The 11 Best Hour-Long TV Dramas of the Decade (2010–2019)
A few months back I posted this list to Twitter, but I thought I'd re-post it here, with a bit more commentary, as well as a reshuffling due to Mr. Robot's outstanding fourth season.
First, to the rules. This is a list of hour-long dramas: so no half-hour genre-exploders (Atlanta, Louie) or comedies (Parks and Rec, Brooklyn 99). I'm also only thinking of TV series, with discrete seasons that tell something of a unified narrative: thus excluding miniseries (e.g. The Honourable Woman) and specialty shows (a la Sherlock or Black Mirror). Further, in order to qualify the series must have at least three seasons to its name (so The Knick falls short and both Succession and Yellowstone ran out of time before decade's end). Seasons prior to 2010, however—such as Mad Men's first three or Breaking Bad's first two—don't count for the purposes of this list. I am solely considering television seasons comprising hour-long dramatic episodes shown or streamed between 2010 and 2019.
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Now to the list:
1. Rectify (SundanceTV, 2013–2016)
2. The Americans (FX, 2013–2018)
3. Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008–2013)
4. The Leftovers (HBO, 2014–2017)
5. Better Call Saul (AMC, 2015–)
6. Mad Men (AMC, 2007–2015)
7. Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–2019)
8. Mr. Robot (USA, 2015–2019)
9. Justified (FX, 2010–2015)
10. Fargo (FX, 2014–)
11. The Expanse (SyFy/Amazon, 2015–)
Comments:
–My, that's a M-A-N-L-Y list. No apologies—one is who one is, one likes what one likes—but I'm not blind to it.
–Some shows got the cut due to waning quality in later years: I'm looking at you, The Good Wife, and you too, Orange is the New Black.
–Others were marked by high highs matched only by equally low lows: e.g. Homeland, True Detective.
–Consulting my annual lists, I was reminded of Boardwalk Empire, which is sorely underrated. The fourth season is up there for single-season masterpieces. But I'll never be able to shake Matt Zoller Seitz's comment, when he reviewed the short-lived series Boss, that the character Nucky Thompson should have been played by Kelsey Grammar. The show becomes an immediate classic in that alternate universe.
–Hannibal! A real show that really played on NBC—NBC!—for three—three!—seasons! That second season, y'all.
–You know, I never got around to watching the final season of Halt & Catch Fire. An unjustly overlooked show, beloved by none but critics. But the fact that I just never quite found myself needing to finish the story might say something. About the show, or about me, at least.
–It would be easy enough to keep the list to a clean ten and leave off The Expanse. But it just got too good in those second and third seasons, I couldn't do it.
–Were it not for Mr. Robot's second season, I might have been willing to move it up to the top five. Alas.
–Game of Thrones is so strange. Those last couple seasons were so dreadful overall (fun at times, but almost always stupidly silly), and the series was far from flawless in the first six. But the sheer narrative scope, the quality of the source material, the heft of the story and acting, the excellence (at times) of the writers' ability to juggle so much so deftly, and, man, those big moments: it still deserves much of the awe it garnered.
–For me, at least, separating rankings by time limit and/or genre makes things so much easier than it would otherwise be. How are you supposed to compare Mad Men to Parks & Rec, or Veep to Mr. Robot? But once you sort for genre and running time, the top 10-20 dramas more or less sort themselves.
–Watch Rectify. It may well be the only TV show—given my predilections to tell people to turn their screens off, not on—that I suggest people ought to watch, and without reservation. It's that good.
First, to the rules. This is a list of hour-long dramas: so no half-hour genre-exploders (Atlanta, Louie) or comedies (Parks and Rec, Brooklyn 99). I'm also only thinking of TV series, with discrete seasons that tell something of a unified narrative: thus excluding miniseries (e.g. The Honourable Woman) and specialty shows (a la Sherlock or Black Mirror). Further, in order to qualify the series must have at least three seasons to its name (so The Knick falls short and both Succession and Yellowstone ran out of time before decade's end). Seasons prior to 2010, however—such as Mad Men's first three or Breaking Bad's first two—don't count for the purposes of this list. I am solely considering television seasons comprising hour-long dramatic episodes shown or streamed between 2010 and 2019.
Now to the list:
1. Rectify (SundanceTV, 2013–2016)
2. The Americans (FX, 2013–2018)
3. Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008–2013)
4. The Leftovers (HBO, 2014–2017)
5. Better Call Saul (AMC, 2015–)
6. Mad Men (AMC, 2007–2015)
7. Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–2019)
8. Mr. Robot (USA, 2015–2019)
9. Justified (FX, 2010–2015)
10. Fargo (FX, 2014–)
11. The Expanse (SyFy/Amazon, 2015–)
Comments:
–My, that's a M-A-N-L-Y list. No apologies—one is who one is, one likes what one likes—but I'm not blind to it.
–Some shows got the cut due to waning quality in later years: I'm looking at you, The Good Wife, and you too, Orange is the New Black.
–Others were marked by high highs matched only by equally low lows: e.g. Homeland, True Detective.
–Consulting my annual lists, I was reminded of Boardwalk Empire, which is sorely underrated. The fourth season is up there for single-season masterpieces. But I'll never be able to shake Matt Zoller Seitz's comment, when he reviewed the short-lived series Boss, that the character Nucky Thompson should have been played by Kelsey Grammar. The show becomes an immediate classic in that alternate universe.
–Hannibal! A real show that really played on NBC—NBC!—for three—three!—seasons! That second season, y'all.
–You know, I never got around to watching the final season of Halt & Catch Fire. An unjustly overlooked show, beloved by none but critics. But the fact that I just never quite found myself needing to finish the story might say something. About the show, or about me, at least.
–It would be easy enough to keep the list to a clean ten and leave off The Expanse. But it just got too good in those second and third seasons, I couldn't do it.
–Were it not for Mr. Robot's second season, I might have been willing to move it up to the top five. Alas.
–Game of Thrones is so strange. Those last couple seasons were so dreadful overall (fun at times, but almost always stupidly silly), and the series was far from flawless in the first six. But the sheer narrative scope, the quality of the source material, the heft of the story and acting, the excellence (at times) of the writers' ability to juggle so much so deftly, and, man, those big moments: it still deserves much of the awe it garnered.
–For me, at least, separating rankings by time limit and/or genre makes things so much easier than it would otherwise be. How are you supposed to compare Mad Men to Parks & Rec, or Veep to Mr. Robot? But once you sort for genre and running time, the top 10-20 dramas more or less sort themselves.
–Watch Rectify. It may well be the only TV show—given my predilections to tell people to turn their screens off, not on—that I suggest people ought to watch, and without reservation. It's that good.
