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jostiel
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An error has ocurred. Please try againThough this is a list of movies whose central focus is drama, some have elements of suspense, such as thrillers and action movies, or humor, like comedy-dramas. To give prominence to a wide variety of styles and provide room for a diversity of directors, only one installment per series is selected, representing the series as a whole. The choice of which I hold highest changes with time, and there's much I've yet to see, so the list will be revised regularly. I haven't seen enough non-English speaking movies to represent them fairly, so this list focuses on drama movies in English that struck a chord with me.
The mysteries of mystery-box shows are sometimes too complex to be solved in just one way. Leftovers, for instance, "let the mystery be," offering more than one possibility. In other shows, like Tales from the Loop, characters may find they're happier not knowing or that the answer is unknowable. A third approach is to provide an answer but leave it ambiguous, welcoming discussion. Undone is an engrossing show that fits this approach, as it sparks and stimulates our imagination by giving us only the hints we need to fill in the missing pieces. Boxes within boxes of mysteries, many never opened, invites us to dream and create, sparking our imagination, beginning with the infinite unpredictability of inspiration, ending with a heartfelt choice between futures unforeseen until imagined.
Honorable mentions: Alphas, Ascension, Big Door Prize, Colony, Dark Angel, Dollhouse, Earth 2, Emergence, Extant, FlashForward, Fringe, Hanna, Homecoming, Invasion, Killjoys, Kyle XY, Manifest, Messiah, The Prisoner, Raised by Wolves, Revolution, The Society, Soulmates, Snowpiercer, The Stranger, Stranger Things, Surface, Terra Nova, This Is Us, Twin Peaks, Utopia, Wild Palms, Zoo, The 100.
Obscure or polarizing movies get the same attention here as cinema classics, and upbeat and emotionally engaging movies share space with those with a darker tone mainly stimulating the mind. You'll find no animated or non-English movies, of which I've seen too few to give a fair inclusion, nor comedies or titles which arguably belong to other genres, such as fantasy, horror or superhero movies. To give prominence to variety, the list only includes the best installment in a series, representing the series as a whole, and to give more room to original ideas, only unique remakes and reboot films qualify. I've ranked most titles higher than their current IMDb rating, partly out of generosity, but also because a fair judging system admits that even the most flawless past examples contain flaws. Rather than pushing down the value of those at the top, this view raises the value of those below.
While this is primarily a list of what I personally love, it's also intended to highlight shared experiences collectively loved. Granted, it doesn't consistently reflect the current consensus, but I've given due consideration to works that have had a lasting impact on film history. Movies move us all differently. What we take away from a story is subjective and personal, which is why no one's list can be identical to anyone else's. The entries in this list appear in a rough ranking order, as what we value highest won't stay the same as we change. I hope you'll enjoy this version.
Reviews
Children of the Dog Star (1984)
Disturbing and evocative
This show aired in Sweden in 1985. I was seven then and my older sister read the subtitles for me (she used to do that so frequently that when I went to bed she would forget to stop reading them out loud). I remember that I thought it was disturbing that you never see the alien activity, yet the invisible alien presence has an impact on these kids. Their parents don't understand and can't believe in what the kids experience, as the unnatural force is invisible and can only be sensed when coming close to it or in nightmares. It was very similar to the British series Chocky, the adaptation of Wyndham's book which premiered in Sweden at the end of 84. Chocky was about an unseen force channeling its thoughts to a boy, giving him all the right answers in school, discussing things with him though no one but him can hear it, which, like The Invisible Man, was quite a disturbing concept for a seven- year-old to process. In Children of the Dog Star, the protagonist is similarly influenced, yet mostly when asleep. I remember the characters as easy to sympathize with, smart, free-thinking and autonomous. There are few series from my childhood I remember this vividly. Though I can't rate it, as I haven't seen it as an adult, the fact that I have such vivid images of it tells me the show was evocative, thought-provoking, spooky and probably made for older kids.