10 Best TNT Shows, Ranked

It predated the Occupy Wall Street movement by a few years, but Robin Hood stories will always be popular, and Leverage leveraged rising anti-greed sentiment for an action drama with criminals stealing from the wealthy and amoral. And the heist show stole so many hearts that it warranted a sequel series.

This female-led buddy cop drama starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander — a spiritual successor to Cagney & Lacey — winked at but shamefully never developed the romantic subtext that fans and critics noticed immediately. Still, any series that launched as many fanfic love stories as this one deserves a spot on this ranking.

With a talent-heavy cast — Ellen Barkin, Scott Speedman, Shawn Hatosy, Molly Gordon, and more — this American version of an Aussie film of the same name is a twisted tale of a criminal SoCal family as seen through the eyes of a newly moved-in grandson (played by Finn Cole, doing double duty here and on Peaky Blinders).

Lady Mary, she ain’t. Downton Abbey’s Michelle Dockery does a heel turn to play a paroled con artist who needs to stay out of trouble to appease her substance-abuse counselor and regain custody of her young son. That’s easier said than done, though, when she crosses a (handsome) contract killer in this adaptation of Blake Crouch novels.

Hard-drinking, bed-hopping antiheroes are nothing new on the small screen, but Holly Hunter’s Oklahoma City detective has her life upended through divine intervention: the arrival of a tobacco-chewing, winged guardian angel named Earl (Leon Rippy). So begins one of the more unique crime dramas to have hit television.

Did we really need another TV show about men facing midlife crises? As it turns out, we did if Ray Romano were a co-creator and he, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher were stars. Their characters are all going through the wringer in different ways, but through their friendship and their small victories, this show shows its heart.

Authentic Native American representation on TV has only made strides recently, and this star-studded, Steven Spielberg-produced, Emmy-adored miniseries’ white lens is apparent, considering the story’s tropes and clichés. But to its credit, Into the West tried to tell a balanced tale of 19th-century American expansion, and such an attempt was rare in the 2000s.

Snowpiercer seems too ambitious for TNT, which perhaps explains why it almost didn’t make it to air on the channel (but doesn’t explain why TNT didn’t run the final season). Based on the same graphic novel that inspired a Bong Joon-ho film, the propulsive TV drama depicts class warfare aboard a train crossing a frozen world.

This show was originally developed for HBO, and that network’s loss was TNT’s gain. Then-on-the-rise actors Niecy Nash and Carrie Preston play two of the Florida manicurists who go from painting nails to laundering money as they try their hand at organized crime. Juggling crime drama and comedy is a challenge Claws nails.

There’s a reason The Closer closed its seven-season run with basic cable’s most-watched finale ever. In an Emmy-winning performance, Kyra Sedgwick plays a CIA-trained interrogator solving murder cases with manipulative and morally ambiguous tactics. J.K. Simmons in a supporting role is just icing on the top.