Greatest Long-Form Television Shows of All Time

I always enjoy reading “greatest” of all time” lists, though I think they are more than less nonsense. That’s kind of my m.o. with most things in life. I don’t believe much of anything, but find it interesting, or at least funny, to pretend I do.

I define a long form television show as one that completes story arcs over one or more seasons. One could argue that I haven’t seen very many of them as streaming services have been puking out shows at ridiculous rates for years now, and, other than that, I’ve seen very few international or foreign language shows. It’s likely my list would expand if I were a more worldly sort when it comes to watching tv. But I take my cue from quantum mechanics and something like the Observer Effect, which is to say that a television show I haven’t seen doesn’t actually exist unless I watch it. So according to science, this list is comprehensive, though you are welcome to believe in whatever so-called reality you like. I won’t stop you.

Also, I believe that ranking works of art like standings in sports is wrong-headed, if not a great wrongness in the universe. Yet I read them, and now I am guilty of creating one. Still, I won’t go all the way down that road to perdition. Rather than ranking each one ahead or behind another, I will put them in tiers and kinda rank the tiers, but not precisely.

So here we go. I’m confident you’ll find my choices more or less indisputable.

The Greatest of All Time Tier - The Works of Gods

The shows in Tier One exist on a different, much higher, plane than other shows. Their story is told primarily through images that the brain cannot translate into words. Neurodivergent is the popular term for the kind of understanding necessary to create shows like these. They are far from being tightly plotted in the conventional, verbal narrative sense. You might think that the plot doesn’t matter as much as the mood, but I think if you can banish words from your mind and contemplate the films as images and consider the vague feelings they evoke, you will find that they are tightly plotted nevertheless, even though you can’t precisely say how so. And not coincidentally, they were created by three of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

The Kingdom

Lars Von Trier’s The Kingdom is an unholy mess that I consider the best television show I’ve ever seen. To describe it in words is to say it is an occult hospital dramedy indebted to the better parts of Twin Peaks, but its narrative exists almost entirely in a nether realm of images that cannot really be described with words. If that sounds off-putting, it is also one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. I laugh out loud repeatedly while watching it, and I am a person who rarely laughs out loud while watching tv. At a mere 13 hours, it leaves you wanting much more.

Twin Peaks: The Return

Twin Peaks: The Return is David Lynch’s nightmarish masterpiece. Coming in at 17 hours it could use a bit of editing, particularly the parts that are overt nods to the type of fans who loved the original series for its zany parts, and especially most of the scenes with Lucy and Andy. But the parts that are incredible are truly incredible. Lynch creates other worlds that intersect and interact with what we perceive as our own. The beings from these other worlds struggle to communicate verbally with the human world and the parts in which they are featured include some of the most interesting and fantastic imagery ever filmed. And like all great images, they are much more than pictures of things, they convey moods and feelings that give you insight into places we’ve never been and, if we’re sensible sorts, probably don’t ever want to go.

Andrei Rublev

Tarkovsky’s masterpiece Andrei Rublev was not released as a television show, but I consider it a prototype of long form television and include it here because I can. It is only 3 hours but is divided up into distinct chapters and can either be binge-watched or viewed a few chapters at a time. The historical Andrei Rublev was a medieval Russian painter of religious icons. The film documents events from his life that influenced his paintings but it is far from being a documentary. The scenes Andrei witnesses range from dreamlike to horrific and are most often horrifically dreamlike. The denouement is a staggeringly effective illustration of how great art can be created from diverse and random images the artist experienced throughout his life, and that’s really what this top tier is all about. Great film art comes from the unconscious of the creator and is understood in the unconscious of the viewer. It’s not that words don’t matter, but they don’t matter all that much in Andrei Rublev.

The New Pope

What can I say about The New Pope. I guess we’ll see. Check back later.

The Nearly Flawless Tier - Works of Amazing Mortals

These shows are firmly among the greatest of all time. Unlike the works of Gods, these are all the works of incredibly competent humans. Paradoxically, they contain fewer flaws than the works of the Gods. That could be a different essay, eh.

Watchmen

If I were ranking this by perfectly plotted television shows, Watchmen would easily be #1. Over its eight episodes it continually provides surprising plot reveals that fit neatly within the overall structure of the narrative and it nails the finale. I’m not sure how important it is to have read the Graphic Novel or seen the Zach Snyder film in order to appreciate the series. There are plenty of references to, and characters from the original, so I’d recommend catching up with the earlier work first, though I’m not entirely sure you have to. But don’t let those lesser works keep you from watching this show. It is both a fantastic achievement in science fiction and of long form television and, like Atlanta, provides insight into common African American experiences without being overly preachy about it.

Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul is probably the best combination of great television writing and acting and cinematography on this list. If you find that arguable, I can confidently say that it is easily the most meticulously plotted show of all time. And it is great on every level, except that it failed to nail the finale. Actually, the finale was so bad that its stench would have ruined a regular show. Normally, that would kick it down to a lower tier, but the fact that all that came before the ending was so great earns it a pass, and demonstrates just how great the show was overall.

Atlanta

I keep moving Atlanta back and forth between this and the nearly flawless, yet mortal tier. On the one hand, Donald Glover probably hasn’t done enough to be considered a God, though it’s quite possible Atlanta on its own earns him a spot in the pantheon. On the other, it is unquestionably one of the greatest television shows of all time. For now I’m leaving it here because, like those above, it mostly operates in its own dreamtime, and provides uncanny portraits of common African American experiences, which is something you don’t see enough of on tv.

Mad Men

It’s been awhile since I watched Mad Men, and I am somewhat of a veg, so I am going more by memory of feelings than detailed episodic analysis. Part of what makes it great is how fresh and shocking it made the social norms of the 60’s, at least 60’s big business Manhattan, feel, which did manage to trickle down to the small town where I grew up. But that was mostly the gloss for a very well-written, acted, and produced show that brought the cynicism of a noir into the office space of an historical drama without much use for murders and cops. Bonus points for nailing the ending so spectacularly.

The Queen’s Gambit

The Queen’s Gambit is a for the most part faithful retelling of Walter Tevis’s novel of the same name, which is one of my sneaky favorite books of all time. The cinematography and acting are fine, mining some of the same visual ground as Mad Men, but it is the story that elevates it to any all-time list. And like Mad Men, and unlike most stories that make it to these lists, there is no murder or violence, at least none outside of the inherent game of violence and murder that is chess.

The Wire

For most of the time I’ve been reading best tv shows ever lists, The Wire was ranked #1 and it still comes in near the top in pretty much all of them. The Wire tells complex stories examining big city issues in ways that are always entertaining and surprising and easily merits its high standing. It was very innovative at the time, but coming to it now you probably won’t notice as it was so influential that its innovations are nowcommonplace in long-form television.

Detectorists

Detectorists is what is commonly referred to as one of those “quirky British shows.” It is almost equal parts funny, sad, moving, and ridiculous. The more I’ve thought about this list, the more I realize that creating an all-time great show that is not violent is one of the more difficult art forms. Bonus points for the recurring roles for Simon and Garfunkel.

Legion

Egad, a Marvel superhero show on the list? I hate Marvel superhero shows and super hero shows in general. But Legion is not like all that other Marvel crap. Legion is creatively pyschotic with great cinematography, insane musical sequences, and way off-beat humor. Nothing else like it on tv.

The Almost Top, but not Quite Tier

The shows in this tier are all very good, but lack that certain something that would elevate them to one of the higher tiers.

The Sopranos

I could argue that Sopranos should be moved up a tier, but I’m more inclined to move it into the overrated tier. I’m aware that most consider it top 5 at worst, but something about doesn’t quite feel right. I think it has something to do with knowledge I have about how the show unfolded, about how the show’s creator was appalled at the audience that idolized the horrible people in the show and cheered the horrible things they did, which led to the writers creating ever more horrible depictions of the characters and their actions in order to snap the audience out of it, which of course didn’t work. It gets many bonus points, however, for acing the finale, which for some incomprehensible reason was controversial as the over-the-top obviousness of what happened in the last scene eluded so many. So maybe, like its producers, I’m docking the show for its horrible audience more than for anything that’s actually wrong with the show. Or maybe I’m just getting sick of pointless violence, regardless of how entertaining the stories around it may be. That said, Sopranos is highly entertaining.

For All Mankind

Never in a million years would I have thought I’d like this show based on its premise, which posits an alternate reality that would have occurred if the Soviets had been first to reach the moon. The show gets off to a slow start, but it works.

It is, however, still a work in progress, having completed only three seasons. It could possibly be downgraded or fall off the list altogether.

Rectify

Rectify is a strange show in that it continually runs away from its central mystery. The narrative follows a man who gets out of prison after serving time for the killing of a girl at a drug fueled party that he may or may not have committed when he was young. You’d think it would be about whether he did it or not, but that’s not really the case. What is it about then? Hard to say, but it’s well-acted and always interesting in its consistently off-note style.

