Best Drama TV Shows
Best drama TV shows of all time
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This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.
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Go deep into the clandestine world of the legendary brotherhood of warrior monks known as The Knights Templar.
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | History |
Created By: | Don Handfield, Richard Rayner |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.2 / 10 (56) |
Baywatch is an American action drama series about the Los Angeles County Lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. The show was canceled after its first season on NBC, but survived and later became one
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 11 |
Network: | NBC |
Created By: | Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, Gregory J. Bonann |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 5.2 / 10 (133) |
Former British soldier Jonathan Pine navigates the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington where an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. To infiltrate the inner circle of lethal arms dealer Richard On
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Networks: | BBC One, AMC |
Created By: | David Farr |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.7 / 10 (215) |
In the near future a family must make difficult decisions as they balance staying together with trying to survive. They live in Los Angeles, which has been occupied by a force of outside intruders. While some people have chosen to collaborate with the au
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | USA Network |
Created By: | Carlton Cuse, Ryan Condal, Wes Tooke |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (260) |
Two teenage boys secretly meet up in a cabin, bear witness to a shooting and barely escape with their lives. Desperate to keep their relationship a secret and in fear of being found by the perpetrator, they remain silent but soon learn that what has been
Genres: | Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | USA Network |
Created By: | Adi Hasak |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 7.5 / 10 (22) |
Alien Nation is a science fiction television series, loosely based on the movie of the same name. Gary Graham starred as Detective Matthew Sikes, a Los Angeles police officer reluctantly working with "Newcomer" alien George Francisco, played by Eric Pierp
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Kenneth Johnson, Rockne S. O'Bannon |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.8 / 10 (47) |
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series that revolves around a corporation running numerous underground establishments across the globe which program individuals referred to as "Actives" with temporary personalities and skills. Wealthy
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Joss Whedon |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (185) |
One day, Usagi Tsukino, clumsy 2nd-year middle school student (8th grader), stumbles upon a talking cat named Luna. Luna tells her that she is destined to be Sailor Moon, "champion of love and justice", and she must search for the fabled Moon Princess. Us
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Animation, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Network: | TV Asahi |
Created By: | Naoko Takeuchi |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (34) |
Five ordinary people with superhuman physical and mental abilities are brought together to form one extraordinary team of Alphas. Operating within the U.S. Department of Defense, the team investigates cases that point to others with Alpha abilities.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Action & Adventure |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Syfy |
Created By: | Zak Penn |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.8 / 10 (110) |
Stripped of everything, the survivors of a horrific plane crash must work together to stay alive. But the island holds many secrets.
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 6 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Jeffrey Lieber |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.8 / 10 (1145) |
Prairie Johnson, blind as a child, comes home to the community she grew up in with her sight restored. Some hail her a miracle, others a dangerous mystery, but Prairie won’t talk with the FBI or her parents about the seven years she went missing.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (272) |
Under the Dome is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. It tells the story of the residents of the small town of Chester's Mill in Maine, where a massive, transparent, indestructible dome suddenly cuts them off from the rest of the world. W
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | CBS |
Created By: | Brian K. Vaughan |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.2 / 10 (420) |
An anthology series set in a single hotel room, where every guest who comes to stay reveals a unique set of circumstances and quirks.
Genres: | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 5.5 / 10 (39) |
Are You Afraid of the Dark? is a joint Canadian-American horror/fantasy-themed anthology television series. The original series was a joint production between the Canadian company Cinar and the American company Nickelodeon. The show was filmed in Richmond
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Family, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Networks: | ITV, Nickelodeon, YTV |
Created By: | D. J. MacHale, Ned Kandel |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (57) |
An anthology horror drama series centering on different characters and locations, including a house with a murderous past, an asylum, a witch coven, a freak show, a hotel, a farmhouse in Roanoke and a cult.
Publisher: | FX Productions |
Genres: | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 8 |
Network: | FX |
Created By: | Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.1 / 10 (981) |
Before there was Batman, there was GOTHAM. Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world's greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon's story and his rise from rookie d
Genres: | Drama, Thriller, Crime, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Bruno Heller |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (954) |
A vast international plot explodes when a beautiful Jane Doe is discovered naked in Times Square, completely covered in mysterious, intricate tattoos with no memory of who she is or how she got there. But there's one tattoo that is impossible to miss: the
Genres: | Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | NBC |
Created By: | Martin Gero |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.3 / 10 (553) |
Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting in
Genres: | Drama, War & Politics, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.2 / 10 (1343) |
Based on Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel about an ex-con who becomes the traveling partner of a conman who turns out to be one of the older gods trying to recruit troops to battle the upstart deities.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Starz |
Created By: | Neil Gaiman, Michael Green, Bryan Fuller |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (441) |
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | Daniel Knauf |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 8.1 / 10 (164) |
Newlywed Melinda Gordon tries to help the dead communicate with loved ones, 'but sometimes the messages she receives are intense and confusing.' Most of Melinda's efforts involve resolving conflicts that are preventing the spirits from passing over. The s
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Network: | CBS |
Created By: | John Gray |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 5.8 / 10 (139) |
What would you do to have everything you desire? Step inside 666 Park Avenue, New York's most seductive address. We all have some burning needs, desires and ambitions. For the residents of The Drake, the premier apartment building on Manhattan's Upper
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | David Wilcox |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.3 / 10 (45) |
Three paranormal roommates, a ghost, a vampire, and a werewolf, struggle to keep their dark secrets from the world, while helping each other navigate the complexities of living double lives.
