wellRED podcast - Corey’s Favorite Shows Of The 21st Century Part 1: Establishing The Contenders!!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Check, check, check, mic check one, two. It's your boy, Corey Ryan Forster. You are here at Corey Wrightsfor You.com. Here's a little bonus podcast coming at you. So all the rage right now is people giving their rankings of their favorite TV shows ever or discussing the New York Times 100 greatest TV shows of the 21st century. That's very important that you hear me when I say, of the 21st century, because I have seen nothing but people in the comments not understanding what that means.

Starting point is 00:00:41 And it is very important when you're looking at a list of 100 TV shows that are supposedly the greatest, and you don't see the Sopranos in there. Probably should tip you off that you missed something. It probably should be a clue to you that maybe there was a caveat that you missed, but apparently some people can't do that. Because, yeah, obviously, if it was just greatest TV shows of all time, the Sopranos would more than likely be in that number one spot at the bare minimum, at least top three. But I'm not going to get into that right now, because I don't have to.

Starting point is 00:01:25 We're talking about the 21st century. And if you haven't checked out the list, I will provide it here in the description of this podcast so that you can see, you know, where your favorite shows ranked and you can get mad at where these people have put them, as I did a little bit until I sort of figured out, well, number one, A, it's opinions. You know what I mean? It's not like the New York Times has the authority to say objectively, these are the greatest shows of the 21st century. And it wasn't just one dork behind a keyboard. It was apparently the culmination of a ton of people giving their rankings and then them spitting out what happened in the aggregate, I guess.

Starting point is 00:02:18 I don't know. I'm just making up some fancy words that sound correct. You know what I mean? But before we even get to talk, I don't feel like I need to go over their list, really, because if you are a fan of the Dalop Hollywood Hellscapes, me and Burns recorded a 30-minute little bonus episode that is not the normal format of Hollywood Hellscapes. We were just straight up discussing this list and where we thought things should be and things that were too high and things that were too low.

Starting point is 00:02:53 So I'm not going to go over that. What I am going to do is I wanted to make my own list, right? And to make it more bite size, I was thinking, oh, I should do, me and Burns should do like a top 10, you know, make it, make it smaller. And that's when I ran into some trouble because I realized, like, wow, that is very hard. Like, obviously, you'd think, like, on the surface, like, if you had to be. pick your favorite show of all time or what you thought was the best, even that is difficult because, you know, considering it's the 21st century, I'll tell you that their list was,

Starting point is 00:03:32 I think, Breaking Bad number one and the Wire number two. Now, here's the thing, whether I agree with that or not is completely immaterial. Those are picks, though, that, like saying Breaking Bad is your favorite show of all time or is the best show of all time, I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but I certainly cannot argue with it, or I won't argue with it. Does that make sense? Like when people, usually when you're talking about greatest shows of all time and you don't select a century that it has to have come out with, usually it comes down to like the Sopranos and the Wire, or of course in recent years Breaking Bad.

Starting point is 00:04:13 And like it seems like everybody is either a Sopranos or a Wire person. when it comes to what the number one is. And again, I may have my opinion on which one is which, but if you've got one of those in your top spot, I can't argue with it because I flip-flop back and forth all the time on, is it the wire, is it the Sopranos? I will tell you right now, just so y'all can get a little feel for who I am,

Starting point is 00:04:41 I guess as it comes to how I consume media and television shows, I got to give it to the Sopranos over the wire, but just barely. And my reasoning for that is because simply the Sopranos is the funnier of the two shows. Now, I know you might think to yourself, well, Corey, they're not comedies. What does that matter? I know. I hear you that they are not comedy first, but they are both funny.

