Through characters and stories we love, we can help heal the divide and show people that we are all human and all want similar things.

That may seem like small comfort at a time when racism, homo/transphobia, sexism, and anti-Semitism are at an all-time high. Even so, let’s celebrate characters changing the narrative and helping make a better, less prejudiced world.

FBI’s Omar Adom “O.A.” Zidan Is The First Egyptian-Born Lead Character on A Police Procedural

When I think about characters changing the narrative, O.A. is always the first one that comes to mind.

Unfortunately, many peace-loving Muslims get blamed for terrorist activity related to conflict in the Middle East, and that’s been reflected in our television shows for a very long time.

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Before O.A. was introduced on FBI Season 1 Episode 1. there were few Muslim characters on TV who were not either guilty of terrorism or being accused of it based on credible evidence.

Sure, Law & Order: SVU had a couple of episodes about Muslim women who were raped and killed because they didn’t subscribe to radical Islam, but guess who was always the culprit? Their Muslim fathers or brothers.

That changed seven seasons ago when O.A. was introduced. He is the first and so far only Middle Eastern-born Muslim character to be a leading man in any show, and he’s also an FBI agent.

His loyalty to the United States is never in doubt. Before becoming a field agent in an office that specializes in counter-terrorism, he served in the Army and did two tours in Iraq that left him with PTSD.

Like so many of our veterans, he has PTSD because of his experiences, though he has kept it under control enough to become one of the best, most trusted agents in the New York Field Office.

We won’t talk about his relationship with Clay on FBI Season 7, which is leading him in the wrong direction because it’s beside the point.

OA is one of the strongest characters who changes the narrative of the division and hatred that encompass the United States and the world.

It’s sad that even within the confines of the fictional FBI on TV, OA sometimes has to prove that he’s equally loyal to his country or equally capable of being objective when the targets of investigations are Muslim extremists.

Still, he defies stereotypes simply by continuing to exist and offers some much-needed representation.

Watch FBI Online

Heartstopper’s Elle Argent Is One Of The Characters Changing The Narrative About Transgender Women Of Color

LGBTQ+ representation on TV is in decline precisely when we need it not to be, and that’s doubly true for the transgender community.

It’s especially important to showcase Black transgender women and other transgender women of color who experience the intersections of transphobia, racism, and misogyny.

I’d like there to be more American transgender people of all races and gender identities on TV, but in the meantime, the UK series Heartstopper‘s Elle is my favorite example of how transgender characters are changing the narrative about who they are.

Elle is a transgender teenager who is mostly accepted as the woman she is.

Throughout Heartstopper’s three seasons, she has grown from a shy loner who was afraid cis girls in her new school wouldn’t accept her to an out and proud transgender artist who has friends both in and outside of the transgender community.

Sometimes, Heartstopper gets criticized for showing LGBTQ+ kids being happy and mostly free of hate-fueled drama, but we need stories like these.

We need characters like Elle who are supported by their parents and friends and who want to be seen as more than a statistic or a label.

Elle sends the message that you CAN be happy if you’re transgender despite all the hate in the world.

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Transgender kids have an unacceptably high suicide rate. They NEED hope. Elle gives it.

Yes, she was upset during Heartstopper Season 3 when a podcast host asked her for an interview about her art and then bombarded her with questions about whether trans girls should be allowed to use the women’s restroom and other transphobic nonsense.

She struggled with that a bit and needed her friends’ help to overcome the depression and keep moving on. But even that was a positive message, showing that in reality, it doesn’t HAVE to be over because of setbacks like this.

Watch Heartstopper Online

Good Trouble’s Davia Moss Explored How Fatphobia Affects Plus-Sized People (And Formerly Plus-Sized People)

Good Trouble is no longer on, but it deserves an honorable mention anyway.

This show did so much good in terms of characters changing the narrative around all sorts of identities. I could fill this list with almost everybody on it.

