The 100 Best Narrative Television Shows of All Time

Written by Andreas Babiolakis

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As a millennial, I’ve seen many sides to television even within the thirty-odd years of my life. I recall hearing that it was a junk medium as a child, and that it wasn’t a serious art form (remember when cinema was considered as such?); it would rot our minds if we watched too much. I grew up in a television-loving household and we would have nightly events set to each day of the week (additionally, Saturday morning cartoons would be my alone time that I would also enjoy). Was I ever lucky that the Golden Age of Television of the Twenty First Century would start when I was around ten years old and was starting to get old enough to enjoy what was to come (okay, maybe I wasn’t HBO ready yet, but that would come eventually). We’re two decades (plus) into this era, and television only keeps on evolving and staying masterful. If anything, it may be the most beloved form of entertainment we have today, especially because we’re still in the middle of its best years.

Even though a new masterpiece can pop up at any time (given the amount of contemporary shows that made this list, including those that are still on and/or were wrapping up whilst I was compiling this list), these selections can be old news sooner than I think. Nonetheless, I wanted to narrow down the best series I have ever seen to just one hundred selections. This doesn’t include game shows, talk shows, news and sports analyses, sketch shows, and other forms of live entertainment unrelated to narrative television (you can find fifty of my favourite shows of these natures here), and limited series are excluded from this list as well (those will pop up on a future list next month). These one hundred shows are narrative based, and both serialized and episodic series are considered. Dramas and comedies (sitcoms or not) are included as well.

Which series were the best made? If a show is long running, was its prime noteworthy enough to excuse its worse years? The consistency of a show is important to me, and something that began extremely well and dropped off enough would nullify a show for contention on this list (sorry Homeland, Dexter, and all of the other shows that had such promise). For the shows that ended or started poorly that did make this list, I tried to weigh them reasonably (do the bad seasons actually hurt the series as a whole? Does a series make its worse moments worthwhile in the long run?). A lot of time and research (countless hours, nay, months of research) went into the making of this list, and many series I adore didn’t end up making the final cut (a quick shoutout to Orphan Black and Moral Orel: the final two shows to be cut). Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy the list as much as I did working on it. Here are the one hundred best narrative television shows of all time.

100. Moonlighting

Cybill Shepherd was well into her career. Bruce Willis was waiting to be discovered. Moonlighting was launched right when the former starlet could go against expectations during her prime and when the latter was just getting started. This yin-and-yang is clearly evident in a dramedy that broke fourth walls, never took itself too seriously (until the latter seasons, that is), and was such a fresh take on the detective drama. No one watched Moonlighting to be gripped, but you couldn’t turn away from it, either. It just relished in the grey area between television’s two clearly defined identities so well, and we got an inexplicable hour every week as a result.

99. WKRP in Cincinnati 

Its switch feels tame now, but back in the late ‘70s, audiences were able to identify with WKRP in Cincinnati’s transformation from a sterile station to a top 40 rock hub (it almost feels like a statement in regards to The Mary Tyler Moore’s newsroom: a previous MTM series). By now, the crew are most certainly our kind of people. Back then, WKRP came at the right time: misfits and likeminded music fanatics were well into their sonic discovery and the solidifying of their own personal identities. WKRP feels like a relic of the past in the best way: radio just does not have this kind of soul, heart, or character anymore.

98. Sanford & Son

While audiences were fixated on the Bunker family (particularly the problematic patriarch Archie) in one of Norman Lear’s project, his late ‘70s sitcom Sanford & Son showcased a different kind of father-son relationship. Dad Fred was set in his ways and went about running a junk shop with his wild ideas. The titular son Lamont laments for his generation with the amount of times he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with his pops, particularly due to his affinity to want to sell first and ask questions later (luckily father Sanford has those street smarts). Seeing the two leads of Sanford & Son get by whilst not getting along (and eventually coming to agreements) is fun and highly relatable.

97. Married… with Children

If sitcoms hyperbolize experiences, then Married… with Children is a complete decimation of the nuclear family. Everyone in the Bundy family seemingly hate one another, and no one ever really learned a valuable lesson at the end of any episode (not one that was useful for viewers, mind you). You may root for one character until they instantly shoot themselves in the foot; you will find yourself latching onto each of the Bundy family members just because you love how awful towards one another they are. If you ever felt like your family was dysfunctional or embarrassing, Married… with Children pretended to sympathize with you; really, it was letting you know that you’re in a much better position than you realized.

96. Dragnet

Of all of the many iterations of this police drama, the best would have to be the 1967 variant (that lasted until 1970). Still, there was Jack Webb’s Sgt. Joe Friday once again (returning from previous versions), who was a fascinating central figure on television that paved the way for so many other lead characters; it’s a marvel to see the evolution of the character from a radio staple to a TV icon. In the 67 version we also are graced with Harry Morgan before he became a M*A*S*H regular. The 67 Dragnet was the most colourful, and its non black-and-white exterior had nothing to do with this. The characters were more alive, even in an extreme sense. It just felt like another evolution of an already existing evolution; this was Dragnet at its ripest.

95. St. Elsewhere

It may be hard to forgive the blindside that happens at the end of St. Elsewhere’s finale (although it makes for perfect tribute fodder), but there is still so much to love about this classic ‘80s medical drama. It felt like the crossroads for the aimless in life; practitioners that needed guidance within their field; patients that needed to be consoled; rising stars that found a vehicle that introduced them to the world (Denzel Washington alone is evidence enough of this). St. Elsewhere was all about finding diamonds in the rough, and it was a an impressionable drama that understood both its medium — the potentials of television during its time — and its audience (those vowing for an escape, only to be heard).

94. The Outer Limits

There are two major anthological series about the abnormalities of the unknown that will be featured on this list (rest assured), but the one similar show that has been neglected on many of these lists has to be The Outer Limits (the ‘60s version). It had a much shorter legacy of two seasons, but The Outer Limits made its brief tenure count with some of the stranger tales you would find of this nature. There are some comparable elements to The Twilight Zone, so if you like the Rod Serling classic, be sure to spend some time with The Outer Limits: a deeper escape into the extremities of science fiction.

93. Rick and Morty

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty (or getting by on meme culture may be enough). The Justin Roiland/Dan Harmon project has actually gotten almost too big for its own good, but that’s the beauty about an existentialist comedy about the infinite possibilities of the universe. As immature as it is profound (how many shows incorporate fart jokes amidst some really deep discussions about the complexities of life, death, and self worth), Rick and Morty has blossomed from a show about randomness into the blessings and curses of having access to everything (is there such a thing as feeling fulfilled?).

92. Leave it to Beaver

It may seem extremely corny to include a series like Leave it to Beaver here, but its impact is important to observe. Of the nuclear families blasted on televisions back in the ‘50s, the Cleavers have lasted throughout the history of television because the show felt like it came from the actual perspective of its titular child character, and there’s a certain level of earnestness — albeit some naivety — that has been retained in the series ever since. While Leave it to Beaver once was intended to be relatable (not sure how relatable it actually ever was, to be fair), it now acts nicely as an escape back to a time when television was innocent to the point of tooth decay (and I love it nonetheless).

91. Star Trek

There are only seventy nine episodes of the original Star Trek. It boggles my mind. You’d think it lasted for many years, but Gene Roddenberry’s brainchild lasted only three seasons, and yet its influence is still greatly felt to this day. It possessed some strong foundations: a future where all ways of life are possible. You could hop on board of the USS Enterprise on a periodical basis and see a reality where anything could happen; you’d discover new terrains with a recognizable troupe of travellers that wound up becoming your best friends. It was a bulletproof premise that was bound to stay alive, and Star Trek — both as an original series and as a franchise — only continues to grow to this day.

