50 Best TV Dramas of All Time, Ranked

The 50 Best TV Dramas of All Time, Ranked

By Jeremy Urquhart Updated 4 hours ago Jeremy has more than 2100 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows. His favorite directors include Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Bob Fosse, Fritz Lang, Guillermo del Toro, and Yoji Yamada. He's also very proud of the fact that he's seen every single Nicolas Cage movie released before 2022, even though doing so often felt like a tremendous waste of time. He's plagued by the question of whether or not The Room is genuinely terrible or some kind of accidental masterpiece, and has been for more than 12 years (and a similar number of viewings). When he's not writing lists - and the occasional feature article - for Collider, he also likes to upload film reviews to his Letterboxd profile (username: Jeremy Urquhart) and Instagram account. He is also currently in the process of trying to become a Stephen King expert by reading all 2397 novels written by the author. Sign in to your Collider account follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread 10 Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

It's no secret that there's an overwhelming number of great TV dramas out there. People often speak of a "golden age" of TV, though it's sometimes up for debate when that period was. For some, it started as early as the 1990s and may have ended some 10 to 20 years later. Others might feel that TV is still in a golden age, with it being one that streaming services helped usher in during the 2010s. However, one thing that's undeniable is that the past few decades have been rich with some of the greatest TV dramas of all time. The following shows demonstrate this well, with all being broadly definable as dramas—while often crossing into other genres, too—and providing excellent entertainment over multiple years.

While the following great TV shows don't all fit into the category of "drama" and nothing else, they are all definable as dramas, and can be counted among the best shows of all time. Those looking for compelling, emotional, and relatable works of television ought to make it a priority to seek these out, considering they're largely the best TV series of all time. Some may be imperfect, and some had their quality vary from season to season, yet all are undeniably impressive accomplishments and are ranked from great to greatest.

50 'Slow Horses' (2022–)

Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in a hat and glasses looking to the side in Slow Horses.Image via Apple TV

Don’t worry, Slow Horses is considered both a drama and a thriller series, so it’s not too slow. It takes its time, maybe, compared to some other spy-related stories out there, particularly big-screen ones, but the approach works when you’ve got a good cast of characters, and some truly talented actors in the main cast, including the likes of Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas.

Slow Horses only began in 2022, but it’s already aired five seasons, with a sixth season planned for 2026 and a seventh for 2027. In a TV world where seasons sometimes take multiple years to come out, for whatever reason, it’s kind of refreshing to have a show like Slow Horses having a paradoxically fast production schedule. It should probably be the norm, but this is life now, with television. And, sure, Slow Horses has very short seasons, but even then, having seasons 1 and 2 both air in 2022 was pretty radical, and got the whole thing off to a good start.

49 'Shameless' (2011–2021)

Jeremy Allen White as Lip in ShamelessImage via Showtime

A profane and sometimes confronting show that’s funny at times, but probably more of a drama than a comedy, here’s Shameless, which aired well over 100 episodes across 11 seasons. It centered on a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, with the cast being a true ensemble one, with only a handful of actors – like William H. Macy and Jeremy Allen White – being credited with appearing in every single episode.

As a long-runner, Shameless wasn’t the most consistent of shows, but you could also argue that the scrappiness and general messiness were kind of in line with the characters and the lives they sometimes led. It was an occasionally dysfunctional show about dysfunctional people, and was an American remake of a British show that was, quite surprisingly, also on the air for 11 seasons, and ultimately had a few more episodes in total than the American one.

48 'Yellowstone' (2018–2024)

Kevin Costner as John Dutton sitting, leaning on his car wounded in Yellowstone Season 4, Episode 1.Image via Paramount Network

A show that starred Kevin Costner, at least for a while, Yellowstone was a fairly big deal when it started, but then it really seemed to take off in popularity to a surprising extent in subsequent years. It felt unstoppable, and though it has now technically stopped, there are various other shows that are connected to the “universe” that was introduced with Yellowstone, and there’s a lot to keep track of.

