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The 20 Best TV Dramas Since "The Sopranos"

 Several months ago--celebrating one "Sopranos" anniversary or another--the NYTimes chose the twenty "best" TV dramas post-Tony-and-Carmela.


Some of the choices were predictable: "The West Wing," "Deadwood," "The Good Wife," "The Wire," "The Leftovers." Other choices surprised me: "Grey's Anatomy," "Atlanta" (which is not exactly a drama), "Veronica Mars."


A special treat at the end. Several critics offered bits of dissent, as if they were Supreme Court Justices. The dissents tended to have one flavor: "I know people are breathless about A Certain Relentlessly Serious Show, but I also know of something that's much more fun...."


So, for example: "People in thick, scholarly glasses get excited about 'Rectify'.....but watching makes me want to gouge out my own eyes....."


Or....."I'm certainly *meant* to enjoy 'The Leftovers'.....but do you know that feeling you get when you're watching paint dry?"


These critics would then switch in "guilty pleasures," the shows they really *wanted* on the list. "Justified," "Game of Thrones," "Southland."


My advice? Go right for the guilty pleasures. I especially recommend "Southland," which has some overheated dialogue, but which also has the glorious Regina King, doing her subtle, graceful thing, long, long before she would go on to win an Oscar. These are good writers. One story has King (a cop) noticing a trail of ants by a locked door. Later, elsewhere, she sees ants by the corpse of a cockroach. Ants like dead flesh! King returns to the scene of the original ant trail--and, of course, there is a human body just inches from where she is standing.


In another scene, we hear a steady hum of tension in a house, and we don't pay close attention, because the other characters don't pay close attention. (Let the husband and wife sort that out!) The scene ends with a shocking murder. A brilliant way of playing with viewer expectations.


A final thought on this NYTimes list. Several choices are correct--and the praise for "Enlightened" is especially correct. That's a show that doesn't always get adequate attention. It deserves to be watched and rewatched. My two cents.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/arts/television/best-drama-series.html

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