I chose Davia because there is not enough discussion of plus-sized women and the prejudices they face on TV.

The body-size movement began when Camryn Manheim first came onto the scene as a proudly plus-sized actress who did not intend to lose weight to get roles, but Davia is the most modern example I can think of.

Davia experienced body shaming both as a plus-size person and later when she lost weight.

When formerly plus-sized people become not-so-plus-sized, they experience a different flavor of prejudice, with people constantly telling them how good they look and commenting on their weight loss without knowing the details.

It’s annoying and, in some cases, upsetting if the person loses weight because they have a serious illness that they don’t want to broadcast to the world.

People should not be commenting on others’ body size, period, especially strangers, and Davia demonstrated why that is hurtful whether or not you’re a plus-sized person.

Additionally, she demonstrated that there is a lot more to a person than how big they are or aren’t. She was one of the most well-rounded characters on Good Trouble, with a lot of flaws but a big heart and the intention to help others.

Watch Good Trouble Online

The Irrational’s Alec Mercer Is A Black Role Model And Trauma Survivor

The Irrational is busy offering characters changing the narrative all over the place. It was a hard choice between Alec and his sister, Kylie, who is a strong representative of Black queerness.

Alec is one of my favorite characters in television history for many reasons. I find his commitment to rationality over emotion inspiring and his determination to live his life to the fullest despite the trauma he’s suffered even more so.

I’m also stoked about Alec because he is a Black college professor and consultant to the FBI.

The consultant part has been done before, but we all know that Black men are underrepresented in teaching across the board, on TV, and in reality.

Alec is a successful Black man who teaches and inspires others.

His college classroom is always full, and he uses interesting and creative experiments to make points about neuroscience, which isn’t always the easiest topic to understand.

Alec is also a trauma survivor and is changing the narrative on that, too.

Like many survivors, he is very strong in some areas of his life and not very functional in others.

It’s doubly powerful to have him as a representative of trauma survivorship because he knows the human brain inside and out and understands the ways that he sometimes fails him, yet he is powerless to do anything about it when flashbacks or other aspects of trauma hit him.

Watch The Irrational Online

Found’s Bella Dismantles Stereotypes Around Nonverbal People

Trauma can cause people to become selectively mute. That means that they are unable to speak in some or all situations.

That’s not usually what trauma looks like on TV, but Found is different.

This season contains flashbacks of Bella (who chose the name Lacey as an adult) struggling as a seven-year-old child who had recently escaped Sir’s clutches.

Among other things, Bella does not speak.

I love this story because I am passionate about confronting and eliminating the ableist belief that verbal ability has ANYTHING to do with intelligence or competence.

Bella communicates non-verbally very well.

Her facial expressions and other body language are so perfect that an autistic person like me, who struggles with interpreting body language, knows exactly what she is feeling at any given moment.

She can still read, write, draw, and think. She simply cannot speak.

Bella grows up to be a woman who has reclaimed her voice and refused to lose it again, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is one of a very small number of characters changing the narrative around nonverbal children, if not the only one.

Watch Found Online

Brilliant Minds’ Oliver Wolf Is The Best Of Several Characters Changing The Narrative Around Neurodivergence

There are many more autistic and other neurodivergent characters in TV Land than there used to be, but that doesn’t mean there’s a hell of a lot of accurate representation.

Brilliant Minds‘ Oliver Wolf is the best neurodivergent representative. He is a doctor who is respected by some and seen as a nuisance by others.

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He has face blindness, which is a neurodivergent condition in which a person cannot recognize people by looking at their faces.

This is far different from the usual neurodivergent character. There is a lot more to neurodivergence than autism and ADHD, not that those conditions are generally portrayed properly, either.

Wolf’s neurodivergent traits are carefully interwoven with his past trauma and his fear of intimacy because of that trauma.

That’s also an important distinction because far too many shows are interested in the question of “Will this person succeed even though they are neurodivergent?” rather than showing the character as being more than a diagnosis.

