Top 10 Best TV Shows Of 2015

The bleak, wintry Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge survived the loss of one of its leads with aplomb in this third series. Following the departure of actor Kim Bodnia (who disagreed with the direction creator Hans Rosenfeldt wanted to take his character Martin Rohde), Sofia Helin was left on her own as Saga Noren, the detective with an Asperger’s-type condition. But a creative headache was turned into a dramatic opportunity as the absorbing drama tested her to the limits in a series packed with intrigue and heart–in-the-throat moments. (She got a new partner as well). Scandi dramas like The Killing and Borgen tend to come in threes, so this could be the final outing for Saga. But fans will surely demand a fourth. (Credit: Sveriges Television/Danmarks Radio/ZDF)

The intrigues which led to Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood’s machiavellian ascent to the most powerful job in the world captivated viewers in the previous two series. But with Underwood now installed as US president, was this drama in danger of losing its mojo? Not with Spacey in the lead it wasn’t. The third tranche of the show did not disappoint as he sought to hold on to his power, a diablo with his dirty hands on the tiller of America. This is grown up television – taut, nuanced, tangled. It required attention and rewarded those who paid it. (Credit: Netflix)

HBO’s shamelessly entertaining sex and swords epic continued into its fifth season, now facing life away form the comforts of the source text (the series has surpassed the point where author George RR Martin has written the story to date). But it remains a brassy, confident drama that has sucked millions of people into its world. High on grisly death and titillating nudity there is also a fine dramatic intelligence at work here that has altered perceptions about fantasy drama. Classy and addictive. (Credit: HBO)

A second bloody visit to the frozen waste of the US Midwest plunged us into 1979 in a drama replete with cold-hearted violence and menace. Whereas True Detective’s second season moved away from what made its first successful, Fargo’s producer Noah Hawley continued where he left off, providing an oddly moral, taut and occasionally funny narrative. It focused on Jesse Plemons’ simple-minded butcher Ed Blomquist and a deadly battle between warring gangsters. But there were many stand-out performances, with smart turns from Ted Danson as a likable old cop and Jean Smart as the chilling matriarch Floyd. A third season is thankfully on its way. (Credit: FX)

Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney played lovers whose one night stand yielded an unexpected pregnancy. The pair’s astonishing chemistry combined with dazzling, rude and very funny dialogue that made the comedy sing. And the second series – which took a darker turn – may have even been better than the first. The painful plausibility of the tensions and rows made this easily the most praised comedy on British TV this year. (Credit: Channel 4)

How to follow Breaking Bad – a brilliant, hugely successful drama which, if it had one moral, was that you can’t go back? Creator Vince Gilligan returned to the world of one if its most dazzling characters, Bob Odenkirk’s Saul Goodman, following the sleazy lawyer before he met Walter White. Expectations were high. But this was a lesson in how to turn someone who provided moments of light relief in the first series into a thoroughly rounded character. Aided by a brilliant central performance, this was an intriguing journey into the pre-Breaking Bad world that was of great interest to nerdy fans, but was also a riveting drama in its own right. And it was funny – seriously, properly funny. (Credit: AMC)

BBC Drama has delivered some pretty decent period series over the years, from Pride and Prejudice to Middlemarch, from Our Mutual Friend to Cranford. But it has never remade and reinvented one of its own with quite the same skill and joie de vivre as this. Returning to the brilliant source text – Winston Graham’s tales of derring-do in 18th Century Cornwall – it fashioned a gripping series that also made an unimpeachable star of its hunky leading man, Aidan Turner’s Ross Poldark. Yes, he took his shirt off to the delight of many millions of admirers, but he could also act. A revisit is eagerly awaited in 2015. (Credit: BBC)

Mad Men fans had to say goodbye to Jon Hamm’s Don Draper at some point, and this series saw him bow out perfectly. Creator Matthew Weiner said that he wanted all his characters to be a little more happy at the end of the show than they were in the beginning, and he certainly succeeded in that. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Don’s ex-wife Betty (January Jones) was diagnosed with lung cancer, but after many episodes of soul searching her advertising genius ex managed to find some kind of inner peace and accord with the world in a yogic retreat. Did his fictional character “invent” the famous 1971 clifftop Coca-Cola commercial as some of us felt compelled to conclude? It was kept beautifully unclear but allowed fans to overlay the final moments with their own quiet reflections and thoughts. Yes, it was a tad cheesy, but so is advertising, and Don was nothing if not an ad man. (Credit: AMC)

This was the best TV drama of the year, and may even be one of the best ever made by the BBC – it was really that good. Based on Hilary Mantel’s two novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies it transported viewers into the world of Tudor intrigue. It focused not on King Henry VIII or his unfortunate queens but on his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. And it found in Mark Rylance an exquisitely well-judged and intelligent performance that conveyed every ounce of his pain and fear. Rylance was ably assisted by Damian Lewis as the tyrannical king and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn. The monarch’s first divorce and fatal betrothal to Anne is a well-known story but the crowning achievement of the drama was to imbue familiar history with dramatic tension, marrying the personal and the public world of its protagonists with exquisite skill. An epic achievement. (Credit: BBC).