Genres: | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Networks: | Syfy, Space |
Created By: | Toby Whithouse |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.3 / 10 (60) |
Dominion is an epic supernatural drama set in the near future. Specifically, 25 years after "The Extinction War," when an army of lower angels, assembled by the archangel Gabriel, waged war against mankind. The archangel Michael, turning against his own k
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Syfy |
Created By: | Scott Stewart, Vaun Wilmott |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.2 / 10 (113) |
Welcome to a place where being normal is really quite strange. In a remote Texas town no one is who they seem. From vampires and witches to psychics and hit men, Midnight is a mysterious safe haven for those who are different. As the town members fight of
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | NBC |
Created By: | Monica Breen |
Status: | Returning Series, Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (88) |
Into every generation a slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is
Genres: | Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Networks: | The WB, UPN |
Created By: | Joss Whedon |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8 / 10 (461) |
In a parallel present where the latest must-have gadget for any busy family is a 'Synth' - a highly-developed robotic servant that's so similar to a real human it's transforming the way we live.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | Channel 4 |
Created By: | Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.5 / 10 (254) |
A Chicago-based wizard works as a private investigator.
Genres: | Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Syfy |
Created By: | Jim Butcher |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.9 / 10 (40) |
Sheriff's deputy Rick Grimes awakens from a coma to find a post-apocalyptic world dominated by flesh-eating zombies. He sets out to find his family and encounters many other survivors along the way.
Publisher: | Darkwoods Productions, American Movie Classics, Valhalla Motion Pictures, AMC Studios, Circle of Confusion |
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 9 |
Network: | AMC |
Created By: | Frank Darabont |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (3892) |
A spin-off from The Vampire Diaries and set in New Orleans, The Originals centers on the Mikaelson siblings, otherwise known as the world's original vampires: Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah. Now Klaus must take down his protégé, Marcel, who is now in charge o
Publisher: | My So-Called Company |
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Network: | The CW |
Created By: | Julie Plec |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (364) |
When they were boys, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently, their father raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back r
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 14 |
Networks: | The WB, The CW |
Created By: | Eric Kripke |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (1654) |
After Portland homicide detective Nick Burkhardt discovers he's descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as "Grimms," he increasingly finds his responsibilities as a detective at odds with his new responsibilities as a Grimm.
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 6 |
Network: | NBC |
Created By: | David Greenwalt, Jim Kouf, Stephen Carpenter |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.8 / 10 (576) |
Firefly is set in the year 2517, after the arrival of humans in a new star system and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a "Firefly-class" spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity.
Genres: | Western, Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Joss Whedon |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.2 / 10 (891) |
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. The show is set in the nearby regions of the Milky Way galaxy, approximately during the 2360s and features a ne
Publisher: | Paramount Television |
Genres: | Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Networks: | CBS, Broadcast Syndication |
Created By: | Gene Roddenberry |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.3 / 10 (531) |
FBI Special Agent Olivia Dunham, brilliant but formerly institutionalized scientist Walter Bishop and his scheming, reluctant son Peter uncover a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realize they may be a part of a larger, more dis
Publisher: | Warner Bros. Television, Bad Robot Productions, Fox Productions |
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.1 / 10 (685) |
True Blood is an American television drama series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small tow
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | Alan Ball |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (531) |
The story of Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743, where she is immediately thrown into an unknown world where her life is threatened. When she is forced to marry Jamie, a chivalrous and romantic
Genres: | Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | Starz |
Created By: | Ronald D. Moore |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (431) |
Spoiled billionaire playboy Oliver Queen is missing and presumed dead when his yacht is lost at sea. He returns five years later a changed man, determined to clean up the city as a hooded vigilante armed with a bow.
Genres: | Crime, Drama, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Network: | The CW |
Created By: | Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6 / 10 (2122) |
The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make
Publisher: | Fox Productions |
Genres: | Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery |
Number Of Seasons: | 11 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Chris Carter |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 8.1 / 10 (897) |
Jefferson Pierce is a man wrestling with a secret. As the father of two daughters and principal of a charter high school that also serves as a safe haven for young people in a New Orleans neighborhood overrun by gang violence, he is a hero to his communit
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | The CW |
Genres: | Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy |
Created By: | Salim Akil, Mara Brock Akil |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.2 / 10 (181) |