Your MUST HAVE media...

[tomandtish]

Some friends and I were discussing our favorite things in various forms of media, and this came up.

If you could only pick one thing in each category, what would it be? Assume you'll be magically cut off from the rest of it for the rest of your life (you will still get updates on the ones you pick).

Music: Favorite artist or group. No combining, so taking Phil Collins does not get you Genesis and vice versa.

TV Show: This can include shows on streaming platforms. One series only (So no Big Bang and claiming Young Sheldon).

Movie: Slight change here. You may take a movie series as long as movies in it are obvious sequels/prequels. Theatrical release only! So, So 12 Star Wars movies, or 6 Middle Earth movies. No "spiritual successors" or things that are not officially prequels/sequels even if people want to believe they are. Reboots are also off table (so if you take Star Trek, you either take the original 10 movies or the 2009 reboot).

Books: One series.

Newspaper Comics: One Newspaper comic strip. It can also be available on web, but MUST be available in papers.

Webcomics: One webcomic strip. No sequels here.

Comic books: One comic book title/. No spin-offs, alternate titles, etc. So if you take Amazing Spider-man, then no other spider-man titles.


For me, it would probably be:

Music: Boston

TV Show: Top Gear (British)

Movie: Friday the 13ths

Books: Dresden Files

Newspaper comic: Doonesbury

Webcomic: Tough one between PvP and Questionable Content. Probably QC.

Comic book: Amazing Spider-man

[Dragonus45]

Music: Suuuuuuper difficult. Uhhhh. I got nothing I can decide on. Blind Guardian or Ancient Bards perhaps?

TV Show: One Piece

Movie: The Thin Man series, I think. Oh boy this was a tough one.

Books: Wandering Inn

Newspaper comic: I don't know the genre well enough to really think it through, and my first instinct is Calvin and Hobbs just because I know it. But I always wanted to read Peanuts, so that.

Webcomic: Tough one, either OOTS or Tower of God? Probably OOTS, it has a lot less time left for updates but I would die not knowing how it ended.

Comic book: Also a tough one? Probably Action Comics

[Tvtyrant]

Music: Sabaton or Amon Amarth, good for gym and listening. Plenty of content.

TV Show: Great British Baking Show/Bake Off probably. Lots of seasons, cool characters.

Movie: Tempting to shove Rocky in there, as there are a lot of sequels and the good ones seem better for how bad the others are. Star Wars had a lot more movies that are better but I don't like most of them, and actively hated the last few. Can I combine all of the MGM horror movies since they had coop movies?

Books: Will Durant's Story of Civilization, the Wheel of Time or Aubrey/Maturin for length and breadth of interest.

Newspaper Comics: Calvin and Hobbes

Webcomics: Almost all of mine finished years ago, no answer.

Comic books: One Piece.

[Darth Credence]

Music: It's close between Aerosmith and Norah Jones, but Aerosmith has the bigger catalog so they win.
TV show: Stargate SG-1
Movies: No question - Star Wars.
Books: I have no comedy yet, so I'm going with Discworld.
Newspaper comics: Dog Eat Doug.
Web Comics: I really only read one that is pure webcomic, so Order of the Stick is the clear winner.
Comic Books: Detective Comics

No love for games? Hope you don't mind if I add in board and video games:
Board game: Dungeons and Dragons (if that's not a board game, then Gloomhaven)
Video games: if we get the whole series, it's Fallout, if it's only one game, Fallout: New Vegas

[tomandtish]

If people want to add their favorite game, that's fine also. (I'd argue D&D is not a board game personally).

[Lurkmoar]

Music: KMFDM

TV Show: The Simpsons (long runner for more variety ho)

Movie: Predator, but the most recent The Predator can stay behind...

Books: The Dark Tower

Newspaper comic: Garfield

Webcomic: Garfield minus Garfield

Comic book: Savage Dragon... no Immortal Hulk... no Savage Dragon... errrgh...

[dps]

Ok, let's see:

Music: The Who. Hate to miss out on so much else, but that's the rules.

