Best FX shows of all time

Fargo▲ Rising

Noah Hawley took the Coens' snow-globe fable and proved it could refill itself endlessly, with Billy Bob Thornton's Malvo turning Season 1 into a masterclass in casual menace disguised as a folksy morality tale. It changed the anthology game by showing you could rewrite tone, era, and cast every season while keeping a singular, blood-in-the-snow soul intact. Its case for the top: no show has taken more formal risks with a single premise and landed more of them.

Premiered: 2014Seasons: 5IMDb: 8.9/10

added by IJRin 12 rankings

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia▲ Rising

The Gang shoved a wheelchair down a hill, drank Wolf Cola, and made 'The Nightman Cometh' into cult scripture, proving low-budget cable comedy could out-nasty any network sitcom. It rewrote the rules for how long a show could run and how dark a joke could go while five irredeemable idiots stayed exactly, gloriously the same. Its argument for the list is sheer stamina — nearly two decades deep and still the meanest, funniest bar in TV.

Premiered: 2005Seasons: 16IMDb: 8.8/10

added by IJRin 9 rankings

The Shield▲ Rising

Vic Mackey put a bullet in a fellow cop's head in the pilot's final minutes and FX instantly became a place where anything could happen. It dragged prestige antihero drama out of premium cable and into basic cable years before anyone thought that was possible, paving the road for every morally rotten protagonist that followed. The case for its spot: it's the ur-text, the show that built the network's entire identity out of gunpowder and guilt.

Premiered: 2002Seasons: 7IMDb: 8.7/10

added by IJRin 5 rankings

Atlanta

Donald Glover turned 'Teddy Perkins' into a horror short film hiding inside a comedy about broke rappers, and nobody blinked twice — that was just Atlanta being Atlanta. It blew up the idea that a half-hour show needed jokes every scene, trading punchlines for dread, surrealism, and a sharp eye on Black life and fame. Its claim to greatness is refusing to be pinned down, bending genre until the term 'sitcom' stopped meaning anything useful.

Premiered: 2016Seasons: 4IMDb: 8.6/10

added by IJRin 10 rankings

The Bear▼ Falling

Carmy's single-take kitchen meltdown in 'Review' turned into television so anxious it felt like a panic attack with a laugh track ripped out. It reinvented the workplace drama by making the workplace itself the antagonist, stacking trauma, grief, and Italian beef into something that somehow works as comfort food too. Its case for the ranking is how fast and how completely it colonized the cultural conversation, becoming appointment TV in an era when nothing is supposed to be anymore.

Premiered: 2022Seasons: 4IMDb: 8.5/10

added by IJRin 10 rankings

Better Things▼ Falling

Pamela Adlon directing, writing, and starring as a single mom raising three daughters gave FX its quietest, most devastating entry, built on tiny observed moments rather than plot machinery. It changed what an FX comedy could look like — no punchlines required, just messy, tender, lived-in womanhood rendered with total honesty. Its place here is earned by proving prestige doesn't need violence or antiheroes, just a true and specific voice.

Premiered: 2016Seasons: 5IMDb: 7.9/10

added by IJR