The Four TV Shows That Heralded America’s Fall

Mr. Marche is the author, most recently, of “The Next Civil War” and the host of the podcast “Gloves Off.”

This week, The Times rolled out a list of the top 100 TV shows of the 21st century, as decided by a large group of television watchers and insiders. A few familiar shows, long anointed as part of the Mount Rushmore of prestige TV, topped the list: “Breaking Bad” at No. 1, “The Wire” at No. 2 and “Mad Men” at No. 3. (A fourth behemoth, “The Sopranos,” just missed being eligible, having debuted in 1999.)

Any list of great artworks presents a portrait of the era that produced them — in this case, the prestreaming era 20 years ago when cable channels like HBO and AMC ruled the dial and America felt like the world’s last remaining superpower. But what strikes me about these shows is not just how closely they echo their era but how presciently they envisioned the turmoil to come that........

© The New York Times