Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 13)

Well, it took much longer than I expected but we've finally reached the top five. So, without further ado, my five favorite TV series (adhering to the rules found here) of all time:

5. Sports Night: I caught this show on reruns on Comedy Central. It was an odd fit for the network because, despite the abhorrent presence of an , ugh, laugh track in the first season and the fact that its episodes are only a half hour in length this show isn't really a sitcom. Sure there are comedic moments but no more than any other Aaron Sorkin television series. It's really a drama about the life and times of the cast and crew running a SportsCenter-esque show aptly labeled "Sports Night."
I’ve heard some criticize the show for not being a realistic take on how a sports show is produced but, in my opinion, that makes it no different than any other TV show depicting anything ever. Regardless of how closely it mimics actual TV production the fact is every episode enthralled me. The storylines were interesting and the acting was superb. Sports Night could seamlessly bounce from comedy to drama to social commentary. It's true that whatever social/political topic discussed on the show generally leaned towards my liberal bias (as most Sorkin written media does) but, at the same time, this is MY list of favorite television shows so leaning towards my biases can only help your ranking.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 12)

It's been longer then usual for me to get back to these posts. I've been busy and lazy and there are other reasons. But the important thing is I'm back!
In this installment I'll go over some shows that I finished watching after I made my rankings and where they would fit if I ranked them. Looking at them I see all but one is animated. Not sure what that says about me...:

55 1/2 (between My Own Worst Enemy and Invasion). Durarara!!: Oh boy. When I saw previews for this anime all it focused on was a humanoid creature partially made of dark mist riding a motorcycle. It was like a cross between the Lost smoke monster and Ghost Rider. I thought it could be interesting.
What I got was a cross between Saved by the Bell, West Side Story and Lost. The show seems to focus on society, high school and online communication or...something. I gotta be honest, I never quite grasped what the hell this show was trying to say to me.
All I know is this is a show that involves a kid starting a gang though an online forum, another kid starting a more traditional gang that fights with the first gang, a chick possessed by an evil, sentient dagger, a dude who doesn't feel pain which enables him to be super strong, an Irish fairy searching for her head in Japan and a guy trying to control them all in order to start the apocalypse. Imagine all of that put together as boringly and convoluted as possible.
Boring and convoluted is a self perpetuating downward spiral for a series. The more boring a show is the easier it is to become convoluted because if I'm bored then I pay less attention and don't even try to figure out what's going on.
Anyway, after that ringing endorsement if you feel like checking this series out please let me know what the point of this show was because I have no idea.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 11)

A Happy New Year to all! We've reached the top 10 of my rankings and we have some good, quality shows. They are also very different from one another. Which just confirms for me that, regardless of subject matter, if you have a quality, interesting show I can like it. As always, the rules to my list are here:

10. Law and Order: Bum bum. This is a police procedural that generally goes against what I like in a television show. It's very episodic with no story arcs and very little character development. Oddly enough, the episodes that delve into a police officer's or D.A.'s personal life are my least favorite. For this series, I just want straight plot. Give me you're case of the week and your twists and turns and then wrap it all up (in some manner) by the end of the hour. Everyone walks away happy.
This show can be extremely entertaining and certainly isn't opposed to tackling more sensitive issues. It generally tries to be fair to both sides of an issue but whether it's successful at doing that is...open for debate.
When the show got into its later years it tended to go off the rails. The twists in the cases were very forced and could be so bizarre you wanted to bang your head against the wall. But earlier episodes of the series are phenomenal.
This show really rates so high on my list for one reason and one reason only. If I see the first five minutes of an episode I'm stuck watching the entire thing. I have no choice! I get hooked that quickly. So if there's a weekend marathon of the show...let's just say I'm not very productive that weekend.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 10)

Yup, it's been a while. I swear I'm trying to post more regularly but life has a tendency to get in the way.

This week we have 15 through 11. There are some interesting rankings here. One series was incredibly hard for me to rank. You're also going to find that quality (well, what I believe to be quality) can trump subject matter. But first, if you don't know the history of these rankings then you should go here. Now, on with the show:

15. Lost:

Sigh. What can I say about this show? I could write a novel. Did I rank it too high? Probably. Considering how obsessed I was with this show while it was on the air maybe I ranked it too low? All I know is if in the midst of season four you told me that this show wouldn't crack my top five series of all time I would have said they must have really screwed up the ending. Guess what? They really screwed up the ending.

And that's the debate. This show was good on so many levels but the ending was flat out unacceptable. (Actually, I liked the final episode but that was only because I already knew I wasn't going to get the answers I wanted.) My main impetus for watching this show were the mysteries revolving around the island the characters were marooned on. First and foremost, I wanted answers. I didn't get a satisfactory answer to any of the big questions.

At the same time it was one hell of a ride leading up to that disappointment. The acting was superb and Lost had some individual moments that may never be topped by another television series. So while the series as a whole left me feeling unsatisfied it was can't miss television for me while on the air. However, I'm not sure I could ever go back and rewatch Lost. I think I would get to angry.

