Emotional manipulation, with dragons

Based on: George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (1996–…)

Subgenres: Everyone Dies • The Last Stand of Monoculture • Water Cooler Fodder

David Benioff and D. B. Weiss transformed the landscape with their adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s already popular novels, delivering epic battles, dragons, morally intricate players, and unflinching violence on a grand scale. The books’ soap-opera-like political scheming and a willingness to off major characters felt refreshingly new when the show premiered in 2011—you never knew who would die, or who might sleep with whom—and its popularity was astronomical: Sundays became social events as everyone gathered for a Game of Thrones watch party. Some of the shine faded as the plot outran the source material and the finale didn’t land perfectly, but the show’s impact endures, especially when you can imagine real-world Daenerys names everywhere. –JF

Put it on when you want a pick-me-up about office politics.

See also:

How I Built My Own Game of Thrones Iron Throne • The 50 Best Fictional Dragons, Ranked • In Praise of Remixing Shakespeare

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Roots (1977)

A very American family saga

Based on: Alex Haley’s Roots (1976)

Subgenres: Classroom Classics • It Did Happen Here • Generational Stories

One of the most watched miniseries in American television history and a foundational drama about the nation’s history of slavery and its Civil War aftermath. The production nearly got pulled when ABC executives realized how unflinchingly brutal the depiction of slavery looked, especially when interpreted by familiar faces. They insisted on adding a character who isn’t in the book. Haley’s novel was celebrated for presenting the horrors of the Middle Passage, which the show preserves. Some nuance from the source material is softened for TV, but Roots remains superbly anchored by powerful performances, including LeVar Burton in an early breakout role. –JF

Put it on when you want to remember a moment when network TV was willing to take risks with serious subject matter.

See also:

How the TV Adaptation of Alex Haley’s Roots Sparked a Cultural Awakening • Nikki Giovanni on Race, Hope, Fatherhood, and Roots

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MATCHUP:

Say Nothing (6) vs. Slow Horses (2)

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Say Nothing (2024)

Revolution retold

Based on: Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing (2018)

Subgenres: Based on a True Story • Fight for Your Rights • Party Politics

Patrick Radden Keefe’s excellent book was my first introduction to the Troubles and its cast of tenacious rebels. Keefe’s project, focusing on the 1972 disappearance of civilian Jean McConville, surveys a centuries-long occupation through the viewpoints of a handful of central figures. Josh Zetumer’s adaptation preserves the political as personal, and this viewer appreciated how the series’ structure leaves space for broader thematic exploration.

Steering away from the narrow focus on IRA icon Dolours Price allows the show to let bigger questions breathe. On one side you have Lola Petticrew delivering a kinetic turn, and on the other, you have substantial debates about statecraft, paramilitary strategy, and political atonement.

Watching this series, I also felt how alive and unsettled the conflict remains. Say Nothing frames every single one of its nine episodes with a cheeky chyron noting Gerry Adams’ denial that he was ever an IRA member. Perhaps revolutions aren’t televised because the past simply refuses to stay past. –BKA

Put it on when you want to topple the system in a stylish sweater.

See also:

Patrick Radden Keefe on Secrets, Lies, and the Murky Line Between Licit and Illicit

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Slow Horses (2022)

Gary Oldman zinger vehicle

Based on: Mick Herron’s Slough House novels (2010–2025)

Subgenres: Losers • Our Peerless Leader • Highbrow Fart Jokes • Elevated Espionage

It’s a clever premise: a squad of MI5 operatives, all having made career-staining blunders, are relegated to Slough House, where they perform menial tasks to avoid total dismissal. Their fearless chief is the repulsively brilliant Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), who needles, drags along, and gaslights his reluctant team into feats of peril. It’s a spy drama that’s thrilling in the familiar ways, yet it’s also remarkably funny, balancing deadpan wit, farce, and the quintessentially English quirks. And Kristin Scott Thomas consistently shines. –ET

Put it on when you’re really good at failing upward.

