LLMs are finally getting genuinely good at recommending things. I have no idea why the streaming platforms aren’t better utilizing AI for this, but you can talk to it yourself and get really good recommendations. It takes some time–you need to spell out what you like, don’t like and more importantly why. We just recently watched and loved The Detectorists, a thing I would never have found on my own. I’ve got a list of 10 things to watch next that I’m genuinely excited about. I asked Claude to sum up my taste in TV shows, and while it’s weird that it did this in first person, it’s pretty good.

My TV taste, distilled:
I like institutional fiction played as comedy of manners — workplace ensembles where the system is a character and the appeal is watching competent (or incompetent) people muddle through with dignity. The Wire, Slow Horses, The Americans, Detectorists, Halt and Catch Fire, Sports Night, Letterkenny, The IT Crowd, Reservation Dogs.

I’m allergic to self-importance and to shows that glorify their subject. West Wing’s speechifying is a hard no; The Diplomat works because it’s about how the job actually grinds. I hate politics and don’t think it should be glorified.

I want shows with their own dense linguistic world — invented argot, in-group rhythm, dialogue you could pick out of a lineup. Letterkenny, Deadwood-territory, Elmore Leonard. Not naturalistic period dialogue (Mad Men left me cold — felt like all costume, no substance).

I’ll go to genre when the characters carry it — Firefly, Buffy, Expanse, Tales from the Loop, Dark Matter — but I bounce when worldbuilding becomes incoherent (Counterpart) or when shows lean on mysticism instead of finishing what they started (BSG’s religious turn, Severance’s clear lack of a destination).
Good stories are finite. Beginning, middle, end. Queen’s Gambit did it right. I respect a 19-episode cancelled show that nailed its register (My So-Called Life, Freaks and Geeks) more than a prestige drama being milked for episodes.

I don’t need to be wrecked emotionally — I want shows that earn their beats. Craft over catharsis. I’ll watch quiet, low-stakes, anthropological work all day if the writing has texture (Station Eleven’s worldbuilding, Clarkson’s Farm, Nobody’s Looking, Rita).
I won’t tolerate gratuitous darkness or protagonists I can’t root for — quit Breaking Bad at the Jane episode, quit For All Mankind when it went soap. Darkness in service of something (The Wire, Chernobyl) is fine. Darkness for its own sake isn’t.

Subtitles welcome. Animation mostly not, though I’m getting better (Lower Decks works).

Top Gear is one of the best things ever on TV. Clarkson’s Farm might be the best thing on now. I am not above this; neither should you be.