AFT Awards: Best Drama Series

This is the nineteenth category of the 3rd Annual AFT Television Awards, my personal choices for the best in television this past season. This year, semi-finalists are included to recognize more of the impressive work being done on television today. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them.
Best Drama Series

Last year’s nominees: Brotherhood, Closer, Jericho, Lost, Mad Men

Emmy nominees: Big Love, Breaking Bad, Damages, Dexter, House, Lost, Mad Men

Semi-finalists: The Cleaner had a definitive formula, but it was occasionally very powerful and interesting. Smallville saw a resurgence in quality this year thanks to some fresh faces and new plotlines, and it’s on its way to becoming a great show again. Dexter wasn’t nearly as good as it used to be, but it was still entertaining and gripping. Even though I gave up early on Sons of Anarchy, it got much better and turned out to be a truly terrific show by the end of the season.

Finalists: Brotherhood had its (unexpected?) swan song and delivered a third season just as incredible as the second – and it’s a real pity no one watched this complex drama that’s just as good as “The Sopranos.” Rescue Me was revitalized due to a renewed focus on 9/11 and Tommy’s alcoholism, and the first eight episodes of the show’s fifth season that aired before May 31st were outstanding. Breaking Bad was intensely dramatic and greatly improved from its first year. In Treatment found new patients who were just as interesting, if not more, as the first slate. The Closer transitioned to the Major Crimes Unit and dropped one player, but it was still just as fabulous.

The nominees:

Mad Men was incredibly good, week-to-week, telling more in-depth stories from the 1960s and reaching deep into the backstories of its characters. The final act of The Shield was utterly compelling and completely unmissable, providing a completely unexpected kind of closure for all its characters. Lost sent half its cast time-traveling and handled the reality-juggling extraordinarily, becoming more intriguing and addictive than ever before. Battlestar Galactica brought humans and Cylons together in an incredible hurtle towards the end of the show with a fitting final season. True Blood was ultra-violent and edgy, but completely paid off with fascinating characters and fantastic storylines.

Next up: Best Comedy Series