The 10 Best TV Shows of 2014
And finally, the Manifesto presents its top 10 TV shows of 2014. If you missed them, here are links to our prior posts:
Ranking the TV Shows of 2014, #s 20-11: True Detective, The Walking Dead, and Netflix’s Best Show
The Manifesto is counting down every TV show we watched in 2014—all 50 of them. If you missed our previous installments, you can find them at these links:
Nos. 50-41
Nos. 40-31
Nos. 30-21
On to the next set of 10, with one bonus pick:
Ranking the TV Shows of 2014, #s 30-21: Girls, Transparent, Louie, and HBO’s Black Sheep
The Manifesto is counting down every TV show we watched in 2014—all 50 of them. If you missed our previous installments, you can find them at these links:
Ranking the TV Shows of 2014, #s 40-31: House of Cards, Homeland, and Lots More HBO
The Manifesto is counting down every TV show we watched in 2014—all 50 of them. If you missed numbers 50-41, you can find them here.
On to the next set of 10:
Ranking the TV Shows of 2014, #s 50-41: Downton Abbey, HBO Finales, and More
[Note: If you’re wondering what happened to the conclusion of our ranked list of 2014 movies, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about it. But before finalizing our top 10 list, we feel it’s our duty to track down and watch a few more critically acclaimed releases—including Mr. Turner, A Most Violent Year, and Two Days, One Night—as those could feasibly contend for an appearance on the final list. As such, we’re postponing the countdown for one week and switching to television as a stopgap.]
We are living in a golden age of television. Network TV may be a graveyard these days, but between the premium cable boom and the rise of original programming on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon, television viewers have no shortage of high-quality options. Some are serialized and novelistic in scope, others are episodic and tightly plotted, but overall, the world of television is growing increasingly cinematic, blurring the line between big screen and small. Movie stars pop up on FX, A-list directors collaborate with HBO, and industry talent in general is eagerly exploring the unique storytelling opportunities that TV has to offer.