Wolf does double-duty representation-wise because he is also gay.

Neither of these identities is centered to the degree that we lose sight of him as a unique, fascinating individual who has compensated for his difficulties as best as he can to create enormous professional success.

I also appreciate how his sexual orientation and neurodivergence likely contributed to his trauma.

No one could predict his dad’s mental illness and subsequent death, but Wolf would have experienced some trauma even if those things hadn’t happened because of who he is and how he sees the world.

Watch Brilliant Minds Online

Blue Bloods’ Jamie Reagan Demonstrates That Men Can Be Empathetic and Sensitive

At first glance, it might seem strange to choose a Blue Bloods character as an example of changing the narrative.

Blue Bloods skews more conservative on the political spectrum than most shows, so an argument can be made that it changes the narrative around conservatives all being evil and selfish, which is also important in these divided times.

Jamie has always been my favorite, with Henry as a close second. He not only went into police work for the right reasons but is especially good at building rapport with witnesses and suspects.

In the early seasons, Jamie demonstrated more than once that he had a gift for helping talk down people who were having a mental health crisis.

One moment that sticks in my mind is when an autistic man began causing trouble at a store, throwing things around and generally being belligerent, and Jamie was able to peacefully subdue him by using his understanding of the man’s thought processes.

This was a man with limited verbal skills who respected Jamie and wanted to be like him, so Jamie got him to put his hands behind his head by modeling it, and the man cooperated.

He was arrested without the use of force, which would not have happened had Jamie not been there.

Jamie uses this type of sensitivity and empathy on the job all the time, though, in later seasons, he is in a higher position and doesn’t work with the public as much.

His empathy changes the narrative about what it means to be masculine and demonstrates that cops don’t HAVE to be modern-day cowboys.

Watch Blue Bloods Online

Law & Order: Organized Crime’s Jet Slootmaekers Shoots Down Stereotypes About Female Coders

Jet has been my favorite on Law & Order: Organized Crime since it began.

Jet is a computer expert, but she is far from a nerd.

She’s smart, sardonic, and seemingly fearless. She’s a cop and a computer expert, and she knows how to use a gun better than almost anybody.

In short, Jet would fit in on any modern Western… except she also knows computers.

Jet’s one weakness, if you can call it that, is that she struggles in relationships.

That’s understandable. Women who are as bright and assertive as her often have a hard time finding love, and in her case, she’s too afraid of commitment for it to work.

That’s worse in the later seasons because Jet falls hard for two men who die. That’ll screw anyone up.

Still, few female characters change the narrative of what women in traditionally masculine careers are like as much as Jet does.

Watch Law & Order: Organized Crime Online

Homicide: Life On The Street’s Tim Bayliss Is Still One of The Best Representatives of Bisexual Men 30 Years Later

Look, this might be an old show, but Homicide: Life on The Street is on Peacock, so you can still watch it.

It also has the first bisexual male character on TV. Starting with Homicide: Life On The Street Season 6, Bayliss explored his sexuality after realizing he was attracted to a male suspect.

Bayliss tried dating both men and women, struggled with the question of whether he was straight or gay, and ultimately concluded he was neither.

That was radical then and equally radical today when we still have people insisting that bi characters are really in-the-closet gay characters.

Homicide’s final season wasn’t worth watching in most respects, but Bayliss’s determination to be openly bisexual, even though the police department thought that was “unprofessional,” made up for a lot of other non-interesting stories.

Watch Homicide: Life On The Street Online

Chicago Med’s Hannah Asher Changes The Narrative On Drug Addiction

Drug addiction stories are a dime a dozen on TV.

Far too often, though, it’s treated in a stereotypical manner. Whether someone is addicted to alcohol or hard drugs, the most popular storyline for them is the relapse story, followed by the overzealous AA meeting attendee story.

Addiction is a far more complicated issue than that, but you wouldn’t know it from most TV shows.

