19. “A Teacher” (2020)

What it is: Claire Wilson (Kate Mara) is an Austin-area high school teacher. Amidst some choppy seas in her marriage, she lets a flirtation with one of her students progress to a dangerous place. 

Why you should watch it: Much like her 2013 debut feature, Hannah Fidell’s ten-episode expansion of this story is decidedly aromanticized. There’s a delicate line that the show walks between showing how Claire and Eric’s (Nick Robinson) interactions begin from a recognizable place and evolve into something completely destructive. Rather than hang this series on a “forbidden love” approach, “A Teacher” is a portrait of someone presented with a destructive set of possibilities and selfishly subjecting everyone in both of their lives to the consequences. It’s not an easy watch, but the power lies in the way it’s able to follow through to an uneasy, earned, and devastating conclusion. 

Our interview with Fidell and Mara, talking about how they focused on telling this story with honesty and care. 

18. “This Fool” (2022-present)

What it is: An employee (Chris Estrada) at an organization designed to help formerly incarcerated people has his life upended when his cousin (Frankie Quiñones) comes home from prison to live with him. Forced together, the two of them relive some of their shared past and try to help keep Hugs Not Thugs afloat. 

Why you should watch it: If this was just your typical comedy about mismatched family members trying to outlast and outmaneuver each other, there would be more than enough jokes here to keep it going. But even in the sunniest days in South Central Los Angeles, there’s a slightly darker, weirder energy waiting to bubble up at a moment’s notice. It’s what you’d expect from a show that shares so much of its creative DNA with the “Corporate” braintrust. But it’s also a testament to the flexibility of Estrada, Quiñones, and Michael Imperioli, who each bring an enthusiasm to carry “This Fool” through its wackiest highs and the empathy for all the emotional honesty that comes in between. Plus, there’s cupcakes! 

17. “High Fidelity” (2020)

What it is: Adapting both Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel and the Stephen Frears movie it spawned five years after that, this updated spin follows record store owner Rob (Zoë Kravitz) through her respective passions for music and romantic partners who break her heart. As she reaches the threshhold of being with Mac (Kingsley Ben-Adir), a relationship that just might work, the steadfast employees (Da’Vine Joy Randolph and David H. Holmes) at Championship Vinyl face their own daily life challenges. 

Why you should watch it: It’s one of the TV world’s biggest 2020-related “what if”s, wondering whether a normal production environment could have given this show the second-season breathing room for its romances, friendships, and thoughts on maintaining artistic integrity in a world intent on snuffing it out. Kravitz, Ben-Adir, and Randolph have each thrived in other roles since, but it sure would have been fun to see more of them and the rest of this easy ensemble succeed as a unit. The episodes we did get feel like a music-centered show that wasn’t content with merely playing the hits.

After the season ended, but before the show was prematurely canceled, series co-creator Veronica West and Sarah Kucerska offered a glimpse into what Season 2 would have looked like. 

16. “Harlots” (2017-2019)

What it is: London in the 18th century is the battleground for a pair of rival businesswomen (Samantha Morton and Lesley Manville) owning competing brothels in different parts of the city. Even though they and their employees cater to a different kind of clientele, they both still have to weather the rising antagonism of the city’s religious zealots and their allies. 

Why you should watch it: Maybe it’s a cliche to say that “Harlots” is really about power, but there are few shows that take an unromanticized approach to life in the 1760s that isn’t also built on misery. There’s an acknowledgment of a system offering women far fewer opportunities than the men controlling the various levers of government. Yet “Harlots” makes room for a rivalry where these women have something to lose because they actually have something to start with. Their struggles are presented as a workplace drama, free from condescension or judgment. 

Some Season 3 thoughts (four-year-old spoilers ahead!) from Jessica Brown-Findlay, whose Charlotte Wells became one of the other cornerstones of the series. 

15. “The Handmaid’s Tale” (2017-present)

What it is: Set in a future where a theocratic sect has seized control of American life, June (Elisabeth Moss) tries to escape a life of servitude and start the chain reaction that might put a dent in the dystopian order surrounding her. Standing in her way: members up and down the new Gilead hierarchy, including the brutal and unforgiving Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd).

Why you should watch it: After five seasons (and with a sixth and final on the way), it’s almost difficult to talk about “The Handmaid’s Tale” as just a show and not a platform-morphing phenomenon. Its runaway popularity came against a backdrop of widespread national uncertainty and became a momentary standard-bearer for a changing face of prestige TV. Despite the shifting expectations, it’s still a stunning feat of transformation to see how the show’s design team was able to take recognizable American landmarks and turn them into Gilead’s sinister shadows. It’s bleak and unrelenting, but given what the show is and what it came to represent, it’s pretty much the only way it could have existed. 