90. Rawhide

Some time before he was an icon of the big screen, Clint Eastwood was a star of one of the early western classics of television. Rawhide allowed viewers to be a part of a weekly cattle drive for a whopping eight seasons, but the focuses would shift frequently. Sometimes the location would be the star, as you could get lost in the landscapes the series would explore. Otherwise, you’d find character studies, different predicaments, and other fascinating premises that kept you invested for entire hours each episode. Of the many early western series that dominated television during these formative years, Rawhide stands the tallest.

89. The Odd Couple

Television is a medium where you can get acquainted with characters more than any other form of visual entertainment. Well, placing two polar opposite souls together so they never see eye-to-eye is quite the experiment. The Odd Couple — an adaptation of the film of the same name — pitted Jack Klugman’s Oscar and Tony Randall’s Felix in every episode as a dichotomy of character parallels for our amusement. No matter who you are, you’d usually gravitate towards either spirit more than the other, and that’s one of the things that made The Odd Couple special: were you an Oscar or a Felix? The comedy meant different things for viewers depending on their own personal traits.

88. The Wonder Years

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, many family oriented shows completely misused their opportunities to get loved ones to bond via vapid, superficial insinuations of how parents and children actually behave. Then there was The Wonder years, which was oddly well shot for its time and subject matter. Of course the priority was reflecting on the ‘60s, the impacts of the Vietnam War, the experiences of growing up in an older era (via retrospective outlook), and identifying the weird feelings (basically love) and the facing of maturation through hindsight. There is a certain charm to the show that comes from the fact that The Wonder Years was created with the best intentions, not to pretend to understand you or what you’re going through (as a confused tween or as a just-as-lost adult).

87. Murder One

One of the best legal dramas forwent the predictable nature of the weekly episodic drama. Murder One knew that diving deeply into a case and trial was the best way to get engrossed in a series was to allow the events to unfurl as slowly — and naturally — as possible. We could get tricked, toyed around with, or led in the right direction, all over the course of a season, and not a mere forty five minutes. Season one of Murder One was nearly flawless television in the ‘90s, and its subsequent — and final — season was not quite the same, but it still stood head and shoulders above many similar shows that begged for weekly viewership and resolve. Murder One always saw the bigger picture before all else, and it shows.

86. Spongebob Squarepants

I’m going to have to write off most of the episodes after the fourth season here (there are still some gems in this season and a couple sprinkled onward), as the bulk of the gold from Spongebob Squarepants stemmed from the first three Stephen Hillenburg led seasons. Spongebob squared up with its influences and excelled past anything similar: it truly became television’s number one zany animated series. The show is a stereotype of itself now, but that’s why we all hover around the classics (especially with their prophetic realizations of meme culture). The first three seasons still hold up as some of television’s most hilarious bouts of insanity, and I think they’re only going to keep aging better and better with time.

85. The Phil Silvers Show

No matter what you call it — Sergeant Bilko, Bilko, the original title of You’ll Never Get Rich, or The Phil Silvers Show — this Phil Silvers starring vehicle was an original Golden Age sitcom for the ages. Decades before M*A*S*H came the original goofy military show, but The Phil Silvers Show was much more interested in the funny side than the serious reality (this was early television when everyone had to play it safe, after all). It felt like a living Hanna-Barbera series, although it was orchestrated with every line and cue memorized with pure precision. It may be a relic of the past, but it’s always nice to revisit The Phil Silvers Show and its loveable buffoonery.

84. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

One of the great satires of television is the faux-soap-opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which indulged in the insane dramas of the style with such extreme exaggerations that you can't take it seriously. Well, the joke is on us: this winds up being the best damn “soap opera" there ever was (it's actually likeable as an ongoing series of hysterias, and not just ironically). Maybe Norman Lear was onto something here, but most show creators haven’t caught on on how to do a parody quite this well (outside of Soap: more on that later). If anything, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman has transcended beyond the style it mocks and, quite frankly, should be a blueprint of what to do (but that will never happen).

83. Playhouse 90

If narrative cinema needed its moment to transition from theatre inspired into its own medium, then television could fulfil a similar shift. While the small screen was finding its footing, perhaps it was worth testing the waters to see how plays could perform in this new format. Enter Playhouse 90: a weekly spectacle that demanded to be your entertainment for the evening (maybe as an early tactic to get you to not touch that dial). Some of the best cases of early writing and acting on television come from this fascinating experiment; it’s a shame that enough episodes are incredibly difficult to come by.

82. The Cosby Show

The trickiest entry to discuss on this list is this sitcom classic, but I can’t ignore the influence and importance of The Cosby Show on an objectively compiled list. In a similar way, it’s impossible to discuss this show without acknowledging how awfully tarnished it is. I will focus on the ground it broke, however: a revival of the classic sitcom when it was all but dead and gone, a breakthrough for Black representation on television, and a then-source-of-comfort. We got life lessons, hard truths, and so much more in the Huxtable household, and countless series tried to bite its methods afterwards. Having said all of this, again, its magic will never be felt the same way again: a harsh reminder that our favourite characters may have nothing to do with those that portray them.

81. NYPD Blue

The ‘80s needed Hill Street Blues to push the boundaries of the dangers found within police dramas on television. NYPD Blue tried to continue the former series’ services in the ‘90s; by the time it wrapped up in the 2000’s, shows like The Shield and The Wire sprinted with this concept leagues ahead. However, NYPD Blue still made bold decisions within its confined network structure, and it remained the number one “risky” show for at least a little while (before the HBO and FX takeovers). It may be an artifact of its time, but NYPD Blue still feels at least interesting and substantive enough to still retain interests (and not solely through nostalgia) in the age of rediscovery online.

80. Rocky and His Friends

Over ten years into the wide spread takeover of television, the last shreds of older entertainment art forms could still be felt. Enter Rocky and His Friends (or The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, or any other iteration of this series): the result of (what seems to be) a radio show with animations set to match the voices and sounds. Rocky and His Friends’ frantic pace, wonky antics, and other silly elements felt decades ahead of its time, and the cartoon absurdity was set to the voices of legends (like June Foray and Bill Scott), the fear of the Cold War, and the breakthroughs of a new medium. The show may seem barely animated today, but its entertainment value still resonates in its entirety.

79. Soap

Even though there are few similarities between this satire and the show style, Soap truly is the greatest soap opera related series ever made. While the majority of Soap is told in jest (and its self awareness is just to-die-for), there’s still something — perhaps the magic that stems from this stellar cast — that connects me even closer to this series, as if I genuinely care for these characters even in a slight sense. No matter what comes the next episode (or what is projected to happen), it’s all going to be a riot. We're in on the joke with Soap. We’re all mocking soap operas. So why do we authentically like this so much?

78. Gunsmoke

The scope of Gunsmoke alone is mind boggling: it is a twenty year long behemoth (and then some) of western genre storytelling. Furthermore, it evolved from a radio cast to the new platform rather effortlessly, with James Arness’ Matt Dillon being the face of a genre and a medium for over six hundred episodes. Gunsmoke shifted from ten years of black and white picture to an additional ten (or so) of bright colour. Case in point: Gunsmoke just worked in so many different ways and for so long. This alone cannot be ignored. Plant yourself amidst almost any episode at random, and you’ll see why Gunsmoke was a compelling watch, no matter what part you're at or which way it’s told.

77. Roseanne

Roseanne begun rather standardly and it concluded way off the rails (I won’t even bother getting into the recent controversies), but its sweet spot (its middle seasons) were really something else. It was like the disfunction of Married…With Children, but with a keen sense of what reality actually feels like. As a result, Rosanne Barr and company were able to get into some real working class concerns, ranging from financial constraints and abusive households to the discussion of abortion. Roseanne made each conversation entertaining, but the show really knew how to level with us on a serious note exactly when it needed to; it found comedy within tragedy, and vice versa.

76. One Piece

If a show has gone on for more than one thousand (!) episodes, usually that is a horrible sign. Not for One Piece: the anime titan that refuses to quit and seemingly can just keep going (even if it may be overstaying its welcome just a little bit by now). As so many other series have come and gone, the adventures of the super-stretchy Monkey D. Luffy remain, and yet I never feel strung along by the series (like I’m given empty promises just to keep me invested); not at least for a considerable amount of the series. At this rate, One Piece is less of a show (or a manga) but rather a familiarity: considering its longevity, life would feel pretty strange the day it finally wraps up.

