For all their flaws – brutality, narcissism, infidelity, overall stuntedness – these characters had some undeniable magnetism that kept audiences hooked. The appeal of the antihero drama's Sopranos-era "golden age" was potent and primal. Watched by a silent viewing majority, US network shows in hidebound genres like the police procedural and Western have sustained this narrative tradition's popularity even as its relevance wanes. While critics and tastemakers have largely begun to gravitate toward kinder, more hopeful fare in the vein of the can-do optimist Ted Lasso, the antihero drama as we knew it lives on outside the zeitgeist. Like any other media trend, this one crested and eventually died down, though it hasn't vanished completely. For the best of these antihero series, the adoring reviews helped television finally earn that most coveted seal of highbrow approval by making comparisons to literature. Though each season would plumb fresh depths of contemptible behaviour, we couldn't stop watching, chasing that elusive glint of redemption. The cruel white men concealing dark secrets beneath a composed façade first defined and then dominated the concept of "prestige TV", certainly in reference to US output, throughout the 2000s. (The odd anti-heroine also popped up here and there, like Edie Falco's miscreant Nurse Jackie and Mary-Louise Parker's suburban drug dealer on Weeds, though both of those shows somewhat lightened themselves with comedy.) Terence Winter, another key architect of The Sopranos' later seasons, created Boardwalk Empire and the crooked politico Nucky Thompson, cut from this same cloth. Matthew Weiner, who was a writer and producer on later seasons of The Sopranos, would go on to create Mad Men (number 2 in the poll), which centred on mesmerising ad man Don Draper like Tony, he was another chronic compartmentaliser who used sex in the same evasive, isolating way that his predecessor used violence. Why May I Destroy You is the future of TV What makes The Wire such a great number one Twenty-five TV series that define the 21st Century The 100 greatest TV series of the 20th Century Read more about BBC Culture's 100 greatest TV series of the 21st Century: The top hundred is littered with Tony's relatives and descendants, from chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-dealer Walter White (protagonist of Breaking Bad, number 3 on the list) to serial killer Dexter Morgan (of Dexter, number 89) and crooked politician Frank Underwood (from House of Cards, number 60) – malign male characters joined in a lineage of morally complex anti-heroism. The ground rule that shows premiering prior to the millennium would be ineligible for inclusion precluded HBO's landmark mob drama from making the cut, but its absence is every bit as perceptible as its presence would've been. In BBC Culture's recent poll of the 100 greatest series of the 21st Century, there's an empty seat at the table reserved for one Tony Soprano.
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