For me, its Xena.
Few years back, height of covid epidemic, was living in homeless shelters. Overcrowded slums, everyone miserable, yelling, screaming, fights, abuse, rage. At one point, could feel the anger building in me. Powerless, a victim, desire for retribution. What good was trying to be better person, when all it meant was people walking over me.
Started rewatching xena, hadn’t in years. Big message of the show: when surrounded by hate, violence, it’s tempting to give in, to not be a victim. But you have a choice, to not continue the cycle, to make a better world. I so needed to hear that message at that time in my life.
What tv show helped you?
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All of the Star Trek show, especially TNG, Voyager and Emterprise, because I’ve watched them so many times when I was a kid at my grandparent’s house.
I was fascinated by the various captains. They were always so smart, capable, full of resources, curious, charismatic and generally great leaders, mostly coherent with their morals. They were basically badass scientist explorers and I identified so much with them without even realizing it.
Now whenever I find myself in any leadership position, I ask myself what they would do. I could choose to be logical and intellectual like Picard, empathetic like Janeway or brave like Archer. This shaped me more than I could ever imagine.
That’s weird, I think of Janeway as the least empathetic captain. She denied the doctor’s humanity against his will, and gave 7/9 humanity by force without trying to understand its own perspective.
🖖
Stargate SG-1
Indeed.
Stargate reminds us that we are all just bumbling, falliable humans just trying to survive, learn, and grow in a mysterious and sometimes frightning universe full of evil parasitic aliens.
Also that the very young do not always do as they are told.
The Good Place.
That show is so good! But the ending fucked me up for like a week.
Also, how are you watching Xena? I used to love that show when I was a kid!
Have an external hard drive filled with tv shows, been collecting for years. Most via torrents.
The way to go these days. Arrr!
That is my answer too! The ending is the only media I’ve ever seen that comes close to my own philosophy/beliefs about the afterlife. I think about the different philosophies the show presented all the time, and especially wonder “how many points would I get/lose if I do this” lol
The Good Place. My wife and I were going through some spiritual crisis as we were questioning Mormonism. We started watching the Good Place, not really knowing what it was. The philosophy and comedy came at just the right time. It’s a great show.
Out of curiosity, are you still a practicing Mormon?
No. Both of us are out, it’s wonderful.
Whose Line is it Anyway. It got me interested in improv, which has become something I enjoy doing.
Arcane. Hands down 10/10 on practically every possible metric, but the thing that really got me was the way they portray trauma and the subsequent impact on mental health. I work with folks who have experienced trauma and I thought this was one of the best depictions of the aftermath I had ever seen in media.
Also, this is a perfect depiction of a Greek tragedy, in the sense that everything ends in tragedy not despite, but because of everyone’s best intentions. As the story unfolds you understand everyone’s motivations and they all make sense. There’s no perfectly good or bad characters, just a lot of people doing the best they can with the cards they were dealt.
Firefly helped me realize perceptions are just that and don’t have much bearing on people, also that there is a liminal space between society and revolutionaries.
Deadwood helped me understand that personalities are expressed, refined philosophies.
Cowboy bebop reminded me how dreams and life are made of the same stuff and that nothing is permanent, stagnant or impossible.
Scrubs - landed at just the right time for me, fresh out of school and working through first real job/relationship. While my mates and I aren’t Turk n JD close, we were closer than the typical dude-bro stereotype of the time and it felt like this show just made it a lot easier to love your best mate without the homophobic shame BS!
Silicon valley
I totally relate with gifoyle a lot
Martin Starr kicks ass
You might also check out Freaks and Geeks if you haven’t already (you probably have).
It is so sad we only got one season. That show was too ahead of its time, it would be an absolute hit if it came out today
all right jill-foyle
Mr. Wizard’s World. MacGyver. The A-Team.
And all the cooking shows on PBS in the 80s.I’ve always been someone to tinker and break things apart to create new things. I’ve always been a problem solver.
Oh - and I pretty much got my entire sense of humor from Three’s Company, Mork and Mindy, Cheers, and Mash.
Twin Peaks
Star Trek TNG
MASH, is a show that always makes me laugh. It’s also taught me to appreciate the things I have, because the characters in the show don’t have much, but they still find ways to have fun.
I’m surprised this doesn’t have more votes. MASH was just full of great episodes. Including probably the greatest series finale of all time. Just incredible.
I’ve been rewatching it and besides Corporal Klinger’s ongoing cross dressing gag being overly transphobic it’s still pretty good. Plus they got him out of drag eventually and even manages to be trans-sensitive, for the time. Still completely unacceptable these days but it was a very different time. I think it also shows how far we’ve grown.
How was it transphobic? The whole entire show is extremely critical of the wars (Vietnam in theory, and Korea in practice), the military, and the state of society in general.
Stating that it’s transphobic because it just depicts a common practice of draftees seeking non-dishonorable discharge is like stating “Get Out” is a racist movie because it depicts racism.
The only hate ever depicted towards Klinger is by characters that are considered antagonistic. Not to mention the multiple plotlines that are extremely supportive of homosexual characters.
Save for the first three seasons with Hawkeye and Trapper’s overt “womanizing”, it’s an extremely woke show even by today’s standards. Alda even spoke out against his character being written as such. At most, it’s fairly misogynistic. I’m not really sure how you come up with transphobic though, unless you haven’t really watched it.
Mr. Robot; showing the worse of humanity, how far people will go corrupting once held morals the whole way. Not being able to understand oneself or the people around them, but still wanting and hoping to see people enjoy life.
I believe the series ended on a great note, though some may disagree.
That show felt like a weird acid trip. The constant whiplash when you realise he’s been delusional about something completely threw me (in a good way!).
I’ll have to watch it again cos it was a fantastic show and really well made.
Awesome show. Yeah, I’m a bit iffy about how it ended, but it could’ve been so much worse.
One of, if not my favorite shows ever. I don’t understand why so many people I know are entirely dismissive of it. The hacking is accurate, the characters are compelling, and the plotline is amazing. It inspired me to get into Cybersecurity.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Just a damned good show all around that showed younger me a lot of what makes compelling stories work.
Such a great show, only seen it first nearing my 40’s. Beautiful
I used to have a lot of anxiety and trouble sleeping. I watched this show every night to fall asleep. It has become one of my most cherished shows.
I have not watched it in years, but I think it is time for a rewatch. I think it just got added to netflix in the country where I live.
I love the ending of that show. When he does kill the Fire Lord resonated with me a lot.
The Bermaga-Era Star Treks (TNG-ENT). For better or worse, they were some of the best television made in that time, and a guiding light for morality, ethics, and hope for what the best of humanity can be. Eventually…
Ya know, after we nearly annihilate ourselves in a few decades in WWIII, then invent warp drive, get visited by aliens, and decide to form a democratic socialist world government that puts the worst mistakes of humanity behind us so that we can finally begin exploring the stars.
It doesn’t get mentioned much outside that one movie, but all that has to happen first before humanity gets over its collective bullshit. I’ll probably be dead by then, though.