75. The Andy Griffith Show

The core character of The Andy Griffith Show was sheriff Andy Taylor (played by the titular actor), but it was also an exhibition of other talents whose legacies would be set just as steadily. These include Don Knotts — as Deputy Barney Fife — and a young Ron Howard as Opie (well before Happy Days as well). Perhaps as an antithesis of the rising dramas that tried to push the boundaries of television, The Andy Griffith Show presented an aimlessness within North Carolina: anything can happen, but then something else will right afterwards, removing any sense of qualms or conflict. The Andy Griffith Show was based on real kinds of local citizens, but it was a nice escape from it all.

74. Peaky Blinders

Of the many shows that are clearly inspired by The Sopranos, Peaky Blinders definitely feels like one of the stronger results. Having a rock-and-roll period piece series (I’m still not quite sure how the music of PJ Harvey, Radiohead, and, of course, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fits so nicely in this show, but God bless it nonetheless) be this exciting really gives the show its own signature edge. We gaze upon the demons of one Thomas Shelby over the course of many years, as war takes place, civilization shifts, politics clash, and innovation leads to further destruction. Peaky Blinders is evidence that the Brits can easily go toe-to-toe with American television when it comes to the gangster genre.

73. Star Trek: The Next Generation

Previously on this list, I sung the praises of Star Trek: The Original Series. It was a strong blueprint for the franchise, science fiction, and the limitless nature of television. Well, if there was ever a best version of this formula, it would be Star Trek: The Next Generation. Easily the best series of the franchise (I don’t mean to step on any toes, but this is my opinion), The Next Generation made the similar story feel more epic, and, if anything, I feel like it was this version that made the franchise the massive juggernaut we know today (especially since it was a part of the ‘90s zeitgeist). This was a spinoff done perfectly.

72. ER

For fifteen years, this was the medical drama on television. Thirteen years after ER concluded, I have to say that I don’t think it has lost its title. Despite being most definitely a network show through and through, this series still possessed a certain je-ne-sais-quoi (perhaps a focus on the doctors as living beings with over arching storylines amidst the episodic cases). It’s easy to get lost in ER no matter where you start or what era you grew up in (although I’m definitely going with the George Clooney years myself). If you want to watch all three hundred and thirty episodes, there is a chance you’ll find a number of weaker episodes you won’t like; in that same breath, you’ll find many of the strongest standard network drama episodes of the ‘90s and 2000’s.

71. Hannibal

I have to ask this every single time I discuss Hannibal: how in the hell did this make it onto network television? Bryan Fuller’s boldest experiment was adapting Thomas Harris’ serial killer horrors, but he went the extra mile by turning some of TV’s most shocking images into undeniable art; you can’t dismiss the show as schlock when it’s this beautifully — albeit disturbingly — orchestrated. I’ve always appreciated how far Fuller is willing to go (consider Pushing Daisies an honourable mention missing from this list), and Hannibal felt like the zenith; it’s such a shame that it ended prematurely (although its bittersweet final moments are still gorgeously disturbing enough to linger with you forever).

70. Get Smart

In the new millennium, certain genres are treated too seriously. The ‘80s and ‘90s had the opposite problem: some shows that weren’t treated seriously enough. Something like Get Smart was the perfect happy medium between goofy antics and interesting storylines, as Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 get wrapped up in some of the craziest cases of ‘60s television. There have been many spy parodies since (including an actual Get Smart film adaptation), but this classic series knew how to be playful without going overboard; it treated fun with a sense of care. If only parodic takes had at least a similar amount of grace nowadays.

69. Alfred Hitchcock Presents

While not quite the opus that some of his films would be, Alfred Hitchcock’s television program was exactly the kind of twisty-turny goodness that you could hope for from the auteur. Always a filmmaker to try and be one step ahead (just look at his fights for complete control over producers when the latter carried more weight during the Golden Age of Hollywood), it’s as if he knew that television packed a promising future for visual storytelling. Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a carefully curated series of short stories that only had one similar concept each time: you likely won’t guess how these episodes end.

68. Queer as Folk (U.K.)

While the American answer is also quite great, the original British Queer as Folk — to me — is the definitive version of this story. This short series boasted the early careers of familiar faces like Aidan Gillen and Charlie Hunnam who are at their most vulnerable here. We are placed squarely in Northern London, and Queer as Folk is shaped to feel like a capturing of the gay community throughout the ‘90s. By the exceptionally short second season (two episodes only), the series wanted to end on a more introspective note: what will come in the future? It was one of the first series to place a positive light on the LGBTQ+ community, and it remains a cult favourite today.

67. Friends

One of the biggest shifts in ‘90s pop culture came from the then-sleeper-hit Friends. Out of nowhere, the six pals — and lovers — became the go-to group for viewers of all walks of life, perhaps because it was more genuine than other microwaved-warm sitcoms of its time. We bonded over the characters, and rooted when they actually got together. I’ll admit that I am much more of a Seinfeld guy, but I can acknowledge that Friends was relatable in a different way: not via the minutiae that we all think makes us individuals, but through the loveable awkwardness that makes us all get along platonically, romantically, or as family.

66. Death Note

Where were you when the Death Note anime dropped, and absolutely everyone you knew had to find out if serial killer (of sorts) Light was going to get away with murder and his schemes yet again. For a majority of its run, Death Note was the greatest anime to binge watch, especially because it felt like you had opened a new doorway to more possibilities as each episode would conclude. The showdown to wrap up the second “act” is a masterpiece of animated television. While Death Note drops off a little bit until its finale from this point on, its highs are still some of the most thrilling television you’ll find.

65. 30 Rock

After Tina Fey had spent enough time with the Saturday Night Live cast and crew for long enough (and once she had established herself as a captivating comedy storyteller (let's not forget Mean Girls), she was ready to create the ultimate farcical comedy via 30 Rock: a hyperbole of the most unusual working conditions in entertainment. I began watching the series and wondering how much of the show was factual, until I realized that it was all entirely truthful via the lens of a sketch comedy mindset: you can learn more about how this environment functioned by speaking its language. The comedy was rapid fire in a nearly Olympian-like fashion, proving that Fey is a master of her craft.

64. 24

The makeup of 24 alone is brilliant: you follow Jack Bauer in real time, and each episode posed as an actual hour, with twenty four episodes making up a day in the life of a counter-terrorist agent extraordinaire. For the first number of seasons, both Bauer and 24 felt unstoppable: like a jolt to the network television blueprint. Naturally the show would eventually exhaust itself, but it was also quite something to see how far it could go. During its prime, 24 was a game-changer in the early 2000’s and an obvious piece of the New Golden Age puzzle (considering it really got us thinking about the constructs of television as a series, season, and episode).

63. Justified

Timothy Olyphant wasn’t ever really meant to leave the western genre, so it only makes sense that he gravitated towards the southern crime series Justified once Deadwood was done. In the former series, he became Marshal Raylan Givens set to the words and philosophies of Elmore Leonard. Instantly you could tell that you were looking at the most harrowing, gutsy tales within the Appalachian mountains and that Justified wasn’t going to just crawl its way around without trying; it was a nice change of pace from a number of similar crime shows around this time that got by on the bare minimum. With the announcement of a limited series sequel to prove my point about Olyphant (see?), it also showcases the urgency for Justified’s nerve wracking drama; we’ll certainly take some more, please.

62. The Rockford Files

There aren’t many characters like Jim Rockford that just took over your small screen whenever they were on. Watching The Rockford Files feels like an ongoing game of cat-and-mouse, and the series was shot and edited so well that you either felt like you were at the local theatre back in the ‘70s, or that you were in on the missions right behind Rockford. Either way, the series was dynamic and compelling, and it felt inexcusable to miss out on the next episode once it would roll around. Revisiting The Rockford Files feels like rummaging through a crate of unearthed treasures: there's no wrong place to start, and you'll want to keep going once you've begun.

