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American Horror Story: Murder House (2011): For the fans that didn't know that this was an anthology series, many of the series opener's big moments were shocking. Even going back to rewatch, this is probably still the scariest and most intriguing season. Despite this, it still has its problems. I found that the first few episodes drag a bit, with a lot of illogical, frustrating character actions.

GRADE: 8.0/10

American Horror Story: Asylum (2012): This is my favorite season. It does a phenomenal job of mixing sci-fi-fi shocks, terrific horror, and compelling characters with actual arcs as the season progresses. A mental institution is yet another classic location to tell a story like this, and Asylum really benefits from that. I still found the ending to be a bit unsatisfying, but other than that this is a really fast-paced, smart season of AHS.

GRADE: 9.0/10

American Horror Story: Coven (2013): Coven establishes that sometimes, you just have to roll with the punches in this show and in doing so, you'll have a much better time. Season 3 feels a lot more like a magical drama than a true "horror" story. Likewise, there's lots of ridiculous witchcraft and characters being resurrected from the dead. If you can embrace that, this is still a season with a lot of great thrills, even if the finale is quite disappointing.

GRADE: 8.0/10

American Horror Story: Freak Show (2014): This is another season of AHS that has a phenomenal setup that really embraces its setting, but towards the end it ignores all logic and delivers a finale that feels like a complete copout. On one end, Freak Show provides classic characters like Bette, Dot, and Twisty the clown. On the other end, it unfortunately centers around a deranged, psychopathic little brat, which isn't very compelling. 

GRADE: 7.5/10

American Horror Story: Hotel (2015): This is easily the most visually pleasing season. The Hotel Cortez looks absolutely perfect. A lot of people were also concerned about Lady Gaga's portrayal of the season's main focal character, but she does exceptional work here. Unfortunately, Hotel has far too many useless subplots that go absolutely no where and sometimes just feel super boring. It also takes one too many pages out of Murder House's book. This results in many episodes feeling a bit redundant and empty.

GRADE: 6.3/10

American Horror Story: Roanoke (2016): Props to Roanoke for shaking up the show's signature formula. This one is basically split into two completely different halves. The first one is a fake documentary, which I found to be really fun, refreshing, and surprisingly scary. The second half brings the documentary "actors" along with the characters they portrayed together for a giant Blair-Witch-like extravaganza. This half works for a while too, but it eventually slows to a halt and falls victim to a number of horror cliches and tropes. Maybe that was the point, but it's just nothing we haven't seen before. 

GRADE: 8.1/10

American Horror Story: Cult (2017): The first season to feature no paranormal elements, Cult succeeds in being quite politically relevant. Evan Peters' portrayal of antagonist Kai Anderson is also spectacular, and probably his best. The main problem with this season is that the political generalizations can sometimes drag the show down, and like many seasons, Cult completely let me down in the final few episodes.

GRADE: 7.4/10

American Horror Story: Apocalypse (2018): The first few episodes generate quite a lot of intrigue, especially considering this season was marketed as a crossover between Murder House and Coven. Unfortunately, it's more of a sequel to Coven. In addition to this, it doesn't feel all that apocalyptic at all. Many of the characters are set up to have big payoffs towards the end of the season, none of which are fulfilled. Apocalypse once again delivers an anticlimactic finale with a cliffhanger ending that doesn't even make any sense. The first few episodes of this one were quite solid, but it otherwise felt quite bland.

GRADE: 6.9/10

American Horror Story: 1984 (2019): The retro 80's vibe is awesome, and certainly contributes a lot to the feel that this season is trying to generate. It also has no shortage of plot twists and self-referential horror tropes, which often gave me "Scream" vibes. It doesn't always work, and there sure are a lot of characters whose personalities are just cliches, but I was happy to see a season of AHS throw it back to its slasher roots and provide plenty of bloody kills along the way.

GRADE: 8.1/10

Breaking Bad Season 1 (2008): Dark, dramatic, and surprisingly inventive, Breaking Bad's first season establishes the show as a classic with lead actor Bryan Cranston delivering a phenomenal performance. Vince Gilligan has outdone himself with this one.

GRADE: 9.0/10

Breaking Bad Season 2 (2009): This is when Breaking Bad started to really hit it's mark. It takes the extraordinary storytelling from season 1 and cranks it up to 100. 

GRADE: 9.7/10

Breaking Bad Season 3 (2010): Season 3 continues to expand the narrative into new territory, brilliantly weaving each and every character's relationships into the story. The acting continues to impress, and every single episode has has something compelling to it.

