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The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME
"First, I apologize. I know I left some of your favorite shows off this list. How do I know that? Because I left some of my favorite shows off this list. The happy and unfortunate fact is that there are far more than 100 great shows, and more created every year. Lists are incredibly important: they are how we define what matters to us, what we want entertainment and art to do, what we expect of our culture."
TIME TV critic James Poniewozik
Hill Street Blues
The Prisoner and miniseries told serial stories before Hill Street, and The Fugitive hung a years-long chase on its otherwise self-contained episodes. But Steven Bochco's cop drama popularized the serialized "story arcs" by proving that audiences would have the patience to stick with a story longer than 60 minutes. Hill Street proved that a TV show could make a virtue of messiness in plots that didn't resolve neatly (or sometimes at all) and heroes who crossed ethical lines. Through conflicted captain Furillo, abrasive Buntz and biting-prone Belker, Hill Street showed us imperfect people delivering imperfect justice in an imperfect world, and did it to near perfection.
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