The Sopranos is easily one of the greatest television shows of all time and is still being talked about today for its incredible story and iconic characters. One of the show’s standout features was its accessibility of violent and brutal story beats, provided by their R-rating.
Many shows have actually lived up to The Sopranos’ hype, following in their R-rated footsteps and becoming great television shows as well. While The Sopranos wasn’t the first, it was certainly one of the best.
The Wire Is a Masterpiece of Television
The Wire is widely regarded as one of the greatest television dramas ever made, taking place in the brutal and realistic landscape of Baltimore and its debilitating narcotics scene. Created by David Simon, the show features a large ensemble cast, including Dominic West, Idris Elba, Lance Reddick, Michael K. Williams, and many more. Its storytelling is incredibly layered and has a slow burn that offers a novelistic approach that rewards close attention. Rather than focusing solely on the crime aspect, the show explores the systems that perpetuate poverty and corruption.
Audiences and critics alike have loved The Wire for its intelligence, authenticity and moral complexity, which keep it relevant today. At the time of release, the show didn’t pull huge ratings, but it earned a devoted fan base over time. Its masterclass storytelling and incredible characters have helped keep this show alive in the pop-cultural stratosphere almost twenty years later, making The Wire one of the greatest gritty crime shows of all time.
Fans Loved the Twisted Tales of Hannibal
Hannibal Lecter is one of the most popular horror characters ever, largely due to Sir Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal in the Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs. However, audiences today have become fans of a new rendition of the classic story called Hannibal. Hugh Dancy stars as Will Graham, an extremely gifted criminal profiler tasked with hunting down the country’s most notorious and elusive killers. Helping him along the way is the incredible Mads Mikkelsen’s Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who secretly is one of these elusive killers himself.
The show sadly ended after only three seasons, but fans fell in love with the show quickly. The series unfolds similarly to the book, giving audiences a chance to see how dark and twisted the world of Hannibal can be, and to fully grasp Will and Hannibal’s close friendship. Even with so much violence and terrific, terrifying storytelling, audiences can’t help but enjoy Hannibal.
Audiences Love the Endearing Legacy of The Walking Dead
Based on the globally renowned comic, The Walking Dead is a gripping and emotionally tumultuous post-apocalyptic zombie series at the forefront of the zombie genre. Premiering in 2010, Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, wakes up in a world plagued with a new zombie outbreak and now must fight to survive. The show’s strongest point is not only its excellent horror but also the amazing characters and stories, focusing on the brutal survival drama.
The show has created several spinoffs, inspired many stories and is considered to be one of the most important tales in zombie and horror media. The series has even inspired several spinoff shows and comics all stemming from the story The Walking Dead has created. The Walking Dead is an incredible show.
Shameless Is a Hilarious Dramedy
There’s no show better at mixing hilarious situations and the harsh, dramatic realities of life better than Shameless. The show tells the story of the dysfunctional Gallagher family on the South Side of Chicago, led by the shameless and often drunk Frank, played by William H. Macy. Unfortunately, having to fend for themselves, his oldest child, Fiona, played by the incredible Emmy Rossum, must raise the family herself through any means necessary. Rossum is easily one of the greatest parts of the show, but the rest of the cast is also just as great, such as Jeremy Allen White’s Lip and Cameron Monaghan’s Ian.
Shameless ran for eleven seasons, balancing absurd comedy, dire emotional stakes, and a unique mix of grit and heart. It is a perfectly titled show, as the series isn’t afraid to show audiences the unfiltered, embarrassing side of familial drama. Thankfully, the series never shied away from the difficult issues and yet kept everything fun and relatable. Shameless is an incredible comedy series that audiences should check out.
Game of Thrones Is an Incredible Fantasy Epic
Game of Thrones took the world by storm in more ways than one. Even though the show is remembered more for its notorious ending, audiences still appreciate the series for its epic fantasy scope, medieval political intrigue and shocking twists fans never saw coming. Based on George R.R. Martin’s world-famous fantasy novels, the HBO series became a cultural phenomenon that ran for eight seasons. The show starred a massive cast of incredible talents, such as Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and many more.
As mentioned, the final season has become widely remembered for its disappointing ending, but Game of Thrones still preserves through the negative acclaim. Fans are still in love with incredible moments and episodes such as the Red Wedding and the Battle of the Bastards. The show fulfilled a much-desired fantasy epic that audiences were desperate to see. The show’s impact on television and fantasy storytelling has cemented Game of Thrones as one of the greatest shows of all time.
