#1. The Sopranos
HBO

The show that changed TV drama went out not with a bang — well, famously, it went out with nothing at all — but its final string of episodes were as searing, literate and unflinching as any since its first season. David Chase stripped the show down, one unsentimentally eliminated character at a time, to its dark core: a study of a fascinating, evil man. As brutal in its family-vacation scenes as in its gangland whackings, this final season left us with nothing, and everything.