The Best TV Shows of 2014

31.

There once was a time when it seemed like the only new TV shows receiving green-lights were dreary police procedurals, sappy hospital-set dramas for your mom, and programs about lawyers who sleep with each other more than actually solve cases. Over the last few years, however, the tide has changed, with hits like The Walking Dead (zombies = unexpectedly huge ratings) and House of Cards (Netflix’s game-changing, Emmy-nominated streaming success) redirecting the future of TV programming. But In 2014, everything changed. The 'All E.R./L.A. Law/NYPD Blue Wannabes Everything' era ended.

Our list of The Best TV Shows of 2014​ is evidence that this past year upended television’s rule books. There's the dramedy that’s only available online and follows a transgender lead; the visually stunning period drama wholly directed by an Academy Award nominee that looks and feels like a motion picture; the prestigious one-off cable drama in which the stars of Surfer, Dude and Kingpin merge with the occult and “weird fiction” master Thomas Ligotti; and the weekly horror show ripe with gruesome, viscera-clad tableaus and murder scenes that airs on the same network as the happy-go-lucky singing competition The Voice.

While imagination-challenged Hollywood execs are busy milking comic book properties and preexisting franchises, the creative minds working in television have fully adopted an “anything goes” mentality. And when TV’s history books get revised 20 or so years from now, 2014 will be seen as the year when innovation reigned supreme. These 30 shows will be the prime examples.

RELATED: Best TV Shows of 2016

Related: The Best TV Shows of 2017

30.24: Live Another Day (Fox)

Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Tate Donovan, Yvonne Strahovski, William Devane, Benjamin Bratt, Michelle Fairley, Stephen Fry, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Michael Wincott, Giles Matthey, Kim Raver

This could've gone so wrong. 24 could've returned and reminded everyone of why it needed to go off in the first place. Instead, the anxiety and wariness were unnecessary: Live Another Day is damn near perfect.

Wisely, Fox cut the series' usual episode amount in half, yet the comeback series remains true to the one hour/one day format. The result is a truncated season that neatly does away with all the narrative fat that slogged down many an otherwise great 24 day in the past. The success isn't just in the numbers. Gordon and his writers clearly focused on subverting typical tropes and twists to make this season feel fresh. The inevitable mole's motivations actually make sense. The bureaucrats are less stubborn. People put two and two together much quicker to see the setup before their eyes (RIP, Jordan the analyst). You can notice the little zigs where 24 used to zag.

Some complained about a lack of urgency and forward momentum—this is the longest the story has stayed with one villain, with only one diabolical goal since Day 1. But those doubts were put to rest when the main conflict climaxed in a breathtaking 30-minute sequence that elicited more visceral, physical reactions from me than anything on broadcast TV has in a long time.

As for that inkling that this season would end on a lightweight positive note, because this may be the last time we ever see the great Jack Bauer again, and because, you know, the guy's long overdue for a sliver of good fortune, well, shit. The season closed with an unimaginably depressing denouement in a bleak twist on season five's classic cliffhanger. But instead of being kidnapped, our boy Bauer willingly hands himself over to his enemies (this time, the Russians) because what else is his life but paying for our country's sins?

Good ratings indicate there may be more 24 on the way, but if this is the curtain call for TV's last action hero, then bravo. —Frazier Tharpe

29.Arrow (The CW)

Stars: Stephen Amell, Katie Cassidy, Colin Donnell, David Ramsey, Willa Holland, Susanna Thompson, Paul Blackthorne, Emily Bett Rickards, Colton Haynes, Manu Bennett, John Barrowman

Although Marvel's got the movie industry cornered, DC Comics has mastered the TV marketplace. The entertainment company proved its staying power first with the long-running Smallville, and now it's showing that success was no fluke with Arrow. A retelling of the origins of the Green Arrow, the series follows Stephen Amell as billionaire vigilante Oliver Queen and his specialized team of crime fighters, including IT girl Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards), muscle man John Diggle (David Ramsey), Black Canary (Katie Cassidy), and Arsenal (Colton Haynes) as they try to avenge the deaths of their loved ones and protect their endangered Starling City from the supervillains trying to conquer it.

While last spring saw the demise of Deathstroke, this fall season kicked off strong with a new evil mastermind, Ra's al Ghul. Arrow isn't just addictive for its bow-and-arrow crime fighting; it's also replete with will-they-won't-they relationships, inappropriate innuendos, and sexual tension to keep any non-comic book fan squirming in their seat. —Tara Aquino

28.Louie (FX)

Star: Louis C.K.

We're just as surprised as you to see Louie ranked this low in the countdown. Louis C.K. made a feature-length, language-crossed rom-com this season (“Elevator” Pt. 1 through 6) and a short film about adolescence (“In the Woods”). But he also made some terrible storytelling decisions (“Pamela” Pt. 2 and 3) that shook the absurdist foundation of the series and made viewers question whether he’s really the progressive thinker we all so desperately want him to be.

In short, not the strongest showing from a series that continues to be formally daring and boldly unfunny. Maybe next time. —Ross Scarano

27.Banshee (Cinemax)

Stars: Antony Starr, Ivana Miličević, Ulrich Thomsen, Frankie Faison, Hoon Lee, Rus Blackwell, Matt Servitto, Demetrius Grosse, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Ryann Shane, Daniel Ross Owens, Lili Simmons, Ben Cross, Anthony Ruivivar

Banshee is the coolest show on TV that you’re (probably) not watching. And if you are watching it, you’re not talking about it enough.

