Best TV Shows of 2004
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
DeadwoodMilch's iambic profanity applied to the founding of a town, and it never got its third act.Read the review
Battlestar GalacticaScience fiction with the nerve to make its heroes the insurgents, right up until the ending arrives.
HouseThe same episode one hundred and seventy seven times, carried entirely by one performance.
EntourageA wish fulfilment hangout show that knows exactly what it is, with Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold as one of television's great comic creations.
LostThe best pilot network television ever aired, followed by six years of writing checks nobody could cash.
Desperate HousewivesA suburban murder mystery played as arch comedy, with a great cast and a dead narrator; the first season is a sensation, the rest a glossy, uneven soap.