1. The Affair (Season 1, Netflix)
Well, that really looks like a not so new skin for an old ceremony. Long love tested, a great family on the verge of falling apart? Who should take a look? At all these middle- and upper-class-dramas? Well, the psychological element is damned subtle, mysteries are slowly revealed, and you haven’t seen it – that way – ever before. The surprise of it all: no cliches involved!
2. Fargo (Season 2)
The second season tells a new story with familiar elements: the coldness of Minnesota, the black heart of evil, the desaster of one, two wrong steps of the ordinary humans. And a cold-blooded Indian discovers his own vulnerability. Forget happy endings. The Coen Brothers must have been delighted.
3. True Detective (Season 2)
The second season comes along with a new cast and changes from dark to Caravaggio blackness. All is lost. The high suspense factor of the first season is in parts sacrificed for atmosphere, Twin Peaks-fuelled dreamscapes, and hard hitting shock moments. Entropy rules. The critics showed thumbs-down, but you should never believe critics. Masterclass.
4. Bloodline (Season 1, Netflix)
If Eugene O’Neill would live today and teamed up with young Sam Peckinpah, this could have been their masterpiece for contemporary television. Old school family drama, but executed with slow-burning perfection. The past is coming back to haunt a whole family. The past has a name: Sara. And another name: Danny. And its own truth: a bag full of lies.
5. Humans (Season 1)
Once there were butlers, now there are robots. An eerily crafted drama. With its cautionary tale of robots taking on increasingly human aspects, this unnerving newcomer hardly is pioneering new fantasy territory. But what it does, it does very well. AI is an ongoing hot topic. Humans brings the debate to the suburban family level and pulls off a well-paced look at what draws the line between human and machine.
6. No Offence (Season 1)
A weird mix of film noir territory (shot in Manchester) and sharp wit, „No Offence“ succeeds with tricky suspense, and a trio of fantastic female protagonists. Although some of the action in the police station occurs in the lavatories, what saves No Offence from being exhaustingly grotesque are its underlying warmth and humanity.
7. Mad Men (The Final Season)
It still gets under our skin, with the archetypal version of an anti-hero, who approaches the big fall, all done with painstaking reconstruction of a long gone era. You see it all coming, and then … the final episode is mind-blowing.