POP CULTURE
The 50 Best TV Dramas of All Time
BY MATT BARONE, JUSTIN MONROE, ROSS SCARANO, TARA AQUINO MAR 20, 2013
SHARES (360) COMMENTS (37)
Last month, when we evaluated television's greatest sitcoms, the road to ranking the 50 funniest TV comedies of all time wasn't as difficult as one might've expected. To put it differently: It was nowhere near as taxing as counting down the 50 best TV dramas of all time.
Figuring out why that was the case is a fascinating endeavor. In an age where cable networks consistently produce the most compelling, rich, and progressive hour-long character studies and epic tales, the rules have drastically changed. Decades ago, procedurals were all the rage, and none of them exhibited the degrees of cinematic storytelling now seen on channels like HBO, AMC, and FX.
Would it be fair to dock the older programs for that, though? Not at all, which is why the following list represents our best effort to assess TV's 50 finest examples of dramatic excellence based on creative merits more so than time-period reflections. Besides, it's not like anyone's energy would be wasted sampling any of these shows on any given day. After all, greatness speaks for itself.
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Written by Tara Aquino (@t_akino), Matt Barone (@MBarone), Justin Monroe (@40yardsplash), and Ross Scarano (@RossScarano)
50. The Walking Dead
Network: AMC
Air Dates: October 31, 2010 - present
Stars: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Sarah Wayne Collies, Chandler Riggs, Steven Yeun, Laurie Holden, Lauren Cohan, Scott Wilson, Dvaid Morrissey, Danai Gurira, Michael Rooker, Dallas Roberts, IronE Singleton, Melissa McBride
A television show about zombies? Any George A. Romero fanboy will tell you that, prior to AMC's The Walking Dead, such a proposition was unheard of. After all, TV producers only care about medical dramas, cop shows, and domestic sitcoms, right? Not the brave souls in the AMC offices, who continued their daring streak of green-lighting dark, cutting-edge adult dramas (Mad Men, Breaking Bad) by giving acclaimed filmmaker Frank Darabont the go-sign to adapt Robert Kirkman's beloved Image Comics title.
It's easy to see why AMC took the risk. The Walking Dead, as Kirkman lays it out, isn't about the zombies as much as its about the living characters. Led by do-gooder sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), the show's band of random survivors drives the hour-long pressure cooker, quarreling with each other while trying to stay alive amidst the flesh-eater takeover.
And thanks to Glen Mazzara, who stepped in to fill Darabont's role for season 2 after AMC's behind-the-scenes drama, the series is now exactly what optimistic fans thought it could be all along: bold, fearless storytelling. With its numerous zombie kills, bountiful gore, several major characters' terminations, and a heightened sense of danger supplied by bringing deadly comic book favorites (Michonne, the Governor) into Rick Grimes' ever-threatening world,
Furthermore, it's the people's show, breaking cable ratings records and dominating social media conversations every Sunday night while never registering with Emmy voters and making many stuffed-shirt pundits resist its genre sensibilities. Matt Barone
49. Smallville
Network: The WB, The CW
Air Dates: October 16, 2001 May 13, 2011
Stars: Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Allison Mack, Sam Jones III, Annette O'Toole, John Schneider, Eric Johnson, John Glover, Jensen Ackles, Erica Durance, Aaron Ashmore, Laura Vandervoort, Sam Witwer
If you're not a fan of Superman, then, well, you're probably not American, you commie *******. But we understand that a lot of the Superman films and depictions do not hold up to the comic, or to Christopher Reeves. That, or perhaps you think you've learned all there is about the hero's childhood. You're wrong.
Smallville retells the engaging story of Clark Kent's early years, from Smallville High School to his job at the Daily Planet. More than your typical coming-of-age drama, it's a story about an awkward guy trying to figure out the basics of growing up under extraordinary circumstances. In other words, puberty for Kent means figuring out his heat vision, which he gets when he's sexually aroused, trying to restrain himself from using his x-ray vision to peer into girls' locker rooms, and dealing with a first love, who may or may not be developing super powers herself.
As a testament to its greatness, dedicated viewers kept the show on for an entire decade, even following it to its kiss-of-death time slot on Friday nights. Tara Aquino
48. Dexter
Network: Showtime
Air Dates: October 1, 2006 - present
Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, Lauren Velez, David Zayas, James Remar, Julie Benz, Erik King, C.S. Lee, Desmond Harrington
Lately, the scariest thing about Showtime's Dexter is how uneven it's been, with too many lame side characters getting overzealous storylines and a disappointing fifth season that moved ahead absolutely nothing in Dexter's (the great Michael C. Hall) big picture arc. But there's a reason why we're sticking with Miami's noblest serial killer: When Dexter is on point, it's one of TV's best shows, hands down. And a major factor in that excellence is Dexter's willingness to stage gruesome kill scenes worthy of any horror-loving gorehound's approval.
As the title character, Hall is never less than electric, nailing the character's inherent shyness and social awkwardness and occasionally revolting viewers in the show's cold-hearted murders. When Dexter/Hall drives that knife into his strapped-down victims' chests, the impact is fiercethe maniacal satisfaction in his eyes translates horrifically.
The fact that Dex is the show's hero plays into how Dexter blurs the line between good and evil; as for his per-season rivals, though, they're best served wholeheartedly cold. The Ice Truck Killer and Trinity (brilliantly played by John Lithgow) rank amongst the most disturbing serial slayers in both TV and movie history. And you know why? Because they don't crack predictable sexual puns (we're talking to you, Masuka) and actually bring something to the table (sorry, Batista). MB
47. Rome
Network: HBO
Air Dates: August 28, 2005 March 25, 2007
Stars: Kevin McKidd, Ray Stevenson, Polly Walker, Max Pirkis, Simon Woods, Lindsay Duncan, James Purefoy, Ciaran Hinds, Tobias Menzies, Kerry Condon, Indira Varma, Allen Leech
Television's current preeminence over film has been largely discussed and written about in recent years, and it's a point that's tough to argue against. Sitting in an unlit movie theater to transport yourself to lavish worlds only read about in books isn't the only optionlook no further than refined shows like Mad Men and Game of Thrones.
Back in 2005, the creators behind HBO's Rome captured the period elegance and unflinching brutality of films like Gladiator to deliver fierce entertainment to the small screen. Very loosely adhering to historical fact, Rome chronicled the fall of Julius Caesar and the rise of Emperor Augustus through the blood-soaked lives of two fictional warriors (played by Ray Stevenson and Kevin McKidd).
Rome also predated the present trend of more and more accomplished film directors dabbling in TV: One of the show's co-creators was John Milius, known for writing Apocalypse Now and directing action flicks like Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn. MB
46. Dark Shadows
Network: ABC
Air Dates: June 27, 1966 - April 2, 1971
Stars: Jonathan Frid, Nancy Barrett, Joan Bennett, Kathleen Cody, Thayer David, Roger Davis, Grayson Hall, John Karlen, Lara Parker, Louis Edmonds, David Henesy, Kate Jackson, Diana Millay, Alexandra Moltke, Kathryn Leigh Scott
Last year's Tim Burton-directed Dark Shadows movie, starring Johnny Depp, failed to put unaware heads onto one of TV's best genre shows of all time. If anything, that film's high level of ####tiness was detrimental to ABC's classic slice of Gothic melodrama. Just try not to hold its ineptitude against the original Barnabas Collins.