Go behind the scenes of some of the biggest Season 2 production design feats, including a dramatic revamp of an iconic Boston venue. 

14. “Only Murders in the Building” (2021-present)

What it is: Bonded by their mutual love of true crime podcasts, a trio of residents (Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez) of a stylish New York apartment building work together to figure out the truth behind the death of a young man who also lived there. Each new season brings another deadly mystery to solve. 

Why you should watch it: We’re coming up on nearly a decade of “Serial” parodies and veiled references, yet none of them have quite mastered the mixture of light touch and self-examination that this series has. With a sincere approach to a fraught subgenre, “Only Murders” has somehow managed to have its true crime cake and stab it too, a feat made a lot easier when you have the effortless rapport that these three performers seem to have with each other. What really puts it over the top is that overriding sense of style: If you’re gonna go after a killer, you might as well look immaculate while doing it.

An overview of how that style came together, courtesy of production designer Curt Beech, composer Siddhartha Khosla, and costume designer Dana Covarrubias.

13. “Mrs. America” (2020)

What it is: The ’70s-era fight to pass the Equal Rights Amendment gets a kaleidoscopic view through the women who fought for it and against it. One one side: public service pioneers like Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba) and Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale). On the other: Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett), who built a movement around retrenching reactionary ideas in American politics. 

Why you should watch it: There’s a value in seeing this decades-long fight through the eyes of multiple women at the center of it all. Aduba and Martindale bring their own strength to the overall efforts, as does Rose Byrne in a memorable turn as Gloria Steinem, and the series’ various composite characters also manage to pay tribute to various undersung ERA champions. As for Schlafly, via a locked-in Blanchett, series creator Dahvi Waller helps paint a figure in recent history who embodies the tried-and-true American archetype of a gifted strategist who uses their power against their own self-interest to spite the overall advancement of the country itself. 

12. “The Bisexual” (2018)

What it is: The crumbling of a decade-long relationship with her business partner Sadie (Maxine Peake) causes Leila (Desiree Akhavan) to reevaulate her life. As Leila starts to be honest with herself about her sexuality, telling the truth to her friends proves a lot harder than she thought. 

Why you should watch it: These six episodes are a perfect showcase for Akhavan’s distinct ability — here the director, star, and co-writer with Cecilia Frugiuele — to combine funny and frank. The show is brimming with ideas that complement Leila’s personal journey: what you owe another person, how to deal with loneliness, learning to accept yourself before you can ask others to do the same. In all, “The Bisexual” is the best possible argument for giving gifted storytellers the extra space and runtime to let all of their characters have their own breathing room. When you have people like Akhavan, Peake, Saskia Chana, and Brian Gleeson, who can sell the punchlines and heartbreak with equal ease, it’s enough to make you wish that this was just one season of many. 

11. “Difficult People” (2015-2017)

What it is: Drifting through a transforming mid-2010s New York entertainment scene, aspiring writer Julie (Julie Klausner) and aspiring comedian Billy (Billy Eichner) encounter both failures and tiny successes. Regardless of their fortunes, they take comfort in each other and their favorite shared pasttime: making fun of people with a certain amount of success. 

Why you should watch it: After seven years, it’s strange to think that there are parts of this show that already serve as their own small time capsules. But overall, “Difficult People” is like a set of finely crafted kitchen knives that never need sharpening. If Julie and Billy delight in their own occasional savagery, there’s an added layer that the show doesn’t really spare their characters either. Even though that led to an oddly warm show at many points, this was not a space for faux uplift or pulled punches. Underneath all the jokes aimed at people in positions of power deployed in classic sitcom setups, there was often something just as pointed about what drives people to entertain in the first place. 

10. “Casual” (2015-2018)

What it is: A window into LA-area dating, courtesy of a trio of mismatched family members: recently-porced Valerie (Michaela Watkins), her high-schooler daughter Laura (Tara Lynne Barr) and her start-up founder, commitmentphobe younger brother Alex (Tommy Dewey). Taking turns between helping and lambasting each new life choice, the three of them find their fates and their happiness increasingly tied to each other. 

