5. Noah Hawley
Major Shows: “Fargo,” “Legion”
It might seem like right now, Noah Hawley can do no wrong, having taken the by-no-means-a-sure-bet gamble of adapting the Coen Brothers‘ classic “Fargo” into an anthology show, and won big. Each of the seasons (and Hawley wrote every episode of the first) has proved respectful of the source, but not at all beholden to it, as it has evolved into a brilliantly cast, intricately plotted, darkly hilarious blast three times over. And not only that, but FX superhero show “Legion” has managed a similar trick in arriving into an overpopulated genre at just the moment it’s starting to seem tired and reinvigorating it with a fresh, idiosyncratic new take. It wasn’t always so: Hawley had two false starts after graduating from his writing stint on “Bones.” Cop-show dramedy “The Unusuals” only made it to one season, and ABC mockumentary “My Generation” only aired two episodes. But even if not quite overnight, his success has been stratospheric, and well-deserved.
4. Jane Campion & Gerard Lee
Major Shows: “Top Of The Lake”
Not every great filmmaker who moves into TV does so with the full commitment and application that Jane Campion did on the brilliant “Top Of The Lake,” which she co-created and co-wrote with collaborator Gerard Lee, and whose first season she largely co-directed with Garth Davis. But while it seems faintly criminal that Campion has not had a movie project since 2009’s hugely underrated “Bright Star,” her meticulous approach to television feels like she has found a way to use the medium to its fullest: in the best way, “Top Of The Lake” season 1 felt cinematic, in terms of its visuals but also its sense of atmosphere and place. Season 2 of the BBC/Sundance co-production, which will star the ubiquitous duo of Elisabeth Moss and Nicole Kidman, is due to cause major scheduling headaches when it screens in its entirety at the Cannes Film Festival in a couple of weeks, but such is our faith in Campion that we are sure it will hold up alongside the cream of the film-world crop.
3. Bryan Fuller
Major Shows: “Dead Like Me,” “Wonderfalls,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Hannibal,” “American Gods”
For a while there, it seemed like Fuller couldn’t catch a break (aside from the significant break of getting his shows commissioned in the first place, obviously). His particular brand of offbeat, fantasy inflected, black comedy faltered with audiences early on: afterlife comedy “Dead Like Me” made it to two seasons, but only after Fuller left fiveepisodes into season 1 due to creative differences; “Wonderfalls,” co-created with Todd Holland, was cancelled after one season; and “Pushing Daisies,” about a pie-maker with a knack for raising the dead, was cancelled after two. It wasn’t till Fuller dialed the quirkiness right down and turned the palette from pastel to inky with “Hannibal” that he really found his stride. The dense, baroque psychological horror series only went to three seasons itself, but it gave Fuller license to return just last weekend with “American Gods.” Developed alongside Michael Green, and based on Neil Gaiman‘s intricate and arcane novel, what we’ve seen so far seems to give full rein to Fuller’s licorice-black sensibilities, and though we can see it alienating some audiences with its gratifyingly unexplained weirdness, we’re all in.
2. David Simon
Major Shows: “The Wire,” “Treme,” “Show Me A Hero,” “The Deuce” (upcoming)
It’s become a dull cliche to refer to “The Wire” as the greatest TV show of all time, but cliches are usually true and “The Wire” is the greatest TV show of all time. The brainchild of author, ex-Baltimore Sun journalist, screenwriter and irascible tweeter David Simon, who ran all five seasons and co-wrote (often with Ed Burns) the vast majority of the episodes, “The Wire”‘s colossal scope, in presenting a 1:1 scale portrait of modern urban America, was simply unparalleled. But it was not the hit at the time that it would later become, a fate that also befell Simon’s next show, the dense, magnificent Hurricane Katrina drama “Treme,” which ran for four seasons to rapturous critical response but dwindling audiences. His miniseries shows, from 2008’s “Generation Kill” to 2015’s “Show Me A Hero,” have fared better, but we’ll eat our hats if 2017 doesn’t see him blow up all over again. “The Deuce,” co-created and co-written by Simon and George Pelecanos, debuts on HBO in the fall, stars James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and details the rise of the New York porn trade in the 1970s, and it’s pretty inconceivable that it won’t be brilliant.
