5 Shows I Was Late To The Party On

 

In anticipation of the latest season of Amazon Prime's Reacher series, I finally watched the first two seasons. The series has been in my queue in what seems like forever, I just wasn't in a rush to get around to watching it until now. Once I finished season 2, I started thinking about other show's I took some time to watch. With that, here are 5 shows I was late to the party on.

5. Cold Case

Cop procedural's are a genre of television I really don't watch. I'll watch Law & Order SVU here and there, I enjoyed underrated shows like Shades Of Blue and Graceland. Other than New York Undercover, The Wire, and 9-1-1 (although I am a good 3 seasons behind at this point), most cop shows I just never tuned in and can't explain why. When Cold Case debuted in 2003 I was 17 years old, so I definitely wasn't watching it. 

Then around 2011-2012 when cable was still in it's juggernaut era, I caught some reruns and thought damn this show is good. I enjoyed the mystery aspect, along with the different era's and music represented for those era's. I fell off from the show and then during the height of the pandemic watched the show again....fell off again, and now that it is on Max I've been working my way through all 7 seasons.

4.Key and Peele

Key and Peele debuted in 2012 on Comedy Central and to be honest, I just watched and finished all 5 seasons of the series last fall. I've seen the clips online, knew the jokes, and seen the meme's I just never sat down and actually watched the show. Funny enough this Mike Tyson skit which was a play on this wild yet hilarious Mike Tyson video I somehow never saw before in my life until last year, convinced me to give the show a try.

I'm glad I did, the show was very funny clearly taking inspiration from shows like In Living Color, MadTV (where both got their start), and of course Chappelle Show. They perfectly captured that era of politics and pop culture, and actually had some very good commentary on where the world was headed at the time that came true. If you're like me and never saw the show, give it a chance.

3. A Million Little Things

A Million little things debuted in the fall of 2018 on ABC, at that time all my TV in my feelings viewing were reserved for the NBC drama This Is US. A couple of people I know said if I enjoyed that show, I would enjoy A Million little things as well. Then during the pandemic, new things to watch are getting thin so I gave the show a shot. I binged watched the first couple seasons of the show in anticipation of the third season finally being released in November of 2020.

Just like This Is Us, this show will hit you in the feels especially being around the same age as the characters in the show it got real. When it ended in 2023 someone was cutting onions as it ended. 

2. Animal Kingdom

                                                 

Heist films and TV shows are one of my favorite genres in that medium. So I'm not sure how I waited so damn long to finally start watching Animal Kingdom. Debuting in 2016 on TNT, the drama series followed a family that are criminal masterminds in the art of heists, all with their own issues and essentially controlled by their overbearing and ruthless mom/grandmom Smurf (Ellen Barkin). It was a high stakes, tense show with plenty of action and family drama.

My wife started watching the show soon as it aired, and kept telling me check it out and I was on a I'll get around to it mentality. Then probably 2019ish right before season 4 aired, I gave the first season a try and basically every chance I had to watch a episode I took it. That's how good the show was, running for six seasons it finished in 2022 and damn I miss that show.

1. Gotham

For Batman to be my favorite comic book character of all time, I absolutely took my sweet time watching this show. In my defense when it debuted on Fox in the fall of 2014, I was working two jobs preparing for a wedding and to buy my first house. So watching this wasn't a priority, in fact I think I watched a couple of episodes when I could but just fell off from it. A season or 2 later, my wife started watching the show and kept telling me I'm missing out. I wasn't in a rush to watch the show though.

It was always in the back of mind to watch, and I finally did last year thanks to tubi. Gotham is a interesting take on the Batman mythology, giving Batman, Jim Gordon and essentially his entire rogues gallery a origin story. It take's inspiration from the films and The Batman Animated Series in storylines, character presentation, and the city of Gotham itself which is a character in the series. Yet still provides it's own spin on the legendary character and associates. The last season kind of tailed off, but if you are a Batman fan check it out.