Chicago Med‘s Hannah Asher is different.

Hannah recently went through something that could have easily triggered a relapse.

She lost a patient soon after the baby was delivered and blamed herself. Guilt, shame, and pain are powerful emotions that often drive people back toward addictive behavior.

Add in the fact that Hannah’s relationship with her new boyfriend was falling apart, and there was a chance she could lose her job because Lenox thought that it was unnecessary to employ a full-time OBGYN, and you have a recipe for spiraling out of control.

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However, Hannah didn’t relapse. There aren’t any better examples of characters changing the narrative around addiction than that!

Hannah’s addiction is part of who she is but doesn’t define her, and unlike most of the people with addiction issues on TV, she is self-aware enough to realize when she’s at risk and take action to protect herself.

That makes her a role model and dismantles the stereotype that relapses “just happen” and nobody can do anything to prevent them.

Watch Chicago Med Online

Georgie And Mandy’s First Marriage’s Georgie Cooper Dismantles Stereotypes About Country Boys In An Interesting Way

Throughout Young Sheldon, Georgie was depicted as the “stupid” (or at least ignorant) brother.

However, there is a lot more to Georgie than that, and now that he’s gotten his own show (Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage), it’s easier to see.

Georgie was never book-smart. School wasn’t his thing.

But he has a head for business and is gifted mechanically, skills that were never emphasized when he was growing up in the shadow of his younger brother.

We need characters to change the narrative of what intelligence is.

There are many kids who fall through the cracks because they would shine in trade schools or in the arts but are not academically minded.

This doesn’t mean that people don’t need to learn the basics, but not everyone needs advanced degrees, and that should be okay.

As a bonus, Georgie’s intelligence in areas other than academics also dismantles the idea that Southerners, particularly Southern men, are all idiots, which can only be a good thing in this overly divided country.

Watch Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage Online

Over to you, TV fanatics!

Who are some of your favorite characters who are changing the narrative about various groups of people?

Hit the comments with your thoughts!

The post How TV Is Breaking Stereotypes: 11 Characters Changing the Narrative appeared first on TV Fanatic.

This popular and critically beloved show has been available on DVD for years but was MIA on any streaming service until now. 

Homicide: Life on the Street joins two other classic shows, Moonlighting and Northern Exposure, that were lost to streaming until recently. 

Like Homicide: Life on the Street, these two shows had at least been available for purchase on DVD, whereas many other shows from that era weren’t so lucky.

Since streaming is how most people access visual media these days, just how many other forgotten gems of TV history are we missing out on?

A Priority Shift

Streaming services first established themselves by offering as many popular TV shows as they could get, like when Netflix featured every season of Friends and The Office — ad-free! 

Viewers at the time assumed that all of these familiar shows would always be available on the new streaming platforms, but most were only there under limited license agreements. 

The streaming services then began producing their own content, so they apparently needed to make room for that on their digital warehouse shelves.

Subscriptions were the metric for streaming services like “advertising eyeballs” for network television. These services pivoted to original offerings to attract subscribers instead of maintaining or bulking up their classic TV libraries. 

This was a time when the majority of TV viewers had cable packages and not just streaming channels, so they could theoretically scratch their classic TV itch with shows that aired on basic cable’s Nick at Nite or TBS. 

Besides, weren’t most of those old shows available on DVD, anyway?

Forgotten Formats

If one looks hard enough, a fair number of 20th-century shows are available on DVD, but often not in their entirety.

Like the 1989 Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis sitcom Anything But Love, where just the first two of its four seasons were released on DVD, sold together as a “Volume 1” box set that sadly never got a “Volume 2.”

There’s also The Drew Carey Show, an incredibly popular ’90s series that ran for nine seasons, but only its first is available on DVD (however, the entire series can now be streamed on Pluto and Apple TV+). 

While DVD players haven’t quite gone the way of the VHS tape, they’re an added barrier and expense in a world where the cost of streaming channels is daunting enough. 

