There’s a thing going around Twitter right now (as things tend to do) where people are listing 5 shows that, as I’ve interpreted that, were their favorites or had an impact on them over the years. I thought I would throw my entry in, but wanted to get into a little more detail about said shows.

In all honesty, I could probably have 10 shows on this list, and maybe I’ll do a second list at some point, but for now, I’ll keep it to what the “trend” is so I can be cool like the other kids.

Without further ado, and in no particular order:

Battlestar Galactica

Ronald Moore’s re-imagining of the series was astounding. The visuals were great, and the storytelling consistently solid. The sets were viscerally moody and claustrophobic, and the music was pitch perfect.

I believe a friend of mine lent me the first season on DVD about 10 years ago or so when I was out of work, and I was immediately drawn in. The first season, dealing with things like scarcity of resources, the ethical issues that arise when extinction is a very close and present danger, and what happens to people when they are faced with seemingly insurmountable odds against survival is science fiction at its best.

I remember being completely tripped out (metaphorically, I wasn’t doing any hallucinogens whilst watching) in season 3 when Starbuck showed back up after being dead for a couple of episodes. That feeling has stuck with me.

It goes to show what can happen when the writers don’t talk down to their audience.

So say we all.

ExoSquad

This was a ground-breaking show that aired in the 90s and never got its due. It didn’t insult the intelligence of its audience (this was during an era when cartoons and animation were primarily seen as “for kids” and no one was thinking of telling more mature stories) and told a sweeping epic of the war between humans and the Neo-Sapiens who, created as a slave race decades prior, led their second uprising against the humans and nearly succeeded in wiping them out.

What was amazing about this series (aside from the animation, which at the time was top notch in American-produced content) was that is was serialized. There were no standalone episodes or monsters of the week. Actions had consequences. Relationships were complicated and not at all canned or cliche. Not everyone made it out alive.

Again, this is great science fiction in that it uses the story to look at the human condition. Yes, there are lasers, and there are space battles, and there are clones and genetic engineering, but it’s all just a backdrop for a story about who we are, and who we could be.

The action took place in multiple locations, following the exploits of the remaining Exo Fleet (the space navy) as they attempt to liberate Venus, Mars, and Earth from Neo-Sapien dominance. Often episodes have action following one group in space, another on Mars or Venus, the resistance fighters on Earth…and never once was it overwhelming.

(We see this concept of multiple theaters used in Battlestar Galactica often, primarily in the first and second seasons when Karl “Helo” Agathon was left on Caprica after The Fall, while the rest of the fleet, unaware of any survivors, searches for a new home.)

The only downside to this show was that the networks didn’t give it a good or consistent time slot (sometimes it was being aired at 4 in the morning), and because ad sales didn’t warrant it, the show was cancelled. I really hope that a) this show makes it onto a streaming service soon, and b) someone finds this gem and gives it the remake it so richly deserves. It’s begging for a reboot and a card game and a video game and…well, I just want to see more of it.

(I’d love to voice Walsh or Phaeton…just saying…)

ER

Another show that didn’t insult the intelligence of its audience and just blew me away. Complex stories and relationships that never (or almost never) ventured into soap opera territory.

This, along with the other shows on this list, weren’t wall-to-wall action, though it would have been easy to make any of them so. In fact, what I liked most about ER were the quiet moments of the characters interacting with each other at work. It was funny, sad, heartbreaking, and heartwarming.

And what I learned was that the quiet moments contrasted so nicely with the action moments (when the big, complicated trauma was wheeled in through the ambulance bay doors), and that contrast gave both more impact. It’s like contrasting flavors in a well-prepared meal. I’ve tried to use that in my writing. (Whether I’ve been successful or not is a whole other conversation.)

Cowboy Bebop

A lot of science fiction on this list, right? What can I say, I have a type.

A friend introduced this to me a few years after I graduated college. That first blast of the theme song horns hit, and I was hooked.

The lovable losers of the Bebop are just fun, and the voice acting was superb. And the music…of, the music…

What’s interesting about this entry, to me, is that it once again is a show that just happens to be set in space. It’s telling stories that could easily be told in the present day, or the past, and in almost any locale. The sci-fi elements are used to highlight and contrast and fill in the edge details of the story, not to power it. That’s, in my opinion, genre used well.

Now excuse me, it’s time to get everyone and the stuff together.

The Muppet Show

Didn’t see that coming, now did you?

I don’t think that any other show informed how my humor developed more than that of The Muppet Show in its original run. My dad and I used to watch it all the time when I was a wee lad. I started watching it again a few years ago, and you know what? It holds up. The jokes are still funny, sometimes tear-inducing.

I think the big takeaway of the humor of the Muppets is that it didn’t need to be derogatory towards others. It was self-deprecating, it was irreverent, and it was self-aware. That’s why Bunsen accidentally gluing everyone together is still funny. It’s why Fozzie’s recurring telephone gag still works.

BONUS: Buffy The Vampire Slayer

To say that Joss Whedon has had a large impact on the way I approach story development, character development, and dialogue would be a huge understatement. He, at his best, is a master of all of these things, and Buffy is probably the best example of his work. (I’m not slighting Firefly, it is my FAVORITE series of all time, but…it’s still too soon. Can’t talk about it.)

Buffy was heralded at the time for its strong female protagonists that weren’t just “men with boobs”, but complete characters that brought their own strengths to the party. It also brought snappy dialogue to the fore, with characters having realistic reactions to each other, snarking at each other the way that friends (at least, my friends) often do.

(There is a line in several episodes where a characters has said, after getting creeped out by something, that they have “the wiggins”, so, yeah, that’s…something.)

Joss went on to other projects like Firefly (still too soon), Dollhouse (starring Buffy alum Eliza Dushku and Battlestar Galactica alum Tahmoh Penikett), and of course Avengers. His attention to story, to character, to not playing to typical tropes and allowing story and human motivation to drive everything, is evident in all of these projects. But Buffy, for me, it where it starts.