Starting point is 00:05:09 The Wire is funny. McNulty slings some barbs that are funny. But the Sopranos, I'm telling you, in my opinion, if they had advertised that show as a comedy, I don't think anyone would disagree, whereas the complete opposite happens with shows like The Bear, which I love the Bear. I absolutely love the Bear. Now, full disclosure, I am not caught up on all of the seasons of the Bear. It sort of started hitting a little bit less for me. I'm not saying that makes it a bad show. I'm just saying it did have sort of a fall off for me. and I stopped watching mainly because my wife lost interest and, well, if you've been married,

Starting point is 00:05:52 you understand, you know what I mean? We've only, and we've got a kid, so we've only got so many hours a week that we can dedicate to television. And if there's something that's not really tickling our fancy too much, we will just watch something different, which I know is a foreign concept to so many people. Nobody listening to this podcast, of course, because you all are bright, intelligent people just like I pretend to be, and you understand that you don't have to continue watching something if you don't like it, you can just turn it off. For instance, if you are listening to this podcast

Starting point is 00:06:29 and it does not bring you joy, you can turn it off right now. Can everybody hear that? The sounds of people turning off their phone all at once? I'm just saying, like you can. You don't have to, A, keep listening or watching just because you started it. And you certainly don't have to be, keep listening and watching even though you hate it just so you can go make nasty comments on the internet about how something has fallen off. And I'm not even talking about personally here. I'm talking about I see shit all the time with people, you know, shit talking the bear or shit talking white lotus or this or that. And they're like, the past three seasons have sucked. And I'm like, are you hearing yourself?

Starting point is 00:07:14 The past three seasons have sucked. So something sucked twice and you gave it a third shot. That is on you. Do you know how much great television and movies are out there? You do not have to waste your time on something that you dislike for the love of God. But anyways, that was a long way for me to get to my point of, the bear isn't really that funny and that's not a not the show is still great

Starting point is 00:07:44 it doesn't have to be funny to be great most of my show most of my favorite shows of all time are not comedies but it is presented as a comedy and some people say that that was a trick by the studio to get them more awards which does make sense to me because if you

Starting point is 00:08:03 call that a comedy then all of a sudden it's in comedy categories and as a show if you're not judging it based on the jokes per minute and you're just judging it based on how it is as a show, then yeah, it's going to clean up, you know. But the Sopranos is so goddamn funny. Every single episode, no matter how macabre, morose,

Starting point is 00:08:27 or devastating the storyline is, will have an insane amount of humor in it. And I don't mean like this is a show that's serious but occasionally has comic relief. Like, dude, it's just a comedy. And it's one of the best ones of all time. So that's why, for me, rewatchability, it sort of knocks the wire down to number two. But the wire is firmly number two.

Starting point is 00:08:55 And the gap is not that big at all. And then I guess, well, you know what? We're going to get into it. We're going to get into it because this is the first part of a, I don't know how many parts it's going to take for me to do what I'm trying to do here. is I want to give y'all my top 10, not top 100, although it might end up being a top 100, my top 10, my favorite shows of the 21st century. And please understand that I'm using the term favorite, not best.

Starting point is 00:09:26 I think that's important because I'm not purporting that I have such knowledge of cinema and screenwriting that I can claim something to genuinely be of higher quality than something else. This is an opinion, and therefore I'm going to say favorite. Now, here's where this gets difficult, because before I recorded, right before I recorded, I thought to myself, hey, maybe write them down first before you go because you have a tendency, Corey to just start blabbing and then sort of figure it out as it goes. And let's not do that. Let's actually just sit down and just write it out.

Starting point is 00:10:15 And I was like, here's what you do. Just first shows that come to your head. That's what you're going to write down. And these are in absolutely no particular order because some of them would seem like they're on their higher, but that's just because I may have rewatched them. it's like recency bias or whatever. But like the quickness with which I got to 10 without realizing it is insane because there is so much good television that has come out in the 21st century.

Starting point is 00:10:48 And I genuinely like whittling all of this down into what I think is the top 10 is going to be spiritually one of the hardest things I've ever done. because it means I'm going to have to toss off some things that I really care about that possibly just come in at number 11. So I'm going to read you right now when I started to make this list, and this is more than 10, this is what we have to work with right now that I have to whittle down. This all came out of my brain, I would say, in 45 seconds, right? and, uh, okay, so here we go. And again, in no particular order, madman, breaking bad, scrubs, 30 Rock, True Detective Season 1.