Why you should watch it: It’s really hard to build a show around someone listless without the rest of the show feeling the same way. Mutliply that by three and you have the Herculean task that this show invited upon itself. Yet, through all of the failed romances and missed chances and Last Super Bowls Ever, “Casual” always knew what to expect from these three, even when those characters didn’t know what to expect from themselves. And when Valerie, Alex, and Laura went down paths that made it difficult for the audience to follow, in stepped the incomparable Leon (Nyasha Hatendi) and Leia (Julie Berman), who showed that the growth and depth of this show wasn’t just restricted to one branch of a single family tree. 

A journey through the series’ phenomenal soundtrack, courtesy of music supervisor Tricia Halloran. 

9. “PEN15” (2019-2021)

What it is: Drawing from their own middle-school experiences, Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle star as 13-year-old versions of themselves, facing every Y2K-era anxiety from unrequited crushes to their parents’ difficult marriages to the daunting possibilities of AOL Instant Messenger. 

Why you should watch it: Anyone who was even remotely near their age in the late ’90s and early ’00s will find an eerily recreated preteen universe with all the simple highs and seemingly life-destroying problems that come from a school environment where everyone’s changing and miserable in their own way. Yet, Konkle and Erskine’s performances radiate so much with the happiness and carefree nature of endless possibility. Like so many other shows on this list where the premise is more of a suggestion than an instruction, the pair of them (alongside incredible supporting performances from folks like Richard Karn, Melora Walters, Taylor Nichols, and Mutsuko Erskine) give this show the flexibility to tackle silliness, pain, and pure imagination from episode to episode. 

One of the show’s biggest secrets? Finding the right kids to go alongside Erskine and Konkle. 

8. “Devs” (2020)

What it is: A promising young engineer (Sonoya Mizuno) snags a job on a mysterious secret development team at a respected Bay Area startup. As she goes deeper into what enigmatic CEO Forest (Nick Offerman) and the tightknit crew are trying to accomplish, it tests the limits of what everyone is willing to accept. 

Why you should watch it: Anyone who’s seen any of Alex Garland’s other work knows that this was not going to be a casual jaunt through a tale of Silicon Valley hubris. Over eight episodes, “Devs” takes some familiar ingredients — grieving parents, a missing partner, workplace misfits — and molds it into something that tackles humanity’s biggest questions without disappearing inside itself. “Devs” becomes a narrative told in fractals, spinning out from single possibilities into characters’ own self-contained worlds. It’s a puzzle better admired than solved, with the craft and specificity necessary to offer something for those who still go searching nevertheless. 

For those who’ve taken the journey, here’s Garland and some of the finale’s key players on some of the ending’s mammoth questions. 

7. “Reservation Dogs” (2021-present)

What it is: A quartet of friends on the verge of adulthood (and still mourning the sudden death of their friend and family member Daniel) tackle daily life in their Oklahoma neighborhood, with dreams of what their lives might soon become. 

Why you should watch it: There’s a versatility and freedom to “Reservation Dogs” in taking life as it comes. Some days are filled with concerts or hunting, some with failed robbery attempts, and others with trying to reverse a witch’s curse. Devery Jacobs, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, and Paulina Alexis have that immediate and effortless feel of a chosen family, playing characters united by shared triumphs and sorrow. All of their ups and downs take place right in that fertile middle ground between feeling attached to home and wanting to leave. Even as the Rez Dogs sometimes feel the pull of a life outside of their hometown, the show itself gives plenty of reasons to keep returning. 

A tour through Oklahoma’s influences on the show, courtesy of showrunner Sterlin Harjo.

6. “The Bear” (2022-present)

What it is: Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) takes over the family restaurant after the sudden death of his brother. While trying to unite a disgruntled kitchen staff (played by a stellar group that includes Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Lionel Boyce) and tweak the menu in his own image, Carmy discovers that the restaurant’s prospects were in even more dire condition than he thought.

Why you should watch it: The Berzatto family drama gives the first season of this show its overall shape, but the strength of “The Bear” is in the moment. Forged in the sweat-drenched, pot-clanging din of the Original Beef’s prep area, few shows on TV wring as much tension out of the immediate demands of just staying afloat. For as much as the show recreates the nervous anxiety of a lunch rush or a cramped walkway near open flames, there’s also plenty of time in the show’s calmer moments for some meaningful discussion about the nature of family and the price of culinary (and artistic) perfection. 

5. “This Way Up” (2019-2021)

What it is: After a stint at a psyhciatric hospital, Áine (Aisling Bea) tries to find her footing in her life. Through her job as an ESL teacher, her relationship with her sister Shona (Sharon Horgan), and a handful of romantic start-and-stops, she sees a glimmer of happiness with the arrival of a tutee’s father (Tobias Menzies). 

