Looking at this period historically, or geologically, I see three somewhat overlapping sub-eras.
OZ TV SERIES OLD TV
(So would we, individually, and we wrote about some of our near-misses too.) But step back, and I think this list broadly tells the story of what American TV drama has become over two decades. (It was the funniest show on TV most weeks it was on.) You’d swap out some shows here and there. If our resulting list stretches the definition of drama, good: “The Sopranos” certainly did. The nebulous in-between zone is where some of the best TV is being made now, and that’s where some of our later picks come from (like “Atlanta,” which can be TV’s best drama or its best comedy any given week). “Transparent,” by our lights, is clearly a drama, awards submissions notwithstanding “30 Rock” is plainly not.
OZ TV SERIES OLD PLUS
I’d like to say we came up with some bulletproof formula - length plus tears divided by jokes - but truth is, we went by feel. (“Orange Is the New Black,” say, has been Emmy nominated as both comedy and drama.) The trickiest question, though, was, What is a drama? Episode length isn’t an absolute guide, and awards nominations are no help. The final judgment, while hopefully well-informed, is no more inherently right than yours. Here, it’s the subjective, rough consensus of three humans, each with different tastes and priorities, after argument and bargaining.
Oh, yeah: What is “best”? It’s not “most influential” (sometimes great art is inimitable) or “most widely praised” (a cop-out). What is American? (Shows made specifically for the United States TV market rather than acquired.) What is a series? (Shows that were meant to continue more than one season.) What is TV? (What isn’t, these days? Anything broadcast, cable or streaming was fair game.) These are the 20 best drama series to emerge since “The Sopranos,” arranged in chronological order.įor the sake of focus and sanity, Mike Hale, Margaret Lyons and I limited our debates to American series TV drama. If “The Sopranos,” which debuted 20 years ago this week, built the ground floor, this list looks at what TV erected on top of it. They could resist quick answers (or any answers, in the case of the Russian from “Pine Barrens”) and tidy moral conclusions. They could have high visual and narrative ambitions. TV series, we saw, could rely on audiences to pay close attention to a long-running story. But after the ducks landed in Tony’s backyard pool in January 1999, an immense flock followed.
But “The Sopranos” was as clear a marker of the beginning of an era (even if I hate the term “Golden Age”) as anything in TV.īefore “The Sopranos,” yes, TV dramas could take risks (“Twin Peaks”) and tell stories about difficult people (“NYPD Blue”). It may be that no TV show does anything entirely new - change always builds on change.
But lately, I’m getting the feeling that I came in at the end.” - Tony Soprano “ It’s good to be in something from the ground floor.