8 Best TV Dramas Before Streaming, Ranked: Classics That Changed Television

A new era for television

Network television once dominated the medium, with shows airing weekly and often following established structures built around commercial breaks, cliffhangers and consistent pacing. Over time, the form changed as creators pushed beyond those conventions.

The 1990s brought a second Golden Age, with greater emphasis on auteur-driven work and serialized stories. David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks became a landmark of that shift.

Surrealism and crime drama

Twin Peaks blends melodramatic soap opera elements with supernatural camp and Lynch’s surreal style. Its visual design, writing and direction remain widely admired, though its quality dipped in the middle of season two.

Better Call Saul faced doubts as a prequel to Breaking Bad, often regarded as one of television’s greatest shows. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s series developed its own identity as a crime drama and legal thriller while adding depth to the world of its predecessor.

Led by Bob Odenkirk, the ensemble helped balance tragedy with comedy. The series is described as a near-perfect work and the most acclaimed TV prequel in history.

Science fiction with purpose

Rod Serling’s anthology series The Twilight Zone made science fiction a vehicle for social and political commentary. Serling turned to fantasy and horror to address topics including racism and McCarthyism after network executives resisted direct treatments of such issues.

The series had stronger and weaker stretches, as anthology shows often do. Still, it contains episodes regarded among the finest in anthology television and helped establish science fiction as a lasting force on the small screen.

War drama on HBO

HBO, launched in 1972, became a leading force in prestige television during the 1990s and 2000s. Band of Brothers, a war miniseries executive-produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, is described as the highest-rated miniseries in IMDb history.

The series adapts historian Stephen E. Ambrose’s nonfiction book of the same name. Its treatment of World War II is praised for its sensitivity and raw realism.