TV Show: Easy--Doctor Who. What else is going to give me so many stories, and such a variety? Hopefully, I'd even get the missing episodes under this scenario!

Movie: Tough call, but I'm going to go with the Bill and Ted series.

Books: Dresden Files. Finishes ahead of The Black Company and Amber because those stories are finished, and Dresden Files isn't yet.

Newspaper Comic: Really tough call between Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, and Peanuts. I'll go with Dilbert.

Webcomic: OotS, easy.

Board Game: Europa series.

Video Game: Heroes of Might and Magic. I actually like Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis III better than any single game in the HoMaM series, but the other games in the CK and EU series aren't as good.

[Spike_99]

Music: that's tough... probably Adele

TV Show: If I were going for quantity: Law & Order (it was on for almost 20 years), otherwise: I have a serious crush on Paul Hollywood, so I'd have to go with the Great British Baking Show.

Movies: I'm torn between Star Wars and Star Trek... I'd probably have to go with Star Wars

Books: The Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka. A year ago I probably would have said The Dresden Files, but Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series has stolen my heart & I'm a huge fan now.

Comic book: I gotta go with Amazing Spider-Man, he was always my favorite super hero.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Some friends and I were discussing our favorite things in various forms of media, and this came up.

If you could only pick one thing in each category, what would it be? Assume you'll be magically cut off from the rest of it for the rest of your life (you will still get updates on the ones you pick).

Music: Gotta be Miracle of Sound. Bon Jovi, Voltaire, and Queen are all tempting, but MoS gives me access to a lot more styles and genres, so I'm less likely to get burned out.

TV Show: Hmm. Hmmm. If this counts anime, then Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (or maybe Jojo's Bizarre Adventures). If not, then that's the anime category and I guess I'll go with Mythbusters. Or maybe The Most Extreme. I don't watch too much TV, honestly. Can I sacrifice this category for an extra webcomic?

Movie: Another tricky one. That said, I think Secondhand Lions edges out the competition.

Books: Brandon Sanderson's The Cosmere. If that's cheating, then wow this suddenly gets a lot harder. Dresden Files, Mercy Thompson, Alex Verus, the Night Angel trilogy, and that's not even including web serials... I think at this point I hunt down whoever or whatever is imposing this restriction on me and kill them. I need books.

Newspaper Comics: Dilbert, maybe? This is another one I'd like to sacrifice for more webcomics and/or books.

Webcomics: Ooh, this is tough. I adore Misfile, but Sluggy Freelance has a lot more content and covers a lot more ground. Tower of God, Sword Interval, God of Highschool, Noblesse... these are all epic. OotS, Darths & Droids, and Slightly Damned are both long and a good mix of drama and comedy. And Emergency Exit has some serious nostalgia going for it, on top of being generally good. ... I think I have to go with Sluggy Freelance, for much the same reason I picked Miracle of Sound: variety is king, and Sluggy Freelance switches genres and tones frequently enough to keep it consistently fresh.

Comic books: Wait. Haha! I'll take the print versions of Sword Interval, please. I need to know how that one ends.

Video Games: Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Or if series are allowed, just the whole Halo series. Pretty much the first video games I ever played, and it's still a lot of fun to go back and play through the campaigns again, alone or with a friend. And with the whole series I also get some variety from the Halo Wars games, ODST, and the two top-down shooter games I haven't actually played yet. Sorry to Cave Story, Slay the Spire, and Devil May Cry; I still love you all.

[TeChameleon]

Music: Five Iron Frenzy. Kind of obscure, I know, but I like 'em.

TV Show: Not much for TV, to be honest... hrm. Maybe Justice League/Justice League Unlimited (sort of iffy under the rules, maybe, but Justice League Unlimited is considered seasons 3-5 of Justice League, so...)

Movie: The Blues Brothers. Probably my single favourite movie, and gets me a bunch more great music

Books: Oof. This is a brutally hard one. Dresden Files would be a clear winner, since it would bug me for the rest of my life not knowing how it ended, but I read fast, and I suspect by the ninth or tenth re-read, I'd have a hard time maintaining interest Maybe the old Perry Rhodan series, since it's a bloody enormous series, and I enjoyed the bits that I've managed to lay hands on... and, on a brief check, it's apparently still ongoing Must remember to dig that up at some point...

