Top 25 TV Shows of 2015-14: Part 1

The 2014-15 television season has been introduced us to many exciting new shows, like The Flash and Daredevil, returning favorites, like Doctor Who and The Blacklist, and final seasons of beloved series like Parks and Recreation. Now, it is time to rank and review everything that I watched from season, and hopefully, you will find some shows that you might have overlooked.

Before starting the list, let me explain the rules. To qualify for the list, the television series in question must have finished airing in the last six months (the fall and winter TV season). Any ongoing television series or ones that aired during the early part of last year will not be included on the list. Obviously, my choices are limited to the television shows that I have seen. I do not have HBO, Showtime, or the other movie channels, and therefore any series from those channels will not be included on the list. 

Since this list ranks every television series that I have seen this past six months, if one of your favorites is not on the list, it literally means that I have not seen it. In addition to my ranking, I will provide a mini-review along with a rating of each series included on the list so you will know if you might want to watch the series. 

Before the countdown begins, I want to talk about the TV shows that I dropped or have not finished and my opinions on them.

Allegiance

Allegiance followed a FBI analyst, Alex O'Connor, whose parents secretly worked for the Russian KGB in the past. Now the KGB wants to use Alex's position in the FBI to gain Intel, and thus his parents are forced to deceive him, otherwise the KGB will tear-apart their family.

Allegiance, while not groundbreaking, provided a new angle on the spy thriller genre with the addition of family drama. It was one of the better new shows from the season, as it progressed through certain plot points faster than expected, as well as featured an entertaining cast of characters.

Unfortunately, Allegiance was pulled mid-season from NBC's lineup earlier this year. It continued to air on Hulu, but I never got around to finishing it. However, if I did, it would have been one of the more interesting series of the year, although nowhere near the best.

Gotham

Typically, comic book TV shows are an instant must-watch for me, especially ones about my favorite characters like Batman and Jim Gordon. Unfortunately, Gotham's first six episodes were dreadfully dull, poorly acted, and derivative of every other crime procedural. It combined the repetitive structure of procedurals with the dull and lifeless atmosphere of that DC is infamous for.

After the series sat around on the DVR for months, it eventually was lost due to replacing a malfunctioning DVR, and yet I probably would have never gotten around to watching it again. According the reviews that I have read, it seems that I did not miss much by skipping Gotham. However, if Netflix picks it up, I might give it another shot in preparation of the new season.

CSI: Cyber

Aside from watching a few random episodes over the past decade, I have not seen much of the CSI franchise until I started watching CSI: Cyber. As the name implies, CSI: Cyber focuses on the Cyber division as they solve murders and other crimes related to computers.

Conceptually, Cyber is an interesting way to update an aging franchise with a new angle. Even though the series did not present much new, it was a perfectly decent crime drama. Unlike the other series on this part, CSI: Cyber is still sitting on my DVR, and I will probably watch the rest of it when I am out of other things to watch.

The Musketeers - Season 2

Not much to say about season two of The Musketeers other than it is also sitting on my DVR, and I might decide to finish watching it at a later date. With that said, the series' writing can be incredibly daft and full of illogical plot holes. At times, it can be one of the dumbest shows on television, but at the same time, it can be fun to watch.

NCIS: New Orleans

NCIS: New Orleans is a spinoff of the highly successful NCIS franchise. Even though I have seen a few random episodes of NCIS's early seasons when I was a kid, I did happen to catch a few episodes of NCIS: New Orleans, and while it brought nothing new to the crime procedural genre, it was good for from what I watched.

That concludes the first part of the list. Please let me know what you think of list thus far, check back next week for the continuation of the list, as well as my reviews of Elementary – Season 3, Forever, and more!

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