TV shows others should be watching

[some call me...tim?]

I don't have cable, but do have Netflix, and the interwebz so get most of my TV viewing there. So, most of what I see is either dated, or not regularly shown in America (or both).

Some of the foreign shows I dig:
Top Gear - awesome. I know it comes on BBC America, but it's 2-3 seasons behind the times when it gets here.
Spaced - short lived BBC show, Simon Pegg's first big breakthrough, hilarious
Peep Show - not what it sounds like, but easily one of the funniest shows I've seen on TV. I think only season 1 is available on DVD here in the states, but they're up to season 6 now I believe.
Trailer Park Boys - Canadian mockumentary series about life in a trailer park, it grows on you.
League of Gentlemen - not to be confused with the awful Sean Connery movie, totally unrelated. This show's an acquired taste, but it's about a town filled with dozens of bizarre characters, all played by 3 actors.
MI-5 (aka Spooks) - show about British espionage, think "24", only with decent writing, intelligence, and plausibility. One entertaining aspect of the show is when they have characters that are CIA operatives and you see that yes, Brits can also be lousy at imitating American accents.
The Office & Extras - both have run their completion, but I still pop these in the DVD player from time time, and find them hugely entertaining.

As for American shows, people have mentioned a lot of the ones I like: Dexter, Californication, Mad Men, Breaking Bad. I like Burn Notice too, I don't think it's bad though, just kinda light popcorn type stuff. It's like MacGyver meets James Bond, with the addition of Bruce Campbell. I haven't watched all of Battlestar Galactica yet, but I like most of what I've seen so far. Added to the sadly defunct shows, Deadwood, Rome, The Wire, and Firefly.

[SkaBob]

Trailer Park Boys - Canadian mockumentary series about life in a trailer park, it grows on you.

Oh, you fucker. Now I'm not gonna be able to get "Liquor and Whores" out of my head all day!

[Midnightbiker]

Gotta watch Pawn Stars on History. Great show, funny, and interesting at the same time. "You never know what is going to walk through that door".

[peppermack]

Sadly I am to cheap to pay for cable....so I can't watch any of these shows

[Parks]

I can't believe no one has mentioned 30 Rock.

Its more mainstream than a lot of the stuff mentioned here, but it is incredibly clever and funny. It also has just the right amount of Dean Winters as a guest star. If I ever break up with my gf, I'm going to use the speech he gave to Tina Fey.

Reno 911 gets a lot of hate, but I think its generally pretty delicious. I haven't watched the last couple seasons where the cast changed dramatically, so it coulda turned to poop at that point. Who knows.

Lost gets hate for all the random unexplainable stuff, but I think they do a good job of maintaining suspension of disbelief. The main characters were more compelling before they got fully fleshed out around the 3-4th season, but its still enjoyable for the way they weave in all kinds of seemingly disparate elements into a cohesive (relatively speaking) story.

Other quality shows have been mentioned.

[ferretdance03]

I watch Sportscenter, Weeds and Penguins of Madagascar. No joke.


I think it's required watching for women. Between these and all the shows about famili
es with a billion kids...

How about the most horrible shows? If you're married you probably have seen too much of some bad ones as much as you try to ignore them by posting here.

Project Runway--The biggest freak show of the most disfuntional people on earth...I can't be in the room while this is on.
The Real Housewives of _________. These people should be thrown off a cliff. All of them.
The Millionaire Matchmaker. This one is funny sometimes, but rarely. Spoiled and selfish people...makes me glad I'm kind of poor.

[Roy]

I think the only show my wife and I will watch together is wheel of fortune, and that just cause we're usually eating dinner. Otherwise I watch mine and she watches hers. It's a pet peeve of mine to wake up and turn on the TV and bravo or VH1 is on... She probably thinks the same thing when she turns it on and its on sportcenter.

Multiple computers and multiple TV's is our secret to happy relationship

[MDR_3000]

it's not on anymore but The Wire. Best TV show, ever. I think I'm on my 10th viewing of the series. (5 Seasons)

[Disc Golf Live]

I don't watch much more than sports, PBS, and a few cooking shows when I have control of the clicker, which isn't very often it seems.

Rather than a show, I've been watching one station quite frequently, the Universal Sports network showed up just recently. This is apparently a secondary digital channel to a Detroit area station. Although I don't know what they'll be carrying in the warmer months, they currently carry a bunch of bobsledding, skeleton, downhill and nordic skiing etc. I like this stuff. Can't wait for some of that sweet combined shooting/x-country skiing stuff to show up, where the guys have to ski extra laps when they miss a target. Doh! (They can lose the figure skating, if you ask me, except for the crashes.)

Joe

[JimW]

Project Runway--The biggest freak show of the most disfuntional people on earth...I can't be in the room while this is on.

Heh, Project Runway is one of the two shows (24 is the other) that I actually watch. I don't really watch much regular TV.

I find your opinion on it surprising since I don't know how you could come to that conclusion about the people on there. Compared to most reality/competition shows there's a lot less drama and while there are always some oddball designers most of them are pretty normal people.

[discspeed]

Project Runway--The biggest freak show of the most disfuntional people on earth...I can't be in the room while this is on.

Heh, Project Runway is one of the two shows (24 is the other) that I actually watch. I don't really watch much regular TV.

I find your opinion on it surprising since I don't know how you could come to that conclusion about the people on there. Compared to most reality/competition shows there's a lot less drama and while there are always some oddball designers most of them are pretty normal people.

Next time I see you I'm gonna have to kick you in the spot I thought your balls hung. I should have known you were into fashion by your noir style and pirate tees. Maybe some of the people are normal, but the freaks are way out there.

[Beable]

Ha. My wife loves that show. And the cooking competition shows.

I pretty much specialize only in watching terrible reality TV like TUF, the roid raging idiots on the Road Rules/RW challenges, and Jersey Shore.

[Jesse B 707]

The Mighty Boosh

[garublador]

Everyone needs to watch Better off Ted so it doesn't get cancelled.

"I need you to think what you'd rather have for Christmas: a wind tunnel, a family of robots or a corpse."

[JimW]

Next time I see you I'm gonna have to kick you in the spot I thought your balls hung. I should have known you were into fashion by your noir style and pirate tees. Maybe some of the people are normal, but the freaks are way out there.

Harsh words from the guy who searches for things that lead to videos of a guy being fucked by a horse, watches the entire thing, and then freely admits it afterwards.

Actually I'm not into fashion, though the lady is. I make fun of fashion often. I do find the show enjoyable to watch though and some of the stuff they create can be pretty cool.