Best Drama TV Shows
Best drama TV shows of all time
Trending Articles
- How Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ Fixed the Book’s Sexism Issue
- ‘Kinds of Kindness’ Teaser Breakdown and Synopsis — Plus Fan Reactions
- These Adversaries Should Appear on Ryan Murphy’s ‘Feud’ Next
- 14 Brilliant Movie Scenes That Were Completely Improvised
- 5 Movies With Wild Plot Twists
- 17 Early-2000s Pop Culture Moments That Still Live In My Head Rent-Free
About the author
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.
Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.
Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.
Beverly Hills, 90210 followed the lives of a group of teenagers living in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California and attending the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School and, subsequently, the fictitious California University
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 10 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Aaron Spelling, Darren Star |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6 / 10 (108) |
413 Hope St. is an American drama series which aired on the Fox network in the fall of 1997. The series was co-created by actor/comedian Damon Wayans, who made a stark departure from his usual comedic work. The ensemble cast—headed by film actor Richard
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | Damon Wayans |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 0 / 10 (0) |
The American Embassy is an American drama series that aired on Fox from March to April 2002. The series was created by James D. Parriott, and executive produced by Danny DeVito.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | FOX |
Created By: | James D. Parriott |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 0 / 10 (0) |
The life of a group of adolescents going through the trials and tribulations of teendom at Degrassi Community School.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 14 |
Networks: | CTV, Much |
Created By: | Yan Moore, Linda Schuyler |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.3 / 10 (21) |
Explore the relationships between exclusive escorts and their clients, for whom they provide far more than just sex. Known as GFEs, they are women who provide “The Girlfriend Experience”—emotional and sexual relationships at a very high price.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Created By: | Steven Soderbergh |
Network: | Starz |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 5.6 / 10 (60) |
A grieving teen finds an unexpected connection with two classmates at her new high school after they all land in the same Shoplifters Anonymous group.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Amy Andelson, Emily Meyer, Kirsten Smith |
Network: | Netflix |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 7.7 / 10 (3) |
Picking up one year after the events of the final broadcast episode of "The Good Wife", an enormous financial scam has destroyed the reputation of a young lawyer, Maia Rindell, while simultaneously wiping out her mentor and godmother Diane Lockhart's savi
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Created By: | Phil Alden Robinson, Michelle King, Robert King |
Network: | CBS All Access |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 7.2 / 10 (77) |
Skeptical female clinical psychologist Kristen Benoist joins a priest-in-training and a blue-collar contractor as they investigate supposed miracles, demonic possessions, and other extraordinary occurrences to see if there’s a scientific explanation or if
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Robert King, Michelle King |
Network: | CBS |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (6) |
The intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and an enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. Explore the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger in believing that f
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Hulu |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 7.8 / 10 (10) |
Wealth, lust, and betrayal set in the backdrop of Regency era England, seen through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Chris Van Dusen |
Network: | Netflix |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 8.2 / 10 (24) |
Set in the fictional small town of Tree Hill, North Carolina, this teen-driven drama tells the story of two half brothers, who share a last name and nothing else. Brooding, blue-collar Lucas is a talented street-side basketball player, but his skills are
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 9 |
Networks: | The WB, The CW |
Created By: | Mark Schwahn |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (84) |
Lenny Belardo, the youngest and first American Pope in the history of the Church, must establish his new papacy and navigate the power struggles of the closed, secretive Vatican.
Publisher: | Canal, Mediapro, Haut et Court, Wildside, Sky Italia |
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Networks: | HBO, Canal+, Sky Atlantic |
Created By: | Paolo Sorrentino, Jude Law, Diane Keaton, Silvio Orlando |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (103) |
Set in present day Washington, D.C., House of Cards is the story of Frank Underwood, a ruthless and cunning politician, and his wife Claire who will stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed,
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 6 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Beau Willimon |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.2 / 10 (1034) |
Silent Witness is a British crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 21 |
Network: | BBC One |
Created By: | Nigel McCrery |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (22) |
An emotional thrill ride through the day-to-day chaos of the city's most explosive hospital and the courageous team of doctors who hold it together. They will tackle unique new cases inspired by topical events, forging fiery relationships in the pulse-pou
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | NBC |
Created By: | Dick Wolf, Matt Olmstead |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (107) |
Life is hard on the Flemings' ranch in the Alberta foothills where abused or neglected horses find refuge with a kind, hard-working family. Debts abound and the bank is about to foreclose. Can they keep the ranch running?
