One disadvantage TV shows have compared to movies is that even if they make a brilliant episode or a perfect season, they have to keep going. They have to keep churning them out, and every new season risks undermining their own reputation.
There are plenty of great shows with bad episodes, or even entire bad seasons. Much rarer is a show that cooks from beginning to end, wire to wire.
This list is some of them, although definitely not all of them. These are the ones that especially stand out.
Breaking Bad
One of the very rare shows that starts strong, then gets better every single season after that.
The Sopranos
People used to wonder why TV couldn’t be as brilliant and cinematic as film, and David Chase proved that it absolutely could. This is one of the two shows I point to that changed the argument forever.
Mad Men
And this is the other one. Every episode reads like a complex short story, every season like a great novel, and the entire series like one epically kickass franchise.
Nathan for You
Beginning to end, probably the funniest show ever made, and one way too many people still haven’t seen. Nathan is a business fixer with ideas that are somehow stupid and brilliant at the same time, like a yogurt place serving poo-flavored yogurt as a publicity stunt, or a gas station that gives full rebates to everyone, as long as they can climb a mountain and answer riddles.
The Wire
A Greek tragedy beginning with a street gang in Baltimore and the police unit trying to catch them. Then it expands from there, with each season investigating a different broken system in America.
The Good Place
A comedy taking place in the afterlife, investigating the philosophical question of what it means to be a good person. Original, hilarious, and deeper than it has any right to be.
The Leftovers
Two percent of the world’s population disappears, and the show assures us pretty quickly that this is not going to be about why. It is going to be about how the world deals with that grief. Three seasons, with all good to great episodes.
Succession
A character study about many messed-up members of a messed-up family and their epic battle to control the family business. They know where they’re going and never let the viewer down.
Fleabag
Maybe this is unfair because it’s only two seasons and only 12 episodes, but each of those seasons plays like an extended movie and both are endlessly watchable.
Atlanta
Criminally underrated. This show is so fun, so inventive, and should be watched by way more people.
Dark
Probably the best mystery-box show of all time because of how satisfying it is. It is a puzzle that actually feels solved by the end of the final season.
I Love Lucy
A hugely important piece of television history, but it can’t be stated enough how impeccable the comedy is. As the seasons go on, the show constantly finds ways to reinvent what it’s doing and never becomes stale.
Love on the Spectrum
The best dating show of all time because everything about it feels authentic. You cannot watch this without feeling like every person on it is your friend and you’re rooting for them to find love.
What shows do you think definitely belong on this list?