We Need More Science: The 10 Best TV Shows of 2014

You'd think we were on to Game of Thrones by now, and the sadistic sport of keep-away it likes to play with its viewers. Nope. (Expand gallery to full screen to find out why we loved each show.)

HBO

Game of Thrones

Why We Loved It: You'd think we were on to Game of Thrones by now, and the sadistic sport of keep-away it likes to play with its viewers. You know, the one where it shows us the thing we want—the victory of Ned Stark, the victory of Robb Stark, really any form of happiness for any character—and then smashes it on the floor like the head of porcelain doll. Or in this case, the head of Oberyn Martell, the lovably roguish lord we wanted to see exact sweet revenge on Gregor Clegane and free the wrongly accused Tyrion. He died screaming instead. Go ahead and cry all you want about it, swear you're never going to watch this show again. Your tears only make Game of Thrones stronger. Game of Thrones knows you'll be back for more. —Laura Hudson

HBO

Whatever Broad City's Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson are smoking, it's working. The debut season of their stoner duo Comedy Central show was faster, funnier, and funkier than anything we'd ever seen from the pair in their online offerings. And every minute was gold. Comedy Central

Broad City

Why We Loved It:

Whatever Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson are smoking, it's working. The debut season of their stoner duo Comedy Central show

Broad City

came in faster, funnier, and funkier than anything we'd ever seen from the pair in their online offerings. And every minute was gold. Awkward sex, shellfish allergies, and

trips to the bank

have never been as funny as they are in the hands of these two, and when you add in their perpetually-FaceTiming adorable codependency there's even something that looks a lot like heart in this show, too. It's easy to call any pot-smoking duo "Cheech and Chong-meets-this-thing-or-that," so I won't. BUT, if Cheech and Chong met feminism in modern-day Brooklyn and decided to talk about Facebook-stalking old boyfriends, it might look a lot like

Broad City

, and it might make you laugh harder than anything on TV.

—Angela Watercutter

Comedy Central

For its second season, Amy Schumer took her promising eponymous show from LOL-worthy to essential viewing. She used her platform to provide belly laughs and blue humor alongside staggeringly bold social commentary.

Comedy Central

Inside Amy Schumer

Why We Loved It:

For its second season, Amy Schumer took her promising eponymous show from LOL-worthy to essential viewing. She used her platform to provide belly laughs and blue humor with sketches like

“A Chick Who Can Hang”

and

“Finger Blasters”

alongside staggeringly bold social commentary.

“A Very Realistic Military Game”

shoved a critique of institutional bias against rape survivors into the middle of a sketch about videogames, and did so in phenomenally on-point fashion. And when she wasn’t holding up the mirror to heteronormative societal

conventions

, Schumer just made us laugh our asses off with bits that always took jokes to their natural stopping point…before shoving them off a cliff. Like the best comedians, Schumer managed to tap into the consciousness of viewers and put just the right words to our shared human experience, giving us the flesh-eating carnage we never knew we needed—until now.

—Jordan Crucchiola

Comedy Central

When John Oliver left The Daily Show to front his own weekly program on HBO, it wasn't immediately obvious what to expect. What could he bring to differentiate the HBO series from his old show? The answer, it turned out, was a sense of perspective.

HBO

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Why We Loved It: When John Oliver left The Daily Show to front his own weekly current affairs program on HBO, it wasn't immediately obvious what to expect. He'd done a good job guest-hosting the Comedy Central series in Jon Stewart's absence, but what could he bring to differentiate the HBO series from his old show? The answer, it turned out, was a sense of perspective: not only in looking at topics in a more in-depth way than The Daily Show, but also in taking on stories of international significance that American news outlets had for all intents and purposes ignored. Freed of the chat show format, Last Week Tonight didn't have to dumb things down to fit them into a segment ahead of interviewing a movie star with a release to publicize, and the result was television that was hilarious, educational, sobering, and filled with righteous indignation, without ever losing sight of the need to entertain. —Graeme McMillan

HBO

New Girl was in dire straits this year. The end of Season 3 wasn’t handled well, and it was received even worse. It was starting to look like the show had always just been a serialized romantic comedy that was potentially overstaying its welcome. It reset and rebounded in a big way this fall.