GRADE: 9.6/10

Breaking Bad Season 4 (2011): Breaking Bad Season 4 is even more brutal than its predecessors. Walter White has become an infamously twisted character thanks to the presence of his bold drug lord adversaries and Cranston's increasingly incredible acting.

GRADE: 10/10

Breaking Bad Season 5 (2012): It's an epic, dare I say, perfect ending for the series. Breaking Bad's final season somehow manages to perfectly wrap up every character's story arc, using pieces of the past to enhance the emotional impact of some of the heavier scenes.

GRADE: 10/10

Fear the Walking Dead Season 1 (2015): Fear the Walking Dead may not answer everyone's questions on the origin of the virus that started all of this madness, but it provides an interesting look into the fall of civilization and how media panic can contribute to our downfall. It is occasionally frustrating to watch characters with no clue what a zombie is, but overall I found them investing enough.

GRADE: 8.0/10

Fear the Walking Dead Season 2 (2016): Season 2 continues to look at things from a new perspective, even bringing the characters to Mexico. Unfortunately, many of the story lines feel like a retread of things we've already seen in The Walking Dead. It also screeches to a halt around the halfway point, making for a few incredibly dull filler episodes. Still, it has enough undead action and new insight to make for a decent amount of entertainment. 

GRADE: 7.2/10

Fear the Walking Dead Season 3 (2017): I was not expecting this season to be as incredible as it was. Moving at a brisk pace, season 3 is full of shocks, gore, and great twists and revelations. It brings us great new locations such as the ranch, the dam, and the bazaar. In addition to this, all of the characters are thrown in new, interesting directions. This season even gets a bit political, and I found it to be utterly fascinating.

GRADE: 9.3/10

Fear the Walking Dead Season 4 (2018): The whole crossover/reboot seemed like something that could work at first, but it required the show to abandon all of the interesting story lines that were running at the end of season 3. The addition of Morgan overshadows the original characters, whom I had really grown to like. Add to that the show decided to make horrible use of flashbacks to generate extremely illogical situations that only guarantee to piss off longtime fans even more. What a disappointment.

GRADE: 6.2/10

Fear the Walking Dead Season 5 (2019): These new show runners have officially turned the show on its head. Nothing really even makes sense anymore. This season constantly goes out of its way to be completely absurd, unrealistic, and infuriating. It's an encapsulation of everything that plagues the show as a whole as well as The Walking Dead. I really liked Morgan in The Walking Dead, but here he finds himself continuing to walk in circles with no end for this dumpster fire in sight.

GRADE: 4.6/10

Game of Thrones Season 1 (2011): As far as medieval-like fantasy dramas go, Game of Thrones comes out on top. It's got all of the fascinating character dialogue and brutal sword fights that anyone could ask for. It also presents a world that feels real and lived in thanks to the incredible production design and visual effects. It is also, of course, very good at using the natural twists and turns in its story to shock viewers.

GRADE: 9.7/10

Game of Thrones Season 2 (2012): Although it can occasionally get tiresome to watch horrible things happen to the protagonists so often, season 2 continues to expand the Game of Thrones lore and deliver more momentum to each story line. This sort of fractured storytelling in which characters are doing things on completely opposite ends of the continent doesn't work for most shows, but it certainly does here.

GRADE: 9.3/10

Game of Thrones Season 3 (2013): I love that things never quite go the way you expect them to. The show keeps you on your feet constantly, and also keeps you on your guard. This is the season of the show that truly establishes, much like George R.R. Martin's books, that no character is ever safe. 

GRADE: 9.6/10

Game of Thrones Season 4 (2014): This was the season that set the stage for everything that follows so brilliantly. Fan favorite characters like Tyrion are better than ever, and there's a great sense that things are going to start falling into place for worlds to collide, characters to breach new ground, and the war to grow much more complicated.

GRADE: 9.7/10

Game of Thrones Season 5 (2015): Unlike most seasons, season 5 makes you wait for the big payoffs. Out of the show's most successful outings, this one is probably the least memorable, but there's still a lot to love. Alliances are formed, we get memorable battle episodes such as Hardhome, and the world expands even more as the season progresses. And finally, we get to see a lot of dragon action.

GRADE: 9.3/10

Game of Thrones Season 6 (2016): The first few episodes are a bit slow and uninteresting, but this is another season with more payoff than imaginable. Fortunately, there are a lot of endearing reunions and heartfelt scenes in between all of the boring scenes. Of course the final few episodes are among the show's best, and it ends all with Daenerys sailing for Westeros, ensuring we're in for one hell of a future.

