I watch a lot of TV and this means I feel like I have the expertise to recommend the hands-down best shows of all time.
After pooling together my favourite shows, I quickly noticed a pattern: they're all led by women who either make me laugh or cry uncontrollably.
Yes, these shows are all about women. No, I won't apologise.
Let's go through my top 10 list of the best TV shows ever!
Image: The WB.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer could be described as an action-comedy – but it's so much more than that. The seven-season series follows the Scooby Gang – Buffy (vampire slayer), Willow, Xander and Giles – as they low-key fight the forces of evil while also surviving the toughest challenge of all: high school.
To say that Buffy was a big part of my teenage years would be a gross understatement. Buffy was my teenage years. I spent my weekends attending Slayer conventions (yep, I was that girl), I spent my weeknights bingeing old episodes, and my weekdays carrying exercise books to class covered with Buffy contact and 'I Heart Spike' etched inside.
Buffy fans will know that this is more than a TV show: it's a religion. And yes, I'm well aware that creator Joss Whedon's ugly past has somewhat tainted that religion, but judged purely off the show alone, it's still phenomenal. Plus I'd argue that it had the best finale episode ever aired.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is streaming on Disney Plus.
Image: The WB.
If you like wholesome television with a side of lightning-fast dialogue and enough dreamy boys to put the entire cast of Riverdale to shame, then Gilmore Girls is everything you've been searching for.
Gilmore Girls is wrapping yourself in a fluffy blanket on the couch. Gilmore Girls is sipping a freshly brewed cup of peppermint tea. Gilmore Girls is ripping off your tight work clothes and sliding on pyjama bottoms at the end of a long day.
There is no show in existence more comforting than this show. And I should know, I've rewatched it precisely 165 times.
From the mother-daughter relationship that is the sole reason I want to procreate, to the complex family dynamics, and Stars Hollow's hilarious quirky side characters, Gilmore Girls is unlike any show that's aired since its 2000 debut.
Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is a genius. That's just facts.
Gilmore Girls is streaming on Netflix.
Image: ABC.
This iconic hospital drama follows the messy antics of the surgical interns at Seattle Grace Hospital, which involves a whole bunch of breakups, makeups, and unfortunately, given the show's setting... death.
There is no TV series that makes me FEEL MORE than this show. Sure, it's gone on a little too long – 19 seasons and counting – but there's no denying that the first six seasons were event television.
We all remember where we were when Izzy was found lying on the floor in her prom dress; when Meredith almost died from drowning; when Lexie and Mark's love story came to an unfathomably tragic end; when George... ugh nope, I can't even talk about George.
Creator Shonda Rhimes can, and will, make you cry at all times. File this show under 'TV series to make me sob' and I promise, it always over-delivers.
Grey’s Anatomy is streaming on Disney Plus.
Image: HBO.
It's our gals! Sex and the City is a love letter to the women of New York City – along with women everywhere who want to feel seen – as told through the eyes of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha.
This series will make you laugh, cry (towards the final seasons), but above all, you will relate to the romantic struggles and successes of the four women at its centre.
As perfectly articulated by phenomenal rewatch podcast Sentimental in the City, this is not just a mere TV series, it's the 'great American novel'. Too right!
SATC is flawless. As for spin-off, And Just Like That... go forth at your own peril.
Sex and the City is streaming on Binge.
Image: NBC.
Seminal '90s series Friends revolves around the friendship circle of six 20-somethings, following their dating lives and careers living in New York City.
What sets this show apart is there's no main character energy because they've all got main character energy. Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Joey and Phoebe are each exceedingly strong in their own right. Name a more dynamic, charismatic ensemble cast – you can't.
However, in recent years, it feels like this show is no longer considered the peak of sitcom excellence that it once was.
And honestly, I will fight anyone who comes for Friends. Okay, to be honest, it has aged poorly in some areas. Is it homophobic at times? Yes. Is it fatphobic? Absolutely.
These two criticisms I can cop and I don't think we need to make any 'product of its time' excuses either – it wasn't acceptable then and it's not acceptable now.
But the criticism that Friends isn't funny? GET OUT OF HERE.
At its best, Friends is the funniest show that's ever aired on television. The Thanksgiving episode when Rachel mixes up the trifle recipe with shepherd's pie? The episode when Ross gets stuck in his leather pants? The episode when everyone finds out Monica and Chandler's big secret?
I mean, you don't get better than this. For a comedy to run for 10 seasons, those numbers don't lie.
Friends is streaming on Netflix and Binge.
Image: HBO.
