I’ll go with “The Good Place”.

To me the show has everything. Comedy, Surprise, deep emotions, and it even is educational. If also is full of positivity, which in today’s times seems harder to do right.

Where lesser shows might have drawn out the ideas over multiple seasons, they constantly moved on from one setting to the next.

And they nailed the finale.

Archer. Even if you include the 3 “coma seasons” it’s still some of the most consistently funny TV there’s ever been.

True Detective Season 1. I have never watched a better show than this although there are many good ones out there as well

Firefly, even after the deluge of post-marvel Whedonesque slop that has worn away some of the charm of the banter. Only a little bit though, it’s fortunately not quite the same.

It managed to slip in just before they killed off episodic story telling for genre shows, but just after there was a very noticeable increase in production quality. So it’s got that rewatch factor nothing made after like 2005 has but without my girlfriend rolling her eyes at sets and costumes that were designed to be viewed on a tiny 4:3 CRT.

Obviously there were other episodic genre shows made in this weird interstitial period but none have nearly as many banger episodes, even those that got additional seasons.

Star Trek: TNG

Still stands, the Picard monologues are famous.

If I am allowed to pretend it went off the air after season 8, I’ll go with the Simpsons.

I was at first leaning toward Bojack Horseman, but after thinking it over, I have to say Babylon 5, too. That has a lot to do with how I experienced it.

I first heard of it before it even aired, because they used Lightwave on the Amiga for the CGI sequences. I think I still have the VHS tape from the first airing of The Gathering. It turned out to be an interesting show. I quickly forgot about watching for the CGI, and found myself watching for the story.

Not only that, but the shows creator engaged fans directly during production on CompuServe, and later, Usenet. (That was totally new at the time.) Since it was back in the ancient times, episodes aired once a week. We fans had plenty of time to discuss each episode, and speculate about where it was going.

Then, And the Sky Full of Stars hit like a ton of bricks. (“Wham! Wham! Wham!” as JMS liked to say online.) The story, the imagery, and the music just created the perfect storm of grief and dispair, and we got the full treatment of what it meant to have a 5-year story arc. (Oddly enough, I just realized that it was also the 8th episode of Bojack in which that show demonstrated real depth, and started to get really good.)

As the show continued, my personal life fell apart, as major depression took hold. I don’t quite recall when I stopped being able to catch it when it aired, or why. (I think it moved to cable after PTEN folded?) But it wasn’t until years later that I watched the 5th season, when I was scrabbling out of the deep hole of depression.

Holy hell. Getting to the series finale was emotional enough, but That Scene hit like 20 tons of bricks. It was played well, yes, but I had known these characters for literal years by then, learned what they’d gone through, felt the weight of all that they had done and felt, and I cried for a long time. And it was amazing to feel anything so deeply, which is why the show will always be special to me.

In many ways, I think that the streaming format robs us viewers of something vital. Binge-watching doesn’t allow time for the characters and stories to really settle in your soul. And then there’s no social group to share the experience with. I didn’t watch Game of Thrones when it was new, and I know that the experience wouldn’t be at all the same now. I did binge The Good Place last year, and the effect was like a summer thunderstorm—intense, but brief. It’s a great show, but didn’t affect me so deeply. As such, I’m glad I watched Bojack when it was new, to be able to share the experience online with other people. It was made for streaming, and the season-at-a-time release, so it couldn’t be any other way, but nothing will quite match the experience of a dedicated fan base and weekly episodes.

I’m french so the answer is extremely easy. It’s kaamelott

For me personally it’s gotta be Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Such a fantastic story, and one of the few shows I’ve gone back and re-watched several times. Even got my gf, who is not into anime, to love the show too, though her favourite remains Avatar The Last Airbender.

Honorable mention to Pantheon too, that one kinda broke me for a couple days. Just wish we got a bit more of the show so season 2 didn’t have to be as rushed.

James Burke’s Connections

Go team venture!

Probably Farscape even though I am not too sure it aged well. Following would be Buffy and Stargate SG1.

Chris Carter’s Millennium, from the late 1990s. The first season was not great, the third season was lousy, but the second season was spectacular!

Probably DS9 with Babylon 5 as close 2nd, or the Simpsons

The Andy Griffith Show. Genuinely funny show, with a great heart. Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts, is literally the funniest character ever on TV.