The Night Of

I originally put The Night Of in the Forgettable tier, but as I thought more it came back to me how great the performances were in this show. John Tuturro, Riz Ahmed, and Michail K. Williams elevate what otherwise would have been typical very good murder mystery into a higher tier. If you beg to differ, that’s okay. I’m wishy washy on this one.

The Had a few Great Seasons but Lost the Plot Tier

Knowing when to end a great show is part of what makes a show great. These shows first few seasons were thematically groundbreaking, and among the best ever, but they went on too long and became just plain silly, if not just plain boring.

Dexter

The first few seasons of Dexter were very interesting though they strained believability and had at least one particularly irritating character. Nevertheless, both the premise and the main character where interesting and Michael C. Hall was just the actor to pull it off. John Lithgow was excellent in his season as the big bad. Darla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer was great as well, but the show went downhill after she was killed off.

Mozart in the Jungle

Mozart was a nice little show about the world of classical music that had a great first season and then slid downhill from there. Gael García Bernal elevated every scene he was in and Malcom McDowell was great as always. Again, it’s great to see a good show that doesn’t rely on cops, killers, or violence. I wish it could have gone on being great a lot longer.

Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black’s first few seasons were great, but as with other shows that go on too long, the characters were forced into ever more out-of-character arcs. Great show while it lasted though.

True Detective

True Detective had one great season, then two really bad seasons that are textbook examples of losing the plot. Season one featured a breakout performance by Matthew McConaughey and excellent work by Woody Harrelson. Every episode was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and the cinematography was fantastic, the highlight being an incredible tracking shot to end episode four. Unfortunately, it failed to nail the ending and the following two seasons were not good despite featuring great actors, suffering no doubt from the loss of Fukunaga in a power struggle with the writer, who apparently let the success of season one go to his head. Although the writer won the power struggle, but seasons two and three showed who was most responsible for the the success of season one.

Weeds

Weeds was another great show that went on too long and should have been put out of its misery much sooner. But while it was good it was very good.

The You may Beg to Differ tier

Go ahead, beg, I’m listening.

Monk

You may not think of Monk as a long form television show, but it was always about the search for his wife’s killer. Much fun was had along the way.

Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra

Fun shows, though Korra had some deeper things going on. Unfortunately, both of those shows had annoying characters that are there to lighten the grim proceedings. But the sum total is better than the annoying parts, and much better than most, if not all, animated series.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy was a fun show with deeper meanings interspersed with a lot of silliness. Now that we know what a creep Josh Wheedon is, there are added layers of deeper meaning. I find it very interesting how it manages to be a very feminist show and influential show about female empowerment in the real world, while being written by a misogynist and featuring a horribly misogynist character. Both Wheedon and his stand-in Xander seem like the nerdy guy in high school who couldn’t get the most beautiful girl in the class, or was too shy too try, and too egotistical to “settle,” so he was just mean to them. Both his treatment of Charisma Carpenter in real life and Xander’s treatment of her in the series show a deep resentment of pretty girls. But in a show that was consciously about the horrors of growing up, it feels right that it was unconsciously about that as well

All that aside, is was a fun show with some truly innovative storytelling.

No Tier for You - The Overrated Tier

These shows had a lot of good in them, but were fatally flawed for one reason or another.

Breaking Bad

There was a lot of great stuff in Breaking Bad, but it was all for nought due to the ridiculous and annoying character arc of Jesse. Nothing against the actor, who did the best he could with the material, but the Nazi pretty much summed it up when in one of the final episodes he complained about Jesse crying too much. Yes, Jesse cried too much. Way too much. And he was a narc who had threatened to be a narc in just about every season in the series. They should have put him down the first time he threatened to turn Walt in. Mighta been a great show. Bonus points for the train robbery episode though. If this were a list of greatest episodes that would definitely be in the top tier.

Game of Thrones

Maybe I could put this in the shows that went on too long tier, as once it got past the books it became ever more ridiculous. But when I look back on the whole thing, I just think “yuck.”

The Liked at the time but Forgot About Tier

I would tell you more about these shows except I don’t really remember much about them. But I watched them so they must have been ok.

Fargo

The Leftovers

Black Bird

The Coulda been a Contenda, but Canceled too Soon Tier

Just what it sounds like. Each of these shows had great promise but for whatever reason were tragically killed off in their infancies.

The Get Down

Raised by Wolves

Deadwood

The Haven’t Seen Them but Maybe they’d be Good Tier

Like I said up top, according to something like the Observer Effect in Quantum Mechanics, a show doesn’t really exist until I’ve watched it, so nothing to see here. Move along and click the buttons below.