I think it still deserves its spot in the top 3 because of the enormous influence it's had on television at large. Simply put, most great tv dramas of the past 20 years (including the other GOAT contenders, The Wire and Breaking Bad) wouldn't exist if it weren't for The Sopranos.

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Here's a show you might not have heard about in a while: Pushing Daisies. This cute comedy series shares some similarities with The Good Place, particularly the bright, colorful visual style and the comedic treatment of subjects like mortality and the afterlife.

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Westworld feels like an episode of Black Mirror that got extended into its own series. The first season was phenomenal; the second season lost focus a bit, but was still good; the third season went completely off the rails. Still worth watching at least the first season for its great original concept and fantastic production value.

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Monk and Psych are two great mystery dramedies. Both procedural series are fairly formulaic, with each episode following a predictable pattern. But they are still very enjoyable. Monk is more of an even mix between comedy and drama, whereas Psych is heavier on the comedy.

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Dead to Me has some similar storylines to Weeds and Big Little Lies, but with a quirkiness and silliness that’s reminiscent of Schitt’s Creek and The Good Place.

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If you liked The Office (UK) and Extras, check out Life's Too Short and Hello Ladies. They share some of the same actors (Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant) and have the same cringe-worthy situational humor.

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It's hard to come up with a good comparison for Chernobyl, but the closest I can think of is True Detective. Both have an ominous, foreboding tone and share a central plot element of trying to determine how something terrible happened. The dystopian feel is also reminiscent of Black Mirror, with the important distinction that, while Black Mirror is science fiction, Chernobyl is a dramatization of true events.

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Did anybody else watch The Grinder? It's a really cute legal sitcom that was canceled after one season. It has a silly, quirky humor that reminds me of Great News, but at times can also be more nuanced, along the lines of Arrested Development or 30 Rock.

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GLOW (Netflix) doesn't get enough love. It falls somewhere on the comedy spectrum between Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix) and Weeds (Showtime). Funny, at times downright wacky, but also has a substantive plot and really in-depth characters.