Why? Because the original version of Dark Shadows is still a macabre blast. Technically a soap opera (but obviously nothing like those painful ones your mom loves), the series hits its stride once actor Jonathan Frid checked in as vampire Barnabas. Along with his family of eccentrics, Barnabas confronted romance, werewolves, alternate dimensions, and witches, a vast array of antagonists that kept Dark Shadows dependably unpredictable. MB
45. Prison Break
Network: Fox
Air Dates: August 29, 2005 May 15, 2009
Stars: Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, Peter Stormare, Robin Tunney, Amaury Nolasco, Marshall Allman, Wade Williams, Paul Adelstein, William Fichtner, Rockmund Dunbar, Robert Knepper, Sarah Wayne Callies, Chris Vance, Robert Wisdom, Michael Rapaport, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
Who doesn't love a good action movie? When run-and-gun cinema is handled properly, there's nothing like the adrenaline rushes and high-stakes drama that come from the pervasive feeling of dangercharacters can die at any moment, and slower moments of emotional development act as breathers from the otherwise breakneck pace. Now imagine that type of narrative recklessness sustained over the course of nearly 80 hours. That, in a nutshell, is Prison Break.
At first, creator Paul Scheuring's unique series didn't seem like it'd make sense beyond one season. The plot didn't exactly call for long-form storytelling: A brainy engineer (Wentworth Miller) purposely gets sent to jail in order to help his wrongly imprisoned (at least in his mind) brother (Dominic Purcell) escape. How Scheuring and his writing staff stretched that premise into four seasons' worth of seat's-edge entertainment remains a singular feat. MB
44. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Network: CBS
Air Dates: October 6, 2000 present
Stars: William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Jorja Fox, Gary Dourdan, George Eads, Paul Guilfoyle, Eriz Szmanda, Robert David Hall, Louise Lombard, Wallace Langham, Lauren Lee Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Ted Danson, Liz Vassey, Elisabeth Shue
Before it became the beast that swallowed CBS, CSI was a grisly procedural invested in character. The Jerry Bruckheimer-backed cop show followed the members of the night shift in the Las Vegas Police Department crime lab. For the first nine seasons, Gil Grissom (William Petersen, who also played an FBI profiler in Michael Mann's Manhunter) led the team of crime scene investigators with a cool logic and charismatic air of mystery.
Grissom was a Sherlock Holmes figure, and provided the show with its anchorwhen the show was good, you watched to see how Grissom would put all the pieces together, not to see what someone's head looked like when it connected with a golf club.
And plenty of people watched. In fact, the show has been named the most watched TV program in the world five times since it premiered in 2000. Because of its success, CSI has spawned two regional spinoffs (CSI: Miami and CSI: New York). But it was the original that captivated fans best. And it was the original that landed Quentin Tarantino as a guest director (""Grave Danger", the finale of the fifth season). Ross Scarano
43. Fringe
Network: Fox
Air Dates: September 9, 2008 - January 18, 2013
Stars: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, Kirk Acevedo, Seth Gabel, Leonard Nimoy
Fringe combined the best elements of several genres: science fiction, horror, and, most importantly, high-stakes, character-driven drama. The J.J. Abrams-backed science-fiction drama trails an FBI agent (Anna Torv), an enigmatic boy genius (Joshua Jackson), and his nutty doctor of a father (John Noble) as they investigate paranormal and otherworldly happenings, all while working to keep a parallel dimension's evil version of Noble's character from bringing the apocalyptic ruckus.
It's a wide-open premise that allows Fringe to bless viewers with an assortment of strikingly bizarre imagery. Early into the second season, for example, a shadow-man attacked a guy whose wife comes home to watch her husband disintegrate into ashes; "Marionette" (season three) features the pleasant shot of a mad scientist controlling his wife's dead body like a puppet with ropes and pulleys. And that's just a sample of Fringe's most heinous scenes, which once again begs the question: Why haven't you watched this damn show yet? MB
42. Felicity
Network: The WB
Air Dates: September 29, 1998 May 22, 2002
Stars: Keri Russell, Scott Speedman, Scott Foley, Amy Jo Johnson, Tangi Miller, Greg Grunberg, Amanda Foreman, Ian Gomez
You have to applaud Felicity, a network show the held itself to a formal constraint that would limit the series to just four seasons (each one corresponding to the four years of a traditional college education). It's still not the norm for network series to exist with a definite endpoint in mind, and in 1998 it was even more unheard of.
Felicity marked J.J. Abrams first foray into TV as a show creator, and because of its acclaim, he was able to go on to even greater heights, with Alias and Lost (both included here). Both of those shows worked because Abrams cares about character.
Keri Russell's Felicity Porter is one of TV's most memorable women. Though she initially decides to attend college in New York because of a boy she's interested in, she chooses to stay in the city because it'll help her grow. TV needs more driven women like Porter. RS
41. Queer as Folk
Network: Showtime
Air Dates: December 3, 2000 August 7, 2005
Stars: Michael Clunie, Robert Gant, Thea Gill, Hal Sparks, Gale Harold, Randy Harrison, Scott Lowell, Chris Potter,Peter Paige, Sharon Glass, Jack Wetherall
The praise for Showtime's Queer as Folk, unsurprisingly, often begins with its cultural significance: When the American version of the popular UK series debuted in 2000, physical interactions and romance between gay men and women had never been shown on TV with such boldness. Characters visibly made love just like any heterosexual ones would on other cable programs, aiding in the acceptance of same-sex relationships on television that's since benefitted shows like Glee.
What puts Queer as Folk into this countdown, though, is the show's actual quality, not just its ability to break ground. Regularly touching upon heavy subject matter (including HIV contraction and homophobia), the series was always firmly rooted in its endearing, fully realized characters. Tolerance was guaranteed. MB
40. My So-Called Life
Network: ABC
Air Dates: August 25, 1994 January 26, 1995
Stars: Claire Danes, Jared Leto, Wilson Cruz, Bess Armstrong, A.J. Langer, Devon Odessa, Lisa Wilhoit, Tom Irwin, Devon Gummersall
All great actors and actresses got their start somewhere, and for most of them that jump-off point came via schlocky C-grade horror movies or thankless co-starring roles in bad comedies. That wasn't the case for Claire Danes, however, whose stellar chops are currently on loud-and-clear display in Showtime's phenomenal Homeland.
The multiple award-nominated Danes first worked her talents in My So-Called Life, a ballsy teen drama that covered issues like homophobia, child abuse, and homelessness with frankness previously unseen on programs dedicated to youngsters. And, much like she's done in practically everything she's accomplished since, Danes left a lasting mark in viewers' thoughts, despite the fact that ABC cancelled My So-Called Life after only one full season. MB
39. Treme
Network: HBO
Air Dates: April 11, 2010 present
Stars: Wendell Pierce, Khandi Alexander, Rob Brown, Kim Dickens, India Ennenga, John Goodman, Melissa Leo, David Morse, Lucia Micarelli, Michiel Huisman, Clarke Peters, Jon Seda, Steve Zahn
David Simon's examination of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina isn't The Wire. If that bothers you, you should go watch The Wire some more. Because Treme doesn't have the automatically exciting guns 'n' drugs element Simon's Baltimore panorama so deftly incorporated, viewers have too often processed the show as boring. However, the two shows are doing similar work in that they're both committed to painting a full picture of a citybut the similarities end there, just as the similarities between B-more and the Big Easy can only be pushed so far.
Over the course of three seasons (and with a fourth and final miraculously on the way), the show has never underestimated the audience's intelligence, which is refreshing in a world of predictable melodramas and soapy reality shows. Treme's pace and lengthy performance set pieces ask the viewers to attend to the action in a different way than we're used to. There's a difference between boring and slow. Slow demands the kind of concentration that makes for a more satisfyingly immersive experience.