Some might say some of those shows have topped Yellowstone, but the 2018 original came first and has probably had the biggest cultural impact so far, so it’s getting the edge here. It’s a pretty compelling epic Western/drama series about a family and various conflicts over their land, working as something like a melodrama – or maybe even a soap opera – just with more cinematic production value.

47 'My So-Called Life' (1994–1995)

Claire Danes as Angela Chase in 'My So-Called Life'Image via ABC

My So-Called Life is focused on all the sorts of things teenage girls are most concerned about, and it rides a pretty effective line between realistic and slightly heightened/romantic, maybe even a little idealized. It’s not an outright fantasy, and things aren’t always sunny, but it’s probably not as heavy or high stakes as some of the other dramas being mentioned here… by design, given the focus, though.

It was an early role for Claire Danes, who plays the lead character, Angela Chase, and it was similarly an early role for Jared Leto (with Danes going on to be in many other TV shows, and some movies, following this one, and Leto… well, certainly being prolific as a film actor, for better and sometimes worse). It’s an empathetic series that uses music pretty well – as one can usually expect a show about young people to do – and much of My So-Called Life, despite its age, still holds up pretty well.

46 'The Pitt' (2025–)

Noah Wyle in 'The Pitt'.Image via HBO

You might think working in a hospital would get stressful, but The Pitt seems keen to tell you that whatever you imagined, it can probably get a whole lot worse. It goes for realism above all else, and it’s also a TV show that uses real-time storytelling to make you feel not just the stress, but the sheer quantity of that stress, and all the different places it can come from.

There’s only been one season so far, at the time of writing, that depicts a gruelling 15-hour period inside the central hospital, but it was strong enough to suggest that The Pitt is already worthy of being considered a great drama series. If the second season tanks it, maybe its placement here could be called into question, but still, it’s one great season so far, and there is certainly potential for it to keep going on, maintaining the momentum and continuing to earn acclaim.

45 'Prison Break' (2005–2017)

Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller in 'Prison Break'.Image via Fox

Look, Prison Break peaked with its first season, maybe even to the point where it really should’ve just been one season. But to put out 20+ episodes two decades ago, and have that entire season still hold up as quality television? That’s worth something, and Prison Break delivers as a TV show about… yeah, a prison break. You get what you expect.

Seeing a familiar premise play out across multiple hours rather than a single movie’s runtime made Prison Break thrilling stuff, and it was just very well-paced and polished; great popcorn television, if such a thing exists. And, if you like the characters enough and want to see them get wrapped up in more prison-related stuff, you do have the other, less essential seasons of Prison Break, sure (there were five seasons in total, plus a TV movie).

44 'Angel' (1999–2004)

Angel looking at something in horror in the TV show Angel 1999 - 2004Image via The WB

Though destined to live in the shadow of another show, Angel is still pretty fantastic overall. Though not the most consistent of shows, Angel did run for more than 100 episodes and had the majority of those be at least solid. Season 4 dipped in quality to some extent, but the final season was phenomenal stuff, and redeemed/salvaged the show after it got a little lost in its penultimate season.

Angel began as a show about a trio of people working on supernatural-related cases in Los Angeles, and grew to become something a little bigger and more ambitious as it went along. Lots of it was dark, some of it was devastating, and other parts could be hilarious. The series did a bit of everything and maintained some consistency because the great characters from Angel—even when doing out-of-character things—remained worthy of one’s time.

43 'American Crime Story' (2016–2021)

Sterling K. Brown as Christopher Darden and Cuba Gooding Jr. as O.J. Simpson in 'The People v. O.J. Simpson: An American Crime Story'.Image via FX

You could potentially put American Crime Story in the same category as Prison Break, because both shows are most well-remembered for their first seasons. It makes more sense with American Crime Story, though, given it’s an anthology series, with each batch of episodes revolving around the one event (involving crime in America, surprise, surprise), and different actors being featured in each one.

For the first season, the focus was entirely on the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and it aired the same year that a critically acclaimed documentary about the same event—O.J.: Made in America—was also released. Season 2 was about the assassination of Gianni Versace, while Season 3 focused on the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal (neither of those being as acclaimed as the first season, but they still made for solid TV).

