No. 33 – “The Americans”
Premiere Date: January 30, 2013 (6 seasons)
FX
Russian operatives living among us? Raising children while reporting back to their intelligence bosses back in the Soviet Union? It sounds far-fetched, and there is no evidence of this happening in the ’80s, but in reality, creator Joe Weinberg, a former CIA employee, was inspired by contemporary events in 2010 that were somewhat similar. The show itself followed Elizabeth and Philip Jennings (Kerri Russell, Matthew Rhys), Soviet agents paired together for marriage by their superiors who have a long-running cover as Washington D.C. travel agents. At night, while their children sleep, they participate in missions, arranged by their handler, Claudia (Margo Martindale), in elaborate guises and wigs that would make the cast of “Alias” envious. Beginning in 1981, after the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan and ending in 1987, before the true end of the Cold War, “The Americans” was a suspenseful drama with often ingenious twists and turns. Would the sleeper agents take out their FBI neighbor, whose kids play with their own? Can they stay loyal to Mother Russia as they witness their children explore the opportunities of America? And was there ever any genuine love between the two of them? Ending with one of the most revered season finales of all time, “The Americans” gave viewers everything they wanted and then left them wanting more.
No. 32 – “Baby Reindeer”
Premiere Date: April 11, 2024 (limited series)
Netflix
Based on real-life events that happened to star and creator Richard Gadd (we can say real-life, we’re not sure he can anymore), “Baby Reindeer” finds Donny, a bartender in London, unable to get his stand-up comedy career going. One day, barrister Martha Scott (Jessica Gunning, absolutely incredible) walks into the pub and strikes up a conversation. Over the weeks the follow she becomes a self-obsessed fan, slightly clinging, eventually emailing him hundreds of times a day. When he discovers she’s a convicted stalker, he should have done everything possible to keep her away from him, but instead, inexplicably, accepts her Facebook friend request. Over the months that follow, Martha’s behavior becomes more and more unhinged, invading all aspects of his life. As he tries to deal with her, the trauma from an incident a few years earlier bubbles up and is weaponized against him by Martha (just one of many, many incidents). At its core, “Reindeer” is a drama about loneliness and the realization of self-acceptance. It intentionally does not wrap everything up in a perfect bow, but it demonstrates a path forward, even if the horrors of the past are impossible to forget.
No. 31 – “Reservation Dogs”
Premiere Date: August 9, 2021 (3 seasons)
FX
We’re gonna be honest. It’s truly horrifying that it took until 2021 for anyone to make a sitcom, comedy, or dramedy completely centered on a group of Indigenous American characters. And it was a show that debuted as the peak of “Peak TV” was round the corner, no less, and everything you could have imagined was greenlit before it. Thankfully, Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi had an inspiration, and FX gave them a check to make it. Over three seasons, the duo covered the lives of four teenagers living in a small town in Oklahoma’s Muscogee Nation who decide to fulfill their deceased friend’s dream of visiting California. They increasingly find life and adult responsibilities affecting their own dreams, and few happy endings. Harjo not only depicts an unknown future for the clan, known as “The Rez,” but also demonstrates that in many ways, little has changed since their parents, aunts, and uncles were their ages. Featuring standout performances by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai as Bear and Devery Jacobs as Elora, Harjo weaves grounded angst, joy, loss, and the spirit world into an unforgettable tapestry of just 28 episodes. They deserved more, but that might have been enough.
No. 30 – “Hacks”
Premiere Date: May 13, 2021 (4 seasons)
HBO Max, Max, HBO
At first, “Hacks” seemed like it would be a fun, predictable generational culture clash between two headstrong personalities, a legendary standup comic looking for new matrial, Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbider), a flailing young comedy writer who needs the money but thinks she’s smartre than this gig. It also felt like a well-deserved comedy showcase for Smart, a veteran of legendary shows such as “Designing Women,” who had focused on her dramatic chops over the past decade in “Legion,” “Watchmen,” and the aforementioned “Easttown,” to some degree. Over the course of four seasons, it’s become so much more. “Hacks” has the comedy and television industry jokes, along with a charming secondary storyline between the women’s manager (Paul W. Downs) and his assistant turned partner (Megan Statler). But its depiction of Vance’s fictional career comeback (or cultural cache comeback) while focusing on the creative difficulties between two women whose underlying friendship fuels their competitiveness is what defies expectations. They have uplifted each other, they have hurt each other, and they have sacrificed for one another, and may or may not have realized that at this point in their lives, that this is the greatest collaboration they may ever experience. Granted, there is one season to go, but Downs, Lucia An,iello and Jen Statsky‘s creation already has one of the greatest cliffhangers for a dramedy or comedy in recent memory (the finale of season 3) and a denouement in the second to last episode of season four which is genuinely tear inducing. And over 37 episodes so far, not only are you laugh your ass off, but you’re also rooting for both Deborah and Ava to achieve their dreams and, maybe, have a moment to breathe. And if everyone involved sticks the landing, this might be the sort of comedy classic that finds its way further up the chart in another 25 years.