And honestly, if you don't like the music, which runs the gamut from jazz to bounce, that's not the show's problem. The performances are integral to the show. It's like complaining about a musical because you don't buy characters spontaneously bursting into song. It's part of the form.
It's true the show can become didactic (this was a problem with some of the clunky moments near the end of season two involving fishing in the gulf), but politics have always been part of Simon's project. Yes, The Wire struck a better balance, but with Treme, you get something rare for TV: characters that aren't larger than life criminals or politicians. Most of these characters are just people. RS
38. Miami Vice
Network: NBC
Air Dates: September 28, 1984 May 21, 1989
Stars: Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, Saundra Santiago, Michael Talbott, John Diehl, Olivia Brown, Gregory Sierra, Edward James Olmos
In 1984, Michael Mann turned up TV by injecting the medium with a sense of style and an appreciation for form that was revolutionary at the time. The eye-popping colors and scenes cut to pop music reflected the cool of Mann's feature film Thief, the first sign that he was an auteur to watch.
Miami Vice took Mann's questions of fate, free will, and individuality to Tony Montana's turf, where James "Sonny" Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) fought crime with Easter-bright style and rampant sockless-ness.
The MTV-style visuals juxtaposed against the downbeat fatalism of the narrative captured the attention of the nation, and paved the way for the best work in Mann's filmography: Manhunter, Heat, and the 2006 film adaptation of the series. RS
37. Homeland
Network: Showtime
Air Dates: October 2, 2011 present
Stars: Claire Danes, Damian Lewis, Mandy Patinkin, Morena Baccarin, David Harewood, Diego Klattenhoff, Jamey Sheridan, Navid Negahban, Morgan Saylor, Jackson Pace, David Marciano
On a week-to-week basis during its debut year, Homeland's premise felt like it could implode at any given moment: A bipolar CIA hotshot (Claire Danes) suspects a Marine (Damian Lewis, also dynamite) returning home from eight years of Iraqi captivity of having switched allegiances and secretly plotting a terrorist attack. Over 12 tense weeks, Homeland tossed several red herrings, plot twists, and character deceptions at its viewers, to such a degree that producers Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon (both 24 alums) always seemed on the verge of dropping the narrative ball.
Yet, as the season escalated, so did Homeland's excellence, building up to its wholly satisfying finale with incredible, white-knuckle tension and suspense.
Often during Homeland's daringly breathless second season, viewers' abilities to suspend disbelief and manage patience were tested, and, frankly, overcome by implausibilities and moments of almost cartoonish action. Whichas anyone who gnawed on their cuticles while watching Homeland's brilliant, airtight debut season last year could tell yougoes against nearly everything that the Emmy-winning Showtime series had previously established (i.e., realistic storytelling powered by believable characters handling dangerous situations in natural ways).
So it's a huge testament to Danes and Lewis' acting chops that Homeland is still one of modern television's most invigorating and tense hours. Lewis, in particular, had been tasked with selling ridiculous scenes (talking on a cell phone while killing a man; breaking into high-ranking officials' offices with ease), but he's done so with real panache. MB
36. Carnivàle
Network: HBO
Air Dates: September 7, 2003 - March 27, 2005
Stars: Nick Stahl, Michael J. Anderson, Clancy Brown, Clea DuVall, Adrienne Barbeau, Patrick Bauchau, Cynthia Ettinger, John Fleck, Carla Gallo, Amy Madigan, Brian Turk, Diane Salinger, Tim DeKay, Karyne Steben, Debra Christofferson
HBO, whether the network's executives cared or not, pissed millions of people off when it cancelled Carnivàle after its second season in 2005. One of the channel's densest shows ever, the Daniel Knauf-created oddity introduced dozens of fascinating characters over its 24-episode stretch, using said folks to deliver a story drenched in heavy, good-versus-evil mythology. Naturally, the second season's final episode did little to answer all of viewers' questions.
Which makes Carnivàle a tough show to revisit, since one does so knowing that hardly anything will get resolved once it's all said and done. Still, Knauf's highly ambitious brainchild was damn good while it lasted. Set in an effortlessly eerie carnival, the show blasted viewers with strange hallucinations, religious unease, and a disconcerting dwarf (Michael J. Anderson) who looked like he time-traveled from the set of Tod Browning's 1932 off-putter Freaks. MB
35. 24
Network: Fox
Air Dates: November 6, 2001 May 24, 2010
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Dennis Haysbert, Elisha Cuthbert, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Carlos Bernard, Leslie Hope, Sarah Clarke, Eric Balfour, Penny Johnson Jerald
Posited around one of the more original TV premises of all time, the beloved Fox action series 24 is the kind of show that comes around, reinvents the small-screen medium, and then inspires a legion of inferior copycats. Basically, it's Lost's run-and-gun equivalent (but with a decidedly jingoistic bent that keeps it from ascending too high on this list).
If you slept on Kiefer Sutherland's badass Counter Terrorist agent Jack Bauer during his nine-year run, now's the time to familiarize yourself with eight days in his violent, death-defying, and endlessly twisty life. MB
34. In Treatment
Network: HBO
Air Dates: January 28, 2008 December 7, 2010
Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Forbes, Melissa George, Blair Underwood, Mia Wasikowska, Emberth Davidtz, Josh Charles, Hope Davis, Alison Pill, Irrfan Khan, Debra Winger, Dane DeHaan, Amy Ryan, Alex Wolff
A remake of the Israeli series BeTipul, HBO's In Treatment replicated the inventive structure of that hit show: A new episode each night, Monday through Friday, covering each patient the therapist (Gabriel Byrne) treats, as well as his session with his own shrink (Dianne West).
The patients change from season to season, with the fixed points being Byrne, West, and some of the most incredible acting TV has ever seen. Truly, the three seasons of In Treatment were master classes in performance. The small scaleepisodes set in the therapists's officefocused the viewer's attention, asking you to attend to the face and body language in a way that's unusual for TV (or most Hollywood movies, for that matter). RS
33. Sons of Anarchy
Network: FX
Air Dates: September 3, 2008 present
Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, Mark Boone Junior, Kim Coates, Ryan Hurst, Tommy Flanagan, William Lucking, Theo Rossi, Maggie Siff
When one sees a grizzled biker gang ride by on their hogs, thoughts of classic Shakespearean tragedies aren't what typically come to mindimages of Jack Daniels and bourbon bottles, on the other hand, probably do materialize.
Kurt Sutter, a veteran of The Shield with a theater background, found Hamlet in Harley-Davidson riders, however, and in that spirit he created FX's Sons Of Anarchy, a crazy violent yet dramatically sound look at the bonds and rifts within California's SAMCRO biker squad. MB
32. Firefly
Network: Fox
Air Dates: September 20, 2002 December 20, 2002
Stars: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Ron Glass
From TV impresario Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), this futuristic space Western is about a witty crew of smugglers that's big on multiculturalism and high-level prostitution. Fox cancelled Firefly after only 11 episodes, but it hit cult status with big DVD sales and a spinoff movie (Serenity). The fans who showed loyalty during the series' brief stint, meanwhile, continue to pledge allegiancelast year, the Science Channel's reunion special, Firefly: Browncoats Unite, scored 1.2 million viewers.