42 'Transparent' (2014–2019)

The cast of the show Transparent dressed in white.

Image via Amazon Prime Video

Transparent caused something of a stir when it first aired, but then it seems to have become a little forgotten in the years since. It deserves to be remembered, though, functioning as either a very dark sitcom or a sometimes funny drama show, depending on your definition. And, to be honest, it depends on the season, since some stretches of episodes of Transparent were bleaker than others.

At the core of the show was a group of flawed yet deeply human characters, the principal one being a trans woman who’s just come out, and the supporting characters being members of her family adjusting to how that changes the family dynamic. It ran a respectable and largely consistent four seasons, and got wrapped up with a feature-length musical episode that made the best of a difficult situation.

41 'Firefly' (2002)

Image via 20th Century Fox Television

Yes, to get the obvious out of the way, Firefly is a go-to “canceled too soon” show, but at least it got a finale of sorts, thanks to 2005’s Serenity doing a bit of a feature-length speed-run of what seasons 2 and 3 of the show might've looked like. And, as it stands, the single season of Firefly does mean the show’s pretty close to flawless, for what it is. It never got the chance to go slightly off the rails the way Angel did, for example.

Firefly is all about a group of people living on a spaceship during the 2500s, with standalone stories in each episode, to some extent, and hints of other bigger-picture things that could’ve been developed over seasons. Enjoying Firefly for what it is proves to be captivating television, while thinking too much about what it could’ve been proves saddening, so just enjoy the ride (and Serenity) as best as you can.

TV
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The Sopranos

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Parstl Parstl Parstl #XR238186 Member since 2024-06-07 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
I think Dallas belongs in there somewhere...when your series literally has the most publicized and anticipated cliffhanger of all time...Who Shot JR? It birthed the primetime soap.opera. Also, Dexter was more groundbreaking and deserves to be up higher. Grey's Anatomy? Scandal? Some love for the Black Woman producer. Mission Impossible? The original Star Trek which only launched a genre. Hannibal is overrated as is True Detective which had big drop off. The Leftovers...gimme a break. LA Law? China Beach deserves some consideration or at least top 40.
2024-10-29 23:38:52 Upvote 3 Downvote Reply Copy
Michael Michael Michael #SP744490 Member since 2024-08-27 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
There's a whole lot of Netflix pap that shouldn't be on here and a whole lot of classics that should be. Did Netflix fund this list?
2025-03-01 14:59:38 Upvote 1 Downvote Reply Copy
Pooja Pooja Pooja #MI905303 Member since 2024-09-06 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
Look, this list is incomplete without House M.D., atleast that's what I think.
2025-03-12 14:51:37 Upvote 1 Downvote Reply Copy
Filthy Filthy Filthy #CX035909 Member since 2024-12-24 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
List is broken. #11-20 repeats twice instead of showing top 10 on both mobile and desktop Chrome.
2024-12-24 03:56:12 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy
Billy Billy Billy #CG604702 Member since 2025-01-21 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
Love the Sopranos also not sure if I overlooked it on list but Orange is the new black
2025-10-04 14:51:28 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy
EarlyGrayce EarlyGrayce EarlyGrayce #ZX583880 Member since 2025-02-28 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
Predictable, unfortunately.
2025-02-28 15:39:40 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy
Series Series Series #TG728299 Member since 2025-05-20 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
Seriously? No House? Sherlock? Westworlddddd??? Netflix Daredevil is a must too. Glad to see Hannibal made the list. Penny Dreadful should be here too
2025-05-20 07:44:11 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy
Jason Jason Jason #LT659282 Member since 2024-05-20 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
I'll decide
2024-10-09 12:01:38 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy
Darby Darby Darby #SM573637 Member since 2024-07-20 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
No Deadwood, no NYPD Blue. This list is invalid.
2024-07-20 01:43:17 Upvote Downvote Reply 1 Copy
Matthew Matthew Matthew #SW037770 Member since 2024-04-09 Following 0 Topics 0 Users Follow Followed 0 Followers View
Deadwood is #13
2024-08-17 13:31:58 Upvote Downvote Reply Copy