The Most Rewatchable TV Series Of All Time

The detective series "Columbo" is famous for breaking all the normal rules of the murder mystery genre. In fact, most of the stories aren't technically "mysteries" at all. Most episodes begin by showing the murderer of the week executing their crime and seemingly getting away with it. By the time our ostensible protagonist, Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk), arrives on the scene, it's sometimes over 20 minutes into the episode. 

Our titular detective is also quite unusual. With messy hair and a rumpled coat, Columbo seems less like Sherlock Holmes and more like your weird uncle. And from here, the rest of the story unfolds in a surprisingly low-key fashion. There are no shootouts or car chases. Rarely does a character even raise their voice. Mostly, it's just a series of conversations between Columbo and the murderer, as he picks at the seams of their story until finally he discovers a contradiction that reveals the truth. Despite his unassuming appearance, Columbo is relentless, perceptive, and highly intelligent. 

There's something profoundly comforting about "Columbo," which makes it a perfect show to rewatch. Perhaps it's because of the reliability of the show's formula, or the unhurried nature of the writing. It could be the guest stars, which consist of pretty much every 1970s celebrity you can think of, including William Shatner, as well as icons like Vincent Price, Janet Leigh, and even Johnny Cash. Or perhaps it's an inevitable byproduct of the show's core conceit. After all, if you know who the killer the whole time, even the first time you watch it, it's not like there's anything that gets spoiled the second time around.

In more ways than one, "The Simpsons" is a show that you can just keep watching forever. First of all, there's just so much of it. "The Simpsons" holds countless world records for longevity, including longest-running American sitcom, longest-running primetime scripted series, and longest-running American animated series. But beyond just the sheer number of episodes that exist, "The Simpsons" is also, without a doubt, one of the best-crafted TV shows in history, especially during the show's first decade or so.

First premiering in 1989, "The Simpsons" was initially conceived as a reaction to the largely toothless and sentimental sitcoms of the 1980s. Unlike the Keatons from "Family Ties" or the Tanners from "Full House," the Simpsons are a deeply flawed family unit. Despite its cynical edge, the show still had an enormous amount of heart, not to mention top-notch humor that blended clever satire, stupid slapstick, and pure absurdity.

Fans disagree with one another about when exactly the golden age of the show truly ends and the quality starts to decline, but the good news is that whenever you reach the point in your latest rewatch that the show stops feeling like the show you love, you can just start over again at the beginning. Because even if you cut out the bad seasons, there are still probably way more great episodes of "The Simpsons" than of any other show you love to rewatch.

Since the invention of television, there's never been a shortage of television shows about police officers. However, many cop shows from previous decades do not hold up particularly well to rewatching, largely due to an overly simplistic view of crime and policing. "The Wire," on the other hand, is only getting better with age.

Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the series follows a vast cast of characters consisting of both police officers and criminals. It portrays both types of people with empathy and humanity. The series is not at all afraid to show how inadequate the police force can be at stopping the root causes of crime, or how all people —cop and criminal alike — are products of the world they grow up in. People are often only able to be as good as their circumstances allow. The series was based on writer David Simon's time as a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun, lending it a gritty social realism that's hard to come by on TV. 

With an amazing ensemble cast of actors like Dominic West, Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, and of course Michael K. Williams as the iconic Omar Little, "The Wire" is an intelligent and often darkly hilarious story of human beings trying to do their best in a world where there are no easy answers. As you watch it, you'll slowly realize that pretty much every prestige drama that has been created since has been trying to be "The Wire," and when you rewatch it, you'll realize that nearly all of them have failed.

When "Bojack Horseman" first premiered in 2014, it received only middling reviews. It seemed likely that the show was going to be remembered as yet another example of crude, cynical, and ultimately forgettable piece of adult animation, one with all shock and no substance. But as the show continued, season after season, something surprising began to happen. It started to get good — mind-blowingly good.

Somehow, this silly little cartoon about a washed-up alcoholic celebrity horse evolved into a fascinating meditation on the nature of addiction, depression, and self-destructive behavior. It also started to get quite experimental at times, with artsy high-concept episodes like "Fish Out of Water" and "Free Churro." By the time the show arrived at its sixth and final season, it had become one of the smartest and most well-crafted shows in television history. Yes, we are still talking about the dirty cartoon with the alcoholic horse.

And now that the show has concluded, we can confirm that as good as "Bojack Horseman" was the first time around, it's even better during a rewatch. Even the earlier and more jokey episodes hit with an additional undercurrent of melancholy now that you know where the show is ultimately heading. Once you pass the halfway point, it's pure bliss until the end. Well actually, it's horrifically depressing, but you know what we mean. The point is, "Bojack" has always been good. Back in 2014, we were all just too burnt out on bad adult cartoons to notice.