61. Daria

While I do have a soft spot (blame nostalgia) for Beavis and Butt-Head, I much prefer the spinoff series Daria. Instead of juvenile shenanigans that told a piece of the story about our youth, Daria felt applicable to so many teen viewers (even those that maybe didn't identify as the outcasts of society). It feels like the projection of high school drama from an alternative universe because of its caricatures of society, but it knew exactly how to empathize with your own searching for your place in the world. It seems like a scathing commentary, but I'd argue that Daria is much warmer than it wants to project; it understands you more than most other shows.

60. Schitt’s Creek

The father-son duo of Eugene and Dan Levy infused their separate identities into one passion project that took a little bit to take off. Schitt’s Creek started off a bit rocky and seemingly like your run-of-the-mill sitcom that was meant to burn members of the rich class (by placing them — as fishes out of water — in a rural town in the middle of nowhere). However, the Levy family and their lovely troupe members (including Eugene’s best friend Catherine O’Hara) held their best cards for last, as Schitt’s Creek progressively gets better and better to the point of becoming one of television’s finest comfort shows (perhaps ever).

59. My So-Called Life

Before Claire Danes became a television megastar via Homeland and the Temple Grandin TV film, she had a brief reign via My So-Called Life: a fascinating high school experience told the right way. It didn't last long, but the series covered so many serious topics that were being ignored by the majority of similar shows during this time period. Meanwhile, My So-Called Life knew that it had vulnerable eyes watching, and that something real could come out of this temporary devotion every week. As a result, My So-Called Life went toe-to-toe with some of the hardest hitting dramas of its time, because it recognized that hardship could be felt at any age.

58. The West Wing

In all honesty, I have to admit that there are parts about The West Wing that have aged a little wonkily (maybe its extremely sentimental music, for instance), but it's also impossible to ignore just how monumental this political drama was for its time. Aaron Sorkin’s brainchild (which also acted as his biggest breakthrough, catapulting him towards being one of the most revered writers of our time) set the scene for serialized television shows from the tail end of the ‘90s. I feel like many of the show’s disciples have become even better versions of The West Wing, but this classic still is a massive achievement, and its strengths continue to resonate.

57. Dark

The urges to binge watch television series came with the distribution of shows for home consumption; this was heightened to the extreme once streaming begun. Then there are shows like Dark that challenge the linearity of watching a series from start to finish. This German series put off some viewers when it started, but people are too quick to judge. You won’t know the extent of how deep this metaphysical rabbit hole goes until the very end of the show (even then, you may need to revisit it in great detail to fully understand the complexities here). Dark truly is the Primer of television, and I feel like its lasting impact will be felt very soon.

56. Fawlty Towers

It’s astonishing what air-tight comedy can pull off. The two seasons of the British slapstick classic Fawlty Towers can be watched in its entirety in just one afternoon, and yet its noteworthy moments can feel like the highlight reel of another sitcom. The crazy antics of Basil and Sybil Fawlty within the barely-surviving hotel are always operating at peak levels of absurdity, but we also know places of businesses that are run this questionably. Maybe that’s part of the humour: the comfort of knowing that John Cleese and Connie Booth are aware of our frustrations in the everyday world, and here they are on full display in Fawlty Towers: one of television’s silliest riots.

55. The Bob Newhart Show

After The Mary Tyler Moore Show concluded each night, you’d typically find that it was the lead-in to another MTM Enterprises project: The Bob Newhart Show. We related to Mary Richards, but Dr. Hartley was a little different. He was the straight faced anchor amidst his loved ones and patients, and the bottom line is that we are all a little bonkers in our own ways. The Bob Newhart Show was a little sophisticated but it was also quirky enough to still be as likeable as it was to viewers for its time. Even today, The Bob Newhart Show and its dichotomy of wits and laughs remain strong.

54. Friday Night Lights

Of all of the basic network dramas of the 2000’s, there is an outlier that is more easy to spot from the rest of the pack, thanks to its longevity and instant legacy. Peter Berg wasn’t settled when his film Friday Night Lights (an adaptation of H. G. Bissinger’s novel) became a hit at the theatres. He had to go further with this idea. And thus Friday Night Lights the series was born, and it is easily Berg’s magnum opus. The series begins like any other interesting serial drama, but you get glued to the locals and their lives. Just like the series was a highlight of each week, so was the high school football games that would take place and be the focal point of so many walks of life: everything at home, school, and work was brought out onto that grid iron. As the series wrapped up, it felt like we watched entire lifetimes, and it’s kind of beautiful, really.

53. Prime Suspect

The rollout of Prime Suspect was gradual and calculated. The intense tales of DCI Jane Tennison were told over the course of two episodes per season (each episode being between an hour and a half to two hours in length). It’s as if we had a series of lengthy crime films every so often, and Tennison would have to combat different scenarios: being a woman and dealing with sexism in the workplace, homophobia and racism in society, and the curses of addiction. As the series took place over fifteen years, we see Helen Mirren turn from an actress that deserved this breakthrough into a seasoned veteran that was the queen of her craft. 

52. Veep

Before real life politics became living satires of themselves, there was Veep. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was due to be back on television as the contemporary queen of sitcoms, and she absolutely nails her role of Selina Meyer throughout all of her political misadventures. As Veep continued, Meyer’s potential to be a vice president (or president) went from being a joke to being a reality, both within the series and in reality. Veep sticks to its guns nonetheless: a scathing look at ineptitude in the White House, and the lunacies of the world that surround it. The finale is the lasting blow of pure parodic commentary: legacies aren't always what we're told they are.

51. Blackadder

The first season of Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis’ Blackadder series is funny but a clear starting point for what was to come. Each new chapter in the Blackadder family tree — over the course of history — got better and better, with Blackadder Goes Forth being a startling World War I satire (full of many laughs, but hints of something bigger as well). Overall, Blackadder is goofy history comedy told from a place of pure intelligence; you can’t spoof the past without being an expert in it. Viewers, on the other hand, don't need to be majors in these subjects in order to enjoy these absurd tales, but those who are will have an extra kick with these anthological shenanigans.

50. Avatar: The Last Airbender

Perhaps the greatest children-based animated series of all time, Avatar: The Last Airbender is unbelievably mature with its subject matters and imaginative scope. Starting the show off, you get acquainted with Aang and friends in their efforts to right the wrongs of the world and its politics, societal corruptions, and its never-ending hurt. As each season (and “book” of the series) concludes, you’re left with Aang mastering each other element in some of the most jaw dropping sequences in animation history: these are massive payoffs for being a part of the journey up until now. Avatar has a playful side for the kids that tuned in, but it also treats its audience (no matter what age) with the utmost respect. We have yet to see similar shows achieve the insanely high bar that Avatar placed.

49. Hill Street Blues

Crime shows are naturally gritty, but that wasn't always the case. What was the necessary bridge between the classic series and the modern tales of corruption? Hill Street Blues: one of the first shows whose iconic theme song meant you stayed up too late as a child. While we have gone much further since, Hill Street Blues still went the extra mile in a necessary way. While cinema was reverting back to safer material after the New Hollywood movement, it was time for television to take over as the more visceral storytelling medium. With the (then) dangerous storylines, crazy outcomes, and buzzing energy that Hill Street Blues has, the shift was sudden.

48. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

How can a show that has such a big cult status — with current longevity to boot — still feel underrated? Enter It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: one of the most psychotic comedies to ever hit the small screen. If Seinfeld was about unlikeable people we can relate to, then Sunny is the much more detestable, unfathomable disciple. Even still, it feels impossible to not adore this FX sitcom, particularly because of its clever self awareness, its unstoppably talented cast (I have a new favourite member of "the gang" every day), and its relentlessly dark subject matter. With the occasional moments that moved me, it's clear that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is still capable of catching me off guard, even fifteen years in.