So, when it comes to ranking this show I was very conflicted. But this is where I put it. Talk to me tomorrow and I may knock it down ten spots.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 9)

It's the the top 20! Huzzah! We're getting to some quality shows and one that can definitely be labeled a classic. Not much more of an intro in this post, but, as always, the rules to my list are here:

20. Todd McFarlane's Spawn: Al Simmons made a deal with the devil and it went about as well as...actually it went a little better than most deals with the devil. Not to say there weren't Catch 22s but he did get super powers. You don't want to know what I'd do to get super powers.

Spawn was an animated HBO show based on the Image comic book of the same name. It is dark, gritty and filled with adult situations. And not just Skinemax adult situations. This is a series that dealt with some heavy and disturbing stuff. But watching a man battle evil demons and protect a family that believes him dead and has moved on is interesting. It's too bad that this series ended after the third season right when an apocalyptic war between heaven and hell was promised.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 8)

If you've been paying attention to these posts you've seen that at the end of a post I preview the upcoming shows for the next post. However, the last post's preview will now be wrong because I decided to call an audible.
I didn't want to make changes to the list after I initially started but I kept looking at what was coming up and I knew I had change it. It was bothering me too much. However, I probably could have gotten away without mentioning it because my last rankings post was two months ago. Two months! I surprised even myself when I discovered that. No more delays, let's get to the rankings (as always, the rules to my list are here):

25. Deadly Games: Dr. Gus Lloyd is a video game designer who creates a virtual reality game where he's the hero saving a heroine modeled after the ex-wife he still loves from various baddies modeled after people he doesn't like in his real life. Shockingly, after a laboratory mishap the video game characters come to life and go after his real life ex-wife. So it's up to Gus to save his ex-wife from various video game villains of his creation.
Let's face it, this show was made for me...especially 14 year old me. Unfortunately this show came out when special effects on TV shows, especially a UPN show on a tight budget, were lacking. But I still appreciated this show. How can you not like the camp value of villains like "The Boss" (modeled after Gus's first boss) who is vulnerable to red ink or "The Orthodontist" whose weakness is sugar? I was sad to see this show only last 13 episodes but, surprisingly enough, it actually had a bit of resolution!

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 6)

Well, I'm still slogging through my ranking of television series. The bad news? More series that are fair to midland. The good news? We're dangerously close to television shows I'd actually recommend! (And maybe series you've heard of.) Actually, I'm fairly confident there's a couple series here people have heard of.  As always, if you're unfamiliar with these posts, check out the introduction here.

35. The Tomorrow People: A bunch of kids are the next stage in human evolution...or maybe they're aliens? I kind of forget. But they have telepathic powers and can teleport. So that's cool.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 5)

More rankings! This week I'm revealing numbers 40 through 36. As you'll soon find out, two more anime series appear in this section. It got me to thinking about the fact that, without counting, there's a lot of anime on my list.

The reason is two fold. One, I like anime. Two, anime is usually much shorter of a series than American television series. This enables me to watch more of them. And while I don't necessarily need to see an entire series to rank it, I do like to see a majority of a series so I can get a good feel for a show. That's much easier to do when your series is 26 episodes long instead of 180 episodes. So the relatively small amount of episodes gives anime the advantage in terms of bulk number on my list.

However, I also feel that anime has an advantage to make it higher on my list. That's because it's easier to make every installment of a 26 episode series higher quality and it's easier to give the entire series a cohesive narrative.

If you're a long running television show you are definitely going to have some poor episodes and, hell, even poor seasons. And if your show has no definitive end date then it's damn near impossible to have an overarching narrative for the entire series.

Basically, this is a long winded way of saying that, for my tastes, relatively short series with a predetermined end date have all the advantages.

On to the rankings. As always, if you're unfamiliar with these posts, check out the introduction here.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 4)

Yes, I'm back and I'm still ranking. I'm unsure how to begin these posts so we'll just get right to the ranking. Maybe I'll come up with a better introduction next time....but that would require me not to be lazy. As always, if you're unfamiliar with these posts, check out the introduction here.

45. FlashForward: An intriguing premise. The entire world blacks out for 137 seconds and during this period they see a brief glimpse of their future. Naturally, global devastation occurs because of the blackouts and everyone's lives have changed because of what they saw.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 3)

Yup, I'm still ranking every TV series I've ever seen....details here.

We're still near the bottom of the list, so there's some more lesser known shows...but here we go:

50. Hellsing: A vampire series before vampires were cool...or before they were lame? Well, all I know is they didn't sparkle.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta (Part 2)

Remember me? Yeah, me neither. Remember my posts ranking every (non-comedy/non-reality) show ever? Yeah, me neither. But I'll continue it on anyway.
If you forgot the rules, check them out here.

Dr. Bitz Ranks Every Television Series Ever...Sorta

One of the best television shows ever has come to an end this year (three different times depending on how/when you were watching it). The show was Friday Night Lights. It got me to thinking of where it ranks among all other television series I've watched.

So, long story short, I decided to rank every show I've ever watched. So, after going through the process of finding/remembering all television series I've seen and then ranking them, I've finally compiled a list.