31 Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
John Lanchester, writing on the second series of Game of Thrones in the London Review of Books

Westeros is by now in a full state of civil war. This is where the second book and second TV series, A Clash of Kings, begins. There are now no fewer than three declared kings in Westeros. Representing the Baratheons is the handsome, charismatic, impetuous younger brother Renly. (HBO further develops their normal policy on gratuitous sex scenes - that policy being that they're strongly in favour - by giving him a gratuitous gay sex scene.) He dies. The Lannisters are led by the patriarch Tywin, who is calculating, brutal and ruthless even by Lannister standards. He dies. The Starks are led by Eddard's eldest son, Robb, a mere teenager (though he's older on the telly): he is brave, so charismatic that his followers anoint him the 'King in the North', a brilliant war leader. He dies. The nominal king is Joffrey, officially Robert's son but in reality Cersei and Jaime's - people don't know that, but there are beginning to be rumours. Joffrey starts out by seeming nothing more than a nasty little shit, but before long turns out to be genuinely psychotic. He dies. These are not peripheral figures but richly imagined, textured, three-dimensional portraits of central characters: the kind many writers couldn't bear to kill off. Nobody needs to give Martin any advice about how he needs to slaughter his darlings.

The sense of instability goes beyond not knowing who's going to survive and who's going to be the next apparently principal character to be killed. Our judgments of people in the story are also unstable.

The richly decorative and sacrificial element of the show could not last: by series 5 we were in a deathless trudge to the end. At its best the later episodes were a spiritual successor to I, Claudius. Only the final series is a complete betrayal of the initial balance of ambition and skill.

32 The X Files (1993-2002)
Another one that held on far too long and sank its own boat with pointless films.

33 This Life (1996-1997, 2007)
I'm generally a fan of zeitgeisty sex dramas

34 Years and Years (2019)
It was inevitable that a show this polemic and brave would not quite land every single punch it was throwing.

35 Heartbreak High (1994-1999)
A rewatch shows this is no mere nostalgia inclusion but one of the better depictions of the raging hormone and low-key violencefests that is high school.