No theme music on this list can elicit the same hysteria as Game of Thrones. I still get giddy at the thought of finishing work on a Monday, making dinner, plopping on the couch, switching on Foxtel to be greeted with the opening sequence.
Those were the days!
This seven-season adaption of George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire is set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. It's an epic tale that has it all: love, war, gore, sex, betrayal, and even a bit of humour at times.
The series offers some damn good leading ladies in Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister, along with Sansa and Arya Stark. The last season might have divided the fandom, but it's still worth watching the series in full just to get to the final payoff.
GoT is streaming on Binge.
Image: Amazon.
Based on Phoebe Waller-Bridge's one-woman show of the same name, Fleabag is simply... exceptional.
Phoebe plays the title character, who must grapple with the death of her mother and best friend while discovering who she is and what drives her to act in a self-destructive way – especially with men.
The two-season series offers a unique perspective as Fleabag frequently breaks the fourth wall to give viewers an insight into her psyche.
Season one is incredible but season two (and Andrew Scott's 'Hot Priest') took the series to even greater heights. I'd recommend this show to anyone dealing with heartbreak, loss, or basically, any woman living on this planet.
Fleabag is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Image: Fox.
New Girl is pure joy. It's like Friends but for the 2010s.
Okay, to be fair it's quite different. New Girl is about a group of friends living in a loft in Los Angeles: there's Nick, Winston, Schmidt, and you guessed it, the new girl, Jess. Oh, there's also Jess' longtime model bestie Cece, who is part of the core cast.
This show never fails to be laugh-out-loud funny, and like Friends, the cast is so damn strong. With every rewatch, I develop a new favourite character. (At the moment, it's Winston, but I can never resist my sweet baby boy, Nick.)
But aside from being side-splittingly funny, the seven-season show has a lot of heart. There are love stories that develop that really tug at the heartstrings, and a first kiss that might be the hottest thing I've ever seen on the small screen. New Girl has it all.
New Girl is streaming on Disney Plus.
Image: HBO.
From the iconic line Lena Dunham's Hannah delivers in the first episode, Girls had me hook, line and sinker.
The character earnestly tells her parents as she asks them to keep paying the rent on her New York apartment, “I think that I may be the voice of my generation. Or at least, a voice of a generation."
This trademark irreverence carries Girls through its six seasons. The HBO series, which debuted in 2012, revolves around Hannah, Marnie, Jessa and Shoshanna – four twenty-something New Yorkers trying to find their way in the world in their formative post-university years.
It was this structure of 'four women living it up in New York' that incited immediate comparisons to Sex and the City, which was to Girls' detriment, as Girls isn't filled with loveable characters like the SATC core four. The Girls women are flawed, neurotic, entitled and often infuriating.
They act just like... well, girls in their 20s.
The TV show also didn't get much positive coverage in light of its creator Dunham's many cancellations. But like the countless problematic men who have had their art separated from themselves, in more recent years, Girls has finally started receiving the praise it's long deserved.
This show was ahead of its time. It offered a raw, honest and at times hilarious portrait of women just trying to find their way in the world, and yes, making a lot of mistakes along the way.
Girls is streaming on Binge.
Image: ABC.
This coming-of-age comedy set in leafy Melbourne aired for four seasons between 2013 and 2016. Created by and starring Josh Thomas, Please Like Me begins with Thomas' titular character Josh realising he's "probably gay". From here, Josh figures out his dating and career goals while also navigating his divorced mum's recent bipolar diagnosis.
While dealing with heavy material, the show somehow stays light throughout, which is no easy feat. And Debra Lawrance as Josh's mum Rose is remarkable – she gives the performance of a lifetime.
This is the only Australian show on my list, and coming from the biggest fan of Offspring and The Secret Life of Us, this is saying something. In my eyes, Please Like Me is the greatest TV show Australia has ever produced.
It's hilarious, it's written like you're talking to a group of friends, it feels simultaneously uniquely Australian yet totally universal, and it will punch you straight in your heart.
Please Like Me is streaming on Netflix.
This list was hard!!!
I want to make mention of beloved comedies Broad City, The Office (US), Parks and Recreation, Will and Grace, and Scrubs, which are all incredible and came super close to landing in my top 10.
I'm a big fan of the first two seasons of Skins and The O.C, but not so much as the shows continued... and got a little silly.
I also have a soft spot for UK/Irish TV shows I May Destroy You and Bad Sisters, which both only had one season (so far) – but these shows were perfection from beginning to end.
Feature image: The WB.
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