Just like those clothes, we pick shows that make us feel better, forgetting about that one we keep saving for when we’re feeling frisky, adventurous, or glamorous. Just as that piece of clothing is forgotten, so can a show; the television landscape is vast, like an infinite closet, and picking out the right one can feel harder than simply throwing on a random shirt. Here are the TV dramas that are 10/10, but nobody remembers today; maybe you’ll dare to venture out.
‘Patriot’ (2015–2018)
Patriot basically has a cult following, but it’s widely unknown. It was commissioned by Amazon, which heavily botched its release schedule, forcing it to be shelved for no apparent reason for about a year after the pilot came out. In 2017, when all of Season 1 finally aired, critical reception was excellent; its overall Rotten Tomatoes score is 91%, while Season 2 earned a 100% critic rating. The Guardian‘s critic Julia Raeside liked Season 1, saying it possesses a “lack of resemblance to anything else I’ve seen” and comparing it favorably to FX‘s Fargo series for its “odd, off-beat tone.” Amazon cancelled Patriot anyway, causing genuine disappointment among its niche but devoted audience.
Patriot follows John Tavner (Michael Dorman), an undercover intelligence officer assigned to prevent Iran from going nuclear. The mission requires him to assume a false identity as a mid-level employee at a Milwaukee industrial piping company—a job for which he is comically unqualified. His missions keep colliding with his day job in increasing and absurd ways, and throughout all of it, John processes his existential despair by performing original folk songs at open-mic nights. The show is unusually brilliant; it’s a spy thriller that is as serious as its deadpan absurdism allows it. The supporting cast includes Kurtwood Smith, Terry O’Quinn, and Debra Winger, who are just as brilliant as Dorman in the lead.
‘Halt and Catch Fire’ (2014–2017)
Halt and Catch Fire is perhaps the most extreme case on this list of the gap between critical esteem and public awareness. It was one of the lowest-watched series on AMC, but its fourth and final season earned a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Rolling Stone included it on its list of the best shows of all time, based on a poll of various critics, actors, producers, and writers. The best part is that the show was able to end on its own terms, meaning AMC believed in it despite it all; now, there’s a pretty perfect story available for streaming out there.
Halt and Catch Fire spans a decade across its four seasons and begins in 1983 in the “Silicon Prairie” of Dallas. It follows four ambitious characters: Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace), a charismatic, manipulative ex-IBM salesman; Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), a genius engineer stuck in middle management; Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis), a self-destructive young programmer; and Donna Clark (Kerry Bishé), the show’s moral and intellectual center. Throughout, the show follows tech advancements, from the birth of the personal computer to the integration of the World Wide Web. The meaning of Halt and Catch Fire is a reference to an old assembly language instruction that causes a computer to overheat—much like the show’s characters.
‘Treme’ (2010–2013)
Treme is, according to critics, one of HBO’s most consistently excellent dramas. Nonetheless, it has never gained mainstream cultural traction in the same way that David Simon’s other shows have. The author, best known for The Wire, created Treme with a clear lack of plot and conventional dramatic tension, making it nearly impossible to sell to audiences expecting a high-end TV show. Once you get the hang of it, though, Treme becomes a show you adore; those who have already committed deem it one of the best things they’ve ever seen.
Treme takes place in New Orleans’ Tremé neighborhood in the months and years after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It’s a story that poses the question: what does it mean to rebuild a city and culture? The cast includes Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce), a trombone player hustling between gigs; Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens), a talented chef fighting to keep her restaurant open; Creighton Bernette (John Goodman), a Tulane professor channeling his grief into YouTube rants directed at the federal government; and Toni Bernette (Melissa Leo), a lawyer searching for people who went missing in the aftermath of the storm. The music is performed live by real New Orleans musicians throughout, and Anthony Bourdain co-wrote four episodes for Seasons 2 and 3.
‘The Knick’ (2014–2015)
The Knick aired on Cinemax, a channel that was deemed either too serious or too left-field to be taken as a contender for prestige drama channels (despite producing pretty amazing shows). Despite receiving critical acclaim, Cinemax cancelled The Knick because of wanting to return to high-octane action; the show was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who described the process as the happiest creative experience of his career. He and the writers envisioned the show’s concept changing every two seasons, but the cancellation shelved the series almost entirely.
The Knick is set in a fictionalized version of New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital at the turn of the 20th century and follows Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen), the hospital’s new chief of surgery. He’s an arrogant addict but also a surgical genius, successfully doing surgeries in a pre-modern anesthesia and antibiotics era; he recognizes the potential of Dr. Algernon Edwards (André Holland), a Black surgeon trained at Europe’s best hospitals, and begins working with him. Soderbergh directed, photographed, and edited all twenty episodes, and the end result is unlike any other period drama on TV: kinetic, visceral, and ahead of its time, both within the show and in real life.
