What are your favourite TV series?
What are your favourite TV series?
I’m asking in an anarchist group chat, because literally every series I can find is heavily embedded in a statist and capitalistic context… Are there any you enjoy despite that? Are there any that provide you a respite from it?
Star Wars: Andor is one I can highly recommend, and that's coming from someone who found everything outside of the original trilogy to be extremely meh. Andor punches so hard above its weight and source material it's absolutely crazy. It's some of the finest sci-fi I've ever seen, and in themes is genuinely antifascist. Give it a shot even if you have star wars fatigue, it's that good! I can't wait for season two.
Another show that I'd recommend (though slightly less enthusiastically) would be Peaky Blinders, which is about British WWI vets who become gangsters after returning home. The acting is incredible, and it covers a surprising amount on working class struggles of that time, the persecution of socialists by the state, the rise of fascism in Britain with historical people, and is overall pro-socialist. The only reason I recommend it slightly less than Andor is it can feel a little repetitive if you binge it, so I recommend spacing out episodes a bit if you can to hopefully avoid that feeling. It is a great show despite that.
I'd also recommend Firefly if you haven't seen it.
You may enjoy Turn, which is an older show about the spy network during the american revolutionary war, which has some great acting, and at least a good revolutionary spirit of resisting tyranny.
Lastly, and this one might be a tough sell, but I personally enjoyed Blake's 7, which is an old low budget scifi from the BBC revolving around a small band of misfits as they essentially try to find ways to undermine a totalitarian empire with an advanced ship they find. It can be super cheesy and campy at times, but some of the actors kinda carry it (Paul Darrow), and it has a certain charm.
Seconding Andor, its on a whole different level from anything else Star Wars, I'm shocked it came out of Disneys star wars.
Also, The Expanse for Sci-Fi
Severance may be a good fit for this particular context. And although there's only one season out right now, it's so good (imo) that I've seen it about six times haha. And season 2 is finally coming out next week, so it's a good time to check it out.
I second Severance
This has been on my calendar for months. I’ve avoided watching the trailer for S2 so I can come to it clean. Cheers to us enjoying S2.
The Wire is pretty good at showing the nitty gritty of society and how capitalist "solutions" always amount to very little.
Community is absolutely still one of my favs.
And give dorohedoro a try
Oh, based Dorohedoro enjoyer
Love community too :)
If you like comedy, my favorite series are
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The Last Man on Earth
(Post apocalypse setting) -
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
(Sketch comedy) -
The Good Place
(Set in the afterlife)
When I hear The Good Place I always think of the old Brit comedy The Good Life. Very much a "fuck the man" sort of show, set on a couple trying to become fully self-sufficient in suburban London back in the 70s.
-
Our Flag Means Death
I like ReBoot
Mr Robot. Black Mirror. Love and Anarchy (Swedish)
I'm liking The Last Of Us this week. Might fit here, somewhat.
I want to add the Expanse to the list. Probably the best book to show adaptation I've ever watched. I enjoy the believable way it handles space travel, and the characters are fantastic.