I wrote here how TV series have become the best vehicles for storytelling. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Breaking Bad. Walt is a good guy facing a terrible thing: lung cancer. When he leaves this earth he’d like to leave his family unsaddled by poverty and debts. So he makes a bad choice. One bad choice leads to another. Pretty soon he’s not a good guy anymore. He’s evil incarnate. His loving wife, disabled son and DEA brother-in-law are all memorable supporting characters on his trip to hell.

2. The Americans. A Russian spy couple living in New Jersey in the 80s pretends to be American. Their two kids don’t know who they really are, and neither does the FBI agent living across the street, who befriends the guy. Between this set up and the fact that the characters are fully drawn, the tension is so relentlessly intense that it’s hard to watch. But you can’t look away, because the show is great. It’s also got good 80s period touches, including awesome disguises. (Disclosure: one of the writers Stephen Schiff is an old friend.)

3. The Sopranos. This is the show that started the Golden Age of Television, though credit should also be given to series like NYPD Blue, Homicide: Life in the Streets and Hill Street Blues. And in Tony Soprano it introduced the first in a long line of TV anti-heroes. A mark of the show’s genius is that ten years later, people are still arguing about the ending. Here’s an interview with its creator David Simon on the twentieth anniversary of its creation. He channels his own inner Tony, pulling no punches.

4. Mad Men. While the Americans is tangentially a period drama, in Mad Men the bad old 1960s star right alongside Jon Hamm, Elizabeth Moss and all the other fine actors. I lived through that time, and though I wasn’t in advertising, the historical details—Selectric typewriters, a picnicking family just leaving their trash on the grass, Don’s daughter with one lens of her glasses covered to encourage the weak eye— are so spookily authentic that I sometime feel like I can taste the crappy coffee.

5. The Wire. Characters and gritty life don’t get any realer than this on the small or big screen. I was born and spent my first 4 ½ years in Baltimore, just enough time so that I feel it evoking vague fragments of memory. But that’s probably just the quality of the show speaking to me.

6. Game of Thrones. The cream of the British acting crop, acting their butts off in astonishing real world locations make this show as enormous as any Hollywood epic. It’s very violent with (arguably) gratuitous nudity. What makes it impossible not to watch is that the stakes are higher than in most dramas. That’s because any character—even the most noble, most beloved—can die at any moment. And then there are those dragons….

7. The Bridge (Danish/Swedish version. The cleverly gruesome open of this dual country/language police drama hooks you into four riveting seasons centered around the unforgettable character Saga Noren (played by Sofia Helin.) She clearly suffers Asperger’s (thought the writers artfully never mention the word.) At the same time, she’s a brilliant investigator. Luscious cinematography and haunting music help put this one over the top. (Note: there are several other versions which take place between other countries. I haven’t watched, but hear they’re not as good.)

8. MI-5 is the British equivalent of the FBI. Every season’s got a ticking bomb about to take out London. The amazing thing is that the writers keep it interesting through 8 out of 9 seasons. There’s never a dull moment or line of slack dialog. (Until the last season, which is sadly a dud – they should have followed the example of The Beatles and quit when they were ahead.)

9. Happy Valley. This British crime drama is set in an idyllic country town. The irony implicit in the title is immediately obvious—not only is the place crawling with depraved criminals, but the protagonist police sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) is haunted by the suicide of her daughter and the fact that the creep who raped her, driving her to it, has just gotten out of prison. For a show starring a woman and written masterfully by one (Sally Wainwright), it’s incredibly violent. And rather than the cartoon stacking up of bodies you find in Hollywood films, this stuff is visceral.

10. Better Call Saul. The first season felt odd and spotty. Some of it brilliant, and some of it huh? By Season Two I figured my reaction to the first came from having not caught up with the magicians who created it– Vince Gillian and Peter Gould. As a writer I have no idea how they do what they do. The pacing often feels insanely slow, yet the show is deeply satisfying. I guess there’s no accounting for genius.

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