11 Best AMC Shows, Ranked

Wyatt Russell, son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, proves acting genes run in the family in this unconventional comedy-drama that deserved more seasons than AMC gave it. As Sean “Dud” Dudley, Russell is a Long Beach surfer whose mellow has been harshed lately. But as Dud finds new purpose and new community after a chance encounter with the fraternal Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49 lodges itself in our memory.

Speaking of memories, remember Remember WENN? Back when AMC was still American Movie Classics, playwright and “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” singer-songwriter Rupert Holmes created this show about a fictional station in the Golden Age of Radio. It’s a lighthearted, earnest throwback to a bygone era of American entertainment.

At first, The Walking Dead felt like vital television — a gory, gripping look at humanity and the lack thereof amid a global catastrophe. After the flagship show’s 11 seasons (of diminishing returns) and six spinoffs, the Walking Dead Universe has swarmed AMC’s schedule like a walker horde, but TWD’s first seasons earn it a place on this list.

Named after the traveling community of “restaurant and saloon keepers, gamblers, desperadoes of every grade, [and] vilest of men and of women” accompanying the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, Hell on Wheels portrays a country ravaged from the Civil War but by no means out of danger. And like a Union Pacific locomotive, this drama picks up steam as it goes along.

Anne Rice’s gothic horror novel gets fresh blood in this TV series, with Sam Reid playing the vampire Lestat and Jacob Anderson playing Louis, the New Orleans brothel owner for whom Lestat falls. Intersections of race and sexuality give this story more depth than the 1994 film adaptation, and Reid and Anderson’s chemistry certainly proves toothsome.

How did AMC lose the second season of this BBC co-production to Prime Video? Adapted from a John le Carré novel, The Night Manager follows an ex-military officer tasked with bringing down an arms dealer. And with Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman, Tom Hollander, Elizabeth Debicki, David Harewood, and a terrifying Hugh Laurie on the payroll, the cast is stacked with talent.

Another British-American production, this sci-fi drama is set in a world where humans have created robotic humanoids called “synths” to serve them… because that never ends badly, does it? Futuristic without being unrecognizable, Humans is both an engaging story and a years-ahead-of-its-time warning shot about artificial intelligence.

Computer programming doesn’t seem like the most exciting premise for a TV show, granted. But the output of this ’80s set drama was a tense, thrilling tale of businesses and egos competing in the personal computing wars. Lee Pace, Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis, and Kerry Bishé play computer engineers and executives going up against big dogs like IBM and Apple.

A supporting player who provides comic relief on Breaking Bad— more on that show below — takes the spotlight and gets a tragic backstory in this prequel-and-sequel spinoff. Like a certain druglord client of his, attorney/scammer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is desperate, but he’s desperate not for survival so much as respect and riches, and heaven help the people caught in his blast radius.

How better to depict the cultural shifts in 1960s and 1970s America than to focus on the Madison Avenue ad creatives who sell the public what makes life worth living? Office politics, midlife crises, domestic strife, and cigarette smoke intermingle in this period drama, with characters finding ways to project personal and professional success just as they find ways to sell nylons.

A high-school chemistry teacher with terminal cancer recruits a former student to cook meth in a last-ditch attempt to provide for his family. But then greed and power take over, and Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) family is imperiled like never before. As addictive as anything “Heisenberg” could cook up, Breaking Bad was as close to cinematic and narrative perfection as anything we’ve seen.