This makes the availability of classic shows in streaming format critical if they are to find a contemporary audience.

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How Many Shows Are We Talking About Here?

The number of 20th- and early 21st-century TV shows that are currently unavailable to stream (or purchase on DVD) is astonishing — and random. 

Shows you may have watched on their first airing, in syndicated reruns, or clicked through on cable over the years while channel surfing are surprisingly absent from any sort of assumed permanent archive.

In the late ’70s to early ’80s, ABC’s Saturday night “Must See TV” lineup was The Love Boat, followed by Fantasy Island.

You can still catch a ride on the original Pacific Princess via Paramount+ but forget about flying to Ricardo Montalban’s magic island. While the series was on Tubi for a while, it’s nowhere to be found again.

So, if you were in the middle of watching it, and it got pulled unceremoniously, you can’t find it anywhere else.

(However, you can visit the deliciously dark 1998 Malcolm McDowell and the fantastically fun 2021 Roselyn Sanchez versions of Fantasy Island on Tubi.)

The seminal ’80s crime shows Vega$ and Spenser for Hire shared the same vibes, popularity, and even star in Robert Urich, but Vega$ is lost to the neon mists of time while Spenser can currently be hired over at Apple TV+ and Tubi.

Landmark medical dramas of the ’70s and ’80s aren’t immune from going missing, either.

M*A*S*H is available to stream or purchase on several subscription platforms, but Quincy, M.E. (with Jack Klugman as an idealistic coroner) and Trapper John, M.D. (with Gregory Harrison in his prime) are not.

Why Aren’t These Shows Available to Stream?

Music rights, studio ownership squabbles, and contract issues are the main reasons keeping shows in limbo. Money and lack of interest are the others.

Decades ago, songs were licensed for a show’s original live network airings and syndication.

Physical formats like DVDs weren’t included because they didn’t yet exist, and contracts didn’t have all-media rights clauses covering any formats invented in the future, like streaming.

The more songs featured in a series, the more difficult and expensive it is to detangle the song rights for streaming. Then, the question becomes whether potential audience interest in a show is high enough to merit the cost of securing those rights.

Another issue is that studios, networks, and production companies have been bought, sold, or blended so often in recent years that it’s hard to determine who currently has the rights to various shows.

The availability of Homicide: Life On The Street, Moonlighting, and Northern Exposure might be taken as a sign that these legal obstacles are not impossible to overcome.

But it still leaves the question of why more of these classic shows aren’t being salvaged and streamed.

Vanished Versus Difficult To Find

Some classic shows are more “lost” than others. Even worse than just having one season released decades ago, they never made it to DVD at all.

This is the mystifying case with two quirky Y2K-era shows centered around singles: Ed (2000) and Cupid (1998).

Ed dropped Northern Exposure’s city-professional-versus-loony-locals playbook into a candy-colored suburb, a combo that snagged super-high ratings and four seasons for the NBC show.

The show starred Tom Cavanagh and featured future notables Julie Bowen, Justin Long, and John Slattery, among others. But despite a substantial fanbase both then and now, Ed remains unavailable on DVD and streaming.

Cupid bounced between different time slots during its sole season, which didn’t help secure an audience for the admittedly esoteric show about a man who is either The God of Love come to Earth or a deeply delusional mortal.

This early series created by Rob Thomas showcased the innovative storytelling and witty dialogue displayed in his later projects, such as Veronica Mars and Party Down.

Cupid starred Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall and boasted an impressive roster of guest stars, including Sherilyn Fenn, Connie Britton, and Laura Leighton. It also had a fantastic theme song (“Human”) performed by The Pretenders.

Sadly, none of this earned Cupid either a second season or a DVD release, only an odd, single-season 2009 ABC remake starring Bobby Cannavale.

The strong creative pedigrees of these shows, plus diehard original fan interest, make them seem like great choices for a streaming service to pick up.

But for whatever reason, they remain lost to memory.