Whether network executives acknowledge it or not, there will always be room for Whedon's brand of snappy dialogue, lively characterization, and prone-to-cancellation sensibilities. Even if it's strictly on home video shelves. MB
31. Big Love
Network: HBO
Air Dates: March 12, 2006 March 20, 2011
Stars: Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, Ginnifer Goodwin, Douglas Smith, Grace Zabriskie, Mary Kay Place, Matt Ross, Cassi Thomson, Amanda Seyfried, Shawn Doyle, Mireille Enos, Melora Walters, Daveigh Chase, Bruce Dern, Harry Dean Stanton
HBO's drama of polygamy in the Mormon community rankled plenty within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its depiction of life within the church. Whether or not extreme liberties were taken, Big Love remains a fascinating portrait of love and relationships in an unusual circumstance.
What was particularly excellent about the show was the group of wives married to Bill Paxton's Bill Henrickson. Watching Big Love, you can't help but wonder what Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), and Margie (Ginnifer Goodwin) would get into if they came untethered from the Henrickson clan. Unfortunately, just when viewers were about to have the opportunity, the series came to an end.
Still, the five seasons of Big Love we received are full of quirkiness and grace. Brenden Gallagher
30. Law & Order
Network: NBC
Air Dates: September 13, 1990 May 24, 2010
Stars: Chris Noth, George Dzundza, Dann Florek, Michael Moriarty, Carolyn McCormick, Jerry Orbach, Paul Sorvino, Jill Hennessy, Sam Waterston, Benjamin Bratt, Jesse L. Martin, Angie Harmon, Dianne Wiest, Jeremy Sisto, Anthony Anderson, S. Epatha Markerson, Carey Lowell, Steven Hill
**** Wolf had an idea for a show that would depict the American criminal justice system with a complexity and fullness that hadn't been seen on TV before. Each episode would begin with a crime, at which point viewers would spend time with the investigating detectives. After they'd made an arrest, the remainder of the episode would be spent with the prosecuting attorneys, not the defense, as was usually the case in typical courtroom dramas. He'd call it Night & Day, or maybe Life & Death. No, after some additional thought, Wolf decided on Law & Order.
For two decades and 20 seasons, Law & Order was an American institution, spawning four spinoffs, of which Law & Order: Special Victims Unit has been the most successful.
At its best, the original produced timely TV that probed questions of power in this country, with episodes like 1992's "Conspiracy," in which a Jewish man is charged with killing a prominent figure in the black community. RS
29. St. Elsewhere
Network: NBC
Air Dates: October 26, 1982 May 25, 1988
Stars: Mark Harmon, Ed Flanders, Cynthia Sikes, David Morse, Denzel Washington, Howie Mandel, Ed Begley, Jr., William Daniels, David Birney, G.W. Bailey, Norman Lloyd, Christina Pickles, Kavi Raz, Terence Knox, Ronny Cox, Barbara Whinnery
Called "Hill Street Blues in a hospital," St. Elsewhere brought the grittiness of Steven Bochco's cop drama to a run-down teaching hospital in Boston named St. Eligius. The fixation on the gritty that TV experienced in the early '80s was a precursor to HBO's promise in the late '90s to deliver something beyond what you could see on the major networks. But the trend to push the limits begins here.
St. Elsewhere was marked by its large cast, black humor, and understated drama. The characters quipped about the squalor of the hospital that funding had forgotten, giving the show a playfully nihilistic bent.
The show's willingness to dismantle and upend reached its apotheosis in the series finale. Over 22 million people tuned it to see how it would all end. Of course, no one could've predicted that it would end inside the snow globe of the autistic Tommy Westphall, son of Dr. Donald Westphall, former Director of Medicine at St. Eligius. If that sentence scans as nonsense to you, you're one of the few who hasn't had the ending spoiled. Seek out the DVDs ASAP. RS
28. Babylon 5
Network: PTEN, TNT
Air Dates: February 22, 1993 November 25, 1998
Stars: Bruce Boxleitner, Michael O'Hare, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Andrea Thompson, Bill Mumy, Jason Carter, Tracy Scoggins, Stephen Furst, Patricia Tallman
There's a real correlation between the abundance of quality TV programming in the last two decades and the wider acceptance that shows should be created with an end in mind. The model where a network runs a series until the wheels fall off and the ratings dip is no longer a given. J. Michael Straczynski's sci-fi epic Babylon 5 was conceived of as a story spanning five years; thus it lasted five seasons.
The contemporary idea of the showrunner as the author who ultimately shapes the narrative is visible here, too. Straczynski, the executive producer and creator, wrote 92 of the 110 episodes, which span the years 2258 and 2262 in the bustling life of the Babylon 5 space station. The space station is a center of trade and diplomacy in a future where the Earth has united as one nation in the face of intergalactic exploration. The storylines are complex, even by Game of Throne standards, full of rich character dynamics and inter-species relations that allow the show to comment on politics and religion in meaningful ways. This is the space opera for the Model UN kids. And with special effects that felt bleeding-edge at the time for TV.
Today, the effects are quaint, but the stories resonate with the same depth and force. Straczynski achieved his goal, and made a TV series that feels like a novel. RS
27. Veronica Mars
Network: UPN, The CW
Air Dates: September 22, 2004 May 22, 2007
Stars: Kristen Bell, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Percy Daggs III, Teddy Dunn, Ryan Hansen, Kyle Gallner, Tina Marjorino, Tessa Thompson, Chris Lowell, Michael Muhney, Julie Gonzalo, Francis Capra, Jason Dohring, Enrico Colantoni
If you need proof of how iconic Veronica Mars has become, we'll point you in the direction of the show's incredibly dedicated fanbase. Six years after the show was cancelled, fans have still refused to move on from the sassy, smart-talking teenage private investigator, who deals just as well with high school drama as she does with a homicide case. The show's fans pledged $2 million dollars on it's Kickstarter, helping the Veronica Mars movie start its journey to becoming a reality. It took less than ten hours to raise their goal, making it the fastest Kickstarter ever to reach $1 million, in four hours. Some people are speculating, since it's already at $3.5 million with 26 days left, that it will raise $10 million. If you're wondering why fans would fork over their hard earned cash for something like getting a show its own movie, you obviously never checked out the series on Netflix.
Don't write it off as a teenage drama. Well, it is, but don't write it off. Along with the typical teen drama stuff (you know, not fitting in, drug abuse-after school special junk) there's also the addicting series-long mystery of who murdered Veronica's best friend. TA
26. Hill Street Blues
Network: NBC
Air Dates: January 15, 1981 May 12, 1987
Stars: Daniel J. Travanti, Veronica Hamel, Michael Conrad, Bruce Weitz, Joe Spano, Charles Haid, Michael Warren, James B. Sikking, Ed Marinaro, Betty Thomas, Robert Prosky, Ken Olin, Dennis Franz, Barbara Bosson, Kiel Martin, Taurean Blacque, Rene Enriquez
The longstanding excellence of ABC's NYPD Blue is owed to the earlier, trendsetting work done on NBC's Hill Street Blues. Both shows were co-created by Mr. Steven Bochco, who broke tons of ground with the latter series by injecting a certain grittiness and documentary feel (i.e., the groundbreaking use of hand-held camerawork) to the previously hammy police drama conceit.
Hill Street Blues, respected for its honest depiction of low-income crime and antiheroic lawmen, brought viewers directly into its unnamed city's darkest recesses without ever losing sight of each character's humanity. MB
25. The O.C.
Network: Fox
Air Dates: August 3, 2003 February 22, 2007
Stars: Mischa Barton, Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody, Benjamin McKenzie, Melinda Clarke, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Tate Donovan, Olivia Wilde, Autumn Reeser, Willa Holland, Alan Dale
Despite simply being about a kid from the wrong side of the tracks rubbing elbows with the Newport Beach elite, The O.C. has been off the air for about six years and people still quote, love, and rewatch the series obsessively.
