Top 10 TV Series
Written on November 26th, 2025 by Dr Hobo
These are 10 TV series (or specific seasons) that have stuck with me over the years. No ranking - just shows I love and think are worth your time. As of November 2025.
Rule: Only one season per show - I’m picking the season that hit hardest… unless it makes sense to group them!
Doctor Who - Seasons 12 & 13 (Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen)
Network: BBC
Year: 1974-1976
Ah, the inspiration for my alias and my childhood obsession. A surprising entry in some respects, as I was in the only modern British generation that grew up without a live Doctor Who serial running regularly on TV. So it fell to my dad to indoctrinate me from an early age, and he did so intelligently, beginning with black and white episodes from the Hartnell and Troughton eras before letting me near the peak Who eras of Pertwee and Baker. It was hard to pick between them - Pertwee’s run with Jo Grant and the Master (Season 8) comes very close. But the winning combination of Tom Baker and Sarah Jane Smith, with classics like ‘The Seeds of Doom’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, just edges it.
This show is probably why sci-fi is my favourite genre across all entertainment media and how I became such an avid reader. Growing up without access to the internet meant the only way to discover certain Dr. Who stories was by reading, and my love of second-hand bookshops and car boot sales came from 8-year-old me trying to find these often-elusive book copies of the missing TV episodes!
💬 Favourite Quotes
I have to put in one by Jon Pertwee:
Brigadier, a straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.
And it's so hard to choose from so many by Tom Baker - but this one 'wins' as it's so very relevant today:
The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common - they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views... which can get very uncomfortable if you're one of the facts that need altering.
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (Prequel Season)
Network: Starz
Year: 2011
John Hannah at his absolute best. The ‘Roman’ style dialogue is incredible throughout - savage, poetic, endlessly quotable. Seasons 3 and 4 I couldn’t get into after the lead actor change, but this prequel season? All the blood and gore and betrayal you could want, with actual heart underneath it. If Ridley Scott’s Gladiator left you wanting more, come here (not its sequel). Season 1 is also great despite the poor opening episode, so push through it. Batiatus is worth the price of admission alone.
💬 Favourite Quote
Basically anything said by Batiatus works!
That shit fuck beckons me to the city only to spurn me like a thin-waisted whore. Once again the gods spread the cheeks and ram cock in fucking ass!
The End of the F***ing World - Season 1
Network: Channel 4 / Netflix
Year: 2017
Darker than it looks, and more heartfelt than you’d expect. Alex Lawther and Jessica Barden have incredible chemistry as two messed-up teenagers on a road trip that spirals brilliantly. The dry British humour is perfect for this story - I won’t give spoilers, but you can’t help but laugh at its most disturbing moments. Based on a graphic novel by the same name, and two great but mercifully short seasons, so not a big commitment to get into it.
💬 Favourite Quote
To be mad in a deranged world is not madness, it's sanity.
Black Sails - Season 2
Network: Starz
Year: 2015
It is criminal that hardly anyone I know has seen this. I know it’s ‘Pirates’, but this ain’t the Depp Caribbean vintage. Hard to pick a best season, but Season 2 is where the show finds its stride - the political manoeuvring, the action, and the characters all click into place at once. Toby Stephens as Flint is something to watch. So underrated it’s baffling, and great across all four seasons.
💬 Favourite Quote
Everyone is a monster to someone. Since you are so convinced that I am yours, I will be it.
24 - Season 1
Network: Fox
Year: 2001-2002
The modern ‘golden age’ of TV began with shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, The West Wing, and of course 24. As a very young teen, 24 was the most accessible of those five, and it became a family event to watch the latest episode together. Season 1 is my pick - 24 episodes, 24 hours, one insane day was genuinely new. Kiefer Sutherland makes Jack Bauer iconic from episode one. The tension never lets up, the twists keep coming, and that mole storyline is gripping. Before it became repetitive in later seasons, this was something special.
💬 Favourite Quote
I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life.
Breaking Bad - Season 5
Network: AMC
Year: 2012-2013
The obvious entry, and I can’t deny it. Any top ten TV list without Breaking Bad is effectively invalid. Season 5 is my pick because it’s the only show where every season genuinely improves. Walter White’s transformation is complete - this is Heisenberg at his most reckless and most tragic. The final run of episodes pays off everything, and Cranston and Paul are both extraordinary throughout. An ending that stuck the landing, unlike certain other TV shows on this list…
💬 Favourite Quote
So many epic ones... Pinkman's quote cracks me up every time:
I gotta pay taxes now? What the hell is up with that? That's messed up, yo. That's Kafkaesque.
