1y ago

What tv show had a big impact on you?

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?

114 comments

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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.

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.
- 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.
- 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.

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.

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?
  
  It ties into the comment about liminal space; how one is viewed and views others, while it can control the way a society functions and how we act toward and behave around each other, doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the people these perceptions are directed at and further, for perception to affect anything, it must be paid deference.
  Inara, a Companion, who apparently enjoys greater social honor than the rest of the crew, is quickly reduced by Mal's vindictive, shameful envy to being "just" a prostitute, by which every crew member treats her according to their perception (jayne - object of physical desire, zoe - independent contractor, Kaylee - aspirational ambassador). Inara has the wealth and social grace to be the only crew member with her own shuttle/gilded cage necessary because of the private nature of her chosen occupation/role. Although Inara is perhaps the only crew member with formal training in martial arts and social arts, and often shows herself to be steps ahead of the others assessing situations, she's treated the most delicately and rarely included in strategy. Every time Inara is frustrated or stymied, we see a glimpse of the personality behind perceptions in active dissonance. These are all perceptions and roles that can be ignored the same way Mal has ignored his role as revolutionary/defeated soldier, Book ignored his role as terrorist(serenity comics)/religious leader, so on. Everyone is trapped and dictated to by perceptions that are not easily shed but are simply shed, which many characters realize under duress.
  In the middle of these conflicting ideas and behaviors from society, the captain and crew of her ship, her shuttle, and herself, that do play a large role in how limited/defined Inara is, is Inara the fundamental character, played by Morena Baccarin conveying assumed desirous perceptions and chosen by the perceptions of a casting director appointed by Whedon, who can only write(and sell) his story if he can figure out how to fit together his perceptions and his supposed perceptions of others close enough together to it's without breaking the written world.
  These characters and people are all living according to recognized or artificial perceptions that may not have anything to do with them, yet control how they live and present their lives as far as the characters and people allow themselves to be controlled.
  TLDR all the world's a stage
- Your comment about Deadwood is resonating hard with me. Very well articulated, thank you.
  
  Appreciated

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.

Twin Peaks
Star Trek TNG
- I remember taking part and reading up on the megathreads on r/twinpeaks during the airing of season 3.
- Yesssss.

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.

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.

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...

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.
- Thank you for explaining why so beautifully. I tried watching the show and while it was very well done, for whatever reason I just wasn't getting into it. But all people ever say is how great it is and I was bummed I was missing out. I have seen enough of the show to see the threads leading to what you described. I understand now why it is so highly praised.

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.
- Ah yes, the expanse was peak for me too

X Files - scared the crap out of me. Wasn’t a fan of aliens and screw that one episode with the inbred family.

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.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- This and Steven Universe for me.

Whose Line is it Anyway. It got me interested in improv, which has become something I enjoy doing.

Silicon valley
I totally relate with gifoyle a lot
- all right jill-foyle
- Martin Starr kicks ass
  
  You might also check out Freaks and Geeks if you haven't already (you probably have).

I'm not even kidding but planet earth the original series. I learned some life lessons from that one surprisingly.

Gilmore Girls. I know the show has some problematic humor but it's one of the best shows I've ever watched as far as characterization is concerned. The writing and the characters have a way of sucking you into the story that I haven't really found in any other show.
- Did you check out Marvellous Mrs. Maisel from the same show maker?
- Check out bunheads. Same creator and I remember it feeling a LOT like that show. Like she must have done it so soon after Gilmore girls. It's only a season but it was cute. It might still be on hulu.
  And yes seconding marvelous Ms Maisel.

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.
- Wow looking into this and it sounds like they did that show dirty. Completely gone from the app and s2 only released in certain countries on prime? Did it hit a little too close to home on the strike??
  
  There were a few episodes with protests happening in the background but the governments of the world dealing with AI's and uploaded intelligence being a drop in for an arms race with certain countries that just happen to align up with events in the last few years might have something to do with it's limited release.

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.

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!

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.

adventure time and bojack horseman

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.

Mr. Wizard and MacGyver were big ones for me. They hit a curiosity and adventure sweet spot for me as a kid. Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross also helped teach me empathy and kept my artistic side interested.
I’m really grateful for the era I grew up in and the television personalities it gave me. It’s nice knowing that my influences have stood the test of time and I appreciate the foundation they gave my young mind.
If only I could keep that energy and inspiration going. Anxiety coupled with depression can really get you lost.