How could they not? It was too ripe with dirty, pretty things. In the first episode, alone, we have grand theft auto, cocaine, and a threesome at a high school party's bathroom.
It didn't just introduce a generation to a new standard of teen drama, it introduced it to a whole new perfectly-packaged lifestyle. And it was unavoidable. What every other kid wore, listened todid you honestly think about Death Cab for Cutie before Seth Cohen?or liked in general could somehow be traced back to The O.C. Hell, the series' popularity even inspired the now-classic MTV reality show Laguna Beach. TA
24. Lost
Network: ABC
Air Dates: September 22, 2004 May 23, 2010
Stars: Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O'Quinn, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Harold Perrineau, Ian Somerhalder, Dominic Monaghan, Maggie Grace, Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Emilie de Ravin, Elizabeth Mitchell, Michael Emerson, Jeff Fahey
Three years removed from its divisive finale, we're still pondering the after-effects of ABC's Lost, trying to decide whether its long-awaited conclusion was satisfactory or chump style. Either way, the singular hitabout survivors of an airplane crash stranded on a mysterious island where flashbacks, flash-forwards, and even flash-sideways are the normis a once-in-a-lifetime kind of program, one that, even in its most confusing and frustrating hours, took creative risks that subsequent shows have failed miserably trying to emulate. MB
23. Beverly Hills, 90210
Network: Fox
Air Dates: October 4, 1990 May 17, 2000
Stars: Jason Priestley, Luke Perry, Shannen Doherty, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green, Gabrielle Carteris, Douglas Emerson, James Eckhouse, Mark Damon Espinoza, Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Kathleen Robertson, Hilary Swank, Vincent Young, Lindsay Price, Daniel Cosgrove, Joe E. Tata, Jamie Walters, Carol Potter, Vanessa Marcil
No one knows teen drama better than Aaron Spelling, who is still considered the most prolific TV writer of all time. His Beverly Hills 90210 ran for ten years and captured the essence of teenage life, if you happened to be a rich kid who lived in California, and were popular and gorgeous. The show helped make actresses Shannen Doherty and Tori Spelling household names, launched four (less than successful) spinoffs, and made Luke Perry and Jason Priestley teen idols.
Beyond just following the ever-dramatic hook-ups and break-ups of the characters, the show dealt with issues a lot of high schoolers faced in the 1990s: alcoholism, homosexual rights, suicide, teen pregnancy, and AIDS. Or, you know, not really, because most teenagers don't look like they're 30 and aren't that concerned with the 12-step program.
Regardless, this show was just a stepping stone to all the teen melodramas we know and love today. Plus, we found out Shannen Doherty was real-life crazy, which is fun. TA
22. Alias
Network: ABC
Air Dates: September 30, 2001 May 22, 2006
Stars: Jennifer Garner, Michael Vartan, Ron Rifkin, Bradley Cooper, Merrin Dungey, Carl Lumbly, Kevin Weisman, Melissa George, Rachel Nichols, Balthazar Getty, Lena Olin, Amy Acker, Elodie Bouchez, Mia Maestro, Greg Grunberg, David Anders
We have Alias to thank for introducing us to Jennifer Garner. She played the super sexy and deadlyCIA agent, Sydney Bristow, a Krav Maga expert who's fluent in 30 languages(31 if you count the language of love).
It may be hard to keep track of the double agents, the triple agents, backstabbers, and secret government agencies, but Alias will never be called boring or predictable. We're talking explosions, knife fights, guns, and a bountiful selection of wigs! Did you really expect anything less from creator J.J. Abrams?TA
21. The Shield
Network: FX
Air Dates: March 12, 2002 November 25, 2008
Stars: Michael Chiklis, Glenn Close, Paula Garces, Walton Goggins, CCH Pounder, Michael Jace, Catherine Dent, Kenneth Johnson, Jay Karnes, David Marciano, Cathy Cahlin Ryan, David Rees Snell
King Kong aint got #### on Detective Vic Mackey. As played by Michael Chiklis, who transformed from balding, soft-batch, suburban police commissioner in The Commish (1991-1996) to bald badass leader of the LAPDs Strike Team (a take on the Rampart Divisions scandalous anti-gang unit) in The Shield, he is arguably the dirtiest copand one of the best anti-heroesin the history of entertainment.
The shocking pilot episode of showrunner Shawn Ryans series reveals that Mackey is a terribly immoral man, but he's so charismatic and devoted to his team that its impossible not to follow and root for him as he cheats on his wife with prostitutes, steals drugs and money, tortures, and even commits murders. His myriad crimes and Machiavellian ###-coverings grow increasingly unbelievable over the course of seven seasons, and yet the drama of consequences catching up to a man is unrelenting, right up to the series stupendous finale, which sets the bar for anti-heroes incredibly high (or perhaps low, so youd have to slither under it). Justin Monroe
20. Boardwalk Empire
Network: HBO
Air Dates: September 19, 2010 present
Stars: Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Pitt, Shea Whigham, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Vincent Piazza, Michael K. Williams, Jack Huston, Anthony Laciura, Paul Sparks, Gretchen Mol, Anatol Yuself, Christopher McDonald, Aleksa Palladino, Charlie Cox, Dabney Coleman
No other show on TV looks as elegant as HBO's Boardwalk Empire, the Prohibition Era drama created by Sopranos veteran Terrence Winter. Decked out in plush 1920s costumes, the show's colorful array of morally shoddy characters (led by Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson) speak with eloquence and regularly drop wisdom; operating in various forms of criminality, they're also harbingers of high-art doom. And by the end of its remarkable second season, Boardwalk Empire revealed itself to be the finest of tragedies.
The tagline for Boardwalk Empire's third season was an attention-grabber: "You can't be half a gangster." And with that take-no-prisoners attitude, the drama really upped the body count, replacing the second season's overarching what-to-do-with-Jimmy (Michael Pitt) tension with bootlegger warfare.
The resulting storylines weren't all successful, most notably Margaret's (Kelly Macdonald) meandering involvement with women's pregnancy issues. Elsewhere, though, series creator Terence Winter and his writing staff methodically, and quite impressively, developed plots for tragic war veteran Richard Harrow (Jack Huston, more deserving of some Emmy and/or Golden Globe love than ever before), explosive newcomer Gyp Rosetti (underrated character actor Bobby Cannavale), and hot-tempered Al Capone (Stephen Graham) that all satisfyingly paid off. MB
19. Friday Night Lights
Network: NBC, DirecTV's The 101 Network
Air Dates: October 3, 2006 February 9, 2011
Stars: Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Gauis Charles, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Adrianne Palicki, Taylor Kitsch, Jesse Plemons, Scott Porter, Aimee Teegarden, Michael B. Jordan
Texas. Football. Beer. These things go together like peanut-butter and jelly. You want to play football, boy? No, that #### is dangerous. You want to watch a decent sports show, so you can act like you know what's going on during the Superbowl? OK, check out Friday Night Lights, the teen drama set in a small Texas town, where everybody knows your nameand everyone is slightly racist.
