The Sopranos (1999)

David Chase's HBO series premiered in January 1999 and is widely credited with launching the "golden age of television" — the era in which serialised drama on cable could rival literary fiction in moral complexity and artistic ambition. Following New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano across six seasons (86 episodes), it blended psychoanalysis, American mythology, and operatic violence in a way no network drama had attempted before. It won 21 Primetime Emmy Awards and was ranked the greatest TV drama of all time by the Writers Guild of America in 2013.