Just like the breakneck series’ first season, Banshee’s sophomore run perfected everything that Spike TV’s been trying to do since its conception. The story of a former criminal (played by the underrated badass Antony Starr) hiding out in Amish Country as a fugazi sheriff, Cinemax’s best original show is an intelligently written, wonderfully performed showcase of guy-centric entertainment. The women, especially deputy Siobhan (Trieste Kelly Dunn) and Amish girl turned seductive gangster princess Rebecca (Lili Simmons), are gorgeous but also well-developed as characters; the action sequences, of which there are many, are staged with the simulated recklessness cum tightly choreographed mayhem you’d find in a movie like The Raid 2.

Banshee isn’t all heightened Stallone/Van Damme anarchy for the TV screen, though. The season’s best episode, “The Truth About Unicorns,” focused solely on Starr’s Lucas Hood and his star-crossed ex-lover, Anna (Ivana Miličević), taking a brief respite in a secluded farmhouse, talking through their complicated affections, and, of course, leaving a few dead bodies in their wake. On Banshee, you can be sure that quiet moments of character development will be punctuated by savagery, and that the cumulative effects will be awesome. —Matt Barone

26.Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN)

Stars: Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain has been doing the same thing for a long time now—he’s just gotten better at it. Parts Unknown may not have the same sense of discovery as early seasons of No Reservations, but what it lacks in novelty it makes up for with Bourdain's world-weary, ever-sharpening journalistic instincts.

Bourdain has always been interested in great filmmakers, and Parts Unknown's fourth season may be his most successful attempt yet to recreate the visual style of some of the people he most admires most. "Shanghai" is an homage to In the Mood For Love director Wong Kar-Wai, with its moody portrayal of a city whose street vendors and billionaires glow under the same neon lights. "Massachusetts," on the other hand, was a both an intensely personal episode about Bourdain's youth as a Cape Cod cook and a spotlight on America's current opiate and heroin crisis. Bourdain, a recovering heroin addict himself, is the perfect storyteller for the still-ignored problem facing rural Massachusetts and many other middle class neighborhoods.

The season's best episode, however, was one that came with the most heartwrenching fallout. Part of the reason Bourdain left the Travel Channel for CNN was access to hard-to-reach places. "Iran" is the payoff. Bourdain and his crew provide a tour through the misunderstood modern metropolis that is Tehran, all the while aware of Iran's precarious geopolitics and fascistic government. Before the episode even aired we learned that two of the journalists he interviewed had been detained by the government, and they've yet to be freed. With Parts Unknown, Bourdain wanted to get serious, and it doesn't get more serious than "Iran." —Nathan Reese

25.BoJack Horseman (Netflix)

Stars: Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, Aaron Paul

Netflix’s animated offering in 2014 was an original series about depression, alcoholism, and the fading glory of former celebrity. It’s a comedy, somehow. And the star is a talking horse. Soak it in.

BoJack Horseman, created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, follows an aging actor who had success in the '90s on a Full-House-esque sitcom called Horsin' Around. But the show is over now, and BoJack (voiced by Will Arnett) has nothing else to live for. Except brown liquor and the memoir he's supposed to be finishing.

This was a strong year for L.A. comedies, but nothing was as relentlessly bleak or provocative as BoJack Horseman. Jokes about American troops, cable news political pundits, self-harm, sweaters—nothing is safe. Even if you don’t have the stomach for some of the meaner bits, you at least have to appreciate that Will Arnett finally found something good post-Arrested Development. Turns out he just needed to become a drunk horse. —Ross Scarano

24.Orphan Black (BBC America)

Stars: Tatiana Maslany, Jordan Gavaris, Dylan Bruce, Kevin Hanchard, Evelyne Brochu, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Skyler Wexler, Michiel Huisman, Michael Mando, Kristian Bruun, Inga Cadranel, Matt Frewer

Yes, this the one where that actress (Tatiana Maslany) plays seven different characters, and yes, season two was still as entertaining as the first. Whereas Orphan Black's first season was all about establishing each of the clones' the identities and involved a mysterious conspiracy, the sophomore season dove into what exactly that conspiracy was. Without giving anything away (because we're trying to get as many people on this show's bandwagon as possible), the clones are torn apart in a war between creationists and evolutionists, with both groups trying to claim the girls as their own product.

The result is a sci-fi adventure that leaves you questioning your own faith, and what exactly it means to be human. —Tara Aquino

23.The Flash (The CW)

Stars: Grant Gustin, Danielle Panabaker, Candice Patton, Rick Cosnett, Carlos Valdes, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin

The CW's highest rated debut in years, The Flash is proof that dramatic television doesn't have to be Breaking-Bad-level heavy in order to be good—it just needs to be sure of itself. Since its premiere, the superhero series has stuck to its formula of camp, charm (specifically from Grant Gustin as titular hero Barry Allen), and non-stop Easter eggs to keep DC fans coming back for more.