47. The Fugitive

While the more well known version of this story is the ‘90s film adaptation, the television series The Fugitive must be acknowledged. It was a breakthrough for serialized storytelling on the small screen, and it was highly riveting to boot. Would Dr. Kimble get out of this predicament? Even though The Fugitive dropped during a time when many films (and almost all series) favoured happy, safe endings, you still couldn't exactly figure out how this show was going to be resolved. It ran for one hundred and twenty episodes, shifting from black and white to colour, and yet nothing else mattered: we needed to see Dr. Kimble reign triumphant.

46. Attack on Titan

Not many anime series unite television goers of all walks of life. And then there’s Attack on Titan, which has even non-anime fans glued to their screens and shaking with nausea (over the extreme bloodshed, the anxiety about what will happen, and the anticipation of the unexpected). The rug gets continuously pulled from underneath us time and time again (just when I think I know the direction the series is going, I am made out to be a fool, and I’m still not used to it). All I know is that the core theme of Attack on Titan is that the atrocities of the human species and its monstrous capabilities (greed, murderous tendencies, hatred, deception) are impossible to avoid, either by giant titans or those closest to us.

45. The Dick Van Dyke Show

While the television sitcom was becoming a functional way to look into the kookiness of various lifestyles and/or environments (the American household, as performers, as individuals in many professions), The Dick Van Dyke Show turned the formula on its head. The titular actor played Rob Petrie: a writer for television, and this alone made the sitcom a well written show about writing. Then there’s his wife Laura, played by the soon-to-be-television-icon Mary Tyler Moore, and the two had undeniable TV chemistry that made the Petrie household the hotspot of the week. No matter what you tuned in for (Rob’s self referential antics, or Laura’s identifiable at-home experiences), The Dick Van Dyke Show was destined for instant success and its inevitable longevity.

44. The X-Files

We were due for another monster-of-the-week series by the ‘90s hit, and shows like Twin Peaks got us somewhat closer to this goal (with the ongoing questioning of the unknown). The '90s also tried to get viewers to tune in for specific characters in serialized shows of genres that were once mainly episodic. The X-Files was destined to exist as a concept, but its execution is what makes it unforgettable. The perfect pairing of Dana Scully (a by-the-book FBI agent and scientist) and Fox Mulder (a more spiritual theorist of an agent) made the series the must-see event, but its first six seasons were mostly golden. While the franchise has been derailed numerous times since, there’s no denying how idiosyncratic The X-Files was at its best: forever shocking, unexpectedly hilarious, and purely intoxicating.

43. Curb Your Enthusiasm

After Seinfeld, Larry David was going to get away with anything that he asked for. He decided to go with whatever-the-hell-he-felt-like, and that resulted in Curb Your Enthusiasm. What started out as a candid depiction of what it’s like to deal with an exaggerated version of David on a daily basis (hint: raw, unfiltered neuroses) has now turned into many different mission statements: what David wants to comment on now, which friends he wishes to feature, and even the surreal deviations that remove the purity of what the show once was (it’s even shot much better now, too). This anarchistic layout makes Curb Your Enthusiasm perfectly impossible to pinpoint, and David — as we all know by now — could make reading a phonebook hilarious. No matter what, I’m here for the ride, because Curb is one of television’s funniest shows of all time, regardless of how David wants to approach it.

42. Better Call Saul

One of the strongest spinoffs in television history has to be Better Call Saul: the prequel (somewhat sequel, at times) to Breaking Bad. Many fans may have expected the constant pummelling energy of the previous Vince Gilligan opus, but instead they got Peter Gould's slow burning legal drama that is more concerned with the bigger picture. As Jimmy McGill and Mike Ehrmantraut first meet early in the series and their lives diverge, we get a larger sense of the universe of Breaking Bad, which compliments this classic. Additionally, Better Call Saul stands comfortably on its own two legs as one of the greatest legal series of all time: a compelling narrative where we somewhat can figure how it will all end, and yet I’m left anxious with anticipation to see it all blow up.

41. Fleabag

The first season of Fleabag felt like some internal thoughts Phoebe Waller-Bridge wanted to get off of her chest, and her perfection of the usage of fourth-wall-breaking was instantly effective (we are a part of her darkest secrets via these upfront confessions). By season two, she was already ready to wrap things up. She was a different person as a writer, actress, and television mogul, and she knew how to quit while she was ahead. Thus came the even-better second season full of moral dilemmas, extreme vulnerability, and brilliant comedy. Even though the entire series can be finished in one sitting, it’s impossible to shake off the genius of Fleabag: a twenty first century look at sexual exploration, existential dread, and the analyses of our selves as individuals.

40. South Park

What started out as an homage to the absurdities of works like Monty Python’s Flying Circus (and its animated segues by Terry Gilliam) from two pals Trey Parker and Matt Stone turned into one of the first viral creations: The Spirit of Christmas. This eventually led to South Park, which was the Eminem of television, and sought to disturb virtually any viewer. By season four, Parker and Stone worked on their storytelling, their shift from shock to satire, and the lampooning of current events via their completion of an episode in less than a week. South Park has been a wise voice amidst the miasmas of reality time and time again, and these successes are its largest surprises.

39. Game of Thrones

High fantasy was cherished on a wide scaled level for a brief moment of our time thanks to the HBO adaptation of the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. Game of Thrones was the weekly event of many years. Which major characters were going to die? Will my favourite be next? After a few seasons, Game of Thrones became more than just a murder-of-the-week tale, and its political and societal storytelling became the most engrossing work on television. It’s a shame that it resolves as poorly as it does, like Game of Thrones itself was the last significant death of the series, because it could have easily dominated the decade. As we’ve learned from this Westeros story, anything is possible whenever, and it softens the blow of season eight just a little bit.

38. Frasier

Cheers united friends and coworkers time and time again, in a rather jovial, relaxed way. You take the doctor Frasier Crane from the Cheers bar, give him his own show, and you’re guaranteed a drastically different series. If you tell younger people today that the two shows are related — say you show an earlier Cheers episode without Crane in it — they may not even believe you. Frasier is witty, dry, and highly intellectual (even with the occasional silliness) and it set the tone for what a spinoff could — and should — be: its own entity, no matter what its source material is. If anything, quite a few viewers even prefer Frasier, and I cannot fault them for gravitating towards the spinoff’s intricate sense of humour.

37. Deadwood

It will seem dishonest to not have a slew of curse words when I write about Deadwood, but I will try my best to refrain nonetheless. The greatest western show of all time is this gritty HBO clash of lives, as settlers, immigrants, and citizens of the titular town were so full of frustration that you can feel their blood boil from where you sit. With the most colourful dialogue in the history of television, Deadwood was darkly entertaining; you laugh whilst you winced in fear that a fight or duel could break out at any second. The series was left hanging on a thread by a rare cancellation by HBO (I’m aware of the eventual film tie-in, but I’m discussing the show itself), and it wasn't fair to Deadwood: an electrifying western that rejuvenated the genre better than any series to come.

36. Taxi

After The Mary Tyler Moore Show and before The Simpsons, James L. Brooks created Taxi in between two of the biggest shows in television history. It almost seems like Taxi is the series for the biggest of TV junkies: the extra serving if you liked what you saw from the more iconic works. It also acts as the starting point of many massive names: Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conaway, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Tony Danza (as well as a home for Marilu Henner and the outlier of outliers Andy Kaufman). In the Sunshine Cab Company, anything went, and you never knew what you would get from one of television's most eccentric casts. No matter how you discover it, Taxi is a gem of a sitcom that is to be cherished.

