Your Top 10 Dramatic Series

[DeargGerilo]

By that I mean your favorite non-sitcoms -- so it could be a blendy of comedy and drama.

01 Breaking Bad (AMC)
02 The Wire (HBO)
03 Better Call Saul (AMC)
04 Fargo (FX)
05 Orange Is The New Black (Netflix)
06 Louie (FX)
07 The Americans (FX)
08 Transparent (Amazon)
09 Baskets (FX)
10 Bloodline (Netflix)

Honorable mention to House of Cards (UK version on Netflix) and One Mississippi (Amazon).

 

[Jay-Bone]

1. Band of Brothers
2. Game of Thrones
3. The Wire
4. Deadwood
5. Black Mirror
6. Sherlock
7. Luther
8. Breaking Bad
9. True Detective
10. House of Cards
11. The Walking Dead
12. Firefly
13. The Blacklist
14. The Pacific
15. The Killing
16. Narcos
17. Vikings
18. Peaky blinders
19. X-Files

In no particular order, haha.

 

[superjohn]

The Wire, The Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Six Feet Under, Breaking Bad, Luther, Boardwalk Empire, Fargo, Justified, Homicide: Life on the Street.

 

[CardiacAndre7]

SOA up there

 

[nelsonmuntz]

There was a thread about this a year ago, but I am game.

1) Mad Men - if you don't have it at in your top 5, I recommend you watch it.
2) Sopranos - inconsistent, but it's best was better than any other show's best.
3) Hill Street Blues - gets extra credit because of how crappy TV dramas were when HSB went on the air.
4) Better Call Saul
5) Game of Thrones
6) The Wire
7) Breaking Bad
8) Homeland - needs to wrap it up soon or it will drop off the list. Running out of plots.
9) Westworld - huge potential
10) Narcos

Not making the list:

Doesn't qualify:
Band of Brothers - Awesome, but not a dramatic series. It is a miniseries

One hit wonders:

True Detective
Bloodline

Both crushed it in season one, and face-planted in season two.

Don't qualify (haven't seen them):

The Americans
Sherlock

 

[mauconnfan]

Homeland
Game of Thrones
Peaky Blinders
House of Cards
Bloodline
Mad Men
True Detective
Stranger Things
Narcos
Vikings

Close: The Killing, Ray Donovan, Boardwalk Empire

 

[Deepster]

There was a thread about this a year ago, but I am game.

1) Mad Men - if you don't have it at in your top 5, I recommend you watch it.
2) Sopranos - inconsistent, but it's best was better than any other show's best.
3) Hill Street Blues - gets extra credit because of how crappy TV dramas were when HSB went on the air.
4) Better Call Saul
5) Game of Thrones
6) The Wire
7) Breaking Bad
8) Homeland - needs to wrap it up soon or it will drop off the list. Running out of plots.
9) Westworld - huge potential
10) Narcos

Not making the list:

Doesn't qualify:
Band of Brothers - Awesome, but not a dramatic series. It is a miniseries

One hit wonders:

True Detective
Bloodline

Both crushed it in season one, and face-planted in season two.

Don't qualify (haven't seen them):

The Americans
Sherlock

Just curious, how could Better Call Saul be ahead of Breaking Bad?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Hmm.. no order.
1. X Files
2. Dr. Who
3. Game of Thrones
4. Twin Peaks
5. Deadwood
6. Justified
7. Sopranos
8. Miami Vice
9. Sherlock
10. Star Trek The Next Generation

Honorable mention to Fringe, Babylon 5, The Man in the High Castle, 24, Downton Abby

I'm omitting anything one season in. Westworld and Stranger Things show promise. I'm not sure how anyone could leave Miami Vice off the list.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Ray Donovan is another series that slid badly after a promising start. If you were to make a category of shows like that, you would call it the Miami Vice category. That show was amazing at first, and then completely fell apart..

Boardwalk Empire and Peaky Blinders just miss the Top 10.

Boss was another one hit wonder. Season 1 is great, and the first episode is amazing, but it became less interesting as the body count increased.

 

[intlzncster]

Ray Donovan is another series that slid badly after a promising start. If you were to make a category of shows like that, you would call it the Miami Vice category. That show was amazing at first, and then completely fell apart..

Boardwalk Empire and Peaky Blinders just miss the Top 10.

Boss was another one hit wonder. Season 1 is great, and the first episode is amazing, but it became less interesting as the body count increased.

Ray Donovan suffered from being extraordinarily stale even after just the first season. Nobody developed on that show. It was just a static look at the same thing over and over again. Once you'd been through it once or twice, that was it.

 

[intlzncster]

I'm not gonna do best ever, because that's always changing. Most mentioned I agree with, so I'll put the ones I'm enjoying the most right now (haven't ended):

1. GOT
2. Westworld
3. Peaky Blinders
4. Taboo
5. Stranger Things
6. Colony
7. Into the Badlands
8. Orphan Black
9. Man in the High Castle
10. Vikings
11. House of Cards
12. The Expanse
13. Homeland

As I said, liked many of the others already mentioned, but didn't see:

Battlestar Galactica
Black Sails
Banshee
Spartacus
The West Wing
Prison Break (first 2 seasons)
Sons of Anarchy
Penny Dreadful

 

[mauconnfan]

I'm not gonna do best ever, because that's always changing. Most mentioned I agree with, so I'll put the ones I'm enjoying the most right now (haven't ended):

1. GOT
2. Westworld
3. Peaky Blinders
4. Taboo
5. Stranger Things
6. Colony
7. Into the Badlands
8. Orphan Black
9. Man in the High Castle
10. Vikings
11. House of Cards
12. The Expanse
13. Homeland

As I said, liked many of the others already mentioned, but didn't see:

Battlestar Galactica
Black Sails
Banshee
Spartacus
The West Wing
Prison Break (first 2 seasons)
Sons of Anarchy
Penny Dreadful

Yeah Taboo has a chance to jump in the Top 10 with a solid season 2... SOA and Banshee are Top 10 of something besides "Dramatic" series. Maybe Top 10 of "No Way Could Never Happen But I Love It Anyway" series?
And Ray Donovan wold now be in that after a great season 1 and as you said, becoming stale .

