Media

Italicized items are my favorites of the favorites. I think they’re so good that even people who aren’t particularly interested in that genre/type may take a look anyway.

Shows

Full list here

Drama
The Americans
Band of Brothers
Better Call Saul
Black Mirror
Breaking Bad
Chernobyl
Deadwood
Five Days at Memorial
It’s a Sin
Justified
The Knick
The Leftovers
Narcos
The Night Of
Rescue Me
The Terror (season one)
Treme
True Detective (seasons one and three)
Under the Banner of Heaven
We Own This City
The Wire

Comedy (lighter)
30 Rock
American Vandal
Archer
Chappelle’s Show
Community
Detectorists
Final Space
Flight of the Conchords
Futurama
Harmonquest
Letterkenny
Man Seeking Woman
Our Flag Means Death
Over the Garden Wall
Parks and Recreation
People of Earth
Reno 911!
Ted Lasso

Comedy (darker)
Catastrophe
Colin from Accounts
The End of the Fucking World
Fleabag
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Kidding
The League
Legit
Louie
Review
South Park
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
This Is Going to Hurt
A Young Doctor’s Notebook
You’re the Worst

Difficult to Categorize
Atlanta (drama with frequent surreal and satirical comedy)
BoJack Horseman (dark drama with lots of silly pun/language humor)
Dave (sophomoric humor that hits very hard emotionally a couple times a season)
Freaks and Geeks (my vote for most realistic portrayal of high school life in mass media)
Life, Death, & Robots (anthology series; each episode is different)
Master of None (comedy-focused, but a very relatable portrayal of modern dating)
Reservation Dogs (I initially included this as a drama, but it’s too funny too often)
Scrubs (my vote for best usage of the full spectrum of emotions in one show)
Shoresy (a foul-mouthed comedy that is my favorite fictional portrayal of teammates)

Documentary
Anything directed or produced by Ken Burns
All Or Nothing (multiple series)
The Grand Tour
Hard Knocks
The Last Dance
Quarterback
Receiver
Top Gear
Welcome to Wrexham
Wild Wild Country

Books

Full list here

Fiction – Fantasy
Richard Adams – Watership Down
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett – Good Omens
George R.R. Martin – A Song of Ice and Fire series
Patrick Rothfuss – The Kingkiller Chronicle series

Fiction – Science Fiction
Isaac Asimov – Foundation series
Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Max Brooks – World War Z
Orson Scott Card – Ender’s Game series (especially the first book)
Michael Crichton
– Congo
– Jurassic Park
– Sphere
David Drake – Redliners
Robert Heinlein
– Double Star
– Friday
– The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
– Starship Troopers
– Stranger in a Strange Land
Frank Herbert – Dune
Hugh Howey – Silo series
Richard K. Morgan
– Takeshi Kovacs series
– Thirteen
Colson Whitehead – Zone One

Fiction – Other
Margaret Atwood – The Handmaid’s Tale
Charles Dickens
– Great Expectations
– Oliver Twist
– A Tale of Two Cities
William Golding – Lord of the Flies
Joseph Heller – Catch 22
Stephen King
– Cujo
– Firestarter
– It
– Pet Sematary
– The Shining
Erik Larson – The Devil in the White City
Chuck Palahniuk
– Choke
– Fight Club
– Haunted
– Rant
John Steinbeck
– Cannery Row
– East of Eden
– The Grapes of Wrath
– Of Mice and Men
– Tortilla Flat
Mark Twain
– A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
– The Prince and the Pauper
Kurt Vonnegut
– Breakfast of Champions
– Cat’s Cradle
– Deadeye Dick
– Mother Night
– Player Piano
– Slaughterhouse Five
Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad

Fiction – Humor – Fantasy
Terry Pratchett – Discworld series
Christopher Moore – Everything

Fiction – Humor – Science Fiction
Douglas Adams – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series

Nonfiction
Stephen Ambrose – Band of Brothers
Anthony Bourdain – Kitchen Confidential
Bill Bryson – Almost everything
Truman Capote – In Cold Blood
Brian Jay Jones – Jim Henson: The Biography
Randall Munroe – Everything
David Rakoff – Don’t Get Too Comfortable
Mary Roach – Everything
Robert Sapolsky – Behave
David Sedaris
– Barrel Fever
– Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
– Me Talk Pretty One Day
– When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Sarah Silverman – The Bedwetter
Bill Simmons – The Book of Basketball
David Simon – Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets
Stephen Richard Witt – How Music Got Free

Video Games

Single Player – Open World
Assassin’s Creed
– Brotherhood
– Black Flag
– Odyssey
– Valhalla
Avowed
Borderlands series (including Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands)
Cyberpunk 2077
Dragon Age: Origins
Fable series
Fallout series (especially New Vegas and 4)
Far Cry
– 4
– 5
– New Dawn
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Grand Theft Auto series (especially Vice City and 5)
High on Life
Mass Effect Andromeda
Mafia
– 2
– 3
Red Dead Redemption series
The Witcher 3

Single Player – Linear
Bioshock
Life Is Strange: True Colors
Mass Effect trilogy
Metro Exodus
Road 96
Titanfall 2

Single Player – Puzzle
FAR series
Inside
Limbo
Morkredd
Portal series
Return of the Obra Dinn
The Turing Test

Single Player – Adventure
As Dusk Falls
Oxenfree
Tacoma
Tell Me Why
The Wolf Among Us
What Remains of Edith Finch

Single Player – Other
Dysmantle
Forza Horizon series (especially 4)
Power Wash Simulator

Couch Co-op – Shooter
The Ascent
Borderlands series (including Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands)
Gears of War series

Couch Co-op – Other
Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
Diablo series
It Takes Two
Morkredd
Nobody Saves the World
Portal 2
The Quarry
Unravel Two
A Way Out