Welcome to Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! This week, we are looking at ten of our favorite movies and TV shows.
Rachel’s Picks
Psych
Psych is my all-time favorite show, and I don’t care if it ended last season. It lives on forever in my heart. It revolves around Shawn Spencer and his best friend Burton Guster (aka Sha Comma to the Top Dynasty) and their psychic detective agency. Shawn isn’t actually a psychic—he’s like the funny version of The Mentalist.
Psych never takes itself seriously and always riffs on pop culture: there is a Clue episode, an American Idol episode, a Bachelorette episode. It’s always fun, and the focus on two best friends is refreshing. It’s one of the smartest TV shows I’ve ever seen, and it disappoints me to no end that more people didn’t watch it. All of the episodes were available on Netflix last time I looked.
White Collar
Oh, Neal Caffrey. Why can’t you exist in real life? It’s hard to look at Neal, played by Matt Bomer, and concentrate… his face is just so so pretty. Obviously, that isn’t the only reason I like this show. It’s also smart and fun and adorable. But.. I’d be lying if I said Matt Bomer wasn’t a contributing factor.
Neal is an ex-con-turned-FBI-badass who helps solve white collar crimes (usually by committing some minor crimes himself). The show is full of high-jinks and beautiful Matt Bomer smirks. The FBI team is a surprisingly rag-tag bunch that always pull off incredible, mind-bending stunts. They are like the live-action, ultra-attractive Scooby and the Gang.
Last time I checked, you could watch all of the seasons on Netflix, and you totally should because this is their last season. And I believe it’s going to be a short one.
The Originals
The Originals is my guilty pleasure show. It’s a spin-off from the CW’s successful Vampire Diaries, and in my opinion, it’s way better. For starters, all of the stars are meant to be older, meaning it’s much more acceptable for me to crush on the main characters. I mean, once you get to a certain age, is it really acceptable to say you think the high school boy on TV is wildly attractive (even if he is played by a 30 year old man)? I don’t know. At some point it gets weird. Anyways...
The show also doesn’t focus on high school life, which I appreciate.
X-Men: First Class
My favorite movie. It’s everything a superhero movie should be. It’s serious when it needs to be and funny when the time is right. I’m not a fan of the “gritty, realistic superhero movies,” which are apparently in vogue now (thanks Christopher Nolan). I prefer my superhero movies to have a bit more excitement and escapism. First Class is laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s also seriously touching.
It’s helped along by a stellar cast. Jennifer Lawrence is amazing as always; James McAvoy is so charming you can’t help but love him; and Michael Fassbender is easy on the eyes. And, man, McAvoy and Fassbender have amazing chemistry. I believe them as best friends. I want them to be best friends.
Thor: The Dark World
This is probably my second favorite superhero movie, and yeah, it’s mostly because of Loki. He is hilarious. And Steve Roger’s cameo is just the best. If you don’t watch superhero movies but you want to try one, this is a good one. It’s funny, action-packed, and everyone is easy on the eyes. I mean, that’s all anyone really needs in a superhero movie.
If only Thor and Loki would cut their long hair. I’m really not into that.
Psych
Psych is my all-time favorite show, and I don’t care if it ended last season. It lives on forever in my heart. It revolves around Shawn Spencer and his best friend Burton Guster (aka Sha Comma to the Top Dynasty) and their psychic detective agency. Shawn isn’t actually a psychic—he’s like the funny version of The Mentalist.
Psych never takes itself seriously and always riffs on pop culture: there is a Clue episode, an American Idol episode, a Bachelorette episode. It’s always fun, and the focus on two best friends is refreshing. It’s one of the smartest TV shows I’ve ever seen, and it disappoints me to no end that more people didn’t watch it. All of the episodes were available on Netflix last time I looked.
White Collar
Oh, Neal Caffrey. Why can’t you exist in real life? It’s hard to look at Neal, played by Matt Bomer, and concentrate… his face is just so so pretty. Obviously, that isn’t the only reason I like this show. It’s also smart and fun and adorable. But.. I’d be lying if I said Matt Bomer wasn’t a contributing factor.
Neal is an ex-con-turned-FBI-badass who helps solve white collar crimes (usually by committing some minor crimes himself). The show is full of high-jinks and beautiful Matt Bomer smirks. The FBI team is a surprisingly rag-tag bunch that always pull off incredible, mind-bending stunts. They are like the live-action, ultra-attractive Scooby and the Gang.
Last time I checked, you could watch all of the seasons on Netflix, and you totally should because this is their last season. And I believe it’s going to be a short one.
The Originals
The Originals is my guilty pleasure show. It’s a spin-off from the CW’s successful Vampire Diaries, and in my opinion, it’s way better. For starters, all of the stars are meant to be older, meaning it’s much more acceptable for me to crush on the main characters. I mean, once you get to a certain age, is it really acceptable to say you think the high school boy on TV is wildly attractive (even if he is played by a 30 year old man)? I don’t know. At some point it gets weird. Anyways...
The show also doesn’t focus on high school life, which I appreciate.
