Top 50 Favorite TV Shows (40 - 31)

#40: Star Trek: The Next Generation: TNG is one of those shows that I haven't seen a whole lot of, but I do enjoy what I have seen. I've probably seen more of Next Generation than the original Star Trek. The reason I'm saying that is because I believe the characters in both shows are equally iconic. Besides all of this, Picard in Next Generation is probably my favorite of the Enterprise captains. 

#39: Sleepy Hollow: The story Sleepy Hollow is that Ichabod Crane was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, fighting on the side of the colonies. His witch wife cast a spell on him so that he would wake up should the Headless Horseman ever resurface, which he does in modern times. Mix in some biblical references to the apocalypse, and you've got a pretty solid fantasy-horror series that I think is worth checking out. 

     

#38: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: I won't lie. I am a lifelong Star Wars fan, and this 21st century CGI television series has just about anything Star Wars related I could ask for, solid lightsaber battles, a decently strong Padme, and an Anakin Skywalker that was stuck in perpetual whine mode. The Anakin Skywalker in this series actually felt like the character Ben Kenobi described in A New Hope. Jar-Jar's (admittedly limited) involvement in the series is the reason the show is as low as it is. 

  

#37: How I Met Your Mother: Let me start by admitting that this show would easily be a lot higher if it weren't for the fact that the main character was Ted Mosby, mostly because the supporting characters around are either less douchy, more interesting, or both. Ted aside, this show feels like the closest thing we've gotten to a 21st century version of Friends. 

  

#36: Family Guy: The Griffins may easily be one of my favorite dysfunctional TV families. Almost every member of the family offers a unique characteristic. You get the baby hell-bent on killing his mother and ruling the world (Stewie), the idiot teenage son (Chris), the sarcastic alcoholic talking dog (Brian), the daughter with low self-esteem who's the butt of every joke (Meg), and of course, the retarded patriarch of the family (Peter). 
     

#35: Veronica Mars: Another mystery series, Veronica Mars centers on a teenage private investigator trying to solve her best friend's murder. Season three may not be as good as the first two seasons, but the mysteries in seasons one and two are still really damn good. The creators of the show will have episode-long mini-mysteries while the protagonist finds clues and pieces them together to solve the season-long arc mystery. 
   

#34: The Big Bang Theory: To me, The Big Bang Theory appeals so easily because I understand a lot of the nerdy references. This is a group of friends who spend their time playing games in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment, or at the comic book store. Even though, for the most part, they are all highly intelligent, you see their emotional journeys. You don't often see them actually working at their jobs, so much as their conservations in the workplace cafeteria. I honestly love every member of the core cast, because in a lot of ways, I think they're relatable.

#33: Lost: I am a fan of J.J. Abrams, and while Lost certainly had its ups and downs, let's not forget, this show started out with an interesting puzzle that we were begging to have solved. Even when quality started to drop in later seasons, we were still invested enough to see what was going to happen, and whether or not all our questions were going to be answered. 
  

#32: Heroes: Speaking of shows that had their ups and downs in terms of quality, I honestly enjoyed the hell out of Heroes. The characters were pretty unique, for the most part. They almost all felt like they had layers to them, like they were actual people on top of their powers. My personal favorite was Sylar. Sylar is a character who is pretty much drunk on his power. He's a violent psychopath without any sort of remorse for his actions, and is easily the show's most tragic character. 
  

#31: The Walking Dead: I won't lie, I have waned on the show a bit in recent years. I do love most of what I've seen. Does this change my opinions on characters like Shane or Lori? Hell No! As far as I'm concerned, these two are still the most insufferable characters on the show. Thankfully most of the cast who's still alive are pretty solid, and the violence is unnerving.