 

[mauconnfan]

Hmm.. no order.
1. X Files
2. Dr. Who
3. Game of Thrones
4. Twin Peaks
5. Deadwood
6. Justified
7. Sopranos
8. Miami Vice
9. Sherlock
10. Star Trek The Next Generation

Honorable mention to Fringe, Babylon 5, The Man in the High Castle, 24, Downton Abby

I'm omitting anything one season in. Westworld and Stranger Things show promise. I'm not sure how anyone could leave Miami Vice off the list.

Miami Vice - love it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Ray Donovan is another series that slid badly after a promising start. If you were to make a category of shows like that, you would call it the Miami Vice category. That show was amazing at first, and then completely fell apart..

Boardwalk Empire and Peaky Blinders just miss the Top 10.

Boss was another one hit wonder. Season 1 is great, and the first episode is amazing, but it became less interesting as the body count increased.

West Wing just misses the Top 10 too. One of the very rare shows that peaked at the end. The last season was its best in my opinion.

I like House of Cards, but it is a little too crazy for me to consider it a Top 10 show of all time. It positions itself as a high end, thoughtful show, but it has too many crazy plot twists and the first family is too out of control. At some point I start to wonder why I care because they can do anything and everyone just walks right into their traps. Also, hacking is the modern equivalent of magic in a plot. Writers should be very careful in using it.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Miami Vice - love it.

It invented the style now used by pretty much every show on every list. There really weren't shot on location, cinematically filmed TV dramas before Miami Vice. The production quality was off the charts compared to others of that era. Yes, it started to fall off in seasons 3-5, but the first two were amazing.

 

[mauconnfan]

It invented the style now used by pretty much every show on every list. There really weren't shot on location, cinematically filmed TV dramas before Miami Vice. The production quality was off the charts compared to others of that era. Yes, it started to fall off in seasons 3-5, but the first two were amazing.

Yep all good points and a great show no doubt. It began the "can't wait to see the next one" tradition we have in so many now. Good call

 

[SAMCRO]

In order, and the only caveat to my list is its shows that had 3 or more seasons (so no mini-series or shows that are still new - no Stranger Things, Better Call Saul, Taboo, Legion, etc...)

Game of Thrones
The Wire
Homeland
Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
The Walking Dead
Peaky Blinders
Narcos
Dexter
Hill Street Blues - I was a VERY young, and this was the first "drama/action" series that really sucked me in.

Honorable Mention
Sons of Anarchy
Justified
Vikings
ER
Oz
and definitely a ton of others I did not list

 

[ZooCougar]

Battle star Galactica
Mad Men
Game of Thrones
Dexter
West world
The Leftovers
Sons of Anarchy

 

[nelsonmuntz]

It invented the style now used by pretty much every show on every list. There really weren't shot on location, cinematically filmed TV dramas before Miami Vice. The production quality was off the charts compared to others of that era. Yes, it started to fall off in seasons 3-5, but the first two were amazing.

Agree on the first two seasons, but a show doesn't get to be in the Top 20 of all time shows when it comes off the rails as badly as Miami Vice did in its last two seasons. In Miami Vice's defense, it was a victim of the times. Shows needed big audiences back then so they were typically homogenized, generic nonsense. This is why dramatic shows were usually so awful back then. NBC totally screwed this show up, allowing idiocy like the Crockett amnesia plot arc or having Sonny marry Sheena Easton. Who thought either of those things were good ideas?

With the rise of Fox in the late 80's and the beginning of original programming on HBO and cable in the late 80's and early 90's, television started to become much more nichey, and a lot better. TV got a lot better once a show didn't need 20 million viewers to stay on the air.

 

[Dove]

No order and just off the top of my head...

Fargo
Better Call Saul
Peaky Blinders
Bates Motel
The Walking Dead
Dexter


ER
Law and Order


Hill Street Blues
Quantum Leap
Cagney and Lacey


Going waaaaay back when I was a kid:

How The West Was Won
Emergency
The Rookies
Adam 12
Land of the Giants

 

[superjohn]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned M*A*S*H or The Wonder Years. A show nobody seems to remember that I liked as a kid is Tour of Duty.

 

[Dove]

Add Longmire!!!! My #1 show for sure. Then Fargo.

 

[intlzncster]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned M*A*S*H or The Wonder Years. A show nobody seems to remember that I liked as a kid is Tour of Duty.

Me too. The 'Paint it Black' opening credits was awesome.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned M*A*S*H or The Wonder Years. A show nobody seems to remember that I liked as a kid is Tour of Duty.

MASH and Wonder Years were technically comedies.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

No order and just off the top of my head...

Fargo
Better Call Saul
Peaky Blinders
Bates Motel
The Walking Dead
Dexter


ER
Law and Order


Hill Street Blues
Quantum Leap
Cagney and Lacey


Going waaaaay back when I was a kid:

How The West Was Won
Emergency
The Rookies
Adam 12
Land of the Giants

I don't think Quantum Leap or Cagney and Lacey have aged well. I like ER, and it probably makes the Top 20. My only issue with ER was that every show, at least 2 of the doctors did something that would definitely have gotten them fired. It became hard to overlook after a while.