11 Joe Pera Talks With You (2018-)
the most recent and the only still-active show on the list. though characterised as a strange admixture of gentle comedy and asmr there is a low thrumming of disturbance running through this that threatens to pervade the surface calm. by the end of series 2 joe is completely bereaved and in a relationship with a conspiracy truther and disaster prepper who can't mix socially without a gun. the show takes place in an unswerving and stable america but the writers clearly know it is not...so there's more to explore.
it is really funny and sweet though. joe pera is an all-time great comedy creation. i wonder if the character of himself as a prematurely-aged man is a way of creating an ironic lens through which to view sincere enthusiasms.
12 Horace and Pete (2016)
because i am lucky enough never to have millionaire comedian louis ck gurn over me whilst masturbating his penis with ginger pubes i can distance myself from the weirdness and wrongness of his personal actions in a manner i am not entirely comfortable with but nonetheless is true. i am okay if you cannot and i make a small gesture of apology at my own personal weakness, but horace and pete transcends the actions of its auteur.
auteur is wholly appropriate here as ck (who i never really liked before or after this!) actually paid for this whole thing to happen. he didn't just write it and act in it: he put his money where he large mouth is and distributed it himself outside of the established industry. i daresay that at some point, in a future that never came to pass, he hoped to distribute it through a more traditional and widespread channel. but he didn't and now that he is a nonperson for a while this show exists in limbo and possibly set to be forgotten in time.
horace and pete is probably no great shakes to regular theatre attendees but as someone reared on television it strikes a bold and original chord; a cheers devoid of cheer, zola transplanted to brooklyn, people dumping their emotional load onto the nearest and the weakest. at times the bleakness it holds in its heart is almost too much to bear (episode 7, where pete has his relationship deliberately spoiled, is almost unwatchable).
13 I'm Alan Partridge (1997-2002)
14 The Trip (2010-2020)
15 The Prisoner (1967-1968)
the first great fictional television series in my limited estimation.