Newspaper comic: If I hadn't already read all of them multiple times, I'd go with Bloom County, but... hmm... maybe Pearls before Swine, since I'm a sucker for horrific puns.

Webcomic: Ouchie. If I got access to the print-only stories as well, then I'd go with Schlock Mercenary, but if it's web-only stories, then Girl Genius.

Comic book: Brutally difficult, I love me some comics, and to be cut off from Astro City, Groo the Wanderer, Walt Simonson's Thor, the first Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle series, Immortal Iron Fist, Legion of Super Heroes, etc. would suuuuuck, but Usagi Yojimbo. Stan Sakai's samurai bunny is a long-standing favourite of mine, and it's still going strong. Fantastic art, deep research, and fascinating characters and stories make it the winner for me.

[JoshL]

Man this is tough.

Music: cheating would be my own, so I could make anything I wanted to hear. But if I had to pick just one, maybe the Legendary Pink Dots. That answer will change five minutes from now; I love way too much music.

TV Show: Twin Peaks, probably.

Movie: this one is easy. Legend, with Tim Curry. That is all

Books: while there are so many brilliant literary choices out there, nostalgia prompts me to go with the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, since I never get sick of re-reading that one.

Newspaper comic: I haven't read any in years, so I'll go with Calvin and Hobbes

Webcomic: Sluggy Freelance

Comic Book: Sandman, probably

Videogame: Zelda. If I had to have only one, Breath of the Wild

[Zevox]

Music: Impossible. I don't have a favorite artist or band - hell, I barely have bands that I like more than one song from. And half or more of the music I listen to is from video games, but even there I'd be hard-pressed to pick a single franchise to go with.

TV Show: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not that hard of a choice honestly, since I don't really watch TV much at this point in my life.

Movies: ...can the MCU count as a series? That's about all that comes to mind for me, anything else feels pretty narrow, and I can't honestly say I have any particular favorite film. Although I guess I watch few enough movies that it doesn't matter much.

Books: Tolkien's works (LotR, Silmarillion, The Hobbit). Sucks to have to choose between that and Star Wars novels (for the Thrawn Trilogy, mostly), but oh well.

Skipping Newspaper comics because I don't read any.

Webcomic: The Order of the Stick.

Comic Book: Well, the only time I've ever really read any was Geoff Johns' run on Green Lantern, but that at various times had events occurring in between two and four different titles, so I can't get all of that into this under the rules... yeah, I don't know then. I guess the main Green Lantern book from that period? Sucks to lose Guy and John's parts from Corps, but more of the main plot of the big events happened in the main book I'm pretty sure, so...

Video Games: Good lord, but I could not possibly. No matter which series I picked, that would entail either losing out on ever playing either another RPG (my favorite single player games) or another fighting game (my favorite multiplayer games), and that is not a choice I am capable of making.
- If I could do something like give up one of the other categories entirely to get two here, I'd give up comic books (or movies, if I have to pick one I engage with more than comics) and go with the Persona franchise and... BlazBlue franchise I think, the latter barely edging out Smash Brothers in the fighting game category due to having better online, and a much greater likelihood of improving on that going forward.

Tabletop games: D&D.

[MikelaC1]

Music: Rush

TV Show: Hockey Night in Canada

Movie: Marvel Cinematic Universe

Newspaper comic: Peanuts

[BeerMug Paladin]

This seems like a silly, fun idea.

TV Show: Bojack Horseman (The Garfield Show)
Movie: Falling Down (Garfield movies)
Newspaper Comic: The Far Side (Garfield)
Webcomic: OOTS (Square Root of Minus Garfield)
Comic books: Empowered (Garfield: His 9 Lives)
Music: They Might Be Giants (Garfield: The Musical With Cattitude)
Books: The Glass Bead Game (I don't have one for this.)
Board Game: Chess (Garfield Monopoly)
Video Game: Snake Pass (Garfield Kart)

[Lvl 2 Expert]

This setup makes the most sense for games. While it gets pretty hard to stay entertained by watching a single movie, games are a different matter. So I'll start there.

