AFT Awards: Best Drama Series

This is the nineteenth category of the 4th 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: Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Mad Men, The Shield, True Blood

Emmy nominees: Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Good Wife, Lost, Mad Men, True Blood

Semi-finalists: The Closer, Dollhouse, The Good Wife, Lost, NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Rescue Me, V

Finalists: Justified took a potentially cheesy premise and made it can’t-miss television. Parenthood was a network-television version of “Six Feet Under,” insightfully examining the workings of a large, tight-knit family. Human Target was cool, sleek, and endlessly entertaining in its great first year. Treme traveled down to New Orleans and gave HBO its next great drama which should get even better over time. Damages finally got good, using Bernie Madoff as inspiration for Patty’s deadliest case yet.

The nominees:

Sons of Anarchy positioned the club against an evil nemesis and dug deep into the emotions of all its members. Breaking Bad was riveting and intensely shocking as its characters traveled down a dark, dark road. Dexter pitted its protagonist against an enemy not unlike himself and had its best season since the first year (when it won this award). True Blood was even more despicable and insatiably addictive than in its first year with the addition of some great season-long villains and arcs.

The winner:

Mad Men continues to be the best drama on television as it plods through the 1960s with a closer examination of the most intriguing ad men and women.

Next up: Best Comedy Series (final category)