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 12 |
Network: | CBC Television |
Created By: | Heather Conkie, Хезер Конки |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.6 / 10 (88) |
Everyone has secrets and Olivia Pope has dedicated her life to protecting and defending the public images of the elite by keeping those secrets under wraps. Pope and her team are at the top of their game when it comes to getting the job done for their cli
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | Shonda Rhimes |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (222) |
A chronicle of the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants in the post-Edwardian era—with great events in history having an effect on their lives and on the British social hierarchy.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 6 |
Networks: | ITV, PBS |
Created By: | Julian Fellowes |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8 / 10 (303) |
William Masters and Virginia Johnson are real-life pioneers of the science of human sexuality. Their research touched off the sexual revolution and took them from a midwestern teaching hospital to the cover of Time magazine and multiple appearances on Joh
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | Showtime |
Created By: | Michelle Ashford |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 6.7 / 10 (154) |
The Good Wife is a legal drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband's very public sex and political corruption scandal lands
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 7 |
Network: | CBS |
Created By: | Michelle King, Robert King |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (176) |
K Street is a 2003 HBO television series about lobbyists and politicians in Washington, D.C. It was named for a street that is home to many lobbying and legal firms.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | HBO |
Created By: | George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 5.5 / 10 (4) |
East Los High is not your typical high school. Dance, sex, romance, and mystery are at the heart of this inner city school in East LA where two teenage cousins—Jessie, a 16-year-old virgin and Maya, a troubled runaway with a violent past —fall in love wit
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 5 |
Network: | Hulu |
Created By: | Carlos Portugal, Kathleen Bedoya |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.5 / 10 (2) |
San Francisco-based forensic neuropsychiatrist Eldon Chance reluctantly gets sucked into a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Hulu |
Created By: | Alexandra Cunningham, Kem Nunn |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 7.4 / 10 (71) |
In 1977 New York City, the talented and soulful youth of the South Bronx chase dreams and breakneck beats to transform music history.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | Netflix |
Created By: | Baz Luhrmann |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 7.5 / 10 (61) |
Brand new lawyers work for both the defense and the prosecution as they handle the most high profile and high stakes cases in the country – all as their personal lives intersect.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | Paul William Davies |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (13) |
A group of heroic firefighters at Seattle Fire Station 19—from captain to newest recruit—risk their lives and hearts both in the line of duty and off the clock. These brave men and women are like family, literally and figuratively, and together they put t
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | Stacy McKee |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (21) |
A group of friends from Boston who feel stuck in life experience an unexpected wake-up call after one of their friend dies unexpectedly.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | ABC |
Created By: | D.J. Nash |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (4) |
A therapist tries to save her marriage after a cycling accident causes them to reassess their relationship.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Networks: | BBC One, Netflix |
Created By: | Nick Payne |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 5 / 10 (5) |
Set in 1959 Miami, Florida shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans, the owner of Miami's most glamorous hotel, the Miramar Playa. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond to ensure the s
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 2 |
Network: | Starz |
Created By: | Mitch Glazer |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 7.1 / 10 (31) |
Set against the backdrop of one of the most explosive times in U.K. history, Guerrilla tells the story of a politically active couple whose relationship and values are tested when they liberate a political prisoner and form a radical underground cell in 1
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Networks: | Showtime, Sky One |
Created By: | John Ridley |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 6.3 / 10 (5) |
The Santiagos are a proud East Los Angeles Latino family whose hopes and dreams are rooted in the world of professional boxing.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 3 |
Network: | Showtime |
Created By: | Dennis E. Leoni |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 0 / 10 (0) |
Critically lauded drama about the life and pressures of a group of students at a prestigious Eastern law school, with a strict and domineering contract-law professor named Charles Kingsfield, who alternately inspires and terrifies the students.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | Showtime |
Status: | Ended |
User Score (votes): | 8.7 / 10 (3) |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini and Stratton are tasked with the cases that nobody else can solve. It challenges their sense of what is real and what is not. Houdini is a skeptic, while Doyle believes in the unseen. Their diverse viewpoints make sol
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Networks: | ITV, FOX, Global TV |
Created By: | David N. Titcher, David Hoselton |
Status: | Canceled |
User Score (votes): | 5.9 / 10 (14) |
The multigenerational epic follows two concurrent time periods: One, the story of young Eli McCullough after he is kidnapped and indoctrinated into a tribe of Comanches in 1849. The other, 60 years later, when we see a grown Eli struggle to maintain his f
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | AMC |
Created By: | Philippe Meyer, Lee Shipman, Brian McGreevy |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.8 / 10 (44) |
A horror anthology series inspired by “Creepypasta” online tales.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 4 |
Network: | Syfy |
Created By: | Nick Antosca |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.5 / 10 (64) |
Tell Me a Story takes the world's most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Network: | CBS All Access |
Created By: | Kevin Williamson |
Status: | Returning Series |
User Score (votes): | 6.3 / 10 (7) |
Consumed by the mystery surrounding the donor heart that saved her life, a young patient starts taking on sinister characteristics of the deceased.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Leah Rachel |
Network: | Netflix |
Status: | In Production |
User Score (votes): | 0 / 10 (0) |
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show is centered on a family in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 9 |
Created By: | Earl Hamner, Jr. |
Network: | CBS |
Status: | Ended |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 6.9 / 10 (30) |
Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, 1832. Anne Lister attempts to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of her plan is to help the fate of her own family - by taking a wife.
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Sally Wainwright |
Network: | HBO |
Status: | Returning Series |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 7 / 10 (12) |
The story of the romantic and creative partnership between Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. He was a filmmaker and one of theater's most influential choreographers and directors; she was the greatest Broadway dancer of all time. Together, they changed the face
Genre: | Drama |
Number Of Seasons: | 1 |
Created By: | Thomas Kail, Steven Levenson |
Network: | FX |
Status: | Ended |
Origin Country: | US |
User Score (votes): | 7.3 / 10 (10) |