Starting point is 00:11:39 And by the way, there's a caveat there that we will have to come back to. True Detective Season 1. Mind Hunter, six feet under. So, oh, fuck, I think six feet under might have premiered in the 90s. No, no, no, no, it was in the 2000s. Okay. Uh, six feet under, slow horses. Fire, always sunny in Philadelphia.

Starting point is 00:12:00 Veep, the thick of it. Of course, those two, you know, are, the Veep is based on the thick of it, so naturally they came to my mind at the same time. Extras, Derek, afterlife, all three Ricky Jervais shows. Game of Thrones, The Expans, Fleabag, Curbier Enthusiasm, the Dorals of Corfu, for All Mankind, Sugar, Season 1, Severance, Ted Lassow, Chappelle Show, The Good Place, Barry, Louis, billions, peeky blinders, Downton Abbey, the Crown. You can see where Downton Abbey and the Crown would come back and forth. Justified. Doctor Who, the reboot, if we're counting that.

Starting point is 00:12:42 Arrested Development, Fargo, the Office, Parks and Rec, Eastbound and Down, Homeland, Black Mirror, Reacher, Dexter, Deadwood, Rectify, Dairy Girls, House of Cards, Bojack, Castlevania, The Boys, Daredevil, Rick and Morty, severance, I think I put severance on there twice, pluribus, the queen's gambit, I think you should leave, Andor, Loudermilk, the Pit, Catastrophe, and the Great British Baking Show. If I'm not mistaken, and if my math is correct, which ask any of my teachers, it rarely is, that is when you remove severance for being counted twice, that is. 60 shows. And again, that was just word vomit. That was just the top of my head. No thinking about it

Starting point is 00:13:34 whatsoever. I ripped off 60. And I didn't, I only stopped because I was done typing. Like, there was more up in my brain. So like, you know, pretty easy to get to 100 just sitting there off the rip. That's 60. And I've got to whittle it down to 10. And I am absolutely. terrified. I mean, not really. Obviously, I'm being hyperbolic. There are no actual stakes here. But, like, I guess the stakes are, I'm going to put this out, and people are going to judge me, which is, of course, totally fine. But, I mean, Jesus, like, if I listed it, then it has, it deserves, it could possibly deserve to be in my top 10 because I didn't name anything shitty. The one thing as I'm talking that I can tell you a couple here that I know won't make it to the top 10.

Starting point is 00:14:31 Like I put louder milk on there. It was just on the top of my head. I don't know why. Maybe it's just because I had seen something with Ron Livingston in it before I started making the list. Obviously it's a great show. But yeah, it doesn't belong to being the top 10. I think the only thing that I can do right now on this first parter is give a couple of stone coal. locks, you know, ones that I know for a fact will make the cut, for me at least personally.

Starting point is 00:15:03 And those shows, God damn it, we might end up just making the top 10 here, but I can't, I still, I feel like I need at least another night with it. And I also want to hear y'all's comments. I want to hear everybody's comments in the comment section, not only talking about shows that I've listed here that you think should have been a lock, or shows that I've missed because I know I've missed plenty that are deserving because, again, it was just right off the top of my head. But if I had to go through here and go, okay, here's, I'm going to pick three lock, you know, I mean, justified to me is a lock. That is going to be in the top 10. Like, I just feel like there's no way I'm going to get through this and say that there are

Starting point is 00:15:51 90 other shows better than justified. For me personally, I don't see how it can happen. I also think that Breaking Bad has to be a lock. It's got to be in the top 10, if not number one, considering the Sopranos is out of the mix, right? Although, of course, the wire's still in here. It's so wild because the wire feels like it came out in the 90s. It very much feels like it came out at the exact same time as the Sopranos, but it did not.

