Television creates endless content for audiences to enjoy, and there are increasingly high standards when it comes to new series, especially of a dramatic nature. Television dramas are still viewed as prestige programming and the easiest way for a network or streaming service to improve its reputation. A compelling drama with a strong hook can lure audiences and keep them entertained for many years.
Alternatively, a shoddy drama series is often easy to recognize and avoid. Unfortunately, there are still scenarios where a groundbreaking TV drama quickly wears out its welcome, burns through its good ideas, and attempts to mix things up through wild storytelling tangents. Many strong television dramas wind up going off the rails and losing their audience.
10 Riverdale
7 Seasons, 118 Episodes (Ongoing)
Riverdale is arguably the most emblematic of any drama that fully throws caution to the wind and embraces weird, wild mayhem. The CW’s Riverdale started as an edgy update to the Archie Comics property, functioning as a pseudo-Twin Peaks small-town murder mystery.
Each season of Riverdale has grown more absurd, with serial killers, cults, and supernatural creatures rounding out the storytelling. Riverdale’s sixth season goes so far as to dabble in multiverse storytelling, turning its entire cast into superpowered individuals. The show’s seventh and final season literally sends everyone back to the ‘50s, as if to recreate the events of the original comics.
9 Killing Eve
4 Seasons, 32 Episodes
Killing Eve begins as a gripping game of cat and mouse between Eve, a listless spy, and Villanelle, an infamous and unpredictable assassin. Phoebe Waller-Bridge crafts a smart story that’s action-packed and introspective, but also heavily embraces the chemistry between Sanda Oh and Jodie Comer. Killing Eve‘s first season ends with a satisfying twist, but a new showrunner and contrasting objectives for each subsequent season gradually dilute the show’s formula.
The ongoing back and forth between Eve and Villanelle is laborious and implausible by the fourth season, where both characters feel like broad caricatures of their former selves. Their exhilarating spy game goes out with a messy whimper.
8 Homeland
8 Seasons, 96 Episodes
Homeland tells the ongoing story of Carrie Mathison, a CIA agent who finds herself uniquely suited to protect America’s national security once she grows suspicious of a returning marine, Nicholas Brody. Homeland‘s first three seasons chronicle Mathison’s complicated relationship with Brody, which reaches its tragic endpoint after three seasons.
Homeland goes on for five more seasons and experiences growing pains as it continues to denigrate Carrie’s character. Homeland actually wraps things up with a solid final season, but it’s at the cost of so many shelved supporting characters and a ruinous personal life for its protagonist.
7 Hannibal
3 Seasons, 39 Episodes
Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal remains a remarkable accomplishment in genre network television, and it’s truly impressive that this series lasted for as long as it did, let alone on NBC. The first few episodes of Hannibal are the series at its most episodic, as Will Graham hunts dark but still somewhat grounded killers. Hannibal reaches such heights that each murderer crafts intricate death tableaus that prioritize artistry over logic.
Hannibal stays true to itself, but its third season gets increasingly impressionistic and often indulges in style over substance. These flourishes and the final note that Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter go out on are wild ways to end a story.
6 Bones
12 Seasons, 246 Episodes
Bones is a serviceable police procedural that finds strength through its odd couple pairing of Emily Deschanel’s forensic anthropologist and David Boreanaz’s science-averse special agent. Unfortunately, Bones’ desire to deliver needless twists would often come at the expense of its characters and storytelling.
One of the show’s main characters is revealed to be a serial killer in a turn that doesn’t make any sense and is more concerned with shock value. It’s this sensational storytelling that turns Bones brittle during its later seasons. Somehow a crossover with Family Guy‘s Stewie Griffin even occurs.
5 You
4 Seasons, 40 Episodes (Ongoing)
You is a dark subversion of flowery romances where its protagonist, Joe Goldberg, is a deeply deluded serial killer who views stalking and manipulation as part of the courting process. You is a fascinating study of an unreliable narrator, but Joe’s actions and values get looser each season.
By the show’s third season, You begins to repeat its greatest hits and later resorts to international escapes, false identities, and more incredulous complications. You has been renewed for a fifth and final season, albeit with new showrunners steering Joe’s journey, which means that his swan song could be the wildest season yet.
4 Person Of Interest
Five Seasons, 103 Episodes
One part Law & Order, another Minority Report, Person of Interest is a smart and sci-fi friendly procedural crime series created by Jonathan Nolan of Westworld fame. Person of Interest starts as a grounded drama with some more mysterious elements when it comes to its enigmatic, “The Machine.”
Gradually, Person of Interest morphs into a series about a growing sentient artificial intelligence that finds itself in danger from another rogue A.I. The apocalyptic and sci-fi-heavy direction of the final seasons – including an episode that’s from the perspective of The Machine – goes wildly off the rails, but in the best way possible.
3 Shameless
11 Seasons, 134 Episodes
Showtime has developed some cutting-edge dramas, but the cable network often extends their successful series far beyond their shelf life. Shameless is a scrappy family drama set in Chicago that fully emerges from the shadow of its British source material.
The struggles of the Gallagher family feel real and grounded during the show’s start, but a lack of a grander vision and the loss of crucial cast members like Emmy Rossum is seriously felt. Shameless goes on for so long that any sense of progress these characters make eventually gets painfully erased. It’s enjoyable to see the cast grow up on television, but it results in sloppy, aimless storytelling.
2 24
9 Seasons, 204 Episodes, 1 TV Movie
24 is one of television’s most popular American espionage- and counterterrorism-themed dramas, and it’s very much a response to the country’s politics coming into the 2000s. 24 is incredibly ambitious television wherein every installment plays out in real-time while Keifer Sutherland’s Jack Bauer does everything in his power to prevent a terrorist attack.
24‘s success is its biggest obstacle, and after more than 200 episodes, it’s just impossible for 24 to create terror scenarios that aren’t ridiculous. Constant betrayals, executions, and the return of presumed-dead characters turn 24 into a soap opera and Jack Bauer into a superhero.
1 Dexter
8 Seasons, 96 Episodes
It’s always a disappointment when a strong television series overstays its welcome and doesn’t just end on a weak note, but one that largely invalidates all of its previous successes. Dexter has an exciting hook where the titular character moonlights as a serial killer, albeit one who only takes out other murderers and criminals. Each season of Dexter, especially following season four, feels the need to reset the table.
This means that any possible love interest, ally, or enemy comes and goes without a significant impact. Dexter’s enemies and his behavior grow progressively clumsy, all of which culminate in an all-time low of a finale.