For a show that sometimes leaned too hard on cliches, like underdogs and must-win games, the characters are some of the most vivid: like a coach and his wife who actually get along and bicker about boring things, like household decorations. Or football players who know that they're going to peak in high school. We wouldn't expect anything less from the TV show based on a quality movie, based on a quality book, which was based on real life. TA
18. Justified
Network: FX
Air Dates: March 16, 2010 present
Stars: Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins, Joelle Carter, Jacob Pitts, Nick Searcy, Natalie Zea, Erica Tazel, Raymond J. Barry, Damon Herriman, David Meunier, Jere Burns, Brent Sexton, William Ragsdale, Jeremy Davies, Margo Martindale, Kaitlyn Dever, Mykelti Williamson, Neal McDonough
In its 2010 premiere run, Justified proved itself to be a good show; in 2011, it became a great one. Two key factors played into the FX series' dramatic improvement, all-important alterations that largely benefited the top-notch performances from lead Timothy Olymphant (as charismatic lawman Raylan Givens) and co-star extraordinaire Walton Goggins (as soulful antagonist Boyd Crowder). The first was a central plot, something that eluded the show in the first season. The second? Casting Margo Martindale as this season's villain.
Justified's first season often fumbled its way through a procedural approach, developing its main characters while chasing down a new criminal every week. But Martindale's Mags Bennet, the queen bee of a rule-breaking family of hillbilly degenerates, supplied both Raylan and Boyd with a mutually disruptive entity. As a result, Justified found its focus, and season two handled its storyline with admirable grace, subtlety, and unpredictability.
One of these days, the privileged few who vote on Emmy nominations will wake up, acknowledge the cowboy hat, and give Timothy Olyphant a statue. Each season so far, Olyphant, as US Marshal Raylan Givens, has continued his small-screen reign of excellence. Charming, imposing, and able to crack wise better than most of his TV peers, Olyphant holds the Kentucky-set series down without falling behind his equally proficient co-stars. MB
17. The X-Files
Network: Fox
Air Dates: September 10, 1993 - May 19, 2002
Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
The X-Files spoiled us all. It's difficult to find quality genre programs on TV, let alone ones that can actually scare, yet creator Chris Carter and his crack team of writers (which included Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan) blessed horror and sci-fi lovers with nine seasons' worth of top-notch storytelling, remarkably imaginative monsters, and somewhat human villains. Nine years after its last episode, we're still waiting on a worthy predecessor; Fringe is close, but not quite there.
The "monsters of the week" that made The X-Files such a disturbing viewing experience week in and week out would've been pointlessly included if it weren't for the show's now-iconic main characters, agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Both complex and endlessly fascinating in their own ways, Mulder and Scully's two-sided presence guaranteed that, even if any given episode's fantastical elements were lacking, the character-driven portions would keep The X-Files on an even keel. MB
16. Oz
Network: HBO
Air Dates: July 12, 1997 February 23, 2003
Stars: Christopher Meloni, Lee Tergesen, Dean Winters, Harold Perrineau Jr., J.K. Simmons, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Rita Moreno, Terry Kinney, Ernie Hudson, Eamonn Walker, Kirk Acevedo, B.D. Wong, Lauren Velez, Edie Falco, Sean Whitesell, Jon Seda
Before The Sopranos, The Wire, and Boardwalk Empire, there was Oz. HBOs first one-hour dramatic television series, Oz took viewers behind the bars of the fictional Oswald State Correctional Facility for an unflinching view of prison lifefrom religious and racial strife, to rape and consensual gay sex, hard drugs, jarring violence, and ####-smearing insanityand gave credence to the premium cable networks slogan: Its not TV. Its HBO.
With no conservative advertisers to worry about, HBO and Oz went deep, gritty, and realistic (balls to the prison walls, if you will) exploring the redemption and destruction of the colorful caged convicts who populated Emerald City, an experimental wing focused on rehab but more likely to #### you up permanently. As disturbing as any documentary prison show, but with fleshed-out characters whose ascents and descents you cared about, Oz locked you in, and was a perfect reminder to stay on the right side of the law. JM
15. Battlestar Galactica
Network: Sci-Fi
Air Dates: October 18, 2004 March 20, 2009
Stars: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Barber, James Callis, Grace Park, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Tahmoh Penikett
Chances are, close-minded folks resisted Battlestar Galactica under the impression that the Sci-Fi Channel drama was just another Star Trek; in other words, nerd central. Though it looks like that on the surface, Battlestar Galactica worked on deep and fascinating levels.
Part political allegory, part enthralling suspense vehicle, and part religious allegory, the highly addictive series executed some of TV's best storytelling from 2004 through 2009. And, as always, the nerds were smart enough to realize that. MB
14. Game of Thrones
Network: HBO
Air Dates: April 17, 2011 present
Stars: Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Michelle Fairley, Emilia Clarke, Aidan Gillen, Iain Glen, Kit Harrington, Charles Dance, Liam Cunningham, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Richard Madden, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Alfie Allen, Jack Gleeson
Someone should time how long the opening credits sequence for HBO's Game of Thrones runsit has to be the longest on all of television. And that's because the gruesome, captivating sword-and-sorcery series, based on author George R.R. Martin's best-selling A Song of Fire and Ice book series, seems to average at least one new character introduced per episode. Somehowperhaps through the kind of magic seen on the showshowrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss consistently weave a multifaceted and endlessly compelling yarn around Game of Throne's stacked cast.
During the show's debut season, breakouts like Peter Dinklage (as pint-sized shotcaller and ladies man Tyrion Lannister) and Emilia Clarke (the golden-haired dragon lady Daenerys Targaryen) received most of the attention, but season two saw a few previously limited performers step to the forefront in major ways.
Of special note were Alfie Allen, who gave the suddenly megalomaniacal Theon Greyjoy's violent quest for power a stark (no pun intended) vulnerability; Sophie Turner, the brave young actress who shares most scenes with that sniveling ******* Joffrey (Jack Glesson) and continually manages to hold her own; and Maisie Williams, the 15-year-old wonder who played little Arya's undercover survival within the Lannister family's guarded walls with a sympathetic toughness.
How Game of Thrones balances so many rich characters while delivering eye-grabbing moments of wild carnage and pricey visual effects is one of the show's many selling points. That just goes to show you the paramount importance of substance over style. MB
13. The West Wing
Network: NBC
Air Dates: September 22, 1999 May 14, 2006
Stars: Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing, Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, John Spencer, Dule Hill, Moira Kelly, Rob Lowe, Janel Maloney, Richard Schiff, Joshua Malina, Kristen Chenoweth, Alan Alda, Jimmy Smits, Mary McCormack
Aaron Sorkin wrote some of the best TV the world has ever seen while high on coke. In 2001, just after the second season of his White House drama The West Wing had wrapped, Sorkin was arrested at the the Burbank Airport for, among other things, possession of crack. Crack.
The writer and creator behind A Few Good Men, The American President, and Sports Night, had long battled with drug addiction, and did some of his most beloved work while writing stupid-stoned in the dead of night. His characters walk and talk with the same bottomless energy. And never have they walked and talked better than on The West Wing, an unabashedly liberal look at American politics.
Martin Sheen played Jed Bartlet, the Democratic president, and the rest of the characters were made up of his senior staff. We're stans here, so it's OK to shout out your favorite now. Were you a Josh person? (He had great hair and a debonair air, so we get it.) A CJ lover? (She was tough as ####, and when she lost her man at the end of "Posse Comitatus" in the third season, we wept like children.) Have a soft spot for Toby much? (Of course you do.)