Starting point is 00:16:24 And here's another lock, if we are using New York Times rules, because I thought this was, this was controversial, at least to me, they put in their list at number 30, mind you, I think it was number 30, True Detective Season 1. Now, that feels like it should be against the rules that they arbitrarily made up. But, like, they're singling out a season, right? And that doesn't seem fair. And I thought to myself, well, you know, here's the deal. If you are doing that, like, if you are saying, hey, we can select individual.

Starting point is 00:17:01 Now, I know it's an anthology. So that does make it different. But if that's part of the rules, because to me, you would think that in order to make the top 100 shows list, you've got to, you've got to think of, like, not just, how hard a single season hits, but like the totality of the show, like it's staying power, which is why like, it's always sunny in Philadelphia,

Starting point is 00:17:24 there's an argument to be made for it because it's on like, what, season 16 and they're still crushing it? You know, like, hell, if this went into the 90s, South Park would have to be in the top 10 because they're on season, God knows what, and they're still crushing it.

Starting point is 00:17:39 We're talking about the totality of the thing. But since New York Times, clearly has decided that they don't have to do that, and they can pick just one season of an anthology, then I'm going to say that I can too. And frankly, if that's the case, then True Detective Season 1 is number one. It is a lock at number one.

Starting point is 00:18:01 And I would never have said True Detective is my favorite show of all time, because in my brain I would be thinking about the whole thing. And obviously, there was a bit of a fall off. Now, when I say there, was a bit of a fall-off, I kind of almost just mean night country, which by the way, please guys don't come at me for being like, oh, really, Corey, the first true detective that featured a female lead and some natives, really? Okay, to defend myself, for, I don't have to defend myself. The show, it was, it didn't hit. But I don't know if y'all know this. That show actually

Starting point is 00:18:37 was written as a completely separate other thing. Like, it was not written to be a a true detective show. And I think at some point when they were pitching it or whatever, it was told to them like, hey, if you just make this the fourth entry to the true detective anthology, then it will get greenlit.

Starting point is 00:18:57 And they did. So like, that's why it doesn't feel like a true detective show because it wasn't. But like my thing with true detective, season one, to me, in arguably,

Starting point is 00:19:07 the greatest single season of television of all time. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched that. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey have the greatest chemistry of all time. That show, and that show can be funny too. Now, it is definitely dark and serious first, but it definitely has comic elements. And none of that is really on the page. You know what I mean? There's no jokes on the page. The comedy comes from the chemistry between Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. and I personally believe that season two of True Detective is absolutely fine. A lot of people talk about how much it sucks.

Starting point is 00:19:46 And in my opinion, and, you know, don't shoot the messenger or just don't shoot me. Don't shoot anybody, would you? Would you please not shoot anybody unless they're like, you know, the CEO of Palantir or some shit like that? Just don't do it. But I think personally, if season two of True Detective had have come out first, or if it had been just a completely different show and it didn't have the true detective mantle on it, that I think most people would really, really dig it. I think it just suffered from having to go follow true detective season one. And true detective season three, I think,

Starting point is 00:20:28 and not completely back to form, because like I said, nothing beats true detective season one. But true detective season three was great. So true detective, Season 1, arguably the greatest single season of all time. True Detective Season 2, pretty damn good and fine, unless you're trying to compare it to the first one. And three, really great. So the only entry in the true detective world that makes the show overall slack is four. And like I said, it wasn't even written to be true detective, so I don't count it.

Starting point is 00:20:59 But my point is, if they are clearly not going on the totality of the show, they're only going with a single season. And so for that reason, it being at number 30 is insane to me, because there are not 29 shows better than the first season of True Detective, period. So that's a lock for me. True Detective Season 1 is a lock probably at number one, unless when I'm furthering in this however many parts podcast decide that I have to put caveats in there, or I make up some arbitrary rules or whatever. That's number one. And as I said, breaking bad is also a lock.

