10 Most Ambitious TV Shows of All Time

Maybe there was a time when TV was seen as inferior to cinema, and maybe overall, it still is (it does kind of depend on what you’re after, entertainment-wise), but there are undoubtedly shows now that rival movies. Some shows rival great books, too, which might be the better medium to compare television to, since a book – or a series of books – can take hours upon hours to get through, and the same goes for a multi-season-long TV show.

Some of the following shows helped further the idea of television being great/cinematic art, beyond something more disposable that you might’ve tuned into weekly for light entertainment. These all rank among the most ambitious TV shows ever made, and while that’s not exactly the same as singling out the best TV shows ever made, there is, undeniably, quite a bit of crossover between two such rankings.

10

‘Deadwood’ (2004–2006)

Image via HBO

There probably isn’t a Western series better than Deadwood, though calling it a TV Western and leaving it at that is also doing it a disservice, since it works as a fantastic crime/drama series as well (one that just so happens to be set during Old West times. It has some basis in history, with Deadwood being a real town and many of the characters being based on people who actually lived there in the 1870s.

Of course, that’s far back enough that not everything was documented, so Deadwood isn’t – and doesn’t try to be – 100% historically accurate. It’s fantastically written and acted, and then on a technical front, it’s also very impressive, putting that HBO money/production value to good use (and it’s definitely not going to be the only HBO show mentioned here).

9

’24’ (2001–2010)

Image via FOX

24 ran for eight full-length seasons, each 24 episodes long, and each one of those episodes covered an hour in real-time… for the most part. Commercial breaks meant the episodes weren’t literally an hour long, but whenever it would cut to commercials, the events of the show would continue playing out, albeit off-screen. And so much would happen within every single season/day.

There was a ninth season called 24: Live Another Day, and that was 12 episodes long, but still retained the real-time storytelling, just with a time skip right near the season’s end. 24 was also pretty boundary-pushing in terms of its content, being very violent and dark for a network TV show, and also surprisingly willing to bump off major characters who weren’t Jack Bauer (he was kind of the only person with permanent plot armor) at just about any time.

8

‘The Rehearsal’ (2022–2025)

Image via HBO

It’s a bit hard to summarize The Rehearsal, even more so than was the case with Nathan Fielder’s Nathan for You, which is similarly funny and clever, but not nearly as mind-bending. The Rehearsal is about as good as meta comedies have ever gotten, at least on television, with the second season (about airline safety… just go with it) being especially mind-blowing.

The first season of The Rehearsal felt a bit looser, like the direction of it was sort of made up as things went along, but the second season does feel more purposeful, albeit in a way that still feels spontaneous, at least at times. That’s very in line with Nathan Fielder, to not know whether you’re seeing something scripted, completely real, or in the middle somewhere, but The Rehearsal (and especially the second season) has him pushing all that to extremes that really do feel quite groundbreaking.

7

‘Twin Peaks’ (1990–1991, 2017)

Image via ABC

The history of Twin Peaks, in terms of how and when it aired, is quite unconventional, which is fitting, considering the sort of show it was. Twin Peaks is noted for being an initial phenomenon, despite being – or maybe because it was – unlike anything else on TV at the time, owing to the whole thing being surreal, dark, sometimes funny, and ambitious with how many characters it followed.

There was a strong mystery that likely hooked a lot of people, and then that mystery was resolved effectively, but too soon, and then the show was canceled after two seasons… all before being brought back for a third season, dubbed Twin Peaks: The Return, over a quarter of a century later. And Twin Peaks: The Return really is one of the most out-there and groundbreaking pieces of television ever, feeling like pure undiluted David Lynch (plus Mark Frost, who was the co-creator of the show who sometimes gets overshadowed by Lynch), for better or worse.

6

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997–2003)

Image via The WB

As far as special effects went, Buffy the Vampire Slayer did its best, for the time and with the money it had. It’s not as technically dazzling as many of the other shows being mentioned here, but it having a go at bringing so many different supernatural creatures to life, pretty much weekly, counts for something. But in any event, it’s really what Buffy the Vampire Slayer was going for narratively and thematically that makes it stand out as notably ambitious.

