Pingu

In reverse chronological order:

• The Good Place.
• The Sopranos
• Seinfeld (maybe not the character depth, but the writing)
• Shogun (6-episode miniseries, does that count?)
• The original Bob Newhart show, the one with Suzanne Pleshette.

Resident Alien

I’ve been rewatching Community recently and it definitely fits the bill. It has incredibly good writing.

But more than that, Community gives me the impression that is has an infinite budget. Not a ridiculously big budget like some shows and movies do… an infinite budget. The difference being that they don’t waste a cent. There isn’t a single thing on screen that doesn’t serve a purpose. No ridiculous effect or expensive crane shot added in just to flaunt their budget. But if an episode’s script actually called for a particular shot to be done, they would move heaven and earth to make that happen. That’s what it feels like.

In my head I compare it to having unlimited vacation days at work. Case studies have shown that workers take fewer vacation days when they can take as many as they want, compared to when they have a set number per year. So in the analogy, a show with a set ludicrously high budget will use every last cent of it even for pointless frill, whereas a (hypothetical) show with an unlimited budget would only use however much money is necessary to create the show. Somehow, Community became that show. … It probably has to do with how frequently they actually went way over budget in practice.

I fucking love Community.

Mister Roger’s Neighborhood Twin Peaks Frasier Futurama The Wire NCIS S1 to like S5 Fringe Peaky Blinders Orphan Black

It is unacceptable that Babylon 5 is not on this list. It was rare, at the time, for shows to have a multi-season story arc with character development planned from the start. JMS got his seasons, though, and used them beautifully. Every single episode, even those that don’t contribute to the main storyline advancing, either show a character developing or build the foundations for that development.

King of the Hill

The Good Place. It starts off deceptively shallow but by the end it became one of my favorite shows of all time.

Dark. The constant time travel makes it hard to keep track of what’s going on a lot of the time but if you can manage, it’s very rewarding. Great character development. Not the best ending, but good enough.

Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad have some poorly written characters but the well-written ones are very well-written.

I didn’t include any shows based on books because I felt that would go against the scope of your question.

Can’t believe Ted Lasso hasn’t been mentioned

Bojack Horseman

Firefly.

House. I remember fuckall from the past 40 years of watching tv but that one show is etched in the feels.

Andor

The Leftovers, Maniac, Mr. Robot, anything by Sam Esmail really.

Star Trek: Deep space nine

Kira: From hot headed terrorist to level headed leader

Nog: petty criminal to first of his kind in Starfleet