‘Round the turn of the last century, I was enamored of a show called ‘Dead Like Me’, which embodied a very post-modern take on serial fiction. Telling the story of a group of undead schlubs, struggling to get by, while also being very dead and reaping the souls of the recently deceased is a very cool concept. It was also one that didn’t quite resonate in 2004 the way it does in 2015, leading to today’s post-it note query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) should really look into Bryan Fuller’s other shows sometime, asking: What favorite bits of pop-culture do you feel were most ahead of their time?
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Love Dead Like Me! My brother gave me DVD the box set as a gift one year.
You mentioned the Prisoner in a previous podcast which has made its way to my watch soon list, as opposed to the standard watch list. From the description given from that Podcast episode, I think that the Prisoner deserves a nod. (Take that with a grain of salt because I haven’t actually watched it yet.)
Freaks and Geeks instantly came to mind but I think my #1 pick would be Twin Peaks, my favorite show of all time.
Babylon 5 deserves a mention here. It’s largely forgotten now but it popularised a lot of things we have come to expect for tv drama. Muli-season plot arcs, large ensemble casts, mysteries that don’t always get resolved and popular characters suddenly dieing.
Basically everthing you like about Game of Thrones but in space and on 10% of the budget.
Miami Vice. It just doesnt work outside 80’s Miami. They even tried it once.
What I mean is that they did lots of things with camera, looks and soundtrack that became popular later. There are lots of things they now do in every movie. Only problem is that show was very much tied to that setting. Now, every time I see a car shot up close, with light reflecting on the surface of hood, backed up by some music I think Crockett and his Ferrari.
The Critic, because it took so much of what Family Guy did, cutaways to pop culture, but A: Did it better and B:Contributed to the story. The latter by showing what kind of crap Jay Sherman had to sit through.