It’s a show that initially took place in high school, and then had its characters graduate, with the show’s back half being about young adulthood. So, it’s a coming-of-age narrative that spans more time than most coming-of-age stories, and then it touches upon a huge number of topics throughout, all the while balancing so many genres all at once. Honestly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was pretty much every genre, at one point or another, across seven seasons, and the balancing of all that stuff throughout was immense.

5

‘Cowboy Bebop’ (1998–1999)

Image via Toonami

Speaking of shows that can count themselves as part of every genre, at one point or another, here’s Cowboy Bebop, which manages to do all that genre-hopping within a single season of 26 episodes. It’s about a crew of bounty hunters traveling throughout the Solar System, essentially, so with every new target, there is the chance to go somewhere fresh and mix things up tonally, but Cowboy Bebop does manage to have an overall narrative at the same time.

There are character arcs and one central antagonist, and that main storyline – though not touched upon in every episode – is incredibly compelling, and balanced well against some amazing episodes of a more standalone nature. Cowboy Bebop really does feel ideal in terms of having single episodes that stand out and an amazing ongoing storyline, and that it does all that while having incredible (and varied) animation/music alongside homages to so many different genres and types of movies out there really does make it an all-timer, whether you want to judge it among anime or all TV shows more generally.

4

‘Lost’ (2004–2010)

Image via ABC

Twin Peaks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and 24 were all incredibly groundbreaking by the standards of network television, but it was Lost that arguably pushed what you could do on a non-cable show to its absolute limits. It began as a TV show about people trapped on an island after their plane crashed there, though before too long, it turned out Lost was about much more than just survival in a Lord of the Flies kind of way.

Lost had fantasy/supernatural elements, increasingly complex science fiction ideas, mysteries that kept piling upon mysteries, and all the while, it was thrilling as an action/adventure series, too. It was also bold in how it told its progressively wilder story, with flashbacks, flash-forwards, time travel, and eventually some “flash sideways” too. And then it also looked tremendously cinematic, and balanced a greater number of important characters than the majority of long-running TV dramas out there, too.

3

‘The Sopranos’ (1999–2007)

The Sopranos is an obligatory pick here, and not really the kind of show that feels like it needs much of an introduction. That introduction, if it has to be given, can’t help but contain information you probably already know. It ran for six seasons. It was about the mob, therapy, and family drama. It was sometimes very funny. It was extremely creative and surprising. It ended in a way that people still talk about and debate. It has gabagool.

And then lots of other things. It’s a towering TV show, and it has to be brought up in a ranking like this because it really helped push forward television as a medium and method of storytelling. Almost nothing in The Sopranos dates it, and the fact that it felt groundbreaking when it was being made – and continues to hold up as something truly special, as far as television is concerned – is very much worth emphasizing.

2

‘The Wire’ (2002–2008)

Image via HBO Max

Though it’s not a mystery show like Lost was, The Wire is another show from the 2000s that gets noticeably larger in scope with every passing season. It’s also comparable to Lost because its premise is a lot simpler than what ultimately happens throughout, because the earliest season of The Wire is mostly about members of the Baltimore Police Department taking part in an operation that aims to take down a drug-dealing organization.

The members of both those groups remain relevant beyond season 1, but then each season beyond the first adds a new area of Baltimore that gets explored, in effect, as The Wire grows to also deal with the docks, the political sphere, the education system, and then the media. The Wire does get compared to a great novel, sometimes, but that’s a fair comparison to make, because what it achieves really does go beyond the bounds of most television (HBO or otherwise).

1

‘Game of Thrones’ (2011–2019)

Image via HBO

It didn’t even have to finish all that well to find itself at the end of a ranking like this. Game of Thrones went all-out in terms of often looking better than a good many genuine blockbuster movies, building a unique world as well as Deadwood, but on a much bigger scale. There’s a lack of a protagonist and dozens upon dozens of characters, like with The Wire, but on a bigger scale than “just” a city, as was the case with that HBO series.

Also, though it’s got more to do with the source material paving the way, Game of Thrones is bold on a narrative front, and it establishes itself early on as a show where just about anything goes. It might well have overextended itself, leading to a final couple of seasons that weren’t amazing, but even without a smooth landing, what Game of Thrones did right is enough to make it feel about as ambitious as a TV show has ever felt.