All the television that I have ever seen

I’m looking for recommendations of TV programmes to watch. I’ve seen so many shows already though and I don’t want to be recommended programmes that either I’ve already watched or that I have no interest in watching. So I started making this list of all the television that I’ve ever seen and then I got a bit carried away (I love lists). I’ve included a list of my favourite ten TV shows at the end so that you have an idea of what I most like to watch and what I’d recommend to others. I also find people’s differing tastes in television fascinating and would enjoy reading others’ lists.

All the TV programmes (fictional) that I have ever seen as an adult

• Programmes of which I’ve watched every single episode*:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Almost Human
And Then There Were None
Battlestar Galactica
Black Mirror
Bleak House
Castle
Childhood’s End
Chuck
Community
Continuum
Criminal Minds
Dawson’s Creek
Death Comes to Pemberley
Desperate Housewives
Doctor Who**
Elementary
Emma (both 1996 & 2009 versions)
Episodes
Everwood
Falling Skies
Fawlty Towers
Firefly
FlashForward
Forever
Friends
Game of Thrones
Gilmore Girls
Glee
Gossip Girl
Hannah Montana
Heroes
Heroes Reborn
Home and Away***
Humans
Hustle
Intelligence
Jane Eyre
Jericho
Jessica Jones
Lark Rise to Candleford
Lie to Me
Little Dorrit
Lost
Lost in Austen
Mansfield Park (1983)
Merlin
Miranda
Nicholas Nickleby
90210
Northanger Abbey
Once Upon A Time
One Tree Hill
Outcasts (2011)
Outnumbered
Person of Interest
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Rizzoli & Isles
Robin Hood (2006)
Scorpion
Sense and Sensibility
Sense8
Shadowhunters
Sherlock
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
Star Trek: Voyager
Stranger Things
Survivors (1975)
The Big Bang Theory
The Durrells
The Good Wife
The 100
The I.T. Crowd
The Missing
The O.C.
The Vampire Diaries
The Vicar of Dibley
The West Wing
Thirteen
Torchwood
To the Manor Born
24
Two of a Kind
Ugly Betty
Unfabulous
UnREAL
V (2009)
Vanity Fair
Veronica Mars
White Collar

*If any of the programmes above are ongoing and haven’t finished/been cancelled yet, then obviously I haven’t watched episodes that haven’t aired on TV or haven’t come out on Netflix yet
**Nu Who not Classic Who
***I started watching Home and Away in 2007 and have been watching it since then

• Programmes of which I’ve seen most of the episodes but not ALL of the episodes:

Arrested Development
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Cuckoo
Gavin and Stacey
Good Luck Charlie
How I Met Your Mother
iCarly
Lizzie McGuire
My Family
New Girl
Not Going Out
Perception
Rev.
Revenge
Smallville
Sonny with a Chance
Star Trek: Enterprise
Switched at Birth
The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sleepover Club
Wizards of Waverly Place

• Programmes of which I’ve seen a few seasons but then got bored and stopped watching:

Atlantis – stopped after 1 season
Broadchurch – stopped somewhere in season 2
Cordon – stopped somewhere late in series 1
Downton Abbey – stopped after season 5
Grace & Frankie – stopped somewhere in season 1
Homeland – stopped somewhere in season 3
House of Cards – stopped somewhere in season 3 (although to be honest, I always hated this programme; I just kept thinking that it was going to get better but it didn’t)
Jane the Virgin – stopped after 1 season
Life Unexpected – stopped somewhere in season 1
Luther – stopped somewhere in season 2
Pretty Little Liars – stopped somewhere in season 6 (this is easily the most annoying and ridiculous thing I have ever watched. I’ve no idea why or how I stayed with it for so long)
Resurrection – stopped after 1 season
Scream – stopped after 1 season
Supergirl – stopped after 1 season
The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt – stopped after 1 season
True Detective – stopped after 1 season

• Programmes of which I’ve seen sporadic episodes:

Dad’s Army
Star Trek: DS9
Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek: TOS
Yes, Minister

• Programmes of which I’ve only watched the first 1-5 episodes (I try to give TV shows a trial period of 5 episodes to give them a fair chance but sometimes I don’t make it that far) and stopped watching because I found them boring or didn’t like them:

Absolutely Fabulous
Alias
Bones
Catastrophe
Charmed
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Daredevil
Doll & Em
Fringe
Girls
Lost Girl
Modern Family
Mr. Robot
Orange is the New Black (full disclosure: I actually didn’t even finish the first episode of this. It just wasn’t for me)
Orphan Black
Sex and the City
Spooks
Stargate Universe
Suits
The 4400
The Inbetweeners
The Office (UK)
The Strain
The Tudors
Touch
Unforgettable