Like Arrow, its companion series, The Flash is taking its time with its superhero origin story, filling each episode with enough info to satiate stans and hold the attention of new viewers who've never picked up a comic. That way, you can emotionally invest in the heart-tugging central storylines of Central City, whether it's Barry and his adoptive dad's working relationship as forensic scientist and detective, Barry's unrequited love for his childhood BFF Iris West, or the developing relationship between The Flash and his back-up team at Star Labs. —Tara Aquino

22.Orange is the New Black (Netflix)

Stars: Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, Michael J. Harney, Michelle Hurst, Natasha Lyonne, Taryn Manning, Kate Mulgrew, Jason Biggs

If you want to be a jerk and get technical, Orange Is the New Black isn't on TV. It's on Netflix. And if you really want to be that guy, well, there's probably a reason why you don't get invited to parties. You're the kind of person who says things like, "Actually, Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster." Everyone knows, ugh, you're the worst.

Anyway, OITNB​'s second season was released on Netflix, and it encouraged people everywhere to call out of work and play hooky from school. The world came to a stop to discuss the inner workings of the prison system, women's rights and how the U.S. protects them or forgets them, and, of course, #Vauseman. More than its first season, OITNB's sophomore year toyed with more unexpected back-stories, darker twists for previously lighthearted characters, and set shippers' hearts on fire.

Many speculated that OITNB couldn't top its near-perfect debut, but then again, no one ever expected the show to be this big. But we're calling it now: The third season will be even better. —Hope Schreiber

21.Penny Dreadful (Showtime)

Stars: Eva Green, Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton, Reeve Carney, Harry Treadaway, Rory Kinnear, Billie Piper, Danny Sapani

Hannibal is the best horror show on television, but watching any given Hannibal episode is akin to spending an hour inside the mind of a Guggenheim-obsessed serial killer. Which, while enthralling, isn’t exactly “fun.” That’s all good, though, since horror lovers now have Penny Dreadful to satiate their good-time needs.

Showtime's freshman gem is both an artistically Gothic creepshow and The Monster Squad for grown-ups, uniting the genre’s classic characters and literary staples (i.e., Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray) with cable TV sex and violence. There’s also the show’s ace-in-the-hole, Eva Green—as the demon-haunted Vanessa Ives, she’s given one of the best TV performances of the year, even if the Emmy committee ultimately ignores her. Although, they’d only need to watch her amazingly bonkers exhibition of freaky possession in the episode “Séance” to get the point.

Series creator, and lone writer, John Logan (the screenwriter of films like Skyfall) basks in his horror influences, hinting at possible monster additions in seasons to come (as in, will Josh Hartnett’s gunslinger Ethan Chandler become the Wolf Man?) while meshing his Penny Dreadful versions of classics into intriguing hybrids. For instance, the show’s answer to Frankenstein’s monster ('Caliban,' played by Rory Kinnear) owes more to The Phantom of the Opera than Mary Shelley. Even the most jaded horror fans have to appreciate Logan’s imagination. —Matt Barone

20.Archer: Vice (FX)

Stars: H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walter, Chris Parnell, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Lucky Yates, Adam Reed

What do you do when an animated show starts to go stale? If you're The Simpsons, you phone it in until the end of time. If you're South Park, you hope you can ride current events to continued relevancy. But if you're Archer, well, you turn your team of moronic super spies into quite possibly the worst gang of coke dealers in history.

So, yeah, you have to hand it to Archer creator Adam Reed for knowing when to switch things up. By the end of Archer's excellent fourth season, the goofballs in ISIS had started to run out of new shenanigans and screw-ups. So, fuck it, Reed decided they should change businesses, even switching-up the name of the show itself. The result was a wackadoo season-long Miami Vice parody full of evil clones, charming dictators, FBI crossovers, and—by the end—Lana's brand new baby girl.—Nathan Reese

19.Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

Stars: Steve Buscemi, Kelly Macdonald, Shea Whigham, Michael K. Williams, Michael Shannon, Stephen Graham, Vincent Piazza, Gretchen Mol, Anatol Yusef, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Rosenfield, Paul Sparks, Domenick Lombardozzi, Nolan Lyons, Louis Cancelmi, Paul Calderon, Michael Zegen, Mark Pickering, Patricia Arquette

If you’re looking for Sons of Anarchy’s final season on this list, you might as well stop clicking through it—there's no SAMCRO here. Blame it on FX’s and showrunner Kurt Sutter’s need to turn the biker drama’s last run into a bloated, overlong, and unwieldy ride. What could’ve been told effectively in eight episodes was messily extended into 13 episodes, most of which were nearly 90 minutes long.

In a perfect world, Boardwalk Empire would’ve been given that kind of leeway and room to breathe. But since it’s a cold, cold world, HBO saddled creator Terence Winter with only eight hours to wrap up his sprawling, multi-character Prohibition-era gangster drama. Unfortunately, much of Boardwalk Empire suffered for that. The rise of real-life crime kingpins Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel was truncated into one frustratingly brief montage, while great characters like Chalky somehow managed to sign off with dignity and emotional heft despite being limited to minor story lines.

Yet, to Winter’s enormous credit, Boardwalk Empire defied its shortened fifth season’s handicaps by doing what HBO’s most underrated series has done from the beginning: It gave a stable of phenomenal actors first-class dialogue and elegant drama with which to show and prove. Against the odds, Winter built towards a satisfyingly vindictive conclusion for Nucky while delivering countless moments of profound heartbreak (Chalky’s final scene with Daughter Maitland; Gillian’s Cuckoo’s Nest-like asylum goodbye) and breathless intensity (pretty much every scene with Van Alden, Eli, and Capone).

