Best Series Ever
by Lebowski_smokes | created - 15 Aug 2017 | updated - 11 months ago | PublicLong before our current series Renaissance, brilliant series were made. This list is of course just my subjective view from my little bubble. I am German, hence there are relatively many German series here, but mostly series from the USA and UK. However, I'm certain, that there are brilliant series from many more countries around the world - e.g. I don't even have a French series included here.
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1. The Wire (2002–2008)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement.
Stars: Dominic West, Lance Reddick, Sonja Sohn, Wendell Pierce
Votes: 377,958
2. I, Claudius (1976)
Not Rated | 50 min | Biography, Drama, History
The personal and governmental affairs of the Julio-Claudian dynasty at the beginning of the Roman Empire, as recalled by one of its rulers.
Stars: Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed
Votes: 19,387
3. Fleabag (2016–2019)
TV-MA | 30 min | Comedy, Drama
Series adapted from the award-winning play about a young woman trying to cope with life in London whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy.
Stars: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman, Jenny Rainsford
Votes: 201,882
4. Brideshead Revisited (1981)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
The life, friendships and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder-including his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle.
Stars: Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Roger Milner, Phoebe Nicholls
Votes: 8,047
I remember how I wished it would never end, how I dreaded the approaching end.... aw, such tainted beauty!
5. Mad Men (2007–2015)
TV-MA | 45 min | Drama
A drama about one of New York's most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm's most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper.
Stars: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, Vincent Kartheiser, January Jones
Votes: 260,748
I loved Mad Men for many reasons
- it has a certain calmness to it, not rushing things, not over dramatising them
- it shines a light on so many different characters, and by doing so manages to portray so many social developments that really happened and led us to where we are today. Mad Mad is a long series of social history lessons, packaged into brilliant and beautiful entertainment.
- the characters are so extraordinarily complex, there is no simple good or bad, the viewer does not stop learning something new about the characters as the story progresses.
6. La piovra (1984–2001)
TV-14 | 360 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An epic crime saga of power, money, violence and corruption. the mafia controls everything through local and international networks like an octopus, anyone who tries to bring them down pays the ultimate price.
Stars: Remo Girone, Patricia Millardet, Michele Placido, François Périer
Votes: 3,962
Season 1 is impossible to stop watching
7. Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993)
TV-PG | 55 min | Comedy
Bertram Wooster, a well-intentioned, wealthy layabout, has a habit of getting himself into trouble and it's up to his brilliant valet, Jeeves, to get him out.
Stars: Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Richard Dixon, Robert Daws
Votes: 13,153
Only the first two at most three seasons are very good, the last one is not so good anymore.
8. Twin Peaks (1990–1991)
TV-MA | 50 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks.
Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook
Votes: 215,601
9. Twin Peaks (2017)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
Picks up 25 years after the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town are stunned when their homecoming queen is murdered.
Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Michael Horse, Chrysta Bell
Votes: 75,988
10. True Detective (2014– )
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law.
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch
Votes: 657,127
11. In the Face of Crime (2010)
479 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The worlds of a young Russo-German cop who investigates within the Berlin Russian mafia milieu and a young Russian woman who is forced into prostitution, intertwine when they meet and fall in love.
Stars: Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Marie Bäumer, Alina Levshin
Votes: 1,674
12. Fanny and Alexander (1983)
312 min | Drama
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden.
Stars: Börje Ahlstedt, Ewa Fröling, Jarl Kulle, Bertil Guve
Votes: 4,675
13. The Sopranos (1999–2007)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama
New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life that affect his mental state, leading him to seek professional psychiatric counseling.
Stars: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli
Votes: 472,097
14. Fargo (2014–2024)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Various chronicles of deception, intrigue, and murder in and around frozen Minnesota. All of these tales mysteriously lead back one way or another to Fargo, North Dakota.
Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks
Votes: 422,302
15. Kir Royal (1986)
60 min | Comedy
This ironic mini series deals with Baby Schimmerlos, gossip reporter of Munich tabloid "MATZ", and the city's legendary high society circles. As everyone who believes to be important wants ... See full summary »
Stars: Franz-Xaver Kroetz, Senta Berger, Dieter Hildebrandt, Ruth-Maria Kubitschek
Votes: 756
16. Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany (1984)
924 min | Drama, History, War
The village of Schabbach experiences the shifting fortunes of Germany from 1919 to 1982.
Stars: Marita Breuer, Rüdiger Weigang, Kurt Wagner, Gertrud Bredel
Votes: 3,337
17. Stromberg (2004–2012)
TV-14 | 25 min | Comedy
A comedy centered around the incompetent boss of a German insurance office.
Stars: Christoph Maria Herbst, Oliver Wnuk, Bjarne Mädel, Diana Staehly
Votes: 9,590
18. Narcos (2015–2017)
TV-MA | 50 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A chronicled look at the criminal exploits of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, as well as the many other drug kingpins who plagued the country through the years.
Stars: Pedro Pascal, Wagner Moura, Boyd Holbrook, Alberto Ammann
Votes: 470,755
Series one and two are fantastic! They are fantastically written and Pablo Escobar embodied by Wagner Moura is superb. The third series then focusses on the not as violent Cali Cartel, and there is no more Escobar.....
19. Eastbound & Down (2009–2013)
TV-MA | 28 min | Comedy, Drama, Sport
Many years after he turned his back on his hometown, a burned-out major league ballplayer returns to teach Physical Education at his old middle school.
Stars: Danny McBride, Steve Little, Katy Mixon Greer, Elizabeth De Razzo
Votes: 64,171
This is soooooooooo funny, so unusually and refreshingly politically incorrect, so raw, so bad, I absolutely love it, though it also degrades towards the end. Didn't really like the last series where it becomes slapstick and dull and dumb.
20. Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama
An Atlantic City politician plays both sides of the law by conspiring with gangsters during the Prohibition era.
Stars: Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Shannon, Shea Whigham
Votes: 203,245
21. Gomorrah (2014–2021)
TV-MA | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Ciro disregards tradition in his attempt to become the next boss of his crime syndicate. The internal power struggle puts him and his entire family's life at risk.
Stars: Salvatore Esposito, Marco D'Amore, Ivana Lotito, Cristiana Dell'Anna
Votes: 44,488
22. House of Cards (1990)
TV-14 | 57 min | Drama
The schemes of a ruthlessly ambitious British politician who will stop at nothing to get to the top.
Stars: Ian Richardson, Susannah Harker, Miles Anderson, Alphonsia Emmanuel
Votes: 15,078
23. Band of Brothers (2001)
TV-MA | 59 min | Drama, History, War
The story of Easy Company of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division and their mission in World War II Europe, from Operation Overlord to V-J Day.
Stars: Scott Grimes, Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Shane Taylor
Votes: 527,884
24. In Treatment (2008–2021)
TV-MA | 25 min | Drama
A psychotherapist questions his abilities and gets help by reuniting with his old therapist, whom he has not seen for ten years.
Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Uzo Aduba, Dianne Wiest, Michelle Forbes
Votes: 18,291
25. House of Cards (2013–2018)
TV-MA | 50 min | Drama
A Congressman works with his equally conniving wife to exact revenge on the people who betrayed him.
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Michel Gill, Robin Wright, Kate Mara
Votes: 531,134
As with many series, I found this one's quality to degrade at the end of the second series. From there on it may surely have picked up again, but this is the risk of series that drag on and on, as in "the show must go on", they start off with a creative idea and lots of energy and then they often end up having to be kept alive like a coma patient, because nobody wants to pull the plug whist ratings are still good. Such series often remain good or sometimes very good, but still they're not as exceptional as they were in the beginning. I find Lena Dunham's "Girls" a very good example of this. The first series bursts with creativity and rawness - it was highly acclaimed, a big success, so it had be kept running. The characters became much more two-dimensional. The same happened with 24 and many others. A series that is limited from the beginning has a huge advantage in this respect, you can tell a story and then be done with it.
