How do you like the new redesign? After having this blog for over two and a half years, I finally decided to go with a layout that doesn't fucking cut off a significant portion of the embedded videos. I'm a genius. Anyways, instead of hating on everything and treating every writing opportunity like a cry for help against my myriad personal issues, I feel like being more positive today, and that means showing some appreciation for the most badass intros in television today.
10. Community
Community is a hilarious freshman series on NBC's Thursday night lineup. In my opinion it was the funniest new comedy of the fall, but it got lost in the shuffle because Glee and Modern Family were getting their dicks ridden so hard. I suggest you check it out while you still can, because CBS has The Big Bang Theory scheduled in the same time slot next fall. Community is going to absolutely crushed and cancellation is inevitable. I don't have a strong opinion on the animation of this intro, but the song absolutely rules. Most episodes didn't use the full intro. It's a shame I didn't get to hear the song as much, but it comes with the benefit of 27 more seconds of jokes, so I'll take it.
9. Weeds
Weeds used this sequence for its first three seasons. It's a shame the original opening credits were abandoned when the setting shifted away from suburbia. It's also a shame that the show became a morally reprehensible, unfunny piece of shit that wrung every last drop of relatability and redeeming value from all of its characters at the same time, but that's a topic for another day. The intro music is the classic protest song "Little Boxes," and every episode from the second and third seasons features a different cover of the song. This rap version shows how much versatility and mileage they got out of it. It's also the only fucking Youtube video of the intro that didn't have embedding disabled, so it gets face time on the blog by default.
8. Dexter
Dexter is a show about a serial killer who channels his murderous instincts into only taking out other killers. This intro sequence is really creepy and does a great job of showing how his murderous nature is always lurking just beneath the surface. This is probably the most artistically accomplished item on the list, but it's also 2 friggin' minutes long and seriously loses its impact after the fourth time you see it, and is downright annoying by season 4, so that drops it a few spots.
7. Rescue Me
The song, "C'mon C'mon," the visual style, and the imagery could not do a better job of fitting the perpetually angry tone of Rescue Me. The show is funny as hell and stops for serious introspection from time to time, but at its core this is a show about deeply damaged, pissed off drunken men shouting, punching shit, and raging on everyone they see, and the intro nails it.
6. Chuck
It features a goddamned Cake song. It could be a still image of a man shoving a baguette up his ass set to a Cake song and it would still get an automatic bid on my list.
5. Mad Men
Again I'll have to apologize because every single video of the original credits on Youtube has embedding disabled, but this version is identical with only the background images changed. Now, I hate Mad Men. It has to be the slowest, most boring, overrated piece of crap in television history. I would have given up after the pilot, but this title sequence is so cool that it had me convinced I was watching something better, and I made it all the way to episode 4 before I returned the DVDs to the video store. There's something to be said when a stylish animated intro can get me to waste three extra hours of my life.
4. Treme
I'm sorry you had to watch that. The song will now be stuck in your head for at least the next 10 days. I usually tend to be predisposed against intro sequences that run over a minute and a half. HBO series are huge offenders. There seems to be a rule from management there that all dramas are required to have opening credits that can qualify as feature-length movies on their own. It's a fact that the opening credit sequence from Big Love has the main cast ice skating for 52 minutes and the actual show is only 8 minutes long. However, in Treme's case, it takes a special kind of awesome for me to actually look forward to an overly long credit sequence. This adequately prepares you for the other 6 badass musical numbers you'll be hearing in any given episode.
3. Justified
This shit gets me so pumped for the show. Virtually all of the dialog in Justified sounds like a prelude to a bar fight, and Timothy Olyphant shoots at least one motherfucker per episode. When you listen to this song and look at those images, you know shit's about to go down.
2. The Boondocks
The Boondocks is far and away the angriest and blackest show in television history. It's not a terribly competitive field, but that doesn't take anything away from how overwhelmingly angry and black this show is. The only thing Aaron McGruder loves more than satirizing black culture with razor sharp wit is anime. Both come together beautifully here.
1. The Wire
Okay, The Wire isn't on the air anymore, but this is my list so suck it. It's no surprise that the best show in the history of American television would also have the best intro. It's not everday that hearing a religious-themed song can make me get up and dance. Religious songs normally make a searing lightning bolt come down from the heavens and set my flesh on fire, so this is much better.
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