See also:

Slow Horses, Starring Gary Oldman, is Worth the Slow Burn

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MATCHUP:

Killing Eve (9) vs. Interview with the Vampire (12)

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Killing Eve (2018)

What’s a little assassination between two consenting adults?

Based on: Luke Jennings’s Codename Villanelle (2017)

Subgenres: The Thrill of the Chase • Recreational Murder • Tension

The core of Killing Eve is the mutual fixation between assassin Villanelle and her hunter, Eve Polastri. Comer’s Villanelle is volatile and merciless, which makes her a ton of fun, and while Eve seems more grounded on the surface, the two women are (in the best possible sense) perfectly matched misfits. Phoebe Waller-Bridge acted as head writer in season one, followed by Emerald Fennell in season two; opinions on later seasons diverged, but that’s fine—the memorable kitchen scene will endure. –OS

Put it on when you crave vicarious thrill-seeking through fiction instead of staring at your cat all night.

See also:

Serial Killer As Instagram Influencer? On Killing Eve‘s Cool Girl Assassin • The Visible and Invisible Women of Killing Eve • Subverting the Male Gaze in Killing Eve

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Interview with the Vampire (2022)

Even Anne Rice can’t sue from beyond the grave

Based on: Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire (1991)

Subgenres: Toxic Yaoi • Tom Cruise Wishes • Does This Count As Romantasy?

My most enthusiastic and wild-tongued friends are utterly obsessed with Interview with the Vampire, which is a sure sign it rocks. The show follows the book’s outlines, but with the author no longer around to litigate, the two central vampires (Louis and Lestat) can openly indulge their romance in all its feral glory. This is what gives the series its extra zing: the chance for Louis and Lestat to torment and sexy-time their way through love. It’s an adaptation that asks: did we push these characters far enough the first time around? Can we crank the crazy to eleven? –MC

Put it on when you want to admire hot men in high-waisted pants.

See also:

Leigh Bardugo on 50 Years of Interview with the Vampire and the Immortality of Anne Rice’s Lestat

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MATCHUP:

Normal People (3) vs. Orange is the New Black (2)

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Normal People (2020)

Sex, Angst, Sligo

Based on: Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2018)

Subgenres: What Happens in Sligo • Connell’s Gold Chain • Faithful Adaptations

It’s rare to encounter an adaptation that is neither clearly superior nor clearly inferior to its source, yet serves as a perfect complementary piece. Lenny Abrahamson’s Normal People remains deeply faithful to Rooney’s breakout novel while infusing a mood that broadens the book’s atmosphere. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal deliver with a convincing fragility, and yes—the sex scenes land remarkably well on screen. –ET

Put it on when you crave strong, honest emotions.

See also:

Watching Normal People Have Very Good Sex (on the Small Screen) • Lenny Abrahamson on Adapting Sally Rooney’s Normal People for TV • Dispatches from an extra on Hulu’s Normal People. • Read Sally Rooney’s first short story about Marianne and Connell.

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Orange is the New Black (2013)

A show where they mostly wore khaki

Based on: Piper Kerman’s Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison (2010)

Subgenres: Worst Places to See Your Ex • The Prison Industrial Complex is Evil • Cosplay Ideas for Large Groups

Being incarcerated alongside the ex who sent you to prison isn’t just a cruel cosmic joke: that’s exactly what happened to Piper Kerman, who once carried questionable funds for her former partner in crime. Her memoir became this show, whose humor, heart, and earnest exploration of the American penal system helped ignite streaming-era popularity. As the cast expanded from Piper to a sprawling ensemble, the show’s reach grew even wider. Everyone watched this show—your mom, your coworker, even the guy who always has opinions about every character death. –OS

Put it on when you want to laugh (and perhaps cry, too).

