The TV industry’s smarter shows peaked popularity in the recent past. Where there is a junk of reality foolery earning TV a bad reputation, there sure is a bowl of Caesar salad available to feed the intelligent. We have a host of engaging and brainy TV shows with all sorts of genres there to choose from. The powerful writing and exuberant acting in the show along with the engaging themes thrust them into the limelight and quickly become a critical and popular favorite. It is your demand of meatier content that doesn’t spoon-feed the viewer making the clever shows work really well.
Shows that offer intellectual elements like intertwined plot strands, a relatively large number of characters, a timeframe running in the background that is hardly spelled out and narrative that is left to the viewer to read between the lines and understand. These shows not just expand your intelligence but also instill a fine understanding of human nature.
Then we have our favourite channels like Discovery, National Geographic, Animal Planet, FOX History and Public Broadcasting Station(PBS) for super-informative science & education-based programs.
Here is a list of 15 smart shows you would like to watch:
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Sherlock: Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with an arch-enemy whose plot is a threat to all of England. |
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Frasier: Dr. Frasier Crane moves back to his hometown of Seattle where he lives with his father and works as a radio psychiatrist. The show is also known for the intellectual wit that runs through each episode. |
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Lost: Mix Survivor with The Twilight Zone, shake really hard, and you end up with this supernatural brain-challenging drama about plane crash survivors. |
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Mad Men: In 1960s New York, alpha male Don Draper struggles to stay on top of the heap in the high-pressure world of Madison Avenue advertising firms. Aside from being one of the top ad men in the business, Don is also a family man, the father of young children. |
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24: The post-9-11 terrorist thriller dropped literal and figurative bombs (lead characters die) as plots progressed in real-time. |
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The Sopranos: Its stratospheric level of writing and acting—coupled with its modern-versus-traditional take on gender roles, crime and domestic bonds—define this mob drama. |
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The Wire: Its scholarly storyline—a sweeping indictment of broken systems (education, politics, justice) from the eyes of Baltimore’s finest crooks and cops—should be part of every college syllabus. |
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Pawn Stars: This series opens the doors to the only family-run pawnshop in Las Vegas, where three generations of the Harrison family use their sharp-eyed skills to assess what’s real and what’s fake. |
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Mad Scientists: Host, John Bowler makes his way from neighborhood, to neighborhood, uncovering some regular guys with some pretty wacky garage inventions. In the course of the show, John and every episode’s featured inventor take on a brand new contraption together… in an intense, and usually hysterical, 48 hours before they show it off in front of the entire neighborhood! Will it work? They truly have no idea. |
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Inside the Human Body: Inside the human body, discover the beautiful, alien world within you. |
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The Big bang theory: An amazing comedy sitcom surrounding two physicists who move into a new apartment to find themselves into worldly situations. How lucky, then, that babe-alicious waitress/aspiring actress Penny moves in next door. Do the worlds collide? |
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Breaking Bad: Realizing that his illness probably will ruin his family financially, Walter makes a desperate bid to earn as much money as he can in the time he has left by turning an old RV into a meth lab on wheels with one of his former notorious students, Jesse. |
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The Simpsons: A literal caricature of America, Homer’s dysfunctional family laid a donut-smudged blueprint for future cheeky animated series. |
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House, an acerbic infectious disease specialist, solves medical puzzles with the help of a team of young diagnosticians. Flawless instincts and unconventional thinking help earn House great respect, despite his brutal honesty and antisocial tendencies. |
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Planet Earth:Dazzling, state-of-the-art high-definition imagery highlights this breathtaking documentary series featuring footage of some of the world’s most awe-inspiring natural wonders — from the oceans to the deserts to the polar ice caps. |
There are more shows like Mythbusters, Wild rescue Africa, Top gear, Ancient mega structure, Stormchasers, Alaska State Troopers, All in the family, The Nutcracker, Blade runner, Sesame Street, Dust Bowl, NOVA, Mankind the story of us all, and a host others which are worth checking if you are looking to view interesting material.