2. Deadwood
David Milch's searing historical drama takes us to rural South Dakota during the 1870s, daring to take on a genre that has widely proven unsuccessful with contemporary cinema audiences, though managed to find a modest following on HBO - the Western. Though only running three seasons, Deadwood, which depicted the day-to-day operations of a small camp as it turns into a town, was a frequent darling of critics and praised for its ambitious efforts to revise the Western format. Though set in the late 19th century, Milch didn't see that as a reason not to include gratuitous foul language; rather than have characters say "tarnation!" and "drat!", he had them effing and blinding as one would nowadays, a bravura move that could easily have pulled us out of the world if everything else wasn't so gosh-darn convincing about it. Ian McShane, as local saloon and brothel owner Al Swearengen, is simply amazing.