Today, almost every week brings a new series, and platforms rush us from one episode to the next so quickly that we have no time to think about what we have seen. But some series stay with you even years later. A scene or a line remains impossible to forget.
This is not a list of the “best series.” These are series that remain with you even after they end. If it is 2026 and you still have not watched them, perhaps now is the time.
10. Westworld (2016)
Westworld is an amusement park where wealthy people pay enormous sums to enter a Wild West world. You can shoot, rob, and do whatever you want because the park’s inhabitants are not human. They are robots. Every morning, the farmer’s daughter Dolores wakes up the same way, goes into town, and sees the same man pick up the box she drops. In the evening, everything starts over. She does not remember any of it. Not yet.
The series is at its strongest in its first season. Ford, the park’s creator, played by Anthony Hopkins, hides something in every scene. The story is structured so that you do not fully understand what you are watching until the final episodes. The later seasons are not on the same level, but the first season is enough on its own.
9. The OA (2016)
A blind girl who disappeared seven years ago suddenly returns home one day, and she can now see. She tells neither her parents nor the police where she has been or what happened to her. Instead, at night, she gathers five people who barely know one another in an abandoned house and begins telling her story only to them.
The OA is a strange series. At one point, you believe Prairie’s story; at another, you think, “What kind of nonsense is this?” That feeling does not leave you until the series ends. The lives of the five people listening to the story are not going particularly well either. One feels misunderstood at home, another is alone at school, and the teacher cannot recover after her brother’s death. Every night, they come to that empty house. Perhaps not because they believe the story, but because they have nowhere else to go.
8. The Handmaid’s Tale (2017)
Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel, the series takes place in a world where America no longer exists. In its place is a state called Gilead. Women are forbidden from working, having money, or even reading books. Women who can bear children are assigned to ruling families. The protagonist, June, is one of them. They have even taken away her name. She is now called by the name of the man she serves.
What makes the series so difficult to watch is not Gilead itself, but June’s memories. In flashback scenes, we see her former life: her job, her family, an ordinary weekend. We also see how everything gradually changes. One day, women’s bank cards are blocked; the next, they are fired. Elisabeth Moss is so powerful in the role that she often speaks without saying anything, communicating only through her face. The red cloaks and white bonnets in the series later became symbols of protests in many parts of the world.
7. BoJack Horseman (2014)
BoJack was the star of a family sitcom called “Horsin’ Around” in the 1990s. Now he is a horse living alone in his large Hollywood home, spending his days drinking and still living off his old fame. Yes, a talking horse.
At first, you watch it as a funny animated series for adults. But as the seasons pass, the jokes become less frequent, while the consequences of BoJack’s actions grow heavier. Every time, he promises to change, and every time, he hurts the people close to him again. The series shows this without excusing him, while also not hiding his childhood. Pay special attention to the episode “Free Churro.” BoJack speaks alone throughout the entire episode at his mother’s funeral, and it may be the heaviest twenty minutes you have ever watched in an animated series.
6. Adolescence (2025)
Early in the morning, the police break down the door and storm into the house. Thirteen-year-old Jamie trembles with fear in his bed, while his father Eddie cannot understand what is happening. A little later, it becomes clear that his son is accused of murdering his classmate Katie.
Each episode of the four-part series was filmed continuously in a single take. The camera never leaves for even a moment, and you remain alongside the family in police station corridors and the noisy classrooms of the school. Stephen Graham, who plays the father, is one of the series’ screenwriters. The third episode consists entirely of a conversation between Jamie and his psychologist, making it one of the most tense scenes in recent years. The series does not give you ready-made answers. It simply shows you the phone-based world parents do not see and leaves the rest to you.
5. The Sopranos (1999)
Tony Soprano is the head of the Mafia in New Jersey. He intimidates people, kills when necessary, and runs a vast criminal network. One day, however, he has a panic attack and collapses when the ducks nesting in his pool fly away. After that, he secretly begins seeing a psychotherapist, Dr. Melfi.
The therapy sessions are precisely what make The Sopranos so different. In one scene, Tony brutally beats someone; in the next, he cannot hold himself together while talking about his mother in Melfi’s office. James Gandolfini combines these two sides so perfectly that you despise Tony but cannot completely turn away from him. Many say modern television drama began with this series. The final scene has been debated for years. Try not to read anything about it beforehand.
4. Mad Men (2007)
New York in the 1960s. Advertising agencies, immaculate suits, cigarette smoke hanging in the air, and whiskey bottles hidden in office drawers. Don Draper is the best advertising man in this world: he has a successful career, a beautiful family, and everyone’s respect. But Don Draper is not his real name. He took someone else’s identity during the Korean War and has lived with that lie ever since.
At the end of the first season, Don gives a presentation for an advertisement for a slide projector. He shows pictures of his family on the screen and talks about nostalgia. Everyone in the room falls silent, and so do you. The entire series can be explained through this one scene. Don is brilliant at selling emotions to others, but he cannot fully feel anything himself. Alongside his story is Peggy Olson’s journey from secretary to the top, which is sometimes even more interesting than Don’s.
3. The Leftovers (2014)
One October day, two percent of the world’s population disappears instantly, leaving no trace. Neither religion nor science can explain it. Three years later, people in a small town try to live as if nothing happened. Nora lost her husband and two children that day. Police chief Kevin loses his family in another way: his wife joins a strange cult that wears white clothes, has stopped speaking, and smokes everywhere, while his son leaves home.
The series was created by Damon Lindelof, the creator of Lost, but here he does not try to solve the mysteries. The answer to how or why people disappeared never comes, and the series does this deliberately. One piece of advice: the first season is heavy and dark, and many people stop there. The second and third seasons are considered among the best in television history. Max Richter’s music also stays with you long after the series ends.
2. Succession (2018)
Logan Roy owns a massive media empire. As he grows older, everyone around him asks the same question: who will take his place? Each of his four children fights to get closer to the throne. But as the series progresses, it becomes clear that the throne is not what they truly want. They want their father to say, even once in his lifetime, that he believed in them.
Everyone in Succession is rich, powerful, and ruthless, but at the same time, everyone is incredibly small. Beneath the billion-dollar negotiations and harsh business decisions are children still trying to win their father’s attention, making peace by selling one another out and betraying one another again after reconciling. The series shows not how a person is loved, but how they are not loved, and reminds us of one truth: money can buy everything except parental love.
1. Six Feet Under (2001)
The Fisher family runs a funeral home in Los Angeles. Every episode opens with someone’s death: sometimes quiet, sometimes absurd, and sometimes unexpectedly funny. In the first episode, however, it is the family’s father who dies. The eldest son, Nate, must return to the home he has been running from for years. His younger brother David carries the family business alongside the secret life he leads. Their mother, Ruth, tries to live for herself for the first time, while the youngest daughter, Claire, still does not know who she will become.
The series was created by Alan Ball, the screenwriter of American Beauty, and it shows. Here, death is not something frightening, but an ordinary subject discussed at the dinner table. Over five seasons, you get to know this family so closely that saying goodbye to them becomes difficult. Much has been written about the finale, but you should watch it without reading anything or expecting anything. Then you will understand for yourself why so many people call it the best series finale ever made.