#1. The Sopranos
HBO
The show that changed TV drama went out not with a
bang — well, famously, it went out with nothing at all — but its final
string of episodes were as searing, literate and unflinching as any
since its first season. David Chase stripped the show down, one
unsentimentally eliminated character at a time, to its dark core: a
study of a fascinating, evil man. As brutal in its family-vacation
scenes as in its gangland whackings, this final season left us with
nothing, and everything.