For four consecutive years, the show won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama. Those first four seasons, of which Sorkin wrote nearly every episode, is one of the finest runs in TV history, almost peerless. RS
12. Star Trek: The Next Generation
Network: First-run syndication
Air Dates: September 28, 1987 May 23, 1994
Stars: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton
There's a reason that Star Trek: The Next Generation is the longest running of the Star Trek series: It's the best. Set 100 years after Gene Roddenberry's groundbreaking original, TNG picked up on a USS Enterprise captained by Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard, one of the most intelligent and compassionate characters to ever grace the small screen. The supporting characters, including LeVar Burton's Geordi La Forge, Brent Spiner's Data, Michael Dorn's Worf, and Marina Sirtis's Deanna Troi, deserve plenty of the credit for the show's excellence, too.
The Star Trek franchise is about the desire for knowledge and connection; TNG just did it better, with more memorable characters and more memorable storylines. TNG introduced the Borg, complicated the tale of the Klingon people, and in general, the show just embodied the profound humanism of Roddenberry's project. For younger generations, this is the definitive Star Trek. And with good reason. RS
11. ER
Network: NBC
Air Dates: September 19, 1994 April 2, 2009
Stars: Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Sherry Stringfield, Eriq Las Salle, Gloria Reuben, Laura Innes, Maria Bello, Alex Kingston, Kellie Martin, Paul McCrane, Goran Visnjic, Michael Michele, Erik Palladino, John Stamos, Linda Cardellini, Parminder Nagra, Shane West, Scott Grimes, Angela Bassett, Mekhi Phifer, Ming-Na
ER has replaced St. Elsewhere as the gold standard for medical dramas on TV, and will probably hold that position for years to come. With 124 Emmy nominations, it is the most nominated drama in the history of the award. Based on creator Michael Crichton's (yeah, Mr. Jurassic Park) experiences working in a emergency room, ER brought unprecedented realism to the hospital drama.
The blood shone brightly under the harsh fluorescents. The good-looking cast had the serious look one gets wielding a scalpel near human flesh down pat. (They also knew how to joke when the emergencies had passed, but it was always with a dourness that made shows like Scrubs look too goofy for words.) ER was the perfect reflection of the layman's reaction to a hospital, but with a greater degree of verisimilitude than viewers realized they wanted.
As is the case with so many of the great TV shows, the characters kept things together. To the show's credit, the rotating cast maintained high levels of consistency. Latecomers like Mekhi Phifer were just as captivating as earlier characters viewers fell in love with. For a series with 331 episodes to its name, that is a herculean accomplishment. RS
10. Twin Peaks
Network: ABC
Air Dates: April 8, 1990 - June 10, 1991
Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Madchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilyn Fenn, Michael Ontkean, Richard Breymer, Joan Chen, Piper Laurie, Peggy Lipton, Everett McGill, James Marshall, Jack Nance, Warren Frost, Harry Goaz, Michael Horse, Russ Tamblyn, Ray Wise
It's not exactly "going out on a limb" to declare that network TV will never air another show quite like Twin Peaks. Much like how cinemas don't regularly screen films comparable to Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive. The common denominator here, of course, is David Lynch, the unclassifiable filmmaker whose wonderfully odd sensibilities own stock in horror, drama, romance, comedy, and brain-scrambling WTF-ness.
All of those elements, and plenty more, were the high points of Twin Peaks, the anything but routine procedural soap, co-created by Lynch and Mark Frost, that left viewers scratching their temples through its two-season existence. When they weren't scratching, though, viewers were applauding the show's uncanny knack for producing shivers and awkward laughs in equal measure.
The plot of Twin Peaks, or whatever semblance of coherent narrative there was, traced the investigations of one Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLachlan), a beguiling lead character obsessed with nabbing the person who killed homecoming queen Laura Palmer; unlike AMC's The Killing, though, the whodunit side of Twin Peaks played second fiddle to the show's beautifully random scenes. MB
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Network: The WB, UPN
Air Dates: March 10, 1997 - May 20, 2003
Stars: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Anthony Stewart Head, Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, James Marsters, Juliet Landau, Eliza Dushku, Seth Green, Marc Blucas, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Amber Benson
Buffy The Vampire Slayer seemingly had it all: monsters, comedy, interesting characters, and talented actors. So what did the Joss Whedon-controlled show lack? The amount of viewers necessary to extend its current reputation beyond cult status. Buffy's loyal viewers, as well as the critics wise enough to hop on board, know they had something special, though, and aware True Blood fans hopefully realize that Sookie Stackhouse's universe is an inferior substitute for Buffy's creature-packed world.
Whedon and company kept the ghouls front and center throughout Buffy's seven seasons, yet no hour was as nightmarishly scary as "Hush", the show's crown jewel of horror. In the Whedon-directed episode (which he also co-wrote), a pack of suit-wearing, Joker-crossed-with-skeleton-looking ghouls known as "The Gentlemen" come to town and steal people's voices, resulting in an episode that's predominantly without dialogue. Brave formal decisions like this one separated Buffy from the rest of the pack. MB
8. NYPD Blue
Network: ABC
Air Dates: September 21, 1993 March 1, 2005
Stars: Dennis Franz, David Caruso, Jimmy Smits, Rich Schroder, Kim Delaney, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Henry Simmons, Gordon Clapp, Bill Brochtup, James McDaniel, Nicholas Turturro, Esai Morales, Sharon Lawrence, Amy Brenneman
When all else fails during pilot season, and networks can't scrounge up any unique programming, there will always be the police procedural format. Year in and year out, channels both basic and cable premiere new shows steeped in the world of crime-solving, typically with crooked cops, flawed heroes, and a dead body or two per episode. And the sad fact is that every one of these programs is trying to be even half as great as NYPD Blue.
Co-created by Steven Bochco and David Milch, ABC's seminal police drama never skirted over the harsh realities associated with protecting and serving. The violence was raw, the characters were both likable and damaged (and sometimes naked), and fan favorites weren't immune to death. NYPD Blue thrived on the kind of naturally powerful storytelling that later procedurals have so desperately forced into clichéd submission. MB
7. The Twilight Zone
Network: CBS
Air Dates: October 2, 1959 - June 19, 1964
Stars: Various
How many times have you heard someone, when in a bizarre situation, say, "It feels like I'm in the The Twilight Zone"? There's one man to thank for that ongoing pop culture reference point: Rod Serling, the game-changer responsible for several award-winning TV scripts, but most notably known for creating the groundbreaking anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Given a look today, the Zone's greatest episodes still hold up as television's best examples of thought-provoking and unsettling storytelling. Serling and his writing team (led by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont), probed societal issues and everyman fears with a genre-specific eye, inserting aliens, time travel, horror, and sometimes dark comedy into the everyday world as mirrors for viewers to confront harsh realities. The show was incredibly ahead of its time.
And it was, more often than not, scary as hell. Try driving on an open road alone at night after watching "The Hitchhiker", or not shivering in the presence of mannequins once you've seen "After Hours". We still get paranoid while flying on airplanes ("Nightmare At 20,000 Feet"), reading cookbooks ("To Serve Man"), and quarreling with neighbors ("The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street").
Television producers have tried time and time again to match what Serling did back in the early '60s, but to no avail. What's most scary about The Twilight Zone is how brilliant it remains today. MB
6. Six Feet Under
Network: HBO
Air Dates: June 3, 2001 August 21, 2005
Stars: Peter Krause, Michael C. Hall, Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, James Cromwell, Freddy Rodriguez, Rachel Griffiths, Justina Machado, Jeremy Sisto, Mathew St. Patrick, Joanna Cassidy, Tim Maculan, Patricia Clarkson, Lili Taylor
Death is the great equalizer, but its also what separates Six Feet Under from other dramas. Centered on the survivors of a funeral director who dies accidentally in the pilot and leaves the Fisher family funeral home to his sons, the multi-layered series, created by American Beauty writer Alan Ball, explored familial conflicts as well as personal, religious, and philosophical perspectives on mortality.
