10 Cult TV Shows Your Friends Bang On About (But You've Not Seen Yet)

2. Deadwood

After looking deader than the deadest of doornails for decades, the Western genre has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years. Deadwood played a big part in that.

Set in the 1870s, the show charts the growth of Deadwood from a camp into a proper town. It works as an unexpected companion piece to The Wire in that it has things to say on deeper themes: capitalism, community, how institutions shape and affect society. The Wire looked at a very specific moment in time and so does Deadwood, examining its themes in the context of a fledgling nation. It's not all cowboys and shoot-em-ups, this is dramatic storytelling on television at its strongest.

The show was hyped to British audiences on Sky One, but maybe the Western setting put them off, as it lost half its viewers in a single week in 2004. Having it broadcast exclusively on Sky added an extra barrier to its success.

It's since been confirmed that a movie (maybe even two) will eventually be released to finish off the story; news a lot of fans will be very happy about indeed.