The Best Showtime Series

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Homeland was Showtime’s answer to 24 (and was also produced by 24 EP Howard Gordon). A political thriller with an irresistible twist Homeland follows bipolar CIA analyst Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) as she investigates a former POW (Damian Lewis), who may or may not be a sleeper agent for a terrorist organization. The first season is top notch, moving at a neck-breaking pace and offering many twists and turns, as well as strong performances from Danes and Lewis. An ill-advised season finale left the show with little to do with Lewis character, leading the show to flounder for a couple of seasons. As of the fifth season, however, Homeland has tackled relevant political topics and criticized America’s role in overseas intervention, making for a more poignant series.

Based on the UK series of the same name, Shameless is Showtime’s best family drama. Deadbeat dad Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) and his daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum) “take care” of the rest of the Gallagher family, who live in poverty on Chicago’s South Side. Frank is a terrible dad, to say the least, and lives on the fringes of his children’s lives, concocting scheme after scheme to procure alcohol and drugs. Fiona works minimum wage jobs to support the younger members of the family and prevent them (and herself) from giving in to their own inherited addictions. It sounds dark (and it frequently is), but Shameless adds humor to its all too rare honest portrayal of a working-class family struggling to make ends meet. Shameless at its best is also one of the smartest shows on television, analyzing race, gender, and sexual identity on the poor side of the wage gap.

The rare Gothic horror series Penny Dreadful takes place in Victorian London and follows a mysterious woman (Eva Green), an American rogue (Josh Hartnett), and an explorer (Timothy Dalton), as they and other people team up to fight the monsters threatening London and the world. Many of the characters, including the aforementioned main ones, are ripped from classic horror and science fiction literature, from Frankenstein’s Monster to Dracula to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Penny Dreadful moves at a gloriously slow pace, revealing its characters’ true identities one by one, soaking in its Gothic atmosphere, and musing on the thoughts and feelings of its legendary characters. The performances are always brilliant, especially from the underrated Eva Green, tackling her first major TV role and giving one of the best TV performances of the 2010s. Penny Dreadful is a niche delight, but a delight all the same. 

An underrated and canceled too soon comedy-drama, gem. United States of Tara stars Toni Collette as Tara Gregson, a wife and mother suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Tara has three other identities (or “alters”, as they’re referred to): Alice, a 1950s housewife; T., a rambunctious sixteen-year-old girl; and Buck, a war veteran. Tara and her alters repeatedly interfere with the life of her family, including Atypical’s Keir Gilchrist as her closeted son Marshall, and future Captain Marvel Brie Larson as her artist daughter, Kate. United States of Tara features the same snarky humor present in Cody’s other work but is also acutely sensitive to how emotionally taxing mental illness is, both for those experiencing it and the people who love them. Toni Collette gives an especially incredible performance, seamlessly pulling of several identities and making Tara a complex, three-dimensional woman.

One of television’s most famous anti-hero shows, and one of Showtime’s most famous shows of the 2000s, Dexter’s legacy is felt even today. Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall) is a forensic analyst working for the Miami Police Department who moonlights as a vigilante serial killer; one who hunts down murderers and rapists who have slipped through the police’s fingers. The incredibly dark subject matter marries your typical Criminal Minds-esque police procedural with Silence of the Lambs-esque psychological thrills. And instant hit, later seasons saw the series take a nosedive in quality; still, the first three seasons are among the best that Showtime has ever produced, culminating in the third and best season, which features the best villain on the show, the Trinity Killer, played by a terrifying John Lithgow, and an unforgettable ending. 

One of Showtime’s most underrated shows comes from superstar TV writer Bryan Fuller, best known for creating the similarly underrated Pushing Daisies and Hannibal. Dead Like Me follows George (Ellen Muth) who, after dying at 18, finds out that she’s now a grim reaper and must work with a team of other reapers led by Rube (Mandy Patinkin) to remove souls from people right before they die of homicides and accidents. Dead Like Me is a philosophical and often comical show, examining the mysteries of life and death, and following the effect of George’s death on her family, whom she was distant from. Though the show was canceled after just two seasons, it boasted a cast of colorful characters, thoughtful comedy-drama, a fun mythology, and a charmingly optimistic outlook on life and death.

A remake of the British series of the same name, Queer As Folk broke ground as the first American television series to center around a gay community. A welcome respite from the theatrics of Will And Grace, Queer As Folk was (and still is) a more candid and realistic look at the lives of five gay men living in Pittsburgh. The show tackled many hot button issues within the queer community, such as HIV/AIDS, same-sex marriage, and workplace discrimination. The series is as soapy as other dramas about young people at the time, but with a refreshingly queer focus. A critical hit credited with increased popularization of gay culture into the mainstream, Queer As Folk quickly became Showtime’s highest rated show, putting the network on the map and in direct competition with HBO.

One of Showtime’s earliest shows, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show was more of a critical hit than a hit with audiences, but its influence is palpable. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show stars stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as stand-up comedian Garry Shandling, who’s hyper-aware that he’s in a sitcom. The theme song “This Is The Theme To Garry’s Show” is similarly self-referential. Shandling addresses the audience and other characters (sometimes other celebrities playing themselves), who are also aware they’re in a sitcom, and modifies the plots of episodes to favor himself. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show was made for people raised on television, who would enjoy a show that essentially made fun of sitcoms while still acting as one. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show was one of the first modern self-referential television shows, and without it, we wouldn’t have shows like The Simpsons, 30 Rock, or Bojack Horseman.

Three years before Walter White would break bad, Weeds introduced us to Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker), a suburban mom who begins selling weed in order to keep her family financially stable after the sudden death of her husband. Nancy Botwin is one of television’s most interesting characters of all time: she’s an early version of a popular female anti-hero and becomes increasingly morally questionable, a rarity among female television characters at the time. Creator Jenji Kohan would later go on to create Orange Is The New Black and continue this trend of morally complex female characters, but she made a remarkable first statement with Weeds. Like so many, the series, unfortunately, ran too long and suffered a deep dive in quality, but its first three seasons are among the best of recent modern television, riffing on feminism, consumerism, and the American Dream in darkly comedic ways.

A parody of soap operas that also mixed in elements of crime thrillers, teen dramas, and horror movies, Twin Peaks changed the landscape of television for good in 1990, showing viewers and showrunners alike just how weird the medium could get. 2017’s Twin Peaks: The Return changed the medium again, continuing Twin Peaks’ story 25 years later in the most Peaks-ian way possible. The Return explores doppelgangers, the origin of mystical villain BOB, and the lives of the various residents of the titular town. It’s audacious, off-kilter, and almost impossible to describe, yet it’s a masterpiece, interweaving elements of experimental film, prestige drama, and surreal humor for one of the best and strangest things on film or TV in the past couple of years.