The Bear Feels Like a Culinary Panic Attack Every Episode
The Bear sees a young chef from the fine dining world, played by Jeremy Allen White, return to his hometown of Chicago to lead his family’s failing restaurant to glory. Ayo Edebiri co-leads the series alongside Ebon Moss-Bachrach, which ends up being a visually stunning amalgamation of comedy and drama. The many characters in the show and restaurant deal with their difficulties in life and traumatic pasts, particularly White’s character, who struggles to deal with his pain effectively.
For three seasons, audiences have enjoyed a range of episodes. Some arrive at around twenty minutes, which is the typical runtime of a series, and some end up being over an hour long. With the benefit of streaming, the series can make an episode and story as long and as short as it needs to be. Although 2024 and 2025 present stiff competition, The Bear has become a standout hit of modern television.
Dexter Morgan Is TV’s Greatest Serial Killer
Michael C. Hall stars as Dexter, a killer-hunting serial killer in Miami. By day, he’s a blood splatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department, stopping crime and working alongside his police officer sister, Debra. However, by night, Dexter takes to the streets and hunts down any killer trying to escape the law. For eight seasons, the Bay Harbor Butcher will slice up criminals and evade the watchful eye of the law, sometimes to absurd degrees, but audiences can’t get enough of it.
Dexter is a very violent and brutal show, connecting the audience with one of the most heartless and vicious protagonists in television. The show constantly has the audience questioning whether Dexter is doing the right thing, although that question has gotten lost over the seasons and spinoffs the show inspired. Dexter is an incredibly exciting, thrilling, dark show that audiences are still talking about today.
The Boys Is Diabolical
Amazon Prime struck gold when they greenlit Eric Kripke’s adaptation of The Boys, a brutal and violent comic telling the stories of an anti-superhero group. Many consider the series a stellar improvement on the original run, maintaining the same gritty, horrific storytelling and characters while embuing the plot with heavy-handed political references as they are important topical.
Karl Urban leads the series as Billy Butcher, a foul-mouthed Brit, alongside Jack Quaid’s Hughie, a sheepish underdog focused on writing the wrongs of superhero society. The story sees Billy assemble a gang to take down the world’s biggest superheroes. Behind the scenes, they’re actually some of the most violent and offensive criminals, only getting away with it because of their status. Easily the standout star of the series is Antony Starr, who plays the sick and twisted Homelander, a Superman-adjacent hero who is nefariously learning how unstoppable he really is. With such an exciting cliffhanger on season four, fans can’t wait to see where the Boys go next for their final season.
Mindhunter Reveals Serial Criminal Conspiracies
David Fincher takes a rare step into the television direction with Mindhunter, a series starring Jonathan Groff, Anna Torv and Fincher-main-stay Holt McCallany. The show, somewhat inspired by true events, tells the dark and eerie story of Holden Ford, an FBI agent who sees the potential to expand their knowledge of criminal psychology. With the help of agents Bill Tench and Wendy Carr, the three travel the country and interview violent serial killers in order to gain insight into how they think, which can be applied to the many open cases plaguing America.
Sadly, the show lasted only two seasons, but audiences couldn’t stop watching it when it first premiered. Even given its dark and twisted subject matter, fans fell in love with the characters and the stories told. The series never glorifies the true crime aspect of the series, giving audiences a brutal and honest depiction of the horrors the FBI witnesses on occasion. From the mind of David Fincher, Mindhunter is an incredible crime show that deserves more attention.
Breaking Bad Is Just as Good as The Sopranos
If there’s any worthy comparison to The Sopranos, it’s most definitely Breaking Bad. Walter White is a simple high school chemistry teacher and learns he’s diagnosed with an incurable disease. Fearing he’ll leave behind a family with no money, he makes the rash decision to use his chemistry knowledge for crime and create a drug empire alongside his former student, Jesse Pinkman. Fans have called Breaking Bad one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are just two of the incredible performers to star in this series. The story alone is a complex and brilliant masterpiece that audiences are still enjoying today, as the show is just as popular as it was when it premiered. Breaking Bad’s legendary series has created spinoffs such as Better Call Saul and El Camino, both continuing the beloved legacy of the show. If there’s any show that could match The Sopranos, it would be Breaking Bad.