"King of the Hill" is a show that sneaks up on you. It's not at all thrilling or fantastical, especially by the standards of most cartoons. Instead, the show focuses on the relatively mundane lives of the inhabitants of the fictional Arlen, Texas. You might not get it at first. The colors are muted, most characters speak in somewhat monotone voices, and what humor there is tends to be rather dry. But after a few episodes, you'll start to get on the show's extremely weird wavelength, and that is a wonderful place to be.

The main thing you'll come to love about the show is its absolutely killer cast of characters. There's the old-fashioned and good-hearted Hank Hill, Hank's goofy and decidedly un-masculine son Bobby, their paranoid conspiracy theorist neighbor Dale, and dozens more. All are deeply strange, and yet somehow, all of them feel far more real than the vast majority of characters you'll see in any television show, animated or otherwise. And similarly, although the plots do often end up in rather zany places, the show always has one foot firmly planted in reality. The end result is a unique and almost uncanny tone that's unlike anything else on TV. Like drinking a strong cup of coffee, "King of the Hill" might be a bit alienating if you're not used to it, but once you develop a taste for it, there's nothing else like it.

"Breaking Bad" begins on the 50th birthday of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a man whose life is... fine. Sure, he's got problems. Money is a little tight, but other than that, he's happy, right? Well, all the small problems in Walter's life suddenly get much bigger when he is diagnosed with cancer and learns that he has, at most, a handful of years to live. Suddenly, Walter needs to make some money fast to leave something behind for his family. Given that he knows chemistry, and he has nothing left to lose, he decides that the best way to get rich fast is by making meth. As this dorky science teacher slips down further into a world of violent criminals, he discovers, to his surprise, that he can be just as bad as they are. Not only that, but this new world is everything that has been missing from his life. It's dynamic, it's challenging, and people respect him.

From the writing to the cinematography to the incredible acting, "Breaking Bad" is just about perfect. Walt's slow journey from sweet family man to ruthless criminal kingpin is one of the greatest sagas ever put on film, full of mind-blowing twists, dark comedy, and heartbreaking tragedy. If you haven't seen it before, there's probably at least one friend in your life who has been begging you to watch it. For once, you should listen to that friend. And if you need someone to watch it with, ask them. They probably won't mind rewatching it.

There have been many adaptations of Batman over the years, from the campy '60s TV show, to the slightly less campy Burton/Schumacher era, to the dark and gritty Nolan films. Everyone has their favorite version of the Dark Knight, but many fans agree that "Batman: The Animated Series" might just be the definitive adaptation. The show features Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker, both of whom have gone on to become arguably the most iconic portrayals of both characters. It adapted classic characters and stories straight from the comics and created plenty of new ones. It also found an almost perfect balance between the darker and the lighter sides of Batman fiction — appropriate for kids and engaging for adults.

Not only did this show regularly equal the level of quality of the comics it was adapting from, at times it even outshone the source material with some of its changes and addition — so much so that DC then incorporated ideas from the cartoon back into the comics, an almost unheard of feat at that time. The show redesigned the look of characters like Mr. Freeze and Two-Face. It revitalized forgotten joke characters like Clayface and Clock King. Oh, and by the way, this show also invented Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya (also Condiment King, if anyone cares about him).

Whether you watched it as a kid or not, do yourself a favor and go watch, or rewatch, "Batman: The Animated Series." There's a reason that this particular version of the Dark Knight casts such a long shadow.

Without a doubt, one of the most endlessly rewatchable genres of television has to be the sitcom. Your favorite might be "Friends," "The Office," or "Frasier," but today, we're going to talk about "Seinfeld." The show chronicles the misadventures of four friends living in New York City. There is the detached and persnickety Jerry, the insecure and amoral George, the bold and belligerent Elaine, and the superlatively strange Kramer.

"Seinfeld" often bills itself as being a "show about nothing," and that's certainly true, at least for the first few seasons, with an episode about waiting for a table in a Chinese restaurant or being unable to find your car in a parking garage (these mundane episodes are arguably some of the best). As the show continues, the storylines become increasingly and wonderfully surreal. Kramer reassembles the set of the Merv Griffin show inside his apartment. Jerry stumbles into the world of illegal underground cockfighting. There's even an episode in which the scenes are all shown in reverse chronological order, three years before "Memento."

The thing you appreciate most when you're rewatching "Seinfeld" is how complex it is. Unlike most sitcoms, which cut back and forth between an A plot and an unrelated B plot, "Seinfeld" episodes typically have three or four plotlines, all of which are interwoven and constantly bouncing off each other, before ending in a climax in which all the various plot threads collide in a funny finale. In some ways, "Seinfeld" plots are less like a traditional story and more like math, or perhaps architecture. It's all the grandiosity and complexity of a heist film, but serving a story about some jerk trying to get a discount at the eye doctor.

