Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

General discussion on Twin Peaks not related to the series, film, books, music, photos, or collectors merchandise.

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Audrey Horne
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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Things have to exist and land for a bit for me to know if they stand my test of time favorites. Usually it all comes down to the writing, and I’m finding the best are sitcoms. The one hour format throughout the decades is harder for me.

Cheers. (The Diane years, especially first two seasons) Best pilot ever written.
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
All in the Family
M.A.S.H.
The Bob Newhart Show
I Love Lucy
FAWLTY Towers

One hour…

The Avengers (the Emma Peel seasons)
Twin Peaks (first season)
Breaking Bad (yes, it sticks the landing)

The Prisoner is excellent, but I don’t have the love for it, only cerebral respect.

The Sopranos and Mad Men I was big on, but Mad Men lost it all in the final episode, and Sopranos was more clinical in the end. The Wire also excellent… but the ones listed above are all like life long friends.
God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?
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mtwentz
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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I have never seen Mad Men you believe the final episode ruined everything that came before it?
F*&^ you Gene Kelly
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Audrey Horne
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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Yeah. I was a big big fan. But I couldn’t t believe the final episode came from the same creator. To me it was like bad fan fic.

Oh, oh… Veep is also one of the best written shows of the past decade. And I thought the second season (nine years later) of The Comeback genius.
God, I love this music. Isn't it too dreamy?
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Jonah
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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Forgot to mention The Comeback - great show, both seasons. Lisa Kudrow was brilliant in that role.

Yeah, the Diane years of Cheers were the best seasons - but I think it also got a bit tiring and the switch-up was refreshing and probably saved the show (though when Shelley Long first left it looked like it would end the show). But then Kirstie Alley's character started to get tiring too - they really devolved that character imo. Sometimes it was funny, but sometimes it was a lot. For me, I never liked Cheers nearly as much as Frasier, but went back to watch it to see the Frasier character and other elements.
I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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Audrey Horne wrote: Thu Dec 23, 2021 11:23 pm Yeah. I was a big big fan. But I couldn’t t believe the final episode came from the same creator. To me it was like bad fan fic.

Oh, oh… Veep is also one of the best written shows of the past decade. And I thought the second season (nine years later) of The Comeback genius.
I'm very curious as to why you feel that way about the Mad Men finale, which I thought was quite fitting. PM or Spoiler if you find the time, please!
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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Jonah wrote: Thu Dec 23, 2021 5:13 pm My list - somewhat updated:

1. Twin Peaks (easily has the top place, primarily the original series, I'm 50/50 on The Return but I still do like parts of it despite my criticisms of it)
2. Lost (not so much the last season or some of its frustrating loose ends but still think it was great)

^ Top two. The ones I think about the most.

3. Frasier (top sitcom, very intelligently written especially by sitcom standards, performed beautifully)
4. Dexter (including revival and in particular Seasons 1, 2, 4, and 7)
5. Northern Exposure (currently rewatching, a lighter Twin Peaks but very much in the same world imo - have previously seen all of it)
6. Wings (never as big a hit as its counterparts, but great little underrated show from makers of Frasier and Cheers)
7. China Beach (currently watching - only saw bits and pieces as a kid, love it but can get depressing)
8. Monk (primarily for Tony Shaloub's performance and character even if the storylines themselves are hit and miss, sometimes ingenious, sometimes very TV)
9. Carnivale (only 2 seasons, cancelled - can see most TP fans liking it)

10. There's a handful of 80's/90's sitcoms I like in addition to Frasier and Wings so any of these could fill this slot - Seinfeld or 3rd Rock from the Sun or Friends or Cheers or The Golden Girls, maybe even Ellen (the original 90's sitcom, not the talkshow). I also like Curb Your Enthusiasm (not a sitcom really though can be sitcom-like) very much. I think Seinfeld and it are probably better written than the others, but I enjoy them all. I never think of myself as a sitcom person and certainly don't like modern ones but I do like these ones from that period so there you go.
Since you bring up Dexter and its revival here, it reminded me that I wanted to recommend to you the other series that is currently airing on Showtime: Yellowjackets. It's half-set in the 90s, which you may enjoy, and riffs on Lost pretty heavily. It's very enjoyable so far. 7 episodes have now aired.

As far as Dexter goes, I also highlight the same seasons as being, easily, the best: 1, 2, 4 and 7. The revival is fun just to see where they took it and how it will end, and is somewhat unexpectedly very much in line with small town series like Twin Peaks and Fargo, even directly referencing the latter. A nice winter atmosphere, too.
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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I do like Yellowjackets! I created a thread for it (and Dexter NB) in Hap's Diner.

Right now I'm on a bit of an 80's/90's nostalgia kick - apart from rewatching Northern Exposure (which I created a thread on too - and you know, I can't underline this more strongly: I really, really think it's in the same universe as original series TP even if it's a different genre, it and Carnivale are the two closest I've seen to the TP feel - and maybe Kingdom too, but it's been a while since I've seen that). I'm also watching China Beach (amazing but gets too heavy for me at times), and now I'm going a bit further down the rabbit hole - Father Dowling Myseries, Due South, and Midnight Caller. They're all of varying degrees of quality and TP is the highlight of course, but I do think TV was quite interesting in the late 80's/early 90's, it seemed a period where they were really trying out things before the Golden Age of streaming, between more banal early 80's stuff and before TV began to settle into more predictable glossier later 90's/early 2000's fare (though I'm not really knocking those periods either as every period has their highlights). I just think it was a really interesting, almost experimental period circa 1987/1988 to about 1994-ish. Another one worth mentioning (and, like Midnight Caller, it has Gary Cole) might be American Gothic. I got it, Eeerie Indiana (with Harry Goaz) and a few others about 10-15 years ago during my first watching-shows-like-TP kick and already can't remember them that well (it feels like yesterday but also like 15 years ago lol) and all these years later I'm back to rewatching stuff from that period. I tend to start rewatching older shows with a TP feel - so some of it is childhood nostalgia, but mostly it feels like I'm still always searching for the next (original) TP. This is why I never get caught up on most new shows and they slip me by!
I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
LateReg
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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LateReg wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:27 am
As far as Dexter goes, I also highlight the same seasons as being, easily, the best: 1, 2, 4 and 7. The revival is fun just to see where they took it and how it will end, and is somewhat unexpectedly very much in line with small town series like Twin Peaks and Fargo, even directly referencing the latter. A nice winter atmosphere, too.
And now, after tonight's episode, also directly referencing Twin Peaks as well. :D
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Jonah
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Re: Peaks Fans Top 10 TV shows

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LateReg wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2022 6:43 pm
LateReg wrote: Mon Dec 27, 2021 9:27 am
As far as Dexter goes, I also highlight the same seasons as being, easily, the best: 1, 2, 4 and 7. The revival is fun just to see where they took it and how it will end, and is somewhat unexpectedly very much in line with small town series like Twin Peaks and Fargo, even directly referencing the latter. A nice winter atmosphere, too.
And now, after tonight's episode, also directly referencing Twin Peaks as well. :D
Yes indeed. I mentioned this too in the Dexter New Blood thread in Hap's Diner. Dexter directly saying he'd like a "damn fine cup of coffee". Wonder if it also means Showtime hinting they're still interested in the TP brand - probably not, just a nice call out from the writers on the same network, but it did cross my mind lol.
I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange.
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