Why you should watch it: In the growing TV subgenre of “women trying to take control of their life after a massive, unexpected change,” “This Way Up” stands out largely in part to Bea’s on-screen energy. Áine’s dark sense of humor does come hand in hand with a playfulness that helps the show not be solely defined by the past. As things progress over the course of two seasons, it becomes a comedy about a person learning to accept the possibility of being OK. It’s sweet and goofy and profound, with an engine of genuine laughs keeping everything a steady pace. 

A tribute to Áine and Shona, two of the best on-screen sisters you’ll find anywhere. 

4. “The First” (2018)

What it is: Roughly twenty years in the future, humanity is on the verge of the first manned mission to Mars. One veteran astronaut (Sean Penn) thrust into a leadership position has to weigh the physical demands of the voyage, the CEO funding the expedition (Natasha McElhone), and his fraught relationship with the daughter (Anna Jacoby-Heron) he’d be leaving behind. 

Why you should watch it: Everything that made this show hard for audiences to wrap their head around is why it’s still worth revisiting as a self-contained season. It’s not at the mercy of sci-fi spectacle, it has inventiveness put to a real grounded use, the ensemble (LisaGay Hamilton! Bill Camp! Keiko Agena!) never disappoints, and the Colin Stetson score is an absolute all-timer. Wrangling all of these disparate elements into something that stays true to the emotions it demands is what makes this soar where so many similar ambitious shows have left their fuel tanks empty. 

Series creator Beau Willimon spoke about his personal connection to the show and what it took to assemble the show’s impressive collection of directors. 

3. “The Great” (2020-present)

What it is: The life of Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning) gets a semi-true telling, stretching many of the details about her marriage to Peter III (Nicholas Hoult) and their Russian reign. It’s the kind of bridge between royal history and modern sensibilities that you’d expect from showrunner Tony McNamara (who also wrote the similar-in-tone “The Favourite”).

Why you should watch it: For those who like their monarch biographies with a large helping of wealth satire, there’s plenty bufoonish opulence here to dig into. Under that extravagance, though, is a fantastic one-on-one between Catherine’s eagerness for societal improvement and Peter’s arrested development that’s evolved well beyond its goofy openings. There’s betrayal and sacrifice and bloodshed that still have weight to them, even from the relative remove of the imperial palace. (And don’t sleep on Belinda Bromilow and Phoebe Fox, who are each luxuriating in their own world-class comedic performances.)

For a series where tone is so crucial, composer Nathan Barr, costume designer Sharon Long, and production designer Francesca Di Mottola discuss what keeps everyone in sync. 

2. “Normal People” (2020)

What it is: Over roughly six hours, this adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel follows the fates of Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), as they move between uneasy school acquaintances, secret lovers, unlikely friends, and all the messy and beautiful grey areas in between.

Why you should watch it: Each episode of “Normal People” really does feel like a new chapter, charting their course through different stages of lives tied to each other, whether they’re cognizant of it or not. There’s real passion in their time together, even when both of these main characters protect themselves by keeping each other at a kind of chilly remove. It’s once the show moves on to show their time apart that “Normal People” taps into the aching reality of what it might mean to have someone in your life that can never really leave, despite your (or the world’s) best efforts. 

Rooney and director Lenny Abrahamson delve into the delicate art of adaptation. 

1. “Ramy” (2019-present)

What it is: Ramy (Ramy Youssef) is searching for real human connection in a world making it harder and harder to find. He, his family, and his friends constantly juggle faith, acceptance, and self-discovery, through journeys that span continents, genres, and states of mind. 

Why you should watch it: Over three seasons, “Ramy” has adjusted to an ever-changing world. Some of those changes come from Ramy himself, entering different stages of devotion as his life contorts around him. But the true strength of “Ramy” is that everyone around him has the ability to be the show’s beating heart. Ramy’s parents Maysa and Farouk (the incomparable Hiam Abbass and Amr Waked), his sister Dena (May Calamawy), and a bevy of friends old and new each bring a new perspective and their own antidote to Ramy’s confusion. Still, every “Ramy” answer leads to a handful of new questions, a process that makes the whole series richer and an experience that — after three impeccable seasons — has shown absolutely no sign of slowing. 

Yousef spoke about the show’s most recent season and how “Ramy” has learned to capitalize on the strengths of all its strongest characters.