Pingu
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
22 points (95.8% liked)
No Stupid Questions
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In reverse chronological order:
- The Good Place.
- The Sopranos
- Seinfeld (maybe not the character depth, but the writing)
- Shogun (6-episode miniseries, does that count?)
- The original Bob Newhart show, the one with Suzanne Pleshette.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Resident Alien
That was a good one! Got a little weird at the end, but they wrapped it up well.
I've been rewatching Community recently and it definitely fits the bill. It has incredibly good writing.
But more than that, Community gives me the impression that is has an infinite budget. Not a ridiculously big budget like some shows and movies do... an infinite budget. The difference being that they don't waste a cent. There isn't a single thing on screen that doesn't serve a purpose. No ridiculous effect or expensive crane shot added in just to flaunt their budget. But if an episode's script actually called for a particular shot to be done, they would move heaven and earth to make that happen. That's what it feels like.
In my head I compare it to having unlimited vacation days at work. Case studies have shown that workers take fewer vacation days when they can take as many as they want, compared to when they have a set number per year. So in the analogy, a show with a set ludicrously high budget will use every last cent of it even for pointless frill, whereas a (hypothetical) show with an unlimited budget would only use however much money is necessary to create the show. Somehow, Community became that show. ... It probably has to do with how frequently they actually went way over budget in practice.
I fucking love Community.
Absolutely no comedy series comes close to being as in depth and well thought out as community was. Community is actually art for the ages.
Dan Harmon has said the producer did this magic for him. He would often telling Dan that, no, they were over budget when they weren't, so he could then say yes to the best ideas, actors/cameos, etc.
I'm a huge superfan. My ringtone is Professor Professorson's.
They spent all their money on overdubbing lines.
It is unacceptable that Babylon 5 is not on this list. It was rare, at the time, for shows to have a multi-season story arc with character development planned from the start. JMS got his seasons, though, and used them beautifully. Every single episode, even those that don't contribute to the main storyline advancing, either show a character developing or build the foundations for that development.
- Mister Roger’s Neighborhood
- Twin Peaks
- Frasier
- Futurama
- The Wire
- NCIS S1 to like S5
- Fringe
- Peaky Blinders
- Orphan Black
- The Good Place
- Severance
- Fringe but only to the two or third season
The Good Place. It starts off deceptively shallow but by the end it became one of my favorite shows of all time.
Dark. The constant time travel makes it hard to keep track of what's going on a lot of the time but if you can manage, it's very rewarding. Great character development. Not the best ending, but good enough.
Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad have some poorly written characters but the well-written ones are very well-written.
I didn't include any shows based on books because I felt that would go against the scope of your question.
+1 for Good Place. That show is phenomenal.
King of the Hill
Can't believe Ted Lasso hasn't been mentioned
Bojack Horseman
Firefly.
Andor
Agreed.
There's several examples of >2min speeches that hit super hard: Luthen's "I need all the heros I can get", Karis' "random acts of rebellion", the "one way out" speech, Mon Mothma's final speech.
There's huge character growth and complexity for most of the main characters. Although I guess Syril never had much character growth, but that was kinda the point of his obsessive character. And they really showed how the rebellion grew from basically nothing
So good.
House. I remember fuckall from the past 40 years of watching tv but that one show is etched in the feels.
The Leftovers, Maniac, Mr. Robot, anything by Sam Esmail really.
Star Trek: Deep space nine
Kira: From hot headed terrorist to level headed leader
Nog: petty criminal to first of his kind in Starfleet
Babylon 5 too.
Yessss! Garak wound up being my favorite character at the end!
Including his lies?
Especially his lies.
especially his homoerotic relations with Julian
Don’t forget O’brien who start as an engineer and become the most important personne in starfleet
I love how in Lower Decks, Garak is married to a Holo-Bashir
Edit: Changed Holi to Holo, though the idea of a Desi Bashier...
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Dirk Gently
Based off a book based off a script for a Dr Who episode that was too weird by the guy who wrote Hitchiker's Guide, starring Frodo:
Extremely loosely based. Like, almost no actual story similarities. They kind of adapted the premise, to a degree, but that's about it.
Still an enjoyable show, but not really representative of either Dirk Gently book. The books are really really good, if you like Adams' writing. I had to stop at least once per page reading Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul to sit and appreciate a fantastic sentence.
Good show. Shame that it ended on a cliff-hanger and didn't get renewed because Max Landis turned out to be a sex pest.
There was a UK made adaptation starring Steven Mangan that's pretty good as well.
No Douglas Addams story ever really ends...
Whether you read to the end of the material or quit on a random page, you're always just getting a small glance into a much larger world where nothing is self contained and everything is connected.
Like, dude wrote a five book trilogy, it's obviously not a normal story structure. Even more than Tolkein, his work is about the journey and not a destination.
So yeah, would have loved for it to keep going. But an ending of "everyone keeps going on adventures" is the norm for Addams, I don't think there's ever a "happily ever after" and that's kind of why his stories have always felt so real to me.
Same with Heinlein and other early pulp scifi writers, it was a job even if it was a passion, you always left it open ended and you always left them wanting more. Because you might need to write a sequel for next month's rent.
Sons of Anarchy
Lost (until it sucked)
The Middle
The Office (US)
Animal Kingdom
My Name is Earl
Young Sheldon
Funny thing about Young Sheldon, When I started watching it, I had never watched Big Bang Theory, and honestly, now that I have, I don't even really like it, but Young Sheldon is better than it deserves to be.
Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood (Nearly perfect)
The first 9 seasons of the Simpsons (great little 22 minute stories. Character depth is episode dependent, but some of the best episodes of anything television has ever offered.)
Battlestar Galactica (Had some iffy plotlines along the way, but great character development and intriguing story)
FMA:B is up there on "shows I wish I could forget just so I can watch it for the first time again", and so much of it has is how many characters' final moments (re)define them. Tossup for me between:
spoiler
- Kimblee reminding everyone that he might not subscribe to conventional morality, but he does have a code.
- Truth showing genuine joy at Edward giving up his alchemy. It completely re-frames Truth's role in the series.
Upvote for FMA:B
- Band of Brothers
- The Wire Seasons 1-4
- Friday Night lights Seasons 1, 3 and 4
- MASH
- Star Trek the Next Generations the latter half of S3 and then seasons 4-6.
- The West Wing Seasons 1-5
- The Pitt
- Task
- Stranger Things
- True Blood (for Characters only) The story writing is a mess at times, but the characters are a masterclass.
- Travelers Seasons 1 and 2
- NYPD Blue
- Game of Thrones Seasons 1-3.
- Get Smart
True Blood
“I’m a fuckin’ fairy?!”
You did see the part where I said characters Only, Right?
Yep.
Ozarks. The Killing (english version), Shogun
Slow Horses
👆
While I don't think Arcane is perfect, esspecially with the pacing issues, I think the character writting was phenomenal. Silco and Jinx in particular are both extremely empathic, and you feel bad for them and potentially even want them to succeed despite their despicable actions. Ambesa is far too rushed, but she's still a fairly deep and multifaceted character (and benefits a lot from having a book to provide background). Honestly, the characters who are weakest, in my opionion, are the ones with most focus: Vi, Cailyn, and Victor. All three of them feel rushed and lacking in both depth and development.
The 4400
Which one?
I recently watch bates motel and was very impressed with the character decisions. Not that they did not make stupid decisions. They did in spades but the characters and their motivations are well explained on why they do what they do.
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