The only thing that sucks about Boardwalk Empire’s final season? Forever wondering how much better it could’ve been if Terence Winter had Kurt Sutter’s carte blanche. —Matt Barone

18.You're the Worst (FX)

Stars: Chris Geere, Aya Cash, Desmin Borges, Kether Donohue, Janet Varney, Todd Robert Anderson, Allan McLeod, Shane Francis Smith

Low-key, You're the Worst might have been the meanest show on television in 2014. Creator Stephen Falk hit you with everything before you even knew what was happening—riffs on L.A. hipsters, yuppies, foodies, the world of PR, marriage, how we handle victims of PTSD, Childish Gambino/Odd Future, and all of the other douchebaggery that defines modern American culture. You didn't realize how many shots You're the Worst was firing because they were all packaged behind one of the most enticing, relatable romantic relationships on TV this year: the one between Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash), two horrible people who were definitely meant for each other.

You're the Worst's two main characters are bad people in the same way Seinfeld's Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer were bad people—they're the most narcissistic, cynical versions of ourselves. And that's always fun to watch. But what takes the show to another level—past other bad-people-doing-horrible-shit-together shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia—is how strikingly honest it is about modern love. We've all been in that beginning phase of a relationship, where every morning somehow still feels like a walk of shame. You're trying to remain autonomous and deny those natural cuffing instincts, making up hypothetical arguments over Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins instead of saying up front, "NO I DO NOT WANT YOU TO SLEEP WITH THAT OTHER DUDE." And damn, the sex is so good and fun (an argument made clearly in the show's premiere).

When those moments bubble to the surface on You're the Worst—when the show becomes about accepting adulthood instead of running away from it—the digs at Daniel Craig ("He looks like an upset baby!") and boring, normal people are just cherries on top. —Andrew Gruttadaro

17.Peaky Blinders (Netflix)

Stars: Cillian Murphy, Sam Neill, Helen McCrory, Tom Hardy, Noah Taylor, Paul Anderson, Iddo Goldberg, Annabelle Wallis, Charlotte Riley, Sophie Rundle

It wasn't until the end of Peaky Blinders' second six-episode series that Americans so much as realized it was even a thing. But while it's normal for excellent BBC shows to come and go without much fanfare in the states (take last year's fantastic The Fall), Peaky Blinders is finally gaining some traction due to a current lack of gangster competition, multiple big-name film actors, and slow-motion set-pieces set to the contemporary alt-rock of Jack White, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and more.

While the first season saw Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy) squaring off against vicious, sexually-repressed Inspector Chester Campbell (Sam Neill), the second ups the ante by adding Tom Hardy to the ensemble. Playing Jewish gangster Alfie Solomons, Hardy single-handedly raises the show's quality level in every scene in which he appears. While Neil was a big enough presence to face off with Murphy in his own right, Hardy has more weight than just about anyone on TV—premium, streaming, or otherwise.

For those disappointed by the cast of True Detective season two, or looking for more cool haircuts in the wake of Boardwalk Empire, well, here you go. —Nathan Reese

16.The Walking Dead (AMC)

Stars: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Steven Yeun, Lauren Cohan, Chad L. Coleman, Danai Gurira, Larry Gilliard, Jr. Emily Kinney, Chandler Riggs, Sonequa Martin-Green, Alanna Masterson, Michael Cudlitz, Josh McDermitt, Christian Serratos, Seth Gilliam, Tyler James Williams, Andrew J. West, Christine Woods

Good luck trying to shit all over AMC’s living-dead ratings behemoth now. Once the hit series TV critics loved to slander, The Walking Dead finally hit its stride in 2014, starting with season 4’s slightly uneven but great-moment-filled second half and wholly reaching excellence this fall with season 5’s tremendous first half.

The keys to the show’s creative successes are sprinkled all throughout the latest eight episodes. No longer letting plot-lines drag on beyond their expiration points, showrunner Scott M. Gimple has infused The Walking Dead with a newfound urgency, seen most violently in the superb episode “Four Walls and a Roof.” Instead of emo, whiny survivors, the characters have evolved into sympathetic personalities with richly defined traits and intriguing back-stories, particularly evident in the rises of the formerly grating Beth and Carol. Much of the latter point can be attributed to Gimple’s smart decision to offset the many bursts of gory mayhem with quieter, slice-of-life vignettes, like watching Glen, Tara, and Rosita trade quips while fishing for snacks.

If there's one exemplifier of The Walking Dead’s maturation, though, it's Rick Grimes. As played with startling grit by the underrated Andrew Lincoln, the show’s main hero doesn’t suffer fools at all anymore—cross him now and he’ll lodge a machete into your face and run you down with a police car. He’s a big reason why loyal fans can now confidently serve naysayers with their fiercest Tyrion smack if they keep badmouthing The Walking Dead from here on out. —Matt Barone

15.Rectify (SundanceTV)

Stars: Aden Young, Abigail Spencer, J. Smith-Cameron, Adelaide Clemens, Clayne Crawford, Luke Kirby, Bruce McKinnon, Jake Austin Walker

Ray McKinnon’s Rectify is one of the priceless nuggets with which television’s Golden Age is gilded. A devastating, thought-provoking, beautifully written, and skillfully acted examination of the ripple effect of crime and punishment, SundanceTV's overlooked drama follows former death row inmate Daniel Holden (Aden Young), who’s freed—but not exonerated—by new DNA evidence after spending 19 hopeless, often torturous, years waiting to die for the rape and murder of his teenage girlfriend. As hauntingly poetic, contemplative, and visually stunning as any Terrence Malick film—but with far fewer lingering shots of swaying nature—it’s less a TV show than fine art deserving of wall space in a museum.

