Ask Lemmy

The Magicians- the musical episodes are amazing.

Patriot, on Amazon streaming. I’ve been telling people for years—it’s the BEST show that NO ONE watched.

A depressed deep-cover operative sings bleak folk songs about his job at open mics. Stylistic elements (both visual and writing) from the Cohen brothers and Wes Anderson. Incredible cast. Funny. Sad. Two seasons, and both are great. 10/10

anime

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You - One of the zaniest, wackiest anime in recent history to turn your brain off to. (genre: comedy, romance)

86 - Too good for me to put into words. Just watch it. (genre: action, drama)

TV shows

Silicon Valley (HBO series) - As someone pointed out: it's not a satire; it's a documentary - for programmers at least. (genre: comedy)

The Night Manager - The showmakers made it look like either side could win till the very last few minutes, keeping me on the edge of my seat for the entire show. (genre: thriller)

Andor, best piece of SW since the 80s

I don’t watch anime or shows, yet there’s something I still recommend:

Anime: Neon Genesis: Evangelion (it’s old)

Cartoon: Final Space (Netflix killed it before the finale, the creators are making a comic about the final 2 seasons that’ll release sometime 2025)

Show: The Office (a lil bit anachronistic if you’re too young)

Lots of great recommendations but I have not seen anyone mention the anime Made In Abyss or Dr. Stone.

Made In Abyss has some taboo content early in season 1, but it and season 2 story arcs are the best I've seen of any anime to date. You will also need to watch the third movie Dawn of the Deep Soul before season 2. Movies 1 and 2 are recaps of season 1.

Dr. Stone is also great as a zany "what if" modern civilization was sent back to the stone age. Similar to made in abyss, you need to watch the OVA between seasons 2 and 3.

Call out to Goblin Slayer season 1 as well. The series visuals and story deeply fall off after season 1.

Arcane. It’s always Arcane. Arcane.

Monster

74 episodes. Psychological thriller. Serial murder mystery, but instead of "whodunit?" it's "whydunit?". Dramatic as an opera. No weird tropes. Superb character development. I love Magnificent Steiner.

• The Terror (First season only)
• Atlanta
• Mob Psycho
• Devilman Crybaby
• Mononoke (the show)
• Prison School
• High school of the dead (I went into this expecting to be offended, but I left impressed)

I never watched any anime but then watched one punch man. It's really clever and very approachable for new and casual viewers.

Here are a couple that I didn't see mentioned here.

• The Bear
• Ted Lasso
• Solo Levelling
• Dirk Gently holistic detective
• The Office
• Attack on Titan
• Code Geass Lelouch Rebellion
• Severance
• Bojack Horseman

I just finished Good Omens also, it's great but the first episode is not because it's all setup. It's a Terry Pratchett story that I think I'll recommend that one for a long time.

Claymore:

2007 anime. From a manga. Women with gigantic swords , the Claymore, fight some sort of demons in a forsaken world. We follow Clare, the Claymore Number 47, the least powerful of them all.

Every episode has some sort of a twist, with new information about the incredible rich world and lore, and the power and origin of the Claymore. Drawing is captivating, unique, gorgeous. The eyes!

Way better than Berserker, in the sense, that everything make sense and is foreshadow in Claymore.

Dirk gently's holistic detective agency.

I will never stop recommending Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Madoka Magika.

My Deer Friend is amazing.

Which reminds me that there's probably a new episode out right now. 😃

I also would always recommend the staples in anime:

Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Dragonball, DBZ, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rouroni Kenshin, Full Metal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, and Ninja Scroll.

Made in Abyss - really good but definitely not for the faint hearted and I only recommend this to people who ask me for dark anime with a disclaimer on the more questionable content. The version I watched was the heavily censored one. I was surprised to find out that the creator is Akihito Tsukushi, the same person who did the designs for the Elebits games! Of course, I'm separating the art from the artist here, but his name popping up made me nostalgic in a way.

Neon Genesis Evangelion - If you like biblically accurate angels, this is the anime for you!

Cowboy Bebop - has a very likeable main cast, an artstyle that I find very appealing, and it touches on themes that a lot of people can relate to despite the sci-fi setting!

Scavengers Reign - this one's pretty trippy and has some great creature designs! It only has one season so far (curse ye, Max!)

Anime - Cromartie High

Angel, Hannibal, Evil, Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul.

So many great shows out there. I’m currently watching The Wire and it’s amazing too.

Pantheon

Bojack Horseman and Violet Evergarden. If someone is a bit deeper into anime, Tatami Galaxy as well, since the subs go pretty fast. Ping Pong the Animation gets a nod if folks aren't super hung up on aesthetic.

