Best TV Series Of All Time

On this diverse list, we cover masterpieces of every genre from comedy to drama to crime and animation: 

The Sopranos

Cast:James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli

IMDb Rating:9.2/10

America’s prolonged dalliance with Italian-American organized crime was reinvented with Mario Puzo’s Godfather. David Chase’s The Sopranos starring many Goodfellas’ actors, reimagines Henry Hill’s mob boss in the wake of 20th-century conceptions like Freudian Psychoanalysis and Counterculture.

 It depicts a sociopathic Tony Sopranos, based on the real-life head of a New Jersey mobster “family” Vinny Ocean. Tony’s days are spent with his “foxy” psychiatrist Jennifer and his criminal operations or “Waste-Management” as he would call it over a cigar and Old-Fashioned, are executed from his consigliere’s strip club The Bada Bing! The impunity of masculine portraits starting with Gary Cooper is finally humanized with “cunnilingus and psychiatry” and had me voluntarily quarantined in my room for three weeks. 

Breaking Bad

Cast:Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Bob Odenkirk

IMDb Rating: 9.5/10

Well, what do you say about the television show that everyone talks about? For those who have not seen it, Breaking Bad is hailed to be one the greatest works of American television. 

Vince Gilligan, creator of the show had said “you take Mr. Chips and turn him into Scarface”. That is what Breaking bad is all about: Breaking into Scarface. But why did Walter White, an upstanding school teacher suddenly turn into the biggest meth dealer in America and sometimes across the border too? 

Fleabag

Cast: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Olivia Colman, Sian Clifford, Andrew Scott, 

IMDb Rating: 8.7/10

Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag will easily go down in history as one of the greatest tv shows. This is a show about a bad feminist. Fleabag is the 21st-century equivalent of Waiting For Godot; except Fleabag doesn’t know who she is waiting for. 

The show is premised upon the life of Fleabag. She recently lost her best friend Boo to an accident; she has a strained relationship with her sister and an even more strained one with her stepmother. The humour, the writing and the themes of the show are truly the marks of a genius. Fleabag is carefully documented through all her heartbreaks and failures, and this show has the most creative instances of breaking the fourth wall, making all her turmoils our very own. 

Love Death+ Robots

Cast: Madeleine Knight, Michael B. Jordan, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Samira Wiley

IMDb Rating: 8.4/10

There’s very little to be said that will encompass the variety of this anthology series. With David Fincher as one of the executives of the show, Netflix gave post-apocalyptic animation a whole new meaning. 

This series is a continuation of Fincher’s 1981 Heavy Metal. It has episodes that have premises like Robots wandering through a world where humanity has gone extinct, only to resettle on Mars; humans have also genetically modified cats to give them intelligence. Then other episodes are about civilization in freezers, time travel, and being lost in distant galaxies. The style of animation is so different in each episode as they have the best animators of every genre; It has stories that span across many cultures, myths, and legends. 

Twin Peaks

Cast:Kyle MacLachlan, Sherilyn Fenn, Mädchen Amick, Lara Flynn Boyle

IMDb Rating: 8.8/10

This David Lynch masterwork is an insane game of creative freedom. All the shots, movements, dialogues, and things hold profound subconscious importance. The viewer won’t sometimes understand its genius but is bound to feel it. 

The FBI comes down to solve the mystery of a serial killer in a remote small town; but this FBI agent is unconventional in his approach. High school student Laura Palmer is one of the victims who has washed ashore, naked and wrapped in plastic. It is later revealed she was involved in drug dealing and prostitution. This surrealist show will blow your mind as they uncover the mysteries. 

BoJack Horseman

Cast:Will Arnett, Aaron Paul, Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris

IMDb Rating:8.8/10

BoJack Horseman is possibly the only show which has been able to capture the truest nuances of mental illness. But that is not at all what people will have in mind starting a show about: talking horses, cats, and dogs that live in L.A. and are Hollywood celebrities.

Back in 90’s BoJack Horseman was in a popular sitcom. But now without any exciting prospects, BoJack spends most of his day goofing around with his friend and roommate Todd (voiced by Aaron Paul). The show with characters like Mr. Peanutbutter, who is an anthropomorphic labrador, truly reflects a lab’s behavior. Princess Carolyn is a Persian cat who is a dedicated agent to BoJack and his ex-lover. This beautiful tv show not only shows the magnified narcissism of Hollywood but also the depthless misery of it. 

Dekalog

Cast: Artur Barciś, Olaf Lubaszenko, Krzysztof Globisz, Aleksander Bardini

IMDb Rating: 9/10

This Kieślowski series is the most critically acclaimed tv show all around the world. The polish show documents the moral dilemmas of the residents of a housing project. It is based on the decalogue of the Ten Commandments. 

The first episode of Dekalog is about 12-year-old Pawel and his father Krzysztof. Both Pawel and his father place a lot of trust in computers and science. After being able to control basic amenities like water and doors, Pawel becomes deeply interested in them.  Pawel is a curious little boy, who ponders the nature of death. But Pawel makes the computer calculate whether the snow in the lake near his home is safe to ski on, and his father agrees and lets him go. Only to find, the computer may not always be as reliable as it sounds.

Mindhunter

Cast:Holt McCallany, Jonathan Groff, Anna Torv, Cameron Britton

IMDb Rating:8.6/10

Mindhunter is Netflix’s strongest contender for best crime drama. But there are no killing, spilling of blood, or tensile pursuits of serial killers. This Fincher series reminds the audience that there is no way to know what really happened. 

It follows two FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench as they attempt to find patterns and categories of serial killers. They believe understanding the psychology, motives, and childhood experiences of serial killers will help them with ongoing investigations. They interview legendary serial killers like Charles Manson, Ed Kemper, and David Berkowitz. These bone-chilling interviews which give an insight into the psyche of the serial killer are more violent than any blood on screen could ever be. This show shows you nothing, so you really get to see things. 

Sherlock

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Andrew Scott, Mark Gatiss

IMDb Rating: 9.1/10

A reimaging of the originally Victorian Sherlock Holmes in a 21st century London. Benedict’s Sherlock is widely agreed upon to be the best Sherlock of screen. 

Sherlock , true to the Arthur Conan Doyle stories is a civillian detective who assists the police in solving mysteries, with his trusted side-kick Dr. Watson. This Sherlock does not know the planets of the solar system, but can trace dirt from shoes to specific places.