Honest TV Show Reviews, Ranked Without Hype
Find your next series through spoiler-free reviews, head-to-head ELO rankings, and honest long-form analysis from a lifelong TV enthusiast.
Featured Reviews
A fresh selection from the archive, rotated daily.
Sons of Anarchy: Brotherhood, Betrayal and the Pull of Charming
Sons of Anarchy reviewed: Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman make SAMCRO's tangled loyalties compelling. A spoiler-free look at Kurt Sutter's biker drama.
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Squid Game: Simple Rules, Impossible Choices
Squid Game makes its deadly contests matter by making the contestants matter first. A review of the original season's tension, performances and cruel bargains.
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Stranger Things: There's Still Something in the Woods
Stranger Things blends small-town mystery, friendship and supernatural horror. My spoiler-free review looks at what works across its first four seasons.
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The Wire: All the Pieces Matter
The Wire builds an extraordinary portrait of Baltimore from patient police work, street-level survival and institutions that reward the wrong things.
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The West Wing: Great Company in the Corridors of Power
The West Wing reviewed: Aaron Sorkin's dialogue, Martin Sheen's Bartlet and a superb ensemble make government engrossing, funny television. Spoiler-free.
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Succession: The Family That Can't Finish an Argument
Succession is viciously funny family drama, with superb performances and a precise understanding of how money, approval and power become entangled.
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The current top twenty from our head-to-head ELO leaderboard.
| Rank | Show | ELO | Watchlist |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Sopranos | 1934 | |
| 2 | Game of Thrones | 1922 | |
| 3 | The Shield | 1900 | |
| 4 | Gomorrah | 1869 | |
| 5 | Black Mirror | 1864 | |
| 6 | Peaky Blinders | 1845 | |
| 7 | Mad Men | 1828 | |
| 8 | Suburra: Blood on Rome | 1827 | |
| 9 | The Wire | 1825 | |
| 10 | The Last Kingdom | 1802 | |
| 11 | Homeland | 1800 | |
| 12 | Breaking Bad | 1800 | |
| 13 | Fargo | 1799 | |
| 14 | Dexter | 1790 | |
| 15 | Oz | 1784 | |
| 16 | Stranger Things | 1783 | |
| 17 | Better Call Saul | 1777 | |
| 18 | Tokyo Vice | 1774 | |
| 19 | Boardwalk Empire | 1773 | |
| 20 | Band Of Brothers | 1768 |