My Top-10 Favorite TV Shows Of All Time

In all my boredom at night I decided to do a top-10 of my favorite TV shows of all time. Really a quite simple task, except I stopped watching TV in 2007 pretty much altogether. I was fed up with all the fake-ass competition shows, stupid reality shows, uninspired series, and most of all those never-ending fucking commercials, a.k.a. propaganda. I didn't even have any TV channels for almost three years when I lived on my own, before I met my girlfriend. Now she wants TV, but I rarely watch it to this day.

So basically this is now rather a list of a top-10 few shows I actually did watch at some point, but I still managed to try out a bunch more throughout the  years via Netflix, watching with friends and whatnot. But these ten are the shows I remember with most joy.


10. Biker Mice From Mars

This was likely the first show I ever truly loved. I remember in like 1995, as a kid, sitting on the floor before the TV and watching this show in awe. I loved everything about it: they were cool mice-men, rode motorcycles, had attitude, listened to heavy metal, and drank root beer - which in Sweden was dubbed to "läskeblask", meaning soda pop rather than root beer, which I of course thought looked like Coke, which was and still is my favorite drink ever. I guess this show had a great impact on my future, as I grew up listening to metal music and loving motorcycles. My favorite character was Throttle.


9. Hell On Wheels

The latest TV shows I've watched about cowboys. Perhaps not so much about cowboys as I initially had hoped for, but it's still a very interesting show from a historical point of view, and some of the acting is very good as well. A rather underrated TV show in modern TV history, that sadly has gone through a lot of trouble and is now sadly ending after a delayed, but also partially disappointing, last fifth season. My favorite characters are Durant and "the Swede" (who is really Norwegian, and totally hilarious).


8. Prison Break

I watched this faithfully during in its entire original run from 2005-2009. I even remember the third season being delayed and shortened to a half-season in 2007, because the economy crashed and Hollywood was striking, if I remember correctly? Anyway, this show had an an absolutely amazing and thrilling first season with a great plot, characters and MacGuyver-ish solutions for the escape plan. But the show's downfall was in a way it's own name, as a prison break can only go on for so long. The break was done and over by the first season's end, and after that it was just a constant bland soup of repetitiveness and new story turns.

The second season was really an unimaginative and very repetitive 22-episode series of cat-and-mouse play where several characters, including keys, were caught and escaped, over and over by several times. By it's end, some of them went back to (another, more brutal) prison. Season 3 dealt with a prison break from the new prison, which was nowhere near as good or interesting as the first, but managed to at least keep relevant to the series name. Season 4 was the last season and dealt with another irrelevant story line, which only served a few purposes for the story's background to the first imprisonment. Not very interesting or original, to say the least.

Though most people probably didn't reflect on it, this show pretty much doomed itself right from the start by choosing its name. Season 2 were basically cops and robbers, while season 3 only served the show's name and initial story theme half-hearted, while season 4 certainly had gone from Prison Break to Conspiracy Break. Lame. It was sad to follow such a good and promising series just become dull and uninspired, for the money-hungry assholes willing only.

My favorite characters are Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, John Abruzzi, and Alexander Mahone.


7. The Simpsons

Teen cartoons. I kind of started with South Park when I was 12 or so, but later stopped watching it (probably because MTV is gay and stopped airing it just like music), only to later watch The Simpsons daily after school. It's so light, fun, and down-to-earth. I love it still. My favorite characters are Homer, Bart, Otto, Mr. Burns, and Chief Wiggum.


6. Hem Till Midgård

An old Swedish series which in English translates to "Home To Midgard", and is a comedy show about failed vikings. It's rather silly at pretty much all times, holding itself at a rather childish level with a lot of poop jokes and similar themes. But they're so funny in their different personas and how they fight among themselves, not to mention how they always fail at trying to be successful vikings. If you could find it with English subtitles, I'd totally recommend it. My favorite characters are all four of the key characters, they're just so awesome each one of them.


5. Vikings

And another series about vikings, simply called "Vikings", but this time in a serious and historical/educational way. This series is not only good but indeed very educational. I don't quite know how accurate its facts are, but it's interesting to watch and learn anyway. The show also keeps a good pace throughout with a lot of fighting and progression, as well as spontaneous character killings, going on at all times. It's very unpredictable to say the least, but it's also well-acted and looks good - nice settings, scenery, clothing, etc. My favorite characters are Ragnar, Lagertha, and Floki.


