Media Essays: The Wandering Fox's Top 5 Favourite TV Shows

Well, I’m back with another upbeat blog, from before you had my five favourite movies, so I felt you had to know my five favourite shows.

Again, these aren’t in order, I love these shows and here are my five favourites...

Number 5: The Dragon Prince

You guys must be shocked I'm writing a positive thing about The Dragon Prince, you’d think I'm a hater. I’m not. I love this show. I just don’t like what they’ve been doing since the gap between Sun and Earth. It filled the gap left behind by Miraculous, I was looking for something brand new. Then I gets it. The Dragon Prince. Made by the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender, going for a more medieval kind of setting, with inspirations from Lord of the Rings, I was by this moment a big geek on fantasy. The idea was interesting, two boys meeting a elf girl, going on to try and stop a war. You have a fascinating background to the show, humans and elves divided with dragons being the bosses of Xadia, hatred towards both sides. A story of love overcoming hate? How can I not love that?

Not only that but watching it, I felt like I was exploring a brand new world with tropes being flipped on their heads. Elves usually are noble, respectful beings. Here you do get a few elves like those, but they are filled with bigotry and hate towards humans. And then you have Rayla being the elf who begins to come to peace, with her friendship with Ezran and falling in love with Callum. Callum and Ezran were great as well, you had these half bros actually loving each other, getting along, unlike a lot of media in which there’s jealousy, anger and hate between half sibs, with Callum’s journey in growing into a young adult guardian for Ezran and Zym be a emotional grip as this kid has lost so much but holds onto love.

You have Viren and Claudia starting out as interesting villains, both thinking they are in the right and Viren coming to try and hold onto what he thinks is good but is twisted into a darker character who is all for evil until his resurrection. Claudia was quite good with her being a ditzy girl becoming a cold villain, traumatised by her mother’s divorce and wanting to keep her family together had began making her a more darker character. Just a shame any sympathy I had for her faded once she couldn’t see what was right in front of her with her bro almost turned into a monster or almost killing Ezran.

I do feel they lost their magic once Sun came to a end, they tried to make this into a franchise instead of a show and stomped on Rayla’s character arc, as well as Ezran and Soren, but I loved those first three seasons. All of them were sooooo good.

Number 4: Doctor Who

Yeah, I’m a big Doctor Who fan, fan of it since it came back in 2005. I still remember mum and dad looking forward to its return, I was scared because I thought it’d be about doctors and blood. You can imagine my confusion once Rose and the Doctor were being chased by Autons or the TARDIS being bigger on the inside. I was more confused by how the Doctor regenerated at the end of series 1. I was hooked in, and this show gave me everything. It gave me anger, love, drama, tears. I went to car boot sales being the classic series on video, action figures, books, you name it! I was all in on Doctor Who.

This show grew with me, as in how the Tenth Doctor became my favourite and how I never wanted him to leave, I was harsh on the Eleventh at first because he wasn’t the Tenth, but I ended up loving him. I finally realised then the Doctor changes all the time, I gotta be alright with it. I then began checking expanded stuff and I love the Eighth Doctor out of the classics, the journey he went on as a character was something many ought look at.

I did fall off the show in series 9 after being let down by the finale and I only came back for Twice Upon a Time, I was interested in Chris Chibnall’s handling and well, I kinda felt 50/50 on it, I didn’t hate it but I wasn’t a big fan either. I’m excited for the show and I only hope we get a brilliant run with Ncuti as the Doctor.

Doctor Who also helped make me the man I am today. Creating monsters, new worlds, how to write a character, how to write for different historical. I love this show. I hope maybe one day, I can write for it.

Number 3: Ed, Edd, Eddy

Gosh this series was so funny. I watched it on Cartoon Network a lot as a kid, and re-watching it, it's just so good. Crude and slapstick humour in one, interesting things thrown in to help you understand the series.

I’d be lying if I told you I liked every character, I don’t. Only ones I like are Ed, Double D and Rolf. But gosh this show was funny, I often role-played as the Eds, yelling like Ed, trying to buy gumballs as Jawbreakers. This series had some moments which we can love and laugh at, such as:

“WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STAIRS?” “My parents took them down because I’m grounded!”

“The hat of discipline."

"Do you live in a cave?”

Oh my this show was what you could want from a laugh. If I could get any of my friends over, we’d watch this for a laugh.

Number 2: Daredevil

I’ll be real, I was coming off the MCU after Avengers: Age of Ultron came out, the characters were joking nonstop, idiot plots were happening, I often felt I was not watching a movie about good fighting evil but writers goofing with the actors. But then Netflix gave us something which was a breath of fresh air from it. Daredevil. It gotten in the gritty, brutal, emotional, and fascinating world of New York’s criminal orgs, with the action feeling as real as you can from a vigilante fighting thugs, the bonds between Matt, Foggy and Karen were so well done, both Matt and Foggy arguing following Foggy learning he’s Daredevil was such a gut wrenching moment as you wondered if these friends would come back from this.

Daredevil also brought in Punisher and Elektra, the rivalry between Daredevil and Punisher done incredibly well, Elektra being this enticing fuel for Matt, it was well done. You had great casting in here with Charlie Cox as Matt, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin, you had these actors bringing these characters to life well. Its a big gut punch that the series ended with season 3, and seeing what they are doing to Daredevil and Kingpin in the MCU, I’m annoyed. But still, the Netflix Daredevil was made with love and I love what it gave us.

Number 1: The Owl House

The Owl House was quite the show. But first I have to say, I didn’t watch it as soon as it was broadcasted. Its only once I saw a comparison pic on The Dragon Prince reddit with Luz, Callum, Eda and Ibis I got a good look at Eda and Luz, I thought “I like those designs, I might check it out”. I watched the episodes released by then, can’t remember if it was the one Lilith debuted in, but a few came out by then. I was in. The episodes were funny, heart-warming, taught life lessons, and was creating fascinating characters. I always found the second episode the creepiest with how it did the story of Luz being manipulated by a old man, it was as real as you could get.

Eda was such a character to have, Wendie Mallick, who I share a birthday with, made Eda who she was, her snarky behaviour, her childlike nature, her past catching up and bringing out a more softer, wiser woman, who grew to love Luz and King as her kids, her own trauma of guilt of what happened to her dad, being given another chance at life with fixing her relationship with Lilith, her relationship with Raine coming back, and facing her dad, she was great.

Luz was so interesting to watch, a young geeky girl who’s struggled fitting in, growing up in her ideal world, which gives her as much challenges inn life as you can, overcoming the odds with her own smarts, her doting behaviour with King, being compassionate towards Amity, and learning not to do things alone. Her growth into a wiser girl was so enticing, I always was afraid if she’d lose someone or she died, hence I was so happy she survived to the final scene.

And this show, like The Dragon Prince, has positive LGBT rep in there, you have Luz and Amity as a couple, Raine the non binary witch. I will admit, I was a bit weary of them making Luz and Amity a couple because censorship in other countries and I was so used to other cartoon shows basically only baiting its fans I thought “Eh, they aren’t gonna make them a couple” but Dana was like “I’m canonising them” and she did it well, I love them.

Well everybody, that's all I’ve got. I hope my lists here were a lot more upbeat than my usual posts.