Top 27 Premium Cable TV Series of the 2010s

Prestige drama and sharp comedy from the golden stretch when premium channels set the pace. Expect a mix of water-cooler giants and quieter shows that deserved a wider audience.

1. 1
   Game of Thrones

   HBO's fantasy juggernaut about noble houses fighting over the Iron Throne, 2011 to 2019.
   1000pts
2. 2
   True Detective

   The anthology that opened in 2014 with two Louisiana detectives chasing a ritual killer across seventeen years.
   745pts
3. 3
   Spartacus

   Starz's blood-soaked 2010 retelling of the gladiator-slave who defied Rome.
   678pts
4. 4
   Succession

   HBO's savage 2018 drama about a media dynasty's heirs circling their aging patriarch.
   678pts
5. 5
   Homeland

   Showtime's 2011 espionage thriller about a bipolar CIA analyst convinced a returned POW is a terrorist.
   657pts
6. 6
   The Knick

   Steven Soderbergh's 2014 Cinemax drama about pioneering surgeons in 1900 New York.
   635pts
7. 7
   Watchmen

   Damon Lindelof's 2019 sequel-remix of the graphic novel, centered on racial trauma in an alternate America.
   586pts
8. 8
   Billions

   A 2016 clash between a US attorney and a hedge-fund titan on Showtime.
   532pts
9. 9
   Black Sails

   A 2014 pirate drama set as a prequel to Treasure Island on Starz.
   532pts
10. 10
    Chernobyl

    HBO's 2019 miniseries reconstructing the 1986 nuclear disaster and the cover-up that followed.
    469pts
11. 11
    Barry

    A hitman tries acting class in HBO's 2018 dark comedy from Bill Hader and Alec Berg.
    397pts
12. 12
    Outlander

    Starz's 2014 time-travel romance about a WWII nurse thrown into eighteenth-century Scotland.
    397pts
13. 13
    Veep

    Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a profane, hapless vice president in HBO's 2012 political comedy.
    397pts
14. 14
    Curb Your Enthusiasm

    Larry David's long-running improvised comedy of social etiquette gone wrong, with a celebrated 2010s stretch.
    397pts
15. 15
    Shameless

    Showtime's raucous 2011 American adaptation about the chaotic Gallagher family in Chicago.
    397pts
16. 16
    Silicon Valley

    Mike Judge's 2014 satire of a start-up trying to survive the tech industry's absurdities.
    397pts
17. 17
    Insecure

    Issa Rae's 2016 comedy about friendship and dating in Los Angeles.
    313pts
18. 18
    Boardwalk Empire

    A 2010 Prohibition-era crime saga following Atlantic City treasurer Nucky Thompson.
    313pts
19. 19
    Banshee

    A 2013 Cinemax pulp thriller about an ex-con posing as sheriff in a Pennsylvania town.
    313pts
20. 20
    The Leftovers

    A 2014 drama about a world coping with the sudden disappearance of two percent of humanity.
    313pts
21. 21
    Girls

    Lena Dunham's 2012 comedy about four young women muddling through New York in their twenties.
    313pts
22. 22
    Penny Dreadful

    A 2014 gothic horror gathering Victorian literary monsters in London.
    213pts
23. 23
    Euphoria

    Sam Levinson's 2019 stylized look at a group of teenagers navigating addiction, identity and love.
    213pts
24. 24
    Twin Peaks: The Return

    David Lynch's 2017 eighteen-hour continuation on Showtime, among the strangest events in TV.
    213pts
25. 25
    Westworld

    A 2016 sci-fi puzzle box about android hosts waking up inside a western theme park.
    213pts
26. 26
    Treme

    David Simon's 2010 portrait of New Orleans musicians and residents rebuilding after Katrina.
    0pts
27. 27
    Big Little Lies

    A 2017 mystery of privilege and secrets among mothers in a wealthy California town.
    0pts

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