11 Best USA Network Shows, Ranked

Based on the same Arturo Pérez-Reverte novel that inspired La Reina del Sur, this crime drama tells the story of a Mexican woman claiming her power as she establishes a drug empire. The action scenes are blockbuster-level, the cinematography is vivd, but the real draw is Alice Braga’s crowning performance.

On his way to becoming one of the most influential people in the world, TV producer Greg Berlanti focused on the most influential people in a fictional world, with Sigourney Weaver playing a former First Lady and presidential hopeful harboring family secrets. This “limited series” was actually limited, but Weaver is a formidable presence we’d have reelected for another season.

After the FBI catches up with him, a master con artist and thief swaps sides, teaming up with his former fed foe to catch other white-collar crooks. If you ever wanted a sequel to Catch Me If You Can, you might latch onto White Collar, especially because Matt Bomer steals hearts as easily as Neal Caffrey steals valuables.

What happens when a spy gets disavowed? Find out in this action drama, in which Jeffrey Donovan’s Michael Westen goes from CIA spook to Miami-based gun-for-hire after the agency burns him and freezes his assets. Luckily for Michael, he has allies in town and MacGyver-like methods to get out of sticky situations. Unluckily for him, his meddlesome mom (Sharon Glass) lives nearby.

Before creating 24, Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran brought this story — an adaptation of a Luc Besson film — to television. Like 24, La Femme Nikita centers on a counter-terrorism agent, but this one does her job under duress. And unlike her big-screen counterpart, Peta Wilson’s Nikita is not a killer by nature, and her moral dilemmas ratcheted up the tension.

We can never see Jessica Biel the same way after the first episode of this anthologized drama, in which her character brutally murders a fellow beachgoer for reasons not even she understands. Subsequent seasons each focus on a different crime, and each time, Bill Pullman’s police detective tries to separate sinner from sin.

Monk-y business abounded as Tony Shalhoub’s obsessive-compulsive former SFPD investigator comes out of retirement to become a police consultant. Adrian Monk’s attention to detail makes him great at solving crimes and not great at ignoring his many phobias. Monk is one of our favorite TV detectives, and Shalhoub’s three Emmys for the part are well deserved.

The TV shows Manifest, The OA, Resurrection, and The Returned owe a debt to this predecessor, which also depicted people mysteriously reappearing after years-long disappearances. In this case, the returnees — including a young Mahershala Ali — come back endowed with superpowers. And for a sci-fi show, The 4400 kept its drama remarkably grounded.

In one of the TV business’s more unexpected epilogues, this legal drama went from USA hit to global streaming sensation a few years ago as viewers discovered or rediscovered the ambitious (if unethical) attorneys of Pearson Harmon. The failure of the spinoff Suits LA tells us the original Suits was lightning in a bottle… and the involvement of a future royal certainly amped up the electricity.

Even during USA Network’s blue-sky days, its shows didn’t get much more light-hearted and fun than this buddy comedy-drama starring James Roday Rodriguez as a fake psychic with razor-sharp memory and observation skills and Dulé Hill as his best-friend-turned-business partner. Even after eight seasons, fans were so Psych-ed to reunite with Shawn and Gus that we got three (maybe four) TV movies.

USA Network entered the prestige-TV pantheon with this techno-thriller starring Rami Malek as a hacker dealing with dissociative identity disorder, depression, and drug use, and Christian Slater as the techno-anarchist who recruits him for an anti-corporate wealth-redistribution scheme. Mr. Robot was a critical hit with perfect timing, an award-show darling, and a series that gave USA a new level of street cred.