See also:

Kate Mulgrew on the Work of Waiting, in Acting and in Life • Blurring the Lines Between Criminal Justice and Popular Culture

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MATCHUP:

Sherlock (16) vs. Station Eleven (5)

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Sherlock (2010)

The game is on

Based on: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sherlock Holmes stories (1887-1927)

Subgenres: Former Tumblr Teen Bait • They Should Have Kissed • Seeing the Mind Palace

For those who roamed the early-2010s internet, it was entirely possible to know everything about Sherlock without ever watching it. This version of Holmes places him in the present day and uses overlays and rapid editing to visualize his deductions. Even though memes about Benedict Cumberbatch’s name have fallen out of fashion, the fond appreciation for Sherlock endures—proof, above all, that we still care about Holmes and Watson more than a century after Conan Doyle first introduced them. –OS

Put it on when you want to feel smarter than you actually are.

See also:

Not My Sherlock • A Literary Feud is Afoot! • The Real Sherlock Holmes: How an Edinburgh Doctor Inspired Doyle’s Detective

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Station Eleven (2021)

Post-apocalyptic theater kids against the world

Based on: Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2015)

Subgenres: COVID Flashbacks • Beauty After the End • Gael García Bernal Siempre

A flu plague wipes out civilization while a traveling troupe of performers picks its way through the ruins. This was a high-budget adaptation of a beloved book, and it sparked a lot of opinions: the liberties taken with the source tighten some relationships, which mostly works on screen, though some viewers felt the book’s ambiguities got a bit too tidy. Either way, the series looks fantastic and the acting and pacing grip you hard—it ticks all the prestige-TV boxes. And the writing reaches for your heartstrings—the degree to which art matters in memory depends on your taste for melodrama.

Yet the show’s central claim about art’s power always gets me: this is a series about why we reach for the same book when we need solace. The things we turn to for escape become part of how we understand and remember our lives, and there are few new shows that explore this dependence as deftly as Station Eleven. –JF

Put it on when you need a good cry about your favorite childhood book.

See also:

Don’t Worry, Station Eleven Isn’t Really a Pandemic Story • Every Coming-of-Age Story is an Apocalypse Story • What Kind of Pandemic Storytelling Do We Actually Need?

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MATCHUP:

Shogun (3) vs. Wolf Hall (2)

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Shogun (2024)

A stranger fumbling in a strange land, with swords

Based on: James Clavell’s Shogun (1975)

Subgenres: Memed • Subtitles • Epic Battles * Chaotic White Boys • Studying the Blade

Just when you thought epic prestige historical drama had exhausted its appeal, Shogun arrived with a full plate. The series is a behemoth, offering political turmoil, colossal conflicts, and lighter, fish-out-of-water humor. The tale tracks the fallout after the Dutch first land in a Japan on the brink of major change, and there isn’t a weak link to be found: the visuals are sumptuous, the script is solid, and the performances—especially from Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada as Toranaga—are quietly commanding. It’s richly textured and meticulously faithful to James Clavell’s 1975 novel, even as it outshines the 1980s predecessor in grain and nuance.

So why isn’t it higher in the bracket? Perhaps the show leans a touch too closely to the conventional prestige mold, avoiding riskier innovations. Still, with two more seasons already in the works, there’s ample room for Shogun to outpace the usual TV rhythms and reach even greater heights. –JF

Put it on when you miss studying abroad.

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Wolf Hall (2015)

The King and I

Based on: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (2009)

Subgenres: Milord and Milady Drama • Ye Olde Case Law • Divorced Guy Problems • Stiff Upper Lip

Mantel’s smart and humane sensibilities make this a tricky show to weigh against the novels, but the first season stands as a serene, cinematic, quietly tense achievement. Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, and Claire Foy bring calculating precision to their roles, communicating vast power dynamics with looks and silences that carry just as much weight as words. It’s a slow-burn of a series that builds its characters’ ambitions and prices them with costs that feel authentic to the era. The ending lands satisfyingly, even knowing where real history leads.

The second season, alas, stumbles a bit. The next installments in Mantel’s trilogy are superb on the page, and adapting them with the same cast is a jolt of dissonance. Still, the debut season is so strong that it nearly sits at the crown of the field all by itself. –JF

Put it on when you’re thinking about returning to law school?

