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The Year in Culture

Mike Hale’s Best TV Shows of 2014

Billy Bob Thornton in the series “Fargo,” on FX.Credit...Chris Large/FX

Here, listed alphabetically, are my 10 favorite television shows of 2014. Thinking, watching and rewatching for this list, I was struck as always by the sameness in tone and structure of the “quality” cable dramas that seem to come along weekly these days, and was drawn to shows that try to do something a little different: the mordant, fabulist humor of “Fargo”; Steven Soderbergh’s elaborate but seemingly effortless camera work in “The Knick”; Gael García Bernal’s movie-star performance in “Mozart in the Jungle.”

‘The Americans’ (FX) Serendipitously, the alphabet places first the show I most often name when asked what’s the best thing on television right now. In its second season, Joe Weisberg’s story of Soviet spies embedded in 1980s America continued to be ingeniously devised and bracingly unsentimental, with a terrific, uncompromising performance by Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings, the most brutally principled character in prime time.

‘The Bridge’ (Hulu) Not the second season of the American show but the first season of the Scandinavian original — titled “Broen” in Danish and “Bron” in Swedish — which was shown in America for the first time on Hulu. A taut, remorseless crime procedural with an arresting central performance by Sofia Helin as a socially maladjusted detective.

‘Fargo’ (FX) The first season of this anthology series about crime and mayhem in the Midwest was funnier and more touching than the Coen brothers’ movie from which it was derived. In an excellent cast that included Billy Bob Thornton, Colin Hanks, Allison Tolman and Keith Carradine, Martin Freeman stood out for his droll portrayal of the endlessly self-absorbed insurance agent Lester Nygaard.

‘Happy Valley’ (Netflix) An elegiac, sometimes ferociously violent crime drama about a Yorkshire policewoman tracking the man who raped her daughter, the first season of this BBC series was a showcase for a tremendously sympathetic performance by the actress Sarah Lancashire.

‘Homeland’ (Showtime) The current season of this espionage melodrama has brought the show back to its roots as a superior action thriller, while Claire Danes and Rupert Friend are absorbing as the C.I.A. frenemies Carrie and Quinn.

‘The Knick’ (Cinemax) This handsome series about a turn-of-the-20th-century New York hospital had its ups and downs because of inconsistent writing, but it had a ravishing look and sense of propulsion like nothing else on television, courtesy of its director, Mr. Soderbergh. Clive Owen and André Holland were well matched as the white chief surgeon and the black doctor he reluctantly accepted as his deputy.

‘Louie’ (FX) I wrote negatively about the latest season of Louis C.K.'s first-person sitcom, saying that his attempts to make it more complex and cinematic hadn’t really worked. But even when it doesn’t entirely click, the show is still one of the smartest and funniest half-hours on television.

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Clive Owen in “The Knick,” a Cinemax series, directed by Steven Soderbergh and set in a New York hospital at the turn of the 20th century.Credit...Mary Cybulski/Cinemax, via Associated Press

‘Masters of Sex’ (Showtime) It hurt that Allison Janney and Beau Bridges made only token appearances in the second season of this sex-research soap opera (though their bedroom scene in the season premiere was thoroughly wrenching). But the show continued to be an intelligent, glossy entertainment in the guise of a social-problem drama, with strong performances by Michael Sheen as the researcher William Masters and Caitlin FitzGerald as his wife.

‘Mozart in the Jungle’ (Amazon) Sneaking in under the wire on Dec. 23, this serious comedy brings a “Sex and the City” approach to the world of classical music. The plotting in the early episodes is a little haphazard, but the evocation of the highs and lows of the New York performing-arts world feels reasonably plausible, and the show has a tremendous ace up its sleeve: a playful, convincing performance by Mr. Bernal as a hotshot conductor who’s equally narcissistic and sincere.

‘The Walking Dead’ (AMC) Five seasons in, Robert Kirkman and the other writers and producers of AMC’s huge hit zombie thriller somehow keep us caring about their motley band of survivors. Certain aspects of the action, like the dispatching of the everyday zombie, have become somewhat dispiritingly routine (which may be the point). The show has its slack stretches, but it can be relied on to step up for the big, harrowing moments.

Ten more shows that could have made the list: “The Comeback” (HBO), “Game of Thrones” (HBO), “The Good Wife” (CBS), “Grimm” (NBC), “Longmire” (A&E), “Looking” (HBO), “The Missing” (Starz), “Silicon Valley” (HBO), “The Strain” (FX), “Transparent” (Amazon).

MORE FROM THE YEAR IN TELEVISION:

Alessandra Stanley on Resurgent Stalwarts

Neil Genzlinger on the Cancellation Calendar

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section AR, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Amid All the Quality, Quirks Stand Out. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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