35. Atlanta

Donald Glover has pretty much done it all as an entertainment mogul, from writing for a hit series (30 Rock) to headlining festivals as Childish Gambino (and everything in between). With this in mind, I will unquestionably declare Atlanta his magnum opus by far (lightyears, even). You never know where you stand in this FX series, as each episode carried its own individual identity; it's almost as if Glover intended for the show to feel like an album with songs you want to repeat again and again. The show never forgets about its entirety, however, as Earn and the Paper Boi chronicles still convey the disasters of living in a rat race society, with racism and other bigotries at every turn. This hope to break out and finally be free of financial and societal constraints is highly relatable, and it’s just one of the many things that make Atlanta a significant force in contemporary pop culture.

34. Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is such a great recreation of a previous series that nearly no one refers to the original when they bring up this title. It wasn't created for just any old reason: it was a proponent of the New Golden Age of television. The medium was opening up and getting more daring, and Battlestar Galactica took a previous property about space travel and Cold-War-like informants (those pesky Cylons) and turned it into one television’s grittiest series. The search for the planet Earth was only a part of the story here, as humanity is hanging on by a thread even on the titular ship (and in this version the threat felt very real). It was easily one of TV’s most frakkin’ awesome shows of the 2000’s, and it continues to remain a science fiction classic of the twenty first century.

33. The Office (U.K.)

Before we got familiar with Michael Scott and the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch, there was David Brent that ran the Wernham Hogg Slough branch (the only similarity is that both companies sold paper). The original The Office was a short lived mockumentary series that was much more invested in this premise than the remake, and it feels like Brent (played by one of the show's creators Ricky Gervais, the other creator being Stephen Merchant) has hired a camera crew to capture how wonderful he is. On the contrary: Brent is completely clueless as to how inept, disgraceful, and detestable he truly is, and the Wenham Hogg employees carry on with their own lives despite his best efforts to capture (and recapture, and recapture, and recapture, and…) his fifteen minutes of fame. By the end of The Office U.K., Brent is still unaware of his idiocies, and it’s the perfect way for this sitcom to dissolve.

32. Mr. Robot

Mr. Robot’s widespread legacy has been quite strange. It experienced instant success during its first season, and yet its titanically brilliant third and fourth seasons feel slept on. Perhaps you could say that Sam Esmail’s ontological drama relentlessly went as far as it could go, but that’s precisely why it should be discussed more, not less. Mr. Robot depicts a broken America via the warped mind of hacker Elliot Alderson (one of the great unreliable narrators in television history), and the show — like so much else in the series — gets broken in a myriad of ways. It's only the final few minutes that Mr. Robot finally gets rewired back into functioning order, but diving into the complexities of a shattered mind is a masterful feat that will most certainly be talked about in years to come (but I want to make sure Mr. Robot gets its dues right now).

31. The Abbott and Costello Show

The bar for comedy on television was set nearly-impossibly high by the dynamic duo of Lou Costello and Bud Abbott. In the early ‘50s, The Abbott and Costello Show was a calamity of scenarios (often subject to misunderstandings, confusions, and mistakes), like a comedy juggling act that wouldn’t end and would just get more and more precarious. While other series were trying to provide an abode for us to enter with familiar faces, The Abbott and Costello Show got by making us laugh over uncomfortable and wonky circumstances. These were the kind of episodic antics that set the tone for so many sitcoms to follow, but most don't come quite as close to the energy that The Abbott and Costello Show emits.

30. Neon Genesis Envangelion

Anime is one of the biggest methods of storytelling worldwide, and you can thank a show like Neon Genesis Evangelion for the amount of ground that it covered: its shattering of mecha shows, its expansion of anime culture worldwide, and its analyses of highly philosophical concepts (the generation of self and the projection of control, for instance). It starts off as a great anime that was destined to have a legacy, but then it ends with some of the most breathtakingly metaphysical storytelling I've ever seen. The rug gets pulled from underneath you and reveals a void below that you plummet through, as you question existence. Neon Genesis Evangelion is some of the most deconstructed animation you may ever find, and it’s this stunning stretch at the end that cements it as a masterclass of its style.

29. The Americans

Over thirty years after the original Cold War, The Americans came crashing into the middle of the New Golden Age of television with their poignant look at the nuclear family being dissected. We are transported back to the ‘80s with informant plants trying to assimilate into the suburbia around them, but we’re seeing things from the previously concealed angle now (no television censorship to “protect” us this time). Then comes the tricky part: the confusion of identities (once you've lived somewhere for long enough, where is home?) and the complexities of keeping secrets. The Americans plays a slow and steady game, and it all pays off with its blisteringly bittersweet finale that wraps up the entire series in a bow.

28. The Larry Sanders Show

Garry Shandling could have potentially been the next big late night talkshow giant. That’s not the direction he went. Instead he crafted what is arguably HBO's first massive hit: The Larry Sanders Show. Somehow this satire was far more truthful about the talkshow experience than him literally having his own version would have been. Here he is Larry Sanders: the imperfect voice that still gets applause from his audience no matter what. With celebrities playing exaggerations of themselves, The Larry Sanders Show took off as a comedy benchmark. It showed the endless possibilities of subscription based television, metaphysical comedy, and Garry Shandling himself: one of TV's finest comics.

27. Succession

It may feel premature to place Succession this high on this list already, but I also feel like I am being true to my opinion. I can’t think of many shows that have toyed with me as well and as consistently as Succession. You don’t think you will get sucked into the Roy family drama because each member is detestable, and yet you will fall for every blindside and twist (proving that you were invested this whole time). Not only is Succession an unpredictable ride, but it is also a brilliant example of satire (with enough doses of legitimately heartbreaking writing to boot). Succession really is as varied and triumphant as contemporary comedy/drama can get, and I’ll predict that this won't change (I hope I haven’t jinxed anything).

26. The Honeymooners

One of the first shows to really solidify the archetype for sitcoms was The Honeymooners, and it is puzzling to be reminded that it became a television classic within only one season. The bickering within the Kramden household felt like the perfect viewing fodder, and then Art Carney’s Ed Norton felt like the coup de grâce of comedy whenever he would come stumbling into the frame. There was a real connection between the cast and the audience that were bowled over by the antics ensuing before them, and this infectious energy was captured in each and every episode. The Honeymooners was one of those series that countless others afterwards strived to be, and it was an early sign that television had a new way of enducing laughter.

25. The Office (U.S.)

Ricky Gervais’ The Office was a short look at an egotistical branch manager that couldn’t see past his own lunacies. The American remake started off being more of a direct adaptation, but once it branched out into its own passion project, it bested its source material. Sure, The Office U.S. would peter out in quality towards its latter seasons (once Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott left, especially), but its prime is some of the best comfort television there ever was (if anything, it created the necessity to have these kinds of shows to fill the void we’d feel in the streaming age once our favourite programs were done). As funny as it is touching, the American Office is a rare instance of a remake completely rewriting the rule book and greatly succeeding.

24. Rectify

If it wasn’t for Metacritic, Rectify wouldn’t just be the most underrated show in existence: it would be the most criminally under-seen. Luckily its legacy as one of the aggregate site’s highest rated series ever has given it new life, with many TV junkies stumbling upon the Sundance TV opus because of its near-perfect score. The series starts off punishing, with ex-convict Daniel Holden’s re-assimilation into society (we start off not knowing if he was wrongfully charged or not). You’d imagine Rectify would continue to be a harrowing show, but creator Ray McKinnon and company had something else in mind: the blossoming of something far more intricate and gorgeous. Rectify is some of the most intrinsically soulful storytelling you will ever find on the small screen. Please do yourself a favour and see it.

23. Freaks and Geeks

Previously known as the number one show that was cancelled way too soon, Freaks and Geeks has only grown in stature, from cult classic, to the show where all of those famous faces came from, and finally to the legitimately acclaimed series. Quite honestly one of the most authentic depictions of high school culture that I’ve ever seen, Freaks and Geeks found common ground between teens and adults, cool kids and misfits, and all of the people within cliques and communities that are honestly more different with their peers than they are similar. The dramedy series recognized that we’re all aimlessly trekking through life, and that no one has the answers in any way, shape, or form. Despite being terminated before it had a chance to soar, Freaks and Geeks still ends stunningly, with just an ounce of certainty to get us comfortable with the unknown.