Starting point is 00:21:42 It has to be. And for me, Mad Men probably also a lock. It has to be. The wire, probably a lock. Has to be. Damn, now we're at four. And I'm super getting scared. And what's crazy is, dude, what's really crazy is that, like, it took me a minute to think

Starting point is 00:22:00 of Game of Thrones because, and you look, man, I'm not a hater. Making television is insanely hard. I know I couldn't have done a better job. But like, you know, we all know it's been publicly talked about many times the fall off of not just season eight, but season seven, too. And mainly because, I don't care who you are, it's because they ran out of source material. They went past the books. And so much of the magic was George R.R. Martin.

Starting point is 00:22:29 Obviously, the, you know, George R. Martin's words wouldn't have meant, shit if they were put in the mouths of terrible actors and everybody on that show was an absolute banger. But Game of Thrones culturally has just, it's insane. It's insane. Like if you went back in time and told me, hey, one day people aren't going to talk about Game of Thrones as much and they're definitely not going to talk about it the way we're talking about it now, I would have been blown away. I would have been blown. Like, if you told me that come season six, I'd be like, there's no way. I was like, dude, no matter what happens, I mean, it's already six of the greatest episodes of television or seasons of television ever. There's no way. But like, I want to sit here

Starting point is 00:23:17 and say that Game of Thrones is a lock, but considering, I'll give it a lock right now. And then in part two, I'm going to listen back to this. And we will see where I stand. Downton Abbey is a hard lock for me. And again, this is where I must remind you that I'm considering this my favorite, not the best. Because I'm not going to sit here and argue with people that Downton Abbey is the best. But as far as favorite goes, it is a total lock for me in my top 10. It would be disingenuous if I did not include it. I mean, I've seen every episode multiple times when me and my sister are hanging out and we don't know what to do. We throw on Downton Abbey. it is one of the very few shows.

Starting point is 00:24:03 Well, I say few. Well, it kickstarted sort of me and my mother being able to relate to each other as it, when it comes to TV, because we both really like that show. And then turns out we were Anglophiles, at least in the sense of their television, that we still to this day bond over British TV shows. whenever there's a new British TV show that drops, it's pretty much a race between me and my mom to see which one of us watches it first

Starting point is 00:24:34 and reports it back to the other one. And so because of that, the show is very important to me, but also the writing, Julian Fellows, I mean, if you don't know anything about Julian Fellows or Downton Abbey, all I need to tell you is he's also the dude that wrote Gosford Park and won the Academy Award, I believe. So the dude's a brilliant writer. The show is just amazing.

Starting point is 00:24:56 the way that they are able to give as much time to the upstairs folks as they are the downstairs folks and as expertly as they make those storylines interweave. It is just a masterpiece, and that's why it comes on PBS masterpiece by God. So that's a lock. I don't remember if I already said the wire is a lock, but obviously the wire is a lock. I don't think I should have to say that. Like obviously the wire is a huge lock. And for my last lock, I don't know how many this has been.

Starting point is 00:25:31 I may have put too many locks in. But for my last lock, I will go with the first comedy that I will have selected here. And that is Eastbound and Down. Now, if you're allowed to do like they did in New York, I know it's not an anthology, but every season of Eastbound and Down does feel so insanely different. Like it's not an anthology. It's obviously the same characters, but like every single season is so completely different for good or for worse. Like, I love the swings that they took.

Starting point is 00:26:04 But season one of Eastbound and Down is very quite possibly the single greatest season of a comedian show of a comedy show of all time. It's just unreal. I could go on and on and on about it, but I'm going to save that for when I finally get my, my picks in and we I break them down and talk about why they are my picks. So there you go. Those are the locks. Those are the ones that I know for a fact will be on that top 10. So the pressure now is to find out what the remaining five are or four. And just to refresh your memory, I'm going to say the list once again, these are just the ones that came off the top of my head. So please feel free to shoot me a comment saying, what about this? And I will happily add it to our ongoing list,

