The 5 Best TV Shows Of All Time, According To IMDb

AMC

When it comes to TV, the IMDb rating system is a little strange. For instance, TV episodes tend to have a higher rating range than movies; whereas the #1 movie ever on the platform, "Shawshank Redemption," has a 9.2 rating, it's not uncommon for TV episodes to get a 9.9 rating. Or, in the case of the "Breaking Bad" episode "Ozymandias," it even reached a full 10 out of 10. 

There are some other quirks to look out for, like how the early episodes of a lot of shows are rated deceptively low. Why is the first episode of "The Bear" only rated a 7.6, for instance, whereas later episodes of the show are rated much higher? In this case, I don't think it's because the opening episodes were worse in quality, but that the audience members who didn't vibe with the series simply stopped watching after the first few episodes, and were no longer around to give later episodes a low rating. 

Then you have review-bombing to look out for. Sometimes it's because the show is deemed "woke" for whatever reason and becomes the target of right-wing trolls, and other times its because someone controversial is connected to the project and large swathes of internet users aren't willing to give it a chance. For an example of the latter, there's "The Leftovers," an amazing show that is nonetheless stuck at an 8.3 rating overall, despite so many of its individual episodes making it into the 9+ range. That's because thousands of users were angry at showrunner Damon Lindelof for his work on the "Lost" finale and "Prometheus," and they didn't give the new show a chance. The undeniably good seasons 2 and 3 brought the show's rating up from a 7.8 to an 8.3, but it'll take a long time (if ever) for the show to get the 8.5+ rating it deserves. 

When it comes to the highest-rated TV dramas on IMDb, the main thing they have in common is that no one was angry at them before they began. The top five non-documentary shows are "Breaking Bad," "Band of Brothers," "Chernobyl," "The Wire," and "Avatar: The Last Airbender," most of which were surprise successes from creators who were relatively unknown beforehand. Unlike something like "Andor," a great show that had a large built-in "Star Wars" audience from day one, these five shows all gained popularity through word of mouth. That seems to be the key to making your way towards the IMDb Top Five. Let's break down each one.

Nickelodeon

As someone who thinks "Avatar: The Last Airbender" has more flaws than people tend to acknowledge — mainly, the Aang/Katara romance was terrible and Azula's mental decline was a little rushed — I think the big reason it's rated so high is because the expectations were low going in. It's a Nickelodeon show, after all; the marketing and the first few episodes implied a TV series that was fun but nonetheless not that deep or emotional. At first it seemed like another "Danny Phantom" or "My Life As a Teenaged Robot," two contemporary shows that were good for kids, but not something adults could get invested in. 

But as the first season of "The Last Airbender" went on, it became clear it was dealing with heavy themes and nuanced character arcs. Then season 2 came, and the series fully embraced a darker, serialized approach that the rest of Nickelodeon simply wasn't doing. The show truly hits its stride in season 2's Ba Sing Se arc, throwing us one banger episode after another with no letting up. It kept pushing the limits of what a kids' show was even allowed to do, trusting its audience to handle unsettling storylines with no easy answers. And even though I have issues with the way Azula's arc was handled, it's impressive that the show went there at all, daring to leave her character on such a bummer note. 

Is the quality of the writing here really as strong as it was on "Breaking Bad" or "The Wire"? Probably not, but it was a lot of its viewers' first foray into good serialized TV, and it served as a much-needed reminder that kids' shows aren't always just for kids. The show's IMDb rating is inflated by nostalgia and its audience's median age, but that 9.3 rating is still impressive. 

HBO

The legacy of "The Wire" is funny because even when people criticize it, it's usually a back-handed criticism. Being too complicated for some audiences to follow, or being too slow compared to the average mainstream TV series are "problems" that a lot of lesser shows would be happy to suffer from. Even the people who don't like "The Wire" can usually acknowledge that there's a ton of competence and ambition on display here from the very first cold open. "The Wire" has a reputation for being a more "literary," higher-tier sort of TV series, which makes it hard for even its haters to dismiss. 