22. Homicide: Life on the Street

The world would eventually get the best televised version of David Simon’s stories in the early 2000s (wink, wink), but Homicide: Life on the Street — an adaptation by Paul Attanasio of Simon’s novel Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets — was a fantastic introduction of what was to come. Homicide was quite ruthless for network television and a clearly candid look at the sort of crime tales that were being done to death by now (but not quite in this authentic, galvanizing way). While episodic, Homicide was still crafting a bigger picture about the police squad you were following, as well as the criminal underground of Baltimore. There was a case a week, sure, but the show was also interested in world building unlike many of its peers at the time.

21. Cowboy Bebop

The greatest anime series of all time is the neo noir style-bender Cowboy Bebop: a rock-and-roll obsession of ennui and self loathing. We get a new slice of a dismal future with each episode of this Sunrise animation masterpiece, but the roads all lead to the same conclusion: we are heading towards a technological wasteland. We aren’t getting more connected: we’re getting lonelier in closer proximities. You can claim that Cowboy Bebop is episodic, but also feels like a futile retreading of similar attempts to create importance for one’s life, and to cleanse cursed souls; we keep starting back at square one. You begin feeling like Cowboy Bebop is one hell of a cool show, and you complete this trip realizing that it’s quite frankly some of the most depressing world building out there.

20. Cheers

For eleven seasons and nearly three hundred episodes, Cheers was the champion of sitcom television. The titular bar felt like a place of solace just like the theme song declared. We remembered these folks (from bar management and employees, to regular customers) as if they were our own good friends. Despite its duration, Cheers has been off the air for decades by this point (its spinoff Frasier, too), and yet it still feels like one of the pinnacle situational comedies to have ever aired, particularly because of the number of shows that tried to replicate its hospitable nature; it’s as if it never left, in ways.

19. Arrested Development

In my opinion, the first three seasons of Arrested Development are subjectively the funniest in all of television. You could have as many as five jokes happening simultaneously during each shot. The Bluth family were unlike anything that most other comedy shows were trying to pull off at the time: likeable. Well, we love them because of how awful and insane they are (even anchor Michael, in ways), and the classic original three seasons were a marathon of comedic brilliance happening amongst some of television’s most baffling individuals. The show should have never returned, as the followup seasons really don’t compare (but, then again, not many shows in general can compare to the peak era of Arrested Development).

18. The Simpsons

The Simpsons barely feels like a show at this point. Thirty-odd years in and this Matt Groening classic has expanded into one of the biggest franchises of anything ever. Let’s ignore the incalculable amount of mediocrity we've seen since and jump back to the first eight seasons: the golden years, if you will. The Simpsons was a living satirical comic strip that managed to pack in countless jokes, references, gags, and puns into each frame, and you were bound to laugh at something at all times. The Simpson family (and all of the Springfield inhabitants) were cartoons, yes, but they were starting to feel more real than most television characters during the show’s prime, and that’s when the series went from a comedy to something special. If anything, these strong seasons are so good that we can easily excuse the decades of mundanity since.

17. The Shield

While HBO was pushing the boundaries of what you could see on television (the same small box that was sanitized when films were starting to get more daring again), FX had their own answer with The Shield. While HBO was able to cross the line because of its subscription based model, FX went as close to crossing as it could with this Michael Chiklis-starring crime drama. If anything, the shaky cameras, furious characters, and focus on real examples of hatred made The Shield feel like one of the medium's most uncompromising visions. When it was released post 9/11, The Shield picked up on the brewing angst, fear, and heat that all of America (and the world) was experiencing; there was no turning back from this point on.

16. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The comfort show of all comfort shows, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is as warm as it is witty and likeable. Once Mary Tyler Moore was ready to move on from the concluded Dick Van Dyke show, she was prepared to take on the television medium head on. Her own show was monumental comedy, with an all star cast, and forward thinking writing to boot. The antics that took place at the WJM-TV news station feel like the kind of wonky work environments that would come decades later, particularly the heart that helped this dishevelled team get by. Tyler Moore’s production company MTM Enterprises would release numerous classics (a few wound up on this list) but it was her own show — created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns — that would easily be its best project.

15. Lost

We all knew that there wasn't a show like Lost on television when it was first out. We were all united initially by the interest of the survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815 and this mysterious island they were stranded on, but then the mysterious, metaphysical events began (rather quickly, honestly). It was the new Twin Peaks: we collectively had to guess what was even happening. It got so deep into its own lore that forums, clubs, and so much more were spawned; the final season even had reminders of previous seasons run at the bottom of the screen as episodes aired. Over ten years afterwards, we still haven't seen anything create quite a zeitgeist as Lost, and I think that it’s much easier to appreciate its bigger picture as a whole now. When you aren’t being bamboozled on a weekly basis and can binge watch it, Lost is a powerful depiction of fates and purposes (even with its occasional flaws, it is undeniably an opus of television).

14. I Love Lucy

When television sitcoms first were being formed, there was one mogul that commanded the era, genre, and medium as a whole: Lucille Ball. On screen as Lucy Ricardo in I Love Lucy, there was no one with better comedic timing, facial expressions, and magnetism with an entire nation. Behind the camera, Ball knew exactly what buttons to push, how to take a brand new entertainment form and already get it to grow, and what would translate well from stage to homes across America. Her awareness was a mighty talent, given that I Love Lucy is still a sitcom staple today (and it can face any contemporary competition quite well).

13. Bojack Horseman

Bojack Horseman was yet another adult animated series when it first came out, although the episode "The Telescope” hinted at something darker: comedy was used as an escape to steer away from the tragedy of our lives. Bojack Horseman got darker and darker with each season, and then it almost became silly that a cartoon with anthropomorphic animals and countless puns could be the most serious, real show on television. The honest depictions of toxicity, dread, depression, existentialism, and nihilism weren’t missed by audiences that were finally feeling heard in this series about many single puzzle pieces that were unable to wedge themselves into incomplete puzzles. We laugh despite the bleakness. We cry alongside the immaturity. Bojack Horseman is the yin-yang balance between comedy and tragedy in the twenty first century, and it already shines as an instant classic of the medium.

12. The Prisoner

Television will rarely be this artistic and experimental ever again. I can safely say this because The Prisoner came out in 1968, and we haven’t seen much like it since. I feel comfortable declaring this since only one season was ever made and The Prisoner was hastily left alone afterward. Patrick McGoohan wasted no time dismantling the confinements of television with this abstract depiction of an individual trapped within society like the titular lifer (we can't forget he is designated Number Six). Any attempts to leave this village are thwarted by ridiculous circumstances, and we are back to square one (hell, there is no set format to watching these episodes for the most part, as any order will give you the same result). So much was said during The Prisoner about television, the systemic ways of civilization, and then some, and it was told through fascinatingly avant-garde means that would never be allowed on network television again.

11. All in the Family

Norman Lear's magnum opus was his adaptation of the British program Till Death Us Do Part. His version — created with Bud Yorkin — was titled All in the Family, and it meant to appeal to most households whilst commentating on the political divides that many relationships were bound to face. Archie Bunker was the ultimate antithesis of everything Lear stood for, and yet he would erroneously be labeled a voice of reason by some viewers (they may have missed the point, but it proves that Lear was onto something). Every episode would result in squawked debates, pointed fingers, and complete derailment: it felt just like home. All in the Family went against the grain of sitcom so much so that it developed a whole new set of rules for nearly every comedy that would come afterward.

10. Six Feet Under

Television was facing a turning point in the early 2000’s, and Six Feet Under — created after Alan Ball’s screenwriting for American Beauty won him an Academy Award — helped make that shift happen more quickly. Television previously cherished our heroes and how they could make it to the end of episodes in one piece. Six Feet Under has the Fisher family dealing with a new death every hour; hell, the patriarch of the funeral home household dies within the first few minutes of the entire series. Six Feet Under dared to speak volumes about life and the fears surrounding dying at every instance. While it was starting to show signs of its own demise around season four, Ball and company learned the lesson given out by their show: make life count. Six Feet Under's final season is a triumphant one, with a finale that turns a great series into an all timer.