GRADE: 9.3/10

Game of Thrones Season 7 (2017): Season 7 suffers a bit from its short runtime and flurry of illogical character motivations, but much of the conflict is setup for the final season. This is not a bad thing at all, as most fans have been waiting for some of these A-listers to finally meet since day 1. This season certainly has less action and world building than it's predecessors, but it's still a great deal of entertainment and gets you excited for the final season.

GRADE: 8.8/10

Game of Thrones Season 8 (2019): The first few episodes are solid, but the last 2 present a lot of big changes to main characters that don't feel earned or justified. If the season were longer, it could've found a way to logically build to those moments. However much fun I did have with the first part of the season, nothing can top the disappointment I felt with the series finale. It's lame, nonsensical, and contrived. And unfortunately, that's what sticks with you because it's what the entire show was building towards.

GRADE: 6.3/10

Hell on Wheels Season 1 (2011): Hell on Wheels doesn't have a lot that other great westerns don't have, but it has solid characters that are entertaining to watch and examines one of the more interesting industrial developments in the history of the United States.

GRADE: 8.0/10

Hell on Wheels Season 2 (2012): Raising hell is exactly what this season is good at. Although it may be a bit overdramatized at times, this increase in grit and action helps the show overcome a feeling of fatigue. And dammit Anson Mount is so good in this show, he's quite underrated.

GRADE: 8.5/10

Hell on Wheels Season 3 (2013): The Mormon subplot felt a bit exaggerated, and there were a few episodes in the middle that were very slow and illogical, but as a whole I still found it entertaining. 

GRADE: 7.3/10

Hell on Wheels Season 4 (2014): Season 4 is a locomotive of building tension, which led to unexpected twists and turns. We also get great new characters like Governor Campbell and Sidney Snow. It's not a perfect season, but it has some surprisingly heavy, emotional moments.

GRADE: 8.5/10

Hell on Wheels Season 5 (2015): The final season of Hell on Wheels introduces a completely new setting and set of characters to focus on. While this can make for some slow episodes when the show should really be focusing on its endgame, once it does hone its focus, I found it to be quite satisfying. In particular, the final showdown between Cullen and the Swede was extremely well handled. For the most part, it ties up the rest of its loose ends well also.

GRADE: 8.6/10

The Mist Season 1 (2017): This version of The Mist feels totally different from both the 2007 Frank Darabont film and the original novel by Stephen King. Rather than being about monsters emerging from the fog to terrorize and demoralize the humans, this one is much more focused on the human part. And that could've worked, if the characters were at least somewhat compelling, which they're not. I'm also confused as to why this show treated the mist like a paranormal or biblical entity (the four horsemen literally make an appearance). It's not what I came to watch it for.

GRADE: 5.4/10

The Office (2005-2013): I decided not to do every season of The Office because there's 9 of them, each with over 20 episodes. This is one of the funniest sitcoms I've seen in recent times. The humor is occasionally very immature and low hanging fruit, but it works thanks to the awesome cast. No other actor could've played Michael Scott. Steve Carell was so good that when he eventually left, it took a toll on the show. Due to this, the last two seasons suffer from a bit of comedic fatigue. 

GRADE: 8.6/10

Scream Season 1 (2015): Scream will certainly only appeal to younger audiences because of its overdramatic, cliche-ridden teen characters, but it has just enough intrigue to keep you wanting to find out whodunnit. It's not very much like the film franchise, but it does occasionally poke fun at the genre, just not quite enough. It's also highly predictable at times.

GRADE: 6.9/10

Scream Season 2 (2016): It's more of the same that we got from season 1. I do feel that the characters were handled a bit better, but it's still plenty predictable and the body count isn't nearly high enough. Also, after the final twist you start to question things that characters did in the past and the whole story becomes kind of convoluted. It feels like the show runners chose the killer for this season well after their introduction. 

GRADE: 7.0/10

Scream Season 3 (2019): Seasons 1 and 2 aren't masterpieces or anything, but this was a completely unnecessary reboot. What was the purpose? To boost ratings? If so I don't think this was the way to do it. The only redeeming quality of this season is that MTV managed to get the licensed ghost face mask from the movies. Other than that, this season has the production quality of a student film. There's virtually nothing interesting about it.