Death was never distant, as each episode opened with someones expiration, bringing a new body and more questions into the lives of the grieving family members, who continued to converse with imagined versions of their deceased patriarch, hoping to sort out the great mystery of life.
Profoundly moving and resonant for anyone who will die somedaywhich, if you havent realized yet, means youSix Feet Under is a must-watch before you kick the bucket. JM
5. Deadwood
Network: HBO
Air Dates: March 21, 2004 August 27, 2006
Stars: Timothy Olymphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, John Hawkes, Jim Beaver, Brad Dourif, Paula Malcolmson, William Sanderson, Kim Dickens, Robin Weigert, Dayton Calle, W. Earl Brown, Powers Boothe, Keith Carradine
HBO's ferocious and poetic Deadwood, a historical drama spanning two years in the history of a frontier town in the Dakotas, had the richest use of language American telvision has ever experienced. The beautiful words put in the mouths of the lowlifes, prostitutes, and lawmen by David Milch and his team of writers attracted much attention for the show's liberal use of the words "####" and "##########," but the deserve just as much scrutiny for their stunning power.
"If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got ####in' fleeced." That's saloon owner Al Swearengen (played with fierce intelligence by Ian McShane) speaking coarse and quotable in damn near iambic pentameter. Swearengen, like all of the show's components, has a basis in historical factthis is one well researched beast you're dealing with. There was a real Deadwood. Wild Bill Hickok was killed there. The Gem saloon really stood on that bloody, muddy ground.
But don't get stuck on the realness. The Deadwood created by the writers and actors involved with the HBO masterpiece is wholly theirs, a wonderful fiction where pimps deliver soliloquies whilst getting head, and profanity takes on a poetic dimension Shakespeare would've approved of. RS
4. Mad Men
Network: AMC
Air Dates: July 19, 2007 present
Stars: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, Bryan Batt, Jared Harris, Kiernan Shipka, Jessica Pare, Michael Gladis, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Christopher Stanley, Jay R. Ferguson
How many hours have we spent with Don Draper by now?
As TV becomes more cinematic (and thus richer) with regards to camera movement and editing, as it begins to play with form in the exciting ways, the medium will continue to stand distinct from film because of duration. You don't even get two hours with Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane. On the eve of the Mad Men's sixth season, we've spent roughly 50 hours with Don Draper (Jon Hamm). And given the pace of AMC's long, hard gaze into the ad industry of the '60s, those hours feel especially packed.
Testifying to the power of duration, Mad Men's unfurling arcs have asked viewers to evolve their feelings in ways that are only possible with timelots of time. If you'd told me circa season one that I would feel something other than revulsion at the dawn of season six for Pete Campbell, the WASPy ad exec with the punchable face, I wouldn't have believed you. But as in life, relationships change and grow. My relationship with Pete (and to hell with you if you think that's a strange thing to say) is entirely different now. This is a beautiful and powerful thing, art that asks you to change. It should not be underestimated.
When it's over, Matthew Weiner's Mad Men may very well be remembered as the greatest show to emerge from TV's golden age. Exploring the complicated tangle of the personal and the political at an ad agency during one of America's most turbulent decades has provided viewers with enough indelible images and fascinating characters to populate entire novels. And the show only gets better as it incorporates more of the formal innovations of cinema into its machinery.
It's not right that I have to invoke other art forms to express the genius of Mad Men. It's lazy, for one thing. But it's also a reflection of the adolescence television is experiencing. The medium is still finding out what it can do. We're lucky, all of us, to be alive to watch. RS
3. Breaking Bad
Network: AMC
Air Dates: January 20, 2008 present
Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, RJ Mitte, Giancarlo Esposito, Jonathan Banks
It's hard to fathom that there are still people out there who've never seen AMC's Breaking Bad; at this point, creator Vince Gilligan's bleak and unpredictable drama should be required viewing for anyone who owns a DVR machine.
As sickly chemistry teacher turned crystal meth cook Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his unstable partner (Aaron Paul) descend further into the drug world's abyss, Breaking Bad continually outdoes itself, pushing TV's boundaries with shocking violence, complicated storytelling, and fearless performances. As it approaches its finale, we'll see if it can become that thing that's eluded TV lovers for so long: the perfect show. MB
2. The Sopranos
Network: HBO
Air Dates: January 10, 1999 June 10, 2007
Stars: James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, Robert Iler, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Drea de Matteo, Tony Sirico, Steven Van Zandt, Vincent Pastore, David Proval, Aida Turturro, Nancy Marchand, Steven R. Schirripa, Federico Castelluccio, John Ventimiglia, Vincent Curatola, Steve Buscemi, Max Casella, Joe Pantoliano, Joseph R. Gannascoli
As with any intimate relationship, the connection that exists between viewer and television series can be a complicated one. Like any loved one, the television characters we come to know best have the ability to trigger a range of emotionsglee, despair, surprise, fear, angerallowing us to love them and hate them in equal parts.
In the history of television, few shows have engaged viewers as passionately as David Chase's The Sopranos, the story of a New Jersey mob boss with mommy issues. (OK, so it's a bit more complicated.) Steeped in nihilism and based in the psychotherapy process, the showwhich ran for six seasons on HBO between 1999 and 2007has been cited by many critics as one of the greatest series in the history of television. And with very good reason.
The Sopranos set the standard for excellence on HBO, and captured the attention of the nation. Has any recent TV finale been discussed more than the end of this series? No. And we'll continue to discuss it. We'll only continue to analyze the mob epic that was so much more. Jennifer Wood
1. The Wire
Network: HBO
Air Dates: June 2, 2002 March 9, 2008
Stars: Dominic West, Idris Elba, Wood Harris, Michael K. Williams, Wendell Pierce, Lance Reddick, Andre Royo, Aidan Gillen, Amy Ryan, John Doman, Frankie Faison, Larry Gillard, Jr., Deirdre Lovejoy, Sonja Sohn, Clarke Peters, Jamie Hector, Tristan Wilds, Isiah Whitlock, Jr.
What more can be said? That The Wire is the most important television series of the 21st century is practically textbook truth. Fueled by incredible anger and empathy, David Simon's panorama of Baltimore cast the war on drugs as the futile tragedy so many Americans have known it to be, while also shining light on the unending games all institutions play to keep the oppressed oppressed, and the stats squeaky clean.
The Wire began, in its first season, by chronicling the Barksdale drug operation and the struggle of the police assigned to bring it down. From that center, the other stories radiated outward like the spokes of a wheel. The second season brought the docks to the forefront. The race for mayor of Baltimore entered with the third season. The fourth focused on the nightmare of public education. The fifth tackled the newspaper.
Listing the moving parts does nothing to explain the work of the machine. And, as should be the case with all great art, no piece of writing can take the place of the series itself.
The Wire wasn't perfect. The newspaper arc and serial killer debacle of the fifth season remain missteps. Still, when the show was greatand the first four seasons are peerlessit was moving in a way that had you reaching for a Bible, for the Communist Manifesto, for some massive text that offers guidance in tough times.
Art should help you become a better human, and dammit if The Wire didn't do just that. RS
BREAKING BAD MAD MEN THE SOPRANOS THE WIRE
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