10 Award-Winning US TV Shows You MUST Watch
We’re currently living through a golden age of US television and luckily you can now watch them in the UK thanks to Sky Box Sets.
With each of the following shows receiving the highest accolades in several key categories, here are the next award-approved marathons you should be lining up on your telly.
The Blacklist
In ‘The Blacklist’, James Spader’s most-wanted “concierge of crime” trades immunity for providing big-brained help catching high-profile criminals for the FBI. It’s a pure genius high-concept that makes it one of the most addictive series on TV right now. Spader’s never been more charismatic, and the show mixes tense action set-pieces with spectacular stunts, all with a constant double-cross tension hanging in the air. Watching it, it’s fairly easy to see why the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards handed the team an Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Miniseries, or Movie award. That’s right, the Emmy judges decided that ‘The Blacklist’s stunts were better than anything seen in a movie in 2014. Impressive stuff. Oh, and it also won an ASCAP Award in the same year, for Top TV Series. Time to stick ‘The Blacklist’ at the top of your watchlist, we reckon.
‘The Blacklist’ seasons 1 and 2 are available to watch now with Sky Box Sets.
Bones
Copyright: BONES ™ & © 2005-2015 Fox and its related entities. All rights reserved. Series 1-10.
‘Bones’ is a crime-procedural comedy-drama with a twinkle in its eye and a really good heart beating in its chest and it has the awards to prove it. Following the misadventures of FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan (Emily Deschanel), ‘Bones’ has the usual wins and nominations from all the best places, with some additional noteworthy (and special) awards. In 2013, ‘Bones’ writer Stephen Nathan won a Humanitas Prize for the episode, A Patriot in Purgatory due to its moving 9/11 subplot. The show also won two Genesis Awards for the brilliant ‘The Woman in Limbo’ and ‘The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken’, which raised awareness on pig slaughtering and industrial chicken farms respectively. So, if you want a show that will make you laugh, cry and provide a bit of social conscience, this is for you.
Dig up ‘Bones’ seasons 1-10 and watch it now with Sky Box Sets.
Mad Men
Copyright: Mad Men © 2015 Frank Ockenfels/Lionsgate
In 2015 Jon Hamm finally won his Emmy, an award that had been a long-time coming. His stunning central performance in a series full of award-winners had been nominated an astonishing seven times. He finally took home the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series trophy for his work in the show’s final season. He joined a trophy cabinet jam-packed with 16 Emmys and four Golden Globes. In fact, the show became the first basic cable series to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, going on to win in each of its first four seasons. What we’re saying is, this drama series following an ad agency through the 1960s, is very, very good. If you haven’t met Don Draper and his team yet, we envy the journey you’re about to go on.
‘Mad Men’ seasons 1-7 are available now with Sky Box Sets.
Hannibal
Copyright: Hannibal ©2015 Chiswick Productions LLC. All rights reserved. ©2015 Sony Pictures Television Inc. All rights reserved.
Following characters that appear in Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter books, ‘Hannibal’ is a thriller-horror with a seductive twist. It’s shot like an art house flick, and is full of performances that would be Oscar-worthy if the show was appearing in your local cinema instead on your TV. Which isn’t to say it hasn’t been recognised by its own award bodies. The first two seasons won the Saturn Awards for Best Network Television Series. And, for their stunning central performances, Mads Mikkelsen (cannibal chef Hannibal) and Hugh Dancy (serial killer profiler Will Graham) have taken home Best Actor Saturn Awards. Laurence Fishburne also won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor, for his mesmerising turn in season two. Dark, and delightfully delicious - the food might occasionally be made from human flesh, but it sure looks good - this could well be the show that replaces Bake Off in your living room. Just don’t try to replicate any of the recipes in your kitchen…
Serve up ‘Hannibal’ seasons 1 and 2, available now with Sky Box Sets.
True Blood
Copyright: True Blood® ©2015 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. HBO® and all related programs are the property of Home Box Office, Inc.
Over the course of its six-year run, ‘True Blood’ won so many awards it’s tough to know where to start. A note-perfect adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, the show follows telepathic waitress Sookie as she encounters a strange supernatural world after she meets the mysterious Bill, a southern Louisiana gentleman and vampire. It’s a truly great love story, and, as a result, ‘True Blood’ instantly became a part of pop culture - picking up prizes almost wherever it was nominated. But let’s focus on the performances, with Anna Paquin’s Best Actress Golden Globe, Stephen Moyer’s Best Actor on Television with Joe Manganiello’s Best Guest Starring Role (both at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films) being just the tip of the blood-stained iceberg when it comes to the accolades it’s received. No wonder it also has an Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series Emmy in its trophy cabinet. Creator Alan Ball has ‘American Beauty’ and ‘Six Feet Under’ on his CV, which may explain how he was able to attract so many amazing actors. Join the fun by mainlining every episode the next time you fancy some camp romance with a dark edge.
