Magnum P.I. ssn 2, Miami Vice ssn 2, Portlandia ssn 3, Derek ssn 1 and The Wonder Years ssn 2. All are pretty great imo, obviously for different reasons.
Magnum because it reminds me of the sort of quirkiness The Rockford Files had, and in the lead role it stars Tom Selleck and Tom Selleck's mustache, great cast. The Wonder Years is obviously a fantastic coming of age tale and period piece, very well done and on the receiving end of a ton of critical acclaim; I've watched TWY before but never the entire series just episodes here and there via repeats.
Derek is your average Ricky Gervais fare, like Extras or The Office, which is to say brilliant. It's funny but it also has that undercurrent of drama and emotion that we usually see in Gervais' TV series. Derek's emotion is maybe more prominent than in his other TV series, in its commentary on oft-ignored retirement homes and the people who work in them, largely a thankless job and extremely difficult. There was a lot of media saying Ricky was making fun of the challenged/differently abled, Ricky himself denies that Derek is mentally disabled and insists that Derek is merely naive/socially awkward. Regardless of whether that's true or not, the media bullshit saying he was making fun of the challenged is patently false, he portrays the character with sincerity and not as the butt of a joke. One more reason to write off entertainment "journalists" I suppose, gotta make something out of nothing in headlines to peddle their papers and webpages.
Portlandia is Portlandia, I thought this season would be worse than season 2 but I actually think it's superior. Maybe now that Fred Armisen is done on SNL he's dedicating more time to this project. Either way, a pleasant surprise.
Miami Vice is just cool as shit, it's melodramatic but fuck is it not quintessential '80s? Plus it has a Testarossa, the show's fashion consultant was Gianni Versace and as such a ton of the suits still look great, the phenomenal focus on music (Miami Vice will not hesitate to show Don Johnson driving a Ferrari for two and a half minutes to finish off a Bryan Ferry, Glenn Frey or Phil Collins track) during the MTV boon, the melodrama that reminds me of Japanese drama (think Yakuza if you've never seen one) but doesn't go far enough to be awful like an American soap, the Miami art deco architecture, pastel colors, great guest stars. Super well put together.
I'm also occasionally tuning into a cartoon on Netflix, usually Adventure Time or Regular Show. I like both quite a bit though I miss Netflix having the Nickelodeon classics like Rugrats, Rocko and Hey Arnold! quite a bit.
Edit: Forgot Eastbound and Down ssn 3, only two episodes in and I haven't formed much of an opinion. First episode was great second wasn't as good as the first.