What’s The Holdup Here

Thirtysomething (1987) is a landmark show that is still in streaming limbo despite a vocal lobby of fans.

The series followed a group of yuppie-adjacent friends in suburban Philadephia as they dealt with having children, mortgages, and compromising their college ideals for money.

Mocked at the time for its navel-gazing monologues and mundane, champagne-problem plotlines, the show resonated with a demographic that hadn’t seen its struggles and sensibilities depicted on TV before.

The show became known for structurally innovative episodes and went on to win thirteen Emmy awards.

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It also featured an episode (“Strangers”) that marked the first time on American network television that two gay male characters were shown in bed together.

According to tweets from Mel Harris, who played Hope Steadman, there are no ownership rights issues that keep the show from streaming; there is just a lack of interest from Amazon Studios.

Why This Matters

The list of lost shows could go on for days: Judging Amy, China Beach (Not having access to these two is downright sinful), Chicago Hope, Murphy Brown, Relativity, and Once and Again, for starters.

The preservation of our television history aside, we’re simply missing out on decades of entertainment by not making more of these shows available for streaming.

Our IP-centric cultural moment seems ideal for mining this potential treasure trove of vintage shows to pad streaming platform libraries and perhaps strike another surpriseSuits nerve, as Suits did for Netflix.

It would also be nice to access the more complete bodies of work of our favorite performers and show creators.

What lost classic shows would you like to stream? Let us know in the comments!

The post Finally, We Have Hope! Beloved, Long-lost Shows That Should Join the Party on Streaming appeared first on TV Fanatic.

If you need further evidence, the real world will happily oblige. Flat-earth theories, moon landing coverups, Area 51, the JFK assassination, QAnon, the Illuminati, government coverups of underground passageways in Antarctica, and so many more that attract millions of followers.

Suspicious thinking and paranoia are nothing new. In fact, many scientists believe it’s entirely natural, a trait handed down throughout the ages as an old survival mechanism.

No matter where it comes from, creative minds know how to tap into the paranoid edge of the human consciousness, conjuring characters that are simultaneously fascinating and suspicious of everything.

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Some of TV’s deepest conspiracy buffs are indeed the greatest fictional characters in the history of the small screen.

Rust Cohle – True Detective S01

The first season of True Detective is one of those shows people will hunt down and watch fifty years from now, assuming we consume entertainment in the same way by then. As it turns out, Cohle was mostly correct in his conspiratorial introspection.

The deep south of Louisiana, already a scene of mysticism and old secrets, is the backdrop of Cohle’s investigation. An archaic sense of dark wonder is pervasive throughout the series. If you don’t come away believing in shadowy conspiracies deeply intertwined with the seedy undergrowth of American crime, you’re flirting with a dose of aphantasia.

Sherlock Holmes – Sherlock

There is no true list of TV’s conspiracy buffs without Sherlock Holmes. If he’s not on there, it’s a bust.

Sherlock Holmes’ fictional life took place in late 19th-century England, otherwise known as the Victorian Era. It’s difficult to disassociate Holmes from Jack the Ripper, a real-life serial killer in the shady underbelly of 1888 London.

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The very nature of Holmes’ private investigation enterprise conjures up theories, investigations, and, yes, conspiracies.

The eccentrically luminous Holmes unravels conspiracies for a living and is probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, fictional detectives in history.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully – The X-Files

Why list two? Well, in many ways, this is a necessary combination.

If you could take the consciousness of the entire X-Files series and split it into two parts, Scully would be one, and Mulder would be the other. They are oil and water, yet they somehow combine to agglomerate the ultimate conspiracy investigator.

At its heart, The X-Files is about alien colonization or the attempt at colonization. That extraneous effort is shrouded and enabled by a dark government conspiracy with many tentacles. These tentacles are subsets — other conspiracies with key players revolving around the center.