Sink your teeth into ‘True Blood’ season 1-6 now with Sky Box Sets.
Penny Dreadful
Copyright: Penny Dreadful © Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved.
Gothic-epic drama ‘Penny Dreadful’ is a Grand Guignol of colourful characters and dark drama. The joint UK / US drama features characters from 19th-century Irish and British fiction, including Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, Mina Harker / Abraham Van Helsing from Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, Victor Frankenstein and his monster from Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, as well as Dr. Henry Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, all having brand-new adventures. As you’d expect from such an ambitious horror-thriller show, the make-up is incredible. So much so that it’s been recognised by BAFTA - winning Best Make Up and Hair Design in 2015. Creepy, chilling and fun - ‘Penny Dreadful’ is the perfect way to spend a rainy October evening indoors.
Catch the first season of ‘Penny Dreadful’ with Sky Box Sets.
Nashville
Copyright: Nashville ©MMXIII, Lions Gate Television Inc. and ABC Studios. All Rights Reserved.
With its combination of high-emotion and genuinely great pop tunes the country-music industry set drama ‘Nashville’ shouldn’t ever be classed as a guilty pleasure, just a really, really great show. It starts out following both an experienced country-singer and an upstart teen newcomer, before expanding to encompass all sorts of great music-industry characters, all the while criss-crossing dramatic plot-lines like it’s the world’s greatest soap opera. Created by Academy Award winner Callie Khouri (she won for her ‘Thelma & Louise’ script), ‘Nashville’ is girl power all the way. The show won Most Exciting New Series at the Critics Choice Awards when it was launched, and it’s done nothing to disappoint since.
‘Nashville’ seasons 1 and 2 are available now with Sky Box Sets.
Boardwalk Empire
Copyright: Boardwalk Empire SM under licence from Home Box Office, Inc.
Launched with a jaw-dropping Martin Scorsese directed pilot, ‘Boardwalk Empire’s Steve Buscemi-led exploration of 1920s bootleggers has class at its very core. Tough, violent, disturbing, yet still somehow packed like a whiskey-crate full of characters it’s impossible not to love (no matter how many dark acts they commit in the pursuit of booze-sodden cash) it’s easy to see why Boardwalk’s army of fans constantly compare it favourably to gangster-telly epic The Sopranos. And it’s got the awards to back-up the praise. It would take too much space to list them all, but let’s just say they include a Golden Globe for Best Television Series, as well as directing Emmys and many, many more, and we’ll simply all agree we’ve just found your new favourite show.
‘Boardwalk Empire’ seasons 1-5 are available now with Sky Box Sets.
Chicago Fire
Copyright: Chicago Fire © 2014 NBC Studios LLC All Rights Reserved.
Arguably the greatest emergency service series since ‘ER’, ‘Chicago Fire’ follows the lives of the firefighters and paramedics working at the Chicago Fire Department at the firehouse of Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61 and Battalion 25. For her powerful performance as Paramedic in Charge / potential Firefighter Gabriela Dawson, Monica Raymund earned an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award in 2013 for Best Actress, with the show itself more recently earning acclaim - and a 2015 Prism Award - for its writing.
‘Chicago Fire’ seasons 1 and 2 are available now with Sky Box Sets.
Sons Of Anarchy
Copyright: Sons of Anarchy ™ & © 2008-2014 Fox and its related entities. All rights reserved.
Kurt Sutter’s epic crime drama follows outlaw motorcycle club SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original), a gang that currently features millions of fans as unofficial members. It also features a Golden Globe winning performance from Katey Sagal, who was rewarded for her intense portrayal as club mama Gemma Teller Morrow in the series’ third season. It wasn’t the show’s only acting award though. Ryan Hurst tied with ‘Game of Thrones’ Peter Dinklage in 2011 as the Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television at the Satellite Awards. With ASCAP recognising ‘SOA’ as the Top Television Series in 2013, as well as the fact it’s received many technical awards from several different bodies (the show has won for make-up, editing and camerawork), ‘SOA’ has enough gold in its trophy cabinet to keep the gang in bike parts for years.
‘Sons Of Anarchy’ seasons 1-7 are available to watch now with Sky Box Sets.
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