Following a tight, six-episode first season that captured the claustrophobia of a prison cell, a small town, and a family divided over one of its members, the stellar second season ventures out with Daniel into the wider world, which promises both danger and the comfort of anonymity, while he catches up on his lost late adolescence and seeks the truth about his drugged-out involvement in the crimes. (After prosecutorial suggestion and years of abuse in prison, he's no more certain of his innocence than his wary neighbors.) Through flashbacks, hallucinations, and other revelations, McKinnon advances the mystery and the drama without delivering easy answers about guilt and innocence. Grey areas have rarely burst with so much color. —Justin Monroe

14.The Good Wife (CBS)

Stars: Julianna Margulies, Josh Charles, Matt Czuchry, Archie Panjabi, Graham Phillips, Makenzie Vega, Alan Cumming, Zach Grenier, Matthew Goode, Christine Baranski

Before we praise the many fine qualities of The Good Wife's run so far in 2014, let's all agree that—SPOILER ALERT—killing off Will Gardner was a horrible idea. The episode where he went out in a blaze of courtroom crossfire was shocking in the worst way, particularly in the context of a show that has never relied on gimmicks to draw in fans.

But it's a testament to the capital that The Good Wife has built up over the past four seasons—as well as its unimpeachable cast and writers—that the sucker-punch plot twist hasn't completely derailed the show. In fact, after a couple shaky episodes and some next-level depressive self-flagellating by Alicia, things are back on track: Shakespearean power struggles in the boardroom of Lockhart-Gardner; political chicanery in the corridors of city hall; and TV's most nuanced exploration of the thin line between healthy ambition and malignant obsession in the American workplace.

So, yes, Will's departure casts a bit of a shadow over the season. But The Good Wife is a show for adults, and adults get over things. —Chris Schonberger

13.The Americans (FX)

Stars: Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich, Annet Mahendru, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Margo Martindale, Richard Thomas, Lev Gorn, Costa Ronin

Life without smartphones is nearly unfathomable today, but television spy drama without them is riveting. Set in the U.S. during the 1980s Cold War period, when espionage relied heavily upon disguises and analog signals to acquire and relay sensitive information, FX’s The Americans makes tremendous use of the tension and isolation felt by two Soviet agents (Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys) who were strangers when the KGB sent them to live as husband and wife in the D.C. suburbs and help topple the U.S. government.

Having established actual trust and affection for each other (if not their superiors) in season one, in the second they must carry out physically and emotionally taxing missions while solving a murder mystery and protecting their two clueless children, who they love but also resent for their privileged American upbringing, from physical harm and the psychological damage that the truth might cause them. Russell and Rhys are both magnificent at subtly expressing the burden shouldered by their characters, whose duplicity and exceptional responsibility could give you an ulcer just watching.

Sexy and suspenseful, with plenty of fascinating old-school spy tricks courtesy of ex-CIA officer showrunner Joe Weisberg, The Americans is a multilayered and thought-provoking series that makes you want to put down your smartphone and focus for a second. Unless, of course, you’re watching episodes on yours. —Justin Monroe

12.Silicon Valley (HBO)

Stars: Thomas Middleditch, T. J. Miller, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Christopher Evan Welch, Amanda Crew, Zach Woods

Great shows based on the lives of everyday working people are nothing new. There’s Workaholics, The IT Crowd, The Office, Dilbert, and many more. Each of these comedies zeroes in on the horror and absurdity of the daily grind—​meaningless meetings, evil bosses, and never-ending busy work. What they don’t do, however, is capture the over-the-top and mind-bogglingly self-serving culture of an entire industry in razor-sharp detail. Enter Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley. It depicts work life and the tech business perfectly, while also eliciting some of the best laughs television had to offer in 2014.

The lengths to which creator Judge was willing to go to make sure that the show accurately portrayed life in Silicon Valley are impressive. The Hooli campus—​basically a fictionalized Google entity—​offers its employees free rock-climbing, food, and shuttle service. When Richard (Thomas Middleditch), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Erlich (T.J. Miller), Jared (Zach Woods), and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr)—​the team behind the fledgling start-up that the show is loosely centered on—​complete in the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, the set is an exact replica of the real conference. But really, though, the reason the show is so good is the writing. The deadpan, acerbic wit that has made Mike Judge an American treasure shines through. On top of that, writers like Alec Berg (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) are using the show to basically “take a shit on” the “self-important, pompous, powerful people” that have come to characterize much of modern-day Silicon Valley.

“We’re making a lot of money, and yes, we’re disrupting digital media, but most importantly, we’re making the world a better place through constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and extensibility,” a techie who just stumbled into a millions of dollars of seed money says in the first episode. Making the world a better place is a recurring theme throughout Silicon Valley. The show's true genius is its attempt to deconstruct whether or not that real-life ethos is a myth.