Six Feet Under, by far. It’s (in my opinion) the best show ever made. I never cry, but I cannot stop myself from crying at the end. It’s a perfect end to a perfect show. Its themes have a lot to do with themes in my own life and it changed my perspective on… everything? Nah, but a lot of things. Especially grief.
I was elated that my now-spouse who is a mortician had never heard of it… watching it again with someone to whom the subject matter… mattered even more was an incredible experience.

National Geographic. Mutual of Omaha. Reading Rainbow. Magic School Bus. Bill Nye the Science Guy. Ghostwriter. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood
I grew up on PBS and books. Couldn't tell you if it was good or bad, but that TV had a lot of of impact on me.
- Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. I used to love that shit in the 70s. I still do, but I used to too.

When I was young, I read "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang".
Littlest Hobo was my fav show, about a dog helping people.

While young, x files and South Park. While older, Twin peaks, which I only watched recently including the new season 3.

Malcolm in the middle

Big bang theory. Sheldon made me realise that I am often selfish, compulsive neurotic, socially inept, an asshole without realising/ wanting it and super intelligent.
- It amuses me that people are downvoting you for answering the question. I see that the reddit anti-BBT sentiment made its way over to Lemmy.
  
  It's fair (from a personal taste standpoint) to say BBT isn't funny; it's not fair to say it's inaccurate. Damn if the higher sciences and a bunch of academia aren't rife with people like that.
  Personally I find it amusing all the same, but I get why my Mother the PHD finds it mostly tedious.
  
  Hm i wasn't expecting that. Is it really because of BBT or maybe just me joking about my intelligence? I mean i could understand that
  
  I hate that (subjectively) rubbish show but I still upvote for answering the question in earnest. I wish everyone would do the same. Even if I might not agree, this poster is still earnestly answering the question.

Twin peaks X-files Xena

The Simpsons raised me. It was a paternal and maternal figure, and friend. It prepared me for the rest of my life.

Friends

I don't think I'd be the same person without Adventure Time

Basically any show on PBS Kids. I used to watch back when Mister Rogers' Neighborhood aired regularly on it. Other shows I watched included Zoboomafoo (with the Kratt brothers!), Clifford, Arthur (was sad when I heard it'd aired its final new episode recently), Cyberchase, and Clifford's Puppy Days. My parents didn't have cable until I was a teenager, so I was pretty much raised on nothing but PBS Kids (as far as TV shows I could watch).
Another show I used to watch when I was really young, though, was Disney's House of Mouse on ABC Saturday Mornings. I was devastated when they stopped airing it. We didn't have a TV guide or anything, so, when it simply didn't come on one morning, it caught me by complete surprise. On a less sad note, I think I actually still have Snowed In at the House of Mouse on VHS.

ER almost made me become a doctor, I could have easily seen myself going down that path. I thought it was much more expensive in my country for medical school than it actually was, so I didn't go into medicine because of that, and then after I realized I was wrong about how much it would cost it made me realize okay maybe I wasn't smart enough to be a doctor to begin with.
Silicon Valley inspired me to continue working hard on one of my Java-based personal projects. I'd love to say it's a hugely massive success and I have hundreds or thousands of customers, but it's still just a personal project for fun at this point and probably always will be.

Star Trek and Xena too.

Gargoyles. TNMT. Don't have the verbiage to explain the impact. Just a feeling.
- Gargoyles consistently slips under people's radar and that's so sad, as it was such a great cartoon. I mean who doesn't want Jonathan Frakes voicing the big bad?

There's two shows that I started watching in my formative years (16-ish) that had a big impact on me: Frasier and Smallville. Frasier is still one of my favourite shows of all time. Recently watched a bit of Smallville again and it's... Not that good.

How I Met Your Mother
Won’t pretend it’s the greatest of shows but, for a couple lonelier years a while back, they were my best friends

Slayers, the anime. I thought emulating Zelgadis and acting all quiet and mysterious would make me look cool and get me a lot of friends.
It didn't ;_;

In Living Color. Man, the talent on that show was unbelievable: Almost the complete family Wayans, Jamie Foxx, Jim Carrey ... they all started with that show. And Jennifer Lopez was on the dance crew! Look up the skits on Youtube or Piped. The comedy I saw on that show was transformative. It's 30 years later and I'm still quoting Hans & Franz, Men on film, or Calhoun Tubbs regularly.

Beakmans world. Way better than that sham Bill Nye. Also I had a crush on Josie.

No show had a bigger impact on me than Neon Genesis

Breaking Bad. I made so much money after my meth improved (sorry for ruining your moving story with a bad joke)
- No offense taken. Any bad joke is a good joke to someone else. =)

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