Arguably the best medical drama in television history, House thrives on genius writing and equally brilliant acting. Set in a teaching hospital at Princeton University, the show builds its plots around complicated, complex, elusive, credulity-straining diseases and a team of diagnosticians willing to move heaven and earth to find their causes and treatments. Long-time House fans eventually demystify the show’s dramatic formula, which devotes the first third to diagnosis and discovery, the middle third to trial and which seem to lead to a cure, and then the climactic ending which undoes all the drama of the first two thirds, curing the disease by revealing The Truth. Hugh Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House to perfection, sustaining the tension and contradiction between House’s arrogance and his irresistible compulsion to save people from their illnesses and often from themselves. One Los Angeles television writer sums-up, “A vicodin-popping, wise-cracking, gimp-guy who walks with his cane on the wrong side while he demystifies illnesses so bizarre they almost defy imagining—what’s not to like?”

One critic characterized "Breaking Bad's" dark humor as "Thelma and Louise as seen by Dostoyevsky" and that was one of the perkier, more optimistic descriptions. A seven-part AMC series, "Breaking Bad" TV show tells the story of Walt White, high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine cooker and dealer. Of course, as Glenn Frye crooned, "The lure of easy money has a very strong appeal," but "Breaking Bad" does not allow for even a split-second of sunshine through the abysmal darkness. In this corner of the universe, crime never-ever pays. Walt, expertly portrayed by Bryan Cranston of "Malcolm in the Middle" fame, is neck-deep in problems, complications, and flat-out ugliness from the minute he lights the Bunsen burner. Although the writers have woven-in some amazingly ironic lines, known in the trade as "comic relief," the characters deliberately deliver their quips in such a super-slow, slack-jawed drawl they seem more tragic than funny. Of course, "Breaking Bad" TV series make some pretense toward allegory of the American middle class struggling through the throes of deep recession, and it scores some hard hits. Most of all, though, "Breaking Bad" shows that even when fine writers, directors, and actors can find humor and pathos in displaced white-collar workers' undignified struggle for dignity, it still looks awfully damned dreary and ugly.

Admittedly indebted to Jack Kerouac and the cinematic stylings of Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones series, "Supernatural TV show" wobbled as it took its first tentative steps into the paranormal, but it has grown stronger and smarter with age and experience. Fans of "The Gilmore Girls" immediately will recognize Jared Padalecki who plays Sam, a Stanford undergrad who wants nothing more than to escape his family's ghost-busting business and go to law school. Of course, that's not gonna happen. Instead, Sam gets stuck riding shotgun on a road trip with his profligate brother Dean, played well by Jensen Ackless recently of "Smallville fame. As the boys travel from San Francisco to LA, normally a boring ten-hour trip, they encounter ghoulish and ghostly creatures brought to life from American folklore and legends. Describing steady improvement in the show's writing and acting, one critic said it went from being "a pretty good show to being a pretty great show." Just before the show launched its fifth season, Rolling Stone was more effusive in its praise as it numbered "Supernatural" among its "Fifty Best Reasons to Watch TV".

"The L Word: Generation Q" is an American television drama series that serves as a sequel to the original series "The L Word," which aired from 2004 to 2009. The show premiered on Showtime on December 8, 2019. The series follows a group of LGBTQ+ friends living in Los Angeles, as they navigate their careers, relationships, and personal lives.

The West Wing is an American television series that premiered in 1999 and ran for seven seasons until 2006. The show is set in the West Wing of the White House, the workplace of the President of the United States and his senior staff. The series revolves around the challenges faced by the President and his team as they work to govern the country and address various crises.

"Deadwood" is a critically acclaimed American Western television series that aired on HBO from 2004 to 2006. The show takes place in the late 1800s in the lawless town of Deadwood, South Dakota, during the Gold Rush. The show was praised for its authentic portrayal of the historical period and its use of language.