GRADE: 4.9/10

Stranger Things Season 1 (2016): Stranger Things is mysterious, eerie, funny, and confusing in a good way. It's one of those shows that builds a great sense of realism with great characters that you want to root for, despite being quite outlandish at times. The performances are largely praiseworthy, and the 80's setting makes for a lot of nostalgic nods and winks along the way.

GRADE: 9.4/10

Stranger Things Season 2 (2017): This season starts out a bit too slow if you ask me. It also spends much of the first half with its characters completely separated. There are also a few dud episodes in the middle such as "Dig Dug" and "The Lost Sister." The rest of season 2 is largely praiseworthy. New relationships such as the one between Dustin and Steve are absolutely classic, and there are plenty of creepy monsters roaming around to match the intimidation of the Demogorgon. The last few episodes largely make up for what is otherwise a slow-building season.

GRADE: 8.2/10

Stranger Things Season 3 (2019): It's bigger, better, more emotional, and surprisingly ambitious in comparison to the first 2 seasons. It occasionally feels absurd to a fault, but I like that it's not afraid to be a little crazy. Much like season 2, the first few episodes are slow. What's great is that all of the main characters get an arc that makes sense and gets you excited for their next supernatural adventure.

GRADE: 9.4/10

The Walking Dead Season 1 (2010): The Walking Dead quickly establishes itself as a horrific and gory show, but it's as much about the interesting characters as it is about their zombie antagonists. Despite season 1 being short and sweet, it has plenty of intrigue to hook you on the show.

GRADE: 9.2/10

The Walking Dead Season 2 (2011): Season 2 often feels like it's too slow paced and doesn't feature enough zombies to rival the ambition of season 1. Luckily, it has some of the best human drama of the entire series, much of which becomes a foundation for the characters that we know and love as they move forward.

GRADE: 8.2/10

The Walking Dead Season 3 (2012): The first half of season 3 is perfection. It has some of the most suspenseful, gut-wrenching sequences in the entire series and also manages to give the show's first big baddie a phenomenal introduction. Unfortunately, the second half occasionally butchers its brilliant setup with rather cliched plot points and character decisions that just don't make sense.

GRADE: 8.7/10

The Walking Dead Season 4 (2013): This season has a lot of huge moments, some executed better than others. Fortunately, it throws its characters in all sorts of new directions to propel the show into fascinating new dramatic territory, both literally and metaphorically. It also has no shortage of admittedly entertaining violence and new ways to slaughter the undead.

GRADE: 9.0/10 

The Walking Dead Season 5 (2014): This is quite possibly the fastest-paced season. It offers a great deal of variety when it comes to new faces with interesting backstories in addition to expanding on the existing heroes. Season 5 is also incredibly shocking, brutal, and heart-wrenching, which may be a turnoff for some. This one wins the title of my favorite just for how batshit crazy and action-packed it is.

GRADE: 9.5/10

The Walking Dead Season 6 (2015): Season 6 has a lot of big moments straight from the graphic novels, which instantly makes it a classic for folks who've read them. As for casual viewers, these moments are just as shocking and satisfying. What drags season 6 down a bit is its over-reliance on cliffhangers and manipulating the audience with a few poorly set up payoffs.

GRADE: 8.7/10

The Walking Dead Season 7 (2016): The overall story arc would've been great for an 8-10 episode season, but the show instead decided to stretch it out over an agonizing 16 episodes. The result is a season with a great opener and a great closer, but a lot of what's in between feels like utterly rubbish filler in which the protagonists are ruthlessly tormented (both physically and psychologically).

GRADE: 6.7/10

The Walking Dead Season 8 (2017): Despite an increase in action, gore, and many other elements that make the show a draw in the first place, season 8 manages to once again drag things out with a lot of filler episodes in the middle. It also features the characters making constant idiotic decisions to the point that it completely defies logic.

GRADE: 6.7/10

The Walking Dead Season 9 (2018): A surprisingly exciting return to form, season 9 omits many of the slow paced plot lines that plagued previous seasons. While it does occasionally lean into more of a fantasy drama than a horror thriller, this makes for exploration of some new and unique territory. The show does all of this and more, while also losing two of it's biggest stars.

GRADE: 9.0/10

The Walking Dead Season 10 (2019): Season 10 continues to deliver solid post-apocalyptic drama, although the show feels like it's starting to lack the visceral shock value that once made it a must-see. Overall, it's a slow burn, but still worth watching if you enjoyed Angela Kang's writing in season 9.

GRADE: 7.5/10