‘Rectify’ (2013–2016)
Rectify is a series so forgotten and placed into the backs of our minds that many of you reading this will see the name and think, “What?” It was created by actor Ray McKinnon for Sundance TV, which, admittedly, is one of the smallest cable channels on the market. They’re a part of AMC, and an extension of Robert Redford‘s Sundance Institute. The show gained favorable reviews throughout its four-season run; the fourth season has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and it’s a rare series that gets absolutely better with each installment and concludes with a satisfying ending on its own terms.
Rectify is described as a Southern Gothic and tells the story of Daniel Holden (Aden Young), who was convicted of the murder and assault of his girlfriend as a teen. When new DNA evidence challenges his conviction 19 years later, he is released, and the show truly begins. Rectify is a non-conforming depiction of what it feels like to re-enter a world that has changed completely while you’ve been gone from it. Daniel is an unusual, meditative character and the show tracks how everyone around him, from his mother Janet (J. Smith-Cameron) and fierce sister Amantha (Abigail Spencer) to his stepbrother Teddy (Clayne Crawford), grapples with the idea of him still being an unhealed wound in their community.
‘Carnivàle’ (2003–2005)
Carnivàle is one of those HBO masterpieces that we just forgot; it only has two seasons, but while it lasted, it received fifteen Emmy nominations and won five. Its cinematography, production design, and atmosphere are flawless; its creator, Daniel Knauf, drew on Gnostic theology, Templar mythology, and pre-Christian philosophy to build the show’s elaborate mythos and planned the entire story over six seasons divided into three “books.” HBO cancelled the show after two seasons, at the conclusion of what Knauf had envisioned as “Book One,” citing declining ratings and an excessive production cost.
Carnivàle is set in the American Great Plains during the 1930s Dust Bowl and tells the story of a war between the forces of light and darkness. Ben Hawkins (Nick Stahl) is a young Oklahoma farm boy who escapes and is taken in by a traveling carnival after his mother’s death. Surrounded by the carnival’s community of freaks and misfits, Ben discovers that he has the power to heal, though that power comes at a cost. Hundreds of miles away in California, Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown) is a devout Methodist minister with a gift for moving sermons. However, he uses his increasing ability to manipulate people to his will and bend the world to his dark vision, becoming the darkness to Ben’s light. Despite it being canceled and unfinished in lore, Carnivàle is worth diving into because of how beautiful it is.
‘Terriers’ (2010)
FX cancelled Terriers five days after its season finale aired, making it the lowest-rated drama in the network’s modern history at the time. But the problem wasn’t quality: Terriers holds a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Time magazine placed it in their top 10 shows of the year. The problem was that nobody was watching, partly because the marketing was lacking and partly because the show’s off-beat charm simply failed to stand out. After the show’s cancellation, FX president John Landgraf held a remarkable and rare conference call with reporters specifically to explain the cancellation. The show often gets traction from lists like this one, but it remains buried in a sea of one-season wonders.
Set in Ocean Beach, San Diego, Terriers follows Hank Dolworth (Donal Logue), a recovering alcoholic and former cop who now runs an unlicensed private investigation business with his best friend Britt Pollack (Michael Raymond-James), a former small-time thief. They are, in every professional sense, unqualified, operating without licenses, resources, or any realistic authority to compel anyone’s cooperation. When they agree to check out a land deal that seems wrong, Hank and Britt are drawn into a Chinatown-esque conspiracy involving wealthy developers, corrupt officials, and a decades-old cover-up. The writing is superb, the production is appealing, and the chemistry between Logue and Raymond-James is so warm and believable that watching the show feels less like watching two best friends just stumble about and try their best.
‘Gentleman Jack’ (2019–2022)
Gentleman Jack is the victim of timing and circumstance. Creator Sally Wainwright had planned on writing it since the 2000s but only in 2016 got the chance to pitch her story about Anne Lister, the openly gay, female, 19th-century industrialist, as an homage to her boldness and exuberance. When it finally aired in 2019, Gentleman Jack was a critical success (92% on Rotten Tomatoes) with high ratings, but a shift in streaming landscapes, in particular with HBO, made Season 2 less than easy to watch. When HBO pulled out, the BBC began searching for a new partner, even considering continuing the show on its own.
Gentleman Jack is set in 1830s Halifax, West Yorkshire, and follows Anne Lister (Suranne Jones), a landowner and industrialist who returns to her ancestral home, Shibden Hall, determined to restore its fortunes by reopening coal mines. Anne is an interesting woman: she dresses head-to-toe in black, walks with a masculine swagger, and has no desire to marry a man; instead, she courts the shy, wealthy heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle). The series was based on Lister’s real diaries, which contain five million words and a sixth written in code. They detail her business dealings, travels, and romantic relationships with women, making Gentleman Jack a show of undeniable brilliance and significant historical weight.