Computer game: Stunts (The game has its 30st birthday this year, still playing it.)
Board Game: Catan (Also because with the standing rules on sequels that still gives me some expansions and variants to explore.)
RPG: D&D probably after all. (Although I have been making some decent progress on my homebrew system, I wouldn't enjoy letting that go.)
Webcomic: Schlock Mercenary. (It and Dr. McNinja used to be my big two, but Schlock has a lot more archive to keep binging right now and the promise of more future content.)
Books: Discworld. (Sequel rule again, this way I get stuff I like and stuff I haven't read yet.)

I'll hold off on the rest including movies for now, too many good options, not enough stuff I could spend lots and lots of time with. Though with the standing sequel rules I too might go for the MCU in movies, despite none of them really being absolute top favorites of mine. The Transporter might be an option too. It's just three movies if the reboot and the series don't count, but like the MCU and Star Wars they're movies you can just keep watching for the flashy action.

Edit 11 days later: I guess I'd go with Sigmund for newspaper comics and Suske & Wiske for comic books. Both are Dutch language things that don't get regularly or consistently translated into English.

[Morgaln]

Music: Difficult, since I don't listen to music all that much. Probably Loreena McKennitt

TV Show: The Simpsons; I'm a big fan and for sheer amount, it beats out runner-up Babylon 5

Movies: Lord of the Rings, unless the MCU counts as a series

Books: Discworld, although I'd hate not to read anything from Brandon Sanderson again

Webcomic: Irregular Webcomics, assuming I get the commentaries with it

Comic Book: I don't really read any comic books, so I'm skipping this one

Video Games: The LOGistICAL series, that will keep me occupied for years

Tabletop Games: Gloomhaven

[Tarmor]

For many of these defining a single interest (even if it can be a series) is hard - especially for music because I like a heap of different stuff. I have multiple albums of multiple groups/singers over the decades, and it would be easier to try and define say ten musical interests as my must have.

Music: ELO.

TV Show: Babylon 5.

Movie: The Lord of the Rings.

Books: Discworld.

Newspaper Comics: Calvin & Hobbs

Webcomics: None. [Read a fair few, none are "must haves".]

Comic books: Batman/Detective Comics. [Always bought and read both.]

[understatement]

Oh geez, whoever did this is a cruel, cruel person.

Anyways:

Music: Don't really listen to much, so I can't answer that.

TV Show: Don't really watch much shows either...that should change.

Movie: If it's a group, I'd say MCU (none of them are really my favorites, but there's a huge stash that's still growing). If it's a singular movie, The Matrix wins easily.

Books: A Song of Ice and Fire. I know, I know, but it's ten times better than the series and I'd die if I don't know what happens to...well, everyone.

Webcomic: I'm on this forum, right? OOTS is not the first webcomic I've read, but it's the first one I finished from head to current toe, and what introduced me to other webcomics as a media.

Comic books: I've only read part 1 of The Sandman, and I loved it, so I'd like the chance to read all the others.

[Radar]

I like those threads because there is always something interesting to find on other people's choices.


Music: tough cookie as I like to change what I listen to very often and all the current services and apps have spoiled me beyond repair. Still, I guess I would pick Yoko Kanno - both for sheer talent as well as versatility as she produces blues, jazz, rock and some other genres I could not even name - folk or ambient might be the right word to describe some of her works, but I cannot even begin to label this.

Movie: Some movie series would be best, but I have no strong enough preference to pick something. If possible, I would probably pick Sherlock. Technically it is a TV show, but each episode is a full-length movie, so I think it should count.

TV series: something long-running would be best here so I think I would go for Star Trek TNG. Not necessarily the best TV series in my book, but I would get a lot of mileage out of it. And to be honest, Patrick Steward is that good.