Like many classic buddy cop stories, "The X-Files" is centered on an unlikely partnership. Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is an FBI profiler with a strong belief in the paranormal. Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is a coldly rational medical doctor and a diehard skeptic when it comes to anything spooky. In the series premiere, the two are paired up and assigned to a little-known department of the FBI known as the X-Files, which handles cases that involve claims of the paranormal or other unexplained phenomena. Then, over the course of the series, Mulder and Scully alternate between investigating strange one-off monster of the week oddities and uncovering the truth behind a much larger conspiracy regarding a shadowy force that is abducting and experimenting on humans, which might be aliens, might be the US government, or both.

There's a lot to love about "The X-Files," but without a doubt, its single strongest asset has to be its two leads. Mulder and Scully are a perfect pairing, and always play off each other wonderfully, both dramatically and comedically. Not to mention that, by the end of the series, their initially incongruous partnership ends up evolving into one of the best slow burn "will they or won't they" relationships in television history. That said, not every episode is great. There are some genuine stinkers in there, so during your next rewatch, we won't blame you if you decide to skip a couple of your least favorite episodes... or seasons.

The delightfully odd ensemble cast sitcom "Arrested Development" tells the tale of the tumultuous lives of the Bluths, a family of wealthy real estate developers who fall on hard times when the patriarch of the family is arrested for assorted criminal activities. (Get it, "Arrested Development?") From there, their personal lives begin to deteriorate, and the plot grows increasingly absurd as the Bluths attempt all sorts of schemes to regain their wealth, avoid prison, and hold onto what little dignity they have left.

Though critically acclaimed when it first premiered, "Arrested Development" never managed to attract a large audience during in initial run on television. Some point the blame at the fact that, for a sitcom of that time, the show had a surprisingly complex continuity, and many of the jokes were based on recurring bits that would repeat and evolve over the course of the series, making it a difficult show to just watch a single random episode of without context. But fortunately, all the things that repelled new viewers when it was airing live make it the perfect show to binge on streaming services. Fans are divided as to whether or not the two later revival seasons are worth watching, but you should at least check out the initial three seasons, and then probably watch them again. "Arrested Development" is the rare show that just keeps getting funnier the more you see it.

"Steven Universe" tells the tale of, well, Steven Universe — the half-human, half-alien son of an otherworldly being named Rose Quartz. In years past, Rose saved the world leading a team of magical superheroes called "The Crystal Gems." However, Rose passed away while giving birth to Steven, so he ended up being raised by the rest of her team: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. When the show begins, Steven starts to manifest some of Rose's powers, and the others decide to start teaching him how to be a hero.

"Steven Universe" initially presents itself as a straightforward action-comedy cartoon, but as the show progresses, it starts subverting its usual formula in increasingly large ways. By the time you reach the end, it's become something entirely different. We eventually realize that pretty much everything that Steven believes at the start of the show is a lie, including the true history of the Crystal Gems, the nature of the monsters they hunt, and the shocking truth about his mother.

With a truly unique and fascinating setting, "Steven Universe" is perhaps the best example ever of how to slowly reveal and expand a complex science fiction setting without it ever getting overwhelming or subjecting the viewers to an unwanted exposition dump. Also, when you rewatch the show, it soon becomes clear that, from the very beginning, the show is full of clues about the many plot twists we get in later seasons. You'll never notice them the first time around, but during a rewatch, your jaw will constantly be on the floor because of how masterfully the show foreshadows all of its big moments.

Unlike some of these epic and lengthy sagas we're covering today, this next little show is just a single season long, comprised of 10 eleven-minute shorts. You can knock it out in under two hours if you binge it. But despite its brevity, it's also just as worthy of watching and rewatching as anything else we've discussed thus far.

"Over the Garden Wall" is an animated miniseries that follows the journey of two half-brothers, Wirt and Gregory. The pair find themselves wandering about a haunted autumnal forest known as the Unknown. They can't quite remember how they got there. All they know is that they need to get home. Their journey contains elements of comedy, drama, adventure, and horror, seamlessly sliding from one to the next like an old uncensored folktale that was written before the various storytelling genres all got split up and sanitized. Wirt and Gregory wander into a town full of pumpkin people performing a harvest festival, they stow aboard a riverboat full of humanoid frogs, and they keep running into a mysterious woodcutter who warns them about a creature he calls "The Beast."

It's a beautiful little gem of a show that spooky kids and adults can watch together. There's also a bit of a mystery at the heart of the show as well, and once you know the answers to what is really going on, the show gains a great deal of depth and poignancy during a rewatch. Like a classic fairy tale you never get tired of hearing, try rewatching this one each year as the leaves begin to change. It just might become your new favorite fall tradition.