After Watching So Many Shows, These Are My Life-Changing Ones

10. Band of Brothers

This ten-part mini-series stands the test of time as the greatest war-related series ever. Chronicling the story of Easy Company during World War II, this series quickly shifts from the Hollywood-style glamour associated with wars to the essence of brotherhood in war and the resilience of the human spirit.

9. The Sopranos

It was The Sopranos, which began the Golden Age of TV, that humanized the monster. The Sopranos brought a mob boss to a therapy couch and explored trauma, depression, and the everydayness of evil. And it proved that a character could be very relatable and not good.

8. Mad Men

Based in the 1960s advertising industry, Mad Men is a quiet, profound character study. Mad Men is a life-changing watch because it forces the viewer to look at their own masks in the same way that the characters must contend with their own.

7. Vikings

Vikings takes inspiration from the legendary Ragnar Lothbrok and combines elements of Norse mythology with historical fiction. The show is essentially one about discovery and the conflict of religions and explores the Vikings as a society of discoverers and visionaries looking for a better life.

6. Game of Thrones (Exclude the final season)

Despite its divisive final season, Game of Thrones is a massive undertaking and a historic accomplishment in world-building. The series changed the cultural topography with its serious and realistic approach to fantasy storytelling and its lesson to its audience to understand power as a shadow on the wall and to recognize that no character is exempt from reality.

5. The Boys

A subversive twist on a genre known for staid superhero stories, The Boys instead explores a world where those with god-like abilities are administered by a corrupt corporation. The series is thus a biting commentary on modern-day notions of fame and ambition for "justice."

4. Suits

Even as it starts off as a slick legal procedural about a guy who gets to practice law without a degree, Suits develops into a story about loyalty and ethics. It showcases the need for mentorship, as well as the fact that genius without a moral sense of direction (or at least a good team behind you) just won’t do.

3. The Last Kingdom

From Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories comes this series centering around Uhtred of Bebbanburg. It is a gritty and realistic portrayal of the struggle to create a unified England amidst the tension between Saxons and Danes. It’s a tale of belonging and the struggle of living in two different realms.

2. Peaky Blinders

Based on post-WWI Birmingham, this fashionable epic vents itself on the Shelby crime family. It is more than just their signature razor-hat edges. It delves into their psychological trauma from being ex-soldiers. It is also about how they experience the change in their working-class status.

1. Breaking Bad

It's widely regarded as the best television drama ever made. Critics write of this acclaimed series about the change of Walter White from being a mild teacher of chemistry to becoming a hard-line kingpin of substance through caution, logic, and consistency in deleterious change.