X-Men: First Class
My favorite movie. It’s everything a superhero movie should be. It’s serious when it needs to be and funny when the time is right. I’m not a fan of the “gritty, realistic superhero movies,” which are apparently in vogue now (thanks Christopher Nolan). I prefer my superhero movies to have a bit more excitement and escapism. First Class is laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s also seriously touching.
It’s helped along by a stellar cast. Jennifer Lawrence is amazing as always; James McAvoy is so charming you can’t help but love him; and Michael Fassbender is easy on the eyes. And, man, McAvoy and Fassbender have amazing chemistry. I believe them as best friends. I want them to be best friends.
Thor: The Dark World
This is probably my second favorite superhero movie, and yeah, it’s mostly because of Loki. He is hilarious. And Steve Roger’s cameo is just the best. If you don’t watch superhero movies but you want to try one, this is a good one. It’s funny, action-packed, and everyone is easy on the eyes. I mean, that’s all anyone really needs in a superhero movie.
If only Thor and Loki would cut their long hair. I’m really not into that.
Diana’s Picks
I’m way too much of a television addict to find this assignment anything but super stressful. There’s no room for movies in my five—it was already a brutal, Gladiator-style tournament to narrow it down this far. Okay. These may not actually be my all-time top five favorites, but they’re the shows I go back to again and again.
The West Wing
Yes, Aaron Sorkin sure is irritating. And yes, this show portrays an idea of left/right politics that has a lot more in common with my high school hopes and dreams than it does with reality. But I still love The West Wing—the humor, the long shots through the corridors of the White House, the excitement over budget negotiations. For sheer enjoyment per minute, this show warrants a spot in my top five.
The Gilmore Girls
Great dialogue is usually what sells me on a show, and since the Gilmore Girls do nothing but talk, this is an easy pick. When I’m having a tough time this is the show I go too—my entire first year of law school is nothing but a blur of cases, outlines, and Lorelai Gilmore.
Deep Space Nine
The show that finally sold me on Star Trek (yeah, preach about TNG all you want to, but I seriously don’t get the love.). It feels like The West Wing, but in space. Politics! Relationship Drama! Hilarious High-jinks! And Avery Brooks is just amazing, which I knew before I watched him in The Captains, but seriously in his interview he’s just like sitting at his piano wearing a silly hat and singing to Shatner and I lost my heart all over again.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I doubt I have to justify this choice too much around here. And what can one even say about Buffy? It’s so culturally huge it’s practically spawned an entire academic sub-discipline.
Coupling
This narrowly beat out two other Steven Moffat-related projects, Dr. Who and Sherlock, but Coupling made the cut because it’s probably my very favorite sit-com. It’s like a crude, British version of Friends (if Friends was a lot funnier than it actually was), and it makes me laugh over and over again. But oh my goodness, avoid the US adaptation, which might be the least funny thing I’ve ever seen on television.
Several of Coupling’s actors went on to other major television shows—you might recognize Gina Bellman from Leverage, Jack Davenport from Pirates of the Caribbean and Smash, and Richard Coyle from Covert Affairs and Crossbones.
I’m way too much of a television addict to find this assignment anything but super stressful. There’s no room for movies in my five—it was already a brutal, Gladiator-style tournament to narrow it down this far. Okay. These may not actually be my all-time top five favorites, but they’re the shows I go back to again and again.
The West Wing
Yes, Aaron Sorkin sure is irritating. And yes, this show portrays an idea of left/right politics that has a lot more in common with my high school hopes and dreams than it does with reality. But I still love The West Wing—the humor, the long shots through the corridors of the White House, the excitement over budget negotiations. For sheer enjoyment per minute, this show warrants a spot in my top five.
The Gilmore Girls
Great dialogue is usually what sells me on a show, and since the Gilmore Girls do nothing but talk, this is an easy pick. When I’m having a tough time this is the show I go too—my entire first year of law school is nothing but a blur of cases, outlines, and Lorelai Gilmore.
Deep Space Nine
The show that finally sold me on Star Trek (yeah, preach about TNG all you want to, but I seriously don’t get the love.). It feels like The West Wing, but in space. Politics! Relationship Drama! Hilarious High-jinks! And Avery Brooks is just amazing, which I knew before I watched him in The Captains, but seriously in his interview he’s just like sitting at his piano wearing a silly hat and singing to Shatner and I lost my heart all over again.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I doubt I have to justify this choice too much around here. And what can one even say about Buffy? It’s so culturally huge it’s practically spawned an entire academic sub-discipline.
Coupling
This narrowly beat out two other Steven Moffat-related projects, Dr. Who and Sherlock, but Coupling made the cut because it’s probably my very favorite sit-com. It’s like a crude, British version of Friends (if Friends was a lot funnier than it actually was), and it makes me laugh over and over again. But oh my goodness, avoid the US adaptation, which might be the least funny thing I’ve ever seen on television.
Several of Coupling’s actors went on to other major television shows—you might recognize Gina Bellman from Leverage, Jack Davenport from Pirates of the Caribbean and Smash, and Richard Coyle from Covert Affairs and Crossbones.
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