The Influence of Anxiety

A television tuned to a dude channel.

Recently, I decided I'd like to make an effort to watch some Good TV Shows that I've never gotten around to. I'd like to avoid binge-watching, though, to encourage fuller attention and allow episodes some room to breathe. The result is this project, where I plan to hold myself to the following rules:

  1. Watch one episode of each show weekly. Possibly two for shows with shorter runtimes, but targeting about an hour maximum per show per week.
  2. Have multiple shows running simultaneously, starting with five (for one episode per weekday, more or less).
  3. Finish one full season of a show out, then choose to continue with the next season (if applicable) or swap to another show in that slot.
  4. Produce some kind of post here for each episode I watch. Might be a bit of writing, or just a tweet or image from the episode.

I'm choosing shows based on the following criteria:

  1. I think that the show will be genuinely good/enriching for me to watch. Popularity or idle interest are not sufficient.
  2. No rewatches, possibly relaxed if I've only seen scattered episodes.
  3. Only completed seasons, and a strong preference towards shows that have finished their full run.
  4. Some preference toward shows with more limited episode counts over sprawling epics.

When I started the shortlist of shows to start with, they ended up being very dudes-heavy, hence the name. This is not a requirement of the project, and it may or may not continue.

The five shows I'm beginning with, in no particular order, are:

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