I loved BB and BCS but it feels like you're putting them on pedestal. They're obviously examples of great writing but they aren't in a class of their own, certainly not to an "exponential" degree. I'd put Chernobyl or Band of Brothers, just to start, on the same level. Possibly season 1 of True Detective as well, as a self-contained story. And I haven't seen every show on this list.

I'll also say that Black Mirror has some of the best psychological horror I've ever seen. It might not be an epic serial like BB but not much media has scared me to the core like Black Mirror. Not every show needs to try to do what BB did.

I've tried to watch BB 3 separate times and just could not get into it. I recognize I'm in the minority here and that taste is subjective. But I genuinely did not like it without just being contrary for the sake of it.

I would say you believe this for two main reasons. One, those are some of the shows that you watched and are familiar with, and you've seen spectacularly little of what is actually on that list.

And two, your own subjective experience is dictating what you feel is better versus what is worse, which is ultimately a completely useless way to estimate how good something actually is.

Furthermore, lists like this are intentionally inflammatory. They'll put several genuinely good entries way too low on the list specifically so people will argue about it and drive engagement.

I mean, Westworld didn't even make the cut but Scandal did.

I strongly disagree on White Lotus. The topic of a piece of writing doesn't neccessarily affect its quality. Most of Samuel Becketts work is about nothing happening, Harold Pinter about people saying things are more mundane than they are and James Joyce about everyday Irish lives.

The story of the first season is more about confronting internalized homophobia vis a vis latent bisexuality and how imposter syndrome and patriarchal power structures can be used by misogynists to control women's romantic/sexual/marriage autonomy than it is just about people being rich. I also enjoy the meta-textual element that the structure of White Lotus is very much a pistal-petal-structure.

I'd argue that The Wire had to exist for Breaking Bad to happen like it did.

In the season where Jesse and White try to sell on their own, rewatch the scene where Combo gets got. The entire cinematography drops Breaking Bad's blues and swapps to the Wire's shades of Grey and long lense shots. It was definitely BB's production team tipping their caps to the wire...Hell the scene they chose was even (plotwise) The Wire

Breaking Bad (which Better Call Saul beautifully expanded on) was amazing but The Wire is the OG

If that's all you got out of the White Lotus then you went in trying to dislike it for being a show about rich people.