Starting point is 00:27:00 and I will put this list in the description. Off the top of my head, the best shows of the 21st century were Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Scrubs, 30 Rock, True Detective Season 1, Mine Hunter. See, oh, fuck, Mind Hunter, might have to be a log. Mine Hunter, six feet under, slow horses, the wire, always sunny in Philadelphia, a veep, the thick of it, extras, Derek, after. Life, Game of Thrones, The Expans, Flea Bag, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Dorals of Corfu, For All Mankind, Sugar Season 1, Severance, Ted Lasso, Chappelle Show, The Good Place, Barry, Louis, billions, peekie blinders, Downton Abbey, the Crown, Justified, Doctor Who, Arrested Development, Fargo, the office, parks and wreck, eastbound and down, homeland, black mirror, reacher,

Starting point is 00:27:48 Dexter, Deadwood, rectified, dairy girls, House of Cards, Bojack, Horseman, Castle The Boys, Daredevil, Rick and Morty, Severance, Pluribus, the Queen's Gambit, I think you should leave, and or, Loudermilk, The Pit, Catastrophe, and the Great British Baking Show. So there you go. There's part one of at least a two-parter, and the second part is going to be heavily influenced by what all you people say in the comment section here. Any shows that you think I missed?

Starting point is 00:28:24 any shows that you think, wow, Corey, really? That is something that you like. We're all having fun here. You know, it's fine to criticize people for their interest in television so long as you do it lighthearted and don't think that it says something negative about that person for the love of God. We're all just having a blast here. So please comment away in the comment sections here on Substack, A.K. Corey writes for you.com.

Starting point is 00:28:56 If for some reason, and this is very possible, I put this out anywhere else, you can either leave the comments in the, I don't know if it's on Spotify or if it's YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or whatever, leave the comments. Also, as always, you can send me an email at buttercream Corey at gmail.com. That's buttercream Corey. C-O-R-E-Y is how you spell Corey. buttercream Corey at gmail.com, send me your list of your top 10 favorite shows, started discussion with me about some of the things I've mentioned, and I've told y'all,

Starting point is 00:29:36 feel free to send me an email with a story that you would like to be shared. You know, we do that on putting on airs all the time with airmail, and people like to be heard. So if you've got a story that you would like me to share on a podcast, maybe we'll try to figure out like a weekly or biweekly segment, like a mailbag show or whatever, that we can talk. I really enjoy building this community. I'm on like a first name basis with half of y'all and y'all feel like family to me. I really, and then speaking to the substack people personally, if you're not on substack, please subscribe at coryritesforyou.com.

Starting point is 00:30:15 That's my substack. And I really like to think that we have built like a little community slash family there. and I truly enjoy it. Like, I share parts of my life in the substack chat that I would never share on regular social media because I feel comfortable with all of the people in it. And y'all are just lovely folks. And remember, everything on CoreyRights for You.com

Starting point is 00:30:38 can be accessed completely for free. But if you want to pay me $5 a month, you totally can. You can upgrade your membership to a paid membership. I said this a while back, but by this time next year, it keeps being pushed forward, but it's still true. If by this time next year, I can double my paid subscribers, then I will be able to afford to basically just do this. And by this, I mean, add more podcasts, have more time for writing, more time for narrative fiction, more time for audio dramas. My wife would be able to stop working so that she could watch my son while I work.

Starting point is 00:31:19 worked instead of her being at work and me. And by the way, I'm still, please don't think that I'm thinking, my wife can be off that way. I don't ever have to hang out with my kid anymore. Hanging out with my child is a luxury. And really not a sacrifice in terms of my mood, but it is a sacrifice in terms of the amount of stuff I'm able to get done. I'm just not playing with a full deck of hours like a lot of people are. So appreciate y'all. Subscribe. And if you don't like a, if you don't like a recurring payment, you can also just tip me, PBS style, on PayPal at buttercream Corey at gmail.com or on Venmo at Buttercream Corey. And those will be in the description as well. Thank y'all very much. I love you. I'll see you next time. Bain, tell everybody bye. Bye.

Starting point is 00:32:09 Thank you, buddy. Good job.

wellRED podcast - Corey’s Favorite Shows Of The 21st Century Part 1: Establishing The Contenders!!

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