Fox

New Girl

Why We Loved It: This year, New Girl was in dire straits. The back half of Season 3 wasn’t handled well, and it was received even worse. It was starting to look like the show had always just been a serialized romantic comedy, expertly handled through two seasons, that was potentially overstaying its welcome. Then, creator Elizabeth Meriwether & Co. hit the reset button, and since its return this fall the show has been, suddenly and improbably, at its best. New Girl pivoted from a rom-com to a true ensemble sitcom. With Nick (Jake Johnson) and Jess (Zooey Deschanel) single and mingling, and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) back from the brink of his one-time role as loft antagonist, the show is funnier than ever. —Brendan Klinkenberg

Fox

Full Disclosure: We're suckers for historical fiction. But The Knick added science (specifically early 20th century medicine) and that pretty much secured it a place in our hearts forever.

Cinemax

The Knick

Why We Loved It:

Full Disclosure: I'm a sucker for historical fiction.

Deadwood

Mad Men

, I love it all. But

The Knick

added

science

(specifically early

20th century medicine

) and that pretty much secured it a place in my heart forever. On top of all that, it had directing from Steven Soderbergh and some excellent work from Clive Owen—a potent combination that made

The Knick

pretty much my new favorite TV addiction of 2014.

—Angela Watercutter

Cinemax

The Good Wife started as a legal drama about the beleaguered wife of a philandering politician, but quietly transformed not only into one of the most technologically savvy shows on television, but the best drama on network TV.

CBS

The Good Wife

Why We Loved It:

Starring beautiful, ageless vampire Juliana Margulies as homemaker-turned-high-powered-attorney Alicia Florrick,

The Good Wife

started as a legal drama about the beleaguered wife of a philandering politician (Chris Noth), but quietly transformed not only into one of the most

technologically savvy shows on television

, but the best drama on network TV. Unlike the show-within-a-show

Darkness at Noon

—a satire of the testosterone-laced anti-heroes of "prestige" TV—Alicia offers a far more unconventional and more interesting image of a badass: a working mom who rules the world around her with integrity, intelligence and sheer excellence.

—Laura Hudson

CBS

This year, Transparent was in turns the warmest, funniest, and most wrenching show of the year, on any kind of screen.

Amazon

Transparent

Why We Loved It: Jill Soloway is no stranger to great television, with multiple seasons under her belt as a writer and executive producer on both Six Feet Under and The United States of Tara. But the greatest television she ever made only came after she left traditional TV behind. Transparent, part of Amazon's second slate of original programming, was borne of Soloway's experience having her father come out as a woman late in life, and was in turns the warmest, funniest, and most wrenching show of the year, on any kind of screen. It's not because of its lovable characters; Jeffrey Tambor as patriarch-cum-matriarch Mort (now Maura) is one of the few sympathetic roles on the show, surrounded as she is by the most self-absorbed group of adult children you've ever met. But this tale of a family in transition is pitch-perfect, from its opening credits to its cringe-worthy nuggets of familial dysfunction to its knowledge, above all, that you're the only person who you have to be honest with. —Peter Rubin

Amazon

A southern gothic murder mystery noted for its grandiloquent writing and eye-popping direction, True Detective wowed everyone this year, especially us.

HBO

True Detective

Why We Loved It:

A southern gothic murder mystery noted for its grandiloquent writing and eye-popping direction,

True Detective

wowed everyone with its performances from Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, elevating the latter from stoner icon to A-list acclaim and

really weird car commercials

. Fueled by a moody, almost supernatural horror, the first season of the HBO anthology show evoked the abstruse mysteries of

Twin Peaks

and inspired

conspiracy theories

akin to

Lost

, culminating in a finale of uplifting vagaries but few answers. Just like it was supposed to.

