The original post: /r/television by /u/kaigent on 2025-02-13 14:53:22.

As I see it, TV shows are divided into 3 kinds of show.

  1. The first kind is the one in which you really need to pay attention to everything and focus because every detail matters. These shows are usually more complex and deep and have good characters’ development and are considered the “elite” of TV shows by people. I guess shows like Breaking Bad, The Wire, Mad Men, Lost and Game of Thrones belong to this kind of show since they apparently have great written plots and amazing characters who develop throughout the show.

  2. The second kind of a show is the one that might has a good plot and characters but they are not THAT complicated and deep. You don’t HAVE TO focus on them that much to understand everything. You can even watch an episode once a week or something and follow with no much problem. I guess shows like Peaky Blinders and Banshee are here.

  3. The third kind of a show is the episodic or the “turn your brain off” shows. These shows have near no complexity and depth and you can watch or just to enjoy, you don’t need to think too much and you just have fun. I guess most of these shows would be episodic or something like that since they don’t have overarching plots and characters development. I haven’t seen but I guess shows like Twilight Zone or NCIS, Law and Order and all these shows belong to here.(I am not saying episodic can’t be deep, I guess Black Mirror is deep even though it is episodic, but this genre usually doesn’t have compelxity in term of the bigger picture, the whole story). I would say True Detective which is anthology is more like the first kind than the third to be clear.

So, what is your favorite kind of shows? And my list has some shows I am not sure where they belong to so I would like you to help me with that. The shows are The Americans, Six Feet Under, The Leftovers, The Shield, Justified, Dexter, House M.D, Fringe, The X Files, The West Wing, Suitsת The Bear and The Expanse