Unopened Boxsets that I liked the look of from the Pilot: The ILX Television 51 Show Countdown Extravaganza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yep, same guys, just appeared on netflix streaming so I'm watching them again although I have a low tolerance for sketch comedy.

Spaced was only like 14 episodes long and only half of that made this decade, so I guess 6 episodes is enough JJ.

16. Buffy The Vampire Slayer (19 votes, 3080 points.)
http://buffy-the-vampire-slayer.download-tvshows.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/buffy-the-vampire-slayer.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtjCYmMTcc

Way too low imo. Voted it second because I had to stay true to my Whedon obsessed 15 year old self.

i like the u.k./u.s. mix of this list. it's refreshing. feel a little bad for canada and the sheepfukkers though. unfortunately, the only canadian show we got in the states post-kids in the hall is the red green show. i might be forgetting something. at least nz has the conchords. as far as australia goes...hmmmm....well there was the paul hogan show and prisoner (of cell block h). oh the dead gator guy! we loved him.

given that this is ilx, i expected buffy to be top five stuff.

wasnt it a 90s show though?

I have never seen a single episode of Buffy.

it was on till 2003.

and basically forces you to pick one to sympathise with

how can you sympathise with either of them? or anyone in the show?

I guess I feel sorry for them, you're drawn in so intimately to their little plans and schemes in each episode through the voiceover, and even if things are going well, you know that they'll find a way to screw it up by the end of the episode.

Their helplessness against their own flaws makes them loveable, in a twisted sort of way. Mark's failure to pull Dobby, who's basically his perfect woman, is a good example of this dynamic I think.

Dobby is a proper guilty WS.

I placed Buffy low-ish (#11) because of the 90s/00s split: the 90s seasons are the ones I really love. But I should have put it higher, tbh. 4-7 still bought me more pleasure than some things in my top ten.

i've never seen the bleak london sitcom, but its reminding me that i want to watch withnail and i for the first time in 20 years. i found a vhs copy.

i might actually do a withnail and i/naked double feature this week.

Season 5 is the best. It is Tara heavy and she is pretty much the best character in Buffy. Then there is the episode where ****SPOILER**** Buffy's mum dies which is the most heartbreaking awesome thing everererer.

Australia also gave the US/UK Summer Heights High, which is much better than the first episode indicates.

Also, Buffy lowish because of 90/00s split here as well. I still think it was excellent in series 4-6 (not so sure about 7, though there is goodness there), but seasons 2 and 3 were the really mindblowing ones for me.

Anya's speech in The Body had me weeping like child when I first saw it. xpost.

I sympathise with both characters in Peep Show. Yeah, they're dicks, but so is everyone else, and how can you not be a dick at least sometimes when confronted with the ever grinding horrors of existence? ;_;

Buffy should be higher, even though I still feel like it's a very guilty pleasure.

Buffy didn't age well at all for me...all the dialogue I found so clever in middle school lost a lot of its charm when I started catching reruns on FX. I did give it an honorary vote near the bottom of my ballot just because I used to like it SO much, but for me it peaked in the 90s and I would place it higher in a 90s poll.

"Australia also gave the US/UK Summer Heights High"

oh yeah! i liked that one okay. kinda reminded me of strangers with candy a little.

Canada provided Being Erica which has only really just started being shown on E4. It feels really naively put together compared to most shows, maybe that is just the lol cheap canadian show aspect but it is also v. charming.

Chris Lille's (SHH dude) mini-series "We Can Be Heroes" was pretty great too, although I don't think it aired outside Oz. Completely forgot to nominate it though!

Yes, Buffy 5 is pretty awesome. Like-don't-love Tara, but the introduction of Dawn is an A1 dramatic stunt. Also plenty of Anya, bringing the lols. And agreed The Body is great - almost can't imagine the early shock of grief being done better. But I never liked the finale (felt like a cheat), and bloody magic is really starting to get in the way. Still, As I say, think I should have put it higher.

I have to inform you guys I have Hulk Hogans theme song in my head and it better leave my head before I go crazy and kill a bunch of people with fake tans and never end up posting the results.

and i know have the theme song from the SNL "Hulk Hogan Talk Show" sketch in my head

15. Six Feet Under (17 votes, 3 first place votes, 3110 points.)
http://onesheetdesign.com/images/six_feet_under.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3zQeMbmwwc

Last show to get under 20 votes. Next lowest is [ANOTHER SHOW] with 23.

There it is. Didn't make my list. Pretty good though, even if it seemed intent on spending it's entire five season run knocking every bit of likability out of every main character.

booooooooooo

booooooooo

i feel silly now. but what of 24?

xp - Billy & Brenda were the best.

sarahel otm

I was gravely disappointed when what's-his-name ditched Brenda for the Lili Taylor character.

Nate

God I hated the Lili Taylor character

Not to get all Shakey Mo here, but I did not mourn her untimely death.

Claire was pretty much the perfect distillation of every annoying, pretentious, wannabe art school teenager ever.

the art school stuff was simultaneously lol and annoying.

14. The Colbert Report (25 votes, 3145 points.)
http://newsthroughmyeyes.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/300px-the_colbert_report.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE7LCfvmEgU

Well done J0hn D.

for some reason it just wouldn't occur to me to vote for something like colbert show as much as i like it.

six feet under i watched faithfully for a couple of seasons and then, ugh, yeah, just got too...something. depressing. annoying. glib. i dunno. i just got sick of it.

i think Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are hilarious but renting "Spaced" recently it was a little dull and felt like a tentative dry run by comparison...maybe it's 'more' British or something, though, because some stuff seemed to kinda go right over my head.

I think I said pretty much this somewhere above. I like these guys enough that I might give it another chance, though.

Peep Show finished waaaaaaay too low.

Buffy finished about where I expected, given the general ambivalence towards the final seasons. But I still maintain that season 5 is something most showrunners would give up their first-born to achieve, particularly "The Body". I've never wept as copiously at filmed entertainment (on two seperate occasions, no less!) than I have during that episode.

Oh. So both Colbert and The Daily Show are gonna be top 20? I kinda thought DS would cancel out Colbert.

SFU is tough going a lot of the time, but I think it was well worth it. It had the courage to make the main character transform into somewhat of an unrepentant douchebag. Who I secretly identified with quite a lot.

sopranos must be top ten, huh? i always forget how massive and everywhere that show was for so long. i watched the first four years of that and then lost interest. or maybe i just lost my hbo. can't remember. the length in between seasons REALLY annoyed the hell out of me. almost nine years for six seasons.

Dobby is a proper guilty WS.

Kinda OTM.

It had the courage to make the main character transform into somewhat of an unrepentant douchebag. Who I secretly identified with quite a lot.

OTM

Definitely expected Buffy to be higher, but I guess I shouldn't considered the bombed-out final season (and the general hate towards season 6, which i understand, but I liked it) and the whole generally being better in the 90s. glad every one agrees season 5 was tops, tho. re: sopranos--

i watched the first four years of that and then lost interest

ditto

six feet under i watched faithfully for a couple of seasons and then, ugh, yeah, just got too...something

Weird -- I made it through the entire run of seasons, and never noticed any downturn in watchability at all. Wished it lasted longer, actually. Ranked it #7.

i dunno why i put it 9th considering i stopped after 2nd season - i saw a few after that but couldn't commit

suddenly struck with horror at idea of Arrested Development not making it