EWB's Top 50 TV Shows of 2014: The Results

[Benjamin]

Agents of SHIELD has to have one of the greatest rate of improvement from the first half of season 1 until now. Just so fucking good now and it's absolute must-watch TV instantly for me.

Fargo is also absolutely amazing, might be the best TV cast of 2014.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

...I really need to watch more television, I've only seen one of those four

Orange is the New Black was great. The rest will go on my ever growing list of 'Why haven't I already watched this?' programmes.

[Jimmy]

Seriously need to watch Frago and Orange, and should probably take people's work that Agents of Shield got a lot better, cos the first few episodes were terrible. Latest Mad-Men half season was amazing, can't wait for the end, but I feel like 10 is definitely too low.

[apsham]

Fargo is brilliant and it's the only show on there I can really vouch for. I'm getting around to the second season of OITNB but I'm trying not to get caught up in the hype that naturally surrounds it.

[zero]

Mad Men was tremendous this year. A lot of the hype is dying down since so many other shows (and ways to watch them) have blown up since Mad Men premiered, but it hasn't lost a step at all. Though not my personal favorite, I still say it's the best written, acted and produced show on TV today.

Haven't been able to get into SHIELD because the first half of season 1 is such. a. drag. Loved the pilot and I know it has gotten better as most Joss shows do, but it hasn't been a priority for me yet, only 10 episodes in.

Orange in the New Black was tremendous in season 2, love how much they're exploring the rest of the cast and their stories, even the minor characters. My only concern is that the branching out is going to lead to a Ryan Murphy-esque meltdown where they try to do everything all at once.

Haven't watched Fargo yet.

[Benji]

At 10 episodes for SHIELD you're nearly at the point it starts getting good.

[Benjamin]

Haven't been able to get into SHIELD because the first half of season 1 is such. a. drag. Loved the pilot and I know it has gotten better as most Joss shows do, but it hasn't been a priority for me yet, only 10 episodes in.

Just stick with it. You need to go only like 2 or 3 episodes more I think before it starts getting good, and now it's fucking great. Bill Paxton's first episode is generally agreed upon to be the starting point of Agents of SHIELD's quality going up.

[Jimmy]

Can you jump into it, or do you have to slog through 10/13 eps?

[TKz]

Someone, I want to say GoGo, did a pretty solid mini-list of episodes to watch before jumping into the best part of the show. There's like four, five episodes and then you just go from episode 13 and it hits the ground running. 13 itself isn't amazing, but everything afterwards is crazy good.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I did. No clue which thread I did it in.

[Josh]

I still have no love for Agents of SHIELD. Same for OITNB.

Mad Men and Fargo should have both been Top 5 shows.

[Quom]

I liked the first season of OITNB wasn't a huge fan of the second. I actually prefer Wentworth which is an Australian show but I think is now on US Netflix.

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

Mad Men at number 10 is absurd. This year may have been it's best season overall.

[Benjamin]

So top 5 is Arrow, Flash, True Detective, Game of Thrones and B99? Or did one of those place already?

[Benji]

Sounds about right to me.

[GoGo Yubari]

Mad Men at number 10 is absurd. This year may have been it's best season overall.

Unfortunately, Mad Men's voterbase is basically small-but-passionate, and some of them weren't there this year

6. The Walking Dead (157 points, appeared on fifteen ballots) (Last Year: #3)

5. Arrow (184 points, appeared on sixteen ballots) (Last Year: #10)

4. True Detective (190 points, appeared on sixteen ballots) (Last Year: NR)

Next Time, on EWB's Top 50 TV Shows of 2014: I am the brother of Elia Martell, and do you know why I've come all the way to this stinking shitpile of a city? For you.

[Benjamin]

Okay, Flash is great, but top 3 is way too high for a show that's only like 10 episodes in. It's barely kicked off yet!

Really hope Brooklyn Nine-Nine wins. Show is absolutely phenomenal.

[Benji]

How's that too high for a show with ten episodes? True Detective only had eight episodes its whole run and I don't think anyone's going to query that getting a high spot. It's not quantity, it's quality.

[Jimmy]

Is Flash actually good, then?

I thought True Detective was a fantastic piece of television. Loved the pacing and the acting, and I can't wait to see what they do with the 2nd season.

[GoGo Yubari]

Yeah, I don't... really agree with The Flash in the top three at all. I'm actually surprised it had ten episodes, it felt like less for some reason. Maybe because I was initially forgetting about some of the more unremarkable ones (the one with the mist guy, the one with the awful actress playing Plastique). In general I think the CW shows are a teensy bit overrated, but Arrow's stretch run in season two was fucking incredible. The Flash doesn't have that kind of weight to it and it's not knocking it out of the park every week. It was maybe in my top 20, but maybe not because I had to cut Last Week Tonight and The Daily Show and Agents of SHIELD and Justified and...

But, I mean, Dexter season five won the whole thing one year, so worse things have happened than a fun superhero show finishing that high.