10 Great TV Shows With One Major Flaw

Though The Sopranos rightly gets a ton of credit for ushering in the golden era of Prestige TV, it's important not to forget that HBO's magnificent prison drama series Oz lit the fuse a whole 18 months prior.

Across its six seasons, Oz was a provocative, no-nonsense docu-drama that heavily invested audiences in its massive cast of colourful characters, both incarcerated in and working at Oswald State Correctional Facility.

Back in 1997, no TV shows were pushing the envelope in terms of violence and shocking content like Oz, but it also had a lot to say about the prison-industrial complex and the role of prisoners in American society.

It was confrontational, unsentimental, and brilliantly acted, paving the way for a bevy of dramatic series which proved beyond any doubt that TV could match or even exceed the quality of big-screen storytelling.

The problem, though, was that Oz eventually overdid it with its body count. While the first few seasons managed to keep the consistent slew of deaths shocking and edgy, by the time season four rolled around, audiences had become desensitised to the fast-growing pile of corpses.

Death simply felt like a part of life by the time Oz wrapped up its run, with more than 100 characters dying across its 56 episodes, to the point that it ended up feeling like a scandalous parody of itself.

It's still a terrific show which deserves more praise than it's ever received, albeit with the caveat that less would've been more on the death front.