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?
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!
One of the best-written series finales I’ve seen in a long time, but I know, that scene with the wave in the ocean, so bittersweet.
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
Yeah, I ugly cried for a good 30 minutes from the end of The Good Place. It was excellent but it hit me really hard.
Oddly enough the good place and Bojack horseman were ending around the same week, so I watched both finales back to back and I assumed I’d be sad after Bojack but the good place is what really made me an emotional mess. It was so good. Also I suggest the podcast. Host by marc Evan jackson(he plays Shawn) he is so good as a podcast host that I feel like he needs to do so more often.
With Bojack, the last episode was a nice ending that wasn’t a full ending for the characters, rather a catharsis. The second-to-last episode gave me existential dread I haven’t felt before or since.
Currently rewatching the Good Place (mid season 2). So good.
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.
Dark really sucks me into a dark damp place that is just really calming when I’m feeling down.
Dark really sucks me into a dark damp place
Very few places are darker or damper than Winden!
Yea, I love rain movies and on the second episode of dark I was like, oh is this whole place just raining all the time? I love it. Just started it this week, coincidentally, I’m only on episode 5
You’re in for quite a ride.
Hands down, best show on Netflix.
If I had to pick three things in my life to experience for the first time again Dark would be in the top three.
Star Trek, of course. Especially TNG has been the best role model for humanity that’s ever been on TV.
Yeah, TNG was the most inspiring, Captain Picard always commanded with integrity. The only time I can recall he disappointed me was when he sent Ro to spy and pushed her to do things she wasn’t comfortable with.
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.
I’m interested in your comment about perceptions, could you unpack that a little more?
Your comment about Deadwood is resonating hard with me. Very well articulated, thank you.
Sliders. One of those accessible sci-fi shows that helped instill a love of the genre
Loved this show. Started to go downhill when they introduced those nazi aliens though. And without John Rhys-Davis it wasn’t the same anymore…
Twin Peaks
Star Trek TNG
Yesssss.
I remember taking part and reading up on the megathreads on r/twinpeaks during the airing of season 3.
Stargate SG-1
Indeed.
Same. This show had such a massive impact on the way I think and feel that I can still see the effects 20 years later.
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 to their morals. They were basically badass scientist explorers and I identified so much with them without even realizing them.
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.
I’m not even kidding but planet earth the original series. I learned some life lessons from that one surprisingly.
Babylon 5! I was born in 94, when it premiered and have always watched it (along with Star Trek). It was one of the first shows that really pushed the continuous plot over serialized and it makes rewatches a game of finding the hints.
I’ve said before that Babylon 5 is the more realistic depiction of if we had made contact with aliens over star trek (at least the early ones), but the heros are still that.
I am curious where the down votes came from. I hope no one thought I was disparaging Star Trek. I love em both, they’re just different.
Babylon 5! I was born in 94, … It was one of the first shows that really pushed the continuous plot over serialized
Uhh… no. Dallas and other soap operas had long and convoluted plots decades before. One entire season was just a dream!
It’s pretty obvious that you’re under 30.
That and I don’t watch soap operas other than S.O.A.P. It’s a very different genre, but it has been called an opera in space before, so you’ve got that haha
Edit; I also has said ‘one of the first’ so non definitive. I just meant in terms of ‘prime-time television’. It seems like people didn’t like that.
A newer show that hit me a bit hard is Pantheon, it’s sci-fi with a premise on AI, government and business control, cults, and has great animation.
X Files - scared the crap out of me. Wasn’t a fan of aliens and screw that one episode with the inbred family.
The expanse. Battlestar Galactica. Just how wild things get and the whole “what if” factor of where society is headed and what could be in the black beyond.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
This and Steven Universe for me.