1. Jill Soloway
Major Shows: “Transparent,” “I Love Dick” (upcoming)
After a start writing for WB sitcoms and animated shows, Soloway landed a writing gig on “Six Feet Under,” staying for four seasons and eventually gaining a co-executive-producer credit as well. Individual episodes of a series of early Peak TV shows followed: “Dirty Sexy Money,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Tell Me You Love Me.” But it was getting to showrunner status on Diablo Cody‘s terrific “United States Of Tara” and Ian Edelman‘s short-lived “How To Make It In America” that really raised Soloway’s profile. Still, it felt like “Transparent,” a glancingly autobiographical show that Soloway created, runs, writes on and often directs, came out of nowhere. It went straight in at the top of even this Golden Age of television, becoming Amazon‘s first big Original hit, and boasting a first season that is as close to perfect as television gets. Tender, provocative and brilliantly cast, the story of a family dealing with the patriarch’s coming out as a trans woman is also a scathing examination of privilege and a biting critique of the self-absorption of the successful white liberal class it portrays. Season 4 has been ordered, but before then, just next week, Soloway’s new show “I Love Dick” (four episodes of which were directed by Andrea Arnold) will bow. It stars Kevin Bacon and Soloway muse Kathryn Hahn, and we expect nothing less than greatness. There may be those who chalk up Soloway’s position here to the typical feminazi libtard fake news snowflakes that we are, but in the next few years, with the rise of #theresistance, you can be damn sure the most exciting, progressive, challenging and provocative TV is going to increasingly come from traditionally underrepresented demographics — women, trans people, people of color. And that the wonderfully outspoken, engaged, talented and pioneering Soloway is part of that vanguard is one of the few things that gives us hope.
Honorable Mentions
When we embarked on this project, 50 entries seemed like it would be plenty, but there are many, many more we’ve left out. Chief among them, and we debated long and hard, was David Lynch, whose “Twin Peaks” revival we’re anticipating immensely. But while certainly an auteur, he’s not quite a TV auteur, or at least hasn’t been one recently, with the original “Twin Peaks” only partly his creation and dating back to 1990/91. TV great Aaron Sorkin has not had any episodic TV show air since “The Newsroom” ended in 2014, and the other two “HBO Davids,” aside from Simon (above), have been dormant a long time: David Chase since the end of “The Sopranos” and David Milch since the inaptly titled “Luck” ended after one season. As mentioned above, though, Milch has reportedly been tapped to co-write season 3 of “True Detective“ with Nic Pizzolatto, so perhaps we’ll see him back in the saddle (unfortunate racehorse pun) soon. Terence Winter is a slightly different case in that the great “Boardwalk Empire” co-creator has had a show since, but it was “Vinyl” and it was rightfully canceled after one season.
There were also a whole lot of creator/showrunner/writers whose work we love but who simply don’t have the name-brand recognition as TV creators yet, or who didn’t quite fit the mold for other reasons: Joe Wiesberg on “The Americans“; Sarah Tree and Hagi Levi on “The Affair“; Brian Yorkey on recent hit “13 Reasons Why“; Chris Chibnall of “Broadchurch” fame, who’ll soon be taking over showrunning on “Doctor Who“; Allan Cubitt on “The Fall“; Bruce Miller for Hulu‘s brilliant current show “The Handmaid’s Tale“; Kenya Barris for “Black-ish“; Zack Galifianakis and Jonathan Krisell for “Baskets“; Christopher Cantwell and Christoper C. Rogers for “Halt And Catch Fire“; Jennie Snyder Urman on “Jane The Virgin“; Raphael Bob-Waksberg on the great “BoJack Horseman“; Graeme Manson and John Fawcett for “Orphan Black“; Michael Showalter for ” Search Party” and “Wet Hot American Summer“; Justin Simien for new show “Dear White People“; Jim Mickle for the recently renewed “Hap And Leonard“; and genius UK creator of “Shameless,” “State Of Play” and “No Offence” among others, Paul Abbott. We’re not really big-enough fans of “The Get Down” to include Baz Luhrmann, and we also tried to concentrate more on episodic TV rather than miniseries or limited-event shows, which also excluded the likes of Steve Zaillian and Richard Price for “The Night Of.”
If you made it this far, congratulations! Your reward is to take to the comments, and tell us who we missed, who we misranked and what, if anything, we got right.