But I've got to go with my boy Mike:
Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James.
Game of Thrones - Season 1
Network: HBO
Year: 2011
You had one job, Benioff and Weiss, and you did it perfectly for three seasons and nine episodes. The less said the better about the final few seasons. But those first four were something. I’d thought I hated fantasy until Season 1 in 2011. What got me was that it’s built on political interests and intrigue, not good versus evil for its own sake. Characters caught between real moral choices. The casting was extraordinary and the adaptation was faithful while also improving on parts. No matter how many times I re-watch Season 1, I’m still shocked to see Ned Stark’s decapitation.
💬 Favourite Quote
Tyrion is the king of both wit and wisdom with lines like:
Never forget who you are. Wear it like armour and it can never be used to hurt you.
But I always remember this one from Ned Stark the most:
"Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?" "That is the only time a man can be brave."
StartUp - Season 2
Network: Crackle / Netflix
Year: 2017
I don’t actually know anyone who has seen this series. Essentially it’s about what happens when a tech startup, a desperate banker, and a gang in Miami collide around a new cryptocurrency. I’m a fan of Adam Brody too, which helps. Season 2 ramps everything up - the stakes are higher, the choices darker, the consequences sometimes brutal. Give it a try if you liked Ozark. Season 3 is probably worth skipping.
💬 Favourite Quote
From the trailer:
What does a banker from Brickell, a hacker from Hialeah, and a thug from Little Haiti have in common?
Farscape - Season 2
Network: Sci-Fi Channel
Year: 2000-2001
Another nostalgia choice. I associate this one with my younger sister - during our bickering early teens, this was the one thing we agreed on. Farscape became a weekly tradition during its run on BBC at around 6:30pm. It’s hugely imaginative, the alien designs hold up (mostly practical effects rather than CGI), and the dialogue is clever enough to carry the quieter episodes. The characters are an eclectic bunch tested in genuinely unpredictable situations. And yes, it is better than Firefly.
💬 Favourite Quote
The opening monologue is forever stitched into my brain:
My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit and I got shot through a wormhole. Now I'm lost in some distant part of the universe on a ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms. Help me. Listen, please. Is there anybody out there who can hear me? I'm being hunted by an insane military commander. Doing everything I can. I'm just looking for a way home.
But it's this zinger from Rygel that's my favourite quote:
If Earth is to be remembered at all, it will be for the quality of its manual labour.
The Office UK (Complete Series)
Network: BBC Two
Year: 2001-2003
The cringe is unbearable, in the best way. You watch through your fingers, but you can’t look away. There’s nothing quite like it, except maybe ‘This Country’. Unlike the US version, which softened into warmth over time, this stays brutal, awkward, and painfully real. Only two seasons plus specials, but every episode lands.
💬 Favourite Quote
For me, this quote is the peak of the best episode of the best sitcom in history, making it literally the peak of comedy:
I think there's been a rape up there.
Honourable Mentions
These almost made the list, and on another day, some of them might have:
-
Better Call Saul - Season 5 (2020)
Network: AMC
The spin-off from Breaking Bad is as good (almost!?) as its parent. Whilst the lawyering doesn't offer as much 'action' as drug dealing, the character development, tension building, and emotional payoff are just as good, if not better, than in Breaking Bad. The transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman is fascinating, and Bob Odenkirk plays the role with aplomb. I've gone with its final season as it achieves that rare feat of sticking the landing of a long series with its perfectly executed conclusion of how Jimmy finally destroys himself – the cameos by Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are also handled beautifully in this final season.
Favourite Quote:
Again, how to choose... One favourite:
The only way that entire car is worth 500 dollars is if there is a 300 dollar hooker in it.
But I'm going for:
Can we all three just parachute down from cloud cuckoo land?
- Mr. Robot - Season 1 (2015)
- Arrested Development - Season 2 (2005)
- The Inbetweeners - Season 1 (2008)
- Chernobyl (2019)
- True Detective - Season 1 (2014)
- Lost - Season 3 (2006-2007)
- The Fall - Season 1 (2013)
- Peep Show - Season 4 (2007)
- Extras (Complete Series, 2005-2007)
- Dexter - Season 1 (2006)
- This Country (Complete Series, 2017-2020)
- Ozark - Season 3 (2020)
- The Outlaws - Season 1 (2021)
- Prison Break - Season 1 (2005-2006)
- The Walking Dead - Season 1 (2010)
What are your top TV series? Disagree with my picks? Drop a comment and let me know what I’m missing!