• Programmes that I haven’t ever watched because either I have no interest in them (things that I find boring) and/or I suspect that I won’t like them (I have a pretty good idea by now of whether I’ll like something or not) and/or I’m scared of them (I can’t deal with anything that involves doctors or hospitals. I’m not good with violence or supernatural/paranormal stuff either.):

Archer
Ashes to Ashes
Being Human
Blackadder
Breaking Bad
Columbo
Coronation Street
CSI
Dallas
Deadwood
Dexter
Doctors
Due South
Dynasty
Eastenders
Emmerdale
Empire
ER
Family Guy
Frasier
Gotham
Grey’s Anatomy
Grimm
Happy Valley
Holby City
Hollyoaks
House
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell
Law & Order
Life on Mars
Mad Men
M*A*S*H
Midsomer Murders
Monty Python
Mrs Brown’s Boys
My Mad Fat Diary
Nashville
NCIS
Neighbours
Only Fools and Horses
Open All Hours
Outlander
Parks and Recreation
Penny Dreadful
Poldark
Porridge
Prison Break
Quantum Leap
Red Dwarf
Reign
Rome
Sanctuary
Scandal
Scrubs
Seinfeld
Skins
South Park
Supernatural
Teen Wolf
The Americans
The Killing
The Originals
The Shannara Chronicles
The Sopranos
The Thick of It
The Walking Dead
The Wire
The X-Files
True Blood
Twin Peaks
Vikings
Warehouse 13

• Programmes that I’m considering watching in the future but am not sure if they will be good enough to maintain my interest or if I’ll like them at all:

Parenthood
The Mentalist


So…
Do you have any recommendations for me? Are there some brilliant TV programmes that I’m missing out on and are not on any of the lists above?

Out of all the TV programmes above that I’ve watched, the ones below are my very favourites, the best of the best. It’s so difficult to whittle them down to a top 10 and rank them but, if forced, I think that I would choose the following as
My Favourite 10 TV Programmes:

1. Chuck
2. Gilmore Girls
3. Battlestar Galactica
4. The West Wing
5. Firefly
6. Doctor Who
7. Heroes
=8. Castle
=8. White Collar
=10. The Good Wife
=10. Friends
=10. Elementary
=10. Sherlock

Honourable mentions for my next 30 favourites (these are shows which don’t quite make it into my top 10 but that I’d still enthusiastically recommend to other people to watch): Continuum, Agents of SHIELD, Rizzoli & Isles, Stargate SG-1, Merlin, The Big Bang Theory, Person of Interest, Miranda, Smallville, The I.T. Crowd, Dawson’s Creek, Once Upon A Time, The Vicar of Dibley, Veronica Mars, Pride and Prejudice, Ugly Betty, The O.C., Falling Skies, Fawlty Towers, To the Manor Born, Hustle, Glee, The 100, Community, Lost, Scorpion, Star Trek: Voyager, Lark Rise to Candleford, The Durrells, Criminal Minds

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6 thoughts on “All the television that I have ever seen”

  1. Luther is a great, seat on edge series! A bit violent but not unbearably so.

    Also Bloodline on Netflix was very addictive! Paints a disturbing picture of how good people can do bad things.

  2. You should give Gotham a try, Kay and I love it. Life on Mars as well.

    You might like Cold Feet, both the originals and the new series.

    Xxx

  3. I’ve double checked the list and didn’t see it on there – give Spartacus series a try! I loved it!

    A series me and my mum watched that only has one series out so far is Magicians which was good.

    Xxx

  4. Wow, what a list!

    Based on your list I think you would like the Mentalist – it’s a bit serious in places, but a fun enough show.

    More to the point have you never seen/tried Psych or Monk? Both detective shows with a good sense of fun/silly. I’d put Monk as slightly more silly than Castle, Psych being even sillier again. Psych is pretty much the sitcom version of the mentalist actually…

    I’d also suggest giving another look to Warehouse 13. It’s another lighthearted comedy/drama show, which while ‘sci-fiy/paranormal’ based is much more Dr Who then Fringe. It also links up with the show Eureaka which is equally worth looking at for scifi silly…

  5. Cranford, its a BBC classic period drama from Elizabeth Gaskell novels. I don’t think I saw it on any of your lists, I really enjoyed that. Also, A Place to Call Home an Australian drama set after the second world war, its a family “saga” with a really evil woman character who you absolutely hate, every show needs a baddy. I could also suggest listening to The Archers on Radio 4 but you might find that quite boring I suspect. The Worst Week of my Life which is a comedy and did make me laugh a lot even though I didn’t think I would like it much, and The Worst Christmas of My Life.

    I was also going to suggest Cold Feet but see it has already been mentioned.

    Hope you find some new shows to hold your interest and sending you very best wishes x

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