9. The Twilight Zone

You're entering a new dimension of television, created and hosted by a mister Rod Serling. Each episode took you to a different realm of character, of reality, and of time. A misconception is that this anthological show only presented horror and mysteries, but it dabbled with westerns, romance, and comedies as well; it presented a common show genre of the ‘50s and ‘60s from another universe, as to capture you instantly should you stumble upon it (perhaps via its use of the uncanny valley). Serling himself admitted that some experiments were duds, but his creation at its peak is easily some of the finest television you would ever see. The next stop: The Twilight Zone. Once you enter, you’ll never want to leave.

8. The Sopranos

It may be difficult to pinpoint when exactly the New Golden Age of Television is going to end, but we can crown The Sopranos as the likely start of it all. Even with other shows that came before it (like Oz), The Sopranos was capable of showing us what TV in the twenty first century was going to look like. The limitless approach to swearing and violence may have been an immediate draw for the curious, but it's the nuanced storytelling — the finest you’d find at this time — that kept many staying. Furthermore, David Chase’s unveiling of the day-to-day lives of mobsters, particularly the vulnerable side of one Tony Soprano, showed that you could approach tired genres with fresh new eyes; this long form medium allows you to dive deeper into a psyche and character arc unlike any other visual method before. While I feel like some of the shows influenced by The Sopranos have surpassed it now, it was still one of the firsts of its kind, and an early sterling example of where we would go with television. 

7. M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H could have been a shameful ripoff of a beloved Palme d’Or winning film with zero merit outside of the sight of dollar signs, but this television adaptation actually betters its source material greatly. If anything, it goes even further by forever changing the situational comedy formula, and it did so in different ways for years and years. Its heavy discussions about death, particularly during war time, are placed in between sequences of complete buffoonery at the 4077 mobile hospital. We got a different perspective of the medical drama and war saga alongside our new form of comedy, and it was via M*A*S*H: a series that dared to reinvent itself at every opportunity (and bless it for doing so).

6. Mad Men

Once The Sopranos was done and Matthew Weiner could revisit his original brainchild, Mad Men was finally picked up by AMC (who wouldn't want to bring on a Sopranos writer?). His original series was appealing for its cinematic take on complete historical authenticity, but viewers would find its modern approaches to workplace politics, bigotries (sexism, racism, homophobia), and challenges to be hypnotic. We are quickly introduced to Don Draper’s double life, showcasing the act of advertising in a whole new way (and you will come across the countless ways we have to promote ourselves in a dog-eat-dog world). Mad Men resolves with the reminder that we ourselves have been sold, and I've never been happier to have been tricked by a marketing campaign.

5. The Leftovers

Lost was held back by network constrictions, so allowing Damon Lindelof to work his magic as untethered as possible (thanks, HBO) led us to The Leftovers: the greatest series to premier and be completed in the 2010’s. The series acts like three books, with the first season literally being an adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel of the same name (a traumatic look at a world where two percent of its people mysteriously vanish, and the existential aftermath that would take place). The second season is where Lindelof branched out into his own territory, and he observes fate and circumstance with a keener perusal. The Leftovers becomes nearly biblical by its final season as it reaches the rare feat of creating something mythological in the twenty first century. If there was any show that reminded us to stick around and wait to judge, it is the miraculous achievement known as The Leftovers.

4. Seinfeld

The greatest sitcom of all time is a joint creation by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld: two polar opposite spirits that share a common fascination with the absurdities of everyday life. Seinfeld would slowly become the water cooler show: you didn't want to miss out on it. Unlike most shows ever, Seinfeld seemed to change a majority of its biggest fans and how they thought; suddenly the neuroses of David and the observations of Seinfeld seeped into our everyday conscious, and we would begin to spot the stupidities within tradition and the confusions created by societal norms. There is a quick retort that Seinfeld was a show about nothing, but it actually was about everything at once, and you will find yourself facing nearly every single predicament that the four main characters would experience at least once in your lives.

3. Twin Peaks

There haven’t been many shows that have experienced an evolution via reception like Twin Peaks. The first two seasons were unlike anything on television (cinematic, abstract, and highly unusual). Once it ended abruptly, it became a cult classic years afterward. Things would turn around, and David Lynch and Mark Frost’s metaphysical crime drama would be heralded as a classic of all time; Lynch and Frost released the eventual third season at just the right time. It was at this moment that they proved that they could go even further with this distorted vision. Without The Return, Twin Peaks is a legendary show for what it was able to achieve (and for its singular experience). With the added season, it became a nearly untouchable program that was impossible to predict, pinpoint, or fully understand, and it was a sign that Lynch and Frost could challenge and break the rules of television whenever they damn well felt like it.

2. Breaking Bad

Vince Gilligan’s suburban tragedy series Breaking Bad felt like the hip show to watch at one time early on: here’s a dying chemistry teacher that turns to the creation and selling of meth in order to leave a fortune for his family. It fell right in place with the edgier shows at the start of the decade. It would blossom into a series that only got better and better, with the devolution of the monumental antihero Walter White. Gilligan’s commentary on the exploitations of society and the extents that the everyday citizen has to go through just to live a regular life were eye opening. His twisted visions of these characters that felt like they could live right beside us were as intriguing as they were unsettling. The whole series leads up to the third last episode “Ozymandias”, and it’s at this point (and the two brilliant episodes to follow) that it’s impossible to ignore that Breaking Bad was a benchmark of how television shows can develop over time; it remains a nearly unstoppable series.

1. The Wire

Given that David Simon’s writing served as the foundation of Homicide: Life on the Street, and his works would influence television much later, it only seemed like he was destined to be a part of the medium. He would end up creating The Wire: another depiction of the lives of crime within Baltimore. The series was ahead of its time, as it didn’t pick up the instant traction of works like The Sopranos when released. The show didn’t prioritize instant gratification of happy endings, twists to have you tuned in to the next episode, or other gimmicks. If anything, there was something else going on here. Television shows were heavily inspired by live stage productions, films, and other influences over time. Simon took a different approach, which makes sense considering he is a writer: he crafted a small screen version of the novel.

Each season depicted a different part of Baltimore’s underworld, ranging from drug slinging and the importing of contraband to the corruption within politics and the media. Each season had its own feel, like we broke open a new book with many familiar faces (and some new ones), but what really made The Wire special is that we didn’t just abandon previous storylines. No. Those would continue, and the narrative infrastructure would just keep growing. The Wire was always five moves ahead of us (an analogy I have to make, given the show’s affinity for the game of chess), and it was exciting to see characters (all walks of life) trying to outsmart one another (as much as it was for ourselves to be taken for rides as well).

Never has a show before or since been this in depth, this literary, or this multifaceted. That’s all well and good enough to make The Wire worthy of discussion when it comes to the topic of the greatest show of all time, but it earns this spot with the other elements that make it a complete package. It has memorable characters that you hate to love or love to hate (and then there’s Omar Little: one of the finest characters in television; rest in peace, Michael K. Williams). It is impeccably shot (not too aesthetically to detract from the crimes you’re witnessing, but beautifully enough that you’ll notice if you pay attention). Its search for the bad in the good and the good in the bad never went unfulfilled. It felt extremely real, but it also was clearly peak television: it is gripping upon your first viewing, and forever rewarding with new realizations on each subsequent rewatch. It’s a harrowing and captivating watch, and a series that keeps on giving. Even though television keeps evolving and we still find masterpieces being released nowadays, it may be impossible to trump the scale of The Wire’s ambition and brilliance. It’s safe to say that, in my opinion (and all things considered), The Wire is the greatest series of all time.

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Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from X University (formerly known as Ryerson), as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.