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6 days ago · 107 reranks. Voting Rules. Vote up the best American and British dramas, whether they're straight dramatic series or a subgenre like fantasy, period pieces, or horror. Latest additions: No One Will Miss Us, COBRA, Love of My Life. Most divisive: The Walking Dead.
- Breaking Bad. - IMDb user rating: 9.5. - On air: 2008-2013. When high school teacher Walter White is faced with a lung cancer diagnosis, he doesn't know where he's going to come up with the money for his treatments—that is until he turns to crime and begins concocting his own batches of meth with a former student.
- Chernobyl. - IMDb user rating: 9.4. - On air: 2019. A dark tale of ignorance, human error, and dishonest leaders, the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 is dramatized in this five-part miniseries.
- Band of Brothers. - IMDb user rating: 9.4. - On air: 2001. This war miniseries chronicles the real-life "Easy Company" of the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment during World War II, as they've been assigned to the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.
- The Wire. - IMDb user rating: 9.3. - On air: 2002-2008. Set in Baltimore, this crime drama series uses each season to look at a different facet of the city and its relationship with law enforcement, from the illegal drug trade to the city government, schools, print news, and the seaport systems.
- 35 'Dexter'
- 34 'The Bear'
- 33 '24'
- 32 'Doctor Who'
- 31 'Oz'
- 30 'Friday Night Lights'
- 29 'The Leftovers'
- 28 'Battlestar Galactica'
- 27 'Ozark'
- 26 'The Crown'
Developed by James Manos Jr.
Look, Dexterstarts strong and definitely doesn’t finish strong, but for what works, it’s worth celebrating. The show about a serial killer who kills other serial killers (and criminals) while hiding in plain sight as a forensic expert, working among other detectives, was fun for a while. The first four (of eight) seasons were pretty great, and the fourth season in particular was phenomenal. Fast-forward to seasons 5 and 6… there was some drop-off. Season 7 was fun, and a return to form of sor...
Created by Christopher Storer
There’s been a little stumbling when it comes to The Bear and its three seasons so far, but certainly nothing as drastic as Dexter, and nothing that can’t be recovered from. It hit the ground running as a frequently tense and expertly written show about a chef (struggling with personal demons) trying to manage things at the sandwich shop that his deceased brother used to run. Also, The Bear is sometimes considered a comedy/drama series, but its dramatic elements tend to be its most compelling...
Created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran
24 ran for eight seasons throughout almost the entire 2000s (and a little into the 2010s), and then received two follow-ups, the continuation of Jack Bauer’s story in 2014’s 24: Live Another Day, and a kind of mishandled reboot of sorts in the form of 24: Legacy. Live Another Day was decent, but the core eight seasons of 24 deliver the most, and generally represent the long-running series at its best. Each of those first eight seasons takes place over 24 hours, with events playing out in real...
Created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber, and Donald Wilson
But for as long-running as 24 was, it has nothing on the likes of Doctor Who. Yes, this British series is technically science fiction, first and foremost, but “drama” has a broader definition when it comes to television, compared to movies. If something’s fictionalized, and it’s not broadly comedic or identifiable as a sitcom, it can be called a drama; that’s just the way it seems to be. Anyway, Doctor Who is a series that’s maintained its longevity because the titular character is continuall...
Created by Tom Fontana
Without Oz, HBO might not be the powerhouse that it currently is in the TV world. This drama series was an early indication of what could be shown on HBO, and it’s honestly still quite gnarly and harrowing by today’s standards, following the inmates and staff members at a brutal maximum security prison. The world the show takes place in is hellish, filled with racism, rampant illicit drug use, and near-constant violence/death. That’s all to say that Oz isn't the most traditionally enjoyable s...
Developed by Peter Berg
While it was a hit among critics,Friday Night Lights was never huge when it came to ratings, making it fortunate that it still managed to run for five seasons. It's centered on a high school football team in West Texas but isn't only concerned with sports, given Friday Night Lights has a large cast of characterswho are explored while being depicted as dealing with ups and downs in their lives. It was based on a book that was also adapted as a movie in 2004, shortly before the TV series began...
Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta
Several years after he concluded being a lead writer on another acclaimed drama series, Damon Lindelof co-created The Leftovers, which many would consider his best TV show so far. It's a very grounded look at what happens to the world after a Rapture-like event which sees approximately 2% of humanity disappearing without a trace. It's not so much of a dramatic change to the world that things become post-apocalyptic, but the event causes enough of a disturbance to radically alter the lives of...
Developed by Ronald D. Moore
Yes, Battlestar Galacticawould technically qualify as a science-fiction show, but it can broadly be considered a drama series, too, and was considered a drama series for the purposes of the Emmys, for example. It ran for 76 episodes over four seasons between 2004 and 2009 and had a considerable cult following that gradually became big enough to call the show a mainstream success. It was a reimagining of a 1970s series of the same name and had a story that takes place in a distant galaxy, foll...
Created by Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams
Netflix is a company that's really only been making TV shows for about a decade now, but has already risen up to become remarkably influential, and behind numerous popular shows. One of the company's most critically acclaimed was Ozark, which is a bleak crime/drama series that had a total of four seasons released on the Netflix platform between 2017 and 2022. Broadly speaking, it's about a family that decides to become affiliated with a Mexican drug cartel by being money launderers, only to f...
Created by Peter Morgan
Though not everyone is a fan of the Royal Family, it seems that a huge number of Netflix users are a fan of watching a somewhat historically accurate account of the British Monarchy's behind-the-scenes drama from throughout the 20th century. The series about this drama, The Crown, focuses on Queen Elizabeth II, who admittedly has a remarkably long run as the United Kingdom's Queen between 1952 and 2022. Those who aren't exactly into the lives of this family need not apply, but anyone who find...
- Jeremy Urquhart
- 35
- 2 min
The Top Rated TV Shows list only includes TV series and TV mini series. The list is ranked by a formula which includes the number of ratings each show received from users, and value of ratings received from regular users
Best Drama Series 2021. The HBO limited series Mare of Easttown stars Kate Winslet as Pennsylvania police detective Mare Sheehan, whose murder investigation uncovers truths that help...
2 days ago · Looking for the best shows on Netflix? Look no further, because Rotten Tomatoes has put together a list of the 100 best original Netflix series available to watch right now, ranked according...
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Jan 3, 2022 · Find out which series made our list of the 94 Certified Fresh TV and streaming seasons that are of the best-reviewed TV shows of 2021. "Only Murders in the Building" came out on top as...