In short, Mulder’s and Scully’s unique intellectual opposition comes together to tackle a multi-faceted nightmare conspiracy of world-shattering proportions.

Olivia Dunham – Fringe

Olivia Dunham is the perfect follow-up to Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. When Fringe came along, everyone assumed it would be a J.J. Abrams-led rip-off of The X-Files. To be fair, the two shows have a lot in common.

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However, where The X-Files’ overarching theme was an alien invasion coordinated with a shadow government, the Fringe crew is up against Massive Dynamic, a multi-billion-dollar corporation/pseudo-government entity.

Like The X-Files, Fringe is essentially a series of paranormal investigations that serve as filler between primary episodes that cover Massive Dynamic and the alternative universe the company is intertwined with.

Mark Scout – Severance

TV’s most entertaining conspiracy buffs don’t have to work for the FBI or some unelected, secret bureaucracy. Severance takes the boring, traditional office setting and turns it into a brain-twisting hellscape of insidious content moderation, social experimentation, and literal, split personalities.

Nothing is what it seems to be in Severance.

Those who work at Lumon Industries undergo a voluntary procedure known as “severance,” which splits and separates their “at-work” consciousness from their “not-at-work” consciousness. The result is a mind-bending spiral of discovery and insanity.

It’s a treacherous conspiracy, tightly constrained within the home-work dynamic.

Bernard Lowe – Westworld

Bernard Lowe has to be one of the most tortured conspiracy buffs on the list. Westworld is a deep dive into the rabbit hole, with a lot going on in its first season.

Built as an “entertainment” venue for the rich and famous, Westworld is a fantasy version of the Wild West made real and peopled with biomechanical robots.

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Unfortunately, the robots no longer behave as intended, and Bernard Lowe, the head of Delos Programming, is intent on figuring out why. The journey is one of self-discovery, though not in the way that most people think.

There’s a huge difference between discovering hidden or repressed aspects of your character and discovering you are not you. The labyrinthine storyline only gets trippier from there.

Jack Shephard – Lost

Lost is probably one of the most convoluted and controversial series on this list. The ending satisfied some and elicited groans from others.

One thing everyone can agree on is that Lost is a complex tale. It often expands too far and becomes dangerously self-destructive. There’s so much going on here that it’s difficult to summarize it all in a few paragraphs.

Suffice it to say, elements of purgatory, flashbacks, flash-forwards, electromagnetism, time loops, immortality, a flash-sideways world (may or may not be defined as purgatory), and metaphysical questions that will never be answered.

Jack presided over more episodes than any other character, so he earns the “conspiracy buffs” title for one of the most divisive and delirious TV shows of all time.

Valery Legasov – Chernobyl

Of all the conspiracy buffs on this list, Valery Legasov is the only real one, and his journey ultimately led to his suicide.

Russia, during the days of the Soviet Union, was a walking, talking conspiracy theory, the result of an oppressive, tightly controlled regime.

Valery Legasov was one of the Soviet chemists sent to the site of the most well-known nuclear plant meltdown in history to ascertain the damage and assist in cleanup efforts.

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Throughout his time in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Legasov faces the brutal nature of a government hell-bent on maintaining secrecy, controlling information, and spying on its own citizens.

To say that the word “conspiracy” is applicable here is an understatement. During that time period, it was paramount that the Soviet Union never allow its chief rival, the United States, to witness a moment of weakness.

The many deaths and the expansive destruction of the meltdown are direct results of a Soviet PR campaign.

Rorschach – Watchmen

Rorschach is one of those conspiracy buffs who gets a bad rap and one that’s well-deserved. Exposing conspiracies is one thing and arguably a positive.

However, to have the legacy of your labors tarnished by a self-written journal meant to expose the results of those labors is tragic in so many ways. This is especially true in Watchmen.

Rorschach’s published journal was perverted into the foundational mechanism of a white supremacist group. While Rorschach was certainly no angel, his intolerances are exclusive to gender and sex.