Book: again it would be best to pick a series, so this one is pretty simple as Discworld books are hogging a lot of the places in my personal favorite book ranking.

Newspaper comis: Calvin and Hobbes - this one is a very obvious pick and I am thankful, that it fits in a different category then the other comics

Webcomics: again, I'd rather not be parted with so many great works, but if just one thing is possible, then I pick Girl Genius.

Comic book: Thorgal, no contest here I think. Amazingly written, long-running series with good, realistic graphics.

Board game: Chess or Go. The latter is much more complex, but it is way more difficult to find someone to play with in real life and online games just do not feel the same.

Video game: A lot of really good ones, but I think I would go with Civilization series. If I have to pick exactly one of them, then it would be more difficult as I did not have an opportunity to try IV and VI and for V I never got any expansions, so it is not as easy to make an informed decision.

[Celestia]

Movie: I suppose I'll go for the MCU series. Not only are those movies just great, but there's 20+ of them with more on the way. Definitely the most variety and, therefore, rewatchability.

Music: I dunno. I like listening to music, but I'm not a music buff or anything. I guess I'll just pick the soundtrack to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. It's got some rocking tunes. Plus, that way I'll still be able to hear my alarm in the morning.

Comic book: I don't read many comics, actually, but I suppose I'll pick JoJo's for this one. Maybe it'll give me an excuse to finally get around to reading it.

Webcomic: El Goonish Shive, I suppose. It's not my favorite webcomic, but it is probably my favorite unfinished webcomic. Gotta think about the future.

Newspaper comic: Who reads newspapers anymore? ...Can I pick Garfield Minus Garfield for this one?

Book: I don't think I've actually read a book since high school ended. :I

Video game: Pokémon. I've always loved it, and there are so many options to choose from and endlessly replay.

TV series: I can't answer this. I would literally rather kill myself than spend the rest of my life with only one anime.

[DavidSh]

Music: Broadside Electric. They never made it big, but I like them anyway.

TV Show: Muppet Show. That should last me a while.

Movie: This is really hard. I like a lot of standalone movies, but no singular favorite. But this time I'll say the Indiana Jones movies.

Books: Tolkien's main series: Silmarillion-Hobbit-Lord of the Rings.

Newspaper Comics: Peanuts, for nostalgia's sake.

Webcomics: Order of the Stick

Comic books: I haven't read much of it, but I'd like to see the entire Donald Duck run.

Video game series: Atelier series, without doubt.

Board game: Scrabble, if I have a comparable opponent.

[WinterKnight404]

I'm impressed by the depth of thought some people have put into their answers. Although I could have multiple answers for each category I will just go with the basics, stuff that I've seen over and over again that I keep coming back to.

Music: Flogging Molly

TV Show: Star Trek TNG

Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Books: Dune series

Newspaper comic: Garfield

Webcomic: This one.

Comic book: Never read one although I think I'd like Spawn

Video Games: Legacy of Kain (Blood Omen and Soul Reaver)

[moonfly7]

Songs: Taylor Swift
TV show: Leverage
Movie: Second Hand Lions
Book Series: Rangers Apprentice
News paper comic: Dilbert
Web Comic: N/A(and not a comic called N/A I don't have one)
Comic Book: Spiderman
Board game: Cosmic Encounter
Card Game: Bang!
Videogame: Pokemon
Tabletop Game: DND

[ben-zayb]

Music: Jason Mraz.
TV Show: Iron Chef America
Movie: Can I pick MCU just for the breadth of choices? Otherwise, I'll go with the MIB trilogy, which conveniently still has Josh Brolin in one of it.
Book: LotR trilogy, or the whole Middle Earth collection if allowed.
Newspaper Comics: Calvin and Hobbes takes this easily.
Webcomics: XKCD wins by a hair against OotS.
Comic Books: One Piece. It's got everything I want to see from something in this medium.
Board Game: Scrabble. I already got all 2-letter words stuck in my head and it'd be a shame to waste that memory space.
Videogame: Pokémon. That's a lot of consoles to get, though. Emulators, then?