Beyond Cable: What Are The Best Shows Currently On Major Networks?

The last time a network show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series was in 2006, when season five of 24 bested the first half of The Sopranos‘ final run. Since then, of the 55 nominations in the category, only a scant 11 have aired on one of the Big Four: NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC. Otherwise, it’s been all AMC, HBO, Showtime, FX, Netflix, and because the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences inexplicably loves Downton Abbey, PBS.

Between 1952 and when The Sopranos premiered in 1999, a non-network or PBS/NET (the original PBS) series had only been nominated for Outstanding Drama once: Star Trek: The Next Generation, in 1994. Otherwise, the Big Four dominated. That’s changed a lot in the 21st century, thanks to streaming services, the rise of prestige cable dramas, and once little known channels, like AMC, taking a risk on complex shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. It’s no wonder we (and every website that covers TV) largely talks about FX, HBO, and Netflix: They’re making more interesting programming.

But it’s not all crap. With the 2015-2016 season in the rearview mirror, we wanted to highlight the best that NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC (and the CW!) had to offer over the last nine months. In that time, you could have gotten pregnant and had a baby, or watched New Girl resurrect itself, or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend stun in its freshman season, or marvel at Bob’s Burgers remarkable consistency. We all know which option is more productive. Anyway, here are our favorite network series this season.

Bob’s Burgers

ABC has the best block of network comedies — Fresh Off the Boat found its voice in season two by realizing there’s nothing more American than pop culture references; The Middle continues to chug along; The Goldbergs is the right kind of 1980-something nostalgia; and Black-ish produced one of the season’s most poignant episodes. But the single best network comedy is Bob’s Burgers, which continues to be the spiritual successor to golden-age The Simpsons. It’s sweet but feisty, frozen in time yet it lets its characters evolve. This season gave us more Regular-Sized Rudy, more songs, more toilets, and more songs about toilets. Also, there’s an entire episode about Gene looking for a two-butted goat. No other show, network or cable, can say that. — Josh Kurp

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Based on the ratings, The CW’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend may be a show watched only by television critics, but they all adore the series. As well they should: The Golden Globe-winning Rachel Bloom plays to the rom-com love triangle formula in story, but completely upends it with songs that are satirical, hilarious, and often bleak. The network-inappropriate dark and sexual themes, however, are hidden beneath the infectious pop melodies, but make no mistake: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is one of the smartest, most subversive, and entertaining shows on television. It also boasts, among other musical numbers, a new holiday classic in “California Christmastime.” — Dustin Rowles

Gotham

Gotham amped the previous season’s operatic weirdness to new heights this season, and the season finale proved the show has no top to go over. The entire cast was running around an insane asylum while our hero was (badly) impersonated at the police station, and it ended with supervillains being unleashed on Gotham City, complete with a clone of young Bruce Wayne. It’s ridiculous, but I miss it already. — Dan Seitz

iZombie

Sure, there are zombie shows that are more popular, but iZombie is without a doubt the most fun show about the undead.

After a whip-smart first season, some worried that the show would suffer from the sophomore slump. But show runner Rob Thomas (of Veronica Mars fame) and a talented cast kept things moving at a steady clip the entire way. Liv adjusted incrementally to being a zombie while also working tirelessly with Ravi to find a cure, and the season finale was not only a fun (and surprisingly violent) episode all on its own, it also hit the reset button for the show. All the key players know Liv’s brain-munching secret, but will Team Z spread beyond Seattle? With a military group looking to weaponize zombie-ism, things are going to get dark in season three. iZombie manages to fit as much plot into one episode as some shows do in half a season, and somehow manages to keep all of the plates in the air. Luckily, it got renewed for a third season, so you have time to catch up. — Alyssa Fikse

Last Man on Earth

After the first, uneven season of Last Man on Earth, we were left wondering where the show could possibly go from here. The series had started off strong but had moved to shaky ground for most of the season, concluding with the realization that Tandy really did love Carol, after spending the entire season attempting to sleep with the other last remaining women on Earth.

Thankfully Will Forte seems to have figured out how to resolve most of the issues plaguing that first season. Still a buffoon, the character of Tandy became at least a self-aware buffoon, instead of an insufferable, pathological one. Likewise while the show remains, at its core, an irreverent sitcom, the characters now face real world repercussions, first with the death of Gordon, then Phil Miller #2 as the result of a botched appendectomy (leaving Erica’s baby without a father), and later by having Tandy reunited with his astronaut brother only to have him likely become a victim of the virus. Other plotlines like Carol’s attempt to conceive a baby, Gail’s drinking problem, and the fallout of Melissa and Todd’s relationship found a way to integrate humor with heart. Instead of wondering where they can possibly go from here, I can’t wait to see what happens next. — Stacey Ritzen

New Girl

This season of New Girl was almost a miracle.

The show was coming off a bit of a lull. It was set to be without Zooey Deschanel for four episodes smack in the middle. And it was replacing her with Megan Fox, which seemed weird. But then the season aired and it was really, really great. Maybe the best one yet. The Megan Fox episodes ended up being a fun change of pace, but mostly I loved it because a) the show finally figured out what to do with Winston, and b) the show let Nick become a total maniac for a while. God, Jake Johnson was great this season. Someone give him an award. Any award will do. — Brian Grubb

Person of Interest

Now winding down its fifth and final season, CBS’s Person of Interest has always been an under-the-radar series that deserved way more attention and acclaim than it received. But like any good series with a really odd and challenging premise — in this case, a machine that sees everyone and predicts violent crimes — POI was starting to get a little redundant and even boring heading into this last hoorah. It also doesn’t help when one awesome character (Taraji P. Henson’s Carter) is killed off and another is abducted (Sarah Shahi’s Shaw), because those are the characters we tune in for. But that’s also what’s made this final season so great, because John’s gloves are off, there are no f*cks left to be given, and the showrunners can end the show on their terms and give fans what they’ve been waiting for. And if everyone is pissed about how certain things go down — like you-know-who getting you-know-what recently — at least we’ll be left talking about it when the machine is finally gone. — Ashley Burns

Supergirl

After scoring the fall season’s top-rated debut, Supergirl‘s numbers took a quick downturn throughout the remainder of its first outing on CBS. Now that Greg Berlanti’s third (of four) DC Comics-based show is joining the rest of them over at The CW, those numbers will probably never be as high again. More significant than ratings and networks, however, is whether or not Supergirl‘s first season was any good after the premiere. Naysayers will point to boring, subplot-heavy entries, while supporters will laud the program’s crossover with The Flash. For proof that Supergirl gave fans and newcomers alike a fantastic first season that improved (and learned from its mistakes) across 20 episodes, consider those dealing with the Martian Manhunter’s story or the fight-heavy entry directed by Punisher: Warzone‘s Lexi Alexander. Despite considerable odds, Supergirl delivered a fantastic initial run deserving of praise and, once released, countless more viewings. — Andrew Husband

Superstore

Comedy is about connection and Superstore has a hardline to my heart as it tells a simple tale about a ragtag gang of retail employees that remind me of me and my friends in my early twenties. Maybe I’m biased because of how much I relate to the typically mundane events that spiral out of control when big personalities, insipid customers, soul-stifling overhead music, and sameness combine, but the show finds a vibe that is similar to that of Parks and Recreation and The Office without trying too hard. And it’s all because it finds a way to squeeze comedy out of the absurdity of a trudging work day — something all of us have, at one time or another, experienced. — Jason Tabrys

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