26. Atlanta (2016–2022)
TV-MA | 30 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Earn and his cousin, Alfred, try to make their way in the world through Atlanta's rap scene. Along the way they come face-to-face with social and economic issues touching on race, relationships, poverty, status and parenthood.
Stars: Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz
Votes: 88,134
27. Euphoria (2019– )
TV-MA | 55 min | Drama
A look at life for a group of high school students as they grapple with issues of drugs, sex, and violence.
Stars: Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Maude Apatow
Votes: 242,396
28. I Know This Much Is True (2020)
TV-MA | 63 min | Drama
Following the parallel lives of identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in a story of betrayal, sacrifice, and forgiveness.
Stars: Mark Ruffalo, John Procaccino, Rob Huebel, Gabe Fazio
Votes: 23,484
29. Succession (2018–2023)
TV-MA | 60 min | Comedy, Drama
The Roy family is known for controlling the biggest media and entertainment company in the world. However, their world changes when their father steps down from the company.
Stars: Nicholas Braun, Brian Cox, Kieran Culkin, Peter Friedman
Votes: 273,667
30. South Park (1997– )
TV-MA | 22 min | Animation, Comedy
Follows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.
Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Isaac Hayes, Mona Marshall
Votes: 406,180
31. Chernobyl (2019)
TV-MA | 41 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In April 1986, the city of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union suffers one of the worst nuclear disasters in the history of mankind. Consequently, many heroes put their lives on the line in the following days, weeks and months.
Stars: Jessie Buckley, Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Adam Nagaitis
Votes: 866,579
32. High Maintenance (2016–2020)
TV-MA | 30 min | Comedy, Drama
A comedy that explores the private lives of unique New York individuals through a common thread: their weed deliveryman.
Stars: Ben Sinclair, Kate Lyn Sheil, Britt Lower, Abdullah Saeed
Votes: 10,490
33. 24 (2001–2010)
TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Counter Terrorism Agent Jack Bauer races against the clock to subvert terrorist plots and save his nation from ultimate disaster.
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Carlos Bernard, Dennis Haysbert
Votes: 197,107
34. High Maintenance (2012–2015)
30 min | Comedy
A nameless cannabis delivery guy delivers his much-needed medication to stressed-out New Yorkers.
Stars: Ben Sinclair, Avery Monsen, Heléne Yorke, Candace Thompson
Votes: 5,087
35. Russian Doll (2019–2022)
TV-MA | 30 min | Comedy, Drama, Mystery
A cynical young woman in New York City keeps dying and returning to the party that's being thrown in her honor on that same evening. She tries to find a way out of this strange time loop.
Stars: Natasha Lyonne, Charlie Barnett, Greta Lee, Elizabeth Ashley
Votes: 107,191
36. Deadwood (2004–2006)
TV-MA | 60 min | Crime, Drama, History
A show set in the late 1800s, revolving around the characters of Deadwood, South Dakota; a town of deep corruption and crime.
Stars: Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker, Brad Dourif
Votes: 117,744
37. The Great (2020–2023)
TV-MA | 1,594 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A royal woman living in rural Russia during the 18th century is forced to choose between her own personal happiness and the future of Russia, when she marries an Emperor.
Stars: Elle Fanning, Phoebe Fox, Gwilym Lee, Adam Godley
Votes: 54,487
38. Braunschlag (2012)
45 min | Drama
To save his town from bankruptcy, the mayor of Braunschlag decides to fake a Marian apparition. This black-humored farce revolves around greed, corruption, Christianity, and alcohol.
Stars: Robert Palfrader, Maria Hofstätter, Nicholas Ofczarek, Nina Proll
Votes: 1,576
39. Watchmen (2019)
TV-MA | 59 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Set in an alternate history where masked vigilantes are treated as outlaws, Watchmen embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name, while attempting to break new ground of its own.
Stars: Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tom Mison, Sara Vickers
Votes: 134,399
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