15 shows that define prestige TV

4. House of Cards and True Detective

Yes, this is technically cheating. But both of these shows performed the same general function in the prestige TV landscape: proving to movie stars that the small screen was ripe with creative potential to earn themselves even more attention and accolades.

When Netflix dropped House of Cards in 2013, it was a special event for two reasons:

• Audiences weren’t yet used to having entire seasons of prestige TV dumped onto their streaming services at once.
• It starred two legitimate movie stars in the form of Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright, a rarity in the early 2010s.

House of Cards certainly exhibited all the stereotypical traits of prestige TV, including a dark, twisted story of betrayal and murder inside the United States’ highest political offices. It also has the distinction of featuring possibly the worst TV journalist of all time in Kate Mara’s Zoe Barnes. Her journalistic ethics were the literal worst.

Unfortunately, you can’t write about House of Cards without mentioning Spacey’s sexual misconduct scandal that essentially ended his career. That certainly drained House of Cards of much its good will, but it’s still worth footnoting its contributions to prestige TV history. (Netflix reworked the upcoming final season around Wright’s character.)

A year after House of Cards‘ debut, HBO released the first season of True Detective, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as Louisiana law enforcement investigating a series of gruesome murders. The show coasted on great acting and cinematography despite its relatively shallow story, but it further cemented the viability of TV for movie stars.

True Detective is also another great example of a show that was quickly forced to relinquish its prestige label. The less said about True Detective season 2, the better.