• Frieren — fantasy, drama about an elf dealing with feelings she didn’t think she had
• Delicious in Dungeon — Fantasy, comedy/light drama about rescuing a party member and eating monsters along the way.
• Kaguya Sama — rom-com about not losing the love war
• Konosuba — Isekai comedy about… nothing really
• That Time I was Reincarnated as a Slime — Isekai about being reincarnated as a slime monster, then building a wonderful found family community of monsters.

They’re all pretty light hearted but all are well made and fun.

—edited for formatting

Comedy: What we do in the shadows;

Action: Black Sails;

Anime: Monster;

Depression: Bojack Horseman.

Mushishi. Very slow & contemplative, but I still think about it decades later.

Hajime No Ippo!

It's a boxing anime based on a manga (that's still going after decades!) where a school kid is beat up and rescued by a passing boxer, who takes him in to a boxing gym to fix his wounds. It turns out he's got some solid power from his family background in fishing, so he becomes a boxer and learns what it means to be strong.

If you like DBZ, you'll probably love this. Alongside this, it's refreshing in that it's an anime that praises hard work, rather than being "the chosen one" or being gifted power. What I love about it is that several characters go through huge growth in ways that are truly unexpected.

The Last Ship: The crew of a US Navy destroyer is faced with a new reality as a deadly plague wipes out nearly all of humanity.

Basically, mix together the good parts of Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead, and distill it down to 5 seasons with no filler. It's one of my favorite binge-watches.

I'm always trying to get people watching Konosuba it's just funny but yeah I liked it so much I read the novels and spinoff.

Eh, screw it. I'm gonna watch Eureka again.

Oh man so many. Most of which others are already mentioning. And I'm sure I'm forgetting many that have been constants througj the years. But these stand out.

Anime: Your Lie in April, Mushi-Shi, Scavenger's Reign, Violet Evergarden, One Punch Man

Anime but it's more of my selfish mention than a masterpiece: Tomo-chan is a Girl, The Wrong Way to use Healing Magic (English dub is really well done and I can be a sub snob most of the time), Bartender: Glass of God, Mashle:Magic and Muscles, Goblinslayer

Live Action:The Expanse, Midnight Diner, Midnight Diner:Tokyo Stories, The Goes Wrong Show, Blood Machines, How It's Made (I know, not likely what is being asked for but I thoroughly enjoy the show)

I have a really hard time getting into Live Action shows because too many of them either drag on, or they are just too predictable or forumlaic, or too samey, or it's all about people being horrible to each other. And there is also a severe lack of laid back story telling or unique story options. Hollywood is berift of interest for me 99% of thr time.

Mr. Robot for live-action. definitely avoid looking anything up about it, there are spoilers everywhere and it's better to go in fresh. there's no good trailers for it really but if you watch the first six-minute opening scene... by the end of it you'll know whether or not the show is for you. and if you like it you will probably REALLY wanna keep watching. they go out of their way to get the tech stuff accurate and it's pretty much a cyberpunk story set in the present day. but also so much more deeper and psychological than you'd expect. my favorite show of all time, no contest. the whole thing was planned in advance and it SHOWS. it's more like one long very good movie than a television series quality-wise

and Bojack Horseman for animation. i'd also recommend avoiding spoilers for this. thematically, it gets off to a slow start pretending to be just another standard adult animation Family Guy-esque clone before it slowly morphs over the course of season 1 into a meta deconstruction of those sorts of shows and goes off the rails to truly hit its dramatic stride. and once it starts going it never lets up. it similarly hits very hard and gets pretty dark

Deep Space 9; Adventure Time, and Gravity Falls

Afterlife

I think nobody mentioned it yet. It's about someone who lost the love of his life, so the show is about those emotions and the struggle to continue. It's quite sad sometimes, but the show also has a lot of humour and I laughed my ass off multiple times.

Why watch a show about such a sad circumstance? I think we all lost someone or will lose very important persons / friends someday and it's important to learn how to deal with that and how it's important to continue. I can't emphasize that enough

Fucking DEADWOOD.

I can't get anybody in my life to watch it and it is literally in the running for best show of all-time.

This thread is case-in-point!

One of my favorite short scenes.

Little Witch Academia: a passion project and it shows, a witch school with a colorful cast of character and an even more colorful cast of villains, alternative name: lesbian hogwarts

Girls und panzer and its movie, while it does fall into the cute girls doing cute thing type of genre, GuP is one of the ones who really popularized it, its a series thats just plain old fun to watch how they fight their tank battles, especially the movie

Ben-to, another series thats just plain ol fun, people beat the snot out of each other for the privilege to buy price reduced food, animated by the people who went on to do jojo

that just be my top 3 to show everyone