Meanwhile, the people who do love "The Wire" will never shut up about how smart and exciting it is, especially once you get past the learning curve of the first few episodes and feel a stronger connection to the characters. That strong word of mouth is what's kept "The Wire" in the public consciousness even 16 years after its final season finished airing, and even after its initial run was never a major ratings hit. 

Even as certain aspects of the show start to feel dated, I don't think "The Wire" will ever be booted from IMDb's list of best shows. Though two of its five seasons are often described as a step below the others, the big picture of the show is so strong that this doesn't seem to matter. When a show delivers something as good as season 4, no disappointing season 5 could possibly drag its legacy down. 

HBO

While I don't want to dismiss how good "Chernobyl" was — it's very good — this 2019 miniseries also benefited slightly from the lower expectations "The Last Airbender" enjoyed. The show was creator by Craig Mazin, Ted Cruz's begruntled college roommate and the guy who wrote the scripts for "Superhero Movie" and "Scary Movie 4." "Chernobyl" wasn't just well-received for its quality, but because of the sheer wonder that comes from realizing this hard-hitting historical drama was created by the same guy who wrote Aunt May farting repeatedly for two minutes straight. It shouldn't be so surprising that a talented screenwriter would have to wade through some silly projects before he could get a serious project like this off the ground, but it was to a lot of people.

Outside of Mazin, "Chernobyl" benefits from how it's a miniseries that actually stayed a miniseries. Other miniseries have been expanded into anthology shows and ended up harming their initially stellar reputation, like "True Detective" or potentially "Shōgun," whereas there's no follow-up to "Chernobyl" that could drag the series down. I guess it's good that there's no real-life "Chernobyl" sequel for it to draw on.

HBO/YouTube

Much like "Chernobyl," "Band of Brothers" is a one-off miniseries with no direct sequel. (Thank god there wasn't a second World War II, am I right?) Unlike "Chernobyl," there was little reason to doubt this program before it aired on HBO in fall 2001. With Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg being two of the most prominent names associated with the project, viewers were hoping for an intense, thoughtful war drama covering the final days of WWII, and that's exactly what they got. As /Film's Jack Hawkins put it in his piece recounting some of the most brutal moments in the miniseries, "There is nothing in 'Band of Brothers' that is quite so arrestingly savage as Spielberg's genre-changing Omaha Beach sequence [in "Saving Private Ryan"]. However, HBO's 10-part miniseries is still a thunderous account of World War II, replete with many sad and brutal moments."

In addition to being damn good TV, this miniseries deserves props for being one of the first of its kind, bridging the gap between TV and film in a way that was nearly unprecedented in 2001. The 2000s were the period where TV started to become just as respected an art form as film, and "Band of Brothers" played a huge role in helping that happen. 

AMC

When "Breaking Bad" began its shortened first season back in 2008, nobody knew yet that it would go on to be one of the biggest shows in the world, spawning a successful prequel series and sequel movie in the years since it ended. It's not that the first season of "Breaking Bad" was bad, it just wasn't until season 2 that the full genius of the series revealed itself, when viewers realized they were in the middle of witnessing the most compelling and nuanced moral downfall of a main character in prestige TV history. 

Even with the show's brilliance being clearly established by season 2, it wasn't until season 5 that the show could be considered a mainstream success. The first half of that season averaged 2.78 million viewers, before experiencing a massive Netflix-induced surge in viewership for those final eight episodes. The finale was watched live by 10.28 million viewers, so the extent to which word-of-mouth praise helped the show's popularity in that final year cannot be overstated. 

It helps that unlike "Game of Thrones," which used to be a top 5 IMDb show before season 8 happened, "Breaking Bad" stuck the landing. It's one of the few TV shows where each season is somehow better than the one that came before it, and each new episode feels like the culmination of everything that had been established so far. "Breaking Bad" has the perfect escalation of stakes, some of the best writing TV has to offer, and the most satisfying final season of all time. There's no wonder it reigns supreme on IMDb, and it's unlikely that a new show will top it any time soon.