The Top 10 TV Shows
Our critic's ranking, best first.
The WireThe most rigorous institutional novel American television has produced, and it never once flatters you.Read the review
The SopranosThe show that proved television could hold two irreconcilable readings at once, and never blinked.
Breaking BadA five-season equation where every object planted in year one detonates exactly on schedule.
Game of ThronesTelevision's last true monoculture: peerless craft and casting, undone at the end by its own plotting.
The Office (US)The mockumentary sitcom that turned cringe into affection without ever going soft on Michael Scott.
Band of BrothersTen hours of small-unit history told without a single manufactured hero.
Rick and MortyThe highest premise-per-minute rate on television, wrapped around a genuinely bleak argument.
DarkThe rare time-loop show whose rules hold under audit, and whose grief holds up just as well.
ChernobylFive hours on the cost of lies, staged with the patience of a procedural and the dread of a horror film.
Avatar: The Last AirbenderA children's cartoon that plotted three seasons in advance and paid off every one of them.
