this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2026
709 points (97.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

40168 readers
1333 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I haven't been watching much in terms of actual shows for a good while, then while listening to a podcast a host casually mentioned they had rewatched Chernobyl, how it still holds up, that there's a reason it got as much acclaim as it did, etc. So I thought I'd give it a go and wow, loved it (still one episode left to watch).

Had me thinking, what else have I missed out on? What are some "absolute cinema" TV shows that still hold up and and are considered must watch?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] harcesz@szmer.info 133 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I'm really surprised The Expanse didn't get more of a mention here. Great scify series, and I don't like series in general.
Its closer to hard sci fy than prob anything else, it has pretty realistic politics of exploitation, rebellion and inyterdependace in the near (few hundred years) colonisation of the solar system. There's some gritty pewpewpew in space, balanced out by some space opera, with spectacular characters that have more depth than most and a story arch thats likely to make you binge it.

As an added bonus the series is 6 out of 9 (/10) books it is based on. There are some notable differences by the end but still you can... expand beyond what the series shows.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What resonated me the most in The Expanse is how tribalistic humans still are. Our lizard brain is having a hard time evolving with human development.

[–] proudblond@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

I watched the show and then within the last year listened to the audiobooks. In book 4? I think? Amos is talking to Peaches about how humans are tribal, and their tribes expand when times are good but shrink when times are bad. And yeah, it was kind of a mind-blown moment for me because I’d never thought of it that way before.

I liked that and also how most everyone lives in a moral grey area. Very few could you say are outright evil or good.

[–] Tugboater203@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

I had to scroll way too far to find the Expanse.

[–] Summzashi@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's biggest problem was the arguably not so good first season I think. Also the ending is kinda eh.

Other than that, it's my favorite series since TNG. I absolutely loved it and I pity the people that couldn't see past the first season

[–] TypFaffke@feddit.org 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I tried to watch, but the actor who plays Holden overacts the edgy non-comformant so badly I couldn't finish. Is that getting better in the later seasons?

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 16 points 2 days ago

Holden remains annoying, but the plot and the other characters make up for it. I think it's a problem with TV where you don't hear his thoughts and only the whiney stuff that comes out of his mouth

[–] Summzashi@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Yeah the plot pivots away from him a bit more. But you're correct, his acting isn't great. It improves, but not by a lot

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It’s biggest problem was the arguably not so good first season I think.

I thought the 1st season of The Expanse was good, but the 2nd season was so bad that I stopped watching in middle of episode 2. The difference was pretty stark, almost as bad as the difference between the great season 1 of Spooks/MI-5 vs its god-awful season 2.

I'd recommend the first 2 seasons of Okkupert, and Firefly.

While I think Chernobyl is a great fiction series, there's a huge amount of completely unnecessary lies in it, including the intro and outro about lies.

[–] Summzashi@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I couldn't disagree with you more. Especially when you mention Firefly, which in my opinion was a mediocre slog that only got attention because it was cancelled.

[–] ThirdEyeSlime@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Dang, I didn't realize I had a nemesis until this very moment. I will die on the Firefly hill.

[–] Summzashi@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago
[–] psyc@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Still hoping they bring the show back for the last 3 books. They were my favorite of the series

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Considering the last 3 are like 30 years after, the actors all would be fine and could reprise their roles. It would work out great

[–] psyc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

This is the main reason I cling to hope

I'd even accept an animated series at this point.