—Laura Hudson

HBO

Calling comedy "smart" is as backhanded a compliment as it gets. It's code for airless, for rarefied, for prizing gentility over blood and bone and pain. Then came Veep, and "smart comedy" became "fucking smart comedy."

HBO

Veep

Why We Loved It: Calling comedy "smart" is as backhanded a compliment as it gets. It's code for airless, for rarefied, for prizing gentility over blood and bone and pain. Then came Veep, and "smart comedy" became "fucking smart comedy." That's partially because of the dizzying parade of profanity favored by Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) and her staff—"shit on my tits," "go fist a chimp"—and partially because creator Armando Iannucci's satire of political machination is as visceral as Bukowski (and infinitely more equal-opportunity in its toxicity). Disdain and ambition have rarely resonated more physically: Meyer's glittering me-first bumblings, strategist Ben's (Kevin Dunn) sloppy scatological pep talks, Jonah's (Timothy Simons) sleazy incompetence. Every episode leaves me wanting a shower—and that's the best kind of smart comedy there is. —Peter Rubin

HBO

Broad City

Why We Loved It:

Whatever Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson are smoking, it's working. The debut season of their stoner duo Comedy Central show

Broad City

came in faster, funnier, and funkier than anything we'd ever seen from the pair in their online offerings. And every minute was gold. Awkward sex, shellfish allergies, and

trips to the bank

Broad City

, and it might make you laugh harder than anything on TV.

—Angela Watercutter

Comedy Central

Inside Amy Schumer

Why We Loved It:

For its second season, Amy Schumer took her promising eponymous show from LOL-worthy to essential viewing. She used her platform to provide belly laughs and blue humor with sketches like

“A Chick Who Can Hang”

and

“Finger Blasters”

alongside staggeringly bold social commentary.

“A Very Realistic Military Game”

conventions

—Jordan Crucchiola

Comedy Central

HBO

Fox

The Knick

Why We Loved It:

Full Disclosure: I'm a sucker for historical fiction.

Deadwood

Mad Men

, I love it all. But

The Knick

added

science

(specifically early

20th century medicine

) and that pretty much secured it a place in my heart forever. On top of all that, it had directing from Steven Soderbergh and some excellent work from Clive Owen—a potent combination that made

The Knick

pretty much my new favorite TV addiction of 2014.

—Angela Watercutter

Cinemax

The Good Wife

Why We Loved It:

Starring beautiful, ageless vampire Juliana Margulies as homemaker-turned-high-powered-attorney Alicia Florrick,

The Good Wife

started as a legal drama about the beleaguered wife of a philandering politician (Chris Noth), but quietly transformed not only into one of the most

technologically savvy shows on television

, but the best drama on network TV. Unlike the show-within-a-show

Darkness at Noon

—Laura Hudson

CBS

This year, Transparent was in turns the warmest, funniest, and most wrenching show of the year, on any kind of screen.

Amazon

Amazon

A southern gothic murder mystery noted for its grandiloquent writing and eye-popping direction, True Detective wowed everyone this year, especially us.

HBO

True Detective

Why We Loved It:

A southern gothic murder mystery noted for its grandiloquent writing and eye-popping direction,

True Detective

wowed everyone with its performances from Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, elevating the latter from stoner icon to A-list acclaim and

really weird car commercials

. Fueled by a moody, almost supernatural horror, the first season of the HBO anthology show evoked the abstruse mysteries of

Twin Peaks

and inspired

conspiracy theories

akin to

Lost

, culminating in a finale of uplifting vagaries but few answers. Just like it was supposed to.

—Laura Hudson

HBO

Long the populist, less-elegant cousin of film, in the last few years television has become the place to watch the most daring, smart, prestigious shows out there. From comedies like Veep and Broad City to dramas like True Detective and Game of Thrones, television is now the go-to place for pretty much any examination of the human condition you’d like to see. Above you’ll find WIRED’s picks for the 10 best programs of 2014. And, don’t worry, like all good television they’ll be back next year.