Where Does Succession Rank Among TV's All-Time Greatest Dramas? Vote!

Succession just wrapped up a highly acclaimed four-season run on HBO — but how does it stack up against the best TV dramas of all time?

To begin with, it's a huge accomplishment that we're even discussing Succession among the likes of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. It came from humble beginnings — the series premiere in 2018 drew barely half a million viewers, a huge drop from its Westworld lead-in — and since it just aired its finale this week, we haven't had time yet to revisit it the way we have with other golden oldies. But all of that speaks to how impressive Succession has been, weaving together corporate intrigue and pitch-black comedy to tell the tale of a very rich and very flawed family that was never less than fascinating. (Even if we didn't exactly root for any of the Roys, they still kept us glued to our TV screens nonetheless.)

Succession built a loyal following and amassed critical kudos on its way to two Emmy wins for best drama series, with a third possibly arriving later this year. It's one of the best TV shows of the past decade, without a doubt... but does it measure up to the heavy hitters in TV drama history? That's what we're about to take a stab at determining. So roll up your sleeves with us as we take a survey of the best TV dramas of all time, ranked in three distinct tiers, and try to figure out where Succession falls in that landscape. Plus, we'll give you a chance to vote for where you'd rank Succession in the pantheon of great TV shows.

As we see it, there are levels to this whole "best TV drama of all time" thing. We all have our personal favorites and blind spots, but when we look back, we see four shows towering above the rest as truly the greatest TV dramas of all time. Consider them the Mount Rushmore of TV dramas, their faces carved in stone for eternity.

We start with The Sopranos, the groundbreaking HBO mob drama that set the standard for all prestige TV to follow. (When writing the history of great television, there are two eras: before The Sopranos, and after.) The Wire, also airing on HBO, got even smarter and grittier as it examined the crime-fueled decay of the city of Baltimore from a myriad of perspectives. It never won a single Emmy (how?!?), but its sprawling storytelling canvas and unblinking realism remain a TV touchstone to this day.

Then we have a pair of AMC classics with a half-dozen Emmy wins for best drama series between them: Mad Men, a sleek and smart character study that took us back to the 1960s with the story of troubled ad exec Don Draper; and Breaking Bad, a high-octane drug trade epic that gave us an unforgettable transformation in chemistry teacher-turned-meth kingpin Walter White. You may quibble about which one of these four is the very best, but it's hard to argue with them being at or near the top in some order.

So can Succession realistically crack this list? At this point, we don't see it. As much as we adore Succession, it didn't quite have the cultural impact and stylistic innovations that this vaunted quartet had. But maybe in a few years, as these shows continue to marinate and develop over time, we'll change our minds. (For what it's worth, Succession has come closer than any show to matching Mad Men's elite verbal dexterity and acute emotional insight since that series went off the air in 2015.)

This is where it starts to get more debatable: the dramas that are just a slight notch below those hallowed four, but still spectacular in their own right. For us, that list includes FX's Cold War thriller The Americans, NBC/DirecTV's stirring high school football chronicle Friday Night Lights, AMC's Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul, HBO's foul-mouthed Western Deadwood and its blockbuster fantasy epic Game of Thrones. All of these shows have ardent fans who would put them at the very top, and all have earned a rock-solid place in TV history.

Somewhere in this group is where we think Succession ultimately lands, depending on how much you favor it. (To its credit, Succession maintained incredibly high quality throughout all four seasons, getting deeper and richer each year and not faltering badly during its final run... unlike some other shows we could mention.) It's all a matter of taste, of course, but we believe Succession has earned a spot as one of the 10 best TV dramas of all time, and that ranking may even rise, after we're given a few years to fully appreciate its greatness.

Now we come to the dramas we'd rank very highly but not as high as Succession on the all-time list, starting with a few pre-Y2K classics. Shows like Hill Street Blues, Twin Peaks, ER, NYPD Blue and The X-Files laid the groundwork for the TV revolution to follow and delivered high-quality drama despite the restrictions of 22-episode broadcast TV seasons. (We'd throw our beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer into that mix as well, even though the Emmys tragically never got the memo.)

The post-Sopranos era also delivered favorites like HBO's Six Feet Under and The Leftovers, AMC's Halt and Catch Fire and FX's The Shield and Justified, along with broadcast standouts like NBC's The West Wing and ABC's Lost. (Let's even throw Homeland into the discussion, even though it ran too long and went off in some crazy directions, because for a while there, it was absolutely riveting television.) We're sure we're leaving off some dramas you'd count among the best ever, and we here at TVLine have our personal favorites, too. (Hannibal! Parenthood! Sons of Anarchy! Penny Dreadful!)

As TVLine's resident critic, I'll now share my personal ranking of the Top 5 TV Dramas of All Time, adding the shameful caveat that I haven't watched The Wire yet (I know, I know):

1. Mad Men

2. The Sopranos

3. Breaking Bad

4. The Americans

5. Succession

So I would put Succession in my top five — but how about you? Tell us in the poll below where Succession ranks for you on the list of all-time great TV dramas, and hit the comments to share your own top five list, argue with our tiers, suggest dark horse candidates and more.

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