No. 29 – “Shōgun“
Premiere Date: February 27, 2024 (1 season)
FX
Many were skeptical that James Clavell’s 1975 novel “Shōgun,” which was already turned into a mini-series in 1980, would still be relevant 50 years later. Justin Marks and Rachel Kodo proved the naysayers spectacularly wrong. Inspired by real-life events in Japanese history, “Shōgun” begins with the English John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) and his Dutch crew captured by a powerful Japanese lord, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada). Over time, Blackthorne proves his value to Lord Toranaga, but his storyline is perhaps the most uninteresting of the 10-episode first season. It’s the epic battle sequences, betrayal from within Toranaga’s own circle, and the tragic journey of Lady Mariko (a blistering Anna Sawai) that keep you captivated. And frankly, considering this world and this inherently Shakespearean era of Japanese history, maybe that’s what it always should have been.
No. 28 – “Six Feet Under”
Premiere Date: June 3, 2021 (5 seasons)
HBO
At the beginning of every episode of Alan Ball’s game-changing HBO series, someone would randomly die. It could be from the shotgun of a workplace gunman, or a driver paying attention to their GPS instead of the road, or the random act of a teenage girl falling off a bed awkwardly and breaking her neck. Basically, death is everywhere, and it was the lifeblood of Fisher and Sons, a family-run funeral home in early ’00s Los Angeles. One of the show’s themes is that being so close to death found the members of the family expressing themselves in genuinely intense ways. There’s the oldest son, Nate (Peter Krause), who continues to ravage his relationships with infidelity. There’s his brother David (Michael C. Hall), a closeted gay man with a secret boyfriend, Keith (Mathew St. Patrick), who still wants to be the perfect churchgoer. There’s Ruth (Frances Fisher), the family matriarch, searching for love and fulfillment in all the wrong places. There’s Claire (Lauren Ambrose), the daughter, 10 years younger than David, who is the liberal rebel who has a rocky road of relationships in college, before finding herself attracted to…a Republican. Other fixtures included Nate’s on-again, off-again lover Brenda (Rachel Griffiths, often stealing every scene she was in), who suffers from sex addiction (a topic not commonly discussed at the time), and Rico (Freddy Rodriguez), the longtime apprentice of the Fisher clan’s patriarch, Nate. Sr. (Richard Jenkins), whose death brings Nate into the family business, and whose imaginary spirit haunts his family throughout the series. “Six Feet Under” often veered into melodrama, but it somehow always stayed grounded thanks to the cast’s incredible performances and genuine chemistry. Ball and his ensemble made you care so much for the Fisher clan that the delicately rendered series finale is still regarded as one of the greatest of all time.
No. 27 – “Barry”
Premiere Date: March 25, 2018 (4 seasons)
HBO
An anti-hero dramedy that increasingly took gutsy and thrilling narrative leaps, “Barry’s” setup was quite simple. A career assassin, the Barry in question (Bill Hader), finds unexpected joy after stumbling into an acting class for struggling Hollywood actors. As he tries to extricate himself from his nefarious career, his hitman guru Monroe (Stephen Root) and criminal associates such as NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan, with one of the most underrated performances this century), find ways to suck him back in. As time passes, Barry’s actions suck in a legitimate love interest, Sally (Sarah Goldberg), and the one and only Gene Cousinea (Henry Winkler), his narcissistic acting coach, into a web of lies, deciet and genuine danger. Hader and co-creator Alec Berg test the audience’s sympathy for Barry as it increasingly appears that his moral center has not evolved (or perhaps the writers want to leave that for you to judge). Moreover, Hader and Berg ask: Can you escape your past? Can you avoid the repercussions of your actions? Major philosophical themes for a series with as many laugh-out-loud inside Hollywood jokes as the aforementioned “Hacks” or “The Studio.” Wrap this in Hader’s increasingly cinematic aesthetic, which featured a dash of surrealism, and you have a show that should easily be on this list, not 25, but 75 years from now.
No. 26 – “The Crown”
Premiere Date: November 4, 2016 (6 seasons)
Netflix
Now that it’s concluded, it’s hard not to view Peter Morgan’s almost 60-year depiction of the life of Queen Elizabeth II as nothing short of astonishing. Using three sets of actors over six seasons, Morgan and his writers, as well as producers and directors such as Stephen Daldry, Philip Caron, Jessica Hobbs, and Benjamin Caron, among others, ended up opening a window of increasingly humane understanding to an intensely private figure. Morgan had his sources, so his work isn’t complete fiction, but from the Suez Canal Crisis to crushing a potential coup to keeping the Commonwealth alive to the era of Princess Diana, it provided insight into a monarch who was more involved in world affairs than even the staunchest supporters of the monarchy realized. A masterclass in prestige filmmaking (the series won’t come close to looking dated for decades, if that), at its heart, “The Crown” lived up to its name. The crown wore heavy on Elizabeth, year after year, crisis after crisis, family scandal after family scandal. And yet, as depicted marvelously by Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton, duty always called, and she could never not be up for the moment. In that context, there has never been a dramatic program that has painted such a definitive portrait of a prominent historical figure or their family. It should also be noted that the series also featured one of the greatest acting ensembles in television history (certainly British television), with career defining performances by Matt Smith, Vanessa Kirby, Jonathan Lithgow, Josh O’Connor, Erin Doherty, Matthew Goode, Gillian Anderson, Emma Corrin, Elizabeth Debicki, Dominic West, Emerald Fennell, Olivia Williams, Charles Dance, Helena Bonham Carter, Tobias Menzes, Khalid Abdalla, Alex Jennings, and Derek Jacobi.
Friday: No. 25-1