The Seventh Kalvary rose from the aftershocks of Rorschach’s journal, along with the general dismissiveness people often conjure in the face of conspiracy theories. Regardless of what the audience thinks about his character, his legacy was not his original intent.

Detective John Munch – Homicide

As characters who indulge in conspiracies go, there are none quite like Detective John Munch, whose portrayal stretches across multiple shows, starting with Homicide: Life on the Street.

Interestingly, the late Richard Belzer coauthored “Hit List,” a book that covers the enigmatic deaths of those associated with the Kennedy assassination.

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Detective Munch is conspiracy personified, often haranguing his fellow detectives with one seditious connivance or another.

Ironically, the character of Detective Munch once did a crossover with The X-Files, where he makes fun of the Lone Gunman with mocking tones and implications of tin foil hat conspiracies.

Dale Gribble – King of the Hill

Like the Simpsons, King of the Hill draws its comedic power from the relationships between the characters, whether it’s family or friends throughout the neighborhood.

This allows creators to develop all sorts of characters and see who sticks. Dale Gribble is that slightly off neighbor that you hate to run into at the grocery store because the milk in your cart will reach room temperature before you can drag yourself away from the conversation.

He is the conspiracy buff of all conspiracy buffs, and the internet is rife with Gribble’s best and most delusional quotes.

Dale covers everything from UN weather shaping to clones and psyop campaigns coordinated by the United States Postal Service. He also questions the existence of Hawaii, which he may as well include Wyoming since both are probably government conspiracies.

What do you think? Are there any conspiracy buffs you think should be on the list as well? Hit us up in the comments, and let us know!

The post The Ultimate List of TV’s Conspiracy Buffs appeared first on TV Fanatic.

There is good news on many fronts, but one of the most significant developments is Homicide: Life on the Street finally coming to streaming!

This critically acclaimed series has been asked for many times, and its release on Peacock gives us hope that more cherished work that is now unavailable might get the same treatment.

One of the most revered police dramas of all time, Homicide: Life on the Street, examines the calculating and exacting detective work of Baltimore’s often confrontational, passionate, and opinionated homicide department.

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With a determined cast of characters that never let up in their quest for truth and justice, this gripping hourlong series remains the standard bearer of how police handle the job both professionally and personally.

Just check out this all-star cast, too.

Andre Braugher, Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Yaphet Kotto, Melissa Leo, Giancarlo Esposito, Daniel Baldwin, Jon Polito, Clark Johnson, Kyle Secor, Reed Diamond, Michelle Forbes, Peter Gerety, Isabella Hofmann, Toni Lewis, Michael Michele, Max Perlich, Jon Seda, and Callie Thorn.

From Universal Television, Homicide: Life on the Street originally launched on NBC in 1993 and ran for seven seasons, for a total of 122 episodes.

It was succeeded by Homicide: The Movie in 2000, which served as the series finale, which will also be available on Peacock.

The series was created by Paul Attanasio and based on David Simon’s book “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.”

Tom Fontana was the series head writer and showrunner.

Throughout its run, Homicide: Life on the Street was critically acclaimed, receiving nominations and accolades from the Television Critics Association, Directors Guild of America, NAACP, and Writers Guild of America, among others.

The series also won four Primetime Emmy Awards and became the first drama ever to win three George Foster Peabody Awards for Drama.

Homicide: Life on the Street, Season 6 Episode 7, is one example of why this show needs to be seen. Starring Vincent D’Onofrio in a guest-starring role, “The Subway” leaves an impact that lasts well beyond any expiration date.

For an episode of TV that originally aired in December 1997 to still resonate today is a testament to the storytelling power of this series.

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So why has it been unavailable via streaming until now?

We’re not going to worry about it anymore.

All seven seasons and the movie wrap-up come to Peacock on August 19, and that’s all that matters to ensure a new generation of viewers experiences it.

The post Homicide: Life on the Street Coming to Peacock appeared first on TV Fanatic.