See also:

How My Friend Hilary Mantel Got Inside People’s Minds • Diplomacy Noir • How Much Actual History Do You Need for a Historical Novel?

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MATCHUP:

Brideshead Revisited (1) vs. Agatha Christie’s Poirot (12)

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Brideshead Revisited (1981)

We have always remembered when we lived in the castle

Based on: Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (1945)

Subgenres: Teddy Bears • Stiff Upper Lip • Everything Changed During the War • Drugs, Booze & Generational Privilege • Debating Catholicism

Waugh’s observant humanism often sat alongside an implied conservatism, and Brideshead Revisited remains a delicate balance of the aristocratic longing for a world that’s slipping away and a clear-eyed view of its faults. The eleven-episode miniseries succeeds precisely by translating the novel into screen form with reverence, letting the dialogue flow mostly from the page. The friendship that grows between Charles Ryder and the luxuriant Lord Sebastian Flyte unfolds through restrained performances by Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, with a superb supporting cast. Olivier even makes a guest appearance, and the memorable teddy bear, Aloysius, still jolts the heart. It’s a treasured TV classic. –JF

Put it on when you wonder whether you should reach out to an old friend.

See also:

How Campus Novels Reveal the Power—and Danger—of Pure Ideas • Not Far From Brideshead: On the Sad Glitter of Oxford Between the Wars

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Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1989)

Belgian stereotyping with a side of murder

Based on: Agatha Christie’s “Poirot” novels (1920-75)

Subgenres: Murder Follows the Protagonist • Really Good Tea Sets • Mid-Series Genre Shift

Agatha Christie’s Poirot ran for nearly a quarter of a century, evolving through at least two major tonal and format shifts, and it seems to have hosted every notable actor in Britain at least once. But there was only one Poirot: David Suchet, whose portrayal remains the most iconic. In his hands, Poirot’s fussy quirks swing from comic to pitiful in an instant, while his intelligence becomes a warm, curious compassion for those around him. No matter how much the mustache twitches, you can always see his little gray cells at work. –CG

Put it on when you’re prepared to google at least one murder suspect per episode to confirm that the performer really did become a movie star later.

See also:

Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist in history.

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MATCHUP:

M*A*S*H (3) vs. Pride & Prejudice (2)

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M*A*S*H (1972)

Antics among atrocities

Based on: Richard Hooker’s MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors (1968)

Subgenres: War is Bad • Wisecracking is Fun

Iconic anti-war sitcom M*A*S*H reshaped what a television comedy could be by layering drama and sharp commentary atop its humor. A spinoff of the 1970 film, it ran eleven seasons and its finale stood as the most-watched broadcast episode at the time. Set during the Korean War, it increasingly drew parallels to the Vietnam era, making a pointed political statement through character and wit. Today it’s a timeless classic, and its continued affection speaks to its enduring appeal. –OS

Put it on when you want a history lesson with personality.

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Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Thee Pride and Prejudice

Based on: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Subgenres: Bonnets • Yearning • Water Cooler Fodder When There Were Still Water Coolers • Every Scene of the Novel

Has there ever been a TV mini-series as cherished as this BBC gem? Adapting one of Austen’s most beloved novels with painstaking fidelity, Pride and Prejudice became an immediate favorite on both sides of the Atlantic when it debuted in 1995. The luminous Jennifer Ehle carried Elizabeth Bennet to acclaim, while Colin Firth’s captivating Darcy transformed him into a Hollywood star almost overnight. Since then there have been more treatments of Pride and Prejudice, but purists still claim nothing surpasses this classic. –CG

Put it on when you crave the spark of charged flirting in a drawing room.

See also:

Martin Amis on the Genius of Jane Austen (and What the Adaptations Get Wrong) • Every Mr. Darcy* Ranked • Why We Still Love Mr. Darcy, 200 Years Later

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See you tomorrow, when we’ll vote on the winner of each category!