What are most original and highly rated TV/Series you've ever seen?

englishpremier

englishpremier

englishpremier

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Saw the thread by @Gunni Parker on films, but I'm more interested in series these days.

Which series have you watched that have been unlike those that came before, with original storylines, affects, sequence editing etc..

I feel that with series we don't actually have to go as far back in time to find great originality as we do with movies.

I'll start with two my favourites:

Les Revenants (The Returned) - French, dark, mysterious, eerie, series of people seemingly returning from the dead and going about their old lives. The US did an adaptation (it comes from a book) called Resurrection, that failed, so they remade the French version and called it 'The Returned'

The OA - US show written by Brit Marling. Sci-fi, mystery about a blind girl who disappears then returns with her sight. Great storying telling. Episode lengths vary dramatically from 20mins to 1 hour, meaning it something could only be shown on streaming like Netflix as traditional TV is well, traditional.
 
Firefly
The Good Place
Dexter (ignoring the later seasons)
Weeds
Travelers (I found it surprisingly refreshing)
 
I guess "24" would have to get a mention because at the time it was unique and pretty groundbreaking. I wonder whether I should go back and watch them but I suspect they haven't aged well.

I think Breaking Bad was obviously fantastic as it built characters really well and allowed you to sympathise with a criminal life and all the baggage that comes with managing it and family.
 
Not so sure on the aspect of originality but in terms of level of production, effects, editing etc...

Band of Brothers
Dark
Kingdom
Deadwood
24 (at the time, doesnt stand up so well today)
True Detective (season 1)
Chernobyl
Twin Peaks (original)
Boardwalk Empire
 
Buffy - Before this I'd never seen a show that had such plot arcs spanning multiple episodes and even seasons. The way it handled real life issues in a 'supernatural' show was brilliant too.
Coupling - Probably one of the most original sitcoms I've seen. it's a standard concept but the writing is very inventive.
 
I think story originality becomes harder as time goes on as it's easy to relate to older shows. However in regards to narrative structure, editing and stylistic choices, there is a lot of seemingly original content coming out all the time.

Babylon 5 for it's time was one of the first major shows to take a chance on multi episode / season arc stories, while the actual content was not original the ambition certainly was.
 
Twin Peaks seems an obvious choice. I watched it about 10 years after it had first broadcast, and it was still like nothing else I'd seen.

Lost was similarly unique. I only watched to about S4, but the first season or two was amazing. The water cooler conversations everyone was having made it real event-TV too.

More recently, Bojack Horseman has really pushed the envelope. The shallowness and loneliness of 'success', among other despairs of life (the ultimate lie of striving for a 'dream' and the emptiness of achieving it). That human connection is the real 'dream', but it's not what we're sold.
 
The C4 show Utopia really astounded me, it's so wonderfully weird and violent. The ending was unfortunate, given that it should have had more seasons but it was dropped but is still enjoyable.

Dark on Netflix was also a really good one.
 
jaybee said:
I guess "24" would have to get a mention because at the time it was unique and pretty groundbreaking. I wonder whether I should go back and watch them but I suspect they haven't aged well.
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24 has aged brilliantly. There's been nothing like it since. I rewatched them all last year for about the 3rd or 4th time. I watched it with someone who hadn't seen it before! Charles Logan !! It was a great experience. 24 is excellent.

it's easy to forget but the first season - nina ! every other show seems to slow in comparison.
 
I’d agree about The OA, it was intriguing and interesting but it was a bit weird in S2 with the octopus. Though I can see why people thought it was slow and weird.

Rather than repeat those listed above, I’m surprised no-one has mentioned Game of Thrones. Ignoring the controversy of the last couple of seasons, they really set the bar for story telling and production quality for a TV series.
 
Going back a very, very long time - and I haven't watched it since it was first aired, so take this with a pinch of salt, but it blew me away at the time.

Takin' Over The Asylum.

It was one of the first appearances for David Tennant. And it was effecting enough that a teenage me chose to watch it instead of Quantum Leap which was on at the same time - which was a major decision!

More recently, and totally not in the spirit of this thread, but I loved Mongrels for being very different to anything else on TV, and was disappointed in only got 2 series.
 
Quantum leap?

What about Sliders? Stargate then followed that also had inter dimensional travel.

Flash Forward? The world/time/people freeze for 5 minutes during which they see glimpses of their future lives. It turned out to be a bit rubbish, but I hadn't come across the concept before. IIRC it had the most expensive first episode in history. With a destroyed NY and kangaroos hopping around.
 
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Temujin said:
The C4 show Utopia really astounded me, it's so wonderfully weird and violent. The ending was unfortunate, given that it should have had more seasons but it was dropped but is still enjoyable.

Dark on Netflix was also a really good one.
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Agreed, utopia was excellent. Where is it possible to watch it these days?
 
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