15 shows that define prestige TV

These 15 shows aren’t necessarily the best of TV’s Golden Age, but they are the ones that most exemplify the core tenets of prestige TV.

“Prestige TV” is such an amorphous blob of a term.

Seriously, what does it mean? Why is Westworld (a meh show) considered prestige TV while The Good Place (a great show) isn’t? Are the significant features of prestige TV satirically laid out in this Vulture article actually a solid working definition?

Those questions are too broad to tackle in one article, but one thing is for sure: We know prestige TV when we see it, and we also instinctively know what doesn’t meet the requirements for prestige TV as well. For whatever intangible reason, we know exactly why The Handmaid’s Tale is prestige TV while How to Get Away With Murder just isn’t. That’s just how it is, like it or not.

Well, the elements of prestige TV aren’t a total mystery. They’re generally darker in tone and camera tint, sometimes non-linear dramas or razor-sharp comedies (that are secretly dramas) that air on cable networks like HBO or streaming services like Netflix. That would be the stereotypical standard for prestige TV in 2018, though that’s far from written in stone.

What’s even more confusing is that shows can easily begin their lives as prestige TV and then slowly lose that title during their life cycle. Modern Family could have probably claimed the prestige TV moniker during its five-year stretch of winning Best Comedy Emmys — the literal definition of prestige — but it quickly forfeited its right to that label once society deemed it unfit to fulfill that role in the television landscape.

This is all to say that when you go through this list and wonder why Veep is considered prestige TV but This Is Us is not, know that the selections are just as arbitrary as you think they are. But then again, the shows on this list all display quintessential prestige TV qualities and you’ll also recognize that immediately without really knowing why.

Check out the 15 shows that represent prestige TV at its best, whatever that means.