4. Miami Vice

I obviously wasn't around when this show originally aired, being born the year after it ended in fact. But my love and fascination for the 1980's grew strong early on with the music, clothing and great movies that decade offered. I started watching Miami Vice when I was 15 and the DVD boxes were released. People were talking about the show as something of the best to come out of that decade, and I understand why. I've seen so many 80's shows like Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., and MacGuyver, and none of those hold up to this day in comparison with Miami Vice.

Now, what made me love this show so much is its way of perfectly put together story with scenery and music. That is also what really makes it hold up to this day, despite it really being overly 80's because of its traits. But, that is also exactly why it's still so good - because it's a great historical documentation about what the 80's were. Well, the American 1980's anyway. Watching this show really gives a nice look into that decade's clothing and car fashion, music, architecture and much else. I can only say that I was born and am young in the wrong era. My favorite characters are Sonny Crockett, Zito and Gina.


3. Married With Children

The first and last sitcom on this list. I never was much for them to be honest. I always found shows like Seinfeld, How I Met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory to be rather boring, while other shows like Friends were a lot better. But Married With Children took the cake for me. It was actually the last show I discovered through TV and started to watch regularly, still to this day. I was talking with my buddy on the phone in 2007 while he suddenly shouted, "dude, turn on channel 6! There's a really hot girl on right now!", and so I did. Kelly Bundy, that's who he meant of course. It was a re-run of one of the earlier seasons, like 1989 maybe, when she was this mega-hot rocker chick with big hair, which I just love. After that, I started watching the series simply because I wanted to see more of her.

Quickly I started to recognize the series from my childhood. It was Al Bundy sitting on that ugly-ass couch that I recognized rather strongly. I must've watched it with my mom or something as a small kid. Anyway, I was turning 17 in late 2007, so I was probably 16 when I first saw this show, and a 16 year old puberty rocker into 80's hair metal girls ... let me tell you, my friends, ... that certainly is something to get the testosterone and hormones going. From that moment and for the two years to come, Kelly Bundy actually became my teenage crush, even though Christina Applegate at the time was pushing 40. But still, her Kelly Bundy character (and appearance) was immortalized in this show, and I was living in my own little made-up 80's world during all my teens.

But looking beyond that, the show was not all about Kelly Bundy, but I actually found it to be a great and fun show as well. All the characters, especially Al, are just hilarious and in many ways even role-models for the common man. In the end, I watched through all the episodes and I still to this day think of Al Bundy in many everyday scenarios, especially when life sucks (haha). I also remember Kelly Bundy as a big part of my later teens, and though she was a fictional character which happened to be my teenage crush (15 years too late, but still), she made a better, not to mention sexier, dream-girlfriend than what my actual girlfriends did during my teens.


2. Game of Thrones

Everybody knows GoT, right? Perhaps not everyone watches it, but they are certainly well aware of it. It's just, like, the biggest show in the world right now, and rightly so if you ask me. Initially it took me like three times trying before I got into it - it was just too many characters and too much blab to go through. But I started to like it eventually. Now I am somewhat of a fanboy over it, despite not having read the books (I hate reading books). I just love the deep characters and unpredictable story, and of course, the sex and violence. My favorite characters are Tyrion, Bronn, the Hound, Oberyn Martell, and Dolorous Edd.


1. Sons of Anarchy

And here we have the king of this list. Like with Game of Thrones, many of you people surely did follow SoA during its run, at least at some point. It had a good seven season long run and ended about a year and a half ago. The biker lifestyle depicted in this show is just very interesting to follow, to me as a motorcycle enthusiast. The acting was also very good most of the times, with only a few very minor character sometimes not being quite up-to-par with the otherwise amazing regular cast. This is the kind of show I'd like to follow, a deep and rich story arc that ends in a bittersweet way.

GTA IV: The Lost and Damned

                  Johnny K. taking The Lost brotherhood into action.

A game with a great story!

A dark mood. A raining Liberty City. Roaring motorcycles in the night. Blazing gunfire in the middle of the streets. An insane gang. This is the Lost motorcycle club.

*Warning! Spoilers!!*

Grand Theft Auto (IV): The Lost and Damned - that is the first episode Rockstar Games put out after the original IV story / game. Its story is based around The Lost motorcycle club in which Johnny Klebitz, the mysterious biker dude from the original story who Playboy X was afraid of, is the vice president as well as the protagonist. Johnny has been in charge while the club's ordinary president, Billy Grey, has been in rehab. When Billy gets out of rehab at the beginning of this story, there's immediate tension within The Lost, especially between Johnny and Billy. Johnny who believes in certain order argues a lot with Billy, who runs the club in anarchy much for his own good and will.

                Billy breaking up the truce between the Lost and the Angels of Death.
                     Left to right: Jason, Johnny, Jim, Billy and two Angels of Death-members.

We get to follow the Lost as they once again fall back into biker-gang warfare after Billy breaks a truce, which was set by Johnny, between the Lost and their rivals Angels of Death. As things progress the tension between Johnny and Billy increases and the gang wars get worse. Johnny starts to find himself kinda lost within his own club but apparently ain't alone. After a while when things are starting to collapse, Billy can't stand Johnny any more and makes a set-up with the triads, to kill Johnny and his friend Jim Fitgerald during a heroin deal. They however manage to escape and fight through lots of triad goons, only to find Billy, who has crashed with his motorcycle, getting caught by the cops. Billy goes into jail and Johnny becomes president once more, but the Lost is split into two factions due to Brian Jeremy, a close friend and supporter of Billy's beliefs, claiming that it was Johnny who set up Billy in order to become chapter president again.

                        Johnny witnesses the arresting of Billy Grey.

Now the Lost are having internal war as well as the gang wars still raging on. Johnny and co. eventually finds Brian and his faction after a tip from the Italian mobster Ray Boccino (from the original IV) and take them down. The Lost, now in bad condition and a lot of members short, start to face the big problem - Billy. Billy is taken into protected custody and is gonna rat on Johnny and Angus, another close friend and fellow member to Johnny. A politician, Thomas Stubbs, who Johnny worked for gives out this information to warn Johnny. Johnny and the remaining members of the Lost then proceed to break into the Alderny State Correctional Facility, where Johnny finds and kills Billy.

                       Johnny proves to be a real dangerous man, blowing the prison gates, going in and 
                       killing Billy Grey inside the prison.

Johnny and the others then go back to the Lost clubhouse, which has been trashed by Ray Boccino's goons for being ripped off by Johnny. He and another hitman of Ray's, Niko Bellic from the original IV, had met up with the Jewish mob to exchange some diamonds for two million dollars. The deal was however ambushed by Luis Lopez (later the protagonist of The Ballad of Gay Tony) who shot and killed two members of the Jewish mob. Niko fled and Johnny managed to take the briefcase full of money before he fled. He never gave them to Ray however, instead keeping them for the Lost and giving them to Jim Fitzgerald, who was later killed by Niko Bellic on orders from Ray Boccino (which originally was to kill Johnny, but he wasn't there when Niko showed).

                        Johnny was put through some bad actions by Billy and didn't get any respect for it.

The Lost brotherhood now mostly destroyed with only a few members left, the loss of several important members such as Billy, Brian, Jason Michaels (killed by Niko Bellic on orders from Mikhail Faustin for Jason dating his daughter) and their friend Jim, and the destroyed clubhouse. Johnny orders the others to burn down the place to "put it out of its misery". The story ends with Johnny and fellow members Terry, Clay and Angus, watching their clubhouse burn down.

                        In the end I think Johnny felt sad and lost. The Lost and Damned = not a happy ending.

In conclusion all I can say about this game / episode is: I LOVE IT! I'm quite a fan of motorcycles and motorcycle gangs. I watch and love the TV-series Sons of Anarchy, which in many ways is similar to The Lost and Damned, or vice versa. I would love to see a movie made based on this story since it's very solid, deep, dark and filled with action. I love the character of Johnny Klebitz who I can relate to in some ways. That's one of the things with the GTA games. Until GTA IV, I couldn't really relate myself to any of the protagonists, which is somewhat boring, but Niko and Johnny are both great characters who I see some of myself in.

Rockstar Games also did something special for this one. They put this noise filter over the picture in this one, making it looking dirty / gritty. Now, I've seen many fans complaining about this, but in my opinion it just adds more feeling to the mood and it's perfect for this game! You can of course turn it off, but some morons don't seem to understand that, or they are too goddamn fucking lazy to get their asses into the options-display menu.

Some of the music is also new in this game. For instance, what kind of music fits the biker culture? Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, yeah? The L.C.H.C. (Liberty City Hard-Core) channel is much better than in IV (I never was a big fan of hardcore(-punk) apart from the N.Y.C. band Cro-Mags), now featuring mostly death metal, but also some black metal. LCR (Liberty City Rock) is also completely new and made me discover old classic acts like Nazareth and Styx, while introducing me to some songs I've missed by bands I've loved for ages, like "Touch Too Much" by AC/DC. It's my new favorite AC/DC song! Also cool that they put some good, old Saxon in it. Kinda wish there was something with Motörhead though, but you can't have everything and I'm glad for that. What joy in life would that give?

It's not exactly a new game anymore, but it's a classic to me, a game I love and have played over and over, and will continue to do. I totally recommend it! The Lost and Damned ROCKS!!