Why Some Shows Are Canon and Others Don’t Deserve Oxygen
Everyone watches television at some point in their life. That alone doesn’t make someone discerning, it just makes them present in modern society. What does separate people is how seriously they take what they watch, how critically they think about it, and whether they’re willing to admit that not everything deserves praise just because it exists or was popular at some point.
I don’t watch TV casually and I don’t background it for my favorites. I don’t give shows credit for nostalgia, awards, hype cycles, or cultural pressure. What follows is a deliberate ranking based on consistency, ambition, character work, narrative payoff, and whether a show actually respects the intelligence of its audience.
What you’re about to read is my TV taste, fully exposed.
This list is not a popularity contest, it’s not a “must‑watch” guide IMHO. It’s a reflection of how television lands with me, what earns loyalty, what earns tolerance, and what doesn’t earn my time at all. I tier my shows from *S through D. Anything that would fall into F‑tier doesn’t appear here, because if a show is genuinely horrid, mentioning it is already giving it more consideration than it deserves.
This is my TV Brain, Fully Exposed
The list below is a ranking built on consistency, ambition, character work, narrative payoff, and whether a show actually respects the viewer’s intelligence. I tier my shows from *S through D and I don’t even bother listing F‑tier shows because that would be a waste of all our time…
What *S‑Tier Really Means
*S‑tier isn’t “really good.” It’s the set of untouchable and irreplaceable shows that either redefined television, executed their concept at an elite level, or earned long‑term loyalty through character arcs and world‑building that actually go somewhere.
- Breaking Bad sits at the top because it’s the gold standard. No wasted seasons, no filler arcs, no tonal confusion.
- Better Call Saul proves that lightning can strike twice if you’re disciplined enough to do it right.
- Dexter (OG run, revival included) earns its place because it’s bold, character‑driven, and thrives in moral gray areas.
I gravitate toward protagonists who aren’t clean, and I don’t need them to be redeemed, just intriguing and interesting. This is why shows like Ozark, The Americans, and Halt and Catch Fire live here too. Consequences matter and character evolution is earned, not rushed or reset between seasons.
And of course, yes, The Walking Dead and its best spinoffs are S‑tier for me. Not because they’re perfect, but because when they’re on, they commit. Long‑form survival storytelling lives or dies by character attachment, and at its peak, that universe nailed it. Give me mystery, mythology, unanswered questions, of course those shows that are clearly going somewhere.
The X‑Files (both OG and reboot), Lost, Fringe, The OA, Stranger Things, Westworld are all shows that trusted their audience to keep up and pay close attention.
- Did they all stick the landing perfectly? Um, not exactly.
- Do I still respect the hell out of the attempt? Absolutely.
I’ll take a flawed swing over a safe, forgettable hit every time. Black Mirror belongs in S‑tier specifically because it understands restraint. When it’s good, it’s devastating and when it’s average, it’s still smarter than 90% of what’s airing.
Comedy Has a High Bar for Me
Comedy is harder than drama for me to attach on to, I’m picky. The Office, Parks and Recreation, Community, Monk, Chuck work for me brain because the characters matter as much as the jokes. I don’t reward laugh tracks, endless resets, or sitcoms that feel like they’re afraid to evolve.
That’s why a lot of “classic” or massively popular sitcoms land in B or C for me. Being iconic doesn’t automatically make you great. Longevity isn’t the same thing as quality. If a comedy can’t grow or at least stay sharp, it drops in my list really quickly.
A‑Tier Is Strong, Not Sacred
A‑tier shows are often very good, but they’re just missing something. Maybe they stumble in later seasons, or they play it a little too safe. Perhaps they’re fantastic but not life‑altering or they did not endure the test of time to move them up my list.
Shows like 24, Bosch, Homeland, The Americans, Justified, Mad Men, The Queen’s Gambit, Sherlock, and The Last of Us are all worth watching and rewatching once. They just don’t live rent‑free in my head the way S‑tier shows do yet respect space that is not strictly devoted to them.
B, C, and D Exist for a Reason
B‑tier TV is “fine”: Watchable and sometimes fun, though may be mostly overrated by others.
