Some of the best TV shows of all time have highs and lows, and critics have their favorites.
We turned to the review aggregator Metacritic to find the best and worst seasons of six acclaimed TV shows. Most of them started out rocky, with the first seasons rated lower than the rest. Interestingly enough, the fourth seasons of most of the shows were seen as their best.
Below are the best and worst seasons of six great TV dramas:
Best: “Breaking Bad” season five (of five)
Metacritic score: 99/100
Audience score: 9.7/10
What critics said: “Breaking Bad” is “a radical type of television, and also a very strange kind of must-watch: a show that you dread and crave at the same time.” – The New Yorker
Worst: “Breaking Bad” season one
Metacritic score: 73/100
Audience score: 9.2/10
What critics said: “In such rare instances [in the second episode], Breaking Bad achieves a perfect moment of nerdy believability, but too often the series fails to provide details that would help explain its characters’ illogical choices.” – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Best: “The Wire” season four (of five)
Metacritic score: 98/100
Audience score: 9.6/10
What critics said: “David Simon and his writers aren’t out to change the world; the slippery slope of civilization is already in place on ‘The Wire’ and Simon is just out to document how each and every person survives. Or doesn’t, as this season quite devastatingly proves.” – Slant
Worst: “The Wire” season one
Metacritic score: 79/100
Audience score: 9.4/10
What critics said: “It slowly develops into an engrossing look at the methodical nature of police work and the limits of individualism.” – Time
Best: “The Sopranos” season two (of six)
Metacritic score: 97/100
Audience score: 9.3/10
What critics said: “Arguably the best reason to own a TV set.” – Los Angeles Times
Worst: “The Sopranos” season one
Metacritic score: 88/100
Audience score: 9.4/10
What critics said: “While refraining from slapping the comedy on too thick, creator David Chase has made Soprano’s inward search surprisingly affecting.” – Time
Best: “The Americans” season four (of six)
Metacritic score: 95/100
Audience score: 8.9/10
What critics said: “A season startling in its intensity and its endless probing intelligence – not to mention the raw suspense that hangs over every moment of every scene … There is nothing that is the equal of ‘The Americans’ on TV screens now.” – The Wall Street Journal
Worst: “The Americans” season one
Metacritic score: 78/100
Audience score: 8.4/10
What critics said: “‘The Americans’ at the moment seems to fall uneasily between the methodical and the campy.” – New York Post
Best: “Game of Thrones” season four (of eight)
Metacritic score: 94/100
Audience score: 9.2/10
What critics said: “The show has stepped up its pacing. For the most part, that has been immensely satisfying, yielding crowd-pleasing moments that the and that the series generally avoided in the often-grim journey, especially for the Stark kids, which has led to this point.” – CNN
Worst: “Game of Thrones” season six
Metacritic score: 73/100
Audience score: 8.3/10
What critics said: “Ultimately, even if not every element satisfied, the sixth-season premiere of ‘Game of Thrones’ did what it needed to for me, putting this mammoth locomotive back on the track and showing again that even with less and less of Martin’s published material to rely on, Weiss and Benioff know how to move it forward.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Best: “Mad Men” season 4 (of 7)
Metacritic score: 92/100
Audience score: 9.1/10
What critics said: “The writing remains remarkable, as it toggles between the rhythms and cliches of 1950s movies and the timeless resonance of mid-20th-century theater. You rarely find such economical and evocative scripting on TV.” – Boston Globe
Worst: “Mad Men” season 1
Metacritic score: 77/100
Audience score: 9.7/10
What critics said: “As a serialized drama, the program’s situations aren’t especially stirring, even with its solid, perfectly outfitted cast. The sheer atmosphere, however, proves intoxicating.” – Variety
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