10 TV Shows That Ruined Other TV Shows

There's a strong argument to be made that The Wire is the most underappreciated TV show of all time, for though it was a major critical darling during its five years on the air, it didn't win a single Primetime Emmy Award throughout its run.

David Simon's almost impossibly detailed and unexpectedly Shakespearean police drama is the cop show to own all cop shows, even if that label seems a tad reductive as a way of summing up everything that The Wire is.

All the same, it's a stone-cold all-timer masterwork elevated by both Simon and co-writer Ed Burns' journalistic account of crime in Baltimore, and the phenomenal work of a gigantic ensemble cast.

Bar a few other standout contenders like The Shield, True Detective, and Simon's own Homicide: Life on the Street, The Wire makes the majority of contemporary cop dramas seem like flippant, trashy slop.

That's not to say there isn't a place for mostly mindless entertainment like NCIS - after all, nobody wants to watch The Wire after a long day at the office - but The Wire's rigorous attention to detail makes most other police dramas look like they're written in crayon.