C‑tier shows have “moments”: This is where shows land when they have moments but never quite justify any hype or age poorly on a rewatch.
D‑tier “exist”: That’s material, I actively struggled through or tolerated out of curiosity, nostalgia, or boredom.
And F‑tier: Doesn’t get named in this list and cannot be forgiven being bad as life is too short for watching horrid television.
My Core TV Philosophy
If you want to understand my taste, it’s simple:
- I value character arcs over shock value
- I reward ambition, even when it misfires
- I prefer long-form storytelling that pays off
- I don’t care how popular something is if it plays dumb
- I will never apologize for disliking something “critically acclaimed” by others
- I absolutely will defend shows that swing big, even when they divide audiences
- I don’t watch TV that turns off my brain
I watch it to experience, engage, analyze, debate, and remember. If a show earns my S‑tier rating, it’s a standard with everything else just competing for space. Most TV just doesn’t make the cut for me.
The Shows I Know Should Rank High
There’s an important distinction I make when ranking TV as potential does not equal placement in my favs. There are shows I fully expect to land high, possibly very high, and then once I watch them… they do not… Some are cultural cornerstones and others are critically worshipped by the masses. That’s not avoidance, is discipline.
If a show hasn’t been watched, it doesn’t get the benefit of assumption, hype, or second‑hand praise as my rankings are earned, not inherited.
Here are the Notable Omissions
These are shows I strongly suspect would rank with at least a B and perhaps gain an A or even *S tier, but remain officially unrated because I haven’t put them to the test yet.
- House of Cards
- Ted Lasso
- The Sopranos
- The Morning Show
- Yellowjackets
- Succession
- Yellowstone
- Outlander
- Sex Education
- Arrested Development
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- The Flash (modern)
- Severance
- Narcos
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
That particular list is an admission of ignorance as I cannot acknowledgment their standards or give them a rank at this point, but expectation isn’t enough. I don’t pre‑rank shows based on IMDb scores, cultural dominance, memes, or the number of people who tell me, “You have to watch this.” Until I evaluate pacing, character payoff, consistency, and whether the show actually sticks the landing, it stays off the board.
I already know the reputation:
- The Sopranos and Succession practically invented or perfected entire genres.
- Severance looks engineered for my brain specifically.
- Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm are comedy touchstones I fully expect to respect and laugh when watching them.
- Narcos and Yellowstone live squarely in my preferred lane of power, consequence, and moral ambiguity but just have not hit my screens yet.
When these finally get watched by me, at least one or more will probably disappoint. That’s how real rankings work and until then, they remain unranked, not underrated.
Why British Royalty TV are the Bottom for Me
This is where taste, not consensus, draws a hard line IMHO. I do not enjoy British royalty shows as a genre. They consistently fail to deliver what I value on television, and because of that, they either get rated very low by default or are left off my rankings entirely.
Shows like The Crown, The Tudors, The Last Kingdom, and The White Queen all share the same fundamental DNA: historical prestige, ornate production, political maneuvering wrapped in inevitability and that inevitability is the problem.
British royalty shows tend to trade those for pageantry, legacy, and historical gravity. The outcomes are fixed and the power structures are static. I don’t dislike them because they’re bad cinematography, they are just poorly written and overly exaggerated shows.
The Final Act
At the end of the day, this list isn’t meant to be definitive, it’s meant to be accurate. Accurate to my preferences, my patience level, and my standards for long‑form storytelling. I value character over spectacle, payoff over shock, and ambition over safety. I’ll defend shows that swing big, even when they’re messy. I’ll criticize shows that play it safe, even when they’re beautifully made or universally praised. I don’t care how iconic something is if it feels lazy, hollow, or emotionally distant.
Some shows earn permanence while others earn respect, but most earn neither.
There are still blind spots, great shows I haven’t watched yet, genres I intentionally avoid, and cultural staples that simply don’t resonate with me. That’s not a flaw in the list. That’s the point because rankings without boundaries makes them meaningless.
If a show earns *S‑tier from me, it’s canon and if it doesn’t, it’s competing for attention in an overcrowded landscape. If it never appears here at all, then that decision was intentional.
Television is abundant. Time is not and this is how I choose what deserves mine.