Beyond all of this, all of the characters are brilliant. Whether he’s calculating nine times "f" (“fleventy-five”) or reciting hexadecimal code, Erlich, played by T.J. Miller, is always good for multiple laughs. Martin Starr outdoes himself as Gilfoyle. Richard, played skillfully by Thomas Middleditch, perfectly embodies an on-the-spectrum/borderline genius future tech god. Jared, played by Zach Woods, is the show’s secret weapon. His story deserves to be fleshed out in season two.

Silicon Valley is ultimately a takedown of one of the most important regions of the world, one that's constantly being criticized for its every decision and flaw, not least of which is its total lack of diversity and treatment of women. Needless to say, there’s only one female character on Silicon Valley: Monica (Amanda Crew). Judge addresses this shortcoming in the season finale, in which an elaborate metaphor involving men jacking each other off leads to a breakthrough in cloud computing. It’s not the most pleasant image, but as far as the real-life Silicon Valley goes, it’s probably accurate. —Lauretta Charlton

11.The Honourable Woman (SundanceTV)

Stars: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Andrew Buchan, Stephen Rea, Lubna Azabal, Janet McTeer, Katherine Parkinson, Tobias Menzies, Eve Best, Igal Naor, Genevieve O'Reilly, Lindsay Duncan

I love spy stuff. I love over-the-top spy action like Mission: Impossible and James Bond. I love hard-boiled, cigarettes-in-dark-rooms spy movies like A Most Wanted Man. I love Cold War spy thrillers (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) and goofy '90s spy movies (The Saint). FX's The Americans, also on this list,is one of my favorite TV shows airing right now. So, what I'm really trying to say is that The Honourable Woman was basically made for me. But even if spy movies aren't necessarily your thing, Hugo Blick's The Honourable Woman is worth a look. As good as a spy thriller as it is, it's even better as a human drama.

The mini-series, which should be available on Netflix soon, was produced for the BBC in the U.K. and SundanceTV in the States. (The spelling of "honourable" should tip you off to its origins.) Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal in a career-defining role as Nessa Stein, the head of an Israeli arms-cum-communications company, the twisty plot revolves around familial evils, double agents, and Israeli-Palestinian strife. Investigating all the subterfuge is a British spy played by Stephen Rea, whose name, Sir Hugh Hayden-Hoyle, is one of the great fictitious appellations of the new millennium. As powerful as Gyllenhall is, Rea's performance is just as mesmerizing in his portrayal of a dogged, quietly confident agent on his last case.—Nathan Reese

10.Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Star: John Oliver

The biggest compliment I can pay to John Oliver? He’s the closest thing to a modern-day Monty Python’s Flying Circus cast member we’ll probably ever see. An additional, related compliment: His brilliant freshman show, HBO’s Last Week Tonight, is basically The Daily Show as enhanced by John Cleese’s writing. Cleese and his fellow Pythonites don’t have anything to do with Last Week Tonight, of course, but John Oliver’s silly brand of intelligent, informed comedy is straight out of those Brits’ playbook.

After excellently holding down Comedy Central’s The Daily Show while host Jon Stewart directed a movie, Oliver showed that could out-do Stewart and Stephen Colbert all on his own. Given only one episode per week, Oliver and his writing team were able to delve deeper into a wide variety of political and social issues, ranging from Uganda’s anti-gay laws to pumpkin spice lattes and the Miss America Pageant. His takedowns are hilarious and spot-on. In regards to Dr. Oz and his admission that some of his recommended dietary supplements “don’t pass muster,” for instance, Oliver unleashed this verbal assault: “If [Dr. Oz wants] to keep spouting this bullshit, that's fine, but don't call [his] show Dr. Oz, call it Check This Shit Out With Some Guy Named Mehmet.”

John Oliver headed into 2014 as Jon Stewart’s protégé, yet he’s exiting it as the guy who unexpectedly bested his mentor. —Matt Barone

9.Veep (HBO)

Stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Matt Walsh, Timothy Simons, Reid Scott, Sufe Bradshaw, Kevin Dunn, Gary Cole

Since its inception, Veep has been one of the funniest shows on TV. But while previous seasons chuckled at the incompetence of Vice President Selina Myers (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) with staid irony, the third season upped the show's comedy contingent from quietly cringe-inducing to outright hilarious.

While a good many set-pieces from previous seasons made me crack up, nothing approached the laughing fits caused by Selina's extended fly fishing metaphors or Silicon Valley Clovis tour. And then there's the ingenious twist ending, which left Myers in the position of the actual Commander-in-fucking-Chief. Like a flip-side of House of Cards'very similar events, it leaves someone hilariously, outrageously awful in the most powerful political position in the world. But unlike Frank Underwood, Myers is going to be a lot of fun to watch screw it all up.—Nathan Reese

8.Mad Men (AMC)

Stars: Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, January Jones, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks, Aaron Staton, Rich Sommer, Harry Hamlin, Jessica Pare, Kiernan Shipka, Ben Feldman, Allan Havey, Kevin Rahm, Christopher Stanley

What’s this? Don Draper with his hat in his hand? Being honest with his daughter? And at least quasi-open with his wife?

The final season (part one) of Mad Men hit the ultimate zigzag. No, Don (Jon Hamm) didn’t defiantly start a new agency in the face of his pseudo-firing. He owned up to his bad behavior like an apologetic child trying to earn his way out of time-out, all in an effort to—gasp!—be a better man, co-worker, father, and husband. No lies, no philandering, and thusly, a very different feel for Mad Men. Yet it was still great.

Mad Men remains one of the greatest series of all time. There’s no drama in a Good Boy™ Don? Just see the late-series standout “A Day’s Work” to silence that silliness. The mid-season finale built on the half-season’s theme of obsolete paranoia and delivered an unexpectedly positive, if strange and somber, ending. So where does the battle for Dick Whitman’s soul go from here? We’re done trying to guess. We're just reserving its spot on next year’s Best Of list. —Frazier Tharpe

7.Game of Thrones (HBO)

Stars: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner, Charles Dance, Natalie Dormer, Aidan Gillen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Carice van Houten, Stephen Dillane, Liam Cunningham, Jack Gleeson, Gwnedoline Christie, Rory McCann, Ian Glen, John Bardley, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Alfie Allen, Pedro Pascal, Diana Rigg, Rose Leslie, Kate Dickie

After assembling all of its many moving pieces to become arguably the best drama of 2013, Game of Thrones did anything but coast this year, nor did it stumble. This was, however, the year in which HBO's fantasy epic revealed itself to not be infallible. The shaky finale exposed just how awkward the show can get trying to juggle its many tones, and complete dud of a story arc for the fan-favorite Mother of Dragons, not to mention Game of Thrones had its first real bout with critical backlash.

But those are minor blemishes in an otherwise engrossing season that somehow managed to ratchet up the pessimism while drawing us in even closer, enabling our masochism. As the first season to begin mid-way through the correlating George R.R. Martin book its adapting, Game of Thrones' 2014 run went full throttle from the jump with the swift implosion of the mighty Lannister family as its centerpiece.

The sobering lesson in this at times all-too real fantasy: Even when the bad guys finally fall, true vengeance and victory are still denied. (Shed a thug tear for Oberyn.) —Frazier Tharpe

6.True Detective (HBO)

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Michelle, Monaghan, Michael Potts, Tory Kittles

If it’s not the all-around best show of 2014, HBO’s True Detective is the year's most important one. Produced as if it were an eight-hour movie, the bleak, haunting neo-noir series was a whole new kind of TV beast: one writer (creator Nic Pizzolatto) and one director (Cary Fukunaga) working with two Hollywood A-list actors (Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson) on a self-contained, one-season-and-out story (meaning each subsequent season would be a new story with a different cast). And, best of all, it exceeded all preconceived notions of high quality.

With its unexpected horror subtext, fueled by influences from “weird fiction” authors like Thomas Ligotti, True Detective transcended its crime roots to be the year’s most unsettling show so far. The creepiness only worked, though, because McConaughey and Harrelson were so believably engulfed in its mystery, the former playing the fascinatingly philosophical and nihilistic Rust Cohle, the latter dropping the eccentricities in favor of pent-up rage as the cheating son-of-a-bitch Marty Hart. Ostensibly, True Detective was about a murder investigation that stretches from 1995 through 2012, but the show’s core remained Rust and Marty’s ever-changing but reluctant and always complex brotherhood.

And, of course, there were those masterful moments of direction from Fukunaga, scenes that previous TV shot-callers had never attempted—that brilliant six-minute tracking sequence, the time-lapse shown through an aging tiara, McConaughey’s unloading a machine gun in slow-motion. Through True Detective, television landed several devastating punches in the “TV’s kicking film’s ass” fight for Hollywood supremacy. —Matt Barone

5.Fargo (FX)

Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Keith Carradine, Adam Goldberg, Russell Harvard, Kate Walsh, Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, Joey King, Oliver Platt, Glenn Howerton

Let’s also label this one “2014’s biggest surprise.”

It could’ve been a pointless pastiche, turning Joel and Ethan Coen’s acclaimed 1996 film Fargo, creating new but similar characters, and stretching the Coen brothers’ darkly comedic crime flick into a 10-episode TV show. And first impressions, provided by early stills and preview footage, hinted that showrunner Noah Hawley’s episodic Fargo would hue very closely to the filmmaking siblings’ work, with The Hobbit’s Martin Freeman cast as a William H. Macy riff and newcomer Allison Tolman playing a well-meaning deputy not unlike Frances McDormand’s film one.

Hawley’s series, thankfully, was anything but a copycat. Capturing the Coens’ unique brand of heavy violence offset by aw-shucks characters and off-center humor, FX’s risky Fargo kicked off with a superb pilot and consistently bettered itself each week. The performances, namely from Tolman, Freeman, and Billy Bob Thornton as the year’s most fascinating small-screen villain, were all, as Thornton’s Lorne Malvo would say, “aces”; Hawley, meanwhile, who wrote all 10 episodes, kept the seemingly basic narrative (small-town nebbish gets prodded into homicide and sparks a deputy’s interests) loose, unpredictable, and replete with sudden, emotionally taxing jolts.

You’d be hard-pressed to find many 2014 TV sequences more intense than Thornton’s diner standoff against Keith Carradine, or Billy Bob’s triple murder inside the world’s bloodiest elevator. Those are only two unforgettable moments from a show that both exceeded expectations and maintained its excellence for ten hours. —Matt Barone

4.Broad City (Comedy Central)

Stars: Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson

Comedy belongs to the ladies now. Comedy Central inadvertently (maybe not, though) set up Broad City as the female version of Workaholics by lining up the two shows back-to-back on Wednesday nights, but the framing was a little off. Turns out Broad City is just a better show altogether. Ilana and Abbi may have been ripping bowls in the series premiere like Adam, Blake and Ders, but Broad City quickly separated itself as a show that could sexually empower women, capture the struggle that goes on in your early 20s between growing up and retaining your identity, and depict what life in New York City is really like for all of us. And by all of us, I mean all the young people in the city who are dirt poor.

Broad City is the version of Girls we've always deserved. Whereas Lena Dunham's HBO show feels like it could love the Upper East Side, Broad City presents it as the 1%-harboring neighborhood it really is. Ilana and Abbi tip-toeing past 97th Street in horror while an old lady groans, "That's ten horses I've had to replace this year!" is a top ten TV moment in 2014.

The show's two characters make up the year's best duo (sorry, Woody and Matt). Ilana is the free-spirited, care-free fuck-up (she does actually have a job, though, working for the Groupon knockoff Deals, Deals, Deals) while Abbi's the more repressed, slightly more ambitious one (at least by comparison), and they bounce off each other in the best way. Ilana abates Abbi's anxiety and allows the boss inside to flourish; Abbi just lets Ilana be Ilana, which is really all anyone could ask for. Toss in Hannibal Buress as a dentist, and you've got a great show.

There's so much to love about Broad City—the NYC realness, its bright tone, how much fun it is, how it transcends gender—and that's why it was the best comedy of the year. —Andrew Gruttadaro

3.The Knick (Cinemax)

Stars: Clive Owen, Andre Holland, Juliet Rylance, Jeremy Bobb, Eve Hewson, Michael Angarano, Cara Seymour, Eric Johnson, Chris Sullivan

The Knick just might just be the best looking television show ever made. That could sound like a backhanded compliment—style over substance—but it's the opposite. The opening image of Dr. Thackery’s (Clive Owen) coke-white boots in a Chinatown opium den is beautiful enough to frame and hang on the wall of a Brooklyn loft, while the season finale's closing shot is a visual joke that’s as bleak as it is hilarious.

But Steven Soderbergh's turn-of-the-last-century medical drama isn't just a visual feast. Owen's portrayal of the cocaine and opium addled Thack is one of the great performances of his career. And the supporting players are uniformly fantastic; André Holland's multilayered Dr. Algernon Edwards​ is particularly compelling​ as he rages against an impossible system. But this is Soderbergh's show (he helmed every episode), so it's the direction and imagery that truly shine. From blood-red brothels to gothic and gory operating theaters, it's unlike anything we've ever seen. On The Knick the style is the substance. —Nathan Reese

2.Hannibal (NBC)

Stars: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, Hettienne Park, Scott Thompson, Aaron Abrams, Cynthia Nixon, Gillian Anderson, Gina Torres, Katherine Isabelle, Michael Pitt

The question of how to describe Hannibal only became more difficult in the brilliant second season. Showrunner Bryan Fuller all but abandoned the “monster of the week” procedural structure to better explore the forever twisted and twisting relationship between a certified monster (Mads Mikkelsen​'s Hannibal Lecter) and a man who might follow in the monster’s footsteps (Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham). Fuller is invested in exploring male friendship in a way that is without parallel on TV today. Thankfully he’s a visual thinker, which means Hannibal is the rare show that privileges mise en scene and editing to explore its relationships. (That eerie group sex scene in “Naka-Choko”!)

Along with Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick, Hannibal made 2014 a seminal year for TV deploying more cinematic techniques. Complaints that TV is a radio play with flat illustrations are less and less valid, but a show like Hannibal is operating on a different level entirely. The technical prowess might look familiar for cinema lovers, but the end result is increasingly strange, and all the more captivating for it. —Ross Scarano

1.Transparent (Amazon)

Stars: Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass, Gaby Hoffman, Judith Light, Alexandra Billings, Kiersey Clemons, Melora Hardin, Rob Huebel, Lawrence Pressman

There isn't a single show like this out there, and that's a testament to the greatness of Transparent.

Created by Afternoon Delight director Jill Soloway, the series follows an affluent dysfunctional Jewish family in L.A. whose members are each grasping at their own fragmented identity. At the center of the family is Mort (Jeffrey Tambor), the divorced patriarch of the Pfefferman family who comes out as transgender. As his kids adapt to his revelation, they each begin to unravel. There's Sarah (Amy Landecker), the eldest, a suburban housewife who steps outside of her lifeless marriage to reconnect with her first love. There's Josh (Jay Duplass), the Pfefferman's only son, who goes to all the wrong people to find companionship. And then there's Ali, the youngest, who refuses to grow up. Rounding out the fam is their mom, played by Judith Light, a retired homemaker now stuck at home playing caregiver to her ailing husband.

Despite the series' complexity, at 30 minutes an episode, Transparent is a profound, perfectly packaged series that's tragically underseen because